macphisto

Dalglish is the only manager who I wished had of had more time at Newcastle because it also bought some quality players, his record in the transfer market is much better than anyone since including Robson.

Is there anyway we can lock this thread or can people please stop replying to something that is not even worth replying to?

Might be a good show but I couldn't listen to anything associated with Steve Wraith, it really puzzles me how this one-a-be gangster is often quoted in the press when anything happens at Newcastle.

Further evidence if any was needed that our support is the most attractive reason for someone to invest in the club! Hard to believe some people on here think that the half-baked protests at home to Hull last season put some investors off, bums on seats is much more important for someone looking to buy the club.

I know what people mean when they say they feel sad about Sir Bobby, but for me I just have a cheesy smile when I think about him! Great bloke on every level! RIP

I'm not too worried at the moment, for the simple reason that I don't rate the level of football in the Championship. With the group of players (not that I rate our players too much) we have now I'd be confident that we would gain promotion at the end of the season if we had a decent manager come in at some point. What would really worry me is if we started to sell a lot of players without a new owner/manager. A situation that can not be too far off with the recent comments from players and the sale still having not gone through.

Speechless at what you've wrote there Indi as there is so many holes in what you said, I’ll not go into them all! The fans had nothing to do with us getting relegated, JFK/Houghton, selling players and replacing them with inferior players and so and so on is what got us relegated. Some half-baked protest at home to Hull had nothing to do with it, remember these are the same set of fans who still pretty much filled the stadium throughout the whole season! I'd also say that expecting Ashley to splash the cash was not unrealistic. A person only buys a club without doing due diligence for two reasons, they're either loaded or a complete and utter idiot. At the time I gave Ashley the benefit of the doubt and thought he was loaded. How wrong I was! If I've also understood you right, how can you have a go at Keegan? How could he stay on when it was blatant that he was being undermined and the club wanting him to follow the club line? Would you have wanted him to come out with the same rubbish that JFK came out with as a mouthpiece for the club, things like only starting to scout for players for the January transfer window in mid January? What was the alternative? To stay on and declare open war on Ashley, publicly state that Ashley/Wise hadn't a clue about what they are doing? There’s no way he could have stayed on in circumstances like that. I often whether all these people who have a go at Keegan have a sense of personal pride? If they did they would know why he went! I can only think that they must all be Gareth out of The Office types who are willing to suck up to anyone at work and be walked all over without any personal moral code! I’m not so much writing this for you but also for some of the other people on here who have come out with the same sort of garbage over the last few months!

The reason for me saying that Liverpool are becoming stale is that they haven't been able to push on and the type of players they need to win the league would cost big money which it looks like the haven't got. They've pretty much had the same bunch of players now for a while and they just haven't got what it takes to win the league in my opinion as it needs freshening up. I wouldn't say the same for Arsenal as the type of players they need wouldn't cost a fortune. As for Chelsea, I don't know for me they just haven't got the right balance. Funny thinking about all the top teams though as i really don't think that even the top of the Premier League is what it's cracked up to be anymore as none of the top teams excite me.

not a hope in hell mate I wouldn't be so sure with some of their players being a little wiser this year together with Arshavin and Eduardo being available all season. Out of the top four at the moment I would say Man U have gone backwards, Chelsea/Liverpool are becoming very stale. Arsenal are the only team who I can see making strides forward. This is all going off the squads at the moment mind, so see what happens between now and the beginning of the season.

I'm actually thinking about putting money on Arsenal to win the league if the squads stay roughly as they are with out any more star signings.

Any Newcastle fan who can remember what it was like when Keegan/John Hall were here the first time round will know how good it is to splash the cash! We did break the world record for a player (Shearer) and for a defender (Barton) so relatively speaking we were not too different from what City are doing now!

Tbf there might be as much truth in what ive said as what sh*t the papers write on a daily basis as they know nothing more than anyone else. What would peoples thoughts be if Fletcher was involved? I wouldnt want Fletcher, Shepherd or Hall back at the club. I'd welcome Fletcher back in a flash, yeah he might not care too much for the fans (believe he was behind moving the fans who paid for a bond) but he does know how to run a football club!

Cash as only the clubs with money win things, sad but true.

I actually think his attitude is all wrong and the reason he will not make it. Yeah he might say the right things but actions speak louder than words. If he rated himself as a footballer he would have kicked up a fuss demanding to play, it's not like he's got some fantastic players ahead of him. There's not a decent footballer out there who has got the hunger/desire to make it at the top level that would put up with not being able to get into a team like Newcastle! Fair play to the lad though because if I was on his money and not playing I would just accept the money and say the right things about "taking my chance when it comes". That's because I know I'm not good enough for the top level (just about up to pub team standard!) and had struck lucky which is what I think Xisco is also thinking! This just shows where we go wrong as a club as we are willing to give too many people a chance when it's obvious they are rubbish. If it's not Xisco, it was let's give Ashley a chance, or now lets give Freddy Shepard a chance, let's give Jonas a chance when he's got decent players around him, let's give Barton a chance when he sorts himself out, lets give insert name a chance when they are not injured! As a set of fans we really need to set ourselves some standards and see things for what they are!

Amazed some people would give him the benefit of the doubt when it's obvious he doesn't learn from his mistakes. Sacking three managers within the first month of the season would indicate he never learns from his past errors!

Paul Kelmsley? Yep According to Piers Morgan in the Sunday Mail, Ashley paid £3 million for his cameo! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1192798/Piers-Morgan-Unfair-Manchester-United-winger-Ronaldo-knows-dreams-Real-Madrid.html Scroll to the bottom of the page

He hasnt got any choice. Trying to get Shearer to sign up to a deal that suited Mike Ashley and hoping for a miracle was his last throw of the dice. Fortunately Shearer seems to have stuck to his guns and declined the offer to oversee the asset stripping. Now Ashley has two options. Hang around watching his entire investment get wiped out, or sell now for what he can get. Its a choice between losing £150m or losing £250m. See where you're coming from but I think he could have stripped the club of everything it had, such as selling the training ground, the stadium, and all the players, renaming the ground. Even after doing all of that we would still have attracted around 25,000 - 30,000 fans which would have been a nice earner! I know some of that is extreme but I wouldn't have put it past him, for me though I was expecting him to invest nothing in the team and just let the club drift along!

If it's true that Ashley is selling the club for £100 million then credit where credit is due! He's been nothing but a disaster for the club but it takes a lot for someone to just walk away losing around £100 million in the process! He’d at least be allowed to leave the club with his head held high. For a new owner to come in with the slate wiped clean would be fantastic for the club and there would be no excuse for not getting promoted next year because the Championship is not a good league. Any decent investment would get us promoted, even if that came in as late as August. So if the £100 million is wiped off in a perverse way Ashley might just be one of the best things to happen to Newcastle and for that I’d say thanks! One thing for sure I'd bet quite a lot on Ashley not selling to a consortium connected to Freddie Sheppard, there's no way he'd wipe that sort of debt off and then sell the club to one of the people responsible for it!

I was going to reply and say I'd prefer someone from outside the area but really I'm not too bothered as long as they can do a decent job! Nothing to base this on other than a gut feeling but I actually think we'll end up with an American buyer as they are quite shrewd buyers.

I think this is great news though not something most people didn’t know already as he’s always wanted to sell the club, his moving forward after the Liverpool match showed everyone how committed he really was to the club! I can't believe the negativity surrounding this news, for all those people banging on about stability, well stability is only a good thing if the right people are in charge and Ashley just hasn't got a clue. Ashley has wanted to sell the club since day one so we would never have stability under him. I’m not sure why people blame the demonstrators/relegation/possibility of Shearer not staying for Ashley wanting to sell up. He wanted to sell well before any of that happened. From day one we had rumours he wanted to sell, then he admitted to looking for “partners” like the QPR model, after this he wanted to sell for “security reasons” after the demonstrations and now finally he simply wants to sell! I also think that new owners will come on board fairly quickly if he sells at a realistic price but if it takes time fair enough. I wouldn't really be too bothered if any of the players left in the interim period because none of them are top notch and I don't get taken in by all this having to prepare for next season. The Championship is not a good league and any half decent team would be able to stroll it. That's not arrogance but fact as this is the league where Kevin Philips scores for fun and Jonathan Greening is always rated as one of the best midfielders! If we had new owners in place by August and they backed the manager I would have no doubts that we'd get promotion. The planning and preparation would only be needed if we were skint and no new owner was on the horizon but I think we’ll find a buyer and no new owner would buy the club without having money set aside for transfers to get us promoted. One other thing, being in the Premier League is not the be all and end all when buying a club. We are a club who has just been relegated with the third highest attendance in the country, at a knocked down price of £100 million we would represent fantastic value for money as the potential for growth is fantastic, together with the fanbase and facilities that we have. Even in the Championship we are a much more attractive investment than the vast majority of clubs in the Premier League. There will be times next year when we will have the highest gate in the country including the Premier League! One last thing for all those people who say the demonstrations at Hull may have put buyers off well I reckon it’s those same demonstrators and fans that make this such an attractive club to buy. Having the third largest attendance when getting relegated together with not winning anything since 1969 is what makes this club so special and having such a loyal fanbase is why I don’t think it will be hard to find a buyer!

I'm quite baffled as to why so many people would promote him to the first team squad. He's shown nothing to justify a promotion on the pitch and fair enough people can say he hasn't been given a chance but three managers haven't rated him. Though for me the biggest reason I wouldn't keep him is down to attitude. Yeah he might say the right things but actions speak louder than words. If he rated himself as a footballer he would be kicking up a fuss demanding to play, it's not like he's got some fantastic players ahead of him. There's not a decent footballer out who has got the hunger/desire to make it at the top level that would put up with not being able to get into a team like Newcastle! Fair play to the lad though because if I was on his money and not playing I would just accept the money and say the right things about "taking my chance when it comes". That's because I know I'm not good enough for the top level (just about up to pub team standard!) and had struck lucky which is what I think Xisco is also thinking!

I think it's to do with the mentality of the region, we just put up with a lot of rubbish without REALLY doing anything about it. We get served up rubbish football, yet still pack out the majority of the stadium. Where is the incentive for an owner to invest in the club when he knows the fans will turn up regardless? Not football related but another example of the mentality is that Labour has done pretty much nothing for the region as we still come bottom of the league in most ratings and yet people will still vote Labour. Where is the incentive for Labour to truly help the region when they know they'll get voted in regardless?

I would say Dalglish had a the better record in the transfer market than any other manager since he left. As well as the four above he also bought Tommason (fair enough not a succes here but a good player) and Dabizas (who was alright for the price).

I didn't think he was anything special, looking back his career was very similar to Lee Sharpe's, both burst on the scence at Man U and then went rapidly down hill. Compare their careers to Giggs, just no comparison and they all came on the scene at roughly the same time and were all similar players. Actually I've often thought what would have happened if Keegan had of asked for Beckham, Scholes, Gary Neville and even at the time Nicky Butt when we sold Andy Cole to Man U! It would be inteteresting to know if he would have included any of them in the deal. I think I read in Fergie's book that he couldn't belive his luck when Keegan asked for Gillespie!

A lot of people thought that about Sam True and I actually thought Allardyce would sort the club out. With his track record there was evidence that he would come and do a job. With Houllier's history there's even more evidence that he could sort the club out, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out but at least there would be good reasons for appointing him! Yes you could compare him to Allardyce but you could also compare him to Robson. In many ways I wish Robson wasn't from the North East as many people seem to think that the reason he was a success at the club is because he understood the area and the club ( not saying you do but just what I hear from other people). A load of rubbish the simple reason that Robson was a success is because he was a good manager with a proven track record. Obviously it helped that he knew the area but Robson would be a success where ever he managed. So instead of comparing Houllier to Allardyce, I would compare him to Robson in what he could do for the club.