OTF

Despite his recent injury troubles, I would take Parker back. We'd surely be able to buy him for less than we sold him to them. As a player though I'd probably prefer Barton, though he seems to be just as injury prone, and Parker is certainly the more likeable of the two.

Who did we sell that Keegan didn't want to go? (remembering that Keegan said the Milner offer was too good to turn down) The Milner offer was too good to turn down - ON THE PROVISION that the money from his sale was reinvested into the team. When Keegan made that statement it was on that basis. He was lead to believe that Milner would be replaced (and not by an injured loan 'signing').

Would hate to be Xisco. Poor bugger. Comes into a team all wide eyed and eager, then finds out that the iconic manager has quit and a large part of his going was your arrival. Then to make matters worse most Newcastle supporters are suddenly experts on scouting and footballing ability allowing them to deem you a complete dud after you play a game or two. And the cherry on top -> you pick up an injury that will keep you out of training for several weeks. Welcome to Newcastle! If anything it just makes us even less likely as a destination for foreign players in the future.

Don't think he did anything worse than Beye in that match and had a lot more work to do defensively. Don't know if you watched the match, but I'll reiterate he seldom had anyone to pass to when he cleared it. I'm not suggesting he's a world beater or anything, but in my opinion he's a credible left back and I think we're only going to see him improve. Buying a player of his age with his experience and bringing him to a new club you know 100% that you're going to have to give him time in the team to firstly adjust and then to develop - noone here seems to understand that. More important areas of the pitch to strengthen IMO, though we should realistically have cover at both fullback positions when we really don't.

Ireland is a good player. Ugly as sin though. Very composed in front of goals.

Good to see someone giving credit where credit is due to a player who seems to cop an unfair amount of criticism. If you honestly look at most of the times where Enrique sends a ball upfield there is noone in close proximity for him to pass to. You can understand him not wanting to hold onto the ball and try to beat a player on the dribble, so clearing is the best option he has. He makes a good amount of tackles, and is pretty quick. Leagues ahead of N'Zogbia in terms of his defense. In the first half in particuylar he had NO protection from Damien Duff, and with Bosingwa so keen to get forward he was often in a position where he had to try to mark two players - this is the reason why he was sometimes pulled in towards the middle - following runs from Joe Cole - the onus was on our midfield to pickup Bosingwa breaking forward.

If I had to pick who I'd have alongside me in the trenches the name Damien Duff would not come up That said, he was the one that was there when the best chance of the second half fell to Ballack, so credit to him. He (Duff) actually made a tackle in the second half too - almost couldn't believe it!

Stone the crows, guv. Why the hell not Bassong or Given MOTM.

Agree, it was a powerful performance from Bassong - to drop him to bring Taylor back in would be foolish. You could not honestly criticise any of the back four for their efforts in this match. JFK has an obvious favouritism towards Damien Duff. In my opinion it should have been Duff not Jonas making way for N'Zogbia. Stoked with a point! Keeping a clean sheet against Chelsea at the Bridge is great. Thank Shay for some good goal keeping, though Chelsea didn't create as many clear chances as they should have given their possession. Put that down to some good defending. Coloccini improved vastly in the second half with some very good clearing headers.

Would be nice if Damien Duff had a little more defensive resistance than a plastic bag. Good decisive defending from Bassong. He's the right sort of player to play alongside Coloccini, who it must be said is less than convincing in the air.

If you get to the point where your reputation precedes you, your defenders will usually get more time on the ball, and are likely to really only have to defend on the counter attack and against set pieces. You see this with teams like Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea where oppossing teams so often sit back trying to weather the storm and consequently the Manchester United (etc) defenders are given acres of space (and consequently time). This in turn gives them confidence and makes them look better than they possibly are. Take Ferdinand out of Manchester United and he'll still be a very good defender, but he'll inevitably make mistakes if he is put under the same amount and volume of attacks that the likes of Coloccini are. That said, it is important to have a defender who you can knock the ball back to and be confident that he'll be able to keep possession by passing the ball around. The onus though doesn't lie entirely with that defender as you need the rest of your team to move around to give him options. I think that Shay Given should also be looking to send more short balls through to our defenders. It's too often in my opinion that he hoofs the ball upfield even when there is no opposing player putting pressure on him.

Enrique cops an unfair amount of criticism IMO. You can only pass it to team mates if they give you the option and make them selves available. If they don't then as a defender you have to basically send a long ball down field (if you try to force a pass out, you'll often turn it over and set the opposiing team up with a scoring change - as we have seen with N'Zogbia playing there). Enrique can send a long ball with his left foot with good accuracy. Bassong on the other hand is a more physical player (Enrique lost weight over the off-season - I didn't think that he needed to), but is far less refined. If you think Enrique looks panicked and flustered on the ball, then with bassong you'd have to say he looks hopeless with the ball. IMO I'd stick with Enrique over Bassong on the left as Enrique gives you more of an option going forward. We don't get much attack out of our centre mids, so additional attacking options down the wing are necessities. Coloccini looks like being our best signing of recent times. He could have done better with the penalty he gave away, but he's a consistent player who doesn't often get beaten by an opposing player (always seesm to manage to get a touch on the ball at the least). Importantly he's not at all injury prone (touch wood) having played the entire season for Depor last season, and thus far every minute for us. Beye hasn't been up to his standard set last year, but is imporving with each game, and is positionally very good. Unfortunately at his age he's not going to last forever so we have to start blooding a younger fullback to succeed him in a few years time.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if SBR was well enough to assist Shearer in an advisory role. I think there is quite a few benefits to Shearer coming in as manager. Not the least of which will be his ability to attract players. Shearer is the highest profile former Newcastle player that still has a connection to the modern game. Players the world over will know who Alan Shearer is, and in the same way that Roy Keane has been able to bring players to Sunderland, Shearer will be capable of the same for us. Add to that a bankroll that will likely be significantly higher than the likes of Sunderland and we should be in reasonable stead for attracting players (that is if we don't go and do something silly like get relegated). Shearer will have his coaches around him to assist with making decisions, and given some of the managers that he has played under he should know a fair bit about the different approaches. He would be a pretty hard-nosed manager, that could potentially fall-out with players of the same personality, but it should also encourage most of our players to perform to their best. I'm not particularly for it or against it, just trying to look at the positives as there now appears to be a slim chance that this could happen.

Taylor is average. But if he was there Coloccini would not have had to react to Cacapa going to ground. Apart from that being speculative to say the least, Cacapa was fouled and he didn't 'go to ground'. Without speculation this would be one empty forum. My point was that Taylor would not have been so easily dismissed. I didn't say Cacapa wasn't fouled. I'm disappointed with his performance in that situation and his overall performance in the game, particularly as most of the rest of the team had pretty decent games. We obviously have better players than Fulham, so not getting anything in this match hurts given our position on the table. Kinnear is going to cop a fine for his comments. Penalty 'last week' against Man City?

Taylor is average. But if he was there Coloccini would not have had to react to Cacapa going to ground.

I think it's harsh to blame him for the penalty. And I think he's shite btw. That's probably technically right. But it's hard to blame Coloccini as well, considering he was coming across to basically pick up the player who Cacapa was marking. Johnson has just about made a career out of going to ground easily. Coloccini did cut across his body though, so isolating that moment it was a penalty, even though Johnson made the most of the (impending) contact and Gerrard style was diving to the ground in anticipation of it, rather than as a result of it. I'm going to have to watch it again to determine whether Cacapa was actually fouled by Johnson. Chances are he was, though as a defender you become a liability if you go to ground as softly as I have seen Cacapa do on several occassions.

Cacapa had time to look to see that there was NO-ONE on that side of the field for the cross. As a defender he should be aware of these sort of things. That said, many defenders would still head the ball, though they'd all struggle to do a worse job of it. As for the penalty, Cacapa is a defender that goes to ground. In England, as a defender if you go to ground easily you'll be made a mockery of, just as he was.

Benjani, 29 £7.6 million. Andy Johnson, 27 (injury prone) £10.5 million. Marlon Harewood, 28 £4 million. Marlon King (injury prone), 27 £4 million. How much is Owen worth again?

Regards, Attain

Milner his most expensive buy That also doesn't account for players on the way out. I'd hate to see our list over the last 3 or so years.

He's obviously just helping Agbonlahor to stifle a sneeze.

He likes him because he swears a lot. Lets hope he doesn't have too much swearing to do in 9 hours time.

I think Fulham will stay up. Stoke, West Brom and Bolton will be there or there-abouts.

If teams with foreign owners and/or large debts become ineligable then possibly. Otherwise

"Two happy endings please"