StevieRoss

Can't believe Barton would get it after his tweets condemning the club hierarchy. Steven Taylor seems the logical choice (England U21 captain and all) but he's not necessarily going to be an automatic first eleven player. Same for Harper. Coloccini just doesn't strike me as a leader, especially as his English is not fluent. Incredibly, I think it might fall to Foluwashola...

Is he an improvement on Ryan Taylor? I'm asking the question, I don't really recall taking much notcice of him, but he seems like he might be a similar type, maybe not a big improvement. This just based on reading about him like.

Mail Online 01/07/10 "Mevlut Erdinc does not want to leave Paris St Germain despite interest from Newcastle. The Magpies are reported to have bid £5million for the 23-year-old Turkey striker but PSG are holding out for closer to £8m. Erdinc scored 15 goals in 31 appearances in the French top flight after arriving from Sochaux for £7.5m last summer and has three years left on his contract." I thought I remembered this. He had a big first year at PSG after a couple of good ones at Sochaux. Not as impressive in the one just gone but he has been on a couple of PL clubs radar for a while I believe.

If he's coming in as a squad player (maybe as a replacement for Ranger) he is not likely to get the same workload as a first choice striker, so being 100% on a medical is not as critical I guess. I would expect him to be on a pretty basic wage too?

"Mike Ashley won't run the club into the ground because as you say, he owns it now and its his investment, but this is all he wants, he doesn't want success on the pitch, but he can make a profit without having success on the pitch, and this is what he wants. It is easier, far easier, for him to sell good players for a profit instead of gambling and speculating on getting into the Champions League, and I'm afraid that is what he is going to do." LM Putting aside the pros and cons of Ashley v Shepherd, for me this sums up the current situation pretty well. The fun and novelty of owning a football club is long gone for Ashley, and with it any real ambition or passion to win trophies etc. I suspect he may even prefer to NOT win anything to stick it up the fans who turned on him - as he would see it. He'll be running this purely as a businessman now, not as a "fan", and that makes all the difference...

Is he and his attitude worth 12mil and 55k a week though? For me the money's not even the issue. It's about taking back a player who has demonstrated that his attitude is poor and shown contempt for the club. I wouldn't want Michael Owen back for nothing and a hundred quid a week. If you disrespect the club there should be no forgiving and no forgetting.

He was left out of the Newcastle squad on 13 May 2007 for the final game of the season against Watford, after he refused to be used as a substitute. In December 2008, N'Zogbia announced his desire to leave Newcastle during the January 2009 transfer window, saying "After four years at Newcastle, I want to reach a higher level of ambition. I don't think that is possible here." etc. etc. He's a self-absorbed little prick and if we take him back we'll get more of the same.

I wonder if she's an interesting lass to talk to like?

Spot on.

If bog standard now means Premierleague, then aye... Well if we're not talking about Premier league standards I don't know what we are supposed to be talking about on this Premier league club forum....?

Way too early to make the call on Kadar. Has looked quite decent when he has played, though the injuries are definitely cause for concern. He's been at the club for three and a half years and he's no closer to being a regular first team player than when he arrived is he? He's not going to make it.

Not nearly as much as we should have. Our record of bringing good quality through the ranks in the last decade has been abysmal. I can't see how you can refute that.

Why can't we find one good young defender like this kid? Steven Taylor has turned out bog average at best and the others we have groomed/signed (Ramage, Huntington, Edgar, Tozer, Kadar etc) have turned out to be complete shite. Our scouting network must be worst in the premiership. Maybe we haven't even got a network. Stories like this are just fookin' depressing for me...

I think this is spot on. The fun and pleasure of owning a football club is long gone for Ashley. It's just business with him now, and given that NUFC is unlikely to ever be profitable in its own right it makes sense that he's positioning it to be sold at some point. He'll probably lose money on it, but if he can see it through to being a financially stable, consistent PL team it will be a more attractive proposition than the basket case he tried to sell before. If he wanted to win something, he'd have seen we held on to Carroll and built a team around him. By re-investing the cash (wisely he would hope) it should be possible to assemble a team which will be competitive and stable in the PL for the near future, and if he's lucky turn up another Carroll to cash in and help the bottom line.

If Man Utd didn't have Owen he could probably do an off-the-bench cameo sort of job for them. He'd be handy to bring on late in a game to try to jag an equaliser or a winner. That's a luxury we can't afford!

He might be useful for a team with realistic short term prospects of winning something, getting a spot in Europe etc. But what good to us? We are years away - if we ever get there at all - of being in that position. We need to look further ahead with our signings, take a few risks maybe.

George Best doesn't seem to make it into many peoples' greatest teams but he'd be in mine. Platini too.

Sorry. I just don't want fucking Liverpool to win...

The Ajax team fom the early seventies was the best club side in the last 50 years. There should be no credible argument about that, I can only assume that most people voting are too young to have actually seen them.

Without getting into the ins and outs of your assessments there, do you not think Domi treated the club with less respect than any of the others you mention? You may be right. It was just a cursory observation.

Can't say I'm all that impressed with the French players we've had in my recent memory. Ginola - talented but erratic, ultimately a bit disappointing Robert - see above Charvet - basically rubbish Dumas - see above Domi- looked good at times but flattered to deceive really Guivarch - in everybody's "worst signings ever team' Boumsong- so bad he didn't even look good besides Bramble.. Distin - good player but treated us like shite Bernard - fair player but treated us like shite N'Zogbia - crap player who treated us like shite. probably missed a couple

You should try watching other clubs, like Wigan. Mate, I've seen him playing for Wigan. He only looks decent because the rest of them are so fucking atrocious. And if he's improved that much from when he was with us, (and he was basically very average), why is the transfer figures being mentioned almost what we sold him for? Even Milner (another useless tool in my opinion) has had his value go up significantly when he's switched clubs.

Why on earth would you want a dickhead like him back? We know what's he's like. A spoiled brat. Never really wanted to be here. A thorough dickhead. And tbh, not much of a player. Too inconsistent. You can get away with that if your best days are brilliant. His aint...

I actually think Milan of the early 90's would stop them fwiw. I'd much rather watch Barcelona though-and that's despite Milan having some of the best players I've ever witnessed in absolutely key departments defence and attack, with Barcelona it's all about the midfield tbh and for that reason they'll always be the better advert for football. Would love to see this team play early 'seventies Ajax. What a game that would be. Take "total football" to another level! (The usual Ajax line-up circa 1972: Heinz Stuy, Wim Suurbier, Barry Hulshoff, Horst Blankenburg, Ruud Krol, Arie Haan, Johan Neeskens, Gerrie Mühren, Sjaak Swart, Johan Cruijff, Piet Keizer plus the usual twelfth man who was Ruud Suurendonk until 1972 and then Johnny Rep. Best club side I've ever seen)

Couldn't get any coverage of this on TV down here but I've just seen the result. Damn and blast. The upside, Toonraider, is that you follow the Toon, so bitter disappointment and frustration is no stranger to you. You'll get over it quickly, and move on. Till the next episode of bitter disappointment...and frustration...