Renton

The Sage is quite a curvy building, yes.

Lucky bastid. I'd have gone if I'd known it was on at the Sage as I haven't been there yet. Also would have gone for a look at Halfpenny's chebs. Saw her in a play at the live theatre last year and she is one dorty woman like.

On a related note, will the mackem game sell out? Wonder if SAFC will send me a ticket offer as a "valuable customer"? [the people who lived in my house before me must have been mackems as this is what I received. SMB].

Must work though. It was hilarious under Souness when we were playing shite and they had to find some positive hook like "Can Newcastle do the double over Blackburn?". I think the attendance figures are a load of bollocks mind - they must count all ST holders as being there. I remember last year there was a midweek league game with large gaps as people simply couldn't be arsed to go yet it was apparently over 50,000. Yeah, right.

Grrrrrr.

Irrelevant 101044[/snapback] Make the noobs feel welcome why don't ya LM? Martin's put forward a decent discussion which, whether you agree with him or not, deserves a better response than 'irrelevant'... 101060[/snapback] Fair enough - didn't mean to be so harsh Martin sorry for that - I just mean I think the only important thing is making a good appointment mate and if it means waiting, then wait is what we should do. It comes up when people go on about the timing of the sackings of Dalglish and Robson, but don't mention the sacking of Gullit too often and the reason for that is the right guy replaced him. I think its a largely impossible job sometimes to get the timing of the sacking right, you just can't tell when things are going to turn for the worst, but one thing you can get right is choosing the replacement with care, either by looking at his CV or a good potential up and coming boss [which Shepherd has done 3 times] or getting it hopelessy wrong for the wrong reasons [ Souness] 101151[/snapback] I take your point about it being most important to get the right manager rather than worry about timing, but I would say that the timing of all the managerial changes under Shepherd have been questionable, especially with reference to how much money he let them spend before sacking them: Dalglish and Robson were sacked too soon into the season. 2 and 4 games respectively ffs! Gullit deserved to go sooner imo. Souness was given far, far, too long.

Whacky mates, gothy clothing, student bands like the Smiths, stealing traffic cones, writing out cheques for £2.57. Got to admit it's not looking good.

I can respect that viewpoint. Unless I am seriously baited I will NEVER discuss Robert again! Case closed.

Well yes, you can compare them in the same way you would Bellamy and Shearer then. 101216[/snapback] Would you, conceivably, play Shearer and Bellamy upfront together - yes. Would you play Robert and N'zogbia in the same team wide-left - no. Therefore comparing the former is different to comparing the latter in this context. 101218[/snapback] So you can compare N'Zogbia with Robert but not Boumsong with Bramble. Righto. 101220[/snapback] I didn't say that and I didn't say you couldn't compare Bellamy and Shearer though did I. Nice try though. 101221[/snapback] Well OK I think we both know where we're coming from here. As you rightly point out you can compare any players in the same position, but what I'm saying is they (Robert and N'Zogbia) play in a very different way so expect a very different type of performance. Hope that's cleared up.

Well yes, you can compare them in the same way you would Bellamy and Shearer then. 101216[/snapback] Would you, conceivably, play Shearer and Bellamy upfront together - yes. Would you play Robert and N'zogbia in the same team wide-left - no. Therefore comparing the former is different to comparing the latter in this context. 101218[/snapback] So you can compare N'Zogbia with Robert but not Boumsong with Bramble. Righto.

Robert: greatest ever NUFC forum topic: FACT. Leads to an argument every single time! We'll never, ever all agree on this one.

Well yes, you can compare them in the same way you would Bellamy and Shearer then.

Renton, I've learnt to love you in a non-gay way, but his lack of effort was the main reason he had to go. He'd proved he was an excellent player, which is why personally I got so pissed off with his lack of effort. He believed his own hype. Wasted talent imo, but he's only got himself to blame (despite the fact he likes blaming everyone else). 101206[/snapback] SLP, I really struggle with this concept. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a fan of Robert per se, but I defend him because I think was productive in the areas that matter (scoring and assisting) and he was unfairly victimised by Souness and the fans. Now, when people say he was lazy, what do they mean? Are they actually saying he thought to himself "I can't be arsed to run for that ball because it'll make me tired"? I'm sorry, but I just find that preposterous. If they are saying he didn't track back or tackle, then I'd say fair enough, that's true, but imo that wasn't his game. Whether that was because he was cowardly or because he was not competent to do it, I don't know (I think the latter personally), but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was lazy. Robert suffered towards the end of his career no doubt and his performances significantly deteriorated. However, if we are honest the same can be said of virtually all our players under Souness. Now Souness and Robert have gone I'm happy for us to move on and I sincerely hope N'Zogbia will fill the gap left by Robert, because if he does he is doing extreemely well. For the record I think he will and he can contribute in ways Robert didn't, but its still not guaranteed.

Would you compare Shearer with Bellamy? And how do you want to measure the comparison - goals created and scored a valid measure do you think? Or energy expired. Once again I'm not knocking N'Zogbia because I think he is massively improving, but I'm not going to use him to downgrade Robert either. 101198[/snapback] Well, you could but the comparison wouldn't be as valid seeing as they don't play in the exact same position (or they didn't at Newcastle) unlike Robert and N'Zogbia. Like I said comparing the latter two is valid imo. 101200[/snapback] So if we compare goals scored and assisted in a couple of years that's valid is it? I think they have very different qualities personally which won't necessarily reflect well on N'Zogbia using stats alone.

But we've hardly seen him play in the new improved side. Plus when he did he scored a peach against Pompey. We'll see, he only has a few games left now anyway. 101196[/snapback] Exactly, we're doing fine without him 101197[/snapback] We weren't against Charlton. I reckon we would have won that game with Shearer, seriously.

Would you compare Shearer with Bellamy? And how do you want to measure the comparison - goals created and scored a valid measure do you think? Or energy expired. Once again I'm not knocking N'Zogbia because I think he is massively improving, but I'm not going to use him to downgrade Robert either.

But we've hardly seen him play in the new improved side. Plus when he did he scored a peach against Pompey. We'll see, he only has a few games left now anyway.

Personally I think N'Zogbia and Robert are completely different types of players. Not complaing about N'Zogbia, he has come on leaps and bounds, but it isn't a valid comparison and I will personally be delighted if he can get close to Robert in terms of goals and assists. All this Robert is lazy stuff is so fucking lazy though! Sick and tired of hearing the same old tired cliche which as HTL makes no sense at all if you think about it.

Owen yes, I think Big Al's totally finished now though. 101184[/snapback] I knew you'd say that and I think you are wrong, and we have really missed him. Has it occurred to you that he has been just as much a victim of Souness's tactical incompetence as anyone else, probably more so in fact. If we supply him with goals into the area, he will score, I'm sure of it. I am looking forward to him proving you wrong.

I'm going to be very interested to see how the new improved Solano will link up first with Shearer, and then Owen. We might start scoring goals again. Edit: plus there's N'Zogbia and Emre to supply the bullets. We're going to win the FA cup this year.

No, I'm not Alex, I'm realistic enough to be happy enough with Fred not to rabbit on about replacing him all the time 101164[/snapback] What's the relevance of Doug Ellis to NUFC? How much money do Villa make compared to us? Why don't you compare our spending to comparable clubs like Liverpool? I think you are beginning to sound obsessed on this one Leazes. Shepherd takes much more money out of the club than he should - this is something every expert accountant seems to agree on. He also reinvests money in buying players, but this is NOT HIS MONEY. It's the proceeds that he gets from fleecing the fans, something he openly admits to. Yet we put up with it because we love our club, it's that simple. Comparing Shepherd to chairmen of poorer clubs or NUFC chairmen from a bygone age proves nothing and certainly does not make up for Shepherds gross incompetence of the past few years which have cost us a fortune.

that would be Sky indeed was a great angle, no point Westerveld trying to get there. 100913[/snapback] Well I saw it on MOTD so maybe they share the camera feed................... 101135[/snapback] Sky would have filmed it though and given the images to the BBC as part of the MotD deal. Anyway, both the beeb and Sky are better than ITV.

Well I'm saying I can't doss as much with MSN. You can always ignore e-mails and can quite easily watch day time TV while answering telephone calls. 101075[/snapback] Hadn't realised that like, suppose is depends on whether a person has a professional attitude or not. Anyway, sounds like you're speaking from experience, mate. Are you claiming you're the working from home equivalent of Albert Luque? 101080[/snapback] Different people work differently. As long as the work gets done I don't think it matters how you do it. I tend to avoid working from home because the temptation to doss is too much and I end up having to make up for it by working all night. I'll only do it now if i'm waiting for a delivery/work man etc. I do feel MSN is a pain in the arse as it's so distracting though, but it has its uses.

Well I'm saying I can't doss as much with MSN. You can always ignore e-mails and can quite easily watch day time TV while answering telephone calls.

Get over it....Bellamy is GONE I was glad when Kluivert scored against Chelsea but it didn't mean I wanted the guy to stay. If we still had Bellamy, we wouldn't have Owen. 100863[/snapback] Why not ? 101051[/snapback] Rather have Bellamy tbh. I see the usual people have never sorted out the truth from the shit they gobbled up from the Souness propaganda machine. The only twáts were Souness and his band of 'yes' men, Bellamy was a top player for us, doing far more for the cause of nufc than that twát Souness. 101054[/snapback] oh god not all this again 101057[/snapback] Sorry like, but it's never failed to amaze me how people who had nowt but praise for Bellamy for ages were so easily turned by the Souness propaganda machine. 101066[/snapback] The same people that were gullible enough to fall for Souness's bullshit also have selective amnesia.