Atticus Finch

Dudek, Traore, Warnock, possibly Garcia (although he is definitely a Rafa favourite), Cisses, Morientes and due to their contract situations more than anything else Fowler and Hamann. You can also throw in most of the older reserve players - Whitbread, O'Donnell, Mellor, Potter, Raven etc My view is we need a starting left back, a starting right midfielder and probably two strikers.

I'm definitely in the Riise is the best bet, but none of them are good enough camp. Couple of points re Traore:- 1. The reason he is better at recovery tackles etc is because he makes more mistakes and gets caught out of position more and therefore is forced into desperate last ditch tackling. 2. To say he is better in the air is laughable. He is as vulnerable as Seaman was to a ball floating over his head - how many times have you seen completely miss the ball when he is trying to head it clear at the back post. He also cannot jump in that situation, which is why SWP (and others) have outjumped him. 3. His passing is woeful, as is that turn inside he does every single time he attacks - how many times have attacks either broken down completely or lost their momentum once the ball gets to him. Our offside trap has been excellent this year and has contributed a lot to our defensive success. The only one of the 3 left backs who can be relied upon to hold the line is Riise. I think the fact that Rafa has barely picked him this season, despite his definite improvement last season, is a damning indictment of Champions League winner Djimi Traore.

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f*** this, I'm off to buy a house

I prefer it this way without a doubt. I think they are doing a good job with them - although it won't be for a couple of years or so until we see the benefits

Not for the first time either - for several years they have sacked managers in September - after the transfer window closes! No decent manager who hopes to get the england job will want to commit themselves to newcastle until SGE's successor is named. Wouldn't surprise me to see them go after SGE, but as it was righly pointed out earlier in the thread, their caretaker's don't have the qualifications that will allow them to be in charge until the end of the season when sven would be available. Nice one Freddie

I like the bit where he says you can tell how happy he is by the look on his face, when he is looking particularly deadpan at the time. Smile a bit lad!

Nail on head

We'll just have to agree to disagree, safe in the knowledge that Rafa doesn't fancy either of them as a striker

I accept the point, but Baros had games against GAK in the CL qualifying last year and he didn't score against that mighty team

Quick point about the finishing - how many goals did he score after Xmas last year? In the whole of last season he scored 13, Cisse already has 11. In their careers Baros has scored 47 in 187 in club games - a 1 in 4 record. Cisse has 91 in 202 - nearly 1 in 2. Obviously a matter of opinions but I remember Baros being as poor if not worse than Cisse is playing. IMO Cisse's good points and good play get overlooked because of his suspect workrate and attitude (both of which are improving). Baros bad points got overlooked because he ran a lot. Bottom line is I don't think Rafa fancies either as a player and I'm not sure I'd argue with him on that to be honest.

Or of tapping up a player under contract...

You just answered the question as to why we got rid. For all his goals at international level, he has never convinced at league level. Cisse is a better player and I would say more intelligent too. Baros may work harder, but a lot of that is head down towards the corner flag and he fits our current style of play even less than Cisse.

I'm not sure anyone was worthy of more than a 6 to be honest. Some general points:- 1. The pitch and the wind made it very difficult to judge the bounce and flight of the ball - which was why there were so many freekicks being given away by both sides. 2. Kromkamp looked quite good, even more so because of point 1. Poor freekick to give away for the goal but that always happens when defenders are adjusting to a new league. 3. Warnock was poor. Two awful backpasses that nearly cost us and twice put the ball straight into touch under no pressure. 4. The whole midfield was quiet, but then they were being bypassed a lot and it wasn't exactly the conditions for flowing football. Sissoko should not be picking up bookings for diving - he will always get them for tackles so he needs to cut them out of the rest of his game. They all stood up well to the battle and were not put off by some OTT tackling fro Portsmouth early on. 5. Cisse was better than last week. Will always have his limitations, but at least he was trying and working hard. Got some good crosses in, but:- 6. Morientes was dreadful. Limited service but that did not stop Cisse from trying. Just seems to be on the backfoot the whole time - no anticipation at all. Didn't attack the near post for any of Cisse's crosses and an awful touch when in a good position from Gerrards pull back. 7. The f***ing band was really doing my head in by the end. Fair play the drummers must have strong wrists to keep banging the drum all game, but what does that show - they are all w*****s!

Exactly. Whilst I'd be surprised if we were one of the clubs, I don't think we should be overly confident that we are in the clear. I don't see what evidence SGE would have, so more than likely he is just passing on rumours he has heard, so I doubt anything will come of it.

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Exactly his goal record is 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 I think. Certainly nowhere near Cisse's over his career, so b******s to that "composure in front of goal" point made earlier.

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I remember the England-Scotland game a few years ago. Was watching in the pub with some mates and they couldn't understand why I wasn't celebrating when one of the scum players (was it Scholes?) scored two for England. Just couldn't bring myself to do it. If Lampard scores an important goal in the World Cup I'll probably just point out that he is a jammy f***** as the keeper was sent the wrong direction by the enormous deflection

I understand the Gerrard comments from Sven are along the lines of his parents being threatened by fans when he was thinking of leaving.

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I think we have one decent left back and two average ones, with Riise being the best. I disagree with those who say he hasn't improved - he clearly has on the defensive side of his game. Bottom line is that he will never be a subtle player and he is never going to be two footed. I also think that when he goes forward he suffers from Sami not being mobile enough to cover behind him if the attack breaks down, certainly compared to Finnan and Carragher covering. I think this is why it sometimes looks like he is out of position when the opposition counter. If you watch the defence closely when they are holding the line Riise is the only one of the three left back options that can be trusted to play the offside trap - Warnock and Traore are always out of line. In an ideal world we would have a better starting left back but Riise on current form would require a very good player to replace him - in the Premiership del Horno, Heinze and Cole are better but no-one else. There are only a select few that would do. The problem lies when he drops below his best form - the alternatives are not good enough. Traore has been awful this season after finally impressing me last year when he was excellent defensively. Warnock is a good solid pro with decent all round skills but just doesn't convince me as a left back - he just doesn't look that comfortable in the position.

If we are to sign a striker to play on a regular basis then it is going to have to be someone who offers more to the team than Owen does (although he has improved this side of the game immeasurably). Rafa has been quoted on several occasions about wanting a goal threat from all directions and integral to that is strikers who can involve their teammates. To combine that with a regular goal threat you are basically looking at a very select few players over the past few years - Shearer, Shevchenko, horse face etc. To find another one of those will not be cheap or easy. Until then I think he might stick with Cisse if he continues to show the improvements he has made in both performance and attitude over the last 4-6 weeks.

Lentini is a bit of a throwback. I remember all the fuss about him - did he end up having quite a bad car/motorbike accident at one stage? Look how much they paid for Pennant - 2m for a 15yr old, which was a big sum at the time. Didn't work out for him there and the danger with any player of that age is that if they physically mature early they can then be caught up by other players later on (although I think Theo is very skillful and not just physically mature like Cherno was). They also need games to progress. I think that the best thing for him would be 18mths more of regular football at Southampton before then moving when he is 18. He will have developed far more, even if it is just at Championship level, than sitting in someones reserves for at least a year. It might reduce the pressure a bit too - which at the moment would be substantial. I suspect Southampton are actually pushing this behind the scenes - they need the money and with the Rooney/Lentini comparison if they are at all worried they have the latter they may want to cash in now.

I wonder if he is thinking that if he has 3 or 4 at a similar age in each position the competition amongst them will mean they develop quicker and to a better level. Plus the odds of one of them "making it" are shorter, the more you get in. I also see he is focusing on the positions where we haven't really produced many good players through the ranks. [by good I mean good for us ie those that break into the team and stay there eg Carragher - he is the only defensive player in recent times, whereas comparatively we have had quite a lot of attacking talent come through].