Bombadil

you mean fat fred. 69119[/snapback] Neither has Souness according to Shepherd. 2-0 Owen!

Benayoun having a good game apparently. To be fair to Souness though, he's never heard of him

1-1, great.

Hopefully Luque will come on early in the second half.

Get in. Team: Given; Ramage, Boumsong, Bramble, Elliott; Solano, Parker, Faye, Ameobi; Shearer, Owen. Subs: Harper, Gate, Bowyer, Luque, Chopra.

Howay the lads

The ability to fight back from a being goal down is a major indicator of team spirit IMO. When was the last time we went behind and fought back to win the game? Robson's team had infinitely more bouncebackability (apologies for using this dreadful expression).

A quote's a quote. I know you think that any and everything the papers print about Laurent Robert is just rank xenophobia though. 67083[/snapback] Nope just from papers like the S*n, Daily Mail or NOTW et al who use selective or creative quoting. For Souness' full quotes with proper quotation marks: http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=33...+squad+problems 67088[/snapback] Who's to say he isn't telling the truth? One thing you can definitely say since Souness has arrived is that we're not seeing the stories of this one, that one or the other one out pissed or misbehaving themselves, which if reports are to be believed is what was causing a major rift between the senior players and the youngsters at the club. 67098[/snapback] Of course, morale and team spirit is so high that whenever we go a goal down, you can put your mortgage on us not winning the game...

Parker Shearer Solano

He didn't say that when he joined though. At the beginning he said that it was an excellent group of players that didn't need wholesale changes. He won his first 6-7 games in charge against piss-poor opposition, but when the going got tough, he suddenly changed his tune and started blaming the previous management and the squad. But I guess that's just what we've come to expect from Souness - excuses, excuses and more excuses.

Forced back into training too early perhaps? I don't think the compensatioon claims would be valid...

Apparently Ronaldinho is shitting himself at the prospect of facing Craig Moore

More sterling work from the fatman. Why are we cursed with this imbecile? 66356[/snapback] It if was any other player I could understand Fat Fred taking his time, but with Given it's a completely different story. You would think that Shepherd would do a bit more to try and keep hold of one of his most valuable assets.

0-1 after a proper battling performance - meaning more dour and negative football.

I don't think we will actually. Souness will limit their chance with his negative football, packing the midfield etc. 1-0 to them I reckon, with a sizable portion of our fans happy with our battling performance. 65735[/snapback] Exactly, I'd put money on that. Plus the usual "couldn't have asked for more from my players, they are a proper bunch, Lady Luck wasn't shining on us today, unlucky, bad decisions from the referee...". Repeat ad nauseam.

There's a surprise, now wait until tomorrow for Souness to say that Owen won't make the game either (but that he will be back for the next one, whenever that is).

I think the code word will be 'proper'. 65215[/snapback] I reckon it's 'Lady Luck'.

I didn't say that. It was like that under Robson and the club always seems to announce combeback dates prematurely. It seems to have got worse though in the sense that Souness is in the papers all week saying he's looking forward to having his injured players back the weekend.

The injury situation at the club is an absolute joke. Ever since Carr and Owen got injured, we've been told that they would be "back for the next game". I'd rather the manager/players stayed silent instead of getting people's hopes up and announcing new comeback dates twice a week. It just adds to the frustration.

He's only got 6 months left on his contract too hasn't he? 64519[/snapback] That's what I believe. What's he on? About £100K a month? Maybe Dyer can put into the kitty and get some fans back on his side. 64520[/snapback]

They were saying he was booked and would miss the Arsenal game on BBC Newcastle. I really hope you are right though.

It's ok, big enough squad to cope. 64126[/snapback] Faye and Clark in central midfield next weekend? I can't wait.

1-1, I'm afraid that will keep him in the job. Fuck.

Parker booked - suspended against Arsenal. Fantastic.