UV

I love how in all these Jackanory stories of what's gone on behind the scenes, Keegan is portrayed as a stubborn old man who's been out of the game for decades and has only ever heard of Beckham, Zidane and Pele, completely resistant to anyone's opinion other than his own. While Wise is a young Arsene Wenger with an encyclopedic knowledge of the brightest young players throughout Europe, no doubt built up while looking for players for Millwall, Swindon and Leeds. If only that silly old man had listened to our brave young hero we'd be winning the league in no time

Thank goodness we've at long last got people at the club who can scour the world for hidden gems like an Argentinian international playing in the Spanish Pimera going for a snip at £10m. Collocini is a good/decent player in Spain/at international level. Great. Go scouting team! The proof of their ability as scouts will be if he adapts to the Premier League. I know some have already branded him a success, but I'm reserving judgment for now - there have been definite weaknesses shown in his game so far. Boumsong and Rozehnal came with similar pedigrees and looked promising at first too. Let's see how he copes with the expectations that come with his price tag, and how he does when he's inevitably labeled by the media (rightly or wrongly) with the dodgy Newcastle defender stereotype. Alongside the blatant, clear, definite improvement to the squad most were convinced of this time last year I guess we should be looking forward to taking one of those Champions League places. Choo Choo, all aboard the train to delusionville, first stop overrate new players city.

Exactly. Do they all employ DOF with zero experience of the job or standing in the game too?

then you admit employing Keegan was a mistake? For "the system" to work he was a terrible choice. To sell season tickets, great idea.

Andy Gray made the comment during the Man U match that if Jonas continued to show what he had in that game then one of the bigger teams would be in for him - nauseating but true - and suits Ashley. Let's hope we don't sign any more good prospects in case he wants to sell them on at a profit Aye. My point is that if he were showing the slightest ambition to actually build a successful FOOTBALL club rather than a successful business we could look forward to good players staying rather than waiting for the big boys to come knocking. THeres a difference between accepting it as part of life and relishing it as this regime look like doing. You could at least wait till he's put up for sale before letting your imagination run riot. Milner ticks all the boxes in the checklist of the players we are supposed to be attracting to the club. The club let his contract dispute drag on throughout the Summer and then dismissed it without compromise. They then sold him to a (supposedly) rival club without replacement. They even rushed the transfer through to our detriment and Villa's gain. Arguments about Milner's ability and his worth are irrelevant. This was the act of someone running the club where financial gain comes first and foremost before on-field success. The owner's intentions are clear. You don't need imagination when you have proof.

Despite having roughly half our turnover, Everton outspent us this Summer and last, so I can't see Moyes chomping at the bit to join us. Maybe he's keen to be relieved of the pressure of choosing who plays for him though, I don't know.

Hang on, this is supposed to be a defense of Ashley?

And more importantly, he recognised that the manager was taking us nowhere and made a change. At the time people thought he was incredible - and that was only a few months ago. We'll never get anywhere if we judge people over this kind of time frame. Whether it's on managers appointed/sacked, players signed, money spent or whatever, less than a year is a stupid time period to try and assess a new owner. So is Ashley stupid for judging Allardyce in half a season then? What about the people who have already judged "the system" to be a success worthy of sacrificing the manager who single handedly saved us from relegation apparently?

I hardly think we've got the most secure of futures now, do you? We lost a manager. I hardly think that jeopardizes the future of the club. We'll get a new manager and move on. Yeah, into the Championship... Funny you should mention that, don't forget that's where we would be right now if Ashley hadn't come in and made changes when he did. Very true. Ah yes, I was forgetting about all those signings we made in January to address the obvious weaknesses in the team.

With the structure that has been put in place which the club are now claiming has been the case since Keegan was hired, what has happened with Keegan was totally inevitable sooner or later to anyone with even the most vague knowledge of the man. With what we are being told now, how can you say that it was a good appointment except from a financial point of view for Ashley (getting supporters to buy advance STs on the back of his appointment)? At best it was an incompetent appointment for the system to work, at worst a cynical one. no chance then, that as it was his first ever managerial appointment that he thought he might be able to get it all to work then? ashley i mean UV as always the forums split again into two camps - why couldn't it be that keegan was appointed with the best of intentions and things just didn't work out? to he was an incompetent appointment amazes me seeing as he virtually saved us from relegation, to read it as cynical says more about your preconceptions of the man to me Are you arguing that it wasn't obvious that Keegan was always likely to walk if he was not in charge of transfers (so not incompetence), or that getting a legendary manager in for 8 months to "virtually save us from relegation" and act as nothing more than a media facing figurehead during the off season while pretending to be in charge and asking supporters to sign up for 3 years in advance was not a cynical use of the man? In what possible way under the circumstances was Keegan a good appointment except in the short term for Ashley's bank balance?

Of course I am, our club has been littered with more Souness' than Keegans, he was our Fergie. Looking back, what he achieved was phenomenal Bob. I don't think any one else could have done what he did for us at the time and it is no coincidence that after he left, we struggled for years to move on and I fear history will repeat itself once more. Am I reading this right? Keegan was our Fergie? I know you're not comparing them as managers, because we all know Keegan can't touch Fergie in terms of quality. I understand you're comparing their respective impact on the 2 clubs. I've still got a problem with that. Fergie actually brought success and trophies to his club. In my eyes, as long as we cling on to Keegan and the memories, we won't be able to look further than 2nd place (15 pt lead blown no less). With Ashley in control of the purse strings we'll be forever closer to the 2nd division than to 2nd place.

With the structure that has been put in place which the club are now claiming has been the case since Keegan was hired, what has happened with Keegan was totally inevitable sooner or later to anyone with even the most vague knowledge of the man. With what we are being told now, how can you say that it was a good appointment except from a financial point of view for Ashley (getting supporters to buy advance STs on the back of his appointment)? At best it was an incompetent appointment for the system to work, at worst a cynical one.

Newcastle stays in the league, reduces the wage bill and doesn't spend much on transfers; he makes pots of cash... Even simpler and much lower risk isn't it

Shocked at that actually. With all the OTT media pressure, I'd expected him to be out for the rest of the year at least, and would not have been surprised at a season long ban. The press will NOT be happy with that. They'll be putting on their hiking gear to climb up onto that moral high ground as we speak.

Disappointed with Keegan for that like.

Keegan might have decided to resign, but I don't think we can say he was 'forced out'. The club have already said they tried to work things through, we know how emotional and volatile KK can be. What The Prophet says about Feguson is true as well, no manager is the only man involved in player recruitment. Yes, he should have a massive say, but a lot of other things have to be considered as well. There was fault on both sides here. 100% agreed! They obviously put as much effort into trying to "work things through" with Keegan as they did into signing players like Modric.

Okay, so we're basing our opinions on speculation, but your statement of fact is based on what exactly? Are you an ITK? The man who appointed him only 8 months ago?

You mean the massive strengthening of the team by the great new setup isn't actually as big of as an improvement on what we had before as people are saying? For the first time, I agree with you.

Massive contradiction surely?

Can´t really understand your fear of that! I really do admire wenger and what he´s done at arsenal. they play beautiful football have a young squad and dont pay silly wages like us and end up with overpaid useless players like smith. And he still buy "expensive" good attractive players nasri. can´t see there problem......though i know we are at least 5-10 years behind. There's a world of difference between the Arsenal system where you have: 1) Someone in charge who has a proven ability to spot and develop young talent 2) An existing squad of players which are exciting to watch and are consistently in the champions league, yet where unlike say Chelsea a young player joining would always think they'd have a chance of breaking into the team. 3) When a player does develop, you pay them a very good salary to keep them happy (despite the view that Arsenal are run on the cheap, their wage bill is larger than Liverpool's and equal with Man U). 4) Sell off your players when they have reached their peak and are on the way down, and you know you already have players in your squad who can take their place. and what Ashley seems to want which is: 1) Have a completely unproven person in charge of player recruitment 2) Put together a squad with the sole ambition of staying in the premiership at minimum cost. 3) Keep your youngsters on the minimum wage you can until you risk losing them on a free transfer 4) Sell anyone off whenever you get a sniff of a good price for them regardless of whether you have someone to take their place or not.

no, it's because ssn and mongs go hand in hand

If you want to hit Ashley where it hurts, make a banner like this: http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/4433/jjblogork6.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article4678988.ece So, if this is true. What the hell should the owner and board have done then? Everyone has so far assumed that Keegan wasn't making unrealistic demands as far as targets go, well it turns out this might not have been the case, which is what I suspected to be honest. The owner clearly wanted a team of younger emerging players, and said this from the outset. What options did he have if Keegan then came in and started asking for these types? Discuss. This must have been going on for ages it look slike, as we all remember the Henry quotes! I am shocked they didn't part ways much earlier as they clearly should have. It's no wonder we had been linked with Marcelino so far back then, as the club was probably already making contingency plans. Absolute madness from both sides. Boy, how incompetent would you have to be to employ a manager like that.

Can you ask everyone to run a spell checker on their banners please.

Doesn't matter, the beauty of "the system" is that any manager can step in and the club has "consistency". When the cheapo players you've bought do shit or the manager gets a bit uppity and starts asking for players he wants, you just get rid and go out and get a new one.