steve_69

He'd earn himself a whole lot more respect (and this goes for all referees as well) if he just held his hands up and said "now i've seen the video evidence i realised i made a mistake. My apologies to Newcastle, but at the end of the day we're only human". Job done, red card rescinded, no more said about it. The fact that these morons continue to protest that it was a penalty, when the VIDEO EVIDENCE clearly shows it was a great tackle, just diminishes their credibility even further. In fact it's more likely to make us distrust them even more than we already do. Respect the refs?! Respect has to be earned, prove you can do the job you're paid to do and you'll get all the respect in the world eg. Pierluigi Collina.

I actually mentioned this kid last season as a possible signing. I only saw him play one game but he was outstanding, a proper footballing CB. He's never gonna get in the Chelsea first team so he'll have to move on at some point.

See you much later you cockney CUNT! Don't let the door hit you in the arse on your way out... One down, two to go!

The difference is that they have enough faith in their youngsters to thrwo them into the first team when the senior players are injured eg. Rafael on Tuesday. We, on the other hand, seem to have no faith in ours to do a job in the absence of our first-teamers

Name another truly class manager we are likely to be able to attract

If he can thread a through ball, spread the play, link the midfield and attack, cross or ball or take a decent deadball then i couldn't give a fuck if he plays at walking pace, he'll give us something we've been missing.

Just when you think things can't get any worse........Joe Kinnear. How fucking low have we sunk in the past few weeks. Oh well, he can't do any worse than Chris Hughton.

To be honest I don't see any other option for Ashley other than to give Keegan what he wants and get him back in ASAP. Otherwise he's going to have a club on his hands that no one will touch with a bargepole. What a stubborn fat cunt he is!

George Fucking Graham!? Did i read that right? I'd rather have Souness back than George Graham

Look, Chris Hughton's managerial record to date is played 3, lost 3, points 0. The next few games are crucial and i'm not very confident we can win them with Hughton in charge. Get Venables in!

What's to forgive? The guy has our best interests at heart. He left because his authority and position were undermined. I don't blam him for walking at all and i'd welcome him back with open arms

Right, that looks like an OK team but to highlight was i was trying to get at, fill in the above blanks with players you think we could've had a chance of signing in the summer: ..........................Given Beye........Coliccini.....Kompany.........Enrique Jonas....Schweinsteiger...Appiah.....Arshavin ....................Owen......Martins Instead, we have Butt, Guthrie, Duff and Taylor filling those positions. We're way off! I don't want this to turn into another fantasy football thread where everyone chips in with totally unrealistic teams they'd like to see. It's just an exercise to highlight how short of quality we are in a number of key positions.

If anyone could get the best out of those three it's Keegan. If he wanted to keep them that's fine by me because i believe in his managerial and motivational ability. Problem is we don't have Keegan any more.

To be honest I wouldn't be totally against El Tel coming in as manager until the club is sold and then moving into a DOF role when King Kev comes back - if we are to have a DOF

i dont think Xisco's quite at the same level as Viduka from what ive seen. don't particularly rate Guthrie or Barton too highly, though they'll do a decent job. we really depend so much on Jonas as being the only quality player across our entire midfield, from right to left. and even he's new to the league and, while he's made a promising start, hasn't done anything special or on a consistent level yet. same goes for Colo too except he's not looked quite as good, and Bassong's not even played in central defence yet against a premiership team. I'm not saying it's the answer man, just what I'd try. It's testament to Keegan that he got that system working well enough to keep us up whilst carrying arguably worse players in Butt, Geremi and without Coloccini. <b>The sale of Faye still looks f***ing stupid btw.</b> This. Keegan obviously had enough faith in Taylor to let Faye go, unless the player was sold behind his back. I reckon Coliccini and Faye wouldn't made a pretty solid CB pairing.

The more i watch us the more i realise we're still carrying a lot of deadwood and average players. It's more testament to Keegan's managerial ability that he actually gets such us looking like a decent team. As far as I can see we're still almost half a team short of the quality we need: .........................Given Beye......Collicini.........?......Enrique Jonas..........?.............?...........? ................Owen........Martins Harper Bassong Guthrie Xisco Viduka Gonzalez? The rest are just making up the numbers - Butt, Duff, N'Zogbia, Geremi, Cacapa, Taylor, Barton etc.

Taylor needs to be dropped for his own good. The last thing we need at the moment is some fucking clown at the back who thinks he's Alessandro Nesta. Coliccini deserves a better partner than him.

This is one of the shittest posts i've read for a while. N'Zogbia was f***ing rubbish! In fact, the more i see him the more shitter he seems to get. Bassong had a good game, he was good in the air, made some good tackles and passed it well. f*** knows what game you were watching pal. The one thing i do agree with is the lack of service to the front two was shocking. Up front we had two of the league's most potent strikers and who did we have trying to feed them.....Geremi, Cacapa, Butt and Duff - get f***ed Wise and friends you clueless shitpots!

I think Ashley's plan is absolutely spot on. Look at the players we brought in, they're all better the those who were sold and we didn't pay through the nose for any of them. Everyone assumed when Ashley came in that he would be splashing the cash big time, but instead he's implemented a system that is much better for the long-term security of the club. He's not prepared to throw away big chunks of his hard-earned cash down the drain which is quite understandable. If only Ashley had realised just how important Keegan is to us he wouldn't be in this mess. In fact if he had actually bothered to communicate with us at any point he could've avoided a lot of it. To cruelly dangle the Keegan carrott in front of us and then snatch it away before we had a chance to see what it could do is unforgiveable. He's seen what Keegan means to us and the players, and IMO he should've been doing everything in his power (within reason) to get him back.

erm........ the club has to be successful to be profitable, no? and, how does this make newcastle different to any other club? Im sure the owners of the top 4 are doing it for the love of the region and the fans? erm no actually. The club is currently being run at a profit yet we've had no sign of success for years. That is down to astute dealings in the transfer market and a loyal fan base who continue to put money into the club. The communication between other boards and their fans is infinitely better than what we are subjected to here because most sensible Chairman, MD's, Directors of football clubs appreciate the importance and the value of communicating with their stakeholders. The proposed boycott of matches, the club shop etc. will put a big dent in the club's finances if it goes ahead and i believe it could've been avoided if the club's Directors had actually communicated with us via an interview, press conference or question and answer session, which highlights the importance of good communication.

so am i right in thinking that your angry and want them out because they havent communicated with you as well as you think they should have? Is that a good enough reason to want them out? Im simply playing devils advocate here btw I'm still gutted that they forced Keegan out of the club as well. For the first time in years there was genuine optimism about the place. Keegan and NUFC belong together, it's a match made in heaven and it's just such a shame that it didn't work out. I'm not niaive enough to think that it was all the board's fault but IMO they should've done more to keep him. Now I am just fucking seething that the board haven't done something to appease us. Communication is the basis for any healthy relationship and by not telling us anything they are widening the divide between us and them. The level of arrogance being shown by Ashley and his cockney rebels is nothing short of disguting. We have a right to know what's going on. It's our money that lines that fat cunt's pocket and it's our money that pays the board's and the players' wages. We are all stakeholders in Newcastle United and as such we deserve to be shown some fucking respect. This lack of communication with key stakeholders would not be accepted in any other area of business so why should we swallow it? It's quite clear that they couldn't give a fuck about us, all they are interested in is making a profit from the club. That's why i'm angry!

The main difference is depite the fact he was a fucking idiot who took the club to the brink of bankrupcy (allegedly), at least Freddy Shepherd had the courage to communicate with us. Mike Ashley, Dennis Wise, Tony Jimenez and Derek Lambias don't have the respect or the balls to tell us what the fuck is going on. A lot of this tension and animosity could've been removed if they'd have just spoken to us but it's gone way beyond that now. I personally think a lot of what they've done here has been really posivite, particularly with regards to not splashing money recklessly on players who have had their best years at other clubs, however it's become quite clear that the fans do not figure in their thinking and for that reason they will never have my support. Mike Ashley might own Newcastle United on paper but this is our club.

Fair enough IF Keegan was aware from the very start that he'd be working under a DOF, but for the club to go and hire Dennis cunting Wise for the job is ridiculous. Who in their right mind would think that masterstroke wouldn't get the manager's back up? A DOF is generally an experienced, knowledgeable football man with a lot of influencial contacts in the game, not a man younger than the manager himself with a few years experience of lower league football management. A statement designed to appease us that's only served to fan the flames even more. Incompetent fuckwits!

I give up. The whole point of this thread was to suggest that perhaps Ashley was out of the country when the s*** hit the fan, and that the damage was done before he had a chance to do anything about it. After all, he does have bigger (more successful) business ventures than Newcastle United to look after. Keegan is a fragile character and it's quite feasible that something said to him by the Chairman in the presence of Wise and Jimenez was enough to make him resign. Clearly this concept is a lot more far fetched than Ashley flying back from his US business trip with only a few hours notice to tell Keegan that it's his way or the highway.

Yes i do Spark, it's called business FFS. How do you think it works? Someone buys a company and then puts people in charge to look after the day-to-day running of it. How would he possibly have time to run Sports Direct, Newcastle United and all of his other business ventures? Take Alan Sugar for example, he hires people to manage different arms of his portfolio. They all report into him but he puts his trust in them to manage his companies for him. That's how he can be involved in so many different business projects at any one time. If he tried to do it himself he'd be fucked! What exactly do you think the Chairman of a football club does?