James

A Londoner getting to see more Toon matches isn't a good thing that could happen because of relegation. You'll be telling us about how great it is that you'll be getting to watch the Toon at Fulham again next season.

Relegation is definitely something no-one wants to see happen, but I don't see it being the end of all things that others would describe. At boardroom level, the worst case scenario is not as bad as it was 12 months ago. Some clubs are unable to rebuild after a relegation, as they have found that loanees increase financial restrictions. Certainly the fact that all debt tied to the club has been paid off means that the club has full command over its own finances, even if Ashley decides to bail out on us. Ashley would need to make a choice however, he'd have to back us or leave, as the priority must be to get promoted the following season, and if he wont back us the valuation of the club would decrease exponentially each year, then he needs to sell and cut his losses. Whatever, it is in whoever owns the club's best interests to secure immediate promotion, and there shouldn't be any immediate financial issues that can hold back our dealings. Looking at management, I think there is no better man for the task than the man already at the helm. Of the three club sides Keegan has overseen, he has got them all promoted in style. Keegan is rare in that he is one of the few people out there who has gone to clubs that were quite honestly below him, and has used his own quality to improve them. If Keegan does go though, the obvious candidates are a bunch of mediocre people who at very best could get us avoiding Premiership relegation next season. We should do what Juventus did and look for someone ambitious who has the potential to grow with the club. The standout candidates would be Boothroyd, Pardew, Ince, Adams and Shearer. The club will certainly haemorrage players. No chance of keeping Owen, he'd end up at West Ham or something similar. Clubs will almost certainly try to poach Martins, Beye, Faye, Butt, Duff, Cacapa, Carr, Geremi, Given, Smith, Viduka, Enrique, N'Zogbia, Milner, Taylor, Rozehnal. Not much of a team left, but apart from where there are contract issues, we will find ourselves in a relative position of power to not be bullied into selling, and I believe that Keegan may be able to persuade a couple of players to follow Keegan's example as a player, and remain at the club. I can see us being left with some bare bones regardless, and before signing anyone, I'd imagine that we'd be left with: Harper, Krul, Soderberg Taylor, Edgar, Kadar, Tozer Milner, Lua Lua Carroll, Ameobi, Zambrella. It would be interesting to see how many of these players would be good in the Championship. This looks terrible in all honesty, but some people believe that there has been a disease at the club where players with big reputations have come here for a final payday more than anything, and relegation would certainly cure us of that disease. Additionally, it would give development players more of a chance to develop by playing in first team games. What if we were to keep Wise and Veterre working on this development outlet? Perhaps we could persuade ten more very promising young players to come into the club by offerring the opportunity to develop into a top quality player by playing games and getting their team promoted back into the top flight. Regardless, these wouldn't be enough, but there are very good Championship players who we could attract then sell on 18 months down the line. If we could sell the potential of the club, the likes of Koumas and Jason Roberts would come and give us the quality we need to dominate the Championship. Then we could hope that the next season, the developmental players would be holding their own, so that we could then replace Koumas and Roberts with Premiership standard players to hopefully complement a new batch of talented youngsters. Some fans might stop going to games, although perhaps these are the fans the club doesn't need right now. I reckon we could keep a raucous crowd, high in numbers that could create a fortress, plus possibly an injection of more youth into the crowd. All in all, I think that if we went down, which again I must emphasise that I hope doesn't happen, we would come straight back up in style, and build a better platform for our Premiership future than we can build at this exact moment.

Derby rejected a bid. "They (Newcastle) did come up with an offer yesterday, a verbal offer, but it was nowhere near our valuation," Jewell said. What more proof to you want, should i get Skirge to do a question time for you? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/01/29/ufnbarnes129.xml Still, there is no indication that Derby wanted to sell, or that we intended to buy him as an immediate first teamer. He could have fallen under Wise's jurisdiction rather than Keegan's as far as we know. At the end of the day, ten days was not nearly long enough to make any arrangements. If Barnes is that good, it would be worse if semi reliable ITK rumours are true and Shepherd backed out of matching a £2m valuation at the last minute back in 2007.

I can't say I particularly recall any concrete links to Barnes this window - certainly no inclination that Derby wanted to sell, or that we were keen to buy him as an immediate first team player. According to semi reliable ITKs, we were a lot closer to signing him on 31st January 2007, when having spent the day at Newcastle, Barnes was sent home by Freddy Shepherd.

I think Barnes has a better physique than our central midfielders, but while he remains at Derby, we can't tell whether his end product would have been good enough to get us out of this mess. If we did get relegated, it is not because Keegan didn't sign anyone, as realistically he didn't have enough time or opportunity to sign anyone. It will be the fault of Allardyce for replacing Dyer and Solano with Smith.

I'm sorry but you really do live on a different planet to everyone else. Much like me I suppose. Foreign Leagues such as the Premier League are more popular on US television than MLS.

We should get him until the end of the season. A new body may help confidence, plus it will stop one of our rivals from getting him.

However, in his pre-match World Interview, Keegan described the type of game we have just had as the worst case scenario given the player's confidence.

I hope that will happen.

Surely Fulham are too far back?

The worst thing about today was that it showed how shatterred we are for confidence. We had 60% possession, 16 shots, 15 corners. They rarely troubled us but nicked the game. Things just aren't going right for us and the opportunity to take some points are dissappearing game by game.

Newcastle 28 Mackems 27 Birmingham 26 Wigan 26 Bolton 25 ------------------ Reading 25 Fulham 19 Derby 9 Only Fulham and Derby are worse than us in terms of GD.

Fucking hell.

We've played very well.

Yellow each.

Good chance? Difficult half chance.

Owen got a hat-trick in another dimension.

Looks like Butt might have to come off...

Horrendous mess up by Taylor.

who will take our pen if we ever get one? Owen? Barton? Owen is our allocated taker.

It would be good for us if we managed to win the game in the second half, as it would make us more confident I reckon than if we got a good lead in the first half and then have to hang on for something in the second.

Kisivillivillihilibillivillii wide.

Corner.

Handballs by both Butt and Enrique yet we got away with it.

Blackburn should have had a penalty.