Benwell Lad

Just as the same journalists who had been hounding Allardyce and cranking up the pressure are now saying that Newcastle reacted in a knee jerk fashion and how can any manager succeeed with such an impatient club and fans ?? Would be great if we could just totally ignore them and they'd go away. Freedom of the press is a good thing but the present generation of scribbling f*ckwits abuse their privilege and seem unable to actually report facts.

....... who then totally f***ed it up, resulting in the second goal and effectively game over. I don't know how anyone can not see how badly he had positioned himself for the free kick which led to the first goal. Walls often jump - it's a bit like deciding whether to dive left or right at a penalty - it was his awful positioning which handed it to them.

I've established that you are a miserable man and/or your sole purpose on this forum is to bring everyone down to the level you are on with your negativity. People must get really bored of you. The fact people complain about Given astonishes me. He was our best or second best player against Man Utd. He has been with us for what 10 years? He's rejected advances from other clubs to remain loyal to us. We always expect players to be proud of the shirt they are playing in and to pay us back with what we put into our club. Given does this. Enrique and Taylor were, in my view, without doubt the best two players for us on Saturday. Given had a mare. I sometimes think that we don't deserve the loyalty Given has shown us. Don't worry about him too much. The few million a year he's been paid over the time should help soften the blow of the little bit of (justifiable) criticism he is now receiving.

No doubt that these football manager dads (and mams) with their unrealistic expectations for little Johnny are detrimental to the development of kids.

She's not so much a bad journalist, just a blatant Sunderland fan who carries the jealous of Newcastle chip on her shoulder that so many Sundlund fans have. She's just not professional enough to hide it yet.

Which of course it is. To us.

Yeah like the young girl who told her careers tutor that she wanted to be a "celebrity" when she left school !

Namby parents feeding their kids junk food and letting them stay indoors has changed many of the citizens of the north east's poorer parts from the hard strong sportsmen of past eras into obese spotty charvers. Oh and the bar has been raised considerably. To make it in our top league they were once competing with the best of British talent, now they compete with the best from all around the world.

Thing is Keegan as a man would never settle for second best. Would that be a good or bad thing right now ?

Could only see either one or both considering the job if that were the case. I.e. loads of cash available. I think whoever takes over will get good backing. Cash though, at times, has been the cause of our problems rather than a solution. It's how well that cash is spent and how the players react when they get here. Certainly on that count the Keegan of old made some wonderful buys and almost everyone he brought became black and white through and through.

Oliver is now showing open support for Shearer's appointment. More to do with it being a good appointment for Oliver than any regard for NUFC methinks. Shearer fed Oliver political pieces when SBR was manager (Vaalerenga match - would not be happy to be used as sub etc) and Oliver probably sees Shearer as the manager he'd be able to get cosiest with.

Apart from the dream appointments i.e Mourinho, Klinsmann, a 50 year old Bobby Robson,etc I think Hughes is the outstanding candidate. He is certainly the pick of existing Premiership bosses excluding the impossibles like Wenger and Ferguson. He was a bit of a cheat as a player despite his great ability but he seems to have become a very good, calm and calculating manager. Right now I think given decent support he could move us forward and probably has the right balance of youth/hunger with a bit of previous experience as opposed to most of the other realistic canditates who seem heavily weighted with one or the other.

Not entirely right. All the players you mention had decent options when they made their moves, whether it was to stay at big clubs or move elsewhere. It's more a question of what happens to these "top players" when they get here. Despite all that has happened at NUFC, unlike other clubs in the north east playing in their partially filled stadiums, we do not seem to have a problem attracting top players who have genuine options about where they play.

Shearer ?

Juat about everyone I have spoken to is blaming Given for the first 2 goals yesterday. He has not been in good form this season.

Indeed. He arrived at the time Shearer decided (along with Freddie) that Bobby Robson should be fired and replaced by Shearer's mate Souness who then brought in Shearer's mate MacDermott. This may have been the begining of the spiral which sees us where we are right now. For this reason and despite Shearer's legendary status as a player I'd be very wary about having him back at the club as manager or assistant.

Thanks for providing the hard evidence of why I always thought Arry will not be the man for us.

Unfinished business.

There's also the Bobby Robson connection and even at his age Bobby is still one of the best salesman in football.

Totally right mate. We can waste hundreds of pages here speculating and wishing, but the decision is already made.

Not sure even Ashley could afford to meet the terms of those two greedy fockers !

i'd say that Lippi, being one of the best football managers of all time, is far more unlikely than Mourinho.. also in the past Lippi has rejected clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern, because he prefers to work in Italy, so absolutely no chance whatsoever.. Mourinho, even if remotely interested, can't manage another club in the premier league this season, which also puts him out of the equation As it's highly unlikely Newcastle will be challenging Chelsea in any way this season, would they be prepared to waive the clause which they presumably insisted upon ?

Totally different types of businessmen Other than with the floating of the toon Shepherd had very little stock market involvement and just ran his own business like a family business. Ashley has not only set up and floated his own company from scratch, making himself close to a billion in the process, he has also acquired companies, learned to deal with shareholder demands and questioning, dealt with analysts and consultants on an almost daily basis. He, and his people, are incredibly business savvy Look at what he did with Reebok and what he is likely to do with re-acquiring sports direct. Point me towards Fat Fred showing that kind of business acumen. In fact we are in quite a unique position as far as owners go, with having an established English businessman with a great track record in charge. Look around at Liverpool and Man united (US debt merchants), Chelsea, Man City and Portsmouth (foreign blood money), West Ham (strange) and I dont see much Id swap for. Aston Villa are the only other team with an owner I really like. To compare Shepherd and Ashley is very much folly. If we appoint Redknapp or someone of his ilk feel free to ram this back down my throat. Not having appointed Allardyce he would only be tolerated until such time as Ashley found his own man. Allardyce's departure bore the hallmarks of Ashley's business style. Extremely ruthless. The flotation from which he made the big bucks and in which investors have subsequently been burned ullustrates the workings of a very clever but ruthless operator too. I think it's inconcievable that the rug was pulled from underneath Sam before someone was lined up. It won't be long before a big announcement is made.

You don't think this thread qualifies from the reverse perspective? Nah not really. Nothing like the jealous drivel they come out with.

I thought when we played Spurs at home that the Beye-Cacaapa-Faye-Enrique back four looked as good a defence as we've seen for a while and played regularly I think it could gel. It seems after the Stoke match the Taylor bandwagon is rolling again but he is just so error prone and loses position. He was awful away to Chelsea and even in one of his better games on Sunday he could have given away a stupid penalty with the habit he has of using his arms to make himself bigger - just like he did against Alkmaar last season when poor old Titus took the wrap.