Neville Neville Neville

I think 1 in 4 is a bit generous. I can only think of a handful of games over the last couple of seasons. At best I don't notice he's playing, at worst I notice the ball being given away along the floor, or chipped forward aimlessly (because it worked once last season or something) followed by a questionable challenge to win back said given away ball, or my personal favourite, the appear jogging into the camera view just as the ball is being stroked in by the opposition player. Seems to perform well against spurs, but thats it.

He's better than average, and much better than most of what we have to offer. unfortunately, he's not like valencia and capable of beating 2 players regularly and firing off a shot/cross, so he's not going to win a game by himself Put him in a midfield with an attacking winger on the other side, and a central midfielder more creative/going forward than butt/guthrie, and i think he'll balance it well. Put him in with duff, guthrie and butt, then he is average I think robert's -ve's only singled him out once he stopped producing the goals/assists in his last 2 years. when he was good going forward I'd forgive him for anything

Only if you post in the "Inevitable Head in the Sand/ It'll All be Magically Alright" thread The only kneejerk reactions IMO have been those that say that we've turned a corner based on beating a poor portsmouth team and snatching a victory at home to spurs (a banker in recent seasons) P.s. 13 times we've lost the first goal, and 13 times we haven't miraculously won the match If we survive, it will be either due to a brilliant transfer window (looking unlikely), undoing the last 10 years of injury crisis after crisis and everyone staying fit, or portsmouth/west ham making a mess of things due to finances/managerial incompetence. It hurts, but I would rather be Blackburn with Big Sam and a reasonable board in charge than us with JFK and Ashley (and I hated what BSA did with us)

What a difference a year makes..... I would actually play reserve/academy lads instead of butt, and if necessary at lb to keep zoggy at left midfield (and duff away from the midfield). They actually cannot do a worse job FYP

well, we're not going to be far off the bottom 3 plus, under kinnear we've outplayed villa for 45 mins, portsmouth for 45 mins, west brom for about 30 mins, and wigan for 30 mins with 10 men. we definitely haven't bossed anyone as convincingly as wigan have to us for the 150 mins we've been 11 vs 11 (debatable with duff and butt on our team). our points haul has been better than we've deserved... even if we nick a point here somehow p.s. fuck off duff neither does one loss, away from home on boxing Day. it's been 20 years hasn't it? the reactions on here would have you believe we were 20th, not 12th p.s. 2-1 Guthrie

here we go 2-1. kinnear has his "blame the ref for denying us a point" card to play now p.s. anyone getting their only joy by hearing egg-zogbia from the co-commentator (egg, i said egg..... for all the lee and herring fans out there)

I thought the same when we played wigan earlier in the season, but they are just a better version of where we're heading comparing the two lineups: kirklands a canny keeper but shay's about as good a shot stopper as you get their defence looks so solid against a poor strikeforce. no world beaters, but compare it with the way bassong and collicini (didn't) deal with heskey and zaki valencia is like gutierrez butt with the ability to zip past the full back and get a decent ball in. cattermole/brown is a non incredibly shit version of butt taylor is pretty ordinary, but consistent unlike zoggy, and not shit unlike duff zaki and heskey are both proper workhorses... maybe not the skill of viduka, the wile of owen, or the pace of martins, but will give trouble to any defence.... especially hours. its sad that I feel we're about 4 players away from matching wigan 2 wins do not a revolution make......

terrible decision....yes fair score.....yes. if anything should be more. we've had a decent first 5 mins, and a 2 minute spell of pressure in the second half, and been shat on for the rest of it plus wigan were shitting on us similarly at st james until boyce got a terrible sending off, so won't begrudge wigan those decisions. only problem is that the dodgy decision may take the spotlight away from a shocking performance... especially when kinnear calls the ref mickey mouse/clown/twat/cunt etc nicky butt out, damian duff only allowed to play the last 3 minutes, a left back in, 2 centre mids in.... and I may be able to watch newcastle again without steaming the only thing worse than nicky butts terrible passing along the ground, and duff's inevitable check back inside again and again and again, is nicky butts infuriariting chipped balls forward what a shit birthday

there might be a working matchlink say about 3 topics down...... http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/ArticleSearch...phrase=Football

one more for the boruc collection. when i heard it was a 45 yarder, i thought it was a screamer http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/7770458.stm (there's a couple of highlights first, including a shocking miss from footy manager star steven fletcher) What did you want to know? Is Boruc shite? Of course he is for a lot of the reasons I've illustrated in this thread. Wanted to know if you were going to back down on your ridiculous comment about my thoughts on Boruc being controlled by the media where I live. Is there any reason why States media would try to tell me that Boruc is a good keeper? And, on a separate point, I still maintain that he's not nearly as shit as you say. Decent keeper, not in the same league as Given or other top keepers by any means but hardly the "abysmal" keeper you're making him out to be. No, I can't think of an other logical reason why you would think this. When he plays here again I think we should chant you're just a slim Mike Hooper to him. Even when our reserves beat them 4-1 last summer he was to blame for at three of the goals.

would be a complete giveaway of champ manager use if someone like pete prospar popped up!!! was a beast on cm3

Not the best at the moment after a really bright start, but we've come up so many divisions in the past few years that we're due a bad season. Still, if were to get a decent striker in, then we'd have an outside chance of staying up. Really good to watch as well, seen them a few times over the last couple of years, move the ball about better than we do, with some old newcastle boys who failed to make the grade doing ok for themselves - especially coppinger who scored a fantastic hat-trick in the play-off semis last season.... plus got to watch them hammer leeds at wembley in a final (something I worry about ever seeing Newcastle doing) http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/steve_wilson/...nal_in_disguise

Like I said, they are better options, but I don't think they're a big enough step up for it to be worth it to him. I did forget about Spurs actually, which could be an option if they keep moving up the table. I just look at the likes of Everton, Portsmouth, Blackburn, etc and think that the way things are we could quite easily have swapped positions by next year. I would put Man City, Villa, and a Spurs firing on all cylinders, plus le grande quatre, as the only teams who are enough of a step up currently for them to be a realistic option. And I'd discount Villa because I think they're better off without him Relegation would obviously change everything I would argue the opposite and say that any of a dozen clubs in the Premiership are clearly better options for MO than us. Before Stevie dives in with "bollocks are Villa, City, Blackburn etc etc bigger than us!" I mean better potential for a player. We are nothing at this moment, no chance of winning anything or moving into bigger and better things. The only thing this club may do this season that changes its status from a mid to bottom end Premiership club is be relegated.

Apparently Marco van Basten has said he'll be coaching Bournemouth in the run up to the game as a victory for Blyth would signal an end to the magic of the FA Cup, and he wants to see how sweet Kid Dynamite's tears taste. Just saw him when he was donating his signed Euro 88 winners medal and shirts for Children in need. Think he said he'd be working the burger fans as well for the game for free, with a free autograph with every burger. Cracking bloke

Portuguese ref too, IIRC. What a lovely combination. Am I the only person who can remember Griffin's waist high scissorkick take down in the home fixture against Inter? One of the few positives on what was a very bleak night. Don't remember that, but I do remember that the commentators were saying how much smarter shearer was in clobbering cannavaro and getting away with it during the match, compared to bellamy's idiocy.... then they just used the video evidence against shearer that and recoba's screamer Ameobi and Lua Lua dominating Leverkusen I want to be back in the Champions League Neuville running his heart out to keep the ball in play, stops it on the touchline and runs into the barriers, lua lua dribbles, crosses, ameobi, 3-0 I think I miss the beginning of the intertoto more. Wondering how the new boys would settle against europe's finest minnows. Apart from FC Troyes, although the comeback nearly was our best ever

Chopra played for the Mackems ftw true, but he also managed to score against them without breaking stride from running on as a sub

No wonder he gets knocked off balance easily... just the one arm

Portuguese ref too, IIRC. What a lovely combination. Am I the only person who can remember Griffin's waist high scissorkick take down in the home fixture against Inter? One of the few positives on what was a very bleak night. Don't remember that, but I do remember that the commentators were saying how much smarter shearer was in clobbering cannavaro and getting away with it during the match, compared to bellamy's idiocy.... then they just used the video evidence against shearer that and recoba's screamer

well, from Wiki, John Welsh #14 (who apparently plays in a similar style to Gerrard!!) has only had 4 top-flight games in his career thus far. doubt anyone else in the list has had as shoddy a career as him yet

Can't remember him being particularly immense in the Juve game. Maybe he was, but I can't recall it. For me it was the San Siro game where he had Vieri gift-wrapped in his pocket for the entire game, apart from the one time he got away and scored a header. Thought that if he could keep one of the best strikers at home so well marshalled except for one small lapse of concentration, then he'd be fine in the prem...... unfortunately it became a recurrent theme. Interestingly i both martins and emre played for inter in that one as well................ for the cheating bastards!!!!!!! Still was so proud at that 2-2 performance, one of our finest ever against all odds/referee

and lots and lots of pace - bellamy, robert, jenas, dyer were fast and intelligent at using their pace (c.f. martins), which managed to fantastically complement shearer, nobby, speed, and even viana (who I still think could have made it in the prem regardless of his slowness/slightness, had he not been cast asunder post-marseille)

I just can't see it. The current team is filled with players with their best years behind them, and won't have their best years for a bit or may never have their best years... only a couple who I look at and think those are players who we may see the best of. Very few of the 2002 team went on to have say more than 2-3 seasons where they performed at a higher standard. Maybe something is down to the manager and a stable environment, but I think it comes down to having a team full of players who were pretty much at their peak (regardless of their age), none of whom had "stepped down" to newcastle

On paper wouldn't argue with the 90 spaces between kaka and pennant........ just not in that order!! to be fair, there's no indication (i don't think) that the players are ranked, although if they weren't then you'd expect them to be grouped by club or position or alphabetically, so maybe they are

Wow, just wow. If coloccini lives up to his billing he'd be better than o'brien and dabizas, fair enough. Apart from that, if you're honestly comparing the players at their 2002 performance with how the current crop have performed at newcastle, I'm not sure there's anyone else I'd have in. Close calls would be beye vs hughes, but hughes was a really solid player at that time of his career and even popped up with some key assists, so I'd probs just stick with him. I'd have 2002 bellamy over current Martins and Owen without hesitation. The midfield is just a huge no contest. Jenas, Speed, Dyer, and even Viana when he tucked in, all played really well that season. Viana had a great run in the second half of the season, and jenas was in his pre-goldfish days when he really contributed going forward. And nicky butt has just made speed look about 10x the player i thought he was when he was still here - i thought speed was damn good, but thought that butt would be even better, how wrong I was. Not even sure that the current team could beat the 2002 team in their current condition.........

Ah yes, remember watching it whilst playing the game with as similar teams as possible on pro evo. Also remember switching the channel, distraught and unable to finish watching with about 5 minutes to go, and going back to invision on teletext. Could not believe my eyes when Bellamy's name popped up. Have just sat down and watched that season DVD so many times when the current team has me depressed. Whilst obviously not as good as the Keegan team in terms of nearly winning the league, there was something about the pace of that team and the ridiculous spirit we showed all season. There was a ridiculous run where we went behind about 5 times in a row after midweek champions league games and won 4 and drew one, or something like that. I even got into a run of waiting for us to go behind, then playing out the match on pro evo, and watching us make the comeback. It was a shock when that finally didn't work Andy Griffin only went and scored a screamer the next week (after his Juve heroics) against Charlton as well. The thing that sticks with me from the Champions League is that Robson brought Steve Harper in for the game against Juve seeing as it seemed to be a dead rubber at the time and he wanted to alternate the keepers. Anyway Harper did a horrendous miskick that Juve should have scored from but missed.... Amazing how different the season would have been if he'd been punished. For what its worth, my favourite moment as a Newcastle fan came listening on the radio to Arsenal 1 - Newcastle 3 and Robert breaking away to seal victory, end our 30 games without a win in London, and to go to the top of the league at the beginning of the new year. I really thought that was going to be our season