Benwell Lad

Would be good, but I've a feeling Krul will be looking for first team action sooner.

Probably the most unpopular thread title since "Keep Souness" - but think about it. If Tim Krul maintains his progress he is soon going to need to be at least a No.2 keeper in a Premiership squad, that probably means if we're to keep him then one of the senior goalkeepers will have to make way. Shay Given is a top keeper and an excellent club man but in my opinion so is Steve Harper. I don't think there is much to seperate them but Shay has a stronger personality and made it clear he would not be No 2, while Harper has been content with that role. A lot of us rate them equally, but Shay would have a higher market value and I'd guess a much higher salary. Therefore would it make sense to cash in on him and invest the money elsewhere ? One thing is sure, when they're all fit, 3 into 2 won't go and something will have to give eventually.

Which Tescos? Kingston Park? Yep, was packed and I just looked up and there he was picking an orange just as I was getting some oranges. Was a mad day as I bumped into Tim Krul on Northumberland Street earlier in the day and then yesterday I bumped into Damien Duff at the airport, he was picking someone up off the same Dublin flight as I was. reckon he flies on Easyjet? Duff was not flying he was picking someone up who was also in all nufc training wear... not sure who it was.. didn't look like Alan O'Brien. I know, but do you reckon he/Irish contingent would fly on a budget airline when he has to fly back to Dublin? I think its the only airline that flies direct to Dublin from NCL so I presume the 50k a week footballers would have to sit with us poor folk on a cheap airline...tongue.gif Easyjet are not a cheap airline - just a crap, no frills (i.e. no free booze) airline.

No it's not. Saying he is LIKE Bellamy would be a joke, but any different players can be COMPARED. My original point was that they both cause problems for defenders with their pace and movement, and make teams defend deeper against us. But they are very different players.

At long last we are not missing Bellamy. Martins pace and enthusiasm, has defenders worried to play against us for the first time in years. Just like Bellamy he is going to win corners,free kicks, throw ins and even get players sent off (like Henchoz) as they struggle against his pace. I look forward to many years of seeing teams defending deep against us, letting us play more football. Thanks Obafemi.

Never heard anyone who met him not say what a true gentleman and great guy he is. A real genuine guy in a sport which has more than it's fair share of self important prima donnas.

Don't Germany also have the lowest ticket prices of the major european countries, too? Coincidence? For me the chant that makes me cringe is "your support is f***ing shit" as sung in every PL ground. How f***ing pointless is that? Yes football in Germany is much more affordable than England, but there again so are most things. There is also a kind of "beer and bratwurst" mentality at German grounds which has never really changed. German clubs also feel more like "clubs" and it's not unusual for players to be drinking with fans in clubhouse bars after the game almost like non league clubs in England. Very different to our stars who are quickly whisked back off into the stratosphere after entertaining () the masses.

Our support last night was crap. Very little passion and no originality. I heard 3 chants - the over used "Same old Chelsea..." the moronic "Toon Toon B&W army" and I think I even heard strains of "where were you when you were shit" from L7. FFS ! It's all so predictable and sterile nowadays. Blame the club for never taking the initiative to create a "singing end" where younger like minded fans can go wild, and why oh why is the inane screeching music played through squawky speakers right up to kick off. That is sure to kill off any atmosphere. Compare the Frankfurt atmosphere to the puerile SJP one. Who wouldn't prefer to watch the match in a real atmosphere. It's not just Frankfurt most German grounds, Schalke, Hamburg, St.Pauli etc etc are a din of noise and colour most games. It's OK for Roeder asking us to wave scarves and make noise, but the situation is so bad nowadays the club needs to create some kind of initiative to make it happen. What they must realise is that one of the reasons why some people attend matches is to be part of an atmosphere and having no atmosphere will ultimately lead to reduced attendance.

They'd all be legends if they win the league, which is what we need, not an individual to adore. :roll: Just my opinion. Agreed mate,but that ain't Als fault,i don't believe he was supposed to be the final piece of Keegans puzzle though,had he stayed all KK had to do was buy 2 quality defenders and leagues would've arrived almost certainly.I know its hypothetical like.Instead Dalglish went about demolishing the side and the rest is history.Just 1 more season of Special K would have done the trick. Aye, I'm pretty much in agreement with that, although the team was so good I'm not sure who could have joined at the time who would have made the difference. We lacked a quality keeper for sure,Nigel Martyn at that time at Palace wouldn't have cost much.And a quick centre back to replace the aging Albert or the inadequate Bramble-esque Peacock and maybe got Stuart Pearce a year or two before we did sign him. A leader like Pearce may have done the trick, to cover for Keegan's massive error of letting Venison go. I did not realise how good Venison was until I saw him in a B&W shirt. Oh for someone like him to marshall our defence nowadays.

Pity you don't post that when people call for Fred's head because he's spouted some shite. The bit I'm worried about is the idea he may ever manage Newcastle. It's worrying that he doesn't have what it takes within his character to give some deserved credit to players he's previously fallen out with. That's all that's being said here really. Fundamentally, I don't give a shite what it is he actually does say. Pity you choose to hijack threads and twist them so they discuss the fat wanker rather than the original subject matter. :roll: Valid points. Be consistent. If you criticise someone for comments you perceive as stupid, criticise someone else for doing the same. When Shearer says Geordies would rather win the FA Cup instead of the league, it makes me squirm too. Because its basically stupid and I am one Geordie for one who would far rather win the title and I don't particularly like him telling people what I would prefer to win. I find it worrying that he seems to be unable to bury an agenda [ie with Bellamy] and it doesn't bode well for the characteristics of a possible future manager of Newcastle. Whatever positive things I can get from it ie his committment to the club and his strong personality, is outweighed by things like this. Sir Bobby was a great manager, sold Solano due to international disagreements. Alex Ferguson is a great manager, fell out with numerous quality players (Stam, Beckham, Van Nistlerooy) and sold them on. Point is even the best managers can fall out with players, let their own ego's get in the way but it doesnt mean they aren't good at what they do. Remarkably similar to the numerous posts that proclaimed that Souness should be given time because Alex Ferguson was given time. I find it worrying that he can't give credit where it is due, thats all, and also that he didn't realise that it was Bellamy who prolonged his own career by a few years, otherwise he would not have reached the goalscoring record. Bad judgement if ever you saw it. In actual fact, if he had the good of the club at heart like he is supposed to do, why did he wait until Bobby Robson had gone before turning on Bellamy [and Dyer and Jenarse as well ?]. Why not defend Sir Bobby and help him bring them into line while he was still the manager of the club, after all he was his captain ? That in my eyes would have been putting the club first, and recognising that 2 of those players were very valuable to the club and himself as a footballer to pursue his own ambitions ? Make no mistake about it, the day Souness decided to bin Bellamy was the day Alan Shearer kissed goodbye to any chance he had left of lifting a cup as captain of Newcastle. So true. Shame is 50,000+ of us and many more around the world kissed goodbye to any hope of success in the forseeable future too. Thing is we didn't get millions of pounds off the club to soften the blow.

Shearer is a really boring pundit but so are most on BBC. Shearer is an excellent interviewee - almost like a politician. Shearer called Manure "United" on MOTD - disrespectful to us. Shearer is our club's record goalscorer. Shearer was once the best striker in the world. Shearer signed for Newcastle because there was more money on offer than Man Utd - not starry eyed romantic notions that it was because he supported Newcastle as a boy. Shearer enjoyed scoring goals against Newcastle as much as any other team. So he should as a pro footballer. Shearer did not allow himself to be replaced by SBR and was instrumental in pushing Robson and bringing in a friend to replace him (Souness) and that set our club back years. Shearer did a lot of good things for NUFC, but not everything he did for NUFC was good.

Not me mate. He'd have been at NUFC (in some capacity) for the rest of his life as far as I'm concerned.

Dead right. I didn't want to say it because I've made the point before. We handled the whole question of Shearer's retirement and replacement in an incredibly unprofessional manner, and Robson was the chief casualty. A lot of "savvy" NUFC supporters think that, but it has never really been mentioned too much. The (puppet) press have conveniently avoided it, even Farrington in the Sunday Sun, who is normally quite brave and tells it as it is. Probably saw what happened to Robson and thought it best to keep quiet. Like talking about Putin in Russia, maybe you just can't raise some issues about NUFC unless you want to end up eating some dodgy sushi ?

65% go for appointment of Souness and sacking of Robson, which are kind of the same thing, and I would agree that this was the point at which the club turned backwards. That in turn led to the departure of our most effective player and bad buys and the downward spiral was in motion. However shouldn't the real blame for that rest with the people who essentially orchestrared the above two things, i.e. Shearer and Shepherd. It's so ironic that one of the reasons spouted for this season's terrible start was that the club had failed to adequately replace Shearer. But didn't Robson go because he DID try to replace Shearer, but the man himself and the chairman were having none of it !

Tames sometimes used to to stand on an old bog roof with his cameraman inthe west corner of the Gallowgate when filming news snippets for TTTV. A song of the era was "we've scored more goals than you ..........." to the tune of the British Airways advert, the crowd used to sing "we've got more hair than you Roger Tames". Class.

Very well written, intelligent and thought provoking. We certainly have our fair share of the above mentioned and most of them parochial at that.

Lawrenson is a complete tit and very anti NUFC at that. However Clark is starting to become "rent a quote" a bit at present but really does not have the brain required to make statements on behalf of the club. Should just keep quiet and be thankful that charvas like him and McDermott are so well paid by a club of our stature. No other big club would hire them and I certainly don't think Hitzfeld would have kept them.

"Vaux" The club has gone pretty much the same way as their shirt sponsor :lol:

Anyway, when he was asked what the score would be in the big match the tw*t should have said "3-0 to Newcastle" not "a United win". Theres only one BIG game on today !

Was amazed that "Mr. Newcastle" could say that. Most Geordies despise Manure being referred to as "United"

Yeah if you like beer, football and friendly good looking girls with cute accents it's a great place to be. The only people who don't seem to like Germany are those who've never actually been there.

Yeah it could not just be achieved by accident !

German clubs appreciate their fans much more than the English, you also have much better atmospheres in the stadiums generally. The beer and Bratwurst is pretty good too !

In the old days (Harvey, Charlton, Keegan etc etc) you could just walk into the training ground in Benwell, there were always lots of kids, reporters, TV people etc, and you saw the players for what they really were, generally just young lads having a laugh, it was great for fan/club rapport. Beardsley was once on the line watching a practice game, having taken a knock, and Jack Charlton shouted " Peter man, run to the dressing room and get me a cigar out of me jacket pocket" It was so funny - can you imagine a world class player being asked to do that nowadays ? During the same era remember the GREAT Jackie Milburn (in his role as a News of the World reporter) turning to me and saying how bad Jack Charlton's language was and he should be aware that women could be listening. Total class. Feel sorry for young kids who will never see their heroes in such a close up way, but there again I feel sorry for young kids who have never experienced an atmosphere in a football ground like the days of the old Leazes end !

Methinks after Clarky's comments then probably not - he's hardly going to criticise Chelsea if there's business to be done... Yeah but thats an assumption made on the basis of the person commenting having a brain. Clarky is not the brightest of people.