chicago_shearer

I checked the Premiership news on my phone in the car and the headline read 'CARR IN SURPRISE RETURN'. No mention of the Birmingham bit. I almost had an accident.

If Venables is appointed it will be to keep us up due to his experience, coaching and management capability with a specific brief to keep us up. Wise and Shearer aren't realistic alternatives for different reasons which have been explained plenty of times before. If you don't think Shearer or Wise would take/want the job, fair enough (although I happen to think Wise is a very realistic, practical alternative). But I don't understand why Venables has earned this reputation as Mr Fix It. Every managerial vacancy going and his name creeps up. Since Euro 96, his resume is just not very impressive. His experience at Leeds and as McClaren's right hand man is not the sort of experience that fills me with confidence. I'd sooner take my chances with the coaches we already have than put the future of the club in his hands.

This ref has been very very kind to the US.

This is actually the only way a friendly can be useful. Instead of pissing around against Jamaica or T&T, play the best team in the world away, get beat and then realize that a good start to the World Cup qualifying campaign does not make a good team. Still a long way to go for Capello.

Nice goal as well. Really good to see him doing well for his country. My only complaint is no Spiderman mask.

What is the point of appointing El Tel? He doesn't know the strengths and weaknesses of the players and he would only receive the same lukewarm support that Kinnear enjoyed. If you are worried that Hughton & Calderwood lack leadership, appoint Wise. If you want someone popular, appoint Shearer. Otherwise stick with the coaches that know the club and make a long term appointment this summer.

That actually made me like him.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to throw a long term (if there is such a thing at this club) foreign manager in at the very deep end at this point in the season. Besides the fact that no one in their right mind would do it, it just doesn't seem like a sensible idea. This is objectively an awful situation for a potential manager, headfirst into a s*** storm involving mediocre players, a heavy burden of expectation and a nasty looking upcoming fixture list. I think mid February is too late to be finding another Kinnear type appointment either. What is Veneables going to offer exactly? Alternatively, you could go fishing for a long term appointment, but that is a massive risk and I don't see it having a quick conclusion which is what the situation demands. Can you coax Steve Bruce to bail on Wigan or something? And quickly? Would he even want to do it, especially in this mess? So forget replacing Kinnear. If he goes, it has to be caretaker/short term. The one thing Newcastle United have done more poorly than football recently is hiring managers. It is long, it is distracting and it will end in bitter disappointment. Pompey and Chelsea might be able to get someone new in 48 hours, but that will never happen with us. Learn from history. Let's do the smart thing and save that lovely odyssey until we have beaten the drop. If Kinnear is too ill, I think you have three practical options in the short term (which should be all that they should be focusing on until survival is likely). 1. You trust Calderwood & Hughton to have enough familiarity and a strong enough relationship with the players to make it work by themselves. You avoid the drama and support one or both. The plus is stability, the minus is inexperience and a serious lack of leadership. 2. Since neither seem to be very charismatic or inspirational, you appoint Wise, Poyet, or someone else in the Mike Ashley phone book. The risk is that you annoy and alienate supporters, but the benefit is (perhaps) a better chance of success than the untested Hughton/Calderwood duo. 3. You bring in someone closely associated enough with the club to have a familiarity with the situation and provide a morale boost that hopefully translates into victories. Shearer is the first, but not the only name on that list. I would lean towards option number 2 personally, but so long as they act decisively then I am happy. The worst case scenario is that Kinnear is forced to walk away on health grounds and they dally about without a clear decision. If they want Hughton & Calderwood until the end of the season, fair enough. Announce it and back them. But don't wait 3 weeks, act now.

Best case scenario: Harry does what he does best and jumps ship back to Pompey, leaving Spurs deeper in the shit.

Great keeper, great servant and a Newcastle legend. But he didn't want to be here anymore. He checked out after the Liverpool defeat, and you just can't afford to keep him around. Survival is too important. Same goes for Zoggy, and any other player that isn't up for it. He had to go and for that reason I don't feel particularly bad about it. It is one thing to sell your best players for money - it is entirely different to sell them when they simply don't want to play for you anymore.

Spurs, Blackburn, Stoke. But I'd also settle for any 3 teams that aren't Newcastle.

I find it impressive how professional he sounds in that Scotsman interview, I hope it works out for him over the next couple of months. It is important to have those sort of players in the squad, especially in a crisis. He sounds like he really wants to be playing for Newcastle. We have had too many petulant, immature, whining, thick as pigshit wankers over recent years - annoying at the best of times, but disastrous when you are struggling in the table.

He's clearly bumming Anichebe.

Shearer, Speed, Obamfemi.....non-NUFC, I'd say Larsson, Scholes, Bergkamp (sometimes), Borgetti, Fabregas.

No s***. What on earth does he have to moan about? He is 50 years old, still in the Premiership and still gets a regular spot in the side and a new contract for absolutely fuck all. Turn up, run around a few cones, pass the ball to the opposition for 90 minutes on Saturday/Sunday, shoot into Row ZZZ, fly into a few tackles and everyone in the country still thinks you are a handy player because, after all, you are Nicky Butt - Mr. Dependable, do-no-wrong, plucky English midfielder. What an asshole.

I think the biggest danger is that too many of our players and our manager are fucking shit. Apathy is a distant second.

I'd go for something like this, roll the dice and see what happens: Harper R. Taylor - S. Taylor - Bassong - Enrique Lovenkrands - Nolan - Geremi - Duff Xisco - Martins Which is what makes these threads so frustrating and pointless because we all know Butt and Ameobi will be playing no matter what.

Ketsbaia. Absolutely Ketsbaia. We don't need a manager capable of managing the madness of this club, we need a manager mental enough to embrace it. Someone who won't crack under the weight of expectation and show their age, but who will thrive because of it and get better. Someone who won't shout at players because of poor performances, but may physically harm them instead. Give Ketsbaia the job and a 357 magnum and this club will be fixed in no time.

We will be totally dependent on what the new boys do I think. We know what the rest of them can do, and it's f***ing rubbish. Especially without Jonas, Owen, Barton, Guthrie and probably Oba. Unless Nolan, Taylor and Lovenkrands play and play well then we will lose, because Butt, Geremi, Taylor, Enrique, Carroll, Ameobi and the usual jokers are winning us f*** all on their own. Simple as that.

We aren't very good at this transfer stuff. And come to think of it, we aren't very good at the football stuff either.

We made signings to compensate for injuries and sold one of the best keepers in the league. All the good strikers still injured, Butt still certain to play regularly, Kinnear still in charge. Weakened.

Happy enough, because a loss would have been the last nail in the coffin on this season.

Thesis, let's sign Miguel Veloso. Antithesis, let's keep Nicky Butt in the first team. Synthesis, oh well sign Kevin Nolan for cheap. At best, Veloso was the first and best name on a shortlist that got crossed off a long time ago. We are not going to magically sign him in the next 24 hours.

I would be very happy with that, but I suspect the stuff about Donadel, Veloso and M'Bia is unfortunately nonsense. We clearly don't have much money and none of those three will come cheap. If we had any money, we wouldn't have waited until Jan 30th.