Barney

Never seen anything to convince me he's a racist, he's got a nasty temper though. We need to keep him and Jenas for squad depth I reckon. Unless we're going to bring in a central midfielder - that Ambrose at Charlton looks a canny squad player. 13031[/snapback] Speaking of whicj. Did anyonone see the look Bowyer gave to the linesman in the second half, right in front of the away fans? He was being jockeyed by Ashley Cole(similar to Carr/Henry) and Bowyer lost control of the ball. an Arsenal throw was awarded. Bowyer just glared at him. I'd say that linesman is sleeping with one eye open!!!

Fair review. edit-beat me to it Gol.

Totally agree with everything there. It looks like we're gonna be screwed this season. Our first choice striker is a 35 year old who's carrying an injury, Shola is fairly crap/not PL quality and Souey abviously has no faith in Chopra. It really looks like we should have signed a striker. Maybe offering Fener 1/4 of their valuation of Anelka wasn't the best strategy. We gave away our best left winger, for free. We have been tracking Luis Boa Morte for 8 MONTHS, and have yet to even hold talks with the player. Our options are now a right winger, (Milner) on the left, who is the unfinished article, or N'Zogbia. Similar story. We signed 1 left back in January with a reputation of being injury prone, and crap. Surely the manager should have realised that he would be injured and/or crap at some stage? Apparently not. We are now left with the prospect of Robbie Elliott or Craig Moore coming in to deputise. Both players are well below PL level. Basically, after turfing 7 players out of the club(who were, by their own admission, very short in squad depth), we have brought in fewer players of a leesser quality(bar 2). It's like some mirror universe or something. Those 2 quotes by Freddy are gonna just keep floating about in my head. The one about us being "astounded by the standard of players who want to come to NUFC" and the one from last January about us being "pleasantly suprised".

Taylor or Boumsong. I voted Taylor for the fact he's local, and seemsto give a fuck about the club. Anyone remember the last minute face-block against Southampton? Legend.

Quite well. He was sitting a little deep in the 1st half, but the team came out in the second half far more adventurous, Jenas was attcking alongside Milner down the left hand side. He played some lovely through balls, and was very composed on the ball. Faye also had a good game. Taylor almost scored a Maradona style goal! He ran from the full back position, before taking the ball past 3 defenders in the box with a Beardsley style dribble, his shot was blocked by a defender eventually though. Would have been a cracker! N'Zogbia was top notch when he came on, a couple of lovely flicks, and some nice finishing to accompany his direct running. Milner's goal was lovely. Cut in from the left wing, before curling the ball into the far, top corner. He had been 'doing' his man inside and out all game long. He worked hard tracking back too. Stevie Carr and Dyer played really well. Carr set up 4 goals with his low crosses, and his overlapping runs were pulling defenders all over the place. Dyer picked up where he left off at the end of last season.

Taylor played left back and Moore was in the centre. Moore won everything in the air, and was constantly talking to Boumsong, Faye and Taylor. However he almost made a balls of things himself, teice, by giving away posession outside the area. He also seemed to suffer a slight bit of cramp towards the end of the game. Good result anyway, and a couple of good performances. If anyone wants to know anything else, just ask!

The Irish League sides are far better than they used to be. Still nothing great, but they'll be fully fit as the season is in full flow at the minute. They'll be better than Yeading, and Brian Kerr has likened the level to that of the 1st Division in England. I'll be at the match, so I'll hopefully have a report of how the game went for anyone who doesn't make the trip.

Does anybody know what the limit is on match day tickets is? I'm hoping to get 3 tickets beside each other for the game against West Ham, can anyone help with info?

Don't get me started on that lazy bastard(which one?!?!?!)! I knew I had forgotten that guy. He was good. As was his Ferecvaros(sp) goal.

NUFC......Laughing Stock of football? Shirley, you jest?

Man, I was so excited about that season. I didn't know much about Barton, all I knew was that he cost more than Roberto Carlos, so in terms of ability, surely he was better also! We signed Hislop and Ferdinand that season also I think. There was a brand new kit(the Grandad one) and all was rosey. I was kind of hoping to get that feeling of optimism back for this coming season-no luck so far!

Yes, but £7m for Carl Cort. Great bit of business by Freddy there. £5m for Centre Partin'. He once scored from really far out for Wimbledon. Remember we were linked with Euell for years? We appear to have gotten off lightlyby charlton snapping him up, before we could offer them £20m, or something like that.

Never! Carl Cort and Warren Barton for a combined £13m? Awesome.

I shudder to think that he played 14 times for us. Even scarier is that someone paid £1.5m for him! Maybe he can get a start up-front anlongside Paul Dalglish elsewhere.

Is it just your season ticket seat for the game, mate?

For Granny's maybe. AH HA HA HA HA. Seriously though, where's Psycho Pearce?

Yeah, I'm quite fond of that 4-4-2. I think Shearer plays best along-side a pacy forward, and would love to see Anelka/Owen here. The midfiled there looks very strong though. With Milner and N'Zogbia as cover on the flanks, and Bowyer and Faye as central cover(should JJ & Viana move on). The depth in the squad is pittiful though, our reserve 4-4-2 would look like this.... -------------Harper------------- Ramage-Taylor-Moore-Babayaro Milner--Bowyer--Faye--N'Zogbia ------Chopra-----Ameobi--------- The above team would struggle in the Chamionship in my opinion.

I'm quite suprised that throughout all of the Jenas -> Arsenal linkage (yes, it is a word), there's been no denial/comment from the player. Add to that the rumours of Souness falling out with another player (Jenas), and I'd say that he's as good as gone.

Souness came out quite recently and said something along the lines of "I'm a 4-4-2 man. Always have been, always will be." Now I've no problem with people changing their minds/learning new things, but I wonder if 4-5-1 (lets be honest here, that's what we're really playing) is the right direction for the club? This whole "I'm the most attack-minded manager this club has ever seen" stuff is far from the truth. I know for the 4-5-1/4-3-3 to work properly, the wingers have to work their arses off and be up and down the flanks all day. I think that Souey is asking the wingers to be a little more selective about going forward in our current system though. Is this attempt at 4-5-1 just a case of ' keeping up with the Jones' ' (read : Chelsea)? What would you lot consider our best formation for the coming season? For this instance, we'll pretend that Anelka, Coco and Luis Boa Morte will be at the club. 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 Chelsea, Man Yoo and Everton are using this formation currently, all with varying degrees of success. Chelsea won the leage with it. To be fair though, with their squad of players, they don't really need formations/tactics. It also helps they have one of the best managers going. This looks like Souness' preferred formation for the coming season. --------------Given--------------- Carr-Bramble-Boumsong-Coco ----Jenas---Parker---Emre----- Dyer-------------------Boa Morte ------------Anelka--------------- replace Jenas for Bowyer should Arsenal/Spurs sign him. 4-4-2 Old faithful. Other formations come and go. Like flared jeans/Hear-Say, these formations are nothing more than flavours of the month (Venables Christmas tree, Hoddle's 3-5-2). It's balanced, and is the best formation to make the most of Shearer's still considerable talents. --------------Given--------------- Carr-Bramble-Boumsong-Coco Dyer--Parker--Emre--Boa Morte --------Anelka--Shearer--------- Opinions?

The reason that I acyually started this thread was for the exact reason that you pointed out SLP, there were some very good resons to be (slightly) optimistic about the coming season. It's not ALL doom and gloom. Papa, you're right about the lack of pace in the squad, but I think if you add in the potential signings(i.e, the players that Souey has identified) we have one of the quickest teams about. Anelka/Owen, Boa Morte, Dyer will give us one of the quickest front 3 in the Prem. And yes, I left Viduka's name out on purpose. Fat git.

Confirmed From www.nufc.co.uk Italian Job For Coco? By Gary Oliver and Ian Willis and from www.nufc.com I'm just shocked that the Sun broke a story, despite getting the players name wrong.......actually, does that count!?!?

from www.nufc.com From www.nufc.co.uk

Yeah, I must say that I was a little bit peeved at Given and Boumsong for the 1st goal. I think the problem is that we're expecting them to be miracle workers. Boum gets dragged out of position quite a bit, I only realised last night, that it's due to covering for other peoples fuck ups. Example, did you see Elliott losing his man for that corner in the 1st half? Brutal. Boumsong has his weaknesses as well, but the lad can't do it all on his own. Our defence is quite poor. I thought I kind of covered that in the 'squad size' bit of the negatives in my initial post. Robbie Elliott shouldn't get a game in our reserves, yet he'll probably start 20games this season.

Cheers for clearing that one up Gol. I'ma lazy, lazy man. I'm not the biggest fan of Boa Morte. His house on Cribs just isn't flash enough for the type of player we require at this club. Seriously though, we'll need to up the bid in order to get Boa ahead of Villa getting Malbranque. I assume that we've already unsettled LBM enough for it to be in Fulhams best interests to lose him and keep Malbranque.

I don't entirely blame Souness for the lack of signings. He can only tell Pudgy which one's he wants. I think that replacing our 2 most important players(IMO) in Robert and Bellamy, should have been done first and foremost. (But that's a 50page discussion I don't want to get in to!) We now look incredibly weak on the left wing, and up front. In all honesty though, if Emre is Souness' definition of a 'proper' player, then on first impressions, I'm happy enough.