jimmymag

Didn't you see the way Faye was easily brushed aside by McFadden last week?

I thought we had s*** crowds? Well, we didn't fill a smaller ground, through not qualifying for europe and selling our best players, if thats what you mean. Still bigger than a s*** little club like Blackburn though. I hope by your comments in this thread, you aren't advocating going back to the days when we didn't attempt to utliise the fanbase after all the years of building it up to higher levels. Never mind. Do you at least acknowledge that we are no longer the only club with real potential now? Aside from passion of the fans (call it volatile if you want) we have nothing different to offer that our main rivals cant offer as well? This has only really occured this past year as well so it wrong to assume we should be able to hand pick players from "smaller clubs" becase of our potential. I don't understand your point. There is more money in the top league through sky TV, spin offs, advertising, merchandise. Just because clubs such as Blackburn have more money doesn't mean they can match us, when we have it too. We are still bigger than most clubs in terms of fanbase providing we strive to utilise it and act like a big club ought to act. If anything, the merchandising should widen this gap, not shorten it. There isn't a footballer anywhere who would not recognise that Newcastle is a real football city, with a football mad public, a huge fanbase and bigger than most others, come the day we actually make something happen. The point is we haven't been utilising our fan base. The extra income from the stadium expansion should have been our advantage over the likes of Blackburn, the problem was the clubs expenditure went up too so the fanbase wasn't really much benefit at all, what we had coming in was going out just as fast so the money hasn't been there to boss the likes of Blackburn around in the transfer market, unless we can find extra funds from somewhere (Mike Ashley hopefully) Given the choice, any ambitious player would want to play for Newcastle over Blackburn next season, providing we survive in the Premiership. Just playing in front of a full St James' compared to a half empty Ewood Park should be enough to get a player like Bentley interested, only problem being that other, currently more successful clubs, could be interested in him too.

People conveniently forget Keegan's successful stints with Fulham and Man City. He got both clubs promoted and left both clubs in a better position than when he took them over.

I was, and still am, overjoyed at Keegan's appointment as manager. As NE5 said, he's the man for the moment, especially as we're still not sure of the new regime's intentions. I feel that the club is safe in his hands because having Keegan as manager is like having the Club's biggest fan as manager, if he's not backed in the transfer market this summer, at a level he thinks is appropriate to take the club forward, he will tell the board in no uncertain terms because he knows that he has the overwhelming support of the fans. There is no other manager that we could have appointed that would have had that sort of clout in the boardroom. Ashley and Mort were aware of this when they appointed Keegan and this makes me feel that their stated intention to get us challenging the top 4 is genuine, and that they're prepared to bankroll the Keegan revolution, because, if they're not, Keegan will expose them and probably walk away, the fans will turn on the board, and then how much will Ashley's £250 million investment be worth?

I want Barton out of the club badly. He's scum of the earth!

Nor Clichy You better update your avatar son, you're not even the best team in London!

For some reason the Scotch git is putting out a scratch side against Bolton. It's backfired on him before, let's hope it doesn't tonight. It pisses me off supporting the Mancs but we need Bolton beaten tonight.

Pretty sure he did get booked for that one. No he wasn't. Geremi and Taylor were our only bookings last night.

I can't believe that more hasn't been made of Butt's challenge on Larsson last night. Butt obviously took exception to being shoved into the dugout by Larsson and not more than 5 minutes later whacked Larsson which, if not deliberate, certainly looked reckless. I couldn't believe, and neither could Butt, that he didn't get at least a yellow card for the challenge, and it hasn't even been mentioned by McLeish. I think Larsson's substitution at half time helped change the game in our favour, but if the same challenge had been made on one or our players I'd have been screaming for at least a 3 game ban for the perpetrator.

Fucking idiotic suggestion! Come what may, Keegan will be ruthless with this group of players come the end of this season and I can't see more than 4 or 5 of this lot surviving the cull.

It's difficult for Keegan to find a formation that fits the lopsided and disjointed squad he's inherited. I was pleased to see Keegan play the 3 best footballers we have at the club in Owen, Viduka and Martins. Martins' lack of discipline means that he gets sucked inside when he should be hugging the touchline as a right or left winger. Martins has all of the attributes that should enable him to work as an effective winger, especially on the right side where he could cut in field on to his left peg for a shot at goal, but he's also got the pace to get to the byline and his right foot's good enough to deliver a decent cross.

Absolutely! Great togetherness with everyone geeing each other on.

Well played Michael Owen! He was all over the park in the 2nd half and led by example. Based on tonight's performance I'm convinced we'll roll Fulham over on Saturday to alleviate the pressure, and then we can go on to secure survival this season.

If we get a win in our next two games we should see a different team, they need confidence and they need it soon. I agree, the Fulham game is huge. We should know our fate after the Reading game. If we haven't secured at least 4 points from those 2 games it'll be looking very bleak indeed.

I'm convinced Allardyce would have got us relegated. The players had lost faith in him and the owner wasn't going to give him any money to buy in January. Keegan has got his work cut out to motivate the group of players he's inherited to keep us up though, but if anyone can do it I believe Keegan's the man. We've got 3 cup finals at St James' against the other relegation candidates and I'm convinced that, with the crowd playing a major role, we can get at least 7 points from those 3 games, and I think we'll nick a couple of points away from home which will be enough to avoid relegation.

A fundamental error that he quickly accepted he had made. I don't expect that you'll ever stop referencing it from now on though, probably applying it to everyone and anyone who dares to criticise the previous board. not the sort of error that people who know owt about the club would make, I suspect it was all just through eagerness to slate FS for something, or anything, which is the point. I've said the previous board made mistakes, they must have done, otherwise we would have won the European Cup. My point is that replacing them would be very difficult and so far the actions - or non action of Ashley and Mort, in particular the very definite feeling that they have operated a "sell to buy" policy is a very dangerous one and one that any board with ambition would not pursue, especially at the lower spending levels that we have operated at since they came. I think instead of claiming that I have a go at anyone who dares to criticise the board, people would be better off taking a more objective look at the current one, and look a bit more carefully at the facts I back up my comments with, which most definitely show that they in fact did a lot better than a lot of people claim. I suspect more than a few people may be realising this by now but just won't admit it. Edit. I have no intention of bringing this up with SJ again, now he has acknowledged his error, because you can't get fairer than that. Any fair minded person couldn't criticize the current board for their spending on players since they took over the club. I wouldn't have trusted Allardyce, a manager they inherited, to spend a large lump of my cash either. The time to judge the current board will be at the end of the summer transfer spending frenzy when their true intentions for the club will be known.

Like yesterday? No one is guaranteed to score in every match. He won't get three better chances than he had yesterday. He's finished. Quicker everyone accepts it, the quicker we can get shot and move on. My money's on Owen to ram those words back down your throat!

He's scum of the earth and I just want him out of my club!

Thanks for those words of wisdom, now why don't you fuck off!

If Enrique wasn't capable of convincing Keegan that he should have got the nod over Carr at left back then I'm afraid it looks like we've spunked £6 million on another Spanish failure.

Yes, obviously on board before we knew.

Yes if KK would play our best player in their best positions and that they would stay fit, and pot a good system in play. Keegan is the Messiah, but even his powers aren't enough to get this group of players into the top 6.

Thanks to Fat Sam, Butt extended his contract by a year, Sam deserved to be sacked for that one decision alone. Stevie Wonder could see that Butt's been past it all season, he's a liability and shouldn't play for us again. Not only was it a years contract, but with the option of a second year. Obviously Sam didn't foresee us buying anyone better than him in the next couple of seasons. Didn't realise he'd got an option on a second year. Fat Sam should have been sacked twice useless twat!

With fans like you.....

What a load of nonsense. If anything, we didn't attack enough. We should have went on for number two after Owen's first. We did, unfortunately the chance fell to Barton! and owen, and people say he takes his chances lol Stop slagging Owen, he's just coming back from injury, he is and will continue to improve. If the rest of the team start creating chances there aren't many players I'd put in front of Owen to hit the onion bag.