Leazes1986

If things stay the same under the current regime and we do manage to stay up then we will still not attract a big name manager. We will only be able to attract a manager who will see this club as a step up imo. By that I mean a manager of one of the smaller Premiership clubs like Bruce, Megson, Brown, Pullis, Southgate or Mowbray. Sad to say but with things the way we are at the moment we don't offer much to make a manager jump at the chance to make this club reach its potential. When looking at the options the obvious choice is going to be to look elsewhere from the Premiership unless we take a gamble with Bruce. I don't think we have a hope in hell in attracting an exotic name from abroad who will get the fans drolling. That might not be a bad thing. I've just got no faith in the current owner to offer anything attractive to a manager other than a step up in club size.

Unbelievable. Take a look at the squad now and look at the positions Keegan was rumoured to want to strengthen and you will see one of the reasons KK walked.

No fucking way.

Why is Slaven not allowed in the Riverside?

Shearer put in a brilliant shift against Arsenal that night.

Its simple really. We've got three very winnable home matches left this season. Two of them are against teams right in the thick of it with us. We must win them three matches, get something away to Stoke and we must look to not get beat in our next two home games. If we do that then we'll be safe. If we can't get 9 points at the least out of our home matches then we're down.

We really have to put in a massive performance next week and we need to take any chances we get. I actually feel more confident of us getting something out of our games against the big teams at home than us getting points against the shit around us away.

Disaster. At least Portsmouths game in hand is against Manure. We MUST win on Saturday. Stoke are away to Everton as well so you'd hope Everton beat them. Don't know whats best for the Boro match against Portsmouth at the weekend though. Draw?

Where did you seen this? Seen a few bits from the Chronicle but I didn't read that.

I wouldn't say it's weird at all. Not when you realise that our best player of the time went out on loan to Celtic and then was sold to Blackburn. Exactly. He missed his mate buzzing about and creating space for him to do his stuff in. No co-incidence at all imo. So do you reckon if Shearer was playing in the same Newcastle team of the previous few years, he would have got 20 goals or more in 04/05 and 05/06? No idea mate. I'm saying Bellamy* helped Shearer's game and selling him for a pittance affected Shearer's game. Edit: and Robert. And Solano.

I wouldn't say it's weird at all. Not when you realise that our best player of the time went out on loan to Celtic and then was sold to Blackburn. Exactly. He missed his mate buzzing about and creating space for him to do his stuff in. No co-incidence at all imo. So do you reckon if Shearer was playing in the same Newcastle team of the previous few years, he would have got 20 goals or more in 04/05 and 05/06?

Shearer without a shadow of a doubt. I'd say his best seasons for us were 01/02, 02/03 and 03/04, not including his first season. His performances were top notch, he banged the goals in and he was a joy to watch. When did people notice his performances declining? I have to say towards the end of the 03/04 season I noticed he was really struggling in some games. I remember having the conversation with my mates. Everyone said the same but we all thought he was just knackered and in need of a rest. Of course he put in some very good performances at the end of that season as well, but it was a sign of things to come because the Shearer of the following two seasons wasn't the same player. I just find it weird how he all of a sudden he went from the goal machine to the player he ended up being. It seemed to happen quite quickly really because he was banging the goals in then he just stopped.

Supermac hates him He's always referring to his lack of goals and below par crossing, but he fails to comment on the rest of the midfield. I don't see how anyone can criticize Jonas ahead of the rest of our midfield. Hasn't he been our most productive midfielder this season with 4 or 5 assists? I would expect some goals from a winger, and with Martins, Owen and Viduka on the pitch, as well as Barton making runs into the box i'm sure he would have had a lot more assists. He's one of the only players in the squad who i would strive to keep.

As poor as Butt is he must be picked before Smith every time. Its an absolute total myth that Smith can play in midfield and he's never ever backed up the myth that he can. He might run around a lot kicking people but he's got absolutely no discipline, and he would be a disaster in that position imo. Butt hasn't really got the legs anymore, and he gives away the ball too much, but he's a lot safer bet than Smith. He's positionally aware and he's got a cool head on him. Smith is bloody rash to be kind. The way Smith plays fools a lot of people.

If Viduka wasn't such a crock with a reputation, he wouldn't be at Newcastle. He'd be at one of the top clubs because he's such a good footballer. He's streets ahead of most of our players technically and he offers things that no other player in the squad could but its all wasted with his injury problems. If he gets some goals and gives us a decent amount of matches from now until May then I wont complaint too much. He's been a waste but I am certain if he can keep fit for even 10 matches he will play a massive part in keeping us up.

Heard Ameobi had been approached.....but Bury it is a command he doesn't understand.

Hope this isnt true. The fact that we'd be gambling on our future with Hughton is bad enough. The fact that we'd be taking such a risk for the sake of having Joe Kinnear as our permanent manager is tragic.

The Skysports.com story looks like they have took their information from the Sunday Sun. Wouldn't say theres much in it at the minute.

Leads me to think that the £8m was going to be used on Johnson, with the £4m Milner money on the right back. You would think that with the probable sales of Xisco and Geremi we would bring in another £4m at least, then you've got the huge wages we will be getting off the wage bill with the probable departures of Cacapa, Geremi, Owen and Viduka. Their wages alone must be around £250,000 a week or more. Surely with them wages gone we should be able to spend a few million extra on players on lesser wages. Even without any extra money from Ashley i would expect with the £12m there, transfer fee's from probable sales, and wages reduced massively from out of contract players, we should have £20m to spend like.

I would have liked him to have stayed there but i don't tthink they would have went down anyway. I think the bottom 3 will stay that way. Surely now with a few players back we should be capable of getting ourselves out of trouble. We do have some hard fixtures coming up but if we can manage to get 3 points out of either Everton or Bolton then that would put us on 30 points. Not the easiest of matches but we should be looking to get something out of all of our home matches, and Bolton are beatable. I don't think you'll even need 35 points to stay up this year, but with matches coming up against Boro and Portsmouth at home we should be getting a few points on the board. We don't have any excuses now, we've got matches coming up where we should be taking points, and if we don't then we've got nobody to blame but ourselves. I think the next 2 matches plus Boro and Portsmouth are going to be key matches now. Get 7 or 9 out of them and we will pick a few points elsewhere and that would see us safe. I'll be fucking disgusted if we don't get more than 6 points out of them.

Even the way he clears his throat every 8.3 seconds in his interviews does my head in Did anyone hear him on the radio talking about the bids for Johnson and Richardson? He called Richardson something like "Richans" He's also been talking about Nolan saying he's especially delighted to play him because he can play in a number of positions. Sure the thick cunts getting him mixed up with Ryan Taylor

Depends on how i'm doing for money at the time. If i'm fine for money i will.

As much as i don't rate Ameobi, why would anyone start Smith ahead of him?

I think he's decent. Absolutely no point in putting a bid in for him though because not only do we have enough "decent players", but our best winger is most effective on the left, Sunderland would never have accepted any sort of bid from us for one of their better players on deadline day, and he is probably the last player we need at the minute looking at the posituions where we are weak in and type of players we need.