Rich

Further to that, the squad may be barely recognisable come July, which is a worry when you consider the lack of leadership we had already...

While I'm perfectly confident in Harper, Krul, Soderberg and Forster being left with the goalkeeping duties, it's the symbolism of the deal more than anything that is hard to take. Can't blame Shay for leaving if the rumours are true and I suppose all you can do is hope all of the money is reinvested on some quality outfield players.

The magazine is called 'True Faith' not 'Blind Faith'. I appreciate what you're saying, but people are being far too pessimistic about the realistic issue that we are in and the bit of optimism I have (and many others may have) is the only thing keeping our 'support' supportive. I'm hoping come the Sunderland game the atmosphere is going to be that sort of defiant magic we've seen a few times (I'm mostly remembering games against Arsenal, for some reason) from the crowd. One of those games where everyone forgets the shite around the club and focuses everything they have on what it's all about at the end of the day: the football. Obviously everyone is royally fucked off with how things are going and how things have been, but if we can get some venom and direct it towards the Mackems and really get the players in black and white brimming it could be a magical occasion. Might define the season, so I'm praying we don't buckle. If things go badly against them and we haven't made any waves in the market then I'm absolutely dreading the repercussions.

Going through a Sports Science degree myself and having things like Black talks about impressed upon me it's hard not to admire him for how far he's come off his own back. I can only applaud him for his obvious enthusiasm and constant desire to find new "edges" for players and everybody else around him. I only wish I had half of his motivation! Obviously it's not an exact science but a lot of the stuff he's implementing has a lot of solid research and practice to support it (the high-intensity training set to a strict timescale and the motivational talks with the players, breaking down the superficial walls). The whole thing shows more than anything else how important it is to have a solid management TEAM built around a solid manager. One man can't do it alone and it's here where Kinnear struggles as much as anywhere else, the backroom staff has been chopped and change loads recently and is a bit of a mish-mash as it stands. It's hard to blame JK for that. Hope Clarky, Terry Mac and the rest of them down there do the business. He'll surely end up with the top job here someday so I wish him all the best and hope he turns out as good as Black thinks he could do.

IF this is true then it's another shocking indictment of the lack of control held by Kinnear at the football club. I'd also be interested to know how stuff like this gets out.

At this very moment in time? Absolutely no chance. Not just because of the KK stuff and all that followed in the days/weeks afterwards, but because of numerous things such as being on day 20 of the transfer window without any movement in or out, because Joe Kinnear is our manager, because of the contract situations of numerous players (I include Shola Ameobi's new deal in this), because of the apathy that is sweeping the support... I could go on and on and on. It's possibly the most disheartening time I've had as a Newcastle supporter (not as old as some, obviously) and for that he has to take an awful lot of the blame. I genuinely believe we're at the stage now where he's too far gone. Too much has gone awry and I'm not convinced he has the ability, the desire or the finances to turn it around. Such a shame as well, because unlike some on here I don't believe this has been his "grand plan" all along. Whether the bloke is just clueless, has been badly advised, or just unlucky; I can't believe he's happy about how things have turned out. That doesn't mean I support him though because the buck has to stop somewhere - and at the end of the day he bought the club, he owns the club and he's in a position to make a difference and for whatever reason it just isn't happening.

Shit comparison.

Can't disagree with too much there. I feel like I'm getting kicked repeatedly when it comes to NUFC at the minute.

Pogrebnyak is a big Russian striker, been impressive for Zenit (scored loads in the WAFFA Cup) and scored on his debut for the national team. Scored against Man Utd in the Super Cup, too. He seems to know where the net is, that's what I'm getting at... Ideal replacement for Marlon Harewood, by all accounts, and should do well if he does indeed go to Villa. Him and Carew would be cracking "target men" options.

He is a fucking currant of the highest order, I said it weeks (months?) ago and have felt it ever since. Most Mickey Mouse manager we've had since I've been old enough to properly support the club, he is an embarrassment, plain and simple. We're stuck with him though, it would seem, unless Ashley jerks his knee again if some pressure gets applied. I get the feeling any fury vented will be aimed over Kinnear's head though, which will spare him the sack. I also refuse to believe that "nobody else" would want to manage this club, even now, although I worry that more upheaval could be the end of us anyway at this stage. Think we're going to have to grin and bear it and just pray we get the 15-20 points or so that we'll need to stay up.

Barton pushed Enrique, Enrique pushed him back, they were separated. Happened after Jose had lost the ball (again). Bad times.

Go on the Villa, that's what I say. Proper club, play proper football with proper players. Don't begrudge you lot anything and you're one of the few things in football generally that warms the cockles. Just wish we were up there with you.

Indeed an ignore option is coming, oldtype. One of the major drawbacks of the forum in it's current state is that it's impossible for us to implement such a function. On version 2.0 of Simple Machines it comes built-in, along with a lot of other nifty stuff that we can't get on here! However, it still shows an ignored poster has contributed but simply says "you are currently ignoring this user, click here to read the post". So while it doesn't eliminate people completely it makes it much easier to avoid reading stuff from people you don't want to read. I do agree that people could make more effort on here to be civil and sensible (and less dogmatic), but it's probably not going to happen, so little functions like that could help to make a difference at least to an individual's enjoyment of the place. It's awful at the minute, hence why I'm barely posting.

There are some utter cunts on here like, but there's plenty in everyday life too. I think it's more apparent on here because you're constantly dealing with people you wouldn't give a second breath to in real life where it's easy enough to just walk away/not talk to them. On here we're basically forced to read other people's tripe and see all of the ups/downs in their moods and attitudes and often we just remember the worst of it. Some people are fucking awful the majority of the time though and there really isn't any need for it, when, like others have already said: "we're all in the same boat". Roll-on the ignore function come the new board, that's what I say.

http://leathershop.co.nz/catalog/images/handbag-paris.jpg

Capixaba is where he's from.

You should have said. I would have gladly swapped centre-half with you. Thought you did very well when you got involved like. We needed your guidance at the back Rich, thats the first and maybe last time i try to defend, maybe Dm, i used to play up front, Wish i could still run, cos i know i can still shoot.... I honestly haven't played CB in a full game since I was 10 It was awful, although I enjoyed the amount of touches on the ball we got in the first half - that was about it. Didn't need to do much running either, I suppose, so I didn't feel too tired at the end. I thought you were solid though and Greg took some beating an' all, when he was in his position that is! I thought it was just a good laugh overall though, nobody took it too seriously. Reminded me more of a kickabout at dinner time back in school than anything else. Must have been the easiest £20 that the referee had ever earned!

You should have said. I would have gladly swapped centre-half with you. Thought you did very well when you got involved like.

Good spot, was waiting for someone to comment on this After all of his big talk in the build-up as well.

Media-fed, never watch us play... all the lads in Hull think Taylor is a class apart. Don't know what they base that on. U21 Euro's and all the hype he got after it, I'd expect. In fairness to them, they've realised Beye is the real deal.

I thought Greg's 50-yard rifle from right-back to my mate was the best pass of the game like, by a country mile. It was outstanding. Shame he missed the initial chance, but the rebound was tucked away.

Agree Dave, completely embarrasing. OPTRA Index has confirmed that you covered 22.3 yards during the 90 minutes. I covered more yardage flicking me smoked tabs over the fence (from the sidelines) and twice pissing into some chaps bottle of Lilt. Actually, must thank Mick for not grassing me up for sniffing the players footwear whilst they were out on the pitch. Cheers Mick. Oh, and I will tell you something.....that Mick really is a canny kisser. :lol:

Enjoyed that (mostly) like, although the wind and the shitty lighting did it's best to ruin things - along with the shortness of players. Credit to whoever brought the match ball, it was fucking brilliant. Have to say, that was the first time I've played centre-half since primary school and it's a fucking nightmare position, although our 3-4-2 formation (2-4-3 most of the time) meant I had plenty to do early doors. Thanks to Lee for sticking with me while everyone else galloped forward and putting in a blinding performance as we faced wave-after-wave of four attackers and to NSG as well for making important saves/interceptions (sweeper keeper) while being increasingly eccentric. Delighted we played on the 3G like, thought it was class. Not impressed with those who cried off/just didn't bother Have to say it was lucky (mainly for my team) that I brought my two mates with me (had seen we were 2 players down by this afternoon) as it meant we had 10-on-10 and one scored a hat-trick (was mainly playing left wing, blonde hair, blue Brazil top) while the other was the now famous "dark haired lad in the Napoli shirt"... I wasn't keen on bringing mates as it was a "forum" thing but wish I'd brought another few (plenty interested) so that we could have had 11-a-side with proper 'keepers for each. Still, thought it was fun enough and would have been much more competitive had you lot had a proper 'keeper. Have to agree with Stupeedo as MOTM despite his dislike of the simple ball (), the goal he scored was insane and he was up and down the pitch all the time and was one of the (very) few to cover me at the back. The overall standard was much, much better than I was expecting and the pace of the game was much quicker as well. Didn't think anyone embarrassed themselves at all, especially considering a few hadn't played for ages. To join in with the injury brigade, I have a smashed left big toenail (looks lovely) and a heavily swollen/bruised/cut right knee from a collision with one of the Red Team strikers in our box about halfway through the first half. Cheers to Pilko/Stephen/Venks for thinking of it/getting it all sorted and bringing the referee (very good, although he had little to do, called offsides brilliantly until he started dishing out the sympathy at 4-1) and everything PS: I'm delighted that jaffa cake uptake was so high at half-time, but must apologise to Midds for being a pro-active endorser of their magic. Think I ate too many mind as I was struggling much more than usual in the second half!