Big Geordie

0-2 - Santa Cruz Game over

1-0 Samba

Sounds like we've not made the best start. Blackburn had some good chances already. Gonna be a long afternoon.....

Atmosphere sounds good on the radio.

Oh great -just hope the wife doesn't go into labour on the Tues, if the bairn is a bit late!

It's as bad a time for me, since the playoff defeat to Sunderland in 1990.

It's bizarre choice, but one which reflects a desperate situation. Of course, there'll be nothing in the fact that he's an old mate of Wise, who to all intensive purposes - appears to have been running the club for the last few months. I wish Joe the best - just hope that the 'scorched earth' policy that this board seem to have for the club at present, won't leave terminal damage once the buyout goes through.

Robster.

What did the protests achieve exactly? All it did was provoke Ashley into publicly putting the club up for sale, which has left us in limbo. If it had never happened we may have had a new manager by now. Quite a few of us said protests would make the situation worse, don't shoot us for being right. If anything, it gave Ashley the excuse to sell up - given the rumours that had persisted for months. I'll say again, that if you choose to keep your mouth shut, then you have to accept what you are given.

Can't believe folk are still blaming the reaction of the fans? The club (whoever it has been ran by) has taken the piss out of us for years and people had finally had enough with the latest debacle. No protests mean that you have to accept how your club is ran and also be prepared to take what you are served with. That's what's happened for the last 40/50 years and look what it's got us - 1 Fairs Cup when it should have been a lot more.

My thoughts exactly.

A good piece from The Times - post the Spurs result; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article4821825.ece From The Times September 25, 2008 Loyalty no longer a black-and-white issue George Caulkin Newcastle United do not lift trophies, they win hearts. At a club who have failed to claim domestic silverware for 53 years, achievement must be measured by different means, and garlands are strewn at St James’ Park whenever the attendance is announced. XXL support for size-zero rewards has been the norm on Tyneside, but these are abnormal times. There were no protests outside the stadium last night — and not a single member of the hierarchy to aim them at — and no banners were hoisted in the Leazes End. And yet a statement, of sorts, was made. Whether the cause was borne of financial hardship, the presence of the live television cameras or the slow torture of underachievement and betrayal, a message was delivered to Mike Ashley, the owner. For many clubs, an attendance of 20,577 for a Carling Cup third-round tie would be the cause of celebration rather than navel-gazing, but Newcastle are judged by higher standards. Loyalty is less a badge of honour than a curse, but since the departure of Kevin Keegan as manager, loyalty is not a simple concept. For a significant number of supporters, loyalty now means constructive rebellion. The newly established Newcastle United Supporters Club (NUSC) does not advocate a boycott of matches but channelling an altered reality into something positive will be its challenge. “NUSC believes that an organised supporters group is long overdue at Newcastle United,” it said in a statement yesterday. “It has the most passionate and loyal supporters in the country, but they are without an organised voice. We have been taken for granted too long and things must now change.” Until Ashley leaves, fans are being urged not to spend their money on official club products. Newcastle are a club with no manager, an absentee owner and a directors’ box that, shamefully, stands empty. They are defined by their supporters, whose loyalty is no longer one-way or open-ended.

Sadly, Butt and Cacapa were probably our only options in the middle of the park tonight. Highlights the lack of depth in the squad and the tremendous work of Wise and Jiminez.

I must be in the minority, but I thought Butt did OK tonight and was perhaps the best of a bad bunch. At least he tried to make things happen, rather than hide as others did. The blame needs to be pointed elsewhere, IMO.

He was awful.

Rubbish tonight, but not unexpected. Too many of our lot using the off the field problems as an excuse to hide behind. I expect a rash of transfer requests going in, in January. Rats deserting a sinking ship indeed. An interim manager won't sort this lot out - the club needs selling and quickly.

Christ - I hope not for Gazza's sake. Horrible news is it's true.

Can I just say that YouTube video is awful. Who the hell goes out of their way to film a man who clearly has massive problems? Scum.

To some earlier posts - no way in the world that Shearer would touch the job at the moment. He's been too critical of the Ashley regime to be considered.

From The Times; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/martin_samuel/article4799320.ece From The Times September 22, 2008 Hard to feel charitable towards Newcastle Newcastle's Michael Owen looks dejected Martin Samuel, Chief Football Correspondent It was only a charity do – a dinner at the Hilton hotel in Gateshead for the Prince’s Trust – but in the community it meant a lot. So Gareth Southgate, the Middlesbrough manager, was there and he had brought his players, including Stewart Downing, the England winger, and David Wheater. Sunderland sent Anton Ferdinand, one of their new signings, and Craig Gordon, the Scotland goalkeeper. And representing Newcastle United: nobody. “Magpies snub kids” the headlines read, but this was a clumsy oversight, not a snub; a slip that encapsulates the rudderless mess that the club have become. The same absence of purpose and responsibility weighs down each aspect of Mike Ashley’s floundering regime. From the pitch to the board-room, Newcastle have become a big no-show. The directors are too frightened to turn up and the players are hiding behind excuses, while the management thinks that each day could be its last. It is not a recipe for disaster because, in terms of the direction the club are taking, that has happened. It is a recipe for relegation. Footballers do a lot for charity, but like most of us they need a nudge. That is why fundraisers exist – to organise and direct donations and to jog the consciences of those in a position to help. If we put our hands in our pockets without reminders, we wouldn’t need Lenny Henry and Comic Relief every two years. And, hey, that sounds like a fair exchange, but the point is it would have taken a bit of cajoling and work to get all the local celebrities in the same place on the same night in Gateshead. Related Links * Northern shock strikes fear into Ashley * Liverpool and United relegated to margins Southgate’s presence would have helped to get Middlesbrough’s star players along and one look from Roy Keane would probably have done it at Sunderland. Even so, behind the scenes there would still have been a put-upon club official making sure that this famously unreliable breed knew times and places, dress codes, whether a car would take them home, whether there would be an auction or a raffle and if memorabilia was required or had already been donated. A reminder of the good cause in question might have been necessary, too. Except at Newcastle, where no one bothered because everyone is too busy looking over their shoulders for an angry mob, or a new manager, or Dennis Wise, or an Arab sheikh with £400 million burning a hole in his pocket that he is just looking to sink into an expanding black-and-white abyss. Even if someone had rallied Newcastle’s players into attendance, the last thing they want is to spend the night in a room full of ticked-off Geordies, tongues and inhibitions loosened by hours at the bar. Handed an invitation, the players would have shuffled awkwardly, offered a few lame excuses and made a sharp exit. And, right now, no one at Newcastle has the authority to stop them. It is an indictment of Ashley’s regime that Freddy Shepherd, the former chairman, is increasingly remembered with fondness. Who is in charge here? Who was in charge as the club slipped into the relegation zone on Saturday, with no prospect of a steadying hand on the tiller? Chris Hughton is the caretaker manager, but no one is taking care of this club. There is a void filled only with angry voices and the occasional bleating of the owner and now the players have gone into hiding, too. The turmoil has become mitigation for performances that have worsened since Kevin Keegan departed. Newcastle were poor against Arsenal in Keegan’s last game, but now the players have an excuse. Meanwhile, Ashley is flying around the world in a desperate attempt to hawk the club to a buyer as impetuous and foolish as he was. He has an executive structure that acts as a repellent for any manager of substance, a painfully underpowered squad of players and an overpowered mutinous army of supporters. But if he will not turn up for games, why should anyone else? No one is poking his head above deck at Newcastle, for any cause, and certainly not for charity. The ship is drifting and the crew is nowhere to be seen. Some compare Newcastle to the Titanic. Not quite: it’s the Mary Celeste. ----------------- I remember The Three Legends came live from this doo and they too wondered if anyone from Newcastle would turn up. Am not surprised that no-one did. Either the players have been told to keep quiet/out of the public view (where they maybe questioned) - or they may well indeed be keeping low through choice. Either way - not good and hardly helps the clubs awful PR record.

Seems to be par for the course with many young footballer's today, sadly. Big Time Charlie syndrome.

Neil Farrington

From today's Independent. It'll probably be dismissed as the views of an outsider, but the fact is, any buyer of the club is more than likely going to be an outsider. We really need Geordie businessmen to stand up and be counted. I'm sick of all this bullshit about the fans demanding instant success. It's complete rot and yet it's wheeled out time and time again by the media and fans of other clubs. Most of us want to see the team playing good football and progressing. This demanding titles/cups is nothing more than a red herring to shift the blame onto the supporters.

I would have gone, but with cash being tight and things the way the are at the club at the moment, I'll make do with watching on Sky.

Well written and I'll go with most of that. Just waiting for the scorn to be poured upon it though.