TRon

The last decent set of youngsters we had was Gascoigne's FA youth cup winning team, Joe Allon, Paul Stephenson and Ian Bogie I think. There seems to ba a massive gap between the first team and the juniors though. Something wrong when we have Nicky Butt as the only holding midfielder well past his best and we don't even have someone in the reserve team who could deputise, never mind pushing for that spot. We are that short for midfielders at reserve team level that the last couple of reserve games they've played, not including tonight, we have played Ryan Donaldson, England under 18 striker in midfield, to be fair though i've been more impressed with him in midfield than when he's played up front. Pretty sad state of affairs. Even our reserves are having to field players out of position

"under no oblig bla bla bla" if he had any kind of case in this "fact" argument, he'd fight his corner legally or just verbally to clear his name. he quit because he has "principles" but he'll let ashley calling him a liar go? either no backbone or no case, you decide. But we arent talking about Keegan any more. This thread is about how the current people at the club are not communicating with their fan base and keegan isnt talking to "his" public. the public who have done so much for him in the last 3 weeks. thats gratitude. ashley is selling the club so there will be no news on a new manager. the business of selling a club cant be done through the media, so that'll (thankfully) be done in silence. his "fact" statement made his side of the keegan thing quite clear and he's said he'll be selling the club due to the protests. what exactly do you want? a myspace blog? As far as I'm concerned though, the same rules that applied to Keegan, now apply to Ashley. When Keegan walked away, whatever the justification, it seemed pretty clear to me that Keegan will always put himself first. He wasn't sacked after all. By the same token, if Ashley's washed his hands, whatever he feels is the justification, the fact is he's not interested in Newcastle any more. He's looking to get out, the club is in limbo and the playing and coaching staff are in disarray with no leadership from the top. He, like Keegan could have done it differently, instead he's abandoning ship so I don't see any point in defending him or his ideas any more. If he can't be bothered why should I?

Welcome to the Jungle... There's a follow on joke that someoen's dying to crack here but tlet's not go there...

The last decent set of youngsters we had was Gascoigne's FA youth cup winning team, Joe Allon, Paul Stephenson and Ian Bogie I think. There seems to ba a massive gap between the first team and the juniors though. Something wrong when we have Nicky Butt as the only holding midfielder well past his best and we don't even have someone in the reserve team who could deputise, never mind pushing for that spot.

Which proves how much of a "Geordie" he is. Can't think of many genuine locals passing up the chance to manage their hometown club in favour of Wigan. I bet he'd crawl over broken glass to Old Trafford though. Get real will ya, the club is in a fooking mess. Only the slightly insane or unemployed are going to come here. Any manager in the world would take the Man Utd. Thats life. Don't expect any level-headedness from me on this one. I still bear a grudge with Bruce when he was asked a long time ago who he'd be rooting for in a match between Newcastle and Man U. He gave an incredulous look and said " My Man U of course!" Sacrilege.

"they?" the irony..

based on what? persuade me... Turned Wigan around from being totally doomed to relegation under Chris Whatshisface to staying up before the last day, bought some good players on a shoestring like Palacios, Zaki, Figueroa, Kapo etc I reckon they will finish comfortably mid-table this season, maybe top half Did a pretty good job at Birmingham too. I know they got relegated but it wasn't straight away, they had a couple of decent seasons before the relegation one and he got them back up at the first time of asking. Last season they didn't look like they'd go down to me under Bruce, when McLeish took over they weren't as good and paid the price. I think he's an underrated manager. Would be hard for any club to get him though since Dave Whelan is such a prick, he'd ask for something daft like £10m compensation and actually mean it. Bruce strikes me as being a 'signings' manager, a bit like Souness although that's a harsh comparison. I never really saw a definitive Steve Bruce style of play evolve, in fact at Birmingham it was pretty basic. When you watch a side led by Martinez, or Mowbray at West Brom, their influence is obvious. With Bruce, there's a nagging feeling it just depends if he strikes lucky with a couple of transfers. Maybe I'm doing him a disservice, but I'm just not convinced.

oh f***. the chance of a black hole is now greater with this. if this line of thinking merges with the old board/new board stuff i fear the whole internet will collapse in on itself to a point that doesn't exist in space but with a mass great enough to punch a whole through to dimensions where the most bizzarre is real (think mackems in milan). Hawkins will steal that if you don't copyright it asap. if you could amend that slightly to read "punch a hole through mackems in Milan" I'd be all for the Nigerian coup.

I don't like Shearer personally, but of all the geordie candidates, he's always struck me as someone who might have the credentials. Total stab in the dark though.

I was just thinking that even if Ambani or some oil-rich sheikh matched the offer, Ashley would sell to the Nigerians just to get revenge. Hw wouldn't to see some super billionaire show him how it should be done.

Maybe the journos were too busy booing to write about it.

jesus...

Admit it, you were persuaded by my post to that effect last night weren't you? Seriously though, not sending anyone to the charity thing is shocking. It's little things like that that show you how much the club is in disarray. They have shown themselves to be so far out of touch with the supporters that the damage is irreparable now. You were right about the dereliction of duty, but I was sticking to what I believed about being let down by Keegan, (which I still do). But there's no excuse for what is going on right now, future visions and 5 year plans mean sod all when you can't even pick up the phone to the caretaker manager and discuss what next?

What's the difference between having a Middle-Eastern owner and a Nigerian owner? I really don't care as long as they're rich and not thick. But they are not rich, not in terms of financing a football club, they are still looking for the buyers fee. Like every consortium has to, surely? I think what TT's saying is that if they are having to scrape around for money to buy the club, how will they finance transfers and the like?

I think it's reached the end of the road for me with regard to Ashley and friends. I can buy into a need to buy young, improving players. I can believe that Keegan had a daft transfer wish list that was impossible to implement. What is unforgiveable is the total lack of communication or even any hint of it to let us know what is going on. I heard somewhere today that Hughton has barely been contacted by anyone from the board, other than thanking him for taking the job on short-term. That could be dismissed as hearsay, but the fact they didn't send anyone to the charity do in Gateshead while Sunderland and Middlesbrough were represented speaks volumes. No public reassurances that the search for a manager hasn't been put on the shelf...nothing. Just a few hundred miles distance of safety from the turmoil at the club. Ashley is still the owner, but if he's given up on his football adventure, then he deserves all the flak he gets.

based on what? persuade me...

Which proves how much of a "Geordie" he is. Can't think of many genuine locals passing up the chance to manage their hometown club in favour of Wigan. I bet he'd crawl over broken glass to Old Trafford though.

Just hit lucky with a couple of signings IMO. Blackburn looked good under Souness when they got promoted.

I only started watching the game 5 minutes before we went down 3-0, but Cacapa's passing really, really surprised me; it was at least as good as anything I've seen in the last 4 years. Can't believe he went off instead of Butt. He looked yards quicker too, which was even more surprising.

He sold Keegan's players and brought in his own.

Perhaps he tried to fight his corner? Just a thought mind. I know it's a bit out there. Probably he did, but he didn't stick around, did he? From the point of view of the wellbeing of the club, he simply could not have picked a worsr time to leave. I agree about the timing of his leaving. But if he felt he could no longer work under Ashley and co. then would you want him to stay? Keegan wasn't in Curbishley's position (one game from the sack) if he really felt hard done by he should just have carried on working while complaining loudly like Mourinho and Rafa. If Ashley had then sacked him, at least no one could say he'd quit yet again.

shit scared of Barcelona we were The exception that proves the rule unfortunately.

Thank fuck for that.

The thought of Dalglish back in charge chills my spine. He is the Anti-Keegan. His sides were always set out with fear of the opposition the biggest factor. No thanks.

You are conveniently forgetting that if he showed some spine and did stick it out (which if he sticks to that price, he still might) everyone is still going to be up in arms till he's gone. True Faith and Friends have made it quite clear that they intend their campaign to continue. So what is it you want? If he sells quick he's a coward, if he doesn't he's a cunt Half the Premiership would get rid of their board tomorrow and many have protested to that end. Man Utd hate the Glazers, Liverpool hate H&G, Everton hate Kenwright. Those clubs aren't in the state we are. I want Ashley out as much as anyone but not at the expense of Premiership football. Shepherd was a cunt as well but he never let things get to this stage, letting the club and the team be torn apart while he pisses around in bars trying to find a billionaire who might happen to have nipped in for a swift half. It's total dereliction of duty. I think dereliction of duty applies to KK more tbh, and even now if he came back as Newcastle manager I would back him 100% like I did before when plenty of others here were waving the white flag. I can totally respect Keegan walking out on Ashley because he wasn't getting undermined or not enough support. But the truth is he has gone down in my estimation because he also walked out leaving his players and the fans in the shit. If he'd stayed even til January giving notice, we would be alright. Did SBR ever quit? Did he quit England when the shit was flying? Did he quit Barcelona when the handkerchiefs were waved or when he got moved upstairs? Did he quit when Fat Fred was buying players behind his back? Ashley? I don't really care if he's here today or gone tomorrow. I expect a bit more from my heroes though, and Keegan should be leading that team out on Wednesday against Spurs, even if the circumstances aren't ideal.