BottledDog

Fine... but is Mike Ashley now steering Newcastle United in the right direction?

Totally agree. We should aim for achievable goals. Even if Ashley did want to sell the club he couldn't. The fans ire should be direted at Desmond Decker. Show that he's less popular than Ashley and give him the opportunity to use him as a scapegoat. I'm sure Uncle Dekka is doing a craking job behind the scenes, but unfortunately he has just got one of those eminently slappable faces. Achievable aim number one for me has to be - Stop opening your gob whining on about things you can only change when we see progress over years, not months. /If even that's to much to ask, at least get shot of the photochromatic lenses ffs.

You sound resigned, as if Asley will keep him on no matter what (rather than the more logical idea that he has grown into the job and deserves it), but you have the power to change things. If all the people who want a 'proper' manager in get their protesting chops in gear, I'm sure he'd be gone soon enough.

Tell me I've just read that wrong and you didn't say that we're playing better football than the last time we were promoted under keegan. Correct me if i'm wrong but haven't we got more points under Hughton at this stage than Keegan. Of course you know which football i would prefer to see. Forgive me Mick, i'm in clever arse mode. Better, in my mind mean's more effective, not more attractive. For example Arsenal play more attractive football than Chelsea but it's probably not better. because we have more points doesn't even mean we were more effective. keegans promotion team dominated games in a way this team hasn't/couldn't. this team has picked up a lot of points in games where we couldn't have argued with a point. plus keegans team could have competed well in the prem, this team would be at best in a relegation fight. So you're effectively saying Hughton is doing better than Keegan with a far worse team? The man is a GOD!

No, because we'd been battered enough at that point to have shed the devine righter atitude prevalent this time around. Do you believe we as fans have a divine righter attitude though? or are we not just expecting higher standards than last season? At the moment I think a fair few do, that is why I asked Midds whether, if we were stuck down in the lower leagues for a few years or more, would it make any difference to him feeling weird celebrating promotion. He said it wouldn't which surprised me. I think there is the feeling that we deserve to be in the premiership and that in regards to Hughton, he, his staff, and the players maybe don't deserve much of the credit for it. I just don't see it that way. We could have easily decimated the squad, fucked around with managers and buggered it up like Boro, or worse. I think Hughton and the players have done a tremendous job so far this season tbh.

No, because we'd been battered enough at that point to have shed the devine righter atitude prevalent this time around.

:mackems: :mackems: Went for Colo and Jose on the poll, but could probs have gone for Loven on recent form.... ...But, come on. Why the shock? I'm not just playing devils advocate here, it's probably fair, he deserves it. One of the senior players that has, besides all the goals, been instrumental in the team pulling together and moving in the right direction both on and off the pitch this season.

Yeah, I know what you mean, but every season is a blank slate and beating 23 other teams to the top spot is an achievement whatever league you're in. I'll be beaming if we pull it off.

With our goal difference situation, Forest would have needed 4 wins more than us whether we'd won or drawn today. 11 points would have been massive though. I must be the only one who doesn't give a shit about winning the league. Seeing the likes of Smith, Butt and Nolan parading the trophy around the ground at the last home game would be a bit wierd seeing as they were the ones who took us down in the first place. They would be righting a wrong but it wouldn't be anything to get carried away with. Serious question - If we didn't go up this season but we managed to do it next year (or two years down the line) and Smith, Butt and Nolan were parading the trophy around the ground, would you still feel is was weird to celebrate? Fingers crossed, I would absolutely love to see the club celebrate going up as champions. Yep. Doesn't feel right slapping ourselves on the back for winning a league we shouldn't even be competing in in the first place. But we are competing in this league, and after the shite of last season, deservedly so. If a new manager can pull those same players into a cohesive team that can get us back at the first attempt, the manager, and for me, those players deserve that slap on the back. We have no devine right to be back in the Premiership, the team has had to work hard for it. Sorry, it was a bit of a stupid question i know, but there must be a limit to the number of years would we have to be in lower tier football for you celebrate going up.

With our goal difference situation, Forest would have needed 4 wins more than us whether we'd won or drawn today. 11 points would have been massive though. I must be the only one who doesn't give a shit about winning the league. Seeing the likes of Smith, Butt and Nolan parading the trophy around the ground at the last home game would be a bit wierd seeing as they were the ones who took us down in the first place. They would be righting a wrong but it wouldn't be anything to get carried away with. Serious question - If we didn't go up this season but we managed to do it next year (or two years down the line) and Smith, Butt and Nolan were parading the trophy around the ground, would you still feel that it was weird to celebrate? Fingers crossed, I would absolutely love to see the club celebrate going up as champions.

Damn straight; and the kids and reserves will win us the cup too. Dare to dream!

Swap lovelypants for Nolan, or get a decent forward in and I would be kinda intrigued as to how that lot might do in the prem. As you say, fitness aside, they might well be enough to stay up and even get the odd craking result once in a while. /Add in a ballsy creative midfielder and a crackshot striker and by jove, the title may be within out grasp!

Not a done deal at all. Newcastle have not even made an enquiry. That the media knows of. And I don't trust anything an agent says. I trust Rosenborg's assistant coach.

I was considering it. Rumours of a Vuckic return either tomorrow or pretty soon. About time. Good to hear What game was it? friendly against hibs http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20100308/barton-back-as-best-nets-in-hibs-victory_2240137_1987975 His run at the end of the highlights Bests miss at the start.

Sexy 14 year olds, they most certainly are not.

Really? Jose didn't seem to think so prematch, and considering Hughtons caution over injuries, I think that is just an easy conclusion to come to with little to back it up tbh. I'm not sure whether Jose looked pissed for being pulled off too quickly or genuinely was in trouble. Hope he's ok.

Christ. way to start a pretty begrudgingly pro Hughton piece. Fair play for the dull, late in the day final conclusion, but an article starting out laying into how unexciting a tribute is for failing to provide soundbites for his journalist collegues obits? Just... Wow.

Any news on whether his substitution was just precautionary?

nah seriously, the one thing I don't think we lack is belief and determination. Even on our worst days we are a hard team to beat so I really can't see us getting beat in our remaining fixtures. Forest at home will probably be our toughest fixture tbh so they might get draw up here for all the good it will do them. Gah, you're just making it worse. We'll never win at home again at this rate.

Where was that said? Almost daily in the Chron or Journal someone from the club says how unbelievable the crowds are. Yes clearly they are upset, they have admitted the mistakes and hope people can move on, but it means nowt. People take any interview any way they want to. Actions mean everything, and thier actions seem to be improving, and that's worth recognising. This is a great season so far, but hey, that means nowt if they leave Hughton in the shit next season, or bugger off leaving us in the hands of another faceless foraigner who talks the talk but shite else. As is though fair play, Llambias shoud shut up and praise will follow if they deserve it, the only problem semse to be that some people are so set against them that whatever happens the bitterness remains. /sorry for drunken bollocks. Will probably delete in the morning.

We're top of the league and are so by some distance now, what more could the club do? I always think you should judge somebody by what they do and not what they say. At this time we're doing very well and could hardly do any better and that's how I’ll judge them. Exactly, but obviously the damage isn't undone, and until there is real evidence to suggest they're not continuing with their persistent lying then the fans can sing what they like imo. My only gripe with them is that the songs aren't quite right. You might think, what more can we do? At the moment, nothing. In all, a colossal amount. i love this persistent lying stuff. they all tell lies all the time. i wouldn't want them to tell the truth all the time. There's embellishing, and hype and that I dont mind. It's the whole misleading, contradictory and unsupported claims throughout their time that will go a long way before being forgiven. What though? Seriously, I can think of one or two where they were trying to defend their position re keegan, though its tough to pin a particular instance down tbh, but what are you seeing as these consistant and persistant lies?

No he's not off the hook, but apart from making yourself look ignorant about footballing finances what else does chanting abuse at Ashley do? He isn't going to decide one day in the middle of the season that he is going to up sticks and leave because a bunch of lads in tracky bottoms bought from his Sports Direct shop are calling him nasty names is he? I don't think anyone needs to be told to get behind the team (well apart from the tartan blanket brigade in the East Stand but unless they have their hearing aids switched on they wouldn't hear me anyway), but it's a waste of carbon dioxide and saliva shouting s**** at Ashley. hey blef....was farty man farting today ? Aye he was. I took is photo and am going to set up a facebook group outing the dirty fecker.

We spent £5.5 million in January and I think we could have managed without it. If he wanted to spend as little as possible then we could have gotten rid of more high earners than we did. Considering Ashley has had to put to put in £800b a day to stop us going bust this season perhaps he should have accepted all those offers we got for our high earners in the summer? Given that he was trying to sell the club and we only had an unproven caretaker manager with a s*** record in his previous stint, promotion was far from a nailed on certainty. At best it was a gamble with the clubs future. So he's a t*** for not buying enough players and he's a t*** for not selling enough players? No. I’m just pointing out that if we were turning down offers for our high earners it was a huge gamble. A huge gamble for Ashley financially, but for our promotion push it showed unexpected commitment and made all the difference in my eyes. No a huge gamble for NUFC, for it’s the club that is liable for the debts. Out of interest which bids did we turn down? Debts he isn't charging interest on and will hopefully disappear when a 'proper' knight in shining armour rides down barrack road with pockets bulging. Either way glad he gambled and it paid off. Which bids did we turn down? Fucked if I know. Ask the club or the players, maybe Collocini for a start. “I was annoyed. People were saying the only reason I wasn’t going anywhere was because there weren’t any offers,” he is quoted by the Sun. “That wasn’t true. The club and myself were getting a lot of offers.”

Sorry, brain spaz, I meant the World cup 2018. "Installation of the screens this summer will also give the city’s bid to be a host city in the World Cup 2018 a boost, meeting FIFA’s criteria." /....or maybe I did mean the Olympics after all, cheers Madras.

We don't care about Scoreboards We don't care about TVs All we care about is NUFC This. I'd be amazed if there has ever been that much support for TV's in the ground. I apreciate that it could pull in some extra revenue, but they just seem tacky to me. If its for the World Cup, just get something temporary rigged up.