Optimistic Nut

Really can't believe people are against signing him. He's a class act.

We've heard all this Owen style b*llocks in the past man. Remember the 2001 summer when Dyer was linked with Man Utd & Leeds the whole summer and it was supposedly just a matter of him deciding who. Same went with Solano when the whole summer the tabloids were saying he was off to Real Madrid. I reckon Owen will be here this time next year.

Is there really anything wrong with this? I'd imagine if Big Sam gets the players he wants in and finishes 6th (or at least comes close), he'll be safe. If however, he spends big and still only gets us to 9th or whatever, then what makes him any different to Souness or Roeder?

Change my banner thing to "Toontastic Fantasy League Winner" and it's a deal.

Do ntl still have shares? Does ntl still exist?

"I'm not selling out our Ashley, I said I'm not selling out".

hmm, not really laughing at this one because my dad and step-mam nearly got killed in a similar incident at Monument about 5 years ago. Dad pressed "stop" on the electric wheelchair with my step-mam in, wheelchair didn't stop, both go smack onto the track. Luckily someone got on the buzzer thing and the Metro stopped in the tunnel...very lucky.

Pure gold that he's been replaced by Hutchings again after what happened at Bradford.

Didn't Allardyce try and get Kewell at Bolton last summer? If N'Zogbia goes as expected, could you see him going back for him here?

Emerton has been excellent for Blackburn the last 18 months or so. Would take him here for the right price.

hardly our priority though is it? I think midfield is our main priority tbh. Only Milner worth keeping, and he's not good enough. Seriously? I know it's not been great, but if you were to give me the choice that we'd go into next season with 3 new midfielders and the same defence, or 3 new defenders and the same midfield, I'd choose the latter any day of the week.

Only watch this for Terry Wogan's craic. The contest itself is bollocks.

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being "Over the moon", how happy are you with this years' performance? 3 2. Your favourite performance of the season? Spurs 3-1 at home 3. Worst performance? Sheff Utd 0-1 at home 4. Best goal? Martins at Spurs 5. Worst goal conceded? The second AZ goal away. Huntington not blocking the cross, Taylor missing it, Bramble losing his marker, Given not coming for it...catastrophe. 6. Best Player? Milner 7. Worst player? In terms of expectations, Duff 8. Most improved player? Butt 9. Most disappointing player? N'Zogbia 10. If you could have one match to re-play again, which would it be? AZ away 11. What would you consider as our luckiest perfomance? Liverpool at home 12. Realistic goals for next season? At least challenging 6th spot 13. Biggest suprise of the past season? Roeder lasted until May 14. Biggest disappointment? Roeder lasted until May 15. Which player do you see as making the biggest improvement next year? Duff 16. Which single (realistic) signing would you most like to see us make? Ben Haim 17. Which peripheral player do you see as breaking into the main team next season? None 18. Which player is most likely to leave? Luque 19. Your favourite (not necessarily the "best") player this year? Butt 20. What is the main area the team needs to improve to gain UEFA Cup Qualification next year? Defence!

Well that was closely fought.

They don't though! Seems to have confused the sh*t out of 2 of them at least!

Hmm, this seems to have caused some confusing over on N-O so I'll post them in here too, think you're bright enough to get what I mean. This ISN'T a who you'd prefer poll, simply would you be happy if it was Eriksson, if you'd be happy if it was Allardyce, id you'd be happy if it was Houllier. So you can vote "yes" to as many as you want, and "no" to as many as you want.

BBC Radio Newcastle also reporting this.

Naaah, wouldn't agree with that. Although Lyon have been helped by the fact PSG, Marseille & Monaco in particular haven't been much cop the last few seasons. But you definitely have more depth in the French League than in Holland. Teams like Lille, Bordeaux, St-Etienne & Auxerre are far superior than your average Dutch top half of the table clubs.

Straight swap for Chimbonda = deal.

You could argue then, how come Newcastle can draw home & away with Arsenal and Arsenal stuff Reading on their own patch?

Agreed, and one of the reasons why Drogba might just nick it ahead of Ronaldo because at the time, the press were creaming about Drogba.

What happened to that Miles Stansforth bloke? He always seemed to talk a lot of sense in the Chronicle whenever he took over from Oliver on his holidays.

Especially when you consider the standard of his team-mates, and that in 70% of his matches he'd have came up against better sides than his own.

We weren't complaining at the time ... £5m for a player like that is too good to pass up. Nobody predicted he'd be so shit though... And at the time, how many were complaining when we signed Luque, Marcelino & Boumsong?

Not wilfully wasting money...yeah, so let's spend £5m on a left-winger when our best player of the previous season plays there, plus having Dyer & Milner who can cover in that role when we could have signed a full-back and/or a centre-back with that money.