Alan Smith has never scored for Newcastle

according to the commentator just then. How long's he been there - 2 1/2 years now. Strange one that.

A promising striker in his leeds days. Was basically ruined by sticking him in midfield to 'do a job'.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

A promising striker in his leeds days. Was basically ruined by sticking him in midfield to 'do a job'.

Think it was his broken leg tbh

Think he's always been nothing more than average, even pre injury tbf.

Originally Posted by El Jay

Think he's always been nothing more than average, even pre injury tbf.

He wasn't worth £7.5m or whatever we paid... then again he signifies some of the purchases we made post Veron.

theyre all shit, tossers

oh alan

Awful footballer and human being.

I advocated signing him and Gareth Southgate.

Originally Posted by Mr_Ed

He wasn't worth £7.5m or whatever we paid... then again he signifies some of the purchases we made post Veron.

How we went from a midfield group of Keane, Veron, Butt, Scholes Giggs and Beckham to one containing Miller, Djemba, Richardson, Kleberson, Fortune, within 2 years is still a mystery.

Maybe a reaction to Veron, who was not actually as bad as some made out, usually excelled in Europe, and the first half of his second season was really quite good. Spent a lot of money on him and he carried the can for the the disruption to a dominant domestic side. Replacing Stam with Blanc had probably more to with it. Veron also suffered a back lash to Scholes playing out of position to accommodate him, even though in 02/03 when we came storming back in the spring Scholes showed the best form of his career playing in the role that Fergie earmarked for him post Veron, just ahead of 2 midfield players with a lot of freedom to get forward.

Anyway we sold Veron and tried to get a few prospects in, did not work and put Utd 2/3 years back in development.

As for Smith he and Heinze for that matter were a reaction to the prevalent feeling that Utd were something of a soft touch, and that we needed a bit more aggression in the squad.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

How we went from a midfield group of Keane, Veron, Butt, Scholes Giggs and Beckham to one containing Miller, Djemba, Richardson, Kleberson, Fortune, within 2 years is still a mystery.

Maybe a reaction to Veron, who was not actually as bad as some made out, usually excelled in Europe, and the first half of his second season was really quite good. Spent a lot of money on him and he carried the can for the the disruption to a dominant domestic side. Replacing Stam with Blanc had probably more to with it. Veron also suffered a back lash to Scholes playing out of position to accommodate him, even though in 02/03 when we came storming back in the spring Scholes showed the best form of his career playing in the role that Fergie earmarked for him post Veron, just ahead of 2 midfield players with a lot of freedom to get forward.

Anyway we sold Veron and tried to get a few prospects in, did not work and put Utd 2/3 years back in development.

As for Smith he and Heinze for that matter were a reaction to the prevalent feeling that Utd were something of a soft touch, and that we needed a bit more aggression in the squad.

With hindsight you'd say it was a combination of complacency, SAF spending too much time with his horses and probably being affected by SAF's decision to retire, he's bound to have taken his eye off the ball even if subconsciously. As soon as he decided to stay things got better.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Maybe a reaction to Veron, who was not actually as bad as some made out, usually excelled in Europe, and the first half of his second season was really quite good. Spent a lot of money on him and he carried the can for the the disruption to a dominant domestic side. Replacing Stam with Blanc had probably more to with it. did not work and put Utd 2/3 years back in development.

Smith he and Heinze for that matter were a reaction to the prevalent feeling that Utd were something of a soft touch, and that we needed a bit more aggression in the squad.

Was gutted when we sold veron, he was imo just starting to gel in a utd shirt.
Smith was always an average player who became shite after that broken leg.

Originally Posted by redmike

Was gutted when we sold veron, he was imo just starting to gel in a utd shirt.
Smith was always an average player who became shite after that broken leg.

Not sure on that one. Our best football of his last season when we went on a good run to win the title was when Veron was injured and out of the side.

Veron rarely played in the run in. The decision to sell was vindicated really by what he 'achieved' at Chelsea.

Fortune was a cracking player. Like saha injuries etc..

Originally Posted by redmike

Was gutted when we sold veron, he was imo just starting to gel in a utd shirt.
Smith was always an average player who became shite after that broken leg.

I am not sure we knew how to utilize him, we seemed to try and shoe horn him into an established midfield, that for me had been sussed in europe.

When Beckham was sold, i was convinced he would become more central to our plans, and simply could not believe we then sold Veron too.

Southgate would probably have been a good short term fix that season.

Originally Posted by History

Fortune was a cracking player.

Proper tough £#%&!er he was (when fit!). Remember he played very well when we had Newcastle and Arsenal at home either side of a trip to Anfield. Quite a few injuries at the time, but he and Pip in particular really stepped up.

Originally Posted by The Watcher

Proper tough £#%&!er he was (when fit!). Remember he played very well when we had Newcastle and Arsenal at home either side of a trip to Anfield. Quite a few injuries at the time, but he and Pip in particular really stepped up.

word, pivotal games in the season.

Originally Posted by Eduardo Salvio

Awful footballer and human being.

I know someone whos sons his best mate & she says hes a great lad

Originally Posted by Sam the Sanitary Man

I know someone whos sons his best mate & she says hes a great lad

that sounds a bit like someone i know

Used to see quite a lot of him when he was still at Leeds as a mate was very chummy with him and Matteo - nice lad off the pitch from what i saw of him.

Originally Posted by Sam the Sanitary Man

I know someone whos sons his best mate & she says hes a great lad

He is a great lad. This idea that just because he was a bit of an animal on the pitch that he must be a #@&%!head off it, is a myth.

He's actually very down to earth, not like half of the 'bling bling' brigade in football now.