Papa Lazaru

Not unless he could prove he likes a drink, or is about £8m overpriced!

Name a chairman with a better pedigree, he's 5th best in show and you know it!

Possibly, but i heard a fair few people (in the media and just people you know/work with) banging on about it as if it was the greatest drama ever. Often happens in this country though, when something half decent appears it gets overhyped comp[ared to some of the other crap thats about!

Well i was a head of you then, as i didn't think much of it when it was its time! I didn't think it was bad at all, it was watchable but compared to the hype/hyperbole being bandied about it was nothing to write home about.

I have a dream So do we need a Rosa Barks to not give up her seat then?

I thought the original series was nothing special at all (despite all the hype) so i didn't bother with this and it sounds like i didn't miss anything! It rarely works well if you leave something for ages and then go back to it. The recent Royal Family special wasn't a patch on the original series either.

They are interesting, but Souness had already had a previous season (bar a handful of games at the start)producing some of the worst shite i've ever suffered and should have long been gone, whereas Roeder has previously had only a part season where he inherited the SOuness shambles and turned it round. So whatever we think of Roeder he's still way ahead of Souness overall in his time at NUFC, that doesn't make it good enough though!

With my name: Head Gorilla With my board name: White Bitch

Exactly. The window opens in January, but that doesn't mean you have to start all your planning and action on the 1st of January! But based on our work during the summer where we decided the best plan was first to take a nice long holiday, then piss about until after the world cup, then fanny about watching the same players who we didn't end up signing, and finally get some players in! It suggests not to expect much to happen until the end of the month, but hopefully we've learned something this time!

Signing Campbell could have seen us have a very different season, though having said that we know really he'd have broke a leg about 5 games into the season and on his return would have pulled a hamstring!

I do actually forget he's still here sometimes when it comes to thinking who we have left! The injuries now have reached proportions that no football club thats existed could cope with, yet we have to, and not just in the league but the cup also. Its a good job we have a while till the UEFA cup starts again or we'd be unable to field a team in one of the competitons! In an ideal world we'd be 2 or 3 up at half time allowing Roeder to sub a couple of key players at half time for a rest and a third part the way through, but sadly this should be a tough game, likely to see us pick up more injuries and a tired team afterwards. I have no idea what the team will be for the match nor what i would pick for the match. Lets be honest you need to wait until about kick off time these days before you know if anyone else is going to drop out with an injury!

There's no need for that! Its good to see that potentially at least we have some young players coming through the ranks who might make it in the prem, though we are a way of knowing that with the ones who've just appeared. Taylor has been far better this season, having gotten over his shoulder injury (twice, thanks to Fuckwitt Souness) and grown in confidence he has looked more like the player alot of fans thought he would be when he first appeared. Obviously still needs to cut out a few rash decisions but all young defenders do and with every new injury to the defence he has seemed to have taken it on himself to play better.

He's been far worse this season i think. There was a spell when we were absolute shite every home match where i'd see hims slowly but surely get more annoyed, more petulent and eventually he'd go after players and he'd either get a yellow, or be pushing his luck not to get a second yellow. He then had a bit of a quiter spell, followed by a few games where opposition teams have target him for a kicking and winding up and he's taken the bait and now i think most games you see other teams go for him.

Fuck me Mystic Meg, any chance you could give these predictions earlier than a year before it happens next time? To be a fair I reckon a fair few, myself included, would have taken Bruce over Souness. What with the characters we had regardless of what Souness had achieved in the past he was always going to be a nightmare and the wrong appointment for our club. I remember the day he got the job the first thing that was said to me by nearly everyone this side of the border was "So thats Bellamy and Robert out on their arse then..." As much as I don't particularly rate Bruce, Werepig O'Leary etc, I am pretty confident not one of them could have messed up this club nor waste so much money whilst leaving a small squad in such a short space of time. Completely agree. And it was something i've always thought. I wouldn't (and don't) want Bruce as manager, but i'd havetaken him over Souness because watever he may have done (and my guess would be pretty average) he wouldn't have cost us players like Souness or pissed away quite the same amount of money in such disaterous fashion whilst ruining the squad. Same with when we were linked with Venables. I didn't want him at all, but Venables short term till the end of the season vs Souness long term...i'd have personally carried Venables from cockneyland myself. He'd have done nothing spectacular, but for whatever reason players like him and we wouldn't have had him fall out with players and reck the squad.

The injuries are beyond a joke now, no other club can compare to what we get! Earlier in the season you couldn't allow Roeder off the hook due to injuries because we dropped points at home to a succession of shite teams, playing terribly and with more than enough fit players to beat these teams. But now its reached a point where any manager and any club would struggle with what we are having to cope with. When it reaches a point of 4 kids playing in your back 4 (all of the them actually centrebacks) its a nightmare. And as soon as Nobby returns to help out, another one drops out injured! And has any other club in football ever had 3 keepers operated on in one season!!!

The more in depth article in the paper made for interesting reading about Owen. They said whilst he is recovering from the knee injury they are also working on his hamstrings and doing work to strengthen this (like Dyer did) to get him back to what he was like at Liverpool when he used to destroy people with his pace. It said since those days he's never quite been able to go 100% on the accelerator when running. If they can get him back with his knee intact and do this work with his hamstrings, it could be quite a comeback! Now more importantly, this is a thread about Owen, why hasn't it degenerated into "he only cares about England, he couldn't give a shit about toon fans, and never mentions us in interviews etc. etc."

Same here, though not by choice! Been ill since friday night and spent friday night, through to saturday morning throwing up at regular intervals. So i missed the first game of football i could have played in months on saturday morning and i'm still not well enough for a night out tonight, been a great few days off for me! But anyway, happy new year everybody!

A striker of any merit wouldn't think like you though. He would back himself to be first choice irrespective of who's already here. He'd definitely see hismelf first choice alongside Martins with no Owen, and when Owen returns way down the line he may still be fucked or this new striker has outdone Martins and still retains his place. Also we pay shitloads of money for people to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice!

If he plays like Edgar David's evil twin then i'm happy!

I will always hate Man Utd, Liverpool and Spurs the most but the likes of Bolton could soon catch up. I'm not fond of the fans of any of those clubs and their attitudes, but I have to confess that I have a degree of respect for the way they try and play football. I find it hard to respect Bolton in the same way. Sam Allardyce is a pain in the arse as well. He's like Hughes, they both have a chip on their shoulder. They set their teams up to be dirty, aggressive whingers who like to hump the ball in the box alot and then moan non stop when other managers and pundits comment on their style of play. You can't have it both ways. Bolton base alot of their game around going down easy to win freekicks, playing aggressively and lanching the ball into the box alot, it works so just accept what people say about you. Blackburn under Hughes have from day one set out to foul, injure and wind up the opposition and all Hughes has ever done is cry like a girl that refs pick on them and they don't get any credit. Well you'd get some credit if you stopped ruining the game and fouling people all the time!

Even if he would have still done it, the push is a foul and so its no goal if the ref does his job. But its classic Bolton, a goal from a foul and one from a long throw!

Chronicle said Nobby wouldn't make it ebcause of his groin injury which seems to be ongoing. I'd definitely play Krul if he's fit enough to start the match against Everton

With the inexperienced defence and Pav against Bolton's style of play, which troubles us at the best of times, we were always likely to need to be amongst the goals to pick any points up, hopefully we can still snatch something as i fucking hate losing to that shower!

It must be awkward as fuck dressed up as a dinosaur! I mean, where will he put his tail??? Tails up, if you love the toon Isn't Barney the other bloke or am I about to be swished? Dino was the dinosaur! But of course there is the other dinosaur called barney from the usa!

Fullback has definitely become the key position, despite Nobby doing well at right back. A left back is a must in January, and ideally a RB as well as getting in another striker. I hope from what Roeder has said that as well as looking to buy players they are going to look into loan deals to strengthen the squad a bit as with out propensity for injuries we need numbers!