Just to remind you all, when we were last in the Champions League, this was our squad of 25 (bear in mind Shearer was injured)

Shay Given Shaka Hislop Pavel Srnicek Phillipe Albert Warren Barton John Beresford Des Hamilton Steve Howey Aaron Hughes Darren Peacock Stuart Pearce Alessandro Pistone Steve Watson John Barnes David Batty Jimmy Crawford Temuri Ketsbaia Robert Lee Faustino Asprilla Jon Dahl Tomasson Keith Gillespie Bjarni Gudjonsson Brian Pinas Ian Rush Alan Shearer

Our squad of 25 if we qualify this season could be:

Shay Given Steve Harper John Karelse Aaron Hughes Nikos Dabizas Sylvain Distin Andrew O'Brien Robbie Elliott Andy Griffin Kieron Dyer Lomana Lua Lua Jermaine Jenas Brett Emerton (?) Gary Speed Clarence Acuna Laurent Robert Nolberto Solano Olivier Bernard Alan Shearer Carl Cort Craig Bellamy

Plus another 5

In all honesty, we are definitely a lot better going forward now than the first team, but I'm not sure about the defence.

Overall I reckon the team we have now is quite a bit better than the first one, although with less European experience.

If we buy quality at centre back, left back and midfield, I will be convinced the current team is better.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2002

Answers

The formatting is terrible there, but you get the gist.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2002

+ I believe you can draft in bairns in certain circumstances which would allow Shola and Chops to be involved as well as the Caldwells, Kerr & McClen.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2002