Remember in 1990 the Makems were full of "Sunderland being the team of the 90s" blah blah blah. Well, we got the last laugh then and, amidst our current troubles, it would be well worth remembering that we are building something. By the time Stevie Caldwell, Shola Amoebi, Lua Lua, Aaron Hughes et al are World Class players Niall Quinn will probably be pushing up football daisies, Kevin Phillips will be exposed for the crap get he is and Peter Reid won't have a fecking clue what to do about it.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Answers

Douggie...you've been building since Wor Messiah walked in...and then out..again :-)

Don't start sounding like Chelsea nd Liverpool fans ffs!!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Sorry Doug, that consoles me not one jot. I WANT IT, AND I WANT IT NOW. I'm sick of fcuking waiting.;-((

And which parallel universe have I been on not to have known the Liverpool game is Sunday ? Thanks Softie.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Ho ho ho ho tee hee tee hee ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho tee hee tee hee ho ho ho ho ho, chortle, guffaw, ha ha ho ho

Do I win a tenner?

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Look, LR, you haven't a clue what is being built at Newcastle, do you? Do you how many of our youth players alos play for the England youths? Do you know what a great coaching infrastructure Bobby is building? No, you don't. Keegan made some mistakes but they are being put right by some great people. I have every faith in our great manager and the great infrastucture he is building. You should worry about your own fate once Smiler retires instead of doing the usual Manc trick of pontifivating on what can't possibly understand. 4 youth players have made first team league debuts this season. How many of yours have done likewise?

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

I agree whole heartedly that we shouldn't blow the result out of proportion Dougal as ultimately we seem to be heading in the right direction. Good to see you being so positive - and more encouragingly you seem to have reasons to be. Our reserve and youth team results haven't been as good as last season, though, have they?

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Windy, I think that's because so many of them are on the fringes of the main team now. I have no fear that there are some great little players being developed by Alan Irving, Kenny Wharton and Tommy Craig. The other thing is that this season was always going to be harder than last season. We've just got to keep the faith.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Could the reserves poor run of results be attributed to the number of call ups some of them have had in the first team? The lads with serious chances of playing for the first team on Saturday won't want to get injured and are maybe being told to ease off, rightly or wrongly.

Also there are a few new players in there i.e. McGuffie, Ullathorne, Bonvin, Lua-Lua to name a few.

BTW, has our squad got any smaller under Bobby Robson or have we replaced the crap he got rid of, not necessarily with crap I hasten to add!!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

The squad has remained about the sane size as it was, but is now half full of youngsters. Read the names on the back of a program especially the players with numbers above 11, and you'll see what I mean. The average age is now around 23 years old,( If you take the ages of the 35 squad players and devide it by 35). Under Gullit and especially Dalglish the squad was as big but full of old un's.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000