Bad Mongo

Bollocks. The results and the football are as bad as they were before he came in. Insofar as they are worse, it's because of injuries and due to the squad not being strengthened in the summer.

He's a Spurs fan. Thought that was common knowledge.

I rate Milner, but let's not get carried away. His best quality so far is that he's a dependable, consistently decent performer. We only have one or two such players.

He couldn't outperform Geremi, and that was enough of a reason for him to be moved on. Who are these more technical players he has outperformed anyway? Bollocks. Geremi can cross a ball, but apart from that he doesn't contribute nearly as much to the game as Milner used to do. Has Milner ever been as poor for us as Geremi was against Hull? When the team is struggling, Geremi doesn't contribute anything. Milner at least had an OK work rate, and much better pace (which is kind of ironic, when you think about it).

Wrong on both points. If Keegan was led to believe he would get to choose his players, then claiming that he did have the final say was never a lie. He walked because he didn't. And further, insofar as those "facts" can be proven, nothing has changed. All managers in the league have to report to a board. All managers have to operate within a budget. The fact that Newcastle can't go out and buy players like Lampard wouldn't surprise the man who claimed we would have to compete with the likes of Spurs for players. (Unless, of course, Lampard was genuinely unhappy and wanted away.) In context, the "facts" imply that the budget was far, far smaller in reality than the club led the fans to believe. And that Keegan not only had to report to a board, but had to "manage" players on the whims of the cronies in London. Which means Ashley lied. It's piss poor PR. That's a fact.

Under what obligation does he have to ? Answer: none whatsover. ashley/the club released a statement with the word "fact" in about 10 times which basically called keegan a liar. ashley/the club must be very confident in their argument to issue such a powerfully worded statement. "Mr Principle" keegan hasnt yet answered any of the claims. i wonder why.... You're out of your fucking mind. If there's one thing that statement proved, it was that Ashley and Wise had lied about Keegan's role at the cub, lied about the transfer budget, lied about wanting to build the squad. That is a fact. "Confident" my bollocks. It was one of the most ill advised official statements by any club, ever. The fact that Keegan doesn't speak to the press only means his legal advisers have advised him not to. It's probably one of his contractual obligations.

On the contrary. Nigeria is probably the wealthiest African state. But also the most corrupt nation on the planet. Which is why I wouldn't want a Nigerian consortium anywhere near the club. Meaning what? All Nigerians can afford tomato sauce on their chips? Meaning it has a GDP similar to that of Switzerland. Of course, it also has the population of the UK and Germany combined, but there's still enough wealth to go around for a few rich people.

Well, of course. It's basically the same set-up, and the same business plan.

It doesn't really matter whose decision it was, the problem is when there are three people responsible for transfers and no single coherent vision for the team. That kind of thing doesn't even work for Real Madrid, and there's no chance it will ever work here.

My thoughts exactly.

bullshit Proof or STFU. "Cockney Mafia Out" "No More Geordie Cash for Ashley" Need I say more? Yes, you need to say a lot more, as that proves absolutely nothing.

bullshit Proof or STFU.

We haven't forced Ashley to do anything.

We look like Glenn Roeder's team.

We've acted like a poor version of Spurs in the transfer market, though. Gone for a few glamour signings in the beginning of the transfer window, made a couple of signings that have created a bit of buzz, then failed to strengthen our weakest positions, and sold the player we got the best offer for ... without replacing him. That's what Spurs would do, not Everton or Villa.

You seriously think he wrote it himself?

So, are he and the board just on holiday to wait until things blow over, pretending to do business?

It's a pity, though, that Brann didn't have one single legitimate striker playing today. They could easily have scored two or three goals more.

Brann playing really well. One could almost believe they had a fully fit first team out there. Brewcastle: Probably pessimism. They don't expect much from European games. Hopefully, this will change.

That's brilliant, S.S.R.

Perhaps his editors didn't want to publish claims the judge hadn't thrown out? And no, there's no hidden agenda there; it's obvious for everyone what his agenda is. Edit: If you go through George Monbiot's website, you'll find footnotes that reference the court document, which can be found here (PDF). There, you can find some of the alleged defamatory statements, which are really just regular criticism.

A bargaining trick: - I'll sell you the club for 860 bazillion dollars, and you get to keep the dwarf as well. - We're not interested. - 860 bazillions, and I'll take the dwarf with me. - Just take the dwarf with you and get out of here.

It makes a lot of sense if you own the club and want to make money, but they are at the bottom of the table with one point after losing to Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Villa for a reason. They always buy one or two glamour signings while selling their most highly valued players to better teams, and they never end up better for it.

Yes, but I believe the statement of intention to be a bluff. Hence the Spurs-like way of doing transfers.

I agree that the scouting network seems a lot better now, but then again it was a shambles after Souness and Roeder. I'm just not sure the actual investment in player development, and even players, is all that. We did bring in talented players from around the world under Shepherd as well, like Tim Krul. I'm not sure the improvement is all that radical.