thedudeabides

Ameobi and Smith up front!

Good player, was really disappointed when we weren't in for him first time around. Would rather stick with Enrique mind.

so which is it NE5? I'm not a fence sitter myself, but it appears you're swinging your views back and forth as it suits. Please clarify if you've got the time. Thanks its quite simple. We failed to sign a player the manager wanted, and in this case, he wasn't even first choice. well, let's assume KK wanted Aimar, and agreed with Wise and co to go for him. We put in a bid, which was accepted by all "press" accounts. Let's also say that said club and player had other offers on the table. Doesn't said player then get to choose which club he wants to play for? naturally factoring in his own ambition, the club's ambition, wages, european football, city, climate etc...etc... what if the player really did turn us down in favour of Benfica? why does that automatically indicate failure on our part? he's south american remember, and has been a relatively big name charlie for a few yrs now. There may be several reasons why he would choose Benfica over us, and none of them have to be automatically due to our club failing at boardroom/Wise level. just the same way you accuse people of having an agenda against the old board, you clearly use every chance you get to criticize the new board, even when factual information is scarce and all that's available is unsubstantiated drivel written up by some 2 bit journo. the club are missing out on managers targets for not showing ambition/having the setup to persuade them to come/not being urgent enough to go and get them, whatever the reason, and making noises about putting in place a policy that I basically think is the wrong way to get among the top clubs and you think they shouldn't be criticised ? You bet your arse I'll criticise mate, and whats more its justified as well. What about when a player has a better option? we have to make ourselves a better option than clubs where we sould be a better option. Like we've done for the majority of our recent past, I know this is something we don't agree on mate but the club has to make its own effort and a much better one to sell itself. I take your point and agree the club has to sell itself..........BUT, how can we compete with a club that can offer European football, or for a player who wants to live in London? The only way we can possibly attract a top player is to pay ridiculous wages like we have in the past. Are you saying you want to see players signed who are only here for one thing? of course not, but I just can't accept that there are quality players who won't see playing for Newcastle as the big draw that it is. Basically, we may not be in europe next season, but most players will know that we should be, they will know what happened the last time under Keegan and any player worth his salt should consider that and see it as superior to most options apart from the 4 obvious ones in the premiership. Sadly, we are not a big draw anymore as we've been going backwards since we sacked Robson. Having a new manager virtually every season, hasn't exactly done wonders for our image too. In terms of attracting players, I would put Spurs, Everton, Portsmouth, Man City and possibly Villa ahead of us at present. I don't like it, but you've got to be realistic about these things.

so which is it NE5? I'm not a fence sitter myself, but it appears you're swinging your views back and forth as it suits. Please clarify if you've got the time. Thanks its quite simple. We failed to sign a player the manager wanted, and in this case, he wasn't even first choice. well, let's assume KK wanted Aimar, and agreed with Wise and co to go for him. We put in a bid, which was accepted by all "press" accounts. Let's also say that said club and player had other offers on the table. Doesn't said player then get to choose which club he wants to play for? naturally factoring in his own ambition, the club's ambition, wages, european football, city, climate etc...etc... what if the player really did turn us down in favour of Benfica? why does that automatically indicate failure on our part? he's south american remember, and has been a relatively big name charlie for a few yrs now. There may be several reasons why he would choose Benfica over us, and none of them have to be automatically due to our club failing at boardroom/Wise level. just the same way you accuse people of having an agenda against the old board, you clearly use every chance you get to criticize the new board, even when factual information is scarce and all that's available is unsubstantiated drivel written up by some 2 bit journo. the club are missing out on managers targets for not showing ambition/having the setup to persuade them to come/not being urgent enough to go and get them, whatever the reason, and making noises about putting in place a policy that I basically think is the wrong way to get among the top clubs and you think they shouldn't be criticised ? You bet your arse I'll criticise mate, and whats more its justified as well. What about when a player has a better option? we have to make ourselves a better option than clubs where we sould be a better option. Like we've done for the majority of our recent past, I know this is something we don't agree on mate but the club has to make its own effort and a much better one to sell itself. I take your point and agree the club has to sell itself..........BUT, how can we compete with a club that can offer European football, or for a player who wants to live in London? The only way we can possibly attract a top player is to pay ridiculous wages like we have in the past. Are you saying you want to see players signed who are only here for one thing?

so which is it NE5? I'm not a fence sitter myself, but it appears you're swinging your views back and forth as it suits. Please clarify if you've got the time. Thanks its quite simple. We failed to sign a player the manager wanted, and in this case, he wasn't even first choice. well, let's assume KK wanted Aimar, and agreed with Wise and co to go for him. We put in a bid, which was accepted by all "press" accounts. Let's also say that said club and player had other offers on the table. Doesn't said player then get to choose which club he wants to play for? naturally factoring in his own ambition, the club's ambition, wages, european football, city, climate etc...etc... what if the player really did turn us down in favour of Benfica? why does that automatically indicate failure on our part? he's south american remember, and has been a relatively big name charlie for a few yrs now. There may be several reasons why he would choose Benfica over us, and none of them have to be automatically due to our club failing at boardroom/Wise level. just the same way you accuse people of having an agenda against the old board, you clearly use every chance you get to criticize the new board, even when factual information is scarce and all that's available is unsubstantiated drivel written up by some 2 bit journo. the club are missing out on managers targets for not showing ambition/having the setup to persuade them to come/not being urgent enough to go and get them, whatever the reason, and making noises about putting in place a policy that I basically think is the wrong way to get among the top clubs and you think they shouldn't be criticised ? You bet your arse I'll criticise mate, and whats more its justified as well. What about when a player has a better option?

so which is it NE5? I'm not a fence sitter myself, but it appears you're swinging your views back and forth as it suits. Please clarify if you've got the time. Thanks just read his posts and it seems to me he's spot on - the ambition he refers to is to complete deals isn't? he says something is wrong, ambition or whatever woodgate, modric, aimar have all been moved for and turned us down to some degree so he's right, something is missing - whether ambition is the right word is neither here nor there my opinion, however, is that a bid for aimar shouldn't be considered ambitious - we've just lost him to benfica if reports are correct, wasn't so long ago they were picking up our cast offs for nothing... EDIT: also meant to say in that last part about his career appearing to be on the decline as well, but forgot It's nothing to do with something not being right, they have simply had better options than coming here. Since Robson was sacked for finishing fifth, we have finished 14th, 7th, 13th and 12th and had four different managers. That points to an unstable, mid-table club, not a top club which can pick and choose in the transfer market. Ashley is responsible for one of those seasons and sacking one manager, yet some people see him and the club's new way of running things as the reason we cannot attract the top players. Quite incredible really.

I hope he stays as I'll be Saint Petersburg next month and have a ticket for their game against Terek Grozny. Uber-tastic.

Ask harry-norway. I'm sure he knows some top quality players that are desperate to join us. Why oh why have you got that fat Mackem turncoat Beefy in your avatar? The bloke's an embarrassment.

I never knew that. It really just sums the Mackems up. Would love to see that paper. Speaking of papers i recall just days after, The Sun trying to be party poopers saying that Big Les was furious that Shearer had insisted on the number 9 shirt. That's absolutely gospel that, front page as well. I've got loads of old Newcastle stuff in the loft, I'll see if I can dig it out. As an aside, showing my age a bit here but I remember when I found out we'd signed Keegan as a player. Me and my brother who were 12 and 9 were on holiday at Portmadog in North Wales, just sitting around bored stiff in the local park. I was wearing my Bukta tracksuit when this scouse kid comes up and says "you lads must be really happy then?". "About what" we replied. "You've signed Keegan" "Yeah, of course we have" or something similar. "No seriously, you have" We were up a height by this time and ran back to the boat we were staying on with our Grandparents to find out if it was true. We then sat in my Grandad's Renault 5 listening to the radio until we heard the amazing news............imagine your best ever Christmas present and times it by 10...........that's how I felt that day!!

Jesus Christ.

Shearer : I was working in Hetton-le-Hole just outside of Sunderland putting a CCTV tower up with a fellow Newcastle fan. It came over on the radio and we were dancing around in the field like idiots. Bought a Sunderland Echo that dinner time which had the immortal headline "Oh no, Look who the Mags have signed!". Cole : Was working in a printers in town when it came on the radio, absolutely gutted. The funny thing was, I was in the Director's Lounge for the Blackburn cup game with a mate, and we had talked to Alex Ferguson and Martin Edwards who were having a drink a the bar. Didn't really think anything of it at the time, but obviously they were there to do the deal.

Sack him.

Why are you jacking in now? Geuine question.

Good riddance, we don't need flakey glory hunters like yourself. So why do you think all these "glory hunters" that "glory hunted" are now deserting the club Surely the measure of how a company performs is reflected in its audience/income/ticket sales etc Genuine question ? There's a lot of our fans who have only known top flight football and (relatively) good times, who don't understand what supporting the club is about. They just went along with their mates and when one of their mates wraps in, they all follow suit and go shopping with their lasses on a saturday instead. These are the flakey tossers I am on about. What I really can't understand is that these same people sat through the shit served up by Souness. Roeder and Allardyce, yet are jacking in now when we have Keegan back. There are people who genuinely cannot afford it anymore and there are also people, who have fallen out of love with the what football has become. I have no problem with these folk.

are you the first person who actually thinks there may be truth in this ? Fancy that eh, does us all a favour by wiping out a stadium debt, then has the temerity to include it in the asking price, and more. How much do you think your pal Shepherd made out out of Newcastle compared to his initial outlay? It will be a hell of a lot more (percentage wise), than Ashley will ever make.

are you the first person who actually thinks there may be truth in this ? Fancy that eh, does us all a favour by wiping out a stadium debt, then has the temerity to include it in the asking price, and more. Don't think the club debt is at all relevant here, he bought the club and ultimately the debt was a £100m reduction in his own assets. So thus the club cost Ashley £230m regardless of whether the debt was paid off, so now that he has paid it off, he is perfectly entitled to include it in the asking price. don't think you quite see my point James. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he sells up. No smoke without fire, as for the lack of quotes, quotes aren't Ashleys style. He's a poor communicator in fact. Me neither. He's a businessman after all and would sell up if the right offer came along just like Shepherd and the Halls did. As would the Glazers, Gillett and Hicks, Shinawatra or anybody else who was offered a massive return on their investment (bar maybe Abramovich). The fact that he has named such a price, suggests to me that he doesn't want to sell up.

See ya.

Aye, we should have let him run his contract down and walk for nowt.

You're basing this on what exactly? It must be his performances at Man City as he was abysmal for us bar two or three games at the end of the season. Nicky Butt contributed much much more than him last season. Do you honestly think he's worth £6M now? We'd be lucky to get £2M for him.

Well said that man.

Indeed. Can any of the people defending him, put their hand on their hearts and say he will never do anything like this again?

Hear hear.

If we can afford to make a stand, make a stand but we can't at the moment. Geremi and Butt for your central midfield with Smith backing them up, that midfield all season will get us relegated. I'm not convinced relegation is a fair price to pay for the moral highe ground. For me it's get rid but get rid on our terms when we've got replacements through the door and we've got a means to recoup our losses. Both were infinitely better than Barton last season. Sack him, he's simply not worth keeping on or off the pitch.

Great news, send him down for a long time Mr Judge.