macca888

Well, I hope you are right but two things strike me immediately: To be successful, we have to attract the right players, successful ones. Names like Carrick, Richrds Bentley etc have been mentioned but in all honesty, why would they leave their current clubs to come to us? Secon dly, in KKs first spell in charge, there really wasnt all that much opposition to us. Things are vastly different now with a whole host of clubs have overtaken us in pursuit of the top 4. With foreign ownership, new money, huge debts and sky money coming to influence the game, those who believe that we will be up there challenging the top 4 next season will be in for a severe shock. Most of these teams already have a base to work with, ie players in and youth academies already thriving. We dont. In all honesty, we have gone backwards since the days of Robson and we are more of a standard of a Sunderland than a Liverpool. If you disagree, look at the last dozen results or so. I hate to say this but it could take years to get us back on track and I cannot see Ashley paying silly money in transfer fees and even more in inflated salaries to get us there quickly. I dont see Keegan as the answer either. When he was appointed, hearts have ruled heads here and we should have gone for a very good foreign coach. Going back a second time rarely ends in success and KKs past record isnt really the envy of the world. If Liverpool dont want Rafa, I would have him.

Like it or not, we are slowly but surely being pulled into a relegation battle. The teams below us have been winning whilst we have been losing and sooner or later, we will be joining them in the battle. My reasons: Difficult remaining fixture list, especially away from home. Lack of quality signings. Low confidence Lack of creativity Lack of tactical nouse in management. Now, this might sound like doom and gloom but if and it is a big I9F, we can beat Boro on sunday, then we might be able to do enough by winning our remaining home games to gain enough points to stay up. However, the likes of Reading, Fulham, Mackems wont be in any mood to do us favours. Away fixtures against the likes of Pool, Villa, Portsmouth, Spurs, Everton, NUFC reserves and Brum dont exactly fill me full of confidence . Add to home fixtures against MU, Chelsea and Blackburn, can anyone honestly see us gaining more than 40 points? Hope I am wrong......................LIKE

I havent noticed if Southampton have appointed anyone to replace Burley yet. I would think Shearer would be high on their l;ist and his interest would certainly be there too. Dont be surprised to see him take charge and after what will be the inevitable failure by KK (my opinion only) over the next two years, Shearer will be approached to replace him after cutting his teeth on the south coast.

Yorkshire Evening Post saying an approach has been made, Wise has accepted but will be in charge of Leeds midweek fixture at Southend. Apparently, Wise will be in charge of everything mother than the day to day running of the team. Keegan didnt want him as his number 2

If England had qualified for the Euros, I could have seen this happening. As it stands now, I doubt very much he would come for a number of reasons: He has always said that he would never play for another EPL team. He doesnt exactly need the money. Posh and the kids are already adapting to LA life. He is not one to run away from his commitments. He has an academy in LA which he attends regularly.

NE5 You must fancy me, or something because you seem to be obsessed with my viewpoints. Correct me if I am wrong: Did Keegan say this week that the reason he has come bck is because he has unfinished business? HE WANTS TO WIN SOMETHING. Correct me if I am wrong: DID HE WIN ANYTHING LAST TIME? Correct me if I am wrong; Would Ferguson, Mourinho, Wenger, Benitez be happy playing exciting football and winning nothing for 5 (FIVE) Years. NO, you know they wouldnt because they wouldnt be happy with second best. Neither is KK by the way. That is why he has come back................TO WIN SOMETHING, TO BE A SUCCESS, SOMETHING HE HASNT DONE ANYWHERE ELSE. Or, would you still be content to sit back and watch exciting football whilst finishing 2nd all the time? I hope he succeeds and he will be given enough money to succeed. However, like many others on here, I dont think he will last. He looks knackered already and he has only been back 2 days. As for southern journos comment, dont be such a silly little tart.,

First game was 1962, at home against Portsmouth when right back, George Dalton scored the winner in the first half with a 20 yard daisy cutter. Next game I saw was a few weeks later when we beat PNE who had Howard Kenadall making his debut. We beat them 5-2 and I remember we had this ginger haired left winger called Colin Taylor who scored twice. He had the hardest left peg I have ever seen. Was in the gallowgate end for the Ujpest Dozsa first leg, wembley in 74 (still have nightmares about Bruce Forsyth running up the pitch and kicking the ball into the net and Brendan Foster winning a race around the pitch in a B&W shirt). Was also back at W in 76, pissed as a parrot by half time Emigrated to OZ in 79 but still an avid fan.

Defoe has scored 8 goals this season despite spending most of the season on the bench. He would be a huge asset to us because he is a natural poacher, quick, decisive and direct. On top of that, if he is to force his way into Capello's team ahead of Owen, he will need to playing week in, week out. It isnt going to happen at Spurs and if he joined Villa or Portsmouth, because they are not high profile teams (even though they are both further up the table than us at the moment), he would not be in the limelight as much as he would be with a bigger team. If and it is a big if, KK works the magic, Defoe joined, Owen went to City, he might think it is just the best move of his life. Time will tell

Shearer/Keegan will not work unless they have a top coach alongside them. If Ashley is going down this avenue, bring in someone like Steve Clarke from C

DONTOONER You are just a bairn, mate. Some of us on here have been fans since the late 50s or early 60s and all we have to show for it is an old fairs cup and a few losing finalists. Still, we have wonderful memories of all those near misses, havent we NE5.

It is not sexy football the fans want, it is winning football. Jose would bring that. In spite of all the shock at Sam's exit, his recent form as a manager over the past 12 games was relegation form. Only two wins during that period and both of them to last minute winners in definite uninspring terms.

No, I actually dont think it will be him. I dont think Mike Ashley is in Hong Kong either.....................probably more likely in some villa or expensive hotel on the Algarve or Liosbon, negotiating personally with Mourinho whilst Mort is looking for legal loopholes in Jose's retrenchment package from Chelsea. W

ok, we need to sell as well Here goes Sell Harper to Norwich - 2 mill Sell Ameobi to Boro - 3 mill Sell Carr to Wigan - 1 mill Sell Emre to Emre to Galatasaray - 5 mill Sell Geremi and Cacapa to Marseille or Bordeaux - 5 mill. Sell Ramage to Wolves - 1 mill On top of the 20 mill, we have another 17 mill to spend First of all, bring Krul back from Falkirk as back up to Given Get Wes Brown from Man Utd for 3 mill to play at right back or back up to Beye Bring Campbell from Portsmouth - 1 mill. Sign Diego from Hamburg - 15 mill. Sign Utaka from Portsmouth or Wright Phillips from Chelsea - 10 mill. Sign Koumas from Wigan - 5 mill. Sopend the remaining 3 million on a squad player or two, from the lower divisions, with youth and pace. Squad would be Given, Krul, Forster Beye, Brown, Taylor, Rozenahl, Campbell, Enrique, Tozer Utaka, Milner, Diego, Faye, Butt, Barton, Koumas, Duff, N'Zogbia, Lua Lua Viduka, Martins, Owen, Smith, Carroll IMO , not a bad squad at all.

Some strikers on a par with Shearer and not necessarily English during my time would be: Jimmy Greaves Denis Law Allan Clarke Martin Chivers Ian Wright Gary Lineker Mark Hughes Francis Lee Bobby Charlton Kenny Dalglish Kevin Keegan Trevor Francis Peter Osgood Pop Robson Malcolm MacDonald Brian Clough Geoff Hurst Some great goalscorers, not necessarily all in the Shearer mould

Dave I dont know why you bother answering this attention seeking numbnut. Has there ever been a thread on this site where he has posted that hasnt developed into an argument? For what it is worth, history has shown numerous times that Oliver dreams up stories just to sell newspapers. That is how they operate by relating headlines to the masses that could be determined at the time as sensationalism but ultimately, fizzle out to nonsense.......................just like the majority of crap that comes from Leazes (NE5) or whatever he calls himself.

HTT Ancient history, mate. All those crying out for Keegans return should read Sams interview in the Mag. He is obviously spot on with too many of you living in the past. Sir Alex was also right too with too many of you living in the past on our 5-0 victory against Man U in 96. Like it or not, stats show that longevity breeds results. We have had too much change in the past few years. Sam will get it right, eventually, but it will not be this season, possibly not even next season, but probably the season aferwards, given time and support. By the way, give me 100 million quid and Shearer by my side and I think I would get us champions league football. Sadly, I doubt Sam will be as fortunate as a Mourinho in having that sort of financial clout behind him.

A lot of what HTT makes sense to a degree but taking employment out of the football world for a moment, if you left a job with an accountancy firm (as an example) by choice, you would do so to commence re-employment for better cnditions elsewhere almost immediately. The argument about taking a break from employment doesnt measure up here. It was his choice anyway. He could always have turned us down if he really wanted a decent break. I think the major point to the problem relates more to the type of players he has signed being alien to the longball style of football he wants to play. Defenders such as Beye, Rosenhal, Cacapa and Enrique have all come from leagues where long ball football is totally alien to them and all of a sudden, the pace, power and tactics of english football is catching up with them. Sam said he wanted to sign players with premiership experience and yet he has signed an entire back four from outside the premiership. I know he missed out on the likes of Ben Hiam and Distin but neither of them were really going to have a major impact in defence anyway. If he had no other choice but to sign these defenders, he should have bought a creative midfield player for a significant cost (A Riquelme or An Arteta ) who can collect short passes from defenders and supply forwards and wingers rather than purchase the likes of Barton and Smith who both lack any sort of creativity. Unfortunately, it appears now (After the City game) that he is starting to change tactics to a shorter fgorm of the game but it is clear that there is a certain amount of confusiion from the players on what they should be doing and what their roles in the team are. Sam has to get them back to the basics and first critical point is to buy a quality creative central midfielder to bring forwards and wingers into the game.

I watched the game live here in Australia and whilst some on here might say that you cannot get a balanced view from watching the game on TV, it certainly provides enough to make well judged assessments. Statistics show that we have lost 7 out of the last 12 games and two of the victories we have achieved have been by virtue of last minute goals at Fulham and against Birmingham. THIS IS RELEGATION FORM and with notable players like Beye and Faye away for the next month, things will not improve especially with our fixture list. The team today only played for 30 minutes. What totally bemuses me is that we have players out wide in Milner, Duff and N'Zogbia who all have the ability to take on full backs and get quality balls into the middle but this is rarely achieved. Milner is one of the most frustrating players I have seen. He wants to beat his man several times over eventually losing the opoportunity to deliver early balls into the middle or his delivery, by and large, is poor. The midfield created little or nothing today and once MC went ahead, there was only going to be one winner, even if Owen had taken the chance just after half time. We are totally disorganised all over the park and what struck mke most of all is that NUFC players do not know what it is to run off the ball. We are unable to create space for others. Opportunities for the forwards therefore become few and far between. We are also crap at tracking back. A few tips for big sam: Work on movement Work on crossing Work on tracking Get the players back into grids working on the simple things in the game. Get that right first and then develop the tactics to suit. Play players in their proper positions. Sign creative and pacy players It is not a difficult game to play. Everyone just needs to know what their roles are. Clearly, at NUFC, THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

Madras Truculent?.........................Possibly Git?...................................Maybe Oldish?.............................. Well, in the old adage, you are only as old as the woman you feel, and she is 31. Happy New Year to you too.

Paddy I would be happy with TWO new "EARS" mate.................LOL

Happy New Year 2008 to all Forum Members (yes, even you, NE5) around the world, from Melbourne, Australia

Pele Best R.Charlton/Beckenbauer Couldnt split them

Regarding Barton's comments: The words "Pot", "Kettle" and "Black" springs to mind.

We lost because of a combination of our own tactical ineptitude and Readings determination. We only looked dangerous when N'Zogbia and Milner were introduced and we gained some width. Enrique and Beye rarely ventured forward and there was a total lack of service all over the park to the forwards. You cannot balme Martins or Owen for that. Quite frankly, our tactics left a lot to be desired and Sam has to have a serious re-think about his strategies away from home, especially against lesser teams. I found it difficult to understand why Faye was substituted. Geremi has no impact all and to take off our best defender on the day, was ridiculous. If he had been in the centre, I doubt Reading would have scored the winning goal. Cacapa put in a lethargic display epitomised by the back pass to Given. Unfortunately, Reading thoroughly deserved the win and any other result would have been a total injustice. I felt really sorry for Owen and Martins. All our defence and midfield did all day was pump long balls up to them inthe air. How bloody ridiculous. A blind man could see that this wasnt going to work after the first 20 minutes.

NE5 Now you are getting desperate. Claiming one player might be better because he won a medal. Maybe you have forgotten that football is a team game. Youy can name any team that has won something and they have had stars and workers in their side. Maybe you should remember our super signing Stephane Guivarch. Didnt he win a world cup winners medal a few weeks before he joined us? Didnt Vinnie Jones win an FA Cup winners medal against Liverpool? In fact, didnt Nobby Stiles win a world cup winners medal in 1966 and you could hardly call him the most elegant of players. It is a further sign of yuour own stupidity and lack of understanding of the game that most successful teams operate with a combination of talented and hard working players. You obviously are too stupid to see that. As for your comments about Souness. If it wasnt for injuries and suspensions, he may have got us through to the EUFA Cup and FA Cup finals. Who knows. If he had and we had won, I bet most of the NUFC supporters would have hailed him ma hero and he would certainly not have been a failure. As it was and we all know, this was the start of his downfall. As for the Westwood days, dont make me laugh. The game has travelled a million miles from those days and you seemed to be stuck in a time warp because you are always harping on about then. You certainly show yourself as having the knowledge of an ameoba when you stoop to comments as ridiculous as that. Or maybe you are just an old fart, quite content to live in the past and content to accept second best.