TRon

Butt is absolutely woeful, pissed me off no end when Kinnear said a while back "for me he's brilliant" and what pisses me off even more is that the f***ing media think he's our best player and we love him. He is the only midfielder who can break up opposition play, he still does this pretty well imo, just the other aspects of his game and his psychical attributes that have gone to cack. Needs replacing in summer but i can see why he is played tbh. I agree with you about the media, never understood that, has been going on the whole time he has been here too. Don't agree with the bolded part myself. He hasn't got an exceptional ability to read the game, his physical attributes are so poor that he can't break it up with sheer force of will and that impacts negatively on his ability to tackle. His ability to break up play has been propagated largely by the media IMO. In my mind, the reason we couldn't get the ball back from Pompey in the last 15 minutes after Butt was substituted was down to the low fitness of players returning from injury coupled with a very hard-working [if not somewhat ineffectual] first 75 minutes. I am anything but a fan of Butt, but no one else looks like playing that defensive role ATM. Guthrie has bottled many big matches for me, despite the fact he's clearly got enough talent to walk into this midfield. I am really worried if he plays against boro he'll miss a few passes then hide for the rest of the game.

Whether it works out for Shearer or not, I want him to carry on for another season at least. Until he's had his go at it no one else is going to get a fair crack of the whip. We need to get the local messiah option out of our system, and given some backing I think he'll do well. There is always a chance he could turn out to be another Souness...but who's to say he won't be a Ferguson for that matter?

"amid the fall-out from his imprisonment for assaulting Ousmane Dabo, one of his Manchester City team-mates at the time, in training." Total bollocks, Barton was jailed for beating up a kid in Liverpool and the Dabo case didn't get to court until almost the end of his sentence for the original offence. What do these f***ing journos get paid for? Lazy twats! tbf it is quite hard to keep up with who Barton's been beating up and when.

If we go down you could make a case that Shearer should have tread more lightly with some players egos....although it wouldn't be much of a case considering we were in freefall before he arrived. Personally I think as long as he is prepared to stay on next season relegation is a pill I am prepared to swallow. It's a long road back but at least some standards are being set.

Based on the fact he wasn't over the hill, washed up, unfit or past it. Based on he could dribble, cross, shoot, defend, score goals. Based on the fact he could get from Point A to Point B quickly and without needing a wheelchair. Other than that your stats are probably very relevant. he could.....but rarely did. Well at least we have plenty of players with "nous" and commitment to put things right since his departure. thats "nouse"...."nous" is frogspeak i think. he was as bad as what we have. he may have more potential but i don't see it ever coming out. i've never denied he's got talent but in 3 or 4 years for us he never showed it. I would suggest he wasn't the problem though.

If one of your best players provides a £6million profit you'll have a point.

Based on the fact he wasn't over the hill, washed up, unfit or past it. Based on he could dribble, cross, shoot, defend, score goals. Based on the fact he could get from Point A to Point B quickly and without needing a wheelchair. Other than that your stats are probably very relevant. he could.....but rarely did. Well at least we have plenty of players with "nous" and commitment to put things right since his departure.

Based on the fact he wasn't over the hill, washed up, unfit or past it. Based on he could dribble, cross, shoot, defend, score goals. Based on the fact he could get from Point A to Point B quickly and without needing a wheelchair. Other than that your stats are probably very relevant.

Yes he was IMO. Probably one of the reasons we got good money for him.

I know exactly what you mean. All this talk about boro being crap leaves me cold tbh. They are capable of raising their game as we saw against Liverpool. Compare their performance against them to ours and it's clear we can't take anything for granted. We can win this but we will need our big "stars" to show up to seal it. It is going to be anything but easy.

Just like they did last year, and against Chelsea... Still waiting to see them SCORE against a decent team. 3 matches that they thoroughly controlled and conceded only 1 goal, and you decide that they haven't scored against a decent team? Obviously my credibility is at stake tomorrow Man U last season and Chelsea this year have basically parked the bus in front of the goal against Barcelona. Man u did it home and away, and I expect Chelsea will be pretty defensive at home as well tomorrow. I don't blame them, but it speaks volumes about their fear of going toe to toe against Barca in an attacking contest. But it's not about an attacking contest is it? Surely it's about coming out as winners of the cup tie? That's true, but it's not the point I was making.

Just like they did last year, and against Chelsea... Still waiting to see them SCORE against a decent team. 3 matches that they thoroughly controlled and conceded only 1 goal, and you decide that they haven't scored against a decent team? Obviously my credibility is at stake tomorrow Man U last season and Chelsea this year have basically parked the bus in front of the goal against Barcelona. Man u did it home and away, and I expect Chelsea will be pretty defensive at home as well tomorrow. I don't blame them, but it speaks volumes about their fear of going toe to toe against Barca in an attacking contest.

The issue where we had to pay his 'loyalty' bonus was a farce and the fact he's got a massive twat for an agent won't help us. If Shearer is making a stand on discipline and conduct then we should really be consistent and rise above what it will cost us in terms of wages or sell on fee. He's got three years of his contract left and should be frozen out until he goes cap in hand to apologise to his boss. Let the grasping little troll rot in the reserves if we have to.

I don't know if Caulkin is from the North East but he does the club proud. It's a shame they never get him on Sunday Supplement instead of Bob Cass, Alan Oliver, Custis and the like.

Only if we are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

I suppose I agree with you, but it's not as simple as just doing what is 'morally right', you have to always think pragmatically and go for what will help you get results. Not saying Shearer is wrong here, but the iron fist approach isn't always the best one. No it isn't, which is why I think Shearer was a bit more conciliatory towards Martins after his indiscretion. Martins apologised and made his peace. Barton seems to have have got into a war of words with Shearer and consideriing that he is no furher use in our relegation struggle and his past record, he can't afford to do that. The fact is, if most of these players had been performing well, Shearer wouldn't have been brought in with 8 games to go. It isn't down to his management that they aren't producing more.

Was half asleep, but pretty sure when listening to the Times podcast last night Patrick Barclay said Shearer as manager is a disaster for Newcastle. A DISASTER!!!! /Also reiterated that Owen has been Newcastles worst ever signing also iirc. //not sure i can argue to much with that one to be honest. Patrick Barclay is one of the few journalists who smugly insisted Steve McLaren was the right man for the England job before he was apppointed. Hardly a fountain of wisdom then is he?

Seems to me Barton has challenged Shearer's authority and refused to back down. If that's the case and Shearer wants to get rid I back him 100%. Barton has taken plenty for two years and given nothing back. Fuck off if you think we owe you anything more you charv twat.

Quite simply superb.

Bye bye, don't spend the redundancy money all at once.

Hmmm let me think....do these players need mollycoddling and a Glen Roeder jellfish spine approach, or would I prefer strict rules and Shearer sticking a large boot up their under-achieving well paid arses? What a dilemma.

Barton is one of the few players I'd like to keep if we go down unless we get our money back. There's no way we should give him away on the cheap after paying him to watch from the sidelines for two years. If we are going to be cutting the wage bill next year there's plenty of dross we could ship out instead. Before anyone says it, the moral angle doesn't concern me in the slightest. If we were bothered about that we'd have sacked him last year.

Can't imagine any of Blackburn's more skilful players wanting to hang around after this season. They'll be fighting relegation next season for sure.

There's another article in the Telgraph claiming that Barton has every intention of seeing his 5 yr 65k/week contract out even if we are relegated. He's obviously not upset enough to consider a pay cut.

Managers are usually judged by their signings at the end of the day. Kinnear's recruitment of Nolan and Taylor spoke volumes of his stupidity, and eventually Shearer will be judged on the squad he puts together. Could he have done better during his 5 games in charge? Maybe but for me there's no evidence that players here are up to performing better in different formations, however we line up they look slow and ponderous. It's easy to use tactics as an excuse.