Mr Logic

Aye, there was a decision made, (in someone's pocket), that that would do. I think they niavely thought the squad was made for the forseeable future. Perhaps I'm being charitable there. It was a very bad decision that the club seems to have been struggling with ever since.

Aye those were the days, got to love that Albert goal. How often do you see the centre half playing the role of striker and in acres of space.

OP has his finger right on the pulse... and a great grasp of psychology too.

Crap

It's not his fault that he keeps getting passed the ball with either the wrong weight, or to his wrong foot. I'm sorry but that's complete bollocks. At least three were passed along the ground back to his right side and with little or no pressure, he whacked them straight out for a throw. Well I'm afraid you can't count. Apologies, two went out for throws, the other he tried to control and put himself in the shit. Bottom line, his kicking is not good enough. Never has been, even at his best he could be haphazard.

well during the late sixties early seventies fans would go to the games wearing rangers or celtic scaves without any hassle and there was always a celtic-rangers chant at half time. probably because back then we used to get loads of players from scotland and would also usually have a pre-season with celtic at least. i remember supporting scotland for a couple of seasons when Revie dropped supermac from england team after a couple of games even though he scored somethink like six in two games(?) God that brings back memories too, sometimes it used to last almost the entire period until the players came back out.

“We’d like to fetch in three or four players who can set the other players alight that we’ve already got here,” said Keegan He already has one of them in Joey and he wants three more? Just a few cans of lighter fuel in the changing rooms and it'll all flare up I'm sure.

It was never as bad as when they pulled the Leazes down the same season we were relegated, I'm sure we'd have came back up sooner if the Leazes had not been pulled down, the noise would have made a difference. I had mates who even stopped going because of it. I'd never stood anywhere but the Leazes before that. I'll never forget the wierd sensation of watching my first game from the Gallowgate, felt like I was in the wrong ground.. "Sing in the Leazes!"

Reading all the suggestions so far I would vote for Don't Stop Me Now, can picture it now as a matter of fact. If you could get the timing right on some of the events of that season with corresponding lyrics.

It was an ugly shithole back then wasn't it, hard to tell it apart from half the industry along Scotswood Rd at the time.

Lol, I don't remember that at all. Went to a lot of games in the mid seventies too.

60's maybe. We had color tv and TOTP in the seventies man. (What's this doing in 'Football'?)

Slightly off-topic.. just a celebration all round. http://i32.tinypic.com/ojfdxz.jpg

I was always Georgie Best, shows how hard I was. Mind you I was playing on me own in the back garden.

Is he better than Ginola or Robert? What chance Keegan bringing in a player that excels on the LW? If he's not first choice it seems he'll never be happy, and with his family now in England, he'll be engineering for a move, (through McKay), until he gets one. I have no problem with him going provided it's a decent price and a better replacement, and despite what Keegan says about wanting to keep him he will be looking for potential replacements as I'm quite sure every position is under review from now until May 2008

Can be summed up quite easilly by the realisation that Alex Ferguson doesn't sell players that still have something to contribute. Butt might have been a good player for perennial promotion/relegation candidates ever moving between two divisions.

You have to be joking, (not re: loss of Africans), if you call that poor relative to the dross we watched under Allardyce. Course it was poor, the fact we tried passing it on the ground doesn't make it any better than under Allardyce. Are you telling me that the attacking football we played never excited you in the least? The result might be poor, but the football, relative to what had gone before, was a vast improvement.

That'll do me. I'd rather relish that prospect myself.. Just want to add there has been some great responses in this thread with people making their feelings known. I have to say I find myself agreeing with most everything said, even when they are apparently conflicting.. because at the end of the day i guess that's how I feel about the whole thing, conflicted. I'm the whole spectrum of emotions. Elated, excited, perturbed, worried, deflated and energised. Bizzare.

You have to be joking, (not re: loss of Africans), if you call that poor relative to the dross we watched under Allardyce.

Well at least no-one can say it wasn't exciting. Thought Zog and Duff looked fantastic at times with their link up play on the left. If Smith had been a Shearer/Ferdinand type, (well anyone else almost), it could have been a very different story. It's also very clear we need a right winger for anyone who wasn't convinced before. Carr also had another good game relative to how he used to play. Cacapa looked great at times, and horribly exposed at others, he's yet to get to grips with the EPL. Feel sorry for forwards against defenders these days, the officials afford the protection the wrong way round from what I see. One forward against three defenders and the defenders get the infringement nearly every time.

Not another Keegan topic! But it's really a Newcastle United topic, whose main question is about Keegan. I've had time to think a fair bit on this and arrived at some conclusions. Firstly, my initial reaction to the news that Keegan had been appointed was not dissimilar to the news about Souness. It didn't have the same gut-dropping effect, but there was the same level of bewilderment. I just couldn't see how it was the answer. Despite myself I got caught up in the wave of optimism, and for good enough reasons. Short term there will be a turn-around of fortunes. A feel-good factor will be generated, the team will start to play football again and we can expect some interesting & hopefully exciting players coming in. We are unlikely to lose at Pride Park, almost worth the appointment on it's own. I think with Ashleys desire for success, (and his chequebook), we can start to qualify for Europe again. But that's where it stops however I try to imagine it, winning the odd game in Europe and finishing amongst the also-rans in domestic competitions. Sure it might be exciting, but will we finally win something? There have been enough snippets of truth peeking out from the regular diatribes in the daily presses to point at the fact that Ashley is genuine about wanting this to succeed. He has his pet projects, his babies, that he turns into winners. Other ventures may be for a fast turnover but all the signs point to Newcastle not being one of those. Newcastle is his baby now and Ashley takes care of his babies. The three recent appointments of Wise, Tony Jimenez and Jeff Vetere to me are further proofs of putting the foundations into place on which to build a successful future. I've been a supporter since '73/74 when I attended my first game in the Leazes End. Looking back over all those years the two highlights that stick out in my memory as the happiest of times was the night we beat Barcelona and when we became the first club in the history of Champions League to qualify for the second stage after losing our first three games in the group stages. There were others of course, that's just my personal recollections. The 5-0 has lost a bit of it's gloss following the recent 6-0. Not much really for 34 years of ups and downs. The memories will always remain though. So can Keegan be the driving force to propel the team to success to match Ashleys dreams/vision/desire (whatever it is.) I don't believe he can, however much I wish for it. I can only hope that he is a stepping stone that will ultimately lead to that final triumph. I believe solid foundations are being built for that time.

Despite all the animosity directed at McKay, and I'm no fan myself, I can't believe an agent would agitate for a move if the player himself was happy where he was. Which leads one to conclude there's no smoke without fire. However, it is possible he (McKay) creates the unhappiness by suggesting to players.. "You'd do better elsewhere." or... "Club 'X' have made enquiries." when no club did. That way he causes the unrest that leads to transfers that continue to line his pockets. In which case be true, I concur with the majority opinion in regards to McKay.

From .com From the Derby Evening Telegraph, Wednesday: Derby County have told Newcastle United they will not get Giles Barnes on the cheap. The Rams are waiting to see if the Magpies return with an improved offer for the 19-year-old before the transfer window closes at midnight tomorrow. Newcastle's first bid, believed to be around £1.5m, was rejected. A verbal offer for Barnes was made to chief scout Bill Green on Monday - the day Derby's new American owners were being unveiled to the media. “The offer was nowhere near our valuation of Giles Barnes,” said manager Paul Jewell. “When you see players move for £4m to £5m, what we would want for Giles is not unreasonable but I would be very happy to keep him. He is a player of huge potential, so I don't see why we should let him go on the cheap. “If Giles tells me he does not want to go to Newcastle or anywhere else, I will be very happy to hear that. “If he tells me he wants to go because it looks like we are going to go down, I have to respect that and we won't stand in his way as long as it's right for the club. “But he is not leaving on the cheap.”

They had 3 kids, a clown and a keeper on the bench, do you really think they would have made a serious difference? I was talking about appearances.. any player glancing across at the bench in those last 25 minutes or so would have picked up the defeatism. There should have still been encouragement and support offered from the bench by at least one of them. They looked beaten, transmitted to the pitch.

Have to get rid of Duff, he has become a very negative player on the whole. Lack of movement from most of the team after first 30 minutes. Lack of inspiration from the bench, last 30 minutes the cameras all too often showed McDermott, Keegan and Pearson sat there like defeated men with no ideas. Same result mid-week. Someone said Keegan had a lot of work to do, ....and then some.