macca888

Mamoth task? Well, lets just say, he did a great job in putting the club back on its feet, with a lot of money to assist. However, his FAILURE, as you well know, was that he didnt finish the job off by winning a trophy. Like he has with every job he has taken on, he has usually started very well but when the going got tough, off he sulked. Finishing second or runners up gains no prizes. Ask youeself where Wenger, Mourinho, Benitez and a host of other managers would have been if they had 5 years in a job and failed to bring a trophy to the club? As you know, they would be out on their arse. The price of success at a club is winning, noit finishing second, which you seem to be only too happy to accept. By the way, WERE YOU AT BOLTON, MIDDLESBROUGH, MANCHESTER CITY OR DERBY THIS SEASON? I WAS So, you can stick your proverbial abusve comments about me not seeing the lads play, in no uncertain terms, up your proverbial hole where the sun doesnt shine.

NE5 You can try to cover up your own deficiencies with consistent waffle as much as you like and constant abuse of others who deem to differ their opinions from yours. However, plain facts and statistics speak more than a thousand words from you. Facts are: Under Keegan, we won nothing, no matter how well the team played. YOU CANNOT DENY THAT. The name of the game in any football competition is to win trophies and success or failure is measured on that. That is why there is such a huge turnover in managers these days. YOU CANNOT DENY THAT. Unless, you are happy to roll up each week just to be entertained with no prospect of winning anything. Let me ask you this. If Allardyce's style of play brought a trophy to NUFC, would you complain because the quality of football played has been classed as less important than gaining results?

NE5 Seemingly a lot more sense than you, judging by the amount of people on here who get upset but your outrageous views. Let me remind you: Keegans teams played entertaining stuff, but when it came down to it, he couldnt win anything despite spending shitloads on midfielders and strikers and virtually totally neglecting the defence. If he had signed some half decent defenders, then maybe he wouldnt have thrown away a 12 point lead. Anyway, you and I categorise winners differently. I categorise winners by the amount of silver they put on the shelf. You are only satisfied with being entertained. Therefore, by virtue of a lack of trophies won in his time at NUFC, Keegan was a failure, like he was at Fulham, Manchester City and England. Maybe you should remind me again what he is doing today? Thats right, running a football circus and not interested in returning to mthe game. Once again, FOR YOUR BENEFIT, I enjoyed watching his teams play but was thoroughly frustrated that he failed to win something for the club after the amount of money he spent. I wont comment any further on the matter. It has been done to death.

Merlin Well said.

King Dawson How long has King been out? 7 months, is it? So, tell me, what benefit has that been to you? Jol saeems to be relying too much on the lads return, IMO. One of two things will happen here. He will either get injured again or his confidence will be broken due to the situation you are currently in and the colleagues hye has to play with at the back. There is no doubt that he is a good player when fit but those days are rare, wouldnt you say? As for Berbatov, I was interested to read Harry Redknapp and Tim Sherwoods comments on him today. Both men believe that he is a liability and lacks the attitude to consistently be a top player in the EPL. Redknapp even cites that if Spurs put him up for sale, Alex Ferguson would probably not be interested in signing him anymore after his churlishness the other night. And we all know SAF is no fool. I noticed you omitted to answer my comments about the most consistent scorer on your books, Defoe. Seems to me that your manager lacks basic man management skills in handling players and needs to re-assess his position. I could not believe that Defoe wasnt even in the squad on monday night. In fact, he is more dangerous than Berbatov as a goalscorer, IMO. Anyway, once again, based on current (this season to date) form, which Tottenham Hotspur players stand out in the EPL outside the top 4?

Having seen Spurs live on TV several times this season, my impressions are that whilst they have had several serious injuries to players, their entire squad is not strong enough to qualify for europe this season. Berbatov must have an aversion to the NE because he was abysmal against both us and the mackems. His record this season supports the fact that he could be a one season wonder who doesnt have the courage for a battle. It is a disgrace the way Defoe has been treated by your club because in an ideal world, he is by far, Spurs most potent striker. King is a good player but too injury prone and whilst I like youmg Bale, he has a lot to learn yet. Much of the midfield is vastly over rated. Malbranque, Tainio, Jenas and Zakora are far too inconsistent whilst Lennon is too injury prone. Yaou need to re-assess the quality of your squad before you come out with outlandish statements about being a better quality squad outside the top four when clearly, you are not. It would seem many of the teams around us, Blackburn, Pompey, Villa, City in particular, have improved so much whilst Spurs are going backwards. Martin Jol made a similar outlandish statement in the press just before the game against us and unwisely stressed how much better you lot are than us. Seems to me that King Dawson is affected by the same misguided viewpojnt. On the subject of best players outside the top four, there are several who you could put ahead of any spuds players: Goalkeeper: Robinson doesnt even rate a mention. Anyone of Given, Friedel, James and Green would qualify Defender: Take your pick from Yobo, Faye, Laursen, Campbell, Johnson, Richards etc Midfield: Has to be Elano of Man City with our own N'Zogbia, Arteta, Bentley in contention. Forwards: Martins, Santa Cruz, Aglonhar (sp), Keane, Mwarani (sp) would be in contention So, out of that little lot, Robbie Keane is the only Spuds player who would currently qualify and I think that proves the point just how far Spuds have gone backwards. LONG MAY IT LAST.

Martin Jol I find your optimism on the money side fascinating Dare I say, if true, another 50 million wasted by your namesake?

1962 or 1063 It was a wednesday night game , NUFC V Portsmouth won 1-0 with a goal from right back, George DALTON

Down here in Oz, the game is on live at 10pm. Taking the missus out for a chinese meal early, bottle of wine, littlun being babysat by the neighbours, get back in time for KO and send the missus off to bed. Have a couple of beers and then after we have won 2-0, head off to bed at midnight, wake the missus up for a night of passion. Must remember to recite the full list of english and scottish league clubs, grounds, addresses and results to date.................just to keep going a decent length of time.........LOL

Reports say Van Bastard in by the end of the week and Grant back to his DOF role with a pay rise, no doubt for achieving a humiliating OT defeat last sunday. Wish my boss was that generous.

cant remember the name of the belgian international signed for Villa a few years ago, scored on his debut, got injured and never played again...............Giles ? somethingorother

If Mike Forde goes to Chelsea, it could just be a case of "water under the Bridge" (Stamford or Wayne) that is

I watched the game on TV down here in Australia and whilst I know it is not the same as axctually being there, with the benefit of replays, there was a lot of things which should be pointed out. We all know it is generally more difficult to play against 10 men than 11 and that proved the point yesterday. Along with a very ordinary display by the officials and some wayward finishing particularly by Owen, I thought our display was excellent. Granted, a creative midfielder in the mould of a Riquelme would possibly have opened up Wigan more often but in the first half alone, we created a lot of chances particularly down the right hand side. Wigan seemed content to double up on Milner and Zoggy down the left and our major attacking outlet was through Steven Taylor down the right. That is where we eventually got the goal from anyway. The refereeing display was atrocious. Bennett, as usual, wanted to be the star of the show and totally missed a blatant handball by Bramble and the goal in the first half to Owen was NOT offside either. Add to that the finishing of Owen and we were unlucky not to be 3 or 4 up at Half time. To be honest, Kilbane's sending off was a joke. He jumped into theback of Smith but did not lead with his elbows. I thinkm it spoiled the game as a contest and I believe we would have found it a lot easier to score and create chances against 11 men than we did against 10, defenders. Still, we create chances with notable misses by a "greedy" Ameobi who took the chance off Zoggy's toes, Butt and Ameobi again. Apart from a Koumas free kick and the Sib's header straight at Harper, I cant remember another chance Wigan created other than long range efforts. One final point, Heskey should have been sent off for leading with his arms and elbows against Taylor and Harper. All in all, under difficult circumstances against a team that was intent on setting their stall out for a draw, it was a capable performance and well deserved victory in the end. We will fare a lot better against teams who actually come to SJP to win. WHU in 3 weeks time should be very interesting. As for the bloke on here who would be happy with a point at Derby, get real pal. If we want to finish in the top 6 at the very least, we have to go to places like Derby and WIN

We look bloody dangerous down the right, actually. Taylor is getting forward really well and the ball for Owen/Butt was a gem. We scored a good goal - disallowed and Titus gave a certain penalty away, not seen by blind Joe, the ref. We should be 4-0 up and Owen should have had 3 of them Lets hope we keep this up in the 2nd half

Chill out, boys, Faye and Beye signed sealed and delivered we wouldnt have sold Hunty or Nobby if not.

We must have signed Faye and Beye or else we wouldnt have sold Huntingdon to Leeds or Solano to the muppets.

Geremi moved to right back when Barton is fit.

High profile centre back Isnt Nesta available on a free?

Final score 1-1 Aussies got out of jail thanks to Schwarzer

90th minute equaliser by Cahill

Australia were woeful although Oman players were diving around like there was no tomorrow faining injury. Viduyka hasnt had a kick and the bloke marking him looks bloody useful. Kewell has been crap, as has most of the aussies to be honest and Oman would have scored at least 3 more if it were not for Schwarzer.

Bobby Charlton..............................Noone else could touch him, even Gazza Simply the best

Thought this was a Newcastle forum. Seems I was wrong

In an ideal world, HTL is right. We should be aimng at the best right back possible. However, at NUFC currently, it is less than an ideal world and a number of issues need to be taken into account: Allardyce has already come out and said that the supporters should not expect a plethera of name players but some which are considered to be lesser lights to a certain extent. Young probably falls into that category. Better than what we have but not able to take us to the upper echelons in the short term. In the current climate of takeover speculation, we may not have that much money to spend and we need a lot of new players to replace those who have already departed from what was already a very thin squad. In current circumstances, NUFC is not the most attractive option for players to consider. I am afraid that we need to be sensible here and consider ourselves in the same situation when Bobby Robson took over. Expectations are survival and re-building for the next two or three seasons UNLESS, OF COURSE, ASHLEY GETS IMMEDIATE FULL TAKEOVER OF THE CLUB AND SUBSTANTIAL FUNDING IS GIVEN TO THE MANAGER.

Henri PAUL George MCCARTNEY