James

If you have Shola in there, you have to have Owen there too.

Shearer was a brilliant figurehead towards the end, everyone involved with the club from chairman to fans were intent of giving him the sendoff he deserved. No-one knew who was going to be the manager until quite late on. Players had to be at top of their game, in case a manager taking over in the summer decided to sell them to fund his own spending spree.

If you take away the time he was caretaker manager, Roeder is definitely lower than Keegan and Robson, and at times, he has had a lower win ratio than all post-keegan managers. I dont think that Roeder's tenure as caretaker should be counted due to both the Shearer factor and the uncertainty factor, plus the fact that the majority of his games were against teams with nothing to play for.

Oooh Keane's got what he has wanted - attention from his rival fans. After months of indifference and honest doubts about his managgerial ability despite several swipes, he has finally got us all chomping with his mind games.

West Ham loans usually only consisted of 3-6 months with options to recall players. I suspect we'd follow that pattern, so these departures are unlikely to have too large an impact on squad depth.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/news/tm_headline=plans-to-farm-out-young-stars%26method=full%26objectid=18809862%26siteid=50081-name_page.html Good decision I think. Also, Roeder seems determined to beefen up our squad to the extent that none of these players will get a look in next season.

Seen him play then? Fucking hell Nope, but his stats are there for all to see. Either he's injury prone, or not good enough to play for Shakhtar, or there are some extenuating circumstances for his lack of appearances. Unless its the latter, there is no way I could be interested.

Luke Edwards asked Roeder about Edgar's contract on my behalf, and Roeder said that negotiations are ongoing. More news on Monday.

This Rat guy has only played 65 games in 4 years at Shakhtar. Unless he only emerged as a Shakhtar player last season (unlikely as he's 25), I wouldn't be interested.

Fucking hell, that is a great shortlist of players, although I haven't heard of Rat before.

Good game to open Wembley with really.

Best keeper from Britain and Ireland, but all are currently lacking due to bad, outdated coaching. Foreign keepers arethe way forward in my opinion.

Arsenal were next on their list. Tax men always go for the people that are going to provide them with the most money. Hang about, you just said that NUFC were chosen by the Premier League to be the test case, not that they were targeted by the taxman, which is it? Premier League chosen, although the taxmen were after us and others, and were happy to have us as a test case to a) save legal fees by only taking one club to court and b) because we were one of the most lucrative.

Arsenal were next on their list. Tax men always go for the people that are going to provide them with the most money.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1693358,00.html Describes how we were the test case. I definitely do remember though that we were chosen as the test case specifically because our books were amongst the best of the clubs being pursued.

Are you absolutely sure about that? Yes, or at least one of the best. I remember being suprised, but that was definitely the reason for us going through the court as the test case. Now I might be wrong about this, but didn't the auditors refuse to sign off on the accounts a number of times? Definitely not recently. In fact the Premier League described our books as 'transparent' iirc. I know this kind of contradicts what everyone believes about shepherd cooking the books, but people do come up with theories that aren't true about him, but become considered truth. I don't like him much as a football chairman either, but he deserves credit rather than falsehoods in this instance. Can you provide me with a link to back up what your saying, please? I can't back up what I've said at the moment, by the way. I am trying to find a link, right now

Are you absolutely sure about that? Yes, or at least one of the best. I remember being suprised, but that was definitely the reason for us going through the court as the test case. Now I might be wrong about this, but didn't the auditors refuse to sign off on the accounts a number of times? Definitely not recently. In fact the Premier League described our books as 'transparent' iirc. I know this kind of contradicts what everyone believes about shepherd cooking the books, but people do come up with theories that aren't true about him, but become considered truth. I don't like him much as a football chairman either, but he deserves credit rather than falsehoods in this instance.

Are you absolutely sure about that? Yes, or at least one of the best. I remember being suprised, but that was definitely the reason for us going through the court as the test case.

Pretty much has eight games to save his NUFC career.

Edgar is getting a new contract then.

Sounds like Roeder answered my question regarding Edgar's contract although I'm going to have to wait to find out what the answer was.

Basically, Inland Revenue wanted the Premiership clubs to pay more VAT, so the Premiership asked us (who had the best kept books) to stand against Inland Revenue in court as a test case.

I've asked if Edgar will be getting his contract extended beyond this summer. Edgar is 20 in May by the way Gemmill.

yup, i was about to point it out myself.

Owen will be first.