James

He's on around the £50,000 a week mark at a guess. I heard £30,000. The press alleged at the time that the wages were why we stumped for him - because we could offer six times Martins' wage without breaking the bank.

Going by the two senior players for every position (and three keepers) and then a pool of low maintenence youngsters the squad next season should be (This is my opinion based on Keegan's team selections and 4-5 player comments, players in no particular order): GK1 - Given GK2 - Harper GK3 - Forster, Krul, Soderberg (all on very small deals, so we can get away with these three fighting it out) RB1 - Beye RB2 - New signing LB1 - Enrique LB2 - New signing CB1 - Faye CB2 - New signing CB3 - Taylor CB4 - Cacapa RW1 - Milner RW2 - New signing LW1 - Duff LW2 - New Signing CM1 - Barton CM2 - Butt CM3 - Geremi CM4 - New signing CF1 - Owen CF2 - Martins CF3 - Viduka CF4 - New Signing Youngster Pool - Goalkeeper trio, Edgar, Carroll, Lua Lua, Donaldson, Kadar, Tozer, Zamblera, Baheng and other new recruits. Out in the cold - Carr, Ramage, Diatta, N'Zogbia, Emre, Smith, Rozehnal. Estimated wages saved = £225k p/w Of the blank positons, I believe that right back and one of the three midfield slots could be filled by a low risk, low maintenance youngster. Taking into account extra money spent on new youngsters that leaves £200k p/w. To improve on what we have got, the remaining five slots could be filled by the following types of players: A Dunne-type = £40k A Modric-type = £50K A SWP-type = £60K A Deco-type = £80K With five slots to fill, Keegan could only keep the wage bill about level with five Dunne's, yet I do not think that he would be happy with that, and I don't think the board would be either, they'd want to be signing some Modrics, while Keegan himself will want a SWP or a Deco thrown in for good measure. Then assumming we want to keep the wage bill as it is, Keegan is going to need to sacrifice players that I reckon he'd want to keep. Who though? Viduka's injury makes him unsellable, plus it would be harder to then find two strikers. People on here will say Duff, but with a LW shortage, I reckon KK will want to see if he can turn things around for Duff with a decent pre-season. I think it will be Cacapa who bites the bullet if we sign a CB that Keegan wants. The return there however wont be brilliant, so i can understand why the board may be looking at Owen's contract and be keen to get rid.

I was always under the impression that we got Martins on a very reasonable wage packet as he was only on £5000 a week at Inter.

Completely inaccurate I'm afraid. If you look at how the fair play table is broken up, it is not just yellows and reds, but other aspects such as behaviour of the manager, respect for opponents and referees. The part where we lose out is the 'Positive Play' section where the referee marks our footballing performance at the end of the game. We scored so low in this that Chelsea (who scored higher than us in this but at the bottom in most other categories) are above us in the table. In conclusion, Sam Allardyce cost us Europe.

Not sure why Ashley would be there if that's the case. Well, he is the owner and after the sacking of Allardyce he said that he wanted to have a more active role within the club. It makes sense that he would want to be present in such a meeting. The meeting about players apparently took place a few weeks back according to Keegan, also Ashley hasn't shown any interest in taking a hands on role in the club since those comments. The meeting is likely to be Ashley asking Keegan if he's got a problem with the direction the club is going and for him to air any opinions he doesn't agree with, if he's really lucky Ashley might give him his phone number to stop him moaning. I get that feeling too, cant see why the media wouldnt be allowed to ask questions about this meeting if it was just a standard meeting. i don't think ashley would make Keegan hold his pre-match press conference a day in advance if it was just a standard meeting. had it been i'm sure it would've been scheduled around other things, rather than quickly arranged like this. Ashley is a busy man, for instance not being able to see Keegan until a week after we first approached him. A thought just occurred to me - perhaps all the newspapers got this 'Big Meeting' story from the Newcastle Press Office, who had contacted the media to inform them of the rescheduled press conference.

Because he would never want to come here, even if he supports us as it were. Spurs are (sadly) a better club than us as it his, offering more than we are, why would he take a step backwards as opposed to joining the likes of Man Utd or Real Madrid? http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00375/Berbatov_375683a.jpg

Ashton looked great until the injuries started to be honest. Was scoring for fun, and although the Liverpool vs West Ham FA Cup Final is remembered as the Gerrard final, it looked like the Dean Ashton Final in the first half. Hasn't been the same since, but would be immense for us if we found the old Dean Ashton somehow.

Viduka is out for upto six months. A target man should now be our number one transfer priority in my opinion

He's a billionaire you nutter His personal fortune was over £2 billion before he took over.. £1800 million when he took over, £1200 million now. That is 33% of his wealth lost since coming here. Only two years left at this rate

This. We all know that. The thread was more about his distance from the players and his aparent stifling of individuality than anything else, but then again you don't have the mental or emoional maturity to realise that. What GeJon said.

get your facts right lad ........ how much money do you think they should have backed them with, and I hope you aren't criticising for going into this debt, while advocating spending more BTW http://www.football.co.uk/newcastle_united/magpies_planning_more_spending_179872.shtml So there, an example where Shepherd failed to meet a valuation for a player, and instead went for a cheap deal in Carr, who as Spurs fans will tell you, they wanted rid at the time. In fact, judging from the bit in bold, Shepherd had already made up his mind that he was going cheap with his right backs. What a success that turned out to be. Meanwhile Miguel remains renowned as one of the best full backs out there. Lies according to Sir Bobby Robson, who instead wanted to sign a local lad in Michael Carrick for £500k but was overruled. As you should know, Carrick is now an £18m England international playing regular games for Manchester United. What a shame Shepherd didn't want toback Robson's footballing expertise. So, having spent millions to get back into the Champions League, you are advocating spending more than the club had to spend are you ? Carrick was at West Ham and cost a lot more than 500k by the way. We missed the boat on Carrick due to not having a youth system. Which was corrected and rebuilt when Shepherd was chairman, which had been needed for about 80 years, the same as the stadium expansion, but don't let the facts get in the way of your point of view. Benfica sold Miguel for £6m. Given how much money Shepherd threw around the following summer (unless of course you don't advocate the debt that this caused), I reckon he could have found the funds if he wanted. Carrick went to Spurs the next season for £2.75m when West Ham had greater financial stability and carrick's stock had risen, so £500k was the valuation. £500k or £2.75m is no difference in the end. Shame we didn't get him as a youngster, but that is no excuse for missing the boat a second time.

get your facts right lad ........ how much money do you think they should have backed them with, and I hope you aren't criticising for going into this debt, while advocating spending more BTW http://www.football.co.uk/newcastle_united/magpies_planning_more_spending_179872.shtml So there, an example where Shepherd failed to meet a valuation for a player, and instead went for a cheap deal in Carr, who as Spurs fans will tell you, they wanted rid at the time. In fact, judging from the bit in bold, Shepherd had already made up his mind that he was going cheap with his right backs. What a success that turned out to be. Meanwhile Miguel remains renowned as one of the best full backs out there. Lies according to Sir Bobby Robson, who instead wanted to sign a local lad in Michael Carrick for £500k but was overruled. As you should know, Carrick is now an £18m England international playing regular games for Manchester United. What a shame Shepherd didn't want toback Robson's footballing expertise.

All I can say is that we wouldn't have had to play catch up behind the 'big four' if the people in charge at the club in the years 2003 and 2004 had made decent managerial appointments and backed the manager both by providing cash and not interfering in his decisions.

I'm getting a bit sick of this Top Four nonsense. As I see it, these are just the four clubs who have recently been in the top four places in the league. It takes no time at all for one of these teams to mess things up and fall away. A few years ago, it was the Big 5: Manyoo, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea. The previous year, it was the Big 3: Manyoo, Arsenal, Newcastle. That year, around March/April, Sky were advertising the title as a three horse race. At this point, Chelsea and Liverpool were just like us and Spurs. In fact, since the Premiership has started, we've effectively put in four genuine title challenges (as in still there into the final quarter of the season) - that is four more than Liverpool I reckon. Our two falls from grace (under Dalglish and Souness) effectively came at times when we were in the top 3 of the richest English clubs. What I'm effectively trying to say is that nothing is set in stone and never will be.

Troisi should look at the likes of Gary Caldwell and Bradley Orr and how they have made decent pro careers for themselves after failing to breakthrough here. With caps for Australia and a chance to impress at the Olympics, he should be optimistic that things can work out. I can see a club taking a chance on Ramage, but away from NUFC, it is impossible to predict whether he will path out a career or fall into obscurity. Good riddance Stephen Carr. I hope no-one will want to pay him thousands a week as he doesn't deserve it.

Smith is the least intelligent footballer I have ever seen. He stands still when he should run, and he runs when he should stand still. He harries when he shouldn't and when he should, he backs off. He gives away free kicks that are more dangerous than the passage of play he is cynically trying to break up. He gets sent off for dissent when the referee was in the right in the first place. His flick-ons go away from his team mates. He lets the ball run on to a team mate only when there are several opposition defenders with a better chance of intercepting the ball. When he passes the ball, he just hits it as hard as he can at the nearest team mate, irrespective of good foot, bad foot, space, and direction of play.

With regards to the first goal conceded, people are being unfair on Smith (who was otherwise shite). As the corner was taken, Smith was tightly marking Carvalho. Butt was on Ballack. Butt is ball watching and Ballack peels off unnoticed. Smith sees where the ball is going and makes a last ditch charge towards Ballack and hence looked like the player who should have been on him when he was in fact trying to fill in for another player's duty.

Shith on for Viduka.

One passing move that ended with Essien forcing Barton to give away a goal kick was outstanding.

Looks like it may be Barton off, Smith on due to injury.......

Excellent first half performance. Back 4 + Butt have been defensively faultless. Main worries have been when one of the other 5 outfield players has wasted possession. Martins has been exciting, but he has tried too hard at times.

Man United fans.

Come on!

Was this the Chelsea team that got beat vs Spurs in the League Cup?

NUFC: Harper; Enrique, Taylor, Faye, Beye; Geremi, Butt, Barton; Owen, Martins, Viduka. Subs: Forster, Cacapa, N'Zogbia, Duff, Smith CFC: Cech; Bridge, Terry, Carvalho, Ferreira; Malouda, Ballack, Mikel, Essien; Drogba, Anelka. Subs: Cudicini, Alex, Cole, Lampard, Shevchenko. Referee: Steve Bennett Post match reaction can be found from: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=52501.msg1311811#msg1311811 PLEASE DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REQUEST OR PROVIDE LINKS TO ILLEGAL MATCH STREAMS. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE BANNED* *See http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=19161.0 for more information