TRon

Heartening interview, from that it does seem that if he leaves it will be because we need to sell rather than him wanting to move. Personally, for me he is one of the few high earners I'd be willing to keep but I doubt the club will see it that way.

I think Ashley is more bothered about getting another £75,000 off the wage bill tbh. That's our reason for selling, we can't realistically keep a player like Martins here in any case. But he's still a decent buy for a mid range club in Europe.

I see it as more of an opening of negotiations.

At £8m he will be a decent buy for some team, you don't get much for that these days, especially players who have a hald decent record at the top level.

Tim Krul coming out with positive noises about Shearer and staying to fight for the no 1 shirt leads me to believe that Shearer has been letting the younger, hungrier players know that they will be a big part of the new look Newcastle. Big Al's vision for the future has got me positively excited for the start of next season, I am really up for it now.

Rooney is the only one i would describe as a special talent out of that lot though.

Didn't he just sign a new improved contract here recently? Seemed pretty happy up here as well from his quotes.

It's just a shame that a team that play such good football as Barcelona ends up being a pissing contest as to which is the better league. All i saw when i watched Barca's passing and movement is what I would love to have back at Newcastle.

Where's this from fella? Lad on Skunkers who lives in the same building as him. Been chatting to his missus while Seb's away with Cameroon. Cheers. I'd say that's a very decent offer for a young player in the Championship. Problem is obviously what others will offer him (and for him). Another problem is if it's true that Steve taylor is on 40k/week then Bassong might be looking for at least that. Not to mention that Coloccini is on probably quite a lot more. Taylor for all his faults has far more experience in the big league and what Coloccini is on is irrelevant for a number of obvious reasons. Bassong was getting picked ahead of Taylor despite his lack of experience and I doubt Taylor will be as in demand as Bassong. That tells you their true worth at the end of the day.

Good. Sounds positive to me. Actually reading the god damn fine print has been a skill woefully absent for most in this club for a while now. It's a shame that a Chairman and his manager have so little trust in each other that they they have to have the fine print checked out by lawyers in the first place. Especially since there's rumours that the shambles of a playing squad assembled doesn't even have a standard relegation clause inserted in the majority of the contracts.

Where's this from fella? Lad on Skunkers who lives in the same building as him. Been chatting to his missus while Seb's away with Cameroon. Cheers. I'd say that's a very decent offer for a young player in the Championship. Problem is obviously what others will offer him (and for him). Another problem is if it's true that Steve taylor is on 40k/week then Bassong might be looking for at least that. Not to mention that Coloccini is on probably quite a lot more.

Barcelona are a special team, I don't think you can sensibly rate one league above the other just on that. How many English teams have been invloved in the final stages as opposed to La Liga last few years?

The article might have some merit if looked at from a distance and I would usually agree with the need to go for tried and tested rather than local messiahs except for the fact I see a lot of the qualities I would want in a manager in Shearer. I would back him ahead of Bruce who has been pissed about by the likes of Zaki all season.

Well, after having watched Xavi and Iniesta orchestrate the barca midfield tonight it's clear that Kinnear saw an English equivalent in the willy Nolan... FYP mate. yeah, that works too.

I wish we could get to watch boring football like that at Newcastle.

Well, after having watched Xavi and Iniesta orchestrate the barca midfield tonight it's clear that Kinnear saw an English equivalent in the wily Nolan...

Actually sickening btw, they manage to get themselves into ridiculous amounts of debt, unsustainably staying in the Premiership beyond their means, facing deserved financial difficulties which would probably see them ultimately relegated as they sell their squad........ then they get taken over by an Arab. Doesn't help that I despise the club either. Yep it's a little unjust, if these arabs are of the man city ilk then they be in for a great ride at Portsmouth. So much for the value of financial prudence. Look where that's got us, in the fizzy pop league. The guy who's brokered the deal was the same one at Man City. He was initially chairman and wanted to go crazy with money, then the moneymen realised it wasn't a prudent proposition and put the more reasonable Khaldoon in charge. So I reckon Al-Fahim's found some other backers, obviously big-money, and will go crazy at Portsmouth. These rich owners are mutilating English football by pumping millions inot clubs which have never traditionally been that powerful, Chelsea being a prime example. It is kind of sickening.

This thread is just an excuse for some whining. Although I've picked up some handy household tips so it's not been a complete waste of bandwidth

Must admit,now that the anger is starting to subside I am really looking forward to next season. It's almost worth going down just to get rid of some of our spineless players. What a fucking result that will be.

If he does stay he should be used ONLY as an out and out forward, whenever he's been pushed out wide he's been a disaster.

I am pretty confident Shearer will turn out to be a better manager than Bruce.

So what? We are still a massive club, just one that's going through some really bad times. Is that so hard to grasp?

Look at some of the high earners we have now though. A lot of them were signed under Ashley. I don't blame him solely for those, most of them were signed by Allardyce who was Shepherd's man.

Another reason why he should go is that he's still looking to sell the club. We need an owner who wants to be here, we aren't going to have stability while Ashley has one eye on the exit door.

Yes. While he's gone a long way to putting right his mistakes in hopefully appointing Shearer, we need an owner who will invest in the team rather than look at the budget. Ashley's cost-cutting might have been due after the mis-management that went before but to gamble with the future of the club rather than appoint a manger and invest in the players who could have safeguarded it was criminally negligent.