chicago_shearer

...because they don't have relegation. Mismanagement is not exclusive to Britain. My point has nothing to do with relegation at all. There are very few professional sports teams in America ran like a f***ing circus. Disagree - there are plenty of examples of similar circus type management. Al Davis - Raiders Mark Cuban - Mavs De Bartolo family - 49ers Marge Schott - Reds If our new American owners do for Newcastle what Mark Cuban did for the Mavericks, then I'll be very very pleased. He's a loud mouth, but he made them successful. Same goes for Jerry Jones in Dallas. They like the spotlight, they like the circus, but they usually win more games because of it. Al Davis and the Ford family in Detroit are the worst examples I can think of. American or not however, we could do with a less sentimental and more results oriented ownership. It will help keep Freddie Shepherd in check at the very least.

A better comparison is between HIV and full blown AIDS, with the present regime as the latter. We are not by most important criteria a football club at the present time. No one is in charge. Ashley is done, he is gone, lost interest. We have no owner, we have no manager, and we don't have a team that is capable of getting out of the Championship (or even of remaining competitive). The revenue is halved and nothing has been done about the wage bill. This is a 100% death sentence. Shepherd is obnoxious, he has a history of bad appointments, alleged interference with managerial decisions and apparent financial ineptitude. And I don't care. Because time is up. Every day we wait, is another day we fall behind. If you think playing Doncaster is embarrassing, just wait until they win. Butt, Ameobi, Geremi etc. are not going to drop down a division (with no pre season manager) and suddenly look decent. We weren't getting beat just by Man Utd and Liverpool, we were getting outplayed, outfought and beaten by Hull, Stoke and Bolton. In fact, I'd say that anyone who is against the Shepherd return doesn't fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. This might feel like rock bottom, but it can get worse.

It might sound ridiculous, but buying Cristiano Ronaldo might be the more sensible investment.

You are on a plane, it is heading straight for a mountain, and the pilots have parachuted out, leaving you to die (Indiana Jones style). If an experienced pilot of the same plane with a terrible safety record steps forward to take the controls, I wouldn't hang around and wait for the alternative. It is July this week and we have THE SAME SQUAD.

Welcome back fatty. Now get to work, because we are hairline deep in shit.

in case being the key words there I've no doubt they will get thrashed by Brazil. Brazil, in their clean, classic, well designed Nike shirt. A shirt that would have been no doubt butchered beyond all recognition - with zippers, stripes, neon panels and tinsel - had it been left to Adidas.

How about £100m and we don't remove his testicles with the claw side of a hammer for getting the club relegated in the first place?

Are they wearing it on Sunday for the Confed. Cup final? I hope so. And I hope they practice a choreographed Thriller dance in case they score.

Christ, that is actually real.

For the last time NO! Adidas>>>>>>Seeing Viduka playing naked>>>>>>>>>Weaing Nike Nike makes far better kits than adidas ever will. I suppose if you like carrying knives. Adidas actually have some class about them Well they both make shoes and plastic/lycra football shirts so I don't know about taking it that far. I might have agreed with you back in 2002 when Nike were still doing that circle around the number on all their kits, but in the last few years they have been keeping it very simple and clean. Our last decent home shirt was the one with the blue northern rock lettering. Everything since then has been poor. Gold lettering, stupid collars, any way they can f*** up the simplest design in the world. Just compare with what Nike put out for Juventus. Miles ahead.

Why is the final on a Monday night?

They have been saying that for ages. I actually think the unpopularity of the sport in America is greatly exaggerated. Yes, it is 5th or 6th choice for most Americans. So what? It's a big country. The sport has a solid fan base of mostly educated, white collar middle class types, first and second generation immigrants and young kids who have been playing in youth leagues. That will grow steadily over time. Television coverage of international soccer is already better in America than most European countries. Turnout is healthy at professional games across the country, especially in urban areas like LA or Chicago. Last week I went to a game in the South - about a thousand people turned up, the teams were made up of ex American college players, a few journeymen pros from Africa and even a few English players (one guy who used to play for the Man City reserves). The quality was surprisingly good (and they had a $1 beer night!). The atmosphere is a bit family friendly and tame, they have their furry mascots, statistics and stupid team names (Raving Rhino, Lightning Hawks etc.) but that is just Americans being Americans. My point is that it is getting to the point that the "building the profile" argument gets to be a cliche. There is a very substantial market, they have the money and the facilities, they have the players and talent. It isn't as if people won't pay attention. Smaller nations have done much more with much less. So the expectations should really be a lot higher. They don't need to overtake the NBA or the NFL before they start taking it seriously. In fact, I think the popularity argument has become an excuse for an underperforming national side. When they fail to show up in a major tournament, they can fall back on the "oh well, it isn't very popular, when we grow the sport etc..." More could be done in stimulating interest amongst working class, inner city youths (i.e., people who don't have first names like Landon & Taylor) but when you look at what the likes of Croatia are able to achieve without a top class domestic league then you wonder what the hell they are complaining about. I can't stand him. No Lalas you ginger clown, it wasn't all hard work and "hustle". It was more down to the fact that they have a team of reasonably talented players at the moment that can compete to an international standard. Something that the US national side didn't have during your glory days of getting humiliated by Iran at France '98.

The only way that kit could be any better would be if they had Dowie instead of Taylor & Beye modeling it.

Aren't the USA through at the moment with scores as they are? (3-0 in both games as I type this).

3-0 USA, could be going through instead of Italy. Funny stuff.

No thanks. i like being able to wear our kits in public. Adidas is better than every other kit maker Adidas are miles behind Nike.

If it meant a full time manager actually getting down to work tomorrow morning, I'd give Hitler a fresh start.

This won't be finished until late July at the earliest, we will start the season with no left back at all and a frighteningly disjointed squad of journeymen and youngsters, and the next regime (whoever it ends up being) will use this wasted summer as the official excuse for poor performances on the pitch - right up until the point that we turn and call for the new board to be sacked. It's just getting predictable now.

If he has to go, I hope we sell him abroad or to a top 4 side. Would be very annoying to see him playing for a mid table Premiership team.

He should have worked harder to keep us in the Premiership so that the gravy train kept going. Too late now. Sorry Oba, but getting shot of mediocre players on Champions League wages is one of the few bonuses of getting relegated. Good luck finding a mid table club with the money to afford you, or have fun in Dubai or Japan.

I see your point, but I'm more nervous about what will happen this summer when we are 3-? weeks behind everyone else, needing to at least halve our wage bill and also build a competitive squad for the Championship (which is more competitive than most seem to think). I just want this over. Everyone else seems to have Saudi/Kuwaiti billionaires interested, I don't see why we can't dig one up.

Aye exactly. Can't see how anyone can be "gutted" to lose any. None of the fuckers are fit to lace the boots of Shearer, Ferdinand, Ginola, Albert etc. Yep. No respect for any of them after this season. Some did better than others obviously, but thats only the difference between celebrating when and if they fuck off (Coloccini, Barton, Butt) and just shrugging (Jonas, Enrique).

I'm seriously beginning to question whether this is really just incompetence or actually deliberate.

Remember when Llambas said there was a plan in case we went down? Because from the outside perspective, you might be forgiven for thinking it looks like total chaos. Chaos in danger of making this last season of failure bleed into the next. How can they be this bad at acting professionally? These clowns are running this club with all the finesse and expertise that a 15 year old boy would show Angelina Jolie's bra strap. Total, total amateurs. No planning, no forethought, and absolutely no sense of urgency. About as much urgency as the players showed against Villa. Fuck you Mike Ashley.