More mumblings from his agent about how many clubs have shown an interest in the player. I'd tell his agent to go ahead and set up the deal!! Consistency is the key and he's not consistent.

Dyer and Gavilan as the right wingers for the next season.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Answers

How about that Portuguese fella Sergio Conceiçaio. He's a right winger, wants to leave Parma, Solano wants to go to Parma, who would we be better off with?

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

We don't need to replace Solano IMHO. Dyer can revert to his more accustomed role as a right winger and we'll see the best out of him. Gavilan can provide the appropriate back up.

We need to concentrate on the left side of the midfield.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Have to agree DB - I've lost patience with Solano.
Hasta la vista Nobs!

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

I've had it up to here with all this Club v Country bollocks. We have no right to say he can't play for his country, fair enough, but he disrupts our season so if he is replaced with Dyer and the other spaces in midfield are filled appropriately we don't have to worry about Internationals outside of the UEFA calendar.

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Yeah let's sell Solano and we'll go down next season. He has saved us from relegation this year. His crosses, his goals and his free Kicks are all that has stood between us and going down.

Nobby is one of the few world class talents in our team, why do you think so many other clubs want him, and we must do our utmost to keep him.

Nobby is also relatively injury free, compared to some I could name, and always tries his guts out for a club he genuinely loves, gawd knows why considering some of the comments on here.

If you compare the number of games he has missed for internationals with how many others have missed games including AS,CC, KD not just the lead swingers, there is no comparison

Finally we are not supposed to be a selling club, remember, and we should be keeping world class talent not selling our most creative player.

DEB if you want to talk consistency let's talk about Barton, GS, RL, Bassedas, Dyer, Hughes, AS in fact the whole lotta them. NUFC's problem is a lack of consistency in the whole team and the player least to blame is Solano. Without him we would have gone down

Keep nobby sell the rest :-)

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Welcome back Bake - where the hell have you been?

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

bang in there bake mate, welcome back, or have you been lurking?

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Wahey Bake, good to read a thrustful viewpoint!

I disagree about Solano as per my previous comment, we cannot afford to have players not being available for a quarter of the next season BEFORE we start thinking about injuries.

I agree about the rest of them!!

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Chronic's running a feature that points out that even though they're negotiating Nol's new contract, there's a big gap between what's on offer and what he wants. According to his agent, Parma are 'ready to swoop' so maybe before we know where we are, it'll all be academic anyway.

I must admit, good as he might be, he hasn't shown his mind's on the job the last few times I've seen him, and if he's become disillusioned, I can't see much point in keeping him.

Horse to water and drinking, spring to mind.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

I'm sure after a requisite away defeat young Bake once said of Nobby "just keep on walking, Solano". ;-)

He can be a class player, but all too often I reckon he plays when he wants to. And this playing for Peru crap is pissing off too.

£7m and he's gone

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

The commuting between here and S.America is probably 90% of the reason why he's gone off the boil. Even the legendary Mr. Shearer probably couldn't shake off the effects of jet lag as easily as he shakes off the effects of torn ligaments and the like.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Nah, he'd gone 'off the boil' well before he started playing for Peru again - he's only played for them once in ages. The last excuse was the passport issue.
IMO, in all the time he's been here, he's never played more than 10 decent games a season.

I'd take £6 million for him and let someone else wory about his jet-lag and immigration paperwork.

BTW Pit Bill, I prefer the modified form of your proverb - "you can lead to horse to water, but a pencil must be lead". Chapeau, veston...............

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Yep here we go again. We cannot influence so we justify.

We couldn't stop Dalglish selling everyone with talent so we agreed Clark was too slow, Elliot have dodgy knees, Sir Les was good money, Beardsley was past it, Ginola didn't tackle back, suddenly we had a load of ruccish to as replacements. The same happened with Gullit.

We should be adding quality to the squad not taking it out. Solano can be good, we have to be keeping players who can play well and turn them into regular suppliers of quality performances. (Solano may be a special case cos he's away so often, I'll admit that). Compared to all the other rubbish we've seen in black and white this season he shouldn't be first out the door.

A couple have suggested Dyer wide with Gavilan as cover. Why not Dyer or Solano wide, why do we wish to have a 20 year old, with half a dozen starts to his name, as first choice cover. (I'm all for youth). For me we have only played nice football this season when Dyer and Solano have interlinked. Not seen one iota of creative talent out of Speed, Lee, Acuna, Bassedas, Shearer, a couple of iotas form Cort and Ameobi, but other than that it's Dyer and Solano. Lose Solano and we're putting everything on the shoulders of a slightly temperemental, injured 21 year old. Soon piss him there.

I understand the reluctance to praise Solano, but turning the Dyer comment upside down, who has been left as our sole supplier of anything remotely positive, just Nobby. (Up til last week when our left back came into it !!)

We need to add class not lose it. Lose the rubbish, keep the class.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Great rallying speech Mac, but you also have to consider what we might get in place of Solano. Don't get me wrong - Nobby can be great and I'd love it if he could turn on the style like we know he can. However, I've said it before and I'll say it again - he doesn't live up to his potential as much as he should. He can put in some great crosses, but more ften than not, he doesn't. All to often, he hits the front man defender) rather than one of ours.

Now, if we can turn him into a more consistent performer, all well and good. If not, then get as much as we can and replace him. I know it wouldn't be a direct replacement, but perhaps the money we could get for Nobby would buy a Michael Bridges.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

I have a certain sympathy for macbeth's position, and don't like to think of us a selling Club, unless it suits our purpose - and this doesn't necessarily mean we are just rationalising the sale; however, IMO Solano this season has played no better than any of the 'rubbish' that Mac describes. He can be excellent, but largely isn't, and in my book this terrible inconsistency means he is well short of world class, whatever that actually means.

When we've looked to him to do the biz this season, he's generally been found wanting, and in common with several other senior pros, he has been bloody awful in recent games.
His frustrating inconsistency, and this whole messy business with his international committments, for me cast very serious doubts on the wisdom of giving him a new multi-year Contract with a very significant wage increase, like at least double what he's now earning, perhaps more.

To be honest, I think it will be taken out of our hands, because in the coming weeks I expect other Clubs to be offering him silly money to do what I suspect he would like to do anyway - move to Spain or Italy. We should be concentrating on doing the best possible deal for NUFC, ideally a swap deal for somone like Conceciou of Lazio(sp?).

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

The Journal this morning reckons Solano is close to signing a new five year contract with the Toon.

They quote his agent as saying "At this present time, Solano has reached an agreement with Newcastle to stay for another 5 years. but until the documents are signed, nothing is complete. There are other teams watching the situation. One of the teams is Parma, they are very interested in him, but they are not the only team. There is also interest from Spain". It is believed that Barcelona are the interested Spainsh Club.

I find this report very curious - if he has actually reached agreement on the terms of his new contract with The Toon, and it only requires the legal documents to be signed, then why does his Agent feel the need to be applying such public pressure? Without the contract being signed, his Agent could be (and probably is) negotiating with other parties - however, Solano still has another year left on his present deal, and the Toon could prevent him moving if they so wished. Hhmmm.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

You are correct with your spelling of Lazio clarky

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

Bu99er, Gus. Beat me to it. I think Jacko's right. Mr Clark's been hitting the sauce. OK? Er, allegedly. Even so, I agree. The agent seems to be holding out for more but Nobby seems like he may be happy. Perhaps he's expecting to be tagged and doesn't think it's a good idea to move to Italy or Spain.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

We don't want to be a Selling club but why not a trading club - there were very good reasons why Sir Les/Davidd etc left. The issue was the cr*p that replaced them.

If we sell Nobby the cash must be used to make things better - surely Bobby can recognise talent better than KD & TDO ?

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

YBR is a genius. We have no balance in the side because he stubbornly refused to play our attacking left wingback except as a sub until he got so pissed off he went back to Paris. He has a perfectly good left winger already at the club but refuses to play him except as a sub also, despite the fact that he scores goals and we are getting nowt from midfield. He will be leaving for free in the Summer. Fortunately YBR, genius that he is, has recognized this self-inflicted paucity of cover down the left and signed a player who couldn't get into a poor 1st division side.

Still, it's not all bad. Lee and Speed were coping alright in the middle but they needed backup. Maric was hopeless as a string-puller in the centre so YBR, in another stroke of genius, sold him to bring in Bassedas to sort things out and Acuna as the replacement/cover for Lee. Sadly, Bassedas is a bit too similar to Maric and although Acuna looks acceptable in a pinch, Lee appears to still be playing despite his use-by date long since having expired.

Of course we have no worries at all up front. That injury prone liability Duncan Ferguson was sold and Carl Cort was bought for the same 7mil we had originally paid for Ferguson. A direct replacement here, straight onto the physio's couch. Admittedly the wages are a bit lower, but whereas Ferguson made Shearer look terrific by winning him quality posession and freeing up space, Cort has a first touch that depends on him receving the ball in our half to avoid giving away a goal kick. So long as we remain a shambles at the back and stay crammed in our own box then Cort's amazing touch will work wonders as an unintentional launch pad for breaks if anyone's fast enough to beat their keeper to the ball. We have also replaced that unpredictable Georgian loon with 2 players. Cordone in the short term and Luax2 for the future. 2 players nobody understands for the price of 1; genius.

Defence remains our singular strength. Hughes needs an experienced partner to help develop his talents and take him to the next level. With another masterstroke we have sold Howey and Goma and brought in another youngster from one of the only worse defences than our own. Terrific.

Maybe I'm being short-sighted, but I wouldn't trust him to buy a bottle of milk at the moment.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

A couple of months ago someone asked whether we might be suffering from the "Kings new clothes" syndrome.
While presented in your usual brilliantly humourous manner Softie, you are really posing the very same question.

The simple answer is that after what we've been through in the last 4-5 seasons we daren't contemplate another major error of judgement. And yet, we may need to face up to contemplating that the King may indeed be naked.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

I have always been a lurker but I changed jobs recently and have moved to the sunnier climes of Croydon, hence no internet access at work, BT couldn't be bothered to put any lines in, for the last four weeks.

Back to Solano, I have to say that your expectations of the bloke are bewildering. He has been one of the best crosser of a ball in the PL for a couple of seasons. He has the third best number of succesful crosses this season according to the Grauniad behind Beckham and Michael Gray, so I don't know where this hitting the front man comes from. Once again on Saturday it was his cross that led to the disallowed goal, and on Monday it was his crosses that led to the goal and the penalty. What does this man have to do exactly to please such a discerning audience.

Solano and Dyer are our only creative players at the moment and we need to keep both of them. If you think we can get better, then I would say that you are kidding yourself that anyone would come to such a mediocre mid table team and that we have sold before and ended up worse off. While it may be wonderful to dream of swap deals and star players from the likes of Palma it is not going to happen. For goodness sake even Gaurdiola turned down the opportunity to play in front of our wonderful fans with a curt no.

Bobby, I tend to get a bit upset after our regular defeats away from home and my bitterness and before you say it the bitter tend to cloud my judgement.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Agree!

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I'm with you Bake....Solano is my FAVOURITE player in our team, yes he's not consistent but there's so much other dross in the team that needs to be addressed before we even start looking at how best to improve nobby's game....

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Softie,

I feel that you are being grossly unfair to Bobby Robson by trying to blame him for the completely unprofessional behaviour of Didier Domi. For me Domi never quite cut it as a defender and seemed far more comfortable playing wide left midifeld; a role that he made clear he didn't want to perform. He then deceitfully tried to cover his tracks after publicly slagging off the club in the French press and when exposed as a cowardly liar he then fled to France rather than face his colleagues and the fans. As I remember YBR made a number of public pronouncements of understanding and forgiveness in a bid to persuade him to return. Surely no blame can be attached to YBR for this prats behaviour. M Domi would have been better advised to have followed the example of team mates such as Andy Griffin, Steve Harper and Stephen Glass who respond positively and professionally to being dropped. Instead he seems to have used his friend Anelka as a role model.

As for Carl Cort please get off the lads back. He is working his way back from a serious injury and despite this has managed to score in 50% of the games he has played in. Against West Ham yesterday he won everything in the air and was a constant threat to their defence. He is a young lad who is only going to get better over time. Also, after allowing for the rampant inflation in the transfer market it is unrealistic to compare the 8M paid for Ferguson in 1998 with the 7M paid for Cort in 2000. In real terms DF was far more expensive. Yes, on his day he was a great player but his fitness problems meant that he would rarely start more than 15 games a season; something borne out at Everton this season. I think most people would agree that you can't pay 40K a week for someone, however good, who plays only a third of the games over a season.

With Wayne Quinn and Andy O'Brien we bought as well as we could with the money available. Under ideal circumstances these wouldn't have been YBR's first choice buys, but given the boards reluctance to spend we have had to settle for them. It seems likely that YBR has been given a brief to cut the wage bill by firstly getting rid of the wasters from the Dalglish and Gullit eras ie Maric, Pistone, Charvet and also some quality players whose injury problems meant we weren't getting value for money for ie Ferguson, Howey. Realising that the remaining squad was very streched YBR then attempted to fill the gaps by signing young promising and unproven players. Clearly this hasn't been a success but again given the lack of backing from the board I think there are few managers who could have done much better.

BTW - I am as puzzled as you by the exclusion of Stephen Glass. Perhaps there is something going on behind the scenes, maybe poor application in training or the like, which explains things. I wish Glass well - he has shown quality and promise in his rare appearances.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Cut N Paste frpm TeamTwaddle.
Newcastle are unwilling to do a deal with Parma for Nolberto Solano unless Portuguese star Sergio Conceicao is offered in part-exchange. The Italian club have reportedly made a straight cash bid for United's Peruvian international - who is rated at £5million. But Bobby Robson is more interested in Conceicao than cash, having targeted the 26-year-old midfielder regardless of Parma's interest in Solano. Robson watched Conceicao in action for Portugal against Holland in Lisbon last month and has been alerted to the fact that he wants out at Parma. And despite talk of him offering Solano a new five-year contract, The Magpies manager is sick of losing him every few months to international duty and would part with him if the right deal came up. Conceicao - scorer of a hat-trick against Germany in last year's European Championship finals -could represent just that. He only joined Parma from Lazio last summer as part of the deal which saw Hernan Crespo move in the opposite direction and has not seen eye to eye with coach Renzo Ulivieri.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I stand by my comments. Cort has been dynamite when he's played, but that is 9 times this season. What was the only thing wrong with Ferguson again?

Domi had every right to get pissed off with having Barton, Hughes, Griffin and Uncle Tom Cobblee and all being played at left back ahead of him. Not one left footer amongst the lot of them. Fielding right footers in your position and only playing him as a substitute- winger would smack of constructed-dismissal in any other line of work. Sure, he ratted away but maybe players who want to play rather than just pick up wages for nowt are a bit sparse on the ground at our club.

The bargain-basement isn't the place to go when you aren't clear of the drop and have just sold some proven players. It will also continue the cycle of having to clear out the last manager's crap when this lot don't come good either.

Not even faintly interested in "perhaps there are troubles behind the scenes" with regards to Glass. On the field he is quick, motivated, left footed and scores goals. Our midfield is currently slow, right- footed, running in neutral and toothless. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make the connection. Why struggle with a round peg in a square hole when you have a square peg waiting to come on? Unfathomable.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I have the odd moments when I question Robson's ideas but the biggest recurring one has been the treatment of Glass. He isn't the well established 'hero' that Robert Lee was but his treatment has been nearly as bad as that Gullit handed out to Lee.

We have only looked balanced when Glass has played. Quinn has started to get forward but with a gaping hole behind him. We've been lucky that we've had Gary Speed in the side otherwise we wouldn't have had one decent left footed player apart from who ever was at left back. (wee joke)

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I certainly agree with Softie and Macbeth regarding the treatment of Glass, who we all rate as a decent left-sided player. However, you also have to ask why, if he's as good as we believe, has no other Club been in for him before now?

I recall the Manager of Dundee or D. Utd recently saying they'd love to take him but couldn't afford his wages. So, only Bradford of either the PL or Nationwide Div.1 have even sniffed at a player who is available on a FT. Seems he may not be as highly regarded inside the game as with the punters.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Given, Harper, Barton, Hughes, Griffin, Dabizas, Marcelino, Lee, Speed, Bassedas, Cort, Gallacher, Shearer, Ameobi have, as far I can remember not had any other clubs interested in them (I'll ignore O'Brien and Quinn, but we didn't have to fight off Man U and Arsenal for their signatures). (There are also Gavilan, Lua Lua and Cordone but they don't even merit a start for us).

Solano and Dyer are talked about as transfer targets.

I would say that about sums up the proportion of valuable to dross, and for me also probably sums up the players we should be looking to keep.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Given, Harper, Barton, Hughes, Griffin, Dabizas, Marcelino, Lee, Speed, Bassedas, Cort, Gallacher, Shearer, Ameobi have, as far I can remember, not had any other clubs interested in them...... "

None of these is available on a FT at the end of this season either, macbeth - assuming you're responding to my comments on Glass - other than 34 yr-old Gallacher in who Bolton have reportedly expressed an interest.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

It's the inconsistency in selling Howey and Ferguson as injury-prone but excluding Shearer from the same ruthless realism. It's insisting that we have to sell to buy and so put Domi, Goma and Pistone (even Maric last season) in the shop window and getting acceptable offers for them and yet refusing to likewise play the one player who gives us balance and has scored twice without having a run in the side this season, and he is the one who will go for diddly at the end of the season. Ridiculous. It makes no sense on either a footballing or a business level and cannot be represented as anything other than mismanagement. He should have been played at least as a sub for the first half of the season either to see what he can offer or to tempt a bid. It looks just like Mr Heed's problem with Johnstone and Summerbee.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Softie, Bobby now says that Ferguson wanted to leave as soon as everton came back in for him...

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

We courted offers for him. If Bobby now reckons it was because Ferguson somehow requested a transfer then why did we pay him for terminating his contract? Somebody wanting to leave after being told that the club have accepted an offer for him is rather different from a player asking to leave. He left him on the bench through pre-season in case he got injured which would have prevented our selling him. 3 or 4 clubs claimed that we had touted Ferguson to them and I have no difficulty believing that.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001