Kanji

That should have been a penalty?

Weimann should get a yellow. He's been fouling all match ffs

Sometimes Ben Arfa shouldn't pass

GOUFFRAN!!!!

Krul knows better than to do that on their goal.

Give Gouffran his chance through the middle? It would have been nice with a striker capable of holding the ball up. I'd honestly take Cisse off, throw Gouffran on the wing and let Remy play in the middle.

Cisse is killing me today -- has to get his act together man.

Everyone seems to forget how hopeless Shearer was in the league that season. The torch should have been passed off and it would have had SBR been kept in charge. Bellamy's own goal scoring was improving at that point as well - he and PK should have been our men.

Keep it up

Man, PK's celebrations sometimes were epic. I remember one match where Shearer went on a great run into the box and crossed in and PK smacked it in and ran over to him pointed to him and they both celebrated together. Remember at the time thinking...holy s*** AS + PK are our f***ing strikers. Pass the torch and he and Bellamy would cause havoc... That Bellamy/PK Crystal Palace goal, or Patrick's header at home to Chelsea in the cup...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40407000/jpg/_40407321_patrick300.jpg Mental this day. Still can't quite believe we had him...wish he was arsed man, gosh if we had him motivated and fit.

Play the right team, our best 11, and we can get a result there.

Shepherd wanted to be the chairman, the fan, and the hero. He could have been all of that had his ego not clouded his judgment and given him the notion that he could make major footballing decisions that were ultimately flawed and out of his depth. I agree with HTT, I think the Big Sam hire was his realization that he had mucked things up and needed to rebuild and modernize the club. Was it the right one? Well of course that's debatable for all...

Freddy Shepherd's ambition and vision for our club (obviously Sir John Hall prior to him) was and continues to be something we sorely miss. Their ambition with the right footballing man ie: a David Dein type character and we would no doubt fighting for European football every year at a minimum. HTT: top post, a classic one at that. Glad to see you weighing in on this topic mate.

Dude, it's an absolute must. Cracking insight into the SBR/Souness days. Agreed, great book.

It all adds pressure. not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club. Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous. there wasn't a load of people breaking down the door when it was for sale in the championship was there? Only one guy who couldn't afford a knock down price for it. The price isn't going to change. He will want at least to break even or perhaps even to make a profit. Think you are forgetting about the global economy meltdown when we went down too though mate.

It all adds pressure. not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club. Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous.

Something about this league for better or for worse I guess. Anyway can we revive a Robert appreciation thread? And this thread go back to talking about our mad mercurial beast that is Hatem?

And the strange part was a man of his experience and age he just seemed mentally shattered and never recovered from that.

Cacapa Man, who was that dude. So frail and weak. That debut (?) where he got manhandled by some tonk Portsmouth striker at home. Hideous. IIRC he was immense in his first few games and then the Portsmouth game come along and he was essentially a train wreck from then on. Benjani wasn't it? That's how I remember it too. Yeah same. He looked a classy CB first few matches before Benjani destroyed him.

Add that to the list of why I love Steve Harper

Growing up watching the sport over here in the US, it was always Newcastle 1 and AC Milan 2 for me. Really class to read everyone's take and thoughts - wish I could have seen and attended, nearly all of my favorites were out there. The idea that Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini and our Newcastle legends were on 1 pitch for our backup loyal keeper in Stevie Harper is just what sums up this club for me. Words can't describe. Class.

Barton is an active player too

Class

Alan Thompson on, I always wished he came back and played for Newcastle just b/c I enjoyed seeing him play well at Celtic....