Wullie

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)?

Speak for yourself. I was over the moon, as were many. If I'd known the manager wasn't going to be the manager, maybe I'd have thought differently.

And has he ever seen David Ginola, Andy Cole or Robert Lee play?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article4678988.ece Guys I really think we are going to have to come to terms with the fact Keegan was trying desperately to convince the owner to spend the type of money he didn't want to and was ultimately unsuccesful. He wasn't aware of enough emerging talent, which was the type of squad we wanted to build, and therefore players were brought in for him. He was simply the wrong man to hire. He got caught up in a billionaire taking over as most did, and wanted a ton of big players, but this was never Ashley's plan. Aye righto.

Yeah he's gone. All that fuss when KK arrived over what Owen said in his autobiography, KK not only killed it stone dead within days but got Owen scoring for fun. Testament to the man.

Have you got room for flaming torches on this bus?

Fair bit fundamentally wrong with the bit in bold, Wenger and Fergie werent employed with a particular structure bandied in front of them, at pompey Redknapp had a DoF appointed over his head and he quit accordingly. The same definitely cant be said of keegan, he knew the direction, he knew the new structure and when the going got tough he backed out at the worst possible time, this whole thing in my opinion has come withihn the last few days starting with Milner, that to me suggests that he was tolerable of alot of what was happening previously, he was happy to admit that he didnt know about Guttirez but was pleased but when a few things didnt go his way in an extremely short period of time things quickly turned sour for him. I just dont see the action that he's taken to be equaliative to the issues which have literally arisen within the last few days, starting with Milner. Happy, with Colo and Guttirez and Guthrie and Bassong - recruitement apparently out of his hands at this point. Unhappy with Milner going for extortionate price and us signing Xisco and Nacho - time to resign? Just doesnt add up - HOWEVER id like to say that despite all this i DO believe theres a big elelemnt of repsoiblity whihc needs to be attributed to Ashley and Co - together all 4/5 of them have f***ed this club royally for the forseeable future. No, sorry, but you're wrong. The club have told us time and time again that KK has final say on any transfers. It is clearly obvious that was a lie and there's every chance KK was under exactly the same impression until this late stage of the window when things started getting tight. The fact that the signings have looked good (so far) is irrelevant. There is a reason why the manager gets paid more than the chief scout. Spotting a good player from an Argentinian international (not that Jonas wasnt a good find) is much much easier than managing a Premier League club successfully. Hold ya horses there...thats something that Keegan has reiterated himself. Not just the club as your implying. In fact, Keegan must of known it was a lie the second Jonas was signed - whats the deal then? He seemed happy to me then - even admitting that it wasnt him who signed him, he didnt need to say Milner was sold by him but he did....why? if your fundamental priciples are being undermined by the superiors? Why is it that he's happy to have Jonas sign, no quitting even though he's been apprently lied to, but when Xisco and Nacho are signed, all of a sudden he';s having "players forced upon him" Not quite adding up there, Wullie. Why must he have known it was a lie when Jonas was signed? He was signed in June, more than enough time for KK to have a look at some footage, see if he likes what he sees. August 30th on the other hand, when they're running round like blue arsed flies trying to get the players they hadn't managed to acquire in three months previously, there's every chance they just went into deals without consulting him. KK never shut up about how good Jonas was all summer - I have no doubt he was happy with the purchase. When the "transfer team" are acting as basically chief scouts, that's fine. When they're signing players behind the manager's back and in fact actively signing players he does not want, that's not fine.

bit of a straw man argument as you seem to think people assume keegan has no flaws. but that's wrong - the keegan that nufc fans love is the one that made the "i'd Love it if we beat them, love it" statement, the one we know is emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve. it is this passion and the desire to challenge things head on that has partly caused this situation. people arent denying that - they're just looking at it a bit more deeply than you are and looking at what caused keegan to go head to head with llambias, rather than just focusing on the act of confrontation itself as if it existed in a vacuum - without very real problems and underlying issues that, i presume, still exist at the club and will be probably be causing the new man the exact same problems 8 months down the line. similar problems have caused Curbishley to walk out at west ham, or Mourinho to leave Chelsea, or Redknapp to leave Southampton. Exactly. I don't think KK doesn't have any flaws, he has many and some of them are what make him great but when I see him on the touchline, even when N'Zogbia is at left back or when Damien Duff is allowed to be alive, I support him because no matter what, I always, always believe that he is doing what he feels is best for NUFC. He doesn't let personal stuff get in the way of what he feels is the best thing for the club, he doesn't pick certain players to prove a point and he doesn't let his headstrong attitude ever get in the way of the football club. I can't say that about any other manager I've seen at NUFC (even Sir Bobby, bless him). He also happens to be a f***ing good manager who plays football the way it should be played. If Arsenal forced Wenger out tomorrow, or Man Utd Fergie, their fans would be just as livid as we are. It's not a case of supporting KK, it's a case of wanting the best man for the job and for me that was KK. If he'd been doing a s*** job and had to go, fair enough, but to see him leave for non-footballing reasons, forced out by people who couldn't give a f*** about the club, leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Ironic that we spoke to Redknapp in January too, as you say Johnny. He also left Pompey because of that Croatian bloke in the background, now he's come back, gets to buy his own players and he's doing a far superior job to first time round. Funny that isn't it? Fair bit fundamentally wrong with the bit in bold, Wenger and Fergie werent employed with a particular structure bandied in front of them, at pompey Redknapp had a DoF appointed over his head and he quit accordingly. The same definitely cant be said of keegan, he knew the direction, he knew the new structure and when the going got tough he backed out at the worst possible time, this whole thing in my opinion has come withihn the last few days starting with Milner, that to me suggests that he was tolerable of alot of what was happening previously, he was happy to admit that he didnt know about Guttirez but was pleased but when a few things didnt go his way in an extremely short period of time things quickly turned sour for him. I just dont see the action that he's taken to be equaliative to the issues which have literally arisen within the last few days, starting with Milner. Happy, with Colo and Guttirez and Guthrie and Bassong - recruitement apparently out of his hands at this point. Unhappy with Milner going for extortionate price and us signing Xisco and Nacho - time to resign? Just doesnt add up - HOWEVER id like to say that despite all this i DO believe theres a big elelemnt of repsoiblity whihc needs to be attributed to Ashley and Co - together all 4/5 of them have fucked this club royally for the forseeable future. No, sorry, but you're wrong. The club have told us time and time again that KK has final say on any transfers. It is clearly obvious that was a lie and there's every chance KK was under exactly the same impression until this late stage of the window when things started getting tight. The fact that the signings have looked good (so far) is irrelevant. There is a reason why the manager gets paid more than the chief scout. Spotting a good player from an Argentinian international (not that Jonas wasnt a good find) is much much easier than managing a Premier League club successfully.

For once there aren't all that many players I can't stomach. I'd wager they're as gutted as the rest of us. Unlike previous sackings, none of this is their fault.

Hear hear.

bit of a straw man argument as you seem to think people assume keegan has no flaws. but that's wrong - the keegan that nufc fans love is the one that made the "i'd Love it if we beat them, love it" statement, the one we know is emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve. it is this passion and the desire to challenge things head on that has partly caused this situation. people arent denying that - they're just looking at it a bit more deeply than you are and looking at what caused keegan to go head to head with llambias, rather than just focusing on the act of confrontation itself as if it existed in a vacuum - without very real problems and underlying issues that, i presume, still exist at the club and will be probably be causing the new man the exact same problems 8 months down the line. similar problems have caused Curbishley to walk out at west ham, or Mourinho to leave Chelsea, or Redknapp to leave Southampton. Exactly. I don't think KK doesn't have any flaws, he has many and some of them are what make him great but when I see him on the touchline, even when N'Zogbia is at left back or when Damien Duff is allowed to be alive, I support him because no matter what, I always, always believe that he is doing what he feels is best for NUFC. He doesn't let personal stuff get in the way of what he feels is the best thing for the club, he doesn't pick certain players to prove a point and he doesn't let his headstrong attitude ever get in the way of the football club. I can't say that about any other manager I've seen at NUFC (even Sir Bobby, bless him). He also happens to be a fucking good manager who plays football the way it should be played. If Arsenal forced Wenger out tomorrow, or Man Utd Fergie, their fans would be just as livid as we are. It's not a case of supporting KK, it's a case of wanting the best man for the job and for me that was KK. If he'd been doing a shit job and had to go, fair enough, but to see him leave for non-footballing reasons, forced out by people who couldn't give a fuck about the club, leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Ironic that we spoke to Redknapp in January too, as you say Johnny. He also left Pompey because of that Croatian bloke in the background, now he's come back, gets to buy his own players and he's doing a far superior job to first time round. Funny that isn't it?

If more people in the game were like KK, it wouldn't be in the state it's in right now.

I'd imagine the end of the transfer window exacerbated things. He seemed confident in getting the players he wanted when we sold Milner. Obviously he didn't.

I said earlier, I was really enjoying going to the match again. Win, lose or draw, the heart was back in the club after a series of managers who were a mixture of wet and uninspiring, totally inept and/or absolute cunts. KK is the antithesis of every one of them and that heart has just been ripped out.

Don't talk shit. Who the fuck do you think gets the blame if they're shite? How often do we say of a new manager "he needs time to get his own team together" and you reckon that he shouldn't get the opportunity at all? Give your head a fucking shake.

Or simply a good coach and tactician who can get the best from what he's got, as is commonplace around Europe. One wonders how Fergie, Benitez and Wenger (the latter two are foreign and choose their own players) continue to dominate proceedings... They also have bottomless pits are able to attract Tevez, Berbatov, Rooney, Torres, etc. I'm sure if we could attract those players and could afford it, we'd let Keegan do what he likes. Also, if Wise/Jimenez/Ashley/Llambias had came in on Monday night and went to Keegan, "Here you go, here's Robinho for you". Would he have walked off because he didn't make that decision? B*llocks man. The only reason Fergie has a bottomless pit is because he's been the best manager in Europe for 15 years and built the club up into a monster... by buying his own players. As for the suggestion that Wenger and Benitez have bottomless pits, that's absolutely laughable. Compared to Barcelona? To Real Madrid? Liverpool reached two Champions League finals before anyone had even mentioned Fernando Torres. He won the Champions League with Baros, Kewell and Traore. The manager is the most important person at the club, not some lackey who can spot a good player (and KK could spot a brilliant player anyway). Why do you think the manager gets paid more than the chief scout?

Or simply a good coach and tactician who can get the best from what he's got, as is commonplace around Europe. One wonders how Fergie, Benitez and Wenger (the latter two are foreign and choose their own players) continue to dominate proceedings...

Get them on the phone.

Will Ashley/Llambias/Wise be on the steps of the Milburn stand explaining their decision? Will they fuck. No bottle, no honour.

That's apparently ok. It's "continental". Funny how Jose was sick over the same thing. the only way i can see it working is if the new boss is totally ok with just being a coach and not having final say over transfers, someone comfortable with working with the likes of wise and jiminez. who would that be? Poyet? Aye, assistant boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and first team coach, Don Hutchison. Bit pathetic taking an unwelcoming stance against a manager who played well against NUFC once or twice. Fuck off.

Absolutely.

That's apparently ok. It's "continental". Funny how Jose was sick over the same thing. the only way i can see it working is if the new boss is totally ok with just being a coach and not having final say over transfers, someone comfortable with working with the likes of wise and jiminez. who would that be? Poyet? Aye, assistant boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and first team coach, Don Hutchison.

That's apparently ok. It's "continental". Funny how Jose was sick over the same thing. the only way i can see it working is if the new boss is totally ok with just being a coach and not having final say over transfers, someone comfortable with working with the likes of wise and jiminez. who would that be? Poyet? Aye, assistant boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and first team coach, Don Hutchison.

Bottled it, my arse. Like Wenger or Fergie would stand for what KK's had to put up with.

That's apparently ok. It's "continental". Funny how Jose was sick over the same thing.