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Newcastle United Transfer Rumours and General Chat

145791048

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,589 ✭✭✭✭Necronomicon


    There's no quick fix, getting rid of Roeder wouldn't resolve anything imo. A new manager still has to work with a weak defence and an injury-ridden strike force until january.
    There are deeper problems at the club, a chairman who has a ridiculous turnover of managers being one.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    BBC Five Live reporting that hundreds maybe thousands of fans gathered outside the Milburn Stand after the game chanting "sack the board" and "we want shepherd out". Best news I've heard all day.

    http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/72408087.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A67E7621E3BA057FC2329DF394FE942516


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,312 ✭✭✭Limerick Dude


    I have had enough of shepard, this is all his fault, if he actually got us a good experienced manager, we would not be in this mess.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,013 ✭✭✭✭eirebhoy


    I wouldn't mind a chairman who's willing to spend about £60m in 3 seasons. :) Shepard appears to be on his own at Newcastle. Who's the Chief Exec and why isn't he involved more? At Celtic the chairman is hardly ever in the press as the Chief Exec, Peter Lawwell, is the man who works with Strachan. Celtic fans couldn't be happier with Lawwell.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    eirebhoy wrote:
    I wouldn't mind a chairman who's willing to spend about £60m in 3 seasons. :) Shepard appears to be on his own at Newcastle. Who's the Chief Exec and why isn't he involved more? At Celtic the chairman is hardly ever in the press as the Chief Exec, Peter Lawwell, is the man who works with Strachan. Celtic fans couldn't be happier with Lawwell.
    Newcastle are pretty much run by Freddie Shepherd and his sidekick Douglas Hall. The two of them were caught up in a News of the World scandal years ago (around 1997 shortly after Sir John Hall stepped down) in which they were basically caught slagging off the fans and bragging about how much they earn. How they survived that is still somewhat of a mystery. To this day Shepherd's love for media attention remains undiminished.

    There seems to be a myth amongst non-fans that Newcastle are practically bankrolled by Shepherd which is not the case at all. They've taken millions out of the club in dividends as well as being on huge salaries. Shepherd and Hall both get over £500k per year in basic salaries. In 2003 Shepherd got paid £670k including bonuses.

    Since 1998 the Hall family have taken out £18.2m in dividends and share sales. The amount of money taken out of the club by the Shepherd is just over £5m, and that's not including his salary. This includes nearly £1m during a time when the club did not spend any money on players.

    The total income since 1st August 1997 is just over £614m. Most of this has been wasted by Shepherd in hiring and firing the wrong managers, and handing over millions for the likes of Boumsong 6 months after we turned down the opportunity to sign him on a free transfer. The total net amount spent on transfer fees since 1998 is £86m or roughly an average of just under £10m per season.

    I think I speak for the majority of NUFC fans by saying SHEPHERD OUT!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    From The Sunday Sun
    Angry Newcastle supporters staged a demonstration outside St James's Park last night calling for the board to quit.

    Dozens of police officers, some on horseback, were sent to the stadium to disperse a crowd of as many as 1000 fans who bellowed "sack the board" after the club fell to 19th place in the Premiership...

    ...

    It may not be a tune to match the Blaydon Races, but the chant of "sack the board" is similarly steeped in Geordie culture.

    And its first airing at St James's Park yesterday for more than a decade and a half marked the return of the dark old days at Newcastle United.

    A whole generation of junior Magpie fans have grown up without raising their voices against the club's powers-that- be.

    But Newcastle's slump to within one place of the bottom of the Premiership prompted supporters young and old to vent their spleen, in time-honoured Geordie fashion, on chairman Freddy Shepherd.

    In the 1970s, it was Lord "The Pirate" Westwood who bore the brunt of fans' fury at Newcastle's slide into the old Second Division.

    In the late 1980s, barrister Gordon McKeag presided over another relegation which prompted a mood of all-out revolt on the terraces. Now, after 15-plus years of near-triumphant peaks and depressing troughs on the pitch- but little transition off it - rebellion is back in the air.

    And Shepherd, having entered the United boardoom courtesy of the coup which toppled McKeag, knows full well the power of the people on Tyneside.

    Although talk of a takeover has roused the fans to demand change, the man whose family made their name in scrap metal has seemed set on staying put at St James's.

    And, given that he was in Majorca rather than the director's box yesterday, it remains to be seen whether the ferocity of the fans' uprising against him will prompt a change of heart.

    But the Geordie electorate have spoken.

    And with history telling us their next move will be to vote with their feet, even darker days may lie ahead for Shepherd . . . and for Newcastle United.

    full article


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 613 ✭✭✭smog


    kinaldo wrote:
    Newcastle are pretty much run by Freddie Shepherd and his sidekick Douglas Hall. .....

    I think I speak for the majority of NUFC fans by saying SHEPHERD OUT!

    would second that .. but tough times ahead even if changes happen :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭sundula


    Footbal fans in the UK seem to be forgetful fickle people i saw them asking for and supporting Roeders appointment. It was madness, Roeder career / track record is dire and just because he got the usual Caretaker Managers run of luck they give him the job. NUFC fans should have been protesting then to have Shepard out. Roeder could take ncastle all the way down if left there for the rest of this season.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 613 ✭✭✭smog


    http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8742_1662613,00.html

    Newcastle were so poor on Saturday that it would have been understandable if the small band of Sheffield United fans participated in the post-match protest against Freddy Shepherd outside St James'.

    While the notion that Toon boast the most loyal fans in the country is overplayed - barely 15 years have passed since St James was regularly half-full - they deserve sympathy. Has ever any other club on the shores been so systemically mismanaged, at every level, as Newcastle United?

    According to at least one Sunday broadsheet, it was the Toon chairman himself who ruled that an extra £250,000 from Sky to cover Saturday's night shambles was of greater import than an extra day's rest for the first-team squad after Thursday's UEFA Cup tie in Italy.

    "All over the pitch we were a yard or two slower," commented Glenn Roeder. "You have to look for reasons when the performance is as poor as that, and less than 49 hours ago we were playing in Italy. I'm not saying that is the reason, but it certainly hasn't helped."

    The priorities motivating Shepherd's decision to accept Sky's cash are as questionable as the business transaction in 1998 which saw Shepherd Offshore plc sell a warehouse to Freddie's brother, Bruce, for £175,000. Newcastle United plc then completed a 17-year deal with Bruce Shepherd for the warehouse to store the club's merchandise at a cost of £2.5m.

    How Toon could do with that sum now. For one thing, Shepherd has believed to have a clause in his contract stipulating that he will receive two years' pay if dismissed. Or, in other words, around £2m. And as Shepherd implicitly confirmed last month when he revealed that the club had recorded pre-tax losses of £12m, that's money Newcastle simply don't possess.

    Jospeh Heller must have been a Toon supporter.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    sundula wrote:
    Footbal fans in the UK seem to be forgetful fickle people i saw them asking for and supporting Roeders appointment. It was madness, Roeder career / track record is dire and just because he got the usual Caretaker Managers run of luck they give him the job. NUFC fans should have been protesting then to have Shepard out. Roeder could take ncastle all the way down if left there for the rest of this season.
    The only reason Newcastle fans kept their voices down when Roeder was appointed was because he did such a good job in getting us into Europe and is generally quite popular up there having also played for the club. Most Newcastle supporters were quietly against his appointment and some even gave up their season tickets for the first time in 30 years, but seeing as he got the job we had to support him. Unfortunately it's clear he's not up to task of managing Newcastle and will inevitably be sacked. Shepherd could probably get away with murder, but he can't get away with presiding over the club heading towards relegation.
    According to at least one Sunday broadsheet, it was the Toon chairman himself who ruled that an extra £250,000 from Sky to cover Saturday's night shambles was of greater import than an extra day's rest for the first-team squad after Thursday's UEFA Cup tie in Italy.
    "All over the pitch we were a yard or two slower," commented Glenn Roeder. "You have to look for reasons when the performance is as poor as that, and less than 49 hours ago we were playing in Italy. I'm not saying that is the reason, but it certainly hasn't helped."
    I don't buy into the excuse of having to play too soon after a midweek game. Parker and Duff didn't travel to Palermo and gave probably the worst two performances on the pitch against one of the worst sides to ever grace the Premiership.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,370 ✭✭✭Ardent


    I'm laughing my ass off at Damien Duff/Michael Owen. See what lack of ambition gets you boys?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,013 ✭✭✭✭eirebhoy


    Ardent wrote:
    I'm laughing my ass off at Damien Duff/Michael Owen. See what lack of ambition gets you boys?
    In fairness, Duff's form should be his main worry as I've never seen him play as bad as he did on Saturday.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    eirebhoy wrote:
    In fairness, Duff's form should be his main worry as I've never seen him play as bad as he did on Saturday.
    True, it says a lot when his best performance this season has come at left back.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    Here's the nufc.com take on Scott Parker being booed:
    Cut the clap and shut your trap
    As unacceptable as the performance was on Saturday, we were more than disappointed with the on-field actions of two Newcastle players when the going got tough.

    We're told of, but didn't see Stephen Carr's ironic applause of home fans in response to booing from the stands at half time.

    However we did witness club captain Scott Parker indulge in some identical mockery during the second half, having being abused by fans in the East Stand after failing to compete for what seemed a winnable tackle.

    Reports from fans in the East Stand claim that Parker had initially responded to a "get stuck in" shout with a 4-letter reply. This then prompted the boos from those that heard it.

    Other witnesses thought his applause may have been an attempt at an apology for the expletive, rather than ironic clapping.

    Speaking in his post-match press call, Glenn Roeder asserted the right of fans to criticise him and the players - it's a pity that two of his senior internationals weren't big enough to agree with their manager.

    The only way to answer such criticism is with actions on the field, not words - or gestures.

    Even more worrying are reports we received from fans in the Gallowgate end who witnessed stewards trying to eject people for joining in the "Shepherd out" chants.

    This itself brought about strong reaction from supporters who turned against the stewards.

    If this is true, then are stewards really being instructed to stifle any anti-Chairman chants? That would be an unprecedented development.
    It's a far cry off from this time last season when he was cheered off the pitch after putting his body on the line in a match winning performance against the Arsenal.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,544 ✭✭✭redspider


    kinaldo wrote:
    There seems to be a myth amongst non-fans that Newcastle are practically bankrolled by Shepherd which is not the case at all. They've taken millions out of the club in dividends as well as being on huge salaries. Shepherd and Hall both get over £500k per year in basic salaries. In 2003 Shepherd got paid £670k including bonuses.

    Since 1998 the Hall family have taken out £18.2m in dividends and share sales. The amount of money taken out of the club by the Shepherd is just over £5m, and that's not including his salary. This includes nearly £1m during a time when the club did not spend any money on players.

    The total income since 1st August 1997 is just over £614m. Most of this has been wasted by Shepherd in hiring and firing the wrong managers, and handing over millions for the likes of Boumsong 6 months after we turned down the opportunity to sign him on a free transfer. The total net amount spent on transfer fees since 1998 is £86m or roughly an average of just under £10m per season.

    This type of information is useful. Just to remind people that Newcastle is a public company and is listed on the LSE. Its valued today at 91m UKP. I understand that Shephard has 29%. I am sure many fans are small shareholders too.

    The clubs finances are probably okay, although I have not looked at any of their financial reports. Recently the club/company reported a loss of 12m ukp on revenue of 83m.
    http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27102006/325/newcastle-united-swings-net-loss-year.html

    You could be right that the club are not over-investing in players, but they are maintaining a high spend. All of this money comes from the fans through their purchases. I dont know if Shareholders have been asked to put in extra funding after the club/company floated on the LSE.

    So overall, the situation is where Shephard and other directors are getting more out of the club than they have put in/are putting in.

    Note that others see potential in the club, and any club with 50,000 fanatical and paying supports has potential to be in the top-4 (if one of the thers would give way).

    In terms of the football and other posts, I dont think that people can blame the likes Duffer too much. He has little to work with up front, there was no point in him staying out wide, beating a player or two and whipping in a cross only for it to be easily defended. The team structure is terrible and players are not responding well in what has now become a dire situation.

    I have no doubt that Newcastle have the capability not to be relegated, but they need to apply that. Shephard et al may be to blame for some of the long-term problems over the last few years, but a short-term solution will be a change of manager.

    redspider


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    redspider wrote:
    This type of information is useful. Just to remind people that Newcastle is a public company and is listed on the LSE. Its valued today at 91m UKP. I understand that Shephard has 29%. I am sure many fans are small shareholders too.

    The clubs finances are probably okay, although I have not looked at any oftheir financial reports. Recently the club/company reported a loss of 12m ukp on revenue of 83m.
    http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27102006/325/newcastle-united-swings-net-loss-year.html

    You could be right that the club are not over-investing in players, but they are maintaining a high spend. All of this money comes from the fans through their purchases. I dont know if Shareholders have been asked to put in extra funding after the club/company floated on the LSE.

    So overall, thoe situation is where Shephard and other directors are getting more out of the club than they have put in/are putting in.

    Note that others see potential in the club, and any club with 50,000 fanatical and paying supports has potential to be in the top-4 (if one of the thers would give way).

    In terms of the football and other posts, I dont think that people can blame the likes Duffer too much. He has little to work with up front, there was no point in him staying out wide, beating a player or two and whipping in a cross only for it to be easily defended. The team structure is terrible and players are not responding well in what has now become a dire situation.

    I have no doubt that Newcastle have the capability not to be relegated, but they need to apply that. Shephard et al may be to blame for some of the long-term problems over the last few years, but a short-term solution will be a change of manager.

    redspider
    Just to add to the above, the Shepherds, Freddie and his brother Bruce, own 28.1% of the club, while the Halls own 41%. Other major shareholders are Legal & General and someone called "L Hatton" who own about 5 million shares combined or 3.8%. They would have taken about £1m out of the club since 1998. The rest is made up of tiny shareholders like myself. What exactly Douglas Hall gets paid over £500k for is unknown, as he's a non-executive director. If the Halls were to sell up they'd be expected to make a £40m profit on their £6m investment.

    Most of the figures point to gross mismanagement on the part of chairman Freddie Shepherd. If he didn't love the limelight so much, failing to sell up, he could easily retain his position and just appoint a Peter Kenyon like figure who's qualified enough to run the club. His ego would never allow that though. He's not the worst football chairman in the world but it's pretty clear he's not fit enough to run a club with fans who've invested roughly £246m since 1998.

    The Daily Mirror provided a good piece today:
    To borrow a famous quote Shepherd once used against Sir Bobby Robson's side: the pair are being paid Rolls Royce wages and not delivering a Rolls- Royce club.

    Shepherd and Hall are running an outfit sliding towards financial trouble. Relegation doesn't bear thinking about.

    Club income has fallen for the last four years, gate receipts are down, wages are spiralling out of control, debts are up, and losses last season were £12m.

    In the world of big business, half-million salaries are usually the rewards only for directors running companies with a turnover of £600m. Newcastle's turnover is £83m.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,184 ✭✭✭✭Pighead


    More striker worries for the Toon. Perhaps now Mr Luque may get a bit of a run.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/6128490.stm


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    Roeder made his mind up about Luque a long time ago, despite the fact that he's only started less than a dozen games for us but still has a better goal ratio than any of our other forwards. Luque asked for 3 games to get match fit which is only fair considering he's not even getting reserve team football at the moment (except at Anfield where he scored twice!).

    Roeder claimed he was playing for his shirt against Palermo, so after seeing him score the winner he drops him against Sheffield in a game we never looked like scoring in. Last night at Watford we finished the game with no strikers having used up all our subs while Luque just sat there on the bench.

    It really annoys me to see a professional footballer being treated in this manner. Roeder obviously has no respect for him as a player or a person. How he can claim Luque has trained well and then still refuse to use a forward we payed £9m for when we're struggling for goals in inexcusable. Earlier this season at Old Trafford we were subjected to the sight of Luque warming up on the touchline despite having used up all our subs. I can only assume this was to humiliate him. Luque to his credit has acted professionally throughout when it would be understandable if he went off moaning to the press or AWOL.

    I don't think Roeder will last much longer, but if he does I hope Luque escapes in January. He's still a legend at Deportivo and plenty on Spanish sides would take him. Thanks to Roeder though the club will be forced to take a massive loss on him. At least Souness was honest in his reasons for dropping Bellamy and Robert. Roeder is cowardly trying to pull the wool over the fans' eyes by having him on the bench and claiming Luque is playing for his shirt.

    Like a lot of Newcastle fans I've just about had enough of Roeder and his anti-Luque antics. He deserves to get sacked for numerous reasons and I hope Luque did sleep with his wife.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,464 ✭✭✭evilhomer


    I have to agree Kinaldo, there seems to be no reason for Luque not to be getting some game time. The game against Sheffield United and the game against Watford, Luque would have been the ideal man to get a game and maybe give us some of the attacking edge we have being missing!

    Roeder better play him against Man City from the start alongside Sibierski as Rossi hasn't looked like doing muchin the last 3-4 games.

    I feel sorry for Luque too, at least give him a chance to try prove he was worth £9.5!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,184 ✭✭✭✭Pighead


    kinaldo wrote:
    Roeder made his mind up about Luque a long time ago, despite the fact that he's only started less than a dozen games for us but still has a better goal ratio than any of our other forwards. Luque asked for 3 games to get match fit which is only fair considering he's not even getting reserve team football at the moment (except at Anfield where he scored twice!).

    Roeder claimed he was playing for his shirt against Palermo, so after seeing him score the winner he drops him against Sheffield in a game we never looked like scoring in. Last night at Watford we finished the game with no strikers having used up all our subs while Luque just sat there on the bench.

    It really annoys me to see a professional footballer being treated in this manner. Roeder obviously has no respect for him as a player or a person. How he can claim Luque has trained well and then still refuse to use a forward we payed £9m for when we're struggling for goals in inexcusable. Earlier this season at Old Trafford we were subjected to the sight of Luque warming up on the touchline despite having used up all our subs. I can only assume this was to humiliate him. Luque to his credit has acted professionally throughout when it would be understandable if he went off moaning to the press or AWOL.

    I don't think Roeder will last much longer, but if he does I hope Luque escapes in January. He's still a legend at Deportivo and plenty on Spanish sides would take him. Thanks to Roeder though the club will be forced to take a massive loss on him. At least Souness was honest in his reasons for dropping Bellamy and Robert. Roeder is cowardly trying to pull the wool over the fans' eyes by having him on the bench and claiming Luque is playing for his shirt.

    Like a lot of Newcastle fans I've just about had enough of Roeder and his anti-Luque antics. He deserves to get sacked for numerous reasons and I hope Luque did sleep with his wife.

    Is there not even the slightest chance that he's being ignored because he no longer is the player he used to be? Lets be honest any time he has started he's looked distinctly ordinary. He must have played 30 or so times for Newcastle and to be honest Pighead doesn't remember to much goal action in those games.

    Just a thought.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    Pighead wrote:
    Is there not even the slightest chance that he's being ignored because he no longer is the player he used to be? Lets be honest any time he has started he's looked distinctly ordinary. He must have played 30 or so times for Newcastle and to be honest Pighead doesn't remember to much goal action in those games.

    Just a thought.
    12 starts and a handful of sub appearances I think. In that time he hasn't looked that bad considering he suffered a serious long term injury in his first game, isn't match fit, has mostly been played out of position, and hasn't been given a chance to adapt to English football. Remember how long it took Henry and Pires to make that adjustment... I refuse to believe he's suddenly become a bad player at 28 years of age, when most players are at their peek. Even if that was the case he's probably still better than what we've got - Sibierski, Rossi and Ameobi to name a few. At the very least he should be given a run in the team before being deemed a flop. Only at Newcastle... sigh


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    "I know I should not have done what I did at St James's Park on Saturday and I can only say sorry and apologise to our supporters.

    "It was all heat-of-the-moment stuff when the passion and the pressure both boiled over...
    Full story

    Hopefully that's the end of the matter.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,464 ✭✭✭evilhomer


    So what do people think after todays game?

    Luque not even on the bench! Didn't have a shot on target until the 85th minute!

    Played Ameobi, who, I was under the impression required major surgery.

    I'm really starting to question Roeders tactics now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,341 ✭✭✭✭Chucky the tree


    Isnt Ameobi out for a while now? I heard he was going to play this game then have the surgery. Seems a bit stupid. But it is Newcastle i suppose..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,117 ✭✭✭✭MrJoeSoap


    He was so ineffective yesterday it was untrue. I'd imagine he will be out for a while now yeah. Apparently the rest of the season.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,464 ✭✭✭evilhomer


    http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?HLID=428276&CPID=8&title=Luque+makes+quit+vow&lid=&channel=Football_Home&f=rss&clid=4

    Well looks like Roeder has driven Luque away!
    Barcelona touted as a possible destination, I mean if Barca think he is good enough for them he is bloody well good enough for Newcastle!!!!!

    Roeder you are a fool!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    evilhomer wrote:
    So what do people think after todays game?

    Luque not even on the bench! Didn't have a shot on target until the 85th minute!

    Played Ameobi, who, I was under the impression required major surgery.

    I'm really starting to question Roeders tactics now.
    Newcastle were atrocious for 85 minutes, again, then for the remaining 5 plus 3 stoppage time they played their best football of the season. As much as I hate Dyer, he was instrumental in everything good going forward. Emre picked up his 5th booking of the season so we should get to see more of him next week at Arsenal alongside Parker. Solano was a revelation at right back. I think he used to play there for Peru but either way, Carr was so bad I think he should play there more often.

    Our front two of Ameobi and Sib ahead of Rossi and Luque said a lot about Roeder, that he's happy to play long ball. Playing Ameobi was retarded though. He must have touched the ball about 3 times and was clearly injured. I'd be suprised if the likes of Emre aren't completely disillusioned with our style of play. I think he's a terrific little player and would look great in a team that actually plays football, like Arsenal.

    Someone said to me that Roeder has sucked all the belief out of the team, so by the time it got to the 85th minute and we still weren't beaten, the players just decided fcuck it, let's go for it, and then realised it wasn't so tough after all and they could actually win the game. Dyer and Emre clicked and we had at least 5 easy chances to steal it. I still can't believe Dyer didn't pick out Milner free on the right in the last second. Oh well...

    We needed a win so badly, but Roeder seems happy to pick up a point at places like Man City - "Normally a point away from home is the target, but we were so close to getting all three near the end there" is what he told Newcastle World yesterday. That sort of negative, defeatist attitude is something I absolutely can't stand. Another reason to sack Roeder. I feel sorry for Luque, not even on the bench! It would be great to see him resurrect his career at somewhere like Barca.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    ... just noticed that we've drawn Chelsea in the QF of the Carling Cup. Thankfully it'll be at St. James' Park which gives us some hope. Our recent record against them at SJP is pretty good actually - 4 wins in the last 4 seasons!

    2005/06 won 1-0 Bramble
    2004/05 Drew 1-1 Geremi OG
    2004/05 Won 1-0 Kluivert (FAC)
    2004/05 Lost 0-2 aet (LC)
    2003/04 Won 2-1 Ameobi, Shearer
    2002/03 Won 2-1 Hasselbaink OG, Bernard


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,563 ✭✭✭kinaldo


    evilhomer wrote:
    http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?HLID=428276&CPID=8&title=Luque+makes+quit+vow&lid=&channel=Football_Home&f=rss&clid=4

    Well looks like Roeder has driven Luque away!
    Barcelona touted as a possible destination, I mean if Barca think he is good enough for them he is bloody well good enough for Newcastle!!!!!

    Roeder you are a fool!
    06/07:

    League: 0 starts + 3 subs

    Europe: 3 starts + 2 subs and 2 goals

    Total: 3 starts + 5 subs and 2 goals


    2005 - Present:

    League: 6 starts + 10 subs and 1 goal

    FAC: 1 start + 2 subs

    LC: 1 start

    Europe: 3 starts + 2 subs + 2 goals

    Overall: 11 starts + 14 subs and 3 goals


    note: 1 reserve game this season and 2 goals against Liverpool at Anfield, preceded by a good pre-season where he scored twice in friendlies... and was handed the number 7 shirt! Most of the games he played last season were under the ill fated Souness regime after being rushed back from injury.

    ...........

    NUFC attacking options:

    Ameobi - injured, imobile, and mediocre at best striker.

    Sibierski - ageing Man City reject 'utility' forward

    Rossi - inexperienced and unproven 19 year old loanee

    Martins - injured

    Duff - out of sorts winger who never scores goals anyway

    Dyer - just back from injury, averages about 1 goal in 10

    Owen - injured

    Luque - fully fit £9.5m Spanish international winger/striker coveted by Barcelona last year... last in the pecking order, and when he does make the bench he isn't used.

    ...........

    Seriously, wtf is going on!? Someone explain this to me! There is no way in this world Luque could have done worse than the 3 touches we got in 45 minutes yesterday from the injured Ameobi. We have failed to score in our last 3 league games and 2 of those teams were at home to relegation candidates, Sheffield Utd and Charlton!

    I'm not saying Luque can save our season or anything, but my god he can't possibly do any worse than anyone else in the team at the moment.

    If he's not going to resign can Roeder at least offer us some explanation for the apparent mismanagement of one of our most expensive assets? All we've heard from him is "Luque has done well, he's training well, he's playing for his shirt etc. etc." No justifications though.

    Here's a little reminder of what this guy is capable of for the many of you who've forgotten.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,013 ✭✭✭✭eirebhoy


    kinaldo wrote:
    Duff - out of sorts winger who never scores goals anyway
    I remember in Mourinho's first season at Chelsea, they went through a period of 9 games with Duff scoring the first goal in 6 of those matches. He should be scoring a lot more than he is atm. I don't know what's his problem, hopefully it's just confidence.


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