Hughesy

Hmmm - despite the fact that he was very highly rated in Spain, you know better?

Although this may not come as much of surprise to anyone, I can confirm that having seen Nolan walk off the pitch on Saturday without a shirt on, he is indeed fat. There I was thinking that the bulges in his shirt were muscles...

If anyone thinks that Jonas is one of the weak links in this team, they need their head seeing to.

Was just about to say that - Jonas' main problem is his balance. He never have a stable base from which to make a pass and a cross. Which is obviously a technical flaw, yet his height and ungainly nature is what makes him so hard to be tackled.

Will buy it - would certainly believe the word of Cassidy over Shepherd. Having said that I'd believe the word of pretty much anyone over Shepherd.

Not true really - they've got some decent enough players to do better. not saying they should be qualifying for a major tournament, but they should be closer than they have been.

Shockingly bad management of the club to leave it this late to be honest. At the very latest they should have discussed Taylor's contract at the end of the season, made an offer and set Taylor a deadline of around mid July to either accept it or reject it. Not just before the transfer window shuts.

Really? He was good enough for England a few months ago. He's not good enough to play in a central role behind the strikers.

SWP would be awful behind the strikers.

Agreed - really don't get the criticism he gets on here sometimes.

Clearly. It was just a personal joke that I posted to amuse myself. Apologies to all if anyone took it seriously. Blame it on Pilko. Fucking hilarious gag that one.

Just to add - yes, Acuna was massively underrated. But not better than Speed.

Always thought Roberts had the attributes to be a good striker. Remember seeing him play at SJP a few years back and thought he looked good, but never seemed to ever do that well in the Premier League.

Was going to say - if he hadn't wasted so much money on average players, he'd have been able to keep Milner and Young. Well - maybe only Young, but the point stands that he spends huge sums on crap players.

Solano was a completely different type of player to Robert. Yes, Robert was more direct and quicker and 'could' have allowed us to play an even more counter attacking game away from home, but Solano, as has been pointed, worked harder and was a superior player to Robert in terms of his tactical awareness and passing ability and the way he linked up with the central midfielders. Solano was at the hub of a hell of a lot of our good work - he pretty much matched Robert for end product (Solano scored 7 goals to Robert's 8 and made 11 assists to Robert's 16) and I would say contributed a whole lot more to the general effectiveness of our team. To be honest, they were both great players and I miss them.

Eh? You reckon we'd have been a better team with a hypothetical two Laurent Roberts in than Robert and Solano? That is complete madness.

Selling Jonas would be a huge huge mistake.

I suppose it helps your argument if you ignore the fact that the team we had at the end of Shearer's career was worse and Shearer was 2-3 years older?

I think everyone knows that the team became better with the additions of Bellamy and Robert - but surely all that proves is that with a more balanced team we achieved more? I think my point still stands that without Shearer in that team, Bellamy (and Newcastle) wouldn't have been half as successful as he was because Bellamy's goalscoring record was average. So yes - Bellamy and Robert helped Shearer score goals - but so did Speed, Solano, Lee, Dyer etc. And Shearer's ability to finish helped the rest of the team.

Never quite understood this whole Shearer's career was saved by Bellamy etc etc because Bellamy ran around and had pace. Alternatively, you could say that Shearer's ability to actually score goals helped Bellamy not contributing goals to the team. They were a good partnership that helped each other out and covered each other's weaknesses. Regarding Bellamy as saving Shearer's career is pretty naive.

I think you've blinked and missed the last 4 years. They're hardly riddled with talent. I am pretty certain I haven't blinked and missed the last 4 years. Certainly not if your argument re N'Zogbia is the basis for that comment.

N'Zogbia good enough to be in the French squad? Er.... no.

It's not meant to be flattering. It's training kit, not something you wear for a night out.

Couldn't really care about his arrogance. More interested in the fact that he's a very good player.

Would love him here.