Who's most likely to drop out of the top 4 for Spurs

Dawson is exactly the same type of player as John Terry. Would you have said Terry was average at best when he was 22? In 3 years Dawson will be as good as Terry.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but you've clearly never been up to Newcastle. St James' Park is on the site it's always been on and there was little or no land purchase involved in the expansions that took place during the 1990's - as any student of Newcastle University who was lodged in the adjacent Halls of Residence during that time will tell you.

Additionally, you couldn't fill an 80,000-seater stadium, for the same reason Arsenal knew they couldn't (and therefore went for a more modest 60,000). No, not even adjusting for ticket prices. The average ticket price at Newcastle is just £3 lower than the average ticket price at Three Point Lane.

Uh, no. Terry is considerably better. Dawson's not a bad player (or, even worse, a Boumsong), but he's not as good as Terry and he's unlikely to be. Especially when you consider that Terry was already captain three years ago and essentially won his spot from Desailly.

Spurs are a bigger, more successful, more supported club than Newcastle ever will be. End of story.

Yes at the moment Terry is better. But wait 3 years.

Desailly never played for Spurs so Dawson never had the opportunity of trying to take his place.

Chelsea's captain left so Terry was appointed captain. Spurs captain was just appointed not long before Dawson came on the scene.

OK, I will wait 3 years, at which point Terry will still be better than Dawson.

Cracking book, that. I just wish he'd write a follow-up.

well OK - I'll give you that.

EDIT: Actually, there's a cracking thread in there somewhere: "Most delusional - Spurs or Newcastle fans?"

Well, the chapter on the FA's decision to allow the Premier League to cast adrift the majority remainder of the game when they had an offer to merge with the Football League and create a genuinely unified single structure is pretty strong on where things went horribly wrong - and I think a central theme of the book is that, quite possibly, it's just too late for anything truly effective to be done in support of the game.

The chapter on grassroots facilities in an era of Taylor subsidies to Premiership clubs is also pretty strong on what should be the alternative vision.

That said, no - he doesn't set out a full manifesto for an alternative approach. Nor, in his defence, does he pretend to, or claim to have set out to. It's more a chronicle of what is wrong than a proposal for what might be done differently.

Let's get one thing straight - My Nan > Spurs > Newcastle.


I think and hope Liverpool drop down after Gerrard ********s off to Milan where the small time Scouse gangstars can't threaten him and his missus if he leaves.