Dr Gloom

the only thing that lived up to expectations was the off field crap. his performances and injuries make him one of he worse signings of recent years when you look at how much he cost and his wages. can't understand why so many still seem to think he'll come good. awful signing

hopefully we can get rid of the odious twat in the summer

just saw the edit alex, fair play

all six games... I was about to say the same, he barely played a match. Not like Dan to talk shite how's it talking shite alex? smith has always been pants whenever he's played at centre mid at the top level. he's been pretty average this season at cm too if you ask me apart from a burst of a few decent games at the start of the season. He made four league starts last year and had a couple of cameos as sub. He was injured most of the season but when he did play he did ok in a few games including playing in CM against Man Utd when he had Geremi alongside him (no mean feat tbf). He played there at home against Portsmouth where we lacked creativity but he didn't do a lot wrong and they never really looked like scoring whereas Owen should have. He played away against Hull and although I didn't see the game we drew 1-1 and he wasn't at fault for the goal but if you saw it perhaps you can put me straight on what he did wrong in that match. He was shite when we lost away to Liverpool from what I remember and got caugh in possession for the first goal but Liverpool won at a canter anyway. So I don't see how you can say he was a liability in central midfield in the season we were relegated. That's not me saying he'd be any good as Premier League midfielder btw. i didn't say just the season we were relegated, i said in the top flight before we were relegated. many different managers tried to play smith at centre mid in the premier league to the the extent that it's now his converted posisiton, mainly i think because he's combative and he doesn't score enough goals as a striker. for me, he has never looked a premier league level centre midfielder for us or for man utd. and i haven't seen enough from him this season to suggest he's going to be good enough if we go up.

all six games... I was about to say the same, he barely played a match. Not like Dan to talk shite how's it talking shite alex? smith has always been pants whenever he's played at centre mid at the top level. he's been pretty average this season at cm too if you ask me apart from a burst of a few decent games at the start of the season.

guthrie has it all to prove at premier league level but yes, for now he should start in centre midfield alongside nolan. smith has looked ok this season but was a liability at centre midfield before we were relegated.

wind up. it's a two year old kicking a plastic ball about, admittedly better than a lot of our first team squad are able to

i'll admit i didn't think we'd walk the league as much as we have so far. goes to show just how big the gulf is between the top two divisions. i think that was accadacca's main point though. he wasn't saying we had a premier league class squad - more that we were still better than most of the crap in the ccc and he's been proved right. the squad will still need massive investment in the summer just to survive in the premier league let alone challenge for a top half finish. hopefully the owner will have learned the painful lesson that you have to speculate to survive in the top flight.

Jonas is the classic nufc winger - talented but frustrating. Good enough for the premier league? Yes good enough for a top premier league side? No worth bearing in mind that we are neither at the moment. I agree with those that say he will be much better with quality centre midfilders next to him

"planning".......... according to wankers like Renton and Baggio a few years ago, this was the key to a golden future the likes of which Fat Fred and the Halls had never delivered You could not make it up if you tried. Talking bollocks and comparing me to Baggio now, nice one . All I said was it would have made sense to plan for Robson's replacement, rather than sack him 5 games into a season with the transfer window shut and no replacement, hence ending up with Souness. See, this is an area I have mentioned before, at the time, and was roundly condemned by clever dicks like you, but I was and still am correct, when you harped on about this "planning" business. The ONLY thing that matter is getting a manager who gets results ie knows what he is doing. Did you say the same thing when Gullit was replaced by Sir Bob a handful of games into the season ie "bad planning" You spout complete bollocks as usual Renton. i think renton's post is spot on tbh. don't sack a gem of a manager like robson when there isn't a better alternative. i think even as fat fred's biggest fan, you would admit that he got that one wrong. souness replacing sbr for me marked the beginning of our current plight. excacerbated by the fact that fat fred backed him to the hilt.

can we lock this thread before leazesmag sees it and it descends into another 30+ page marathon on fat fred v fat mike... ?

man city v chelsea could be interesting this weekend. wonder if bridge will make any tasty challenges on terry, or if he'll shake his hand at full time.

It's his perogative though surely? Better he make himself unavailable for selection than play and our performances suffer as a result of his differences with Terry. I'd hardly call it twattish. Terry fucked his ex, big deal, they should be able to get past it. Even if they don't talk and aren't mates there's no reason the two shouldn't be able to play in the same team together. wasn't he with her at the time though? put yourself in his shoes. could you could play alongside someone you'd found out was shagging the mother of your children while you were with her? plus it would be a media circus. the red tops would have a field day following the two of them during the tournament. better off that he's not there if you ask me.

i still think kanu would do a job for us this season, even at 55 or however old he's supposed to be

he's nowhere near good enough for england now. shame he turned crap while he was with us. we didn't even get more than a handful of decent appearances from him in between all his injuries. capello called it, fergie got it wrong this time.

all bow down to me You and many others with very good points. Iv not contributed even though i do have an opinion as i feel i may not know as much as some of you lot. Very good read though! you're one of the best posters IMHO Stevie would be welcome back too. let's not start sucking each others' dicks just yet

Why? I thought they'd renewed. i just don't like the look of the logo. bring back the blue star! Be nice wouldn't it, except for the fact these days is merely represents a brand rather than a company. And as Alex says, it's not even made in the North East anymore. i couldn't really complain about that given i've outsourced myself to london would be awesome to get newkie broon back as sponsor the rock looks crap plus is kind of symbolic of how crap we've been since we've had it on our shirt

Why? I thought they'd renewed. i just don't like the look of the logo. bring back the blue star!

got to lose the northern rock sponsorship though

We've been going downhill since fat fred sacked sbr. Obviously shepherd looks like a god compared to Ashley, but the majority wanted him gone when he was in charge and were happy to see him go, me included. Just because Ashley is the devil doesn't make shepherd a good chairman. He got it wrong time and time again. Sacking sbr after finishing 5th, a handful of games into a season after the window shut then hiring souness then roeder and fat Sam .... You can't defend those actions leazesmag though I'm sure you'll try

he definitely deserves credit for this season. the real test of course though is next season. if we go up, will he cut it? or will be the next rodent? the consensus seems to be that he isn't manager material and that he will be the next glen roeder. wouldn't it be great if he proved us all wrong though

no doubt this will be an entertaining win before we revert to type for a drab 0-0 in our next televised fixture

who's on?

not much chance of him playing a big tournament for Wales though is there? Makes sense to me to sack off a bunch games that will mostly end in defeat for someone his age.

creative central midfielder, proven at championship level. he'd walk into our team tbh