David Kelly

Why spend £10m on a class centreback and leave Taylor in with Faye with Cacapa for backup. For £10 I would expect he should at least make the bench! I don't think Martins and Owen will ever work even with Keegan prefering a much more on the ground mentality to Allardyce. I'm not sure Tozer will be ready next season even as cover and I personally think Enrique can come good. No plans for Barton and Geremi? I've never seen Arshavin play and I don't even know who Kalouda is but the others would be Bentley and Huntelaar would be good signings. Wouldn't be desperate to sign Shorey like.

The only problem being that Geremi will actually need 'to sit' (on a chair), with his 40 yr old legs (Mourinho). I just think if you stuck him there it would suit him and he'd link midfield and defence better than Butt who looks pretty shit atm. Plus, we've tried just about everything else. Barton looks a bit more like his old self too, especially when he moved to the centre. It's not ideal, but we're short of options in there. I watched the second half of Cameroon's game last night and while he didn't have a lot to do at rightback, with Tunisia mainly attacking down the other flank, he looked good in posession, rarely giving the ball away and knocking in some good balls. His legs never got him overlapping the winger which might support the his legs are fucked argument, but I agree he could be the best bet for sitting role as long as we manage to get someone running off him. Barton hasn't done this as much as I expected so far but he's had a very stop start time of it (to say the least) so maybe he might improve given a run. I would like to see Emre get a run though but he has to push on a lot more if that's what we're going to do.

This was the biggest problem with all of Allardyce's stuff from the begining. You always knew that unless he had massive success with us then whoever came in after him was just going to dispand the whole set up.

Who exactly is saying that they prefer the club to bring in youngsters and hope they will turn the club into world beaters over signing proven class? What people are actually saying is that they are happy we didn't just spend money for the hell of it on players that aren't good enough. Transfers take time (Woodgate's move to Spurs was well under way before Keegan was even appointed, as was Huttons) and scouting players takes even longer. Keegan simply didn't have the time to bring in the type of player that we need in January so he elected not to spunk away £8m on another Boumsong or waste time with Babayarou's or Onagooch's who do nothing but cost a packet in transfer fees and wages. January is a notoriously hard time in which to do any decent deals because clubs don't want to lose decent players as they don't have the time to find a replacement or integrate them into their team. And top players don't want to leave clubs that have a chance of winning something to move to a team that might be able to make something of themselves next year (Woodgate signed for us when Leeds were starting to get into deep shit and we had an outside chance of even winning the league nevermind qualifying for Europe). Spurs could offer a cup final and European football this season, we couldn't (something that has more to do with our previous board than our current I might add). We are in a fortunate position where we have teams like Derby, Fulham, Wigan, Birmingham, Reading and the makems below us so we're not in a desperate position where we had to panic buy. Keegan realised this and instead of gambling on a foreign player he new nowt about or filling the club with more over paid shite we can't get off the wages, he decided to keep his money for the summer when he will have a realistic chance of convincing players he knows he wants to come to the club. I believe this to be true because unlike previous managers we know Keegan would never have signed on in the first place unless he was convinced he would be given the oppertunity to spend. That is what people are happy with you muppet. But I wouldn't expect you to understand this.

We could do with a top quality centreback to play with Faye, a defensive midfielder to replace Butt, an attacking midielder to replace the void that we currently have, a right winger who can deliver the ball to replace Milner and a striker who can hold the ball up but is also mobile to replace Viduka/Smith/Shola. Nowt £100m shouldn't be able to sort!

It's par for the course for a derby game, you always get these muppets who follow the smoggies down to the station to shout abuse but never actually do anything physical. Kids who are wanna be hooligans that's all.

There was one point where he played an awfull ball accros the back that nearly cost us a goal apart from being generally crap in posession and in the air. It wasn't one of his worst games by a long shot but he's still way short of Beye. Butt's really struggling at the moment though.

Given's been poor this season for me. He never drops the clangers you see from Robinson or James but now he's not making the class saves he was either. He may just be on a poor run of form or it may now be that he's stagnated here and we should be looking to replace him.

Also, once you find the best hiding place ever in the roof of that house, and all you need to do is sit it out, why the fuck would you leave? Yeah that is a slight flaw like. Although they probably would have run out of food in there. Personally I couldn't understand why the Vampires fed on them all straight away. If I was them I would have kept them tied up and fed on them throughout the month. Greedy bastards.

Agreed, fucking awful. He's a liability at the back, slow, shite in the air and always likely to give the ball away and he's average at best going forward. Beye on the other hand has been one of our better players this season. No brainer for me!

Owen was fucking awfull until he scored and then he became a different player. Before then he resembled Fumaca in terms of pure shite. If only the ref had allowed his first (perfectlty valid) goal it might have been a different story. Dreadful game for the most part and showed us how poor we actually are (although I think Keegan will get us playing better). Given should have been out for their goal instead of yet again staying put (although how they weren't given offside is beyond me) and we allow far to many balls to be played in without a challenge. Butt was wank again and I thought his awfull passing at a time when we had actually got on top and started to turn the screw, led to us conceding too much possesion and imputus to them. Emre was playing far too deep and needs to push closer to the front two if we are to create anything. Hopefully Beye and Enrique will be back for Saturday as Carr is wank and N'Zogbia cannot defend (although he does link up quite will with Duff going forward). Barton is anything but a right midfielder. Smith works much better up front but is no goal threat whatsoever at the moment. Cacapa was very good, hopefully he will be paired with Faye on Saturday but I fear Keegan buys the Taylor hype.

30 Days of Night. Reminded me a lot of The Thing (though not as good). The premise is excellent but I don't really think they delivered on it as they failed to give any sort of feeling that it took place over a whole month (other then Josh Hartnet getting a bit of stubble). That said I did really enjoy it, I liked the way the vampires were little more than animals as oppose to charismatic like Brad Pitt & Tom Cruise. It's one of the best vampire films to come out for a long time (even if the main Vampire looked like he should be singing West End Girls). American Gangster. Excellent crime film with strong performances throughout (even if Denzil Washington's being doing the same thing for years now). The only thing I thought was lacking was a bit more backround on Washington's character. It seemed a bit wierd that all of a sudden it came out that his family were all slack jawed yokels from down south when it appeared before he was Harlem born and bred.

We have a shit load of dross in the squad now which brings me back to a point I made a couple of months ago that we don't have any fans favourite players any more because very few of them are good enough. We need to start again because the post Robson team that's been built is shite. Hopefully Ashley will release something like the money that has been suggested and if he does we will still be able to attract a high quality of player. At the end of the day we still pay fucking good wages, we have top class facilities, a manger with an extremely high profile in the game, a full stadium every game and if we start splashing the cash and showing ambition and spending big money I'm sure that will provide another reason for top players to come. We won't be able to take the very best players away from Manure, Chelski and Arse (or Liverpool for that matter) but we will be able to get players that can put us back up there. If we get back into Europe and start looking like a top team again then we would have a chance to sign the very best players. Of course that would take a lot more money again so it would all depend on what MA will cough up. Relegation is the last thing we need though (especially as it would mean at least one of the Makems and the Smoggies staying up in our place!).

Nightwatch. Really enjoyed it and I think I will have to try and get a hold of Daywatch too. Some of the visual style really reminded me of early Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Doesn't sound like it's a deal that fits anywhere near Keegan's stated stragey for signings. He's got no premiership experience and is anything but one for the future. Sounds like he would add to the problems we already have. Hopefully Senegal will get knocked out this week and we will soon have Faye and Beye back.

That bit comes across as he can go as long as we're not paying his loyalty bonus.

4 isn't it.

Gospel then

Is this confirmed or is it just the rumor that's in the Sheilds Gazzette?

I think most of his acadamy role will be in terms of recruiting players for it rather than day to day coaching or running the teams. I think this looks good providing Keegan's in full agreement. If not then it will inevitably end in tears.

Looks like he has a canny enough dig on him but I think this is probably just a move by his club to try and push Juve in to a corner. Still it would be nice to see us going after a top young european player before they arive at a big club.

Looking at the article on .com I'm actually warming right up to this providing Keegan is fully on board with it (otherwise I see another walk out looming). It looks like it will be providing us with the kind of set up we've been crying out for and the prospect of actually picking up some bargins from overseas as oppose to paying £8m for centrebacks six months after they went for free is very appealing.

I can't see us making any significant moves now which is a shame but I would rather go with that policy than ending up with the types of players we have recruited in January post Robson's time.

Unbelievable that he got away with that if you ask me. Not at all concerned about the result but I am certainly comforted that we were at least able to create the odd chance. We'll get beat again tomorrow and I again I'm not really bothered but it's the smoggie game we need to be sorted for.

Really odd this one. I could have understood it as an assistant appointment but as what basically amounts to a DOF I see no logic in it at all.