TRon

Did he mention that he still has 5 resignation letters from Keegan? When Ashley brought Keegan back from the Soccer Circus he made a big deal of it then insinuating Keegan was a serial quitter. Don't think he'd want to upset the toon army by mentioning it now though somehow.

of course. I wonder how long it will be for those who defended Ashleys prudency [and encouraged the Halls and Shepherd to keep spending] will do yet another u-turn. Probably when the penny drops that the Halls and Shepherd approach was the best one, although hopefully it won't be on the back of a relegation. We have needed a striker in this top quality bracket for the last 3 transfer windows Hopefully the Halls and Shepherd will spot that the club is for sale and buy it, then show Ashley how it should be done.

I know this is romantic bollocks but I was never surprised that he failed at other clubs/jobs (promotions aside) - I always felt this was the only place he could work or would really want to and that this is the only club that would want him. That I would agree with. My view is that Spurs or the like wouldn't put up with his demands, that goes for the board and the fans who don't hero worship him like ours do. I also don't think Keegan would consider managing Newcastle without the funds to compete with the best. Any new owner who wants to bring Keegan back will have to promise him a fair wedge for transfers first and foremost.

What a bunch of thieving Cockney bastards

There is plenty, Spurs signed Berba at 25(1 year younger than Colo) & after 2 seasons they are getting £30 million. Of course being a Newcaslte defender usually means you leave free or at vastly reduced reduced price from what we paid...I see your point Anyone know the last couple of defenders we have bought & then sold for a profit? I think Faye this year was one, before him? I see you're point...we should buy players who are likely to decrease in value to prove we aren't looking for a profit..clever tactics what ? Are you saying that we should be finding players to sell them on for a profit I'm saying we should foil Ashley's dastardly plan by signing old players so they can't be sold at a profit and in fact will make the club a loss.

How many clubs are there out there that will give Keegan enough money to keep him happy? The top clubs already have good managers, and Spurs have a similar set up to us and KK walked out of Newcastle because he couldn't work in those circumstances.

Sitting amongst the fans at away grounds..yes I can see how he distanced himself and failed to communicate. Hopefully the next owner will show how it's done.

bit harsh like, getting sent off for blowing the ref a kiss Maybe the ref should have given him a Valentine's card instead of a red one then.

Why hasn't anyone else been linked with him would probably be the better question.

I haven't actually seen the incident but I fully support the ref's decision to send Cashill off...and this has nothing to do whatsoever with the fact it means he won't play against us on Sunday.

There is plenty, Spurs signed Berba at 25(1 year younger than Colo) & after 2 seasons they are getting £30 million. Of course being a Newcaslte defender usually means you leave free or at vastly reduced reduced price from what we paid...I see your point Anyone know the last couple of defenders we have bought & then sold for a profit? I think Faye this year was one, before him? I see you're point...we should buy players who are likely to decrease in value to prove we aren't looking for a profit..clever tactics

Correct me if I'm wrong but Bill Kenwright doesn't own the club. He can sell Ambani his 33% stake but that wouldn't be enough to trigger a takeover. Kenwright has the largest shareholding and the other main shareholders are all Kenwright sycophants and will sell whenever he does. I'd bet the house on that. The club have denied this mornings story about Ambani anyway. No takeover will happen until the Kirkby stadium shambles is decided one way or another. Why do I get the feeling Ambani will forget about football and end up buying Harrods instead?

So why is it okay for you to attribute opinions and quotes to multiple people - i.e. that supposedly everybody thought anybody could run the club better - when you then decry someone for attributing a view to you personally in much the same way? You make stuff up yourself, it'd seem. Can't have it both ways. because the vast majority of people DID imply that qualifying regularly for europe was "s****" and pretty much anybody would do better, as if by right. They didn't though, did they? They, whoever 'they' are, just didn't imply this. I'd be happy to admit I'm wrong if you can find some vast majority evidence of this. If people had grievances then it was down to the s**** such as the Souness appointment, that was really the straw that broke the camel's back for most people. All it'd have taken was a quality appointment after Robson and Shepherd could have bummed a donkey and I wouldn't have cared. It seems European football is the only criteria you have to prove long term success but that those European nights started disappearing long before Ashley appeared on the scene. About 2 months actually. 15-Mar 2007 UEFA Cup Rnd 16(2) and as for those who thought Ashley would be better than H&S (before anyone knew anything about him or his supposed intentions for the club): http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=40582.0 Why do all the Shepherd cheerleaders always insist on linking his years in charge with SJH? John Hall was a visionary and our best years were when he was at the helm. When he stepped back and Shepherd took over, there was a definite decline set in. Not that it hasn't been pointed out a hundred times before.

I'd say a high percentage of them are the same people. Like dogs chasing cars, as soon as they catch it, they move on to the next one. There are 4 groups of people in this debate (loosely defined around Ashley as we dont know who will takeover). Shepherd Out / Ashley in - Tron etc Shepherd In / Ashley Out - NE5 etc Shepherd In / Ashley In - ChezGiven etc Shepherd Out / Ashley Out - Mongs. Just to clarify, I don't back Ashley as such, but I consider it futile driving out an owner without knowing what the future holds. Shepherd I consider a well meaning pleb mostly, and I'm not going to start revising my opinion because of what's happened recently.

It must be starting to get warm over there. Perfect BBQ weather I expect.

What we need is an honest Chairman who will look after the interests of his club. I'm sure Shepherd is buying Mallorca because he wants to invest his money for no return other than to see Spanish children skipping and singing gaily of his generosity towards local welfare.

He's going to con the billionaire that buys the club by making an unholy profit? I've heard he's got a secret mind control ray gun pointed in the direction of Nigeria

I don't know if that is the case anymore. 31 year old Nicky Butt might have made up for his lack of pace with his intelligence and distribution, but 34 year old Nicky Butt is all but finished IMO. Next stop is Oldham or retirement. A successful "holding midfielder" is really just a good midfielder who can defend a bit and plays closer to his back four. The same essential qualities that make a good midfield player at this level still have to be there. The fact that Butt can't run, can't pass and generally looks past it won't be remedied by reclassifying him. That's essentially what the thread is about. If we agree that Butt's main strength is his ability to snuff out danger - and a lot won't agree with that either - the main problem still remains that the rest of his game is poor. No engine, no box to box running, no passing, no shooting ability no vision. So many qualities missing in such a vital position. There must be a better option, but everyone seems to go with the safe option and we keep looking second best every time.

When Barton's back I think a fair few would want him and Guthrie in the middle. Until then, it's just a case of finding a combo that doesn't look like condemned men.

I was actually surprised at how good Faye looked in that role on the rare occasion he was played there. It was a bit of an eye opener how good we could look with a powerful, athletic player in the position.

I am just fishing for options to get away from a pedestrian midfield tbh. Butt, Geremi and Cacapa are all slow and immobile. Xisco and Owen aren't lightning quick either, I am just looking at combinations which could give us a bit more off the ball running and keep up with the opposition as it were. The Arsenal model if you like, but obviously we can't match their quality.

He's obsessed with the past. The title of this thread was intended to be provocative and make us think about the post Ashley era now he has been hounded out. Even NE5 has to realise that whether FFS and Co gave us courageous and successful leadership or whether they gave reckless leadership leading towards oblivion, it doesn't really matter any more. They are not coming back. It would be good if he could tell us what he wants post Ashley in specific real world terms rather than continuously using abstract expressions such as its gaining success on the field that matters, and thats his main requirement which he must do to the best of his ability. We ALL know that and we ALL want that, it's just that a lot of us thought that's what Ashley was doing until Keegan walked and he may just still be our best chance. If you want him out then specify what will improve our situation, but with specifics please not just "Ashley's s****, Keegan's a messiah, the old board were great" type remarks which frankly any retard can spout. no, I'm not obsessed with the past. But you should learn from the past. I only used ex directors of the club to try and point out that showing ambition for the club was a matter of choice and not automatic, which appeared to be what many people thought. Sadly, they have found out the hard way re recent events and witnessing new people running the club who have not chosen to take this route. Looking forward, we need owners of the club who have the desire to succeed and the understanding of how to do it in terms of running one of the biggest clubs in the country. Until that happens, we won't match the european qualifications and the champions League run etc, and that is not looking in the past at all, its pointing out the blatantly obvious that many people chose to ignore and sadly STILL choose to ignore. The conclusion being - in keeping with your thread title - that any suggestion that Ashley is anywhere near being better than even the Halls and Shepherd, never mind the best ever, is ridiculous and utter nonsense. It was fairly easy for me [and one or two others] to see the signs of the direction the club was going by the way, having seen it before. All it takes is to open your eyes. Seeing as you have known the correct path all along, can you find us a mega-billionaire owner please? One who will back his manager to the tune of around £50m-£100m each year to prove their ambition to compete with the top 4 because according to your admirably high standards nothing less will do. Silly comment. Phrases like that, to be honest just don't deserve a response. I will though, and say that we don't expect the club to make profits in the transfer market when we need players and also that they should not enforce what appears to be a sell to buy policy on the manager, for a club like NUFC, especially when - in the end - they didn't even let him buy his own player with the money. This is fairly basic stuff here Tron mate. I don't understand why you are so blinkered that you deny the straightforward logic of it. You are rubbishing my figure of £50m-£100m a year but in the next breath are saying we shouldn't sell to buy. If we don't sell, then I would say that we would need to invest at least £50m for the next two or three seasons to be able to compete at the top. So the 'straightforward logic is, it will take someone with plenty of money willing to invest without looking to get a return. I'm all for it, but I don't think finding that person/consortium is going to be as straightforward as you seem to think.

The way Taylor is playing these days... Look, it's a rare day that we don't have anyone that can play at right back (didn't Geremi fill in there once or twice at Chelsea?) but that's where we are. Sign him for the term of Kinnear's contract And yes, the depth of the squad is poor - but the Wise/Vetere team did fill in several key positions when you add up the likes of Tozer, Kadar, Soderbergh, Zamblera, Ranger et al - you could say the only positions they haven't addressed yet are the ones we need right now. (But that's me being facetious - please don't be wound up by this) To be fair to Wise & co, the problem stems from before they arrived.

Is it really necessary for Butt and only Butt to play this position? Granted we don't have a specialist alternative, but Keegan used Lee Clark in that role, so why not go for a Guthrie/Zog combination through the middle? I mentioned this before but Robson was forced to use Zog and Ambrose against Man U a few seasons back and they did very well. Zog is prone to losing the ball in possession , but then Butt is worse. We would have some running right through that midfield at any rate. Worth a go?

Have to agree. I would consider Geremi but we need to keep the fossil count down otherwise the midfield will be at walking pace again.