TRon

Kevin Nolan can do all those things, just it takes him three times longer than most other players to do them. It's like we hunted high and low for players with the least amount of energy, speed and stamina and then played them all in one mega slow midfield. Even Guthrie looks like he smokes 40 tabs a day.

The Best deal is a good example of why it is sometimes a good idea to give one of our own youngsters an early chance rather than spend good money on players of questionable pedigree. Carroll and Ranger can both claim to have made far bigger impact in the games they've played, and I am pretty sure that Kadar is another one who will prove better quality than any lo0w cost central defender with more experience. Joe Hart was loaned out to Birmingham and he's been a massive success, at City he wouldn't have got a look in a year ago, now there are pundits questioning whether he should be challenging Given for the no 1 jersey next season ( )

I think he's a canny player for the money we paid, probably a bit too lightweight for a good premier side. He'll do until we can get someone better in any case.

very much a victim of our s**** tactics in our latter prem years (he wasn't s*** under keegan when we had players moving and creating space so he could play his natural game of win it and give it simply). too many times he was caught holding on too long looking round wondering why all our players were stood still. i very much agree with that true faith article. It could be argued that Butt wasn't the problem in midfield but then who was? We had Milner and Duff on the wings and Butt was partnered by a succession of high profile central midfielders like Speed, Bowyer, Emre, Parker and Dyer. I don't recall either Owen or Martins being provided by a great service by this high value midfield. The truth is we suffered because we brought in tired has-beens whose best days were behind them...and Butt was one of those. even when he first came robert was going through a sulky spell, milner never stopped moving but his movement was that of a young kid who hadn't found his position. the problem was the whole team ethos, we went from pass and move to subbuteo in about 6 months. i can only guess too many players thought they had made it. since then can you remember our team having good movement ? not just the midfield, it has to come from all over or it just doesn't work. To some extent I agree. The problem hasn't always been the personnel, it has more often been the lack of a manager with a coherent team plan on how to build or get the best of his squad. Butt would be fine in a midfield which had plenty of movement around him, but we often had too many similar players in the same midfield or up front and for that you have to lay the blame with the manager. Butt and Nolan playing together is a prime example, just as playing Shola up front with Shearer didn't really work whereas Shearer and Bellamy was a massive success.

very much a victim of our shite tactics in our latter prem years (he wasn't shit under keegan when we had players moving and creating space so he could play his natural game of win it and give it simply). too many times he was caught holding on too long looking round wondering why all our players were stood still. i very much agree with that true faith article. It could be argued that Butt wasn't the problem in midfield but then who was? We had Milner and Duff on the wings and Butt was partnered by a succession of high profile central midfielders like Speed, Bowyer, Emre, Parker and Dyer. I don't recall either Owen or Martins being provided by a great service by this high value midfield. The truth is we suffered because we brought in tired has-beens whose best days were behind them...and Butt was one of those.

It's what we're all thinking really.

He's a good player but we already have a plethora of big powerful target men. It would make more sense to target an alternative to Lovenkrands I would have thought. Unless we are planning on getting two brand new top central midfielders I really don't think we should be looking to play 4-4-2 next season imo. Therefore we need a quality big man who is also fast and athletic and who can play alone up top for us. Carew is the sort we will need. Or we could buy those two central midfielders and build a proper side.

Carroll will get a few, Lovenkrands, Barton, Shola and Nolan have all scored goals at a higher level. We are only talking about enough goals to avoid relegation so we won't need to score shitloads..and we WILL strengthen the squad in any case.

He's a good player but we already have a plethora of big powerful target men. It would make more sense to target an alternative to Lovenkrands I would have thought.

I would think even without strengthening the squad significantly this bunch of players have shown enough mental strength to finish ahead of at least three other teams next season.

Effectively it would be the club hierarchy showing a lack of confidence in Hughton's credentials/experience at this level though...which just begs the question why didn't they appoint a senior manager to begin with?

He's put something like £25 to 30 million in this season and still level 7 sing "Get out of our club" today. He put in money in this division because let's face it you don't have to spend that much in this division. Next season will be a very different proposition and the sort of money it takes to become a a force in the Premier is beyond Ashley's generosity. That's not a criticism, it's his money and he can spend it how he likes. There are a lot worse owners as we are starting to see this season with clubs like Liverpool and Portsmouth. But the fact is he does have quite a wedge and he could use it to ensure Newcastle make a much bigger impact next season if he wanted.

Nice to see the lads having a day like this after last season. Well done everyone.

Would have liked to see West Ham relegated or Bolton would have been nice....but I'll take that. Fuck off Hull and continue to pay massive wages to Jimmy Bullard.

I think we are going to have to get used to the idea that Newcastle are going to have to generate their own money as a football club unless the club is sold which is unlikely. Ashley has plenty of money so if he wanted to pump some funds in to give us (and himself) a club to be really proud of, he can certainly do that but he's shown no signs previously that he wants to lavish money on Newcastle. He'll continue to run the club on the cheap because that's his mentality.

We used to have the 5th highest wage bill in England a year ago. I wonder if we will even be in the top half of the premier for wages by this time next year?

According to that Hughton will be looking to strengthen in defence and attack (again) come the summer. If Hughton doesn't deal with the lack of drive in central midfield I think it will be costly next season. Nolan for all his goals isn't going to provide it and Guthrie/Barton don't exactly motor either.

There's Mike Ashley's ambitions for next season. Can't say it's any big surprise tbh.

Something on Talksport this morning about Martin Jol being brought in to work with him which personally I would approve of 100% but I can't believe Hughton would be happy about it.

The fans today have a lot higher expectations than when Keegan last won this division, I am not sure they would turn out in the sort of numbers we did back then because many don't believe we should be down this low in the first place. I would love to be wrong like because I think the players and staff have earned it just as much in their own way.

This sort of arrogance would have been inconceivable during Keegan's promotion year. Maybe partly explains why he's not here now.

1 hour highlights on Football First SKY....let's never fight again

Of course he is, I figured that out some time ago. The absolute arrogance to expect constant success as a god given right is a dead give away. Hughton is an Ashley appointment (not FF) so any success probably has malE5 tearing his hair out.

It might be that Hughton struggles next season but I think it's just as well he's given a chance to pit his wits against the likes of Pulis, Allardyce, Mcarthy and other luminaries before we write him off. At least that way when we sack him we won't look daft if he resurfaces at another club and goes on to be successful manager.