bassplayerjj

get in, thats the midfield I called for this afternoon =) let's hope we humiliate them and send Jol packing

Midfield vs spurs: Zog - Emre - Butt - Geremi. I think Geremi could do a decent job down the right and be able to get plenty of ball into Owen and Martins. Milner would be a decent impact man in the 2nd half if things aren't going well =/

why's he spending 220 mill on umbro but only giving allardyce 11 mill net in the summer? Where's Ronaldinho, Kaka' and Ibrahimovic?!!!! Sack the board

think he'll go abroad, maybe Barca if they offload Ronaldinho/Eto'o, give them some more physicality up there.

Zog, Drog and Martins, that would be a front 3!

How about no music but an epic, dynamically growing chant of ''there's only one Michael Owen, only one Michael Owen.....''

I thought you were talking about the whites! =/ Yeah, Hampden park will turn them I-ties into haggis hopefully

I wish I could feel this laid-back about it all. I feel sick =/

BYE BYE MCLAREN YOU USELESS SMILING PILLOCK! Paul fucking Robinson needs his hands cut off and to be exiled from the nation, what a bafoon, GOALKEEPERS CATCH FOOTBALLS If we can't beat Macedonia at home then we don't deserve to be in the EUROS COME ON SCOTLAND! My granddad was scottish for a reason, let this reason be EURO 2008! Italy game will be very enthralling.

Have to disagree about Emre, he's got it in him to be an Arteta/Elano/Riquelme. Dictated games for Turkey at a young age in the World Cup. He just needs lots of the ball and a run in the team as a playmaker with midfielders to do his dirty work so to speak. His best games for me were when he was played with Butt when Parker was out injured. He needs to show us what he is truly capable of now that he claims to be fully fit (and looks a bit trimmer tbf), otherwise we'll move him on and get someone who will perform consistently for us =)

quality finishes, could have had a hat-trick if he hadn't hit the bar first off!

I think we should be more worried about the temperature than the pitch! Them ruskies are used to playing in 0 degrees or under. edit: nevermind, we're in luck. Says it's gonna be 7 degrees on wed night although its -1 there tonight

Another shocker by fat fred if this is true =/

Owen, Martins, Viduka, Ameobi, Smith, Luque, Carroll. Chopra was sold last summer right when we only had martins, ameobi and Luque with Sib and Dyer also potential forwards. With a defence consisting of practically just Steven Taylor and people being sold left right and centre, you can see why Big Sam didn't want to sign Anelka or anyone else like him (expensive pacy goalscorer) in the summer, unless Martins or Owen were sold. Vid was a freebie remember, and a completely different option to Anelka up-front. There was no either/or there with Vid or anyone else, it takes a sensible person to think, ''hmmmm we need a striker, Viduka is available on a free, scored a great deal of goals last year, and has played in the premiership for a while. This, or we could try and sign Anelka for 12 million when we don't have a back four.'' (I seem to remember Souness and Roeder both doing similar things at the end of their summer spending =/) We arguably need a more creative midfielder and more pace on the wing before we need another forward. Big Sam may have wanted Anelka, really wanted him. But did he really need him when we already had Owen and Oba at the club? Repeating myself once again, IF Owen had wanted to leave for whatever reason, to be with his smelly fucking horses or whatever it may have been, we would have seen Anelka or someone like him here. Luckily Owen seems to be banging them in this season after a career-threatening injury and decided he wants to stay. If however we're offered 12-15 mill for him in jan or the summer, and he says he's sick of being a newcastle player then what?

who ate all my crumpets?!

maybe he didn't have french citizenship back then or something =/

If he'd wanted Anelka he would have got him, nothing more to it than that for fucks sake. All the rest is the usual 'if Owen leaves' crap, which as I've said, he bloody will if arseholes keepgoing on like this. No big club has come in, and no club will, you're fucking worse than the Sun. Baggio is right, you're fucking hard work mate =)

Newcastle's Michael Owen is a disgrace, the lad should show some patriotism!

He didn't sign Anelka because at the time we had 7 strikers on our books including Luque. As the big man said he wanted to strengthen other areas with a higher priority, the defence. We didn't spend more than 6 mill on any one player, and the amount of dead-wood that was flogged out meant that Sam strengthened the entire squad considerably having spent no more than buying one Anelka. Clearly the summer was Sam laying down the foundations, any proper spending we do in jan or next summer will be after Sam has properly got to know his squad and sees that we desperately need more creativity, or more pace on the wings, or another Striker he if decides to let one of them go. I also think that if a big european club came in for Owen for that 11 mill and Owen decided to move on, back to Liverpool or to Manure, then we would have seen that 11 mill pumped straight into an Anelka for example. Would have been quite fun to see that have gone towards someone like that Beast Zigic who ended up with Valencia haha. If Owen leaves for whatever reason, then someone like Anelka would be able to be bought pretty easily if Sam wanted him. Especially if Bolton don't make europe again and we do. He would more than likely have a clause in his contracted letting him go to a club with european football or if Bolton were out of the top 10 or some shit like that.

too right son. YOU CAN DO IT!

that french geezer sure looks grumpy as hell. Le HAvre sure know how to raise 'em...

and who's to say he can't do that for us? It's still the same game isn't it? He's not playing rugby all of a sudden...

i'm struggling to think why you'd despise a player who has only ever given his best when fit, maintaining a strike rate of 1 goal in every 2 games he's played for us. dispair at his injury record by all means, but you're obviously something of an oddball if you despise owen's attitude which has been nothing less than 100% professional since he's been at newcastle. and bent and defoe aren't in the same league as a fit michael owen. Bold #1: Edgar played what, 2 games for us last season? And scored against Man U? There's a 1 goal to 2 game strike rate for you. What I'm saying is, if he'd played 60 for us and scored 30, we might have something to talk about. He's played 20 league games. Those are some expensive 10 goals. Bold #2: Disagree with this statement. Although most people on here are lamentably stuck in "hear-no-evil" mode when it comes to Owen, I think (and in this I am not alone even if others want to ignore it) that he places too much emphasis on playing for the national team and not enough on his club. That is unprofessional in my eyes. Bold #3: Everyone keeps saying, fit Owen is class. Fit Owen is the best striker we've had, Fit Owen is glorious, etc. Who is this fit Owen guy? I don't think I've ever seen him. There comes a time when it's not just an "injury problem" any more. Look, as I have said before, and maybe this will get the frankly ridiculous anti-Martins crowd off my back: I don't know if Martins is the man for the job at Newcastle. But I am sure that Owen as he is now is not. Maybe when we signed him, but no longer. Did you see the goals Owen scored against Israel and Russia? the 2nd against Israel was world fucking class. He did that how long ago? After major knee surgery on what was a career ending injury for some even five to ten years ago. He looks pretty sharp to me and I admit before the season started I had serious doubts about him as many had. He sure as heck proved me wrong with what he's done so far this season. If he stays fit for the rest of it then hopefully he can prove you and others wrong =)

I do kind of agree with that, I would much rather footballers shut up and got on with it (I'm talking to you Stephen Taylor). However, having said that, Owen really should have come out at the start of the summer and put all the transfer speculation to bed. Instead, he did it just as the season started. Which adds fuel to the flames that he wanted to fuck off in the summer. I'd like to think it would have changed a thing, I doubt it though. We've got people on here who think Anelka is coming here after signing a contract 3 months ago, there's nothing factual you can say to some people, like I said, they think they know the kid better than himself. That's why he says nothing. The only time he has said anything is when prompted by ill advised comments from the club itself, from Fat Fred and now Sam, which is a clear sign he does care, when you're getting shit off you're own club that's different from tripe written by half-wit journos digested by chronicle texting spackas. Players have left under big contracts before haven't they? I never said he's coming here either, someone asked a question who we'd replace Owen with if he left and I said Anelka =) Just have to look at their international records to see who's the better goalscorer so I hope we keep him. I do also think Owen may have had some valid reasons for wanting to fuck off in the summer: Big Sam's trademark Big man up top style of football, our lack of european football, the players who were here at the beginning of summer.-.-. These are all reasons for me that Owen may have wanted to leave especially with that clause in his contract making him easy-pickings for whoever wanted to gamble on him.

If both are in form, Viduka-Owen, has to be. I have confidence in Sam whipping the fat man into shape and getting all scientific on him. Much like fat little Emre, if both these players are in the best shape of their life they will be valuable assets to us creatively. Vid is a good enough footballer to play in that Sheringhamesque role, and with someone like Owen in front of him it would work very well imo.