TRon

Agreed, he was probably good at stuff behind the scenes, but there was also talk that he wanted more say on the recruitment side, and Howe didn't seem to trust him fully on that. In the end he was probably right, Dan didn't see us as his ultimate job, he wanted to be part of Sir Jim Ratshit's gang at Man U. That means everyone's really ended up where they should be. We want someone who will bleed Newcastle, Dan wasn't that man.

I always thought Ashworth's main strength was in his structural capacities rather than player recruitment. Stuff like training facilities, contracts, women's football and such. No doubt he will be pretty good at all of that and good luck to him. I'll bet he gets the top brand lawnmowers in at Man U, they'll be second to none.

I don't know either, just seems like he's been head-hunted by some pretty big clubs and has enough of a reputation to get the biggest including Man U trying to get him onboard. Then you look at the players who have been signed under his watch, and they look pretty impressive. Tbh, that's enough for me. How much more exact detail is the average Joe going to know anyway? People get paid a lot of money to identify that stuff at the club.

Do you have any reason to believe he wasn't really involved much?

Think this has all the makings of a very good partnership for that reason. Mitchell knows how to work the foreign market, Howe will want PL experience. You don't want a yes man in either position.

Didn't even register that this was ongoing. Might watch me some of that.

Apologies for this thread being derailed into another Keegan borefest btw, but I think @Cronky has to take full responsibility for this. Absolutely no need for him to indulge himself in totally irrelevant nostalgia. Ban him for a week maybe so he can reflect on how to contribute more meaningfully.

Keegan was never that much about tactics, he only knew one way of playing. It wasn't a bad way, but I think it was a lot easier to play with freedom first half of the season when there was no pressure and we were just going out doing our stuff. As the title loomed closer, I think some of our players started feeling the pressure and we stopped playing with that freedom. Man U wanted it more, they found ways to win, we found ways to lose. If Keegan hadn't responded to that Fenton goal that way, we'd still have lost the game.

From what I remember we had shown some signs of stalling with a couple of iffy results, and the goals had dried up a bit. Batty and Tino were brought in to add some winner experience as a lot of our players had never really achieved that much prior to that season. Better teams than us have suffered from imposter syndrome in such a situation. We were absolutely mauled at Old Trafford and I think that was when Keegan made the decision to bring in some character for what he knew would be a high pressure run in.

We were obviously sailing a bit close to the wind, but there was good reason for it. We were trying to get rid of other players, I don't think we really wanted to let Minteh or Anderson go until there was no choice.

I doubt we'd get much money for him from an MLS club mind. That might be grand for him, but would be pretty shit for us.

I think it's more a case of we didn't really want to sell potential young stars and held off as long as possible, but once it became clear we weren't going to be able to shift the deadweight quick enough, we just tried to get the best price possible for the likes of Minteh and Anderson. If we could have shifted Almiron or Longstaff, we'd probably have sold them as well.

Would echo that. Demanding a team that tries is still true, but obviously there's a difference in expectations between a pub team and one that's striving for CL football. Expectations have risen with the new direction created by the ownership, and there's nothing wrong with that. The main difference is now we are trying to win trophies whereas previously we were trying to finish 17th.

I always felt that was a convenient excuse used to deflect the blame from some of the players who had got us firing in the first half of the season. Players like Ferdinand and Rob Lee just stopped scoring, and felt to me that in some of the big games on the run in we froze. If anything Tino was one of those who didn't seem affected by nerves, his goal to put us in the lead in the 4-3 Anfield classic a prime exampe. You can't really blame the chaos at the back on him.

Couldn't think of a more fitting end to his career.

Because them and their fans make it feel like the world's fate depends on it.

Especially given the context and that it was the last minute of ET. Unbelievable stuff.

Not sure there's enough quality to convert those chances though.

As long as they don't concede any more goals on the counter. Turkey have come close to getting in behind a couple of times already.

Actually living up to the hype which isn't always the case with wonderkids.

With that avatar how could there not be?

Looks fairly even so far, Austria not dominating as much as expected.

You would imagine he'll be a big success over there. Everyone else will be playing at 60%, he'll be bombing up and down like it's the Champion's league.

Absolutely. Easy to forget he was one of our best players when we were shit.