Wullie

No it couldn't. How do you know that?

Shearer wouldn't take the job in a month of Sundays.

Sned, do you know if conviction of a traffic offence like jumping a red light could activate Barton's suspended sentence?

Watch some of it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/football_focus/7601172.stm

I think we'll see Poyet at SJP before long. With another fucking lip on as Oba demolishes his detestable little club for the fifth time. Fucking arsehole.

That first bloke in the barbers.

Only if the club is on the stock market surely? I don't know like, plus it's nonsense anyway.

Fuck me, the great man himself's just been on Look North.

I want Shearer but only as long as I can be in the room the first time Wise tries to tell him what to do.

I know one thing, the SJP irony-o-meter will blow the roof off the Gallowgate when the players walk out to Local Hero.

But Dennis Wise has? Righto.

What? People identify players. Scouts watch them. The manager ok's it. That's how clubs work. As I say, I don't believe Keegan didn't have final say, apart from maybe one decision on deadline day. I think it was more than one decision (apparently trying to peddle Owen and Barton for a start) and them being in control of deals basically allowed them to take the piss - "Yeah course we'll spend the Milner money and get a left back, don't you worry about a thing Kev... *snigger*"

Exactly. Why haven't Wenger and Benitez put this thing into their clubs? And why did it drive Mourinho from Chelsea? There's three of the best "continental" managers on the... continent, and they're having none of it. Maybe because the bigger clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool can have their pick of players, so they don't have to have people scouting the untapped market? Aye, that sounds like Arsenal alright. Glad you mentioned that. Wenger didn't choose Fabregas, in the same way that he didn't want Overmars to leave. Wenger got to reinvest the Overmars money on his own players didn't he? And what do you mean he didn't choose Fabregas?

What?

Exactly. Why haven't Wenger and Benitez put this thing into their clubs? And why did it drive Mourinho from Chelsea? There's three of the best "continental" managers on the... continent, and they're having none of it. Maybe because the bigger clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool can have their pick of players, so they don't have to have people scouting the untapped market? Aye, that sounds like Arsenal alright.

For the umpteenth time, that appears to be what was happening until the later stages of the deadline when they started going over his head. I've not read your previous posts on the subject, so apologies. Are we to believe that Keegan left the club at this stage of the season over one disagreement then? Fair enough, the place is being swamped. I think he was delighted with Jonas and Colo (his reaction to them suggests that), they scouted them, even if KK doesn't see much of them they can say "Jonas is peanuts, won't affect the budget, Redknapp wanted to pay £8m in January" while Colo's record speaks for itself. When this window shut, not many people were altogether happy with the business that was done. I believe KK was given certain assurances (a LB and re-investment of the Milner money for a start, plus what we should be spending anyway as a very rich Premiership club) and he went with it until the last day when he found he'd been given false promises. I think he trusted them too much to get in the players that he believed he needed - he's the one that has to work with them and he's the one who gets the bullet if they're shit/injuries take hold and we don't have the numbers. If he'd walked on the 1st August, plenty would have said "he should have waited until the end of the window to see what we had, they've got good players so far, maybe at the end we'll have a top six side but he's bottled it again." Damned if he did, damned if he didn't and there is an argument to be made that he could have stuck it out until January, whatever, but at the end of the day, "it's not what it said in the brochure" - that goes for both KK and the fans.

Exactly. Why haven't Wenger and Benitez put this thing into their clubs? And why did it drive Mourinho from Chelsea? There's three of the best "continental" managers on the... continent, and they're having none of it.

For the umpteenth time, that appears to be what was happening until the later stages of the deadline when they started going over his head.

Why would English football revert to the "continental" style when English clubs have totally dominated the Champions League over the past five years? Sounds more to me like the Europeans (and I'm not even sure how widespread this phenomenon really is tbh) should go back to how a football club should be run.

I'd love to hear Alex Ferguson's take on that. "Sorry Alex, you're only the manager, we're not obliged to buy who you want." "Bye." Pretty sure he threatened to walk when they didn't want to buy Dwight Yorke. Ferguson's forte has always been building young sides and buying players before their transfer value has peaked. KK usually goes for established stars (the list in the Times might be bullshit, but it does sound like a Keegan list). Bottom line: I don't think Ashley wanted to spend the sort of money it would take to get the players Keegan wanted. In which case it was probably a mistake to make him manager. He didn't want to spend any money apparently. There's no way a Premiership club pulling in 52,000 people with no debt, increased tv money and three seasons worth of season ticket cash should be breaking even on transfers. Not saying don't get bargains, but if KK wanted to spend some money on players he thought would improve the squad, he should have been allowed - after all, he made it clear when he joined that he believed there was significant finance there. Ashley wouldn't have to put his hand in his own pocket, the club makes enough money. Funny how plenty folk last week were convinced he wanted average Premiership players and now the same people are convinced he wanted Thierry Henry. Again - one extreme to the other. Kevin Keegan's not fucking stupid.

I do feel sort of sorry for those two. They won't be popular, and it really isn't their fault. Bollocks. The former that is, not the latter.

He might be a cock but you've got to respect him for working hard and becoming one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership.

I'd love to hear Alex Ferguson's take on that. "Sorry Alex, you're only the manager, we're not obliged to buy who you want." "Bye." Pretty sure he threatened to walk when they didn't want to buy Dwight Yorke.

Fuck knows. SSN earlier on had a list of the seven quickest managerial departures in a Premiership season and four of them were ours. Ridiculous.

I don't think there was a problem with Keegan's on field coaching and motivating. The conflict arose because KK wanted more say on transfer matters, and it's a fair point that he had little knowledge of emerging talent or the world transfer market. Deep down everyone knows that. Isn't that what scouts are for? Seems like, as usual on here, there's black and white and nothing in the middle. a) Keegan has players signed for him and likes it or b) Keegan has to have an in-depth knowledge of every player in the world and spend his spare days jetting off to watch a Bolivian second division game. Can't I have c) he's a normal manager who has scouts like every other manager in the world (apart from these really successful continental ones who keep getting their arses handed to them by English clubs with English systems)? For c) Keegan would have to be happy with what his scouts were reporting and recommending. If that was the case why would there have been a problem in the first place? Keegan wanted players from his own list to be bought, and i doubt they included Xisco, Jonas, Nacho whats-is-face etc. He was happy with them when he was getting to oversee the deals and not having them signed when he specifically does not want them. Is that so difficult to grasp? Keegan on Jonas: Aye he sounds gutted to have him. Again, we come back to a) or b) and no c) in the middle: just because KK didn't want players signed and sold behind his back doesn't NECESSARILY mean that he hates Jonas and Colo and wants to kick fuck out of the pair of them.