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Because until he gets the job and either fails or succeeds, no manager can ever be safe here. Until we know for a 100% certainty that Shearer is not up for the job, his name will always be first for some reason. I disagree. Now that Shepherd's gone (he always had a personal thing for the idea which undermined Robson to one degree or another), he only comes up because things are going badly here. A manager enjoying success will be safe - it's just that we've not had one of them for a while.

Agree. 100%. That's why Bruce and Shearer as Assistant Manager would be ideal. Ha, not the role Shearer envisages for himself, I'm afraid.

Partly that, but he's also gone up greatly in people's estimations. Might be nice to lure away Mourinho or something but it seems unlikely. That said, in all honesty, I'm an avowed believer in the potential of throwing money at the managerial situation. I find it weird how its such an undervalued position/structure - a few mil a year spent on undeniably class leadership will pay for itself and more.

Nice to see Frank Gilmore airing my views.

Pulled the old switcheroo on Zoggo.

I was just talking about context earlier, but putting it all aside and just taking N'Zogbia as a wantaway etc. I'd say very slightly strengthened. By opinion really depends upon how Lovenkrands turns out.

We've made about £8m (ish) I think. Depends on just how much we got/will get for Given, of course. We're still not quite clear on that one.

I think it's a bit unfair to call the last transfer window a failure in terms of the actual business we did. Selling Milner without a real replacement was a disappointment but all in all it was pretty good. The defence isn't perfect but looks 100% better, we brought in a winger, an attacking midfielder and a striker. Yes with hindsight for various reasons some haven't worked but the two notable disappointments are the two that haven't been given a chance for one reason or another. The consistent problem is we continue to sell so we're never addressing the issue of depth. I'm all for selling off the dead wood or even average first teamers for the right price and that's what we have done. Unfortunately in doing this we've left ourselves a bit short and this has been exposed horribly by the recent injury crisis. We had a chance to address this in this window and that's why it is particularly disappointing. So I'd say we have got what we wanted it's just we've left ourselves with no back up as such which in its self in an error but not one to constitute all of the Ashley regime's transfer windows a failure. Other manager's have expressed their dissatisfaction about the way things are done but I don't think that's because the transfers themselves it's more the fact they weren't getting the specific players they wanted. That's a mistake of appointing the wrong man for the job, not of bringing in the wrong players. A mistake as you correctly pointed out fits into the much bleaker wider perspective. Failure can only really be defined in context. On one occasion more success may be required than on another occasion for them both to be considered as being comparatively useful. It's for that reason that I consider this particular window to be particularly detrimental. As for last Summer, taken in isolation it wasn't singularly awful, but it was certainly disillusioning and like I say, windows can only really be taken in relation to their circumstances and its final week was the crescendo which brought us to where we are now. Incidentally, just to clarify where I think we are now, this is the first time in recent history that I can seriously envisage us going down. Certainties? Maybe not, but I didn't feel that the club would go down under Souness etc. - not because the managers would not take us down but because the club fundamentals were superior or even because I felt the bad manager would be ousted and 'new man syndrome' would carry us over the finishing line, in the way Roeder did. This last point relates very heavily to Ashley, both regarding transfer windows and generally - I am consistently amazed by the actions or lack of action taken by his administration. To visit your last point about managerial dissatisfaction, it doesn't solely relate to the players chosen - would that it were. Instead, at the fourth attempt, we have Kinnear complaining about the lack of activity coming from above and having to call meetings mid-window to get arses moving. Why haven't they learnt? Its why I've come to not take too seriously ideas that 'all kinds of things must be taking place behind the scenes' - there appears to be a consistent lack of urgency or appreciation of the position the club is in at any given point. Anyway, back to general management and one of the reasons we may go down. I don't have much time for Kinnear, and I understand you don't either. If it looks like we're in serious trouble with a few games to go, what do you see the Board doing to help our cause in any way? I'm not convinced they'll do the right thing at the right moment, I'm not convinced they'd get someone appropriate in afterwards and because of the state the club is widely perceived as being in, I'm not sure they could bring that appropriate person in if they wanted to.

Be very nice to actually have a threat from freekicks around the edge of the penalty area. It's been a long time. Exactly how good is he supposed to be at those direct freekicks though. Only has four goals against us and two goals against Birmingham to show for it after 56 appearances at Wigan. Basically, we're good for Man City matches, as I hear their new man between the sticks isn't so hot on shots from distance.

Unidentified and nope. Edit: Well, Ryan Taylor but I assume you mean someone in charge. He's very happy, btw.

Indeed, we can only go on the tangibles - tangibles you are blind to. Shy of an unlikely surprise, they are bad - Ashley's organisation has, at best, failed to achieve necessary successes. At worst, they didn't attempt to achieve them. You seem to think we are operating in a sealed environment. We are not. Yesterday's result was us failing to win a relegation six-pointer at home. Those are the matches that must be won to stay up. Any assumption to the contrary takes it as true that we're as likely to draw against Man United, Liverpool (1-5) et al at home. In case you forgot through lack of interest, Sunderland won the converse fixture - a direct relegation rival of ours now holds a two point advantage over us. We don't have a lot to go off but a few sources corroborated we made an eleventh hour bid for Johnson. If this was indeed the case why was it so late? Were bids elsewhere rejected? Did talks break down? If so why did they break down? It isn't as simple as saying Ashley failed, we are only getting a key whole view of the full picture, until we know the reasons behind the lack of activity it's difficult to hold the recruitment team accountable. All that can be said is this is a disappointing transfer window due to a lack of personnel being recruited. Regarding your second point in an ideal world it is a game we needed to win. However you've got to take into account injuries, the fact it was a derby and Kinnear's general failings as a manger. The worrying thing is in the short term two of these things are unlikely to change. However in the long term we still have several opposition relegation rivals to play, should things pick up by then and given we pick up the off point from teams above us we should survive. A good transfer window would have helped in the short term but at the end of the day this squad is good enough to stay in the Premier League, we just need to drop this attitude of feeling sorry for ourselves. Do you think we simply possess extraordinarily bad fortune, then? Maybe Napoleon was right, then, preferring lucky Generals to good ones. This is as simple as saying Ashley failed. We can go over the reasons for why that failure took place, but it's definitely a failure. Why do these big bids keep going awry? Good question. We'll just have to go on what is demonstrated before us - Ashley's administration repeatedly fails to advance NUFC's fortunes and has us staring at the prospect of relegation. Re: bold, indeed - who's apparently offering him another 2 1/2 years in charge? You’re looking at a rather wide context when my point was a pretty narrow one to begin with. Yes Ashley has failed in some departments. His lack of footballing experience led to the events that unfolded earlier this season and his lack of due diligence on the club means he inherited a few nasty surprises when he bough it. That's to name just two of his errors I'm not praising or in fact defending where he's taken us as the club as a whole I was simply reflecting on the transfer market. In the context of this transfer market though did Ashley fail? We just don't know. He appointed a recruitment team who along with Kinnear only brought the three fresh faces in. Indeed this is disappointing but can we categorically point the finger at them or are there external factors to consider, maybe in this instance we were simply unlucky, until the picture becomes a bit clearer we just don't know. So yeah looking at the big picture it would certainly appear Ashley’s failings have had a major contribution in where we are now. He started a chain of events which led to the main contributing reason for our position today. But to then say "oh Ashley has consistently made mistakes, so this transfer window must be his fault" which essentially what your insinuating, is a completely illogical argument. I don't see how I'm taking your points that widely. What I'm saying is 'we've consistently failed to get what we need in transfer windows while under Ashley's administration' and I'm identifying that a factor present in each of those windows is Ashley's administration. There's more to it than that, of course, there's the fact that all three of his managers have expressed deep dissatisfaction with the way his administration conducts its behaviour during windows, for example. Seems logical, then, to hold suspicions. If we ARE going to look at the wider picture, then things look even worse. There's the fact he's gone through three managers in 18 months and the latest of them is Joe Kinnear. Wider circumstances thus make the results of our affairs with the transfer market even more important. This latest failure is all the more significant, therefore.

Thick as mince.

92.9% were wrong in thinking we would not make a profit. Hmm.

Indeed, we can only go on the tangibles - tangibles you are blind to. Shy of an unlikely surprise, they are bad - Ashley's organisation has, at best, failed to achieve necessary successes. At worst, they didn't attempt to achieve them. You seem to think we are operating in a sealed environment. We are not. Yesterday's result was us failing to win a relegation six-pointer at home. Those are the matches that must be won to stay up. Any assumption to the contrary takes it as true that we're as likely to draw against Man United, Liverpool (1-5) et al at home. In case you forgot through lack of interest, Sunderland won the converse fixture - a direct relegation rival of ours now holds a two point advantage over us. We don't have a lot to go off but a few sources corroborated we made an eleventh hour bid for Johnson. If this was indeed the case why was it so late? Were bids elsewhere rejected? Did talks break down? If so why did they break down? It isn't as simple as saying Ashley failed, we are only getting a key whole view of the full picture, until we know the reasons behind the lack of activity it's difficult to hold the recruitment team accountable. All that can be said is this is a disappointing transfer window due to a lack of personnel being recruited. Regarding your second point in an ideal world it is a game we needed to win. However you've got to take into account injuries, the fact it was a derby and Kinnear's general failings as a manger. The worrying thing is in the short term two of these things are unlikely to change. However in the long term we still have several opposition relegation rivals to play, should things pick up by then and given we pick up the off point from teams above us we should survive. A good transfer window would have helped in the short term but at the end of the day this squad is good enough to stay in the Premier League, we just need to drop this attitude of feeling sorry for ourselves. Do you think we simply possess extraordinarily bad fortune, then? Maybe Napoleon was right, then, preferring lucky Generals to good ones. This is as simple as saying Ashley failed. We can go over the reasons for why that failure took place, but it's definitely a failure. Why do these big bids keep going awry? Good question. We'll just have to go on what is demonstrated before us - Ashley's administration repeatedly fails to advance NUFC's fortunes and has us staring at the prospect of relegation. Re: bold, indeed - who's apparently offering him another 2 1/2 years in charge?

is Taylor better than Duff on the wing? he certainly isn't better than N'zogbia. Horrible window yet again Really..a player from Bolton and one from wigan?? Shows how low our expectations are..buying off clubs around us.. Yep should have signed Lampard and Ronaldo. No one's asked for massive signings FFS Just an improvement on our squad I think we have done that. we have. but most people made their minds up months ago that we havent. In what way do you feel we've improved the squad? given wanted out and handed in a transfer request. little we can do about that. harper is a more than adequate replacement and is free. £6 million up + big wages gone. just a loss/a draw at best. n'zogbia WAS NEVER GOING TO PLAY FOR US AGAIN. lovenkrands WILL PLAY FOR US. £6 million up. win by default. nolan is better than butt, smith, geremi and is far more reliable than barton. win. taylor plays in many positions and is a decent squad player (squad depth innit). win. overall, improvement. not a huge one but an improvement. Fine, but are you asking why the bit in bold came to be?

Indeed, we can only go on the tangibles - tangibles you are blind to. Shy of an unlikely surprise, they are bad - Ashley's organisation has, at best, failed to achieve necessary successes. At worst, they didn't attempt to achieve them. You seem to think we are operating in a sealed environment. We are not. Yesterday's result was us failing to win a relegation six-pointer at home. Those are the matches that must be won to stay up. Any assumption to the contrary takes it as true that we're as likely to draw against Man United, Liverpool (1-5) et al at home. In case you forgot through lack of interest, Sunderland won the converse fixture - a direct relegation rival of ours now holds a two point advantage over us.

Shy of a very big post-deadline surprise, this month-planned statement is going to be immense.

FYP. You made it sound like this is about camp hystronics. We are fucking beleaguered, man. Another cretinous post.

By that virtue shouldn't expect to sell anyone either. I take it these late bids won't be offered in Ashley's defence, then, seeing as he couldn't have expected them to be successful. Yes, I suppose we should've all agreed we were fucked beyond repair after the Summer window closed and squad morale/organisation was shattered with Keegan's departure. Bloody stupid post.

I think that if Ashley gets another shirt with Kinnear printed on the back, it'll give us all a spring in our steps and we'll stay up. Everything will be alright.

I think the implication is that Bent rejected it, not Tottenham, seeing as Bent was also telling that twat he's sitting at home and not in Liverpool.

Seeing as we're all having our say... He hasn't lost legend status in my eyes. Mainly because he never had it. I've never forgotten that he threw a wobbly and demanded a transfer when he wasn't immediately reinstituted to the team ahead of his best pal Harper, who was playing excellently at the time. I don't see him as evil, or a cunt or anything. I'm sure he has/had an attachment to the club, and he's played a significant part in our club for a long time. He's shown a not inconsiderable amount of commitment/stupidity to hang around as long as he did, and the club he now departs can be reasonably judged as being in a disastrous state. I'm not going to demand he sacrifices his career any further to maintain a reputation I never afforded him. He leads his own life and we lead ours - I've never seen him and the fabric of the club as being one and the same. I'd moved on before he left.

I think i missed something. http://www.newcastle.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=138983 Was supposed to have all been media lies, iirc.

Are you the one responsible for changing my thread titles, stopping me from posting threads and posting childish remarks with regards to my threads Explanation please If you mean it's happened again since, then no. As for this thread, it was started by a drunk bloke who was saying the same things that were being said in a multitude of other threads on same subject, albeit in a less coherent manner. It survived long enough as it was, but then you bumped it for no good reason only to further irritate and mislead others into thinking something important had just happened: So I took away the old title and gave it as accurate a new one as I could think of.