OK... that rate at which managers leave... they also seem to have some of the most injury-prone strikers around... owen in particular seems to break easily...

Joe Kinnear has certainly not done you any favours but as you put it most of your problems are at board level...

yup and have been for some time, most Geordies will agree I'm sure.

Owen's been cack since the world cup injury, he's never really recovered from it. Still bangs in goals (or was) but not quite the same player.

Really what we need is an entire new midfield since there's no pace whatsoever bar Gutierrez. Without pace in midfield = no service to strikers = no goals

Great game for us last night, we were all over the arse, shame we didn't score 2 or 3 more, as we easily had the chances to do so.

Still, taking a lead to the Emirates is always good, especially with no away goals to worry about, I think we just need to go there and score, and not try and defend what we've already got.

Especially with Ferdinand out. Without Rio recently your defense has looked a bit.. flimsy. I suspect Rio is a bit like Carvalho at Chelsea - makes his defensive partner look a lot better that he actually may be.

I wonder what Platini & co think about the fact that 180+ minutes of football between allegedly the 4 best teams of players on the planet managed to generate one goal, and that scored by one of the least heralded players in all 4 squads...

Jon

he would probably go "too many english teams in the competition we need to do something about it"

I have 2 things to say.

1. L3v1ck, you legend. I grumpily visited the bit-tech forums to see if anyone I liked was there. Saw your signature and found here. Its like coming home!!

2. (although I can't see it happening) ...........C'MON Reading!!!

I do my best.
I know they've cut us some slack on the bit-tech forums (talking about x404), but I wonder how long it will be before a mod deletes that signature.

In a way, I agree. If brummy win, the blades stay down.

I can't believe we got away with only one goal conceded Mancs should have sent us packing after 20 minutes.

Anyway, now we have to score 3 goals at Emirates as you can always count on Manu to score at least one. Not exactly easy but if Liverpool can do it so can we. We just have to hope that Clichy and Van Persie are gonna play and that mupper Adebayor will turn up...

And we just have to hope for the opposite, I'm hoping a goal will be enough to see us through, but it will be a very interesting game.

Still, Premiership to look forward to this weekend, and that could be very ineteresting.

I agree, if we can score early on hopefully it will deflate the Gunners and their crowd and be enough to see us through but i'm glad it looks like Rio will be OK for the second leg.

So, after Almunia's great performance the other night the old question has arisen again of getting him in as the England Goalkeeper.

Any opinions? There seems to be quite a bit of opposition but then we already have a Canadian playing for us and one of the fans favourites, John Barnes, was Jamaican born....

Those two are both qualified on the 'nationality of parents' rule. A lot of people are fairly ambivalent about that but people do seem to be used to it - for example the RoI don't get near the amount of stick they used to for using it a lot. However qualifying on the basis of residency alone is possibly a step too far for a lot of people. Regardless of whether Capello would pick him or not, if I was Almunia i really wouldn't want the amount of grief he'd get at every ground other than Emirates if he did play for England. It's one thing being an outfield player if the crowd don't like you - it's another if you're a goalie; you're stuck well within object throwing range of the opposition's fans for at least 45 minutes...

Jon

I see where your coming from but I think it would all depend on how well he plays for England (if he does), if he plays a crucial part in England getting a trophy then I think he would be loved as much as any regular England player. Personally if he gets citizenship and gives 100% every match I don't have a problem.

If he gets citizenship then he'll be English, therefore he should have every right to play.

Thinking about it, does Eduardo have any Croatian relatives? Brazilian born, he already plays for the National Team even though he was 16 or 17 when he moved there.