OzzieMandias

No. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yup.

No. Yes. It would take a lot more than him to do that, he'd actually have to spend some money in the transfer market for once. And then that begs the question, if he'd have done that now, why not back when? So you prefer to act like a huffy teenager than think about what might be best going forward for the club? People make mistakes. And thinking Ashley would be best for the club going forward would be one of them. Take that one up with Sir John Hall.

Or we could bring back the glorious era of Ian Rush in black and white.

Thank god none of our fans did anything stupid such as threaten Ashley personally or try to organise boycotts of his business(es). Who did that? I thought they just said he wouldn't be made welcome. Choose your own synonym for "threaten", then, and factor in the mong in Chester-le-Street who attacked some Ashley lookalike. Which was after he'd announced he wanted to sell up. So what? I was discussing how the current situation became a "circus". And it would have been an exceedingly dumb thing to do at any time, no? Or were you the mong in question?

Thank god none of our fans did anything stupid such as threaten Ashley personally or try to organise boycotts of his business(es). Who did that? I thought they just said he wouldn't be made welcome. Choose your own synonym for "threaten", then, and factor in the mong in Chester-le-Street who attacked some Ashley lookalike.

Thank god none of our fans did anything stupid such as threaten Ashley personally or try to organise boycotts of his business(es).

1974 FA Cup Final. Like having your heart broken for the first time, it was my first great disillusionment. And what made it even worse was that Liverpool were my dad's team.

At least with Shearer you can't imagine him running off and hiding when the going gets rough. If he took it on I reckon he'd stick it out.

It'd be kind of cool having Shearer at the Toon versus Keane at the Stadium of Shite.

Shearer might work and might not. I think we need to be weaned off our desire for white knights and Geordie messiahs, however, and grow the fuck up.

Global financial crisis, limited supply of multi-billionaires interested in throwing huge amounts of money at a club they have no connection with etc etc

Why is it always "relegation dogfight"? Why not just "fight"?

Aye, judging a manager on results and performances. Who'd have thought of it? Hindsight tbh.

There are no real quick fixes. The time has passed when you could splash out on a couple of wonderful players few other teams would be able to afford, and thus vibe up a lacklustre squad. Need quality that clicks throughout, and plenty of back-up too. Everyone has good players and expensive squads. Takes a while to put something special together.

This problem won't change until we have a period of stability and consolidation. Sir Bobby took a couple of years to build the team that got into the Champions League. Since he was kicked out we've changed managers five times. Each one has had just about enough time to tear the previous squad apart and half put it back together again. What's left is a right old mess under the care of an interim manager and an owner who wants to sell. It won't improve until things settle down and someone is given the chance -- the money AND the time -- to piece things back together again.

Aye, we should put aside our distress at this result and rejoice in the fact that Keegan's got "principles".

Er...have a guess, man! FFS hes the one thats left us with an interim manager and maybe if he invested properly in the summer we wouldnt have to play players like Nicky Butt for every game!! Its a f*cking disgrace! You think so? when Keegan could have bit the bullet and got on with his job, like a lot of people do even if it's not going your way. Yeah I do. I think that he was right to walk tbh. He was going to have to put up with that system of transfers etc. if he did stayed and he cant operate like that. Im pretty sure most British managers cant. Its a tough one to call but why the f*ck did Ashley have to put the system in place anyway? Just get a scouting network going and let the manager deal with ins and outs etc. Its simple. Ashley doesnt have a f***ing clue and it really does show. Thank f*** for Totenham Hotspur FC. Well obviously he saw how well it works on the continent and why people say it wouldn't work in a British system is just bullshit!, it can!, if you give it time, which was what was needed and if King Kev was so unhappy, why leave it so late?, to spit his dummy out!. You're saying how well it worked on the continent. Guess which nation at a club level is currently dominating the Champions League? Erm I think that would be us. Nothing to do with having more money than all the other leagues, obviously.

Why don't you try responding to something I have actually said rather than gibbering in reply to the voices in your head?

Louise Taylor finds a new way to salivate over Roy Keane: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/25/newcastleunited-sunderland

Tell that to Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest, or Sir Bobby Robson and Ipswich. Clough was a big spender, he broke the transfer record when he bought Trevor Francis for starters, and Bobby Robson never won the title or the European Cup. As usual, you don't make much of a point but you have said in the past that a manager who won the UEFA Cup is a good manager whereas another one who won 4 titles with 2 different clubs and 3 manager of the year awards isn't. So its hardly surprising. Also for someone who backed Souness until the day he left........ Why are you wasting bandwidth with this inane drivel?

Tell that to Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest, or Sir Bobby Robson and Ipswich.

how exactly had the DOF system been working well for spurs? they finished 11th last season, 1 place above us. From my knowlegde, the DOF system has been in effect at Spurs since 2004, when Jol and Frank Arsenen were brought in. Comolli replaced Arsenen when he f***** off to Chelsea. In 2004-2005 they finished midtable. In 2005-2006 they finished an agonizing fifth after they swung low at the sweet Marriot. They finished fifth the next season also. Obviously in the last two years things have gone completely insane. However, one cannot discount the fact that they still won a major domestic honour last season and are competing UEFA Cup for another year. everton have done better in that time with much less investment. they had limited success (5th place isn't really a success but whatever) but a good system will give consistent improvement. the fact that they have gone completely insane over the last couple of years should be a clue that the system is not working. Everton are not lighting up the place this year but whatever. I don't see how you can say the system isn't working now based on a season and eight games, when three seasons differ with this but ok. Everton have done alright for themselves but even they have struggled. Do not forget that they also had a 17th place and 11th place finish during the regime of Moyes. What is to say Spurs cannot do what Everton did a comeback with a vengeance next season. Even stil, Everton have realised they will have to invest if they want to keep up. That is why they have splased 12 million on Yakubu and 15 million on Felliani. Even Villa have spent a vey large sum of money. yawn. All the clubs with a DOF are at the bottom of the league, while all the clubs at the top have a manager who runs everything to do with the playing side. End of. You know I don't mean to offend you sir, but you really do come off as an idiot sometimes. So, according to the this particular league table in October of this season, you can draw that all DOF's are bad and all traditional British managerial systems are good. Good on you. You have proven that you have the logic and reasoning of a young child. You cannot dismiss what has happened before, because what has happened in the first eight matches of a season ffs. I mean it defies common sense. How can you attribute Spurs' October league position to the DoF, but not attribute their fifth place finshes and Carling cup success. That is like me saying Keegan, despite all his earlier success is a s*** manager because he only picked up 3 points in his first eight matches here in his second spell. This is the great disadvantage of DOF systems. They can be judged only on their most recent results, while earlier successes are stricken from the record. In this they differ from what we might call the Freddie Shepherd System, in which recent performance is ignored entirely in favour of stuff that happened four or five years ago when the system was at its transitory peak. You know it makes sense!

And unlike when Sir John Hall decided to sell out to Ashley, there's no necessity for any aspect of the sale to be public until it's concluded.

I look at all the broadsheets, and there haven't been stories since the last ones posted on here. Cheers. Seems strange how Harris suddenly came out and had loads to say, then has gone quiet again. Wonder if this means something is happening, or if nothing is happening. I 'spose. Bit bored with speculating on the basis of more or less nothing, though. Aye. Perhaps the papers have run out of steam for once; I'm sure if we were still doing as poorly on the pitch there would be more negative coverage. It all seems to have died down for now, which is good. Had two Arsenal supporters and a Man U fan around for tea this afternoon. All were united in their approval of the Kinnear tirade. I pointed out that whatever had been said about it, if anything our coverage since has been better, not worse.