OTF

Great team effort. Cracking goal from Guthrie. Standouts were Ranger and Smith, though just about everyone did their job.

Looking brittle at the back. No surprise really with an inexperienced 5'9" fullback playing in the centre. Taylor was supposedly marking Howard when they had their best chance . Ranger has done well with what he's been given. Nolan will be handy in this role all season. Guthrie has been pretty decent playing out of position. Geremi has been ordinary as, does not give the fullback a good passing option - won't go towards them, and can't beat his marker with pace. A pretty even match overall, we have to be careful about giving up counter attacking opportunities as they have some pace up front and out wide. Good job by Smith to help out in closing down Howard with their primary attacking option being to send a ball his way (makes sense with our central defensive partnership).

Accurate and funny, but ultimately a sad indictment on the current state of the premier league (and other top leagues).

I think you'll agree that last season was out of the usual in terms of the happenings at the club. That was a major influencing factor in our relegation. I think if you take away the off field baloney and played the squad we had last season again against the exact same opponents we would not be relegated. I'd say you could do the same thing 100 times over and 99 times we'd make it through. Seriously, do you think otherwise? I'm comparing the squad we have now with those of the teams I listed. We definitely are short on depth and are desperately short in a few positions (defense and forwards) but injury free we have a squad that I think could realistically be aiming for a mid-to-lower table position (9-15). Competing with is not to say that we'd beat, just that we'd have a decent chance of victory (as would they). Add a few injuries and some bad morale and things could go downhill very quickly of course (as we've seen). GK: Harper RB: Simpson CB: Coloccini CB: S. Taylor LB: Enrique RM: Guthrie CM: Smith CM: Barton LM: Jonas CF: Ameobi CF: Carroll Subs (from): Krul, Butt, R. Taylor, Nolan, Ranger, Xisco, Kadar, LuaLua, Donaldson, Geremi, Tozer Mid-lower table side IMO. There's still a lot of Premier league experience amongst that lot.

Realistically if we do get back into the premiership we're miles behind: Manchester United Chelsea Liverpool Arsenal Manchester City (money talks) Tottenham Aston Villa Everton Then we have teams the likes of Fulham, Sunderland, Wigan and West Ham who are still ahead currently, but that we could realistically surpass in a few seasons if given sound investment in the first team squad (and also the management). Then there are teams like Portsmouth, Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke City, Hull City, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Burnley that I believe we could currently compete with on a relatively even level IF we were to have no major injuries. With a little investment into our side we should be able to compete with that level of teams immediately if we are promoted. Based on that I think a realistic target for us in the first two years after a promotion (IF we were to be promoted this season) would be a comfortable mid-table finish (9th-15th) in the first year, and then pushing for a top half finish in the second. I don't think that's being too optimistic, but taking into account Ashley's track record there's no way we can expect any sort of proper investment into the side whilst he is still around. ....And when I say target that is something that we should be aiming to do, not something that I am taking for granted that we would do.

Promotion, because we can win a cup in next seasons bullshit poll thread.

I think Enrique as a player will benefit immensely from a full season in the championship (basically a full season in any league). He's a canny defender, and can whip in a mean cross, but like many fullbacks needs to improve on the consistency of his deliveries. Would be good to see him get a tidy amount of assists this season as well as a goal or two. He's made plenty of encouraging runs forward, would be great to see him put the ball in the back of the net (I think we'd see some real joy in his celebration - unlike Geremi who just hobbled back to his position after scoring in the Carling Cup). It's crazy that we moved on Duff for 4 million, but noone has showed any interest in Enrique. If Ashley got a decent offer for him there's sadly no way that he'd say no. Let's all cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen. As far as importance to the team, I think he's just about at the top of the list. We have very little cover at left fullback (Tamas Kadar only? and he's never played a first string game for us - spare the Carling Cup).

29k is way too much. A lower wage with the chance to increase it if we're promoted might do the trick, though I can't see any money being spent on players. I'm sure they'll keep sniffing around loan deals to partially fill the voids of the departed players. As far as a prospect for loan players from Premier League sides we'd be very high up the list.

So we indirectly helped to beat Liverpool. Yay!

In the current climate and taking into account our circumstances Taylor is worth a lot more to us IMO than 6 million.

Yep, that's been the case so far, nothing really to suggest that it's going to change.

Realistically we shouldn't be spending anywhere near all of the funds from outgoing transfers on bringing new players into the side. I think we should be buying a couple of defenders, a winger and a striker (that's assuming no more players go) with a couple of million spent on each. The aim should be to get back into the premier league. Once that is done we'll become a more attractive prospect for incoming players of a higher calibre. The kind of players we should be bringing in now are young promising players who can't get a consistent run in their current sides (because they're in the top leagues). We'll be a more attractive prospect to them because they'll get to play more, and chances are they won't be on high wages so we'll be able to afford to pay them what they're getting now.

I actually think Nolan could be pretty handy in the Championship. Will chip in with more goals than Butt, and as long as Smith is still here I'd prefer him in the side over Butt, as he has more running in him and thus far seems to be going well. Both Smith and Butt are good at breaking up opposing teams attack. At the same time I think if we have Butt it will be Guthrie who misses out the most. I think we should be playing Guthrie as much as possible, as I think he's a good talent who will only improve with a lengthy run in the side.

BBC Newcastle, on now! No good if your OOT Yep

BBC Newcastle, on now! No good if your OOT Yep

River running dry?

He's put in at least one good cross (early in the season last year, got behind the defense and crossed it perfectly, was finished for a goal). Jonas will look better playing for Barcelona. He's likely to be rewarded much more for his diving antics there as well.

If Deportivo managed to get a percentage of Coloccini's resale UNDER the price that they sold him for, then they're a bunch of geniuses!

"there or there-abouts" It's as good as done then!

We need our more experienced heads to settle the game down from early and play some possession football to frustrate them.

It's more the intention. .. Moving on, say Taylor is on £30,000 a week. That's £1,560,000 a year. Say Coloccini is on £60,000 a week, that's £3,120,000 a year. We sell Taylor for £8 million, that's a total of £9,560,000 difference across a single season, or £11,276,000 over a two year period. We sell Coloccini for £4 million, that's a total of £7,120,000 difference across a single season, or £10,240,000 over a two year period. Coloccini still has 4 years to run on his 5 year contract. Taylor still has 2 years to run on his three year contract extension. I know you can't sell what noone wants to buy, but surely someone in Spain will take him for less than half of what was paid for him 12 months ago. .. And the sale of Taylor does not imply that Ashley is staying. More likely he's trying to get as much money out of the club as possible, then will sell it for a reduced price.

Yep, it's more about what this says about our owner and our future direction than just the loss of the player himself.

If by some miracle we actually are promoted with whatever scraps of a team we have remaining at the end of the window (then who's to say more won't go in the next window) then what is going to happen when we're back in the Premiership? We're going to have to pay overs for players who are worse than ones we've let go. There's not a pool of decent premiership players hanging around waiting to be snapped up for dirt cheap prices. Ergo, even if we do manage to go up, there's buckleys chance of sufficient money being invested to prevent us from going straight back down. I do think the media outlets have jumped the gun on this one though. If Taylor goes there's no way we'll hang onto Enrique, Coloccini or Jonas (they'll hold out for as long as possible to get the best possible prices, but they'll all go). Barton, Smith and Geremi will also go if an offer is received. We'll be left with this side: GK: Harper RB: Simpson* CB: Tozer CB: Morris LB: Kadar RM: R. Taylor CM: Butt CM: Nolan** LM: LuaLua CF: Ameobi CF: Carroll Subs: Soderberg Vuckic Guthrie Donaldson Lough Ranger Baheng * - For 6 months ** - Could also be sold

Yes. I have an Everton supporting mate who says Jagielka was awesome at CB before he got injured. I wonder whether Taylor would be guaranteed a start ahead of Jagielka and Yobo if both were available? Certainly not over Jagielka. My Everton supporting mate also has glowing things to say about him (I nicknamed him "Air" Jagielka after the ridiculous handball penalty he commited to ensure Sheffield went down a few years back - it turned out well for him as he got a move to Everton out of it). . Reckons he was their player of the season last year. Lescott gets more plaudits because he also chips in with a hefty amount of goals for a defender (or for a NUFC midfielder).

3 days till our next match .... (then 4 days later a Carling Cup tie) 12 days to go in the transfer window .... Not many 'by the end of the weeks' left.