TRon

If Hughton couldn't muster up enough courage to go with two stirkers at home to Plymouth, I can't see him doing it away to Ipswich. I hope I'm wrong though, Smith and Butt isn't a good partnership. In fact it would make more sense for Smith to play up front and Nolan drop to midfield if Hughton is going to include Butt in the side.

obviously but we need to find one who will improve our squad not be useless I think the performance of Lovenkrands and Lua lua on tuesday underline that point. Wingers need to have a work ethic not just ponce about on the periphery wishing they were up front.

this is what I mean man. Crofty has probably googled a picture of him and come up with the opinion that he has no pace You're not condescending in the slightest are you? The bloke has been pish for years. He's 30 years old and has only scraped over 100 goals in his career (including 5 in the past two years) I know that by googling a picture of him, and f*** all to do with being 24 and following football since I was a nipper. You think he's good because you once managed him on Championship Manager and he scored 87 goals for Forest Green in the Champions League don't you... Shola only scored his 50th league goal this season didn't he? He's been crap his whole career and now people are desperate for him to be back. Surprise, surprise players play better in worse leagues. Nice to see you've wrote him off already though. Most of Harewood's career has been in the Championship though. But for one good season when West Ham came up, he hasn't been prolific even at this level. If Shola had spent most of his career in this division I bet he'd have hit 15-20 goals a season. Hughton claims to have done his homework having monitored the situation for a while now so I suppose it will be a good test of his judgement. I don't know a lot about him but we could do with a striker who gets in the penalty area and feeds off a target man. At the moment this job is being done by Nolan and if Harewood's not better than him then he should be put down.

According to the Sun article the extra money is for future loss of earnings if you take the article seriously, which I don't. Sleazy tactics by Ashley's team if they are pushing the adminsitration angle but everything is speculation at the moment.

Is that horseshit as compared to Championship strikers or in comparison to Drogba or say Darren Bent? I must admit I'd prefer those two as well...

If Ashley's still in charge I'd be surprised if there's any more signings but FWIW at least Hughton still seems to think it might happen.

Woodgate was a legend. the only time I can remember him having a rough ride was when he was playing for Leeds against the toon. he came up against an inspired #9 shirt that day. Freshly laundered and crsiply ironed, the shirt was on fire that day, creasing this way and that, sending Woodgate into a flap with the fumes of Comfort pure ( 2 for 1 special deal at Asda).

I can't recall any previous history of Keegan putting his own money into the club so I don't know what myth this sudden generosity would be based on.

I say we hand Marlon the number 10 shirt then open a new dedicated thread in honour of the number 9 shirt.

No problem with that, but then will people stop moaning about lack of funds for players, because the club is clearly not flush with cash as we are currently operating on the goodwill of Barclays extending the overdraft?

Let's give him £15m then. It's all going to a good cause after all.

Typical of our luck that Guthrie is suspended as soon as Barton drops out. I hope Nolan drops back into midfield, Smith and Butt in the centre is too depressing to contemplate.

Just been listening to Real radio on the way home and a boro supporter was gutted we'd signed Harewood. Just wondering how you would feel if he'd signed for boro instead of us? I don't think i would have been happy to see him go there.

Or if the takeover talk is true, it could be that it needs the ok of Moat/Shearer.

That's fair enough but on the flip side if Keegan doesn't get everything he's looking for, or if the panel finds in favour of Ashley then those on the other side of the fence will also have to get off their "high horse" and accept that Keegan shares some of the blame in this case. Let's see what happens. Unless further evidence comes to light, a legal verdict on who should get compensation one way or the other isn't going to change my view on matters one bit, and I wouldn't expect any Keegan haters to change their minds either. Obviously people who are entrenched in their views or those with an agenda won't give a damn either way, but there are plenty who will be prepared to accept a fair verdict on this issue.

Not doubting your credentials but we already have an idea that today will be quite significant as it was reported in the Times article yesterday. The main difference being that Moat was considered the likely buyer rather than the Sheard led American group you were touting.

That's fair enough but on the flip side if Keegan doesn't get everything he's looking for, or if the panel finds in favour of Ashley then those on the other side of the fence will also have to get off their "high horse" and accept that Keegan shares some of the blame in this case. Let's see what happens.

Keegan's jackpot is now one of the remaining issues standing in the way of a takeover of Newcastle. If he gets awarded any more than the £4m allegedly turned down recently then you would have to assume that it might delay the sale as the price is re-negotiated. It would be ironic if Ashley ended up staying here longer because of Keegan's pay out considering most of the people fervently supporting Kev hate Ashley with a passion.

Me too, for the simple fact it reduces the chances of Butt playing. Not only that but let's face it we need to spread the load around the squad. We have Knizanishvili on loan for 3 months, so let's use him and take the chance to rest somebody else. After Simpson, S.Taylor is our best right back so bringing Knizanishvili into the centre and pushing R.Taylor up makes perfect sense to me. Ryan Taylor is far from a natural winger but he is a natural wide player and when you're crying out for width and balance to the midfield, it makes sense to use him. Barton needs dropped and Geremi and Nolan haven't got the legs at all. As for the left wing, I guess I'd shove one of them there, probably Nolan and keep Loven up front. In other words: Harper S.Taylor Kniz. Colo Enrique R.Taylor Smith Geremi Nolan Carroll Lovenkrands I think anyone who is going to operate out wide needs to be able to get up and down the pitch so left wing is probably the last place I'd put Nolan. I agree that we shouldn't use Lovenkrands there again after his half-hearted efforts so far this season. May as well stick with Barton now guthrie is out of the equation. I'm pretty sure we'll stick with the 4-5-1 in any case.

The club was happy to continue to pay Robson, honouring his contract, until he got a new job elsewhere. That wasn't enough for him though, he wanted to be able to get another job (possibly for a rival) and carry on leeching supporter's money off us as well as getting paid for managing another club. So he dragged the club through an expensive court case. It was futile in end for him anyway, as noone wanted him after the out of control dressing room he left at SJP which even the best manager in the world would have found difficult to turn around, and ultimately led to our relegation last season. You have to be joking. Make your mind up, if it's Robson's fault that we ultimately got relegated due to the out of control dressing room he left at SJP you can't keep blaming Ashley for the same crime (while presumably exonerating Shepherd and Souness I expect).

Doesn't look like much of a team player anyway although I haven't seen much of him to be fair. He seems to lightweight to play in midfield although it's probably unfair to judge anyone on last night's team with so many inexperienced players flung together with one or two seniors who didn't want to be there.

I think Hughton might use yesterday's child sacrifice as a justification to overload the side with senior pros so it will probably be 4-5-1 again.

Suits us tbh. We've already signed that Kbulishas Zurab bloke, we don't need anyone else till then.

One thing I don't really understand is that if we were resting players why did Guthrie play rather than Butt or Geremi who have hardly had any games under their belt this season? Surely they could have done with a run out more than Guthrie?

Arsenal might have sent a kids team out which was well balanced, I didn't see much evidence of that from the side Hughton sent out last night. There were far too many forwards and not enough protection for a very green back four. I can't say I am too impressed with Hughton's handling of the situation, but I suppose he'll be able to pick his senior pros without question from now on so from his point of view it will give him an easier life.