Last week YBR said that we had 5 strikers and didn't need Robbie Fowler. Yet during the summer we tried to sign Francis Jeffers from Everton.

Had we signed Bellamy at this time or was Bellamy signed after?

If so does that mean that Bobby was telling porkies last week or that he's more impressed with the likes of Ameobi and Lua Lua than he was before. Or are we going to buy Buds best mate?

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Answers

I woder about the mans sanity sometimes. Lua x 2 is NOT a striker, Shola has potential but is not a 1st team regular. Bellamy is NOT a striker. So we have Shearer , Cort. Draw your own conclusions.

Ken

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Well I questioned his decisions over the subs vs Troyes the other night but he is being consistent here. Bellamy came after the Jeffers rejection and the Cole speculation follows the Cort injury. Robson's statement about 5 strikers was prior to Cort's knock.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

But surely the speculation regarding Cole is just that. Speculation. Cort's out for a further 3 months, Cole wants first team football. Let's put 2 and 2 together and come out with 75.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Talk of bringing in another stiker is perfectly reasonable given the state of things right now. We don't know about Shearer's fitness, but he's hardly likely to figure for the whole season. The expected line-up was Cort and Shearer. That has gone due to Cort's injury. I think the club are right to look for another (shame we can't get Saha on loan again!). Remember when we lost Shearer and Sir Les over the same w/e? There were cries of outrage that TSM didn't do anything (oh, sorry, I forgot about Ian Rush - how could I do that??). Had Cort been fit, we would (probably) not have done anything but if these rumours have any truth, then I think the management are doing exactly what is required.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

I see JDT is knocking them in Holland.......

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

I see that JDT is knocking them in in Holland

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

We need another 1st class proven striker, we have 100 million to spend dont we??. We do according to Hall.

How can the city not react to hall as he is causing the shares to plummit as long as he comes out with this utter utter claptrap.

The truth is we are skint we cannot afford to spend 10 million on cole or anyone else. come on sheepherd make me eat my words.

ken

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Let's put 2 and 2 together and come out with 75.

Don't understand your point Kegsy. We HAD 5 strikers when YBR said the thing you refer to. Cort is now injured so we only have 4 (2 not very senior) for almost a third of the season.

So it's more a case of 5 - 1(Cort) + 1(Cole) = 5
If and when Cort returns, of course, then we could be speculating on a sale of one of the 6.

Pleased to hear JDT doing well. What's Andreas doing now?

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

What I meant was that because Cort is injured and Cole may be available the papers naturally link the two. It doesn't neccesarily mean that we are interested in him or anybody.

Is it wise to buy someone because of an injury - it's not long term and it prevents the likes of Ameobi getting a run in the side.

Personally I would be happy to sign Cole and I got very excited for about 30 mins yesterday when the rumour was at full swing. But I believe that it is just a rumour and that it may do more harm than good in the long term.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

OK understood. Your guess is as good as anybody's there. But IF we are going for him it would not mean that YBR was "telling porkies" because he would be consistent in the light of the Cort situation.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

Fair point Jonno. I really do have to learn how to write better and to think that I used to be an English Language Teacher.....

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

The night of the away 1860 game I flicked to Eurosport and they were doing a special bit on Andersson. He's playing for AIK Stockholm (I think) who are the biggest (and I believe nastiest) team in Sweden.

They have been struggling and Andreas has been brought home as the prodigal son to fix everything. He looked okay, but it was difficult to tell really.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

what are peoples view on Andy Cole? Would it be a good move to bring him back even at 10M? i wouldn't want 2 pay that much 4 him at all- this is all speculation however...

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

We got 100M for two years wasnt it? 25M transfers and 25M wages each year. If that's true we still got 9M to play with this season. Or maybe Bobby is saving it for next season with Champ League.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

AIK is a major club in Sweden but things havent gone very well so far for them. Adde has been injured almost the whole last season and didnt do much the first games this season either (Allsvenskan starts in March here). Now it looks like he's almost back to the form he had when he left Sweden for AC Milan some years ago. He know plays in a midfield role instead which I recall some of yoy thought he should do in Newcastle also. He scored for Sweden in the 3-0 victory over South Africa about a week or something.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

I think AC would be a good signing for us even though £10mm is a lot to pay for a player pushing 30 - he is a good player and would score a few goals for us. I also think he would be a good partner for either AS or CC, who I can't ever see playing effectively together.

I also feel Andy should get away from OT. He looks to me as though he needs a new challenge to reinvigorate his international claims. However, I feel he would be taking a personal risk coming back to a Club where he was so successful before, and where expectations of him would inevitably be so high. Because of this I have a suspicion that he will fall for the lure of a return home to Londan, and sign for Fulham.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

My big mate SteveT reckons Cole is a prize tw·t after having met him at a party. We need another Les, big hearted. I'd say for 10 mil JARDEL would represent better value, OR how about (for a lot less) Kiko who didn't move to Lazio. Or even Carew at Valencia, or (phew) a 10 mil bid for Jermain Defoe? a player destined for HUGE things.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

swift, I'm your big mate too, and I also think Cole is a prize tw@t, both on and off the field :-(

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001

The Northern Echo today claimed that YBRs first choice was actually Robbie F*****, and that AC had become the focus since RF made his peace with Big Nose. By tomorrow they will,of course, be yesterdays papers

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2001