Who do we have who is proven, reliable in terms of form and injury, and good enough to form the regulars in a Newcastle team capable of pushing for honours? I'd say a paltry 4 positions are filled by Given/Harper, Griffin, Cort and Dyer. Squad players to make up the numbers are Acuna, Hughes, Dabizas. Unprovens are O'Brien, Quinn, both Caldwells, Lua Lua, Ameobi, Bernard. Crocks who we can't rely on are Shearer, Lee, Gallagher and Solano's form and travel commitments mean he's too erratic. Those not good enough - Speed, Barton, Bassedas, Gavilan, Karelse and I'm not even going to consider Marcelino or Cordone.

I know I'm being harsh and maybe some of those crocks will be able to play regularly at a high standard, and maybe some of the kids will come good but what of they don't? Given the way we seem to attract injury we will need more than Prutton, Bridges and Duff to improve next season. Optimists out there will disagree with me, but I'm not happy about the team's prospects.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Answers

I think you're being a tad optimistic there Martin
1) Given/Harper - too short in the arse
2) Griffin - canny defender, very ordinary going forward
3) Cort & Dyer - Crocks who we can't rely on mmmmmm!

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Heedinhands, I fear you're all too correct. I should have known better than to let the merest glint of optimism through ;-) Anyway, we'll probably trade Dyer for Bridges and find he's been declared disabled.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

I think I'm with heednhands in dismissing your "definites" as only "possibles" Martin - which makes me the supreme pessimist everyone on here already knows for a fact.

To be honest, I'm not totally convinced by either Given or Harper although they are adequate.
Griffin has proven to be injury prone, but is by far the best FB at the Club when he is fully fit.
Cort has promise but he is very raw, and he needs to work harder on his first touch which is awful.
Dyer is the great enigma. Assuming we can get him fully fit, we need to establish where he is going to play and leave him there to develop. I'd play him wide right.

Conclusion? What I've banging on about for months - the squad is weak and need to bring in a number of good players, preferably some youngish and hungry ones.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

I don't know were this talk of how great Michael Bridges is coming from, I work in next to Leeds' training ground & yoof acadamy and Bridges is back in training, he looks like a 2nd div player next to Smith & Keane.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001