I wonder what you thought of the Rooney bid by Shepherd, somehow hypocrite comes to mind, not that that's new as we've spent more in the last two windows than we did in the two before that while being in a similar position, I don't remember you moaning back them.
I can understand a player preferring to sign for ManU, but Spurs ? Strange that isn't it, we lost 2 of our best ever players to Spurs in the 1980's and you defend that board too........yet slate the board who didn't lose our best players and signed quality ones instead.
Where did you go wrong in the logic stakes I wonder
Didn't we lose Andy Cole to Man Utd.? Ferdinand and Ginola to Spurs? And can anyone honestly say, that hand on heart, they believe Shearer would have signed for us had he not been a Geordie?
Managers decisions.
I know some people won't get it and you were one.
There is clearly no point in trying to explain to you why players like Gazza and Waddle [and Beardsley] wanted to leave the club, as it won't change your "opinion".
Cheers
I responded to this post as an after-thought. Please respond to my response to your previous response.
bloody hell! some response that was
cheers
in fact, I left the real biggie to see if you would see the point.
Please explain to us the difference between Beardsley, Wadddle and Gazza leaving the club - 2 of them staunch NUFC fans and Beardsley in particular who waved to the Kop his future employers while wearing a black and white shirt. Whereas Shearer [better than all of them] stayed with his club ?
Now. I just KNOW that this won' t attract an intelligent response, including from the likes of MICK who says he has also seen this era of the club, which must a clear lie because nobody that I know personally that witnessed the 30 years previouis to 1992 has the view that this particular KBJ does
The whole scenario of someone slating the owners of the club like MICK does who attracted him back to the club is fantastically unbelievable.
These 20000 supporters who will support the club for evermore and all of that............
Whatever did they do on saturday afternoons before IKEA opened
Well I've never claimed to know more about the club than your good self for several reasons. Mainly that you are older than I am, and you have been a supporter for a lot longer than I have (only been supporting the club for 16 years). Now I can only comment about Shearer for obvious reasons.
Shearer never left the club because the club was able to continue to pay his massive wages. Also because we had a chairman and board who were willing to splash the cash on managers and big name players, and always had an ambition to try and win something. This naturally appealed to Shearer. Add to that the fact that he loved being the local hero who was chasing Milburn's record. I guess year in year out he felt there was hope that this would be the year when things would turn around (especially after the Gullit fiasco). However, I wonder if he would have left the club had SBR not joined. By his own admission, SBR revived his career.
I had a face to face encounter with Gazza, and this is a true story, when he had just joined Rangers. The scots were in Cyprus to play Anorthosis in the champions league qualifiers. We had just signed Barton and Ferdinand, and were heavily linked with Gazza at the time. I met him in the gym at the hotel where the team was staying, and i asked him why didnt come back to newcastle. Gazza smiled and said "because they're crap!!". I looked at him confused, and said I thought Newcastle could do very well and that I was hoping we'd push for the title, and told him it was better than the mickey mouse league he was in. He laughed and said "I know mate, I'm only joking. They're my team, and I wish. but my time with them is finished. I hope they win the league too ya knaa".
Beardsley left to win things, as the club wasn't in good shape at the time. But he did come back when Keegan spoke to him and told him all about his and the board's vision for the future. Waddle I don't know much about at all tbh.
Now, you keep avoiding the point that we ALL (including Mick) agree that the club was s***, and thanks to the Halls/Shepherd we progressively became less s***, and eventually turned into perennial big hitters. But you must admit that at some point, the Halls/Shepherd took a wrong turn somewhere, and one mistake led to another and another and the club is NOT as highly rated as it was in '96 let's say. Sure, they made a lot of lasting improvements, such as the stadium, global profile etc.... but they took their eyes off the ball when it came down to footballing matters, and we have slipped down in that regard. I don't think anyone can deny that fact.
There is a new regime in place, who have taken over the club BECAUSE of these strengths that the Halls/Shepherd installed. However, they have also pointed out the weaknesses that always stopped us from taking it that one extra step and pushing for winners' medals. They can see the same potential the Halls/Shepherd (god im sick of typing that) saw, and they want to try and do it their own way.
What everyone is saying is that these fellas deserve the time to realise their vision, and two half-transfer windows is by no means enough time.
Also, what do you think of Keegan's comments where he says that it was HIS choice not to bring in players? Isnt it your view that the board should follow the manager;s instructions? Isn't that backing the manager? as much as it is backing him with cash when he pinpoints a player or two he would like? I'm curious to know your take. We've heard it from the horse's mouth.
Well, those first few paragraphs are exactly what I've tried to tell people all along.
Where it falls down is the venom aimed at Shepherd [but oddly not the Halls] for making a bad appointment and thus losing their way. Somewhere among all this comes a lack of appreciation of what they did for the club, and ALSO a lack of understanding of the qualities a good board needs to display, the main thing being showing ambition for the club.
Older supporters should not need to be told that owners of the club who don't have ambition to the club, are absolutely useless to the club, even if they are the most sooper dooper blokes in the world.
And - here is the real big hit - anyone who doesn't show the same ambition that the Halls and Shepherd showed for the club, will NEVER match them. People who slate them for attempting to achieve success are basically clueless in my opinion. Its the main thing you want from a board. Even if they make a poor appointment, they sack him and move on to someone else. Its the ambition that counts. I find it completely amazing that people appear to think that we have to make a successful appointment every time, do they think all those other clubs out there are going to lie down and let us get the best people.
Astonishing naivety. Replacing the Halls and Shepherd was never going to be easy, its absolutely amazing that people seemed to think it would be, and that Ashley is better already when he's proved nothing, other than tempting Keegan back. So far.
Me ? I'll believe it when I see it. The fact that Keegan is back tells me that he will show ambition for the club, unless they have lied to him, but the noises coming out of the club suggest they are naive and don't understand football. That will have to change, and quickly.
When it boils down to it, they have to match the Champions League qualifications and the 3 highest consecutive league positions achieved in 50 years, that the last board did, to equal them. Despite them being slated as "incompetent, embarrassing" blah blah, this is a fact. And to better them they have to top it off with a trophy or sustain this position longer. If you or anyone thinks the last decade or so has been embarrassing, you quite simply don't know the meaning of the word. It is fantastically amusing that people who are simply anti-Shepherd for any reason at all find themselves unable to admit this FACT.
I will tell you now, if this club ignores the current and short term future, hoping to achieve success on the cheap, they will pay for it. And so will we as supporters. Guaranteed. The best time to play in europe is now, not in 2 years time or 6 years time if all we are going to bring into the club is 17 year old bairns, most of which will disappear anyway. I'm not really bothered anyone about the comments of people who simply just bash the old board for anything they did because they called our women dogs, and got up to unsavoury things or any other such rubbish. Nobody on here is a paragon of virtue. Their role is to run the football club, and try to be successful through backing their managers as much as possible. Nothing more, nothing less.
I simply don't accept that anyone is better simply on the back of having good PR. The best PR in football is winning football matches. And the only real PR that I'm interested in.
I'm not sure about Keegans comments. He was so adamant that he wanted someone, and we know he has drive to succeed like yesterday, that is his great strength. Also losing Woodgate to a club like Spurs, and bringing Dennis Wise in. I find it hard to believe that he is happy with all of this. It's only because its Keegan saying it, that I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. What will you say if we slide down the table ?
Great Fabio Zamblera post that is!
