gjohnson

It'll be Sabic...not sure on the amount though

Xavi was a great cog in a perfect machine and justifiably considered one of the best. Modric is a totally different sort of player...one who runs the team rather than just making them tick.

He is/was...could pull a superb long range strike just as well as sending it into the upper crowd. Could bury an instinctive lash in the 6 yard box as well as shanking it into the corner. Still, 1 in two cant be argued with, and is difficult to find. Hard to place him really....in some games he looked like he could take on the world and win, and in others looked like a toddler Ameobi

just everything i've seen and heard from him. You know when you get a gut feeling from a player that they wouldn't fit in....he's one of them

Zaha has London boy written all over him...had his big chance at Man U and didn't do it. He's just one of those players that ego won't let go anywhere beyond the capital. Not right for us, never will be. Too much ego

This....picking a cat up is difficult at the best of times. Drop-kicking one and letting it out on twitter is gross cruelty combined with stupidity. I mean really how on earth did Zouma or his friend even contemplate that it would have a positive outcome? Pissed/stupid/ignorant? At least one applies

A Pickford moment of madness due to his rage or t-rex arms would be so much more sumptuous

They've gone full NUFC 2008-2009. Thinking a manager change will save them (didn't we have 4 including caretakers that season), with fans thinking they're too good to go down, and big name players playing at the minimum thinking they're too good to go down. Think they'll stay up, but it looks so like our 08/09 its almost comical

He was supposed to be at some talk in, but just didn't show up.

Reads like a where to go of honeymoon destinations...

This. Sod them...go 5 years without a trophy and they're 'long suffering'. Give them 14 years of Ashley and they'll know real suffering

There's a theory that when a system gets too complex it's collapse is inevitable. This looks very like Man Utd now. Trying too hard to get the best of everything with no thought on how everything will work together and just hoping things will work out. It's the Freddy Shephard method with an extra 0 on the salary. No plan, just reacting to current issues. Total hangover from Ferguson, who was clearly a once in a lifetime manager. They seem to be looking for that again, the problem being is that it just doesn't exist at the current time. Could say the same with Arsenal who relied on Wenger so long, they didn't know what to do when he left and then chopped and changed for so long. They are going in the right direction with Arteta, but would say its virtually impossible now to pluck a manager from obscurity that will shock the league with new tactics/methods

To be fair Sherwood, despite being a total numpty of a pundit, and a useless manager he was a very good defensive midfielder at the time...probably on par with Batty at least

700K for ten years service half of which were in top 6 teams. Can't argue with that...would be looking at 50-60m for that kind of service now.

Geremi at least had a useful spell albeit short. Campbell barely played and was poor when he did. Can't comment on Hendrick as i believe he's never actually been on the pitch, or i just missed him as the invisible man.

Wanted to say exactly this, but some people just look at the numbers

Bernard second time around

If we want to talk about under-rated then Robert Lee has got to be up there. One of the best in our best teams in living memory, but never gets mentioned at all.

Didn't realise that Mathieu Flamini is now one of the richest former footballers around with about £14 billion after founding a company that can make petrol from waste plants. Wow

Not arguing that, just that his best attributes were drive. motivation, intimidation and leadership. Like Shearer and Gerrard, he could take control of a game by himself when drag players through to results they didn't necessarily deserve.

A lot of Keane was down to his attitude and leadership abilities. He was never the greatest passer, or goal scorer, but he had an 'aura' that droves his team mates to a higher level and intimidated the opposition. It's rare now, but not many teams now rely on one player as a talisman to get results. In terms of technical ability he'd not get near the top 100 for midfielders, but in terms of influence he'd easily be in the top ten.

Jenas was good for us mostly, but couldn't handle the pressure of being a big (gold)fish in a small pond and couldn't deal with the attention....why he moved to London where he could be anonymous. Viana at his best was sublime, at worst invisible. If he'd stuck around for a few more years learning from Speed he would have been amazing. However as someone mentioned earlier he was 5-10 years ahead of his time with what he had. Wrong place at wrong time. And PS he never had good things to say about us....the best he ever came out with was 'i feel ill at Newcastle'

Can see your point...good example is Donald Trump...been bankrupt several times, but still a multi-millionaire despite being potentially one of the most hated characters in the world. Ashleys not really revived anyone, he got lucky with the SD IPO, and has spent the rest of his time buying failing/failed businesses. None which have really recovered, but he's got the land/floor space which adds to the portfolio. Know he bought out GAME which i saw merged with some other shop recently. Ashleys a shark picking off the weak and damaged with his wallpaper. However his mindset is totally based on footfall through his cheap tacky shops....their days are numbered, so his model is now out of date and will inevitably crumble around him in the next few years and he'll look like a southern Gerorge Reynolds

didn't even notice he was playing last night.

Highs were basically 93-97, and 01-03 going in to ever match expecting to win, even the 5th season was a bit of a high 'cos the expectation of winning was building. Even Ashley coming in originally was a bit of a high at the time since only there weren't many billionaire owners about at the time. Pity it became one of the worst lows ever as it seemed we found the only billionaire in the world that didn't have any money. However the worst low i ever felt was in the season where Derby set the lowest points record and it looked for all intents we were going to gift them another win, only to salvage a draw at the death. It felt so miserable at the time