Montey

Has anyone suggested, during the game, chanting "Are you Fat Freddy in Disguise?"

Mess with his new security detail. Get a whole bunch of people, scattered throughout SJP during the Hull game, to point laser-pointers at his chest. Would send a fairly clear message and give his security detail the jitters.

Nobody really knows what a protest will achieve. One thing that can be guaranteed is that a protest will achieve more than doing nothing at all. Even if it makes it clear just how angry the fans are, that's better than doing nothing and risking Ashley believing the majority of fans are ambivalent towards the turmoil.

OK, unfortunately being in Australia its hard for me to participate, but heres my opinion none-the-less... A march is a good idea as long as it is well organised. If it is just a rabble walking down the street the city council and the police will quickly shut it down and nothing will come of it other than being picked up on the news as being a riot. The march needs to have a single message that is easy for Ashley to understand and act on if you want to achieve anything. Any calling for Ashley to leave is not going to make things better and could make them a whole lot worse. If a well organised and controlled march was done that ended at SJP before the game but didn't enter the game until 10 minutes after it started, it would get excellent coverage and be well respected as a unified fan's action. If that march carried a single message like "Sack Wise, Sack Llambias" there is a good chance of at least one (if not both) of them getting fired as it is something Ashley can do without too much grief. It is also something he can spin (a bit like FFS used to do) to make himself look like he's a man of the people.

I split the blame for this, I think this whole debacle is 20% Keegan's fault and 80% Ashley's fault. I do not believe that Keegan should have just chucked a hissy-fit and walked away. I think he should have at least played it out and given his all to make the team he has today work. If he then failed and Newcastle was a struggling mid-table or bottom half team by Christmas he would have had the right to point to the squad, talk about how it's not his team and how he has done his level best and that Wise is making a farce out of the club. In all likelihood he would have then won the argument and Wise would be fired. However, by just spitting the dummy and walking away, Wise has possibly got what he was trying to have all the time, a crack at managing NUFC. However, if Ashley hadn't put this stupid structure in operation in the first place none of this would have happened. If Wise and Jiminez had have been hired (fine, Ashley wanted them) but had been structured as reporting to Keegan to assist him with the hiring process then Keegan would have known all new players coming in and all players leaving and would have had the control of the squad he needs. The vast bulk of this crisis for the club is caused by Ashley's decision to make the staff hiring and firing players more senior (or as senior) as the squad manager. Ashley doesn't seem to understand that in football the role is called Manager, not Coach, for a reason. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. I'm going to go and be depressed now.

Does anyone know where Keegan is now? If he was sacked during a meeting at the ground, surely he would have left the ground by now. My point is, if he is still at the ground some-time after the alleged meeting, this would support him staying on, or not yet being sacked. If he'd been sacked he would have left the ground almost immediately.

Maybe Ashley thought keeping KK was un-Wise. (Actually I don't think Ashley knows what he's doing with respect to football managers, I just like the pun.)

I sure as hell hope not, but I would not blame KK if he did. It seems quite apparent he has little, genuine influence over the squad he has to work with and is being essentially told "here's ya squad, now its your fault if we do bad". I'd quit if I was him in those circumstances.

Taken from http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/08/18/kevin-keegan-hoping-for-a-wow-signing-after-draw-with-manchester-united-115875-20702686/ He was actually making reference to an alleged "wow" signing being organised by Wise & Co. and that he was looking forward to it. He was definitely not, however, doing anything to talk down the concept of there being a "wow" signing.

I selected "Hm, not sure". Primarily this is because I do think we're in a stronger position today than we were 18 months ago, both as a club and as a squad, but not by much. Whilst we are significantly better off in terms of the clubs debt level and the business of the club, I don't see anywhere near as much squad improvement as I expected. This expectation is based upon what Ashley and Keegan have told us would occur. Right from when they first joined the club both have said how much investment was going to be made, how we'd all be going "wow" at the signings and how money was going to be invested for top-class players. However, none of this has happened. Yes, my expectations may be higher than they should be, but only because Ashley and Keegan said they should be.

"Ashley drowns sorrows, instead of Ameobi"

The commentators makes me want to puke. Every opportunity is taken to espouse the virtues of Arsenal's magic football, while describing how lucky Newcastle are lucky to not be 5 down. It's like watching the Arsenal show, guest starring Rob Styles.

If we don't have 3 or 4 players in by Monday night (as promised) then we're farked!!! We are so slow, so static, so lacking creativity it's like watching George Bush playing chess!

As a die-hard supporter of Newcastle United I am devastated at the imminent loss of our Sir Bobby, as a fellow Robson (I too am the proud barer of that surname) I feel it as if it is to be the loss of a grand member of my own family. Farewell you grand and inspiring man.

"Can't we just go back to giving money?"

I think that UEFA is going to have to tackle this whole issue sooner rather than later. If things remain as they are the situation will be that within the EPL we will have the top 3 or 4 clubs that none have a chance of catching, but the issue will also extend to the Champions League and UEFA Cup. This year is the first time that the CL final is an all England event, but if England has all of the top talent, due to its buying power, then this may become the norm, resulting in European competitions being dominated by a handful of clubs, meaning the interest will start to drop. Unless UEFA takes this issue on and addresses the ability of a small number of clubs and their associated leagues to dominate, the various competitions will steadily decline as actual competition is reduced.

Is it not time that the EPL started getting serious about investigating a salary-cap based system? The only way the league will cease to be a top 3+1+scramblers+midtablers+relegation battlers is if the teams have an even field in terms of recruitment. Whilst it will never be a totally even field when it comes to recruiting talent, London and a winning team will always be more attractive than a regional team who is loosing, if all teams had a fixed maximum budget they were allowed to spend on wages it would greatly level that field and give more teams a chance of getting to the top based on quality of the overall squad, coaching and support, rather than doing a Chelsea and buying your way from the bottom to the top. There are many examples of salary cap based sporting competitions that work brilliantly (an example is the Australian Football League, where clubs regularly cycle through the table across the seasons). *fire-suit on* Thoughts?

So who suggested taking Viduka off for Smith? That's worked out well hasn't it! It's so clear that Newcastle's structure and movement are much better with Viduka up forward as a target. Yes he may be slow, and yes not all of his passes are perfect, but he is a giant anchor at the top of our formation who provides a target to get the ball forward to whilst the rest of the team runs forward to get in to position to create an attacking move. I think anyone who still argues that bringing Smith on in place of Viduka was the right move is a few matches short of a matchbox!

Geremi is the weak link in this side. Martins is playing great, but he lacks awareness of other players when they are in a better position. You can pretty much guarantee that if Martins gets forward with the ball either he'll shoot, or pass it backwards. He hardly ever seems to cross it in to the box, even when there are 2 or 3 Newcastle players waiting for it.

As they say, the best defence is a goof offence. If we keep the ball up forward and keep more possession in the attacking midfield area any issues in defence become irrelevant.

Oba, Obafem, Oba, Obafem, Oba, Obafem, Obafemi Martins!

Our passing is very poor and Edgar's reading of the game is shite. Question I have, is when Uriah blew the whistle to stop play, due to Ljungberg being down, the ball was in Newcastle's possession. So why did we have to give the ball to West Ham' when play was resumed (which led to the second goal)?

If the club is smart it'll have most of its transfer deals locked up before the window even opens.

Anyone seen any post-match interviews yet?

Can anyone who sees the post-match interviews please tell us what the jist of the comments are. We don't get that in the broadcast we receive here in Australia.