Um, Zola was Italian. As far as Argenitinans go Crespo is making a good fist of it but I can'tthinkof too many who have been a success in England. Oh, Ardilles of course! And his mate.

Well then I think thats pretty much what Bentley is. The big proble with that is that you cant play 442 with an attacking playmaker, you have to shift to a 4411 or a 4312. I just wish Dunn had been born maybe four years later. If he was coming through the ranks now he could slide into one of those formations with ease. And Hughes would provide so much better guidance and his fitness regeime could help curb those inuries. Oh well, you might as well wish Ronaldinho grew up in Darwen I suppose.

I would wager there are quite a few current England internationals who don't make that (Ledley King for example, I am sure earns nothing like that). I am not sure anyone in our entire squad makes that, with the possible exception of Bellamy. Whats McClaren on? Trying to create allies in his battle against the sack?

I suppose he is trying to spur the Blackburn public into action by making it clear what the concequences of staying away in numbers are. I don't see much wrong with that provided they are doing everything they can from their end, which it appear to me they pretty nearly are. Its an accurate prognosis from the Chairman. I think it is worth a punt on free tickets for kids under 12 (will force their folks to bring them, future Rovers hopefully) and more needs to be done to attract the Asian population. Apart from that I can't see too much that would have a huge impact, but this has been done to death.

Crikey, thats a bit depressing. Hmm... I guess it is Bentley up top then and probably Emerton wide right. It seems we have a lot riding on Pongo over the next couple of weeks. ps. That Everton stuff sounds plausible but aprat from that it hasn't really got anything for it. ANybody could have used the available infomation and come up with that story. Moyes strikes me as far too canny to buy a player off a video, especially at 5m quid. Perhaps the Danes on here can say whether 5 million was an accurate valuation at the time?

I disagree, I think he will stay unless we recieve a substantial offer. Gallagher clearly is a better player than JJ while Derbyshire is still young. For Gally it is a question of attitude, if he gets his work rate up and commits to the gym then I think he has it in him to be a Premiership player. I think Hughes is putting him out at Stoke to give him the impetus to do that.

What a colourful simile...

McClaren already essentially does the coaching for England on a part time basis. The problem with appointing a full time coach is that he would only actually get to coach the maximum of maybe seven weeks in a year! I wouldn't mind that job...

In my mind I equate redundancy pay and severance pay as the same thing. All i was saying is that if someone is laid off or has a fixed term contract prematurely terminated they deserve to be compensated. After thinking about this a bit the problem isn't so much Souness' spinelessness but Newcastle setting themselves up by offering so much in the first place. Why not offer a deal like Sparky got at Rovers? It wasn't like Souness was some amazing respected talent who could only be wooed by a long term deal.

Surely he must of been applying a bit of irony there. Surely!

Company directors get a similar deal, as do, I imagine, football club directors. While I believe evrybody should get severance pay if fired, clearly what is given to these individuals is ridiculous. But then I suppose if the company/football club are stupid enough to offer the contract...

I don't know, when Savage and Reid are on top of their game they can be a more than decent pairing. As for 'Tugayesque' creative players I can't think of many in the league. Carrick, Makelele, Gerrard, Lampard, perhaps Parker/Emre, Dunn although he plays further up the pitch, Izzet to an extent, Fabregas, Okocha. They are a rare breed, finding on we could afford would be a masterstroke. If we don't it isn't the end of the world provided we have good wide men and strikers. Bentley could also turn into our creative outlet, although we couldn't really play him in central midfield- 4312?

Hopefully Pongo and bellers will be fit next week. Why not suprise Everton with a pacy lineup to hurt them on the break? I honestly think that lineup will get a better result than a basic 442 2-1 maybe. A draw would be adecent result.

Watch him play: Runs fast/dribbles slow. Why? It appears he likes to have the ball under close control (which to be fair he does, he keeps it tidily). But so much of the time he would be better getting it out from under his feet and running full tilt. However he doesn't do it for reasons unknown to me and eventually plays it square or backwards. Everytime he keeps the ball close and looks to come inside... drives me insane.

Were you actually threatened into buying a raffle ticket?!

I think Hughes will sell him if he sees a player who he thinks offers more. Its a tricky balance because fundamentally Emerton is sound, especially defensively, and passes okay and all the rest of it. But having such a hardworking midfield generally (even Pedersen is showing himself to be a fine defender) I think it would be worth a punt on a player who is more defensively suspect but can cause real problems for the opposition full back. Somone with pace would be awesome. If Brum goes down there is absolutely no doubt that we should go after Pennant, and no doubt either that Emerton would be worth selling to get him. The Eddie connection works in our favour and while others - Spurs/Everton/Borough - I am sure would be interested it would be in many ways the ideal signing.

The best post on this thread IMHO. Souness was slightly deranged, detached from reality and not particulalry tactically astute I suppose. But on the other hand he did fantastic things for this clubs and even his dodgy signings- Grabbi/Ferguson/De Pedro/Amoruso - are somewhat compensated by the quality he got on the cheap - Tugay/Friedel/Gray/Stead. Give him a break. He is too unbalanced and lacks the raw talent to be a top manager, and I don't think he will ever get a really juicy job again. That is punishment enough for a man so proud.

Ummmm...... I hade been led to believe the Sol revelations were a bit more, uh, substantial. Internet rumours somewhat off the mark again.

Hansn't anybody considered how tired our side must be? We played a hectic, full on game on Wedensday and played two more games than WBA over the last month (LC Semis). Plus we are missing our best player and a striker better than what is available. And we were playing away from home at a side who are not bad. You have to be realistic, we are not Chelsea and consistently demolish every side we play. WE HAVE PLAYED EXCELLENTLY FOR AN INCREDIBLE EIGHT GAME RUN. Things come to an end. We will regroup and do our best at Everton but to be fair we won't be favourites going into that either. Away from home, good side, and they are on a good run. I definatley think we CAN beat them but I think it is totally unfair on the side to EXPECT to beat them. Rev's goal of a two wins and a loss out of every three games is a little optimistic. If we keep up our current perforemance of about 1.5points a game that will do me, indeed that should be enough to get us into Europe.

Didn't Newcastle only upgrade to 52000 in about 2001? At Euro 96 SJP was only around a 35k stadium. Where do they get all their fans from? Newcastles actually a suprisingly small city I think, only about 270k, and in the NE generally there aren't that many people. But I suppose they only really have Newcastle, Sunderland and Boro to choose from...

Well if the rumours are true I hope he gets a lot of support. A lot of people are going to make it difficult for him. I wonder how the British public will come out of this, compasionate or a bunch of bigots? Should be interesting if, as I said, it is true. As for NOTW, they have a got a lot of balls, but they could suffer a huge backlash.

He just isn't interested in doing that FLops. He never ever ever NEVER ever wants to take his man on the outside. Utd was a case in point, everybody was impressed because he beat his man, but even then it was on the inside! If WBA sit deep and hold a line of four against the back Emerton will be completely useless. If the Baggie full backs come forward he should have a decent game because he will have the space to come inside and pull their centrebacks apart. Personally I think he is a decent player but would, out of the current squad (ie. not including Amo, Gresko, Douglas etc. who are essentilly reseves and need shipping) be one of the first (actually I think the first apart from maybe Kuqi) member I would be looking to sell in the summer, providing we could find a better alternative. Can run/cross/strong/reasonably quick although dribbles slowly. BUT Can't beat a man on the outside. Unfortunately that last point undermines so much of his game.

The away kit looks really good like that Doctor Ryan! Why not take a punt and send it to Rovers. They won't do anything about it now but it might register when it comes round to design time in a couple of years.

To be honest I have been a little baffled about all this talk of Souness making bad buys myself. Even Boumsong was clearly a very good defender before he wound up on Tyneside, in France and in the CL. If they get a decent manager in, one who can keep the team fit and healthy and sort their defence out then they will be more than decent. A front six of Shearer, Owen, Luque, Solano/Dyer, Emre and Parker is not just good, it is outstanding. No side outside the top four has that level of quality. Souness' problem was getting the best out of these players rather than the players themselves. Hopefully they will be too demoralised to get into the top half this season though.

If you think Rio deserved a red for nudging Pedersen your completely insane. Just reverse the players in your head and think about it. If Ped has done that and got sent off you would of gone absolutely mental. The yellow was soft, if it had been earlier in the game the hair platted ponce would never of got it, it would of been dismissed as a bit of 'afters'. The second foul was definately a yellow and if he had caught Sav more squarely it would of been a straight red. The lack of the offside decision last night aside, which is the linesman's responsiblity, we were fairly treated by the officials. We have to get over this persecution complex, it is ridiculous.