TRon

He actually did all those things today. Aye once in many many attempts. One pass that was on, a simple side footed pass... over hit and behind for a goal-kick. One simple cross that was on, just loft it in, out for a goal-kick. He cuts inside, goal in full view, defender turned, what does he do? f***ing roll the ball to the grateful keeper who has had to deal with harder hit back-passes. If Jonas, Enrique and Butt were the left side which produced so little according to you, what did you make of the football produced by Lovenkrands, Taylor and Ryan on the right? R. Taylor sent in two excellent crosses in open play and made several good passes. The others in an attacking sense were shit, but then one is a centre-back and the other is a left footer playing wide right. At least on 10 separate occasions that I counted Jonas had great opportunities to cross the ball in, shoot or make a telling pass and he fucked them all up. I wouldn't mind but he is consistently fucking crosses, shots and passing up. Ryan taylor hits a good cross but he can't run with the ball like most of our midfielders, which is why there is usually very little good football produced by our team. Enrique and Jonas produce the best passing and moving interchanges by a mile and it's unmatched in any other area of the pitch. Take them out of the side and we'd struggle to pass the ball out of our own half IMO. Still, let's dump on one of the few players capable of producing some skill and movement we have left.

It wouldn't have happened if Beye had been playing instead of Taylor at RB. Coloccini was at fault too but Beye would have covered it while Taylor just stood gawping in the middle of nowhere.

He actually did all those things today. Aye once in many many attempts. One pass that was on, a simple side footed pass... over hit and behind for a goal-kick. One simple cross that was on, just loft it in, out for a goal-kick. He cuts inside, goal in full view, defender turned, what does he do? Fucking roll the ball to the grateful keeper who has had to deal with harder hit back-passes. If Jonas, Enrique and Butt were the left side which produced so little according to you, what did you make of the football produced by Lovenkrands, Taylor and Ryan on the right?

I'll be happy if the players don't collectively burst into tears as we approach kick off.

Clueless. Every opportunity he had to day to cross, pass, shoot he f***ed up 9 times out of ten. At least Milner got shots on target and scored the odd goal. He's a good footballer in terms of skill but his technique is s***. His game is completely different to Milner's though. If you're a player who actually looks to play football you don't stand a chance in this team. So how does he constantly f*** up his crossing, shooting and passing which often gets overlooked because he makes many successful simple 5-10 yard passes? s*** team-mates doesn't make someone f*** up crosses, shots and passes so consistently. Shit technique does. Probably because I don't class him as a typical wide man who goes out wide and gets balls into the box like Solano or Robert would. It's not his game, or ever will be. If anything I'd say he's more of a wing-back. But that's ok, let us all give some grief to one of our few players actually capable of producing something while giving chance after chance to some of shite that gets to wear the shirt. Typical of our fans really, there's far more pressing issues at hand than giving someone like Jonas absolute dogs abuse. But I suppose it's his turn to become the new scapegoat as he's shown a few glimpses of talent, but because he can't do it all by himself he deserves a lot of abuse for that. I knew this was going to happen today. Of course no one will ask where was the great passing football and clever interplay on the other side of the pitch...I wonder why?

Still 11 games left mate. Aye, but people are jerking their knees off here and saying that we are definitely relegated. Looking at the games left to play I say we will be lucky to escape on goal difference as all the other teams below us bar Stoke seem to be showing some f***ing balls and yet we seem quite happy to just go through the motions and hope we get lucky with other results. Personally I think we're finished as we have no players that can come in and suddenly make us into a half decent side. This is the worst Newcastle side I have witnessed in terms of fight and passion and when you don't have that and are in a relegation fight 9 out of 10 times you'll go down. As poor as we are, the team gave it a good go today I felt. To say there's no fight or passion is harsh but an absense of quality would be more on the money. I'm not condoning the shit that was on display today but to suggest that the players don't care and don't try is unfair. I feel we tried hard but never really looked like we believed in ourselves. A bit like Chris Hughton.

Does he know what character is, because he doesn't show any signs of having one?

Here we are...looking at getting an interim manager to stand in for the interim manager. Could we possibly look any more clueless?

I don't think we'll be able to get a full time manager in at this stage of the season. Predictably we've probably delayed the decision to get an interim manager too long as well.

Did anyone else notice how everything came down the left hand side? Hardly surprising when Ryan Taylor and Lovenkrands aren't midfielders but were played there totally unnecessarily. Both are on record as saying they don't like playing there as well so it's hardly surprising this was the worst football we've seen from a United midfield that has been shocking all season.

Don't think he had the ball enough as we struggled to pass the ball out of our own half.

Ameobi shouldn't have started today, never mind played the full 90 mins. We had Viduka and Martins fit and ready for the last two weeks FFS. It wasn't just that though, everything about us was full of fear and tension, and we played how Chris hughton looks.

Hughton must take a lot of the blame today.

Shocking team selection, indecisive use of substitutions, unnecessarily playing footballers out of their natural position, not able to impose any style or game plan from what I could see today, and absolutely no passion or motivational ability whatsoever. If teams reflect their managers, then I'd say Newcastle were a fair reflection of Hughton today.

Credit to the defence anyway, they are holding quite strong.

I think part of the reason we look so clueless is because the players are getting no direction whatsoever from the management. If it was Keegan for example you know he would be cajoling them to get the ball down and pass it around.

If you're honest, he really wasn't, for the last few seasons at least. 39 goals in 77 games in his last three season, but Shola should've should've been in his place if we're honest. What's your thoughts on Michael Owen, his goals to game ratio is pretty good too. Shearer did score plenty of goals, who's denying that? He was undeniably magnificent for most of his career, but I wouldn't describe his last few seasons as magnificent, just because we didn't have anyone magnificent to replace him with, doesn't make him magnificent by default. Especially as he's partly responsible for that situation, having played something of a role in the decisions to remove those who might have replaced him or tried to replace him from the club. Shearer is too much of a sacred cow for many people, you can think that he wasn't perfect and criticise him when he does something you consider wrong and still think he was a great player, you know? Sacrilege!! Shearer was great and a geordie, any other details are unnecessary and wicked s***-stirring of the vilest order. Incidentally, while I think he has the qualities to be a good manager, it does piss me off that the only circumstances he'll agree to boss Newcastle is with (probably) lots of money to spend and under the right owner. If he put himself forward for the job now and just got on with it like Kinnear I'm sure no one would slag him if we weren't challenging for the title in 12 months. Like any self-respecting, sane Premier League manager, then? Most self-respecting Prem managers have earned their dues at lesser clubs. Newcastle United isn't a bad first step, even under tight financial controls. Newcastle United is NOT a 'first step' club - it has a huge fan base and, if properly-run, the ability to make money and be in the Top 6 of English football... In order to make the club realise its potential, a manager DOES need a big transfer budget and be able to decide transfer policy. If Brian Clough had been offered the chance of managing a club like Newcastle(which Peter Taylor was on record as saying that he & Clough would have liked the chance), he would have expected at least a budget capable of competing with the likes of Villa and Spurs - because he started at Hartlepool he had to cut his coat according to the cloth... Shearer is NOT a fool - he can see that if he took over NUFC at this time, he is on a hiding to nothing because he won't be allowed to choose his own targets and the money for decent players is clearly not available...if he chose to manage a lower league club, he would be taking that on under far less expectation. Fair enough but if Newcastle is a big job, and I agree it is, then by that logic only proven managers with experience would be qualified to demand big budgets and more control. As Shearer hasn't managed at any level yet the chance to manage Newcastle might never come if he's waiting for everything to be just right.

If he is cheaper than an adequate replacement for Owen (i.e. a 10 to 15 million pound striker) then get him in! [/Ashley] That's something I hadn't really considered. Ashley might see him as a striker for NEXT season when Owen and Viduka take off. Never underestimate Ashley's eye for a cheap option.

Would that be regardless of salaries/contracts involved Mick ? This is starting to sound like an expensive divorce case between a rich husband and a gold-digging wife.

The board have entrusted these two with our Premiership survival rather than appoint a firefighter like Venables or make a move for a permanent appointment with Kinnear laid up. Are they up to the job? In their favour two games, four points. Against? We'll find out next few games I think.

How do you know? All strikers miss chances even the best. This story is clearly bollocks because most of our first choice forwards are nearing full fitness again. We just don't need him at this point.

Turd of a story

Nothing wrong with the football but without strikers who can score and defenders who can defend it's not a lot of use other than to look easy on the eye.

What use is an on strike goalkeeper like the one we had? And how many of the players you've listed had handed in transfer requests as Milner did? Would you honestly have made them stay Dave? Honestly? Why do you think they wanted to leave? Money? Play more often? Or was it because Man City and Villa look like actually going somewhere and we don't? These other clubs manage to convince their players to stay when other clubs come in for them. FWIW Ebondo was desperate to join us: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/01/29/toon-target-albin-ebondo-keen-on-nufc-move-72703-22810181/. His club just played hardball. If Given was effectively on strike then Kinnear wants shooting for continually picking him when he wasn't committed to the cause as you suggest. We're not discussing why they want to leave FWIW, we're discussing how they set the fee & received the money as you know. I hope you're not using the Chronicle translation as a fact tool. From your article... Desperate to join us? Given "got injured" shortly before the teams were announced for Man City, despite not having reported a problem all week. You make your own mind up. I'll give you a chance & ask the questions again. Did any of those listed by you hand in a transfer request? Would you have made Given or Milner stay once they said openly they wanted to leave? Touché on the Ebondo article, didn't spot that. No, they didn't hand in transfer requests. I'd have at least tried to convince them to stay, which according to Given at least we barely bothered with. 'We don't want to sell our best players' they say. It just sticks in the throat that our one remaining player of genuine class, one who's given us years and years for wonderful service was sold to the world's richest club for so little, and without us seeing any of that money until the summer when we might be in the Championship. Feels like we've been stitched up tbh. I have to say again: just because we rate Given at £10m or £15m, it doesn't necessarily mean everyone else does. It was common knowledge all through the window he was determined to leave, if £6m was such a low fee, why didn't other clubs come in? I'm sure we'd have preferred to have got more if there was anyone out there willing to pay it.

Because they want to manage Newcastle United? Joe Kinnear might be a hopeless joke of a manager but at least he wants it. I think Shearer would like the job as well if all the conditions were right, but that might never happen. Why the fuck would he come to this shite club atm? Well the fans do, it might be shite but it's our shite.