TRon

Nolan engaged in banter a few times with our fans in the front rows of the Trinity Road every time he came over to take a throw - saw him laughing with them a few times. I imagine they were making Delap related comments as he was drying the ball on his shirt before throwing. Maybe I'm a bit miserable and old school, but I don't like to see footballers smiling when staring adversity so closely in the face. I suppose I could put up with it if he was any good.

Especially if it's coming from the a group of players who have never looked like they believed they were good enough to stay in the premier.

They'll be put up for sale then, whether anyone bites is another matter.

It's the only level he's capable of performing at. If he really wants to stay he'll agree to a pay cut, otherwise we've no choice but to sell him.

Who gives a fuck? That's obviously a rhetorical question going by this thread like. Has anyone thought that, perhaps, if we were to take this with something approaching dignity then that might go some way to overcoming the negative stereotypes that a lot of people hold of us? All bullshit like this thread does is give them more ammunition to use against us. Football fans in 'indignant at being kicked when down' shocker. Sorry Indi, this is my issue de jour, as i can focus on this supposed slight from the Villa fans instead of reflecting on how shit a team we are/were. One of my mates was telling me today about the Newcastle fans (without tickets, some of them) he was chatting to on the walk to the ground yesterday, and what a decent lot they were and about as far from the usual stereotype as you could possibly find. I was telling him that this place is pretty much a good example of that, and that you can't judge vast swathes of people by stereotypes. My brother was out on Broad Street on Saturday night and got chatting to a few who were down for the game (there were a lot of them out on the piss, incidentally, who seemed to be having a good time, which must have been a struggle in such a boring city), and he said the same thing. I was reading on one of our forums earlier, one of our fanzine sellers saying that all the Newcastle supporters he came across were "a credit to their club", and there are shit loads of posters on here, who are precisely that. I understand you're pissed off, I've been in exactly the same situation myself, but you seem to have entirely missed my point, that by whingeing on about the way people behave, then sinking to their own level, you lose your claim to moral authority. Oh and I had you down for one of the interesting posters too, but reading this thread, you've come across as about as undignified as you possibly could. Smiley or not, that's pathetic and vaguely insulting. Everyone's still burning from yesterday man. Give it a few days and we'll come to terms with it.

That shouldn't be a problem because I never once saw him play for us.

I agree. I'd forget about the likes of Beye, Enrique etc. Clubs will handpick our top performers and there's nothing we can do about it. That's the reality of relegation. I think the players we have a genuine chance of keeping are: Harper, Krul, Edgar, Taylor, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Carroll, plus the youngsters. We might keep Nolan and R.Taylor since they arrived so recently. A few others might stay on simply because their stock has fallen so considerably, such as Butt, Smith, Geremi, Xisco, or simply because we won't find any takers for them. The rest I'd forget about, any who stay are a bonus but I think realistically any or all of the rest could go. So long as we can keep the spine of a good championship side, and invest wisely in some up and coming Championship players and one or two hungry young players not getting games for Premier League clubs, we should have the resources to be there or thereabouts among the top two places or the playoffs. The problem will be getting a new team to gel quickly, and our younger players getting used to the pressure of having to win every week to keep pressure on the top places. This is where we don't look so well equipped for the drop, because we have to make such major changes. It's not like the old team gelled at any point so we can only improve on that score. From his interview it does sound like Beye could stay although I suppose that will only be tested when the bids start to come in.

Tevez is in a different league to Martins, it's laughable to even mention them in the same breath.

Steve harper hasn't really done much wrong, it's just that Krul really did look an outstanding talent that night in Europe. It would be great if we could inject some youth and drive right through the team and GK is as good a place to start as any.

Well said sir.

I'm pretty sure if given the choice Shearer would rather do his re-building in the Premier. Still, it's history now, we'll just have to get on with it. The one silver lining is that we will probably get players who want to come here for the shirt, not just the money.

Unfortunately only he would have been sharp enough to even get a volley off in a split second. That's the dilemma. Not much of a dilemma given his inability to hit the target. It'll be good to get rid of him. Yeah we need a striker who plays at the same pace as the rest of the team, slow and lumbering. It's one or the other then is it? Buying effective strikers is the hardest part of the game IMO, especially one who is quick.

Comes back to "You can't polish a turd". He probably hasn't got the players to play in the style he'd want. He often talked about creating chances for the strikers. I'd imagine he'll want wingers who can provide crosses for the strikers. I agree...it's pretty difficult to play passing football with players who can't pass or run.

One thing that does puzzle me about Shearer is I'm still not sure what his football philosophy is. Does he believe in passing football or direct style? KK imprinted the passing style almost immediately and Roy Hodgson did likewise at Fulham, but we have no style of play whatsoever currently. The keeper's still hoofing the ball 70 yds which is never a good sign.

Relegation is not "a blessing in disguise" it is absolutely heartbreaking. Yes we will re-build but I'd much rather do it in the Premier. This will set us back years.

If he takes a pay cut fair enough. I don't rate him but at least he's genuine and he'll do a job at that level.

post of the year. Insightful, has a source and most importantly is 100% reliable. Where else is he going to find some mug to pay him 80 grand a week?

I would have no problem with that if they weren't being paid better wages than most of the teams above them. A bunch of charlatans most of them.

Nothing showcased this bell-end's cluelessness more than his belief that Joe Kinnear would get off his hospital bed and walk back into the job. Why he hasn't been fired yet I have no idea.

You can tell he's a cocksucker just from how he's holdiing that mic

I actually want to sell Martins as it happens, just not for the reasons others are giving. For me he won't want to play in the Championship so he's best gone. Like the vast majority in our current squad he's not worth the money he's on.

One of those would be fine. That's ok then, lovely jubbly. Shame about the rest of the turgid legless wonders but no doubt a top striker will fix all. I want to know what a thread questioning Martins' attributes has got to do with the rest of the pile of sh*te in the squad? I think it was pointed out on MOTD yesterday that we were one of the slowest teams in the Premier. While I agree that martins has some of those faults people bring up regularly I think our team is desperately short of pace. Will we replace him with someone better? I doubt it.

Yet we still equalised and had a chance to push on then, but we didn't. Arsenal were on a 16 game unbeaten streak, you really think we would've won still, that they would have just rolled over? considering we were up on Man U at one point yet still lost, i seriously doubt it was anywhere near as critical as a one-on-one against a team that have pretty much been as shit as us all season. if we had scored that penalty we would of won imo, we we're all over them 1st half We would have got stuffed after playing shit in the 2nd half as usual.

One of those would be fine. That's ok then, lovely jubbly. Shame about the rest of the turgid legless wonders but no doubt a top striker will fix all.