Rich

Right I've finished now. Could have kept writing about that movie all day. "John Little... or should I call you... 'Little John'?". Cracking.

Changed his name to Rich now, but I blame him too. Did I wrong you in another life, Mowillen Scarlett? :-[ Hmmm. I don't understand the last line so will have to refrain from comment. Robin Hood (Prince of Thieves) quote. This laddy called Will Scarlett (Christian Slater) doesn't seem to take too kindly to Robin Hood (Kevin Costner) despite him being a handsome, affable chap with mad bow skills and wor Robin wants to know why. Turns out later that it's because they were step-brothers and Robin, as a young lad, drove Will and his Mother away from his Father by saying his old man was besmirching his dead wife by cavorting with a peasant lady. Ruined his life through petty jealousy basically, hence the animosity. Later turns out that Robin (that's me) saves Will's life (that's you) as he's about to be executed by a slavering bloke in a black hood... with an axe (see Shak's post above for a lovely image of how - that arrow has a one-way ticket to the executioner's foreheed). Then they realise they love each other really and work together to save Maid Marion (some Italian bird) and overthrow the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman), ending in marriage between Robin and Marion where King Richard (Sean Connery) returns from the Crusades JUST in time to give the marriage his blessing and give Robin mad props for protecting his kingdom. It's a lovely coincidence really. I was just wondering whether the same is true of me and you, basically, as the situation described in the opening sentence bears shocking resemblance to ours. Why must you hurt me so?

Don't think they'll have a choice this time. If the wage bill is 70%+ of turnover now and Ashley is having to put £20/30m in just to keep us in the black, what will it be like down a level!? It's a non-story really as we don't have relegation wage-cut clauses in place (if reports are correct) and so it's natural that most will have to go anyway. You can't have players earning £50k+ in the Championship, it's insanity.

As for the thread, I mean where do you start? I think there's loads of things to blame (owner, chairman, previous chairman, previous previous chairman, previous owner, previous managers, Dennis Wise, current manager, previous players, current players, supporters, coaching staf...) the list is endless. The real tricky bit is apportioning the blame. The players, as you say, need to take their fair share though - certainly one of the larger chunks. The main blame has to rest with Ashley and Co., though, undoubtedly. I've never believed they inherited a good ship but it has taken gross incompetence to steer us this far off course even from that starting point.

Changed his name to Rich now, but I blame him too. Did I wrong you in another life, Mowillen Scarlett? :-[

With mates at one of our houses, not sure where yet. It's going to be torture.

The opening day of the season. Jonas in particular. The hope.

Us the first time around? Fulham? He didn't exactly do badly at Manchester City, did he? Not to mention that Keegan isn't just "any other manager". I honestly don't see how people can't grasp this after what he has done here as gaffer, the emotion he infused with his return. It was magic, I loved football again. Ashley and Mort struck gold when they got him to return, they had their magic ticket, but for whatever reason (perhaps they simply couldn't deviate from their "plan", perhaps KK moved the goalposts, etc.) it didn't pan out the way it could have done. I think his results and performances from the back end of last season and from the beginning of this one spoke for themselves. Allowed to buy the players he wanted and keep the players he wanted to keep surely the smart money would be on us being up there challenging for the Europa League places? Obviously nothing like this is ever a certainty, but you know what I mean. It's crying over spilled milk now like. It's done and gone, Shearer is here now and he and the squad have 90 minutes to retain our Premier League status and hopefully right the wrongs of the past few years by doing things properly from top-to-bottom.

PROBABLY???!!! There's still an element of doubt in my mind regarding Keegan that time around. Not much of a one mind, it's extremely slight. Certainly if he had been backed we wouldn't be where we are now.

Great post, echo the others who have said so. Keegan lit the place up again and for whatever reason wasn't backed in the way he probably should of been. Shocking how I feel now compared to at this point last season.

3-1!!!!!

me too fucking diabolical thread btw but completely acceptable apparently. strange. your objections are noted. Not that I consider it to be any different to the abuse hurled at the ex directors of the club in other threads, the ones who actually delivered support to the manager and regular european competition. Still, I suppose that was strangely acceptable to you. Perhaps worth noting, again for some who slate me yet again for having a realistic outlook, is that the only point I want right now is 1 for us and 0 for Hull on Sunday. i didnt mention the board once and still get trolled about it. its like those warning PM's didnt happen. what was the point in them anyway? From memory, I think what happens is that this thread is allowed to get to about 100 pages & then people are sent PMs warning them for posting in it.

I like it.

This will be fucking awful on astro-turf. I'm proper gutted about it

Don't fancy astroturf like. Joke that we've got people from far and wide-ish here and have been booked for ages and we're the ones being moved. Did we put up a fight at all? Fucking joke.

£50 to watch us stay up is nowt.

I am 6'7", use me as your target man.

I'd thought that myself recently. Where's the justice?

Got all the keepers, just. Lukic and Ogrizovic were the two I was struggling with. Not so good on the league clubs. Missed about a dozen.

Throughout all of the shite, I oddly find myself still hoping Barton has a future here and does the business for us. As much of a psychopath he appears to be, I find myself having some sort of affection for him and he's actually one of the very few players in our squad I could say that about. In the immediate aftermath of his misdemenours I would have walked him out of Newcastle myself, but as that subsides with time the fact that he's a very decent player and seems to have some sense between his ears when he's not blinded by the red mist makes me want the best for him/us. Strange.

We are going to win. End of.

Setting off at 10:30 anyway so shouldn't be a problem either way. May go the A19 route again, although I've never driven that way personally before. Been fine whenever I've been up/down on a weekend (done it a few times.) M62 - A1 - A19... home.

Bonza

Very 6 months ago. Damn, I really should have read the Nile Ranger thread, but it was so big, the very thought of reading it frightened me quite frankly. For how overdone it became, that thread had some cracking posts in it.

Very 6 months ago.