madras

what record would that be ?

ibrahim "failed medical" ba

wasn't over the line (even funnier)

it wont. it's like the nature verses nurture debate. the truth is probably somewhere in the middle but most of the protagonists are hardened to one side or the other

NE5... my opinion is that enrique should be playing and you should know i've blamed allardyce for rather a lot this season.

quite shocked you are stooping to this level mate. The answer is no, by the way. Sir John was though, but resigned when the initial flotation failed due to lack of interest, failing to raise half of 2.5m quid. This is fact by the way, because I put in to buy shares, and had my cheque returned. You know me, I admit I can't stand FS and regard his time here as an ultimate failure. I admit my bias. However, if you are claiming FS as part of the board under Sir John Hall deserves credit for those years then by your same logic, he deserves criticism for being part of the old board before SJH which he was. You are quick to highlight how FS played a role in KK's arrival and use that to defend him, but what about the role as a director or member of the old board he played in the club's woes pre-SJH? Anyway, just to show how much of a turncoat FS was, he was very much on the side of the old board until SJH flashed him some money. Oh and I just can't defend a crook. Did I say crook, sorry I meant cock. Sorry mate, you're showing your selective memory, guilty of putting personalities before judgements like some others. lets hope Ashley and Mort back their managers more than the old board shall we ? I hope you don't claim they are "better", until they have proved it. Having said that, if the old board were such "cocks", they should be doing better already, for an example see the mackems since Niall Quinn took over from cocks, or for another example, see our own takeover in 1992 when they took over from cocks. I hope you can understand this, but I have my doubts I must be honest. Honestly NE5, I can't defend the man or turn a cheek to what I know. For sure he has done good things and I'm sure he isn't alone in footy but for me, as a so-called NUFC fan, well, I don't know how he can live with himself. SJH was never like that yet he had more scope to do what FS did, not even DH was like that and he had good reason to. Do you not find it suspicious how the takeover all came about like it did and why the Halls wanted out like they did, behind FS's back? They didn't want to be dragged down with it because that's what was going to happen. Only in years to come will we realise what an escape we've had thanks to Ashley and co. I dread to think what would have happened if FS was allowed to carry on or worse still, buy the club for himself. I'll give you a clue, the warehouse carry on, but x10. I'm not surprised MA enlisted the help of a legal expert, the mess... The last thing you want to do is for something you've just bought for all that money to be confiscated by the old bill and investigated... I'll say no more. FS good for NUFC? He had us on the road to ruin man. Rubbish tbh. The Halls wanted out because they wanted their money. They had touted the club for a while, and were prepared to sell to anyone for the price. I don't give a toss about a warehouse BTW. Unfortunately, in business [which people like to peddle when it suits them it seems], such things happen everywhere. Don't you also consider the fact that Sports Direct has replaced the club badge on the top of the GAllowgate stand a conflict of interest, or the adverts for Sports Direct.com if such things bother you ? If not, why not ? SHJ didn't want out under Sir Bobby, which was only 3 years ago. And if SJH was prepared to sell to anyone, why didn't he sell to Belgravia and why didn't he sell to all those interested parties Freddy Shepherd is down on record as wanting to buy the club? SJH wanted out because the club HE built was going to s*** and was in financial and other mess and he didn't want his good name to go down with it. If it was about money, why did he do things secretly, why did he not invite offers which would have surely led to other bidders entering the fray? Why did he not sell out to Belgravia despite their interest as I've already mentioned? Why Ashley? Why the months of talks between the two, in secret? Could it be that he found out about certain things and thought, f*** this for a game of snooker, and actually used his contacts to find someone he could trust to buy the club and sort the mess out FS was creating? Anyway as far as I'm concerned SJH didn't tout the club, if anything it was Shepherd doing that by letting the world and his dog know that the club were receiving offers right left and centre. You should give a toss about the warehouse btw because there was more than one "warehouse" kind of deal being done behind closed doors, deals that lead to our mounting debts and of course, added to the Shepherds and their cronies growing wealth. You criticised Souness for wasting money on Boumsong and Luque et al yet for the record, you defend this: 1 Warehouse owned by NUFC sold to Bruce Shepherd for pennies then rented back by NUFC for hundreds of thousands, a warehouse that let me tell you stood empty. If that isn't wasting club money I don't know what is. I agree such deals do happen in business and especially in football, but it shouldn't. Here you have the Chairman who likes to call himself a died in the wool Geordie and a NUFC fan, basically robbing fans of their money to fund his own ventures with his brother, all at the expense of the club's best interests which is to get value for money and in some cases, save money, not flagrantly waste it and in a less than legitimate way too. How you can defend that or not give a toss yet pull up Souness for example for wasting money on players is not only hypocritical but shocking. This is our club here we are talking about, you may not care where the money goes to and what on (you clearly do if it's a manager you don't like behind it) but I do and so do most fans I imagine (I hope). The PLC certainly care as well, as does the fraud office. Ashley obviously cares too. Perhaps that's why football is so bent, too few people caring so long as they get their trophy signings, fed bullshit in the media and because, well hey, things could be worse, we could be back in the 70s and 80s. Well f****** sorry but I don't want to gloss over what I class as mismanagement at it's worst. As for Ashley, he can do whatever he likes, it's his club, the money is his. I guarantee you though, the more money Sports Direct makes, the more it will benefit Newcastle United. The more money FS made, the less the club made. If you don't believe me look at what FS made out of NUFC and correlate it with what he left us with, over £100m in debt. This from a club that was cash rich before he took over as Chairman of both the Board and the PLC. And you have the audacity to say he was a good Chairman because we finished in the top 5 a few times. Big f****** deal. Alan Shearer regarded those finishes as failure. They were nice, but nothing to f****** brag about. Not when Villa with a Chairman you used as the anti-FS have an equal average record to us.... and ask Brummie what Villa fans think about the past 10 years. You won's see many "5th best" crap on their forums. Oh and how can Sports Direct badges be a conflict of interest? You're clearly showing your bias here and dislike for the new board, the people who got rid of the cancer at Newcastle. Fat f****** Freddy Shepherd and his cronies and their scamming ways. Honestly mate, it's hilarious how you're comparing Ashley and Co to FS and Co (what is it, 6 months?). Ashley in wiping out the debt alone has giving more to this club than FS ever did or could. We can now compete and our future is guaranteed. Under FS it went from one crisis to another, it was only a matter of time before we fell off that cliff he had us close to, Sir John Hall realised this and took decisive action. You should be thankful there is a bloke out their willing to underwrite the years of mismanagement and with it give us a platform to get back to where we were before FS got his dorty hands on the club. But because the new Chairman isn't spouting his head off that there is this and that to spend or that we are going to do this and that in January, this f****** thread reaches 20 odd pages? Have a word man. I understand that you are another of these anti-Shepherd people, basing your opinions on him being a "fat t*** who eats all the pies" than how he[they] backed their managers, proven by your denial of the FACT that it was Fletcher, Hall Jnr and Shepherd who were responsible for appointing Keegan as manager. Unable to give any credit for anything. Never mind. You miss the point completely, maybe deliberately, because if you DID see the point, it would also force you to give some credit to the old board for backing their managers. If what Mort says is what he means, and they don't back their managers, you are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think they will EVER match those Champions League qualifications. Sadly, one day, you MAY realise this, but obviously I hope not. I will remind you that nobody else finished in the top 5 for 3 consecutive seasons for 50 years, so its a big deal for NUFC. If you don't mind, I would rather see the current board match it before I start saying they are "better", simply on account that they don't eat all the pies and buy people beer in pubs instead. Mind, if they actually said they had ambition for the club, like Sir John Hall did [you didn't mind when he said this did you I bet ?] it does no harm at all to say so, and Sir John and Keegan were proof of that. You don't need to spout the party line and the cliches to insinuate that you too have an agenda, just be consistent in your views. I am anti-Shepherd NE5 and that's because he's a robbing scumbag who for years mismanaged the club I love. I've already admitted I'm biased too. I can't stand the man. Does it cloud my judgment though? No, because I have put forward numerous balanced views on him, his time here and his successes and failures. I have praised him, defended him even and of course criticised him in the past. Now that he's gone though, the tone of my posts sum up my feelings for the man and his era here and I'm not going to pussy foot around these things just to add some "balance" or to be "fair". backs his managers. Single, and most important thing a board can do. The significance will not dawn on people, until we have one that doesn't do it. If they back their managers, their personality - and any sidlines they have as this is the way of business everywhere - don't enter into it Not backing their managers and not showing ambition, especially if they run a big club like us, is what I would call rotten, robbing scumbags. What a difference 90 single minutes, when the PLAYERS let us down - twice - would make eh ? so bearing in mind ashleys first transfer window has the manager spoending more than the average net spend you'd have to say he has started by backing the manager ?

When were we regulars in the top 4? 3rd,6th,2nd,2nd first four seasons in the prem.....3 out of 4 is quite regular aint it ?

is that about probably not spending big in january ? i have no problem with it,personally i see it as allardyce still being on trial...or was there a bit i missed when mort said money would never be there for players not ever ever ever ? if so i missed it. a) i don't trust what chairmen say regarding transfers anyway....it would be daft to ratchet up prices by saying we were deffo in tyhe market.(i'd rather wait and see what actually happens rather than what they say the month prior. b) that previous board let a few transfer windows go by without buying big. (does that mean they were crap ?)

ne5 ...is this the synopsis then. both ashley and fat fred were/are in it for the money. ashley with his own cash and fat fred using corporate structures,as yet fat fred took out all the time and it doesn't look like ashley has. fat fred tried to make the club succesful (thus boosting his value of his shareholding) where as ashley appears to be financially stabilising the club in order for it to provide for itself (or he may decide to splurge who knows ?). fat fred put very little in and took millions out where as,as yet ashley has put millions in and took nowt out. is this right ?

to be fair it was the same towards us when we were regulars in the top 4.

you mean, the 3 highest consecutive league positions in 50 years ? Filling a 52,000 stadium every home game ? Qualifying for europe more than any other era in the clubs history ? Qualifying for europe more than every club in the country bar 4 ? Please explain what is incorrect and twisted ? the twisting is from this "As for Ashley clearing debts, it is a very good move to clear the debt due to the stadium expansion. He has increased the value of the club enormously by doing that." yet shepherd backed his managers ?.....why isn't it that ashlkey has used his own cash to pay off the debts so any increased value merely reflects what he has spent .could shepherd have been doing this merely to try and boost the price of his shareholding ? is it possible shepherd didn't really back anyone as he used corporate money for transfers whilst taking millions out. shepherd didn't back the managers...nufc plc did.

not really an "Argument" madras, just people disputing facts again. or twisting facts to suit their side of the debate.

is this that argument with those folk......................... .........................again ?

It is the tactic often used by clubs who struggle to score as it means the two out wide are always cutting in to shoot on there stronger foot. I remember when Peter Reid had Michael Grey playing right midfield Kranjar plays on the left for Pompey & iirc he is right footed & Ginola could whack a ball with his right. For me, Milner doesn't really have much in his locker. He's just a player with a great attitude who crosses the ball. Because of this, he needs to whip his crosses in quickly and early, like Nobby Solano and Beckham, 2 other players who didn't have pace. He won't do that with his left foot, so his only chance of becoming a good player - or a better player - is to become better at this IMO. I concede he will score the odd goal, or get the odd cross in from the byline against a full back who is one paced like himself. Not enough though. pointless if we don't have the forwards there. the way we play means viduka needs pace to get there,martins cannot read play well enough and owen can and does do it but only when fit. no matter how good the cross is if you do it when you know there is no-one there then it's deliberatly giving the ball away (robert in his latter days done it all the time--fantastic crosses when he had looked up and saw there wasn't anyone there) give me a scott sellars any day. wasn't fast by any stretch and didn't have to go outside but had the strange idea of passing to players on his team, ably assisted by players moving into space..............it's a simple game really.

doubt he will for james milner will wake up in the morning, arise from pies mams bed,ruffle the little fellas hair and say "no you aren't getting a free ticket you little pikey"

it seems strange that he gets slagged off by so many who dont know what goes on yet he's been kept there by every manager since keegan.

who's wife did he sleep with...his own or lyons ?

or the scotland job...either way i doubt collins will have time to sign on the dole.

how about...............................................ralf keidel

2 on sunday

pr, sellable asset, spend loads of money straight away etc etc you forgot a mackems.gif or two

i'll wait for the evidence before deciding....i'm weird that way.

the forwards have to work for it aswell. no matter how good a cross it is we'll not score if both forwards are not reading where it's going.

True, expecting a winger to cross a ball accurately is clearly being too picky. With the standard around ATM you'll be hard pressed to find many wingers that can cross accurately on a regular basis outside of the Ronaldos of this world. I don't know whether it's a dying art but there's certainly a dearth of quality wingers in the league. a dearth of quality forwards to read where an instinctive cross is going......even beckahm and giggs at their peaks often just put the ball in the right areas and two instinctive well drilled forwards done the rest Yeah true. Michael Owen and Mark Viduka have a record of not knowing where the ball is going...... how many game s have they played for us ? do you think viduka viduka is fully fit ? or do you think viduka is a poacher type of forward ?

if you play well constantly but lose you think it will turn for you...if you pick up points while playing consistently poor you think you will eventually get caught. When we are playing poor and picking up points i think that it means there is more to come from players. Football is all about opinions, it depend on whether your a glass half full or empty guy. Sadly most people on here are half empty but claim to be realistic. i'm unsure the tactics of our manager will get better performances from our players