Punk77

Agreed. We have sent the defenders to the slaughter many times, but we tend to forget how little support they've gotten from our midfield. The game away against Bolton illustrated this. Bolton met no opposition from Smith and Guthrie, leaving WilliColo open for repeated beating.

Hehe. But I honestly believe that Smith and Nolan helped Chris a lot in that department.....

Wrong. Smith played well in Championship, and he was instrumental in rebuilding the player group. Our worst player must "ideally" cost a fortune and be utter rubbish on the pitch.

He's good but not halfway as good as:

Well yeah. Can understand that opinion, as I share it. But saying he should be dropped from side is ridiculous. Without his goals, we'd really be in a relegation battle. Again, I'm referring to NEXT season.

We have enough candidates..Poll?

I'm not arguing that he should be dropped now, but next season. What I've highlighted in bold, sums up everything very nicely imo..

Doesn't leave much hope for Nolan

In other words, he will be our captain if he plays

Not if also factor in how he affected our economy and fucked up our player group. He was the captain and should have taken responsibility like Nolan and Smith. But noo, he went straight back home to shag his horses!

I have suppressed every decent game that cunt has delivered. For me, he's the definition of rubbish!

Wh He was shit. According to nufcblog he cost us £40 mill and scored 30 goals. That's some expensive goals. Owen is good when he got a midfielder that is able to thread the breakthrough passes he needs. But Owen is not the kind of player that stands out if the rest of the team has problems. Then he's the weakest link. One expects more from a player that is paid £100 000 a week. A player on that salary must be a notch above the rest, delivering good football even though the rest have problems. But he was just as bad as the others when we went down. He was in fact invisible. That cunt!

You got to see the whole picture. Yes, Nolan has scored 11 goals. But he also hinders our play to an extent. Without Barton, our midfield is helpless. Then we have nobody to distribute , except Tiote, but that's not his original responsibility, but it falls on him anyway because Nolan is useless outside the box. He's similar to Bent in that he plays in a way that makes him look good, but not the others. Nolan doesn't make the other players around him better. It's just the opposite: He doesn't take the ball with him (like offensive cm should do), running straight against the defenders which will force one of them to push forward. That disorganized the defense and creates room for overlapping players, which Nolan then could pass to. The wide man will in such an situation have two options, he can go directly at goal, or run down to the line and hit a 45 degree pass to Nolan who's steaming into the box. This kind of play does not occur frequently with us, because Nolan's style prevents it. It's the offensive cm's responsibility to put other players in such good positions, which Nolan never does! That makes everything more difficult for Jonas and Enrique since the only way they're able to get down the flank is when they're doing it by themselves or combining between them. Nolan doesn't runs towards them, inviting to triangle play or trying to set up a breakthrough with a pass, like he should do. A player like HBA, will probably score 5-6 goals himself, set up more assists to Best and the new attacker, and even manage to create goals for Jonas and Enrique. In sum, the amount of goals he creates for others and bags himself, will far outweigh all goals we lose if Nolan starts on the bench next season.

I do

I wouldnt take any post seriously that assumes Ireland over Nolan will ever happen at CM. Id take a fit ireland over a fit nolan 10 out of 10 times. Which I am sure you would agree is unlikely to ever happen by the way. What a fit ireland can contribute with offensively is way beyond what Nolan can do, simply because he is not a good enough fotballer to do it. Agreed. A more creative and speedy CM will create create and score more goals than what Nolan manages during a season.

I doubt he will start, but having him available is a difference. He can be an impact player. And if the match goes our way, Enrique doesn't need to play the whole game. Ferguson can drop down to lb and Ireland takes the lw-position.

You're hilarious. Seriously though, we desperately need Ireland match fit. We have a good chance of beating Wolfes with a midfield consisting of Ferguson, Barton, Nolan, Jonas or Ireland, Nolan, Barton and Jonas. To beat them, we must keep the ball on the ground, no long ball balls against our attackers unless their back four is unbalanced. Maybe this set up is something: Simpson - Willicolo - Enrique Jonas - Nolan - Barton - Ferguson Ireland Best A wanktastic team if you ask me..

Finally some good news: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/03/23/ireland-s-pencilled-in-to-face-wolves-72703-28387580/

Of course not, stupid I just used previous salary policy as an argument for why it's likely that Enrique is paid around 50-60 a week.

Who? Jose will be on £45k at the very least. I love random speculation on wages. I reckon £60k! Last time heard, he was on £80!That greedy bastard!

So it never happened you mean? Correct

But I remember, and that's all that matters

Couldn't agree more. Abiding this salary policy could hurt us in the short run, but will benefit us in the long run. Soon Everton and Villa will be forced to cut costs, and then we have the possibility to outperform them.

That's a problem, but it's a risk I think we should take. Barton in not getting younger and putting him on a £50- 60 000 a week salary it's not wise considering he's entering a period of his career where he will be even more susceptible to injuries than he's now. My point is that when he's playing, Barton is worth every penny, but as long as he doesn't play, he's a economical liability for the club. If Barton stalls, it's better to sell him, and reinvest that money+salary saved on two younger players who in sum will make us a stronger team than we were with Barton. And they also have a development potential. Pouring money into one player is only going to make our club more dependent on him. And we're already too much Barton-dependent as it is. It's the same mistake Lpool made with J. Cole. : Instead giving him £80 000 a week and a heavy sign on fee, they could have invested those money in 2 or 3 younger players that together elevate the team to a higher level than what Cole singlehandedly could do. That would also have made them less sensitive to injuries too..

Neeh, I said between £50 and 60