TRon

half decent team isn't good enough. Keegan broke the record transfer fee for the club for a defender when he bought Darren Peacock, in fact. He also did it again when he bought Warren Barton. Gullit paid big money to buy Marcelino and Goma when the club needed defenders. Then they did it again when they bought Woodgate. Didn't stop them buying strikers and forwards as well. But continue defending the fat bastard for all that your'e worth and ignoring these facts. Why did we sell Woodgate then if it wasn't a good deal? Or Les Ferdinand for that matter? I seem to remember a certain "fat bastard" chairman describing both deals as exactly that.

Would it really be healthy for the club to have the 2 of the most important roles, staffed by 2 people who were almost to a man, hated by everyone one of our fans because of their arrogant, cocky, nasty manner when they were players? i agree with the not having wise or poyet as manager because i don't think they are up to it more so than their "previous". look at roy keane and his previous contrasted with his present demeanour. I can respect that, there's reason behind it rather than "cockney c***", "horrible b******" etc. Both are rated as up and coming managers though. Before everyone throws their hands in the air in disgust, we might reflect that the two managers chosen before Ashley were Souness and Roeder. don't really see how. poyets never managed and wise said he wanted to get out of the day to day running if a team. Didn't realise you were talking about Wise, I meant Poyet and Ince. I know Poyet hasn't managed, but he seems to be well regarded wherever he's been involved; Swindon, Leeds and now Spurs. Ince just comes across as a loudmouth twat to me but that's just my impression.

Doesn't that contradict one of the basic arguments of the Ashley critics, i.e. we are operating on a buy to sell policy? Coloccini was signed before Milner's sale. In any case, if you were looking purely from a profit point of view, why spend £10m on an international centre half from a major league? For a third of that you could probably buy a defender from Africa "with potential" and a good re-sale value.

Would it really be healthy for the club to have the 2 of the most important roles, staffed by 2 people who were almost to a man, hated by everyone one of our fans because of their arrogant, cocky, nasty manner when they were players? i agree with the not having wise or poyet as manager because i don't think they are up to it more so than their "previous". look at roy keane and his previous contrasted with his present demeanour. I can respect that, there's reason behind it rather than "cockney cunt", "horrible bastard" etc. Both are rated as up and coming managers though. Before everyone throws their hands in the air in disgust, we might reflect that the two managers chosen before Ashley were Souness and Roeder.

I am not naieve enough to think that Ashley isn't looking to make a profit from Newcastle but if he was only looking to milk the club, why pay a record transfer fee on an international defender? This signing just doesn't fit with the idea being peddled that we are going to buy cheap imports and sell on at a profit. Is it just remotely possible that as someone who's been standing on the terraces, he probably does want to watch a half decent team?

I'd leave Shola out of that 11 and play an extra midfielder. Problem is I think we've run out of midfielders Xisco? I'm assuming Hughton won't chuck in a new player before they've had a chance to train with the rest of the team, but I'd like him to prove me wrong on that one.

I'd leave Shola out of that 11 and play an extra midfielder. Problem is I think we've run out of midfielders

I'm not usually one to pre-judge someone based on how supposedly horrible they were as a player, or percieved as by fans, but for the life of me I can't imagine Ince commanding the respect of a dressing room. He was always so full of himself it would probably get right on everyone's wick every time he opened his big mouth. The only chink of light is that Wise has worked with him and must have seen something. Poyet strikes me as being more intelligent and someone professional players could relate to. I've just got a feeling he is going to become a very good manager, but it will probably be somewhere else.

Blackburn must think we are football's equivalent of Santa Claus. First Souness and now Ince. Hopefully this is just press bollocks.

He thinks (no, he 'knows') that we are irrelevant to him, so he has (and always will) treat us like an irrelevancy . . ie, like sh*t. yep, he has been given loads of stick by his share holders and the stock exchange (after taking their money) and refuses to communicate with any of them only referring to them as “cry babies” – which is probably what the t*** thinks of NUFC fans – “cry babies”. which is a true reflection on quite a few tbh. The truth hurts Mr OK. You just watch how he behaves from now on towards us. Eventually you will all realise what he (our owner) thinks of us (and that includes even YOU) which isn't my point. we're acting like little kids who want our mummy, look at the statement released by true faith as an example. I'm far from convinced by Ashley, and i think he has made some terrible mistakes, but noone is giving ashley any chance to try and make up for that. its either leave or we'll continue boycotting. there's no middle ground. I'm also not taking sides on this yet, you say all that with fuck all to back it up, it may be true, or it may be bullshit, but you've made up your mind that ashley is in the wrong and he needs to go. This is sort of the point I was trying to make about that statement released by True Faith and The Mag. While coming to all sorts of emotional and dangerous conclusions based on nothing more than conjecture, they have issued a rallying cry against the owner. No solutions other than pie in the sky wishful thinking that another mega-billionaire is waiting in the wings to conveniently snap up the toon. In the meantime, the club suffers, the team suffers and ultimately the fans suffer. All this and we don't even know the true story of what went on, yet these supposedly responsible representatives of the fans have waded in as judge and jury to deliver a one-eyed verdict. Cretins.

Couldn't have said it better. Even Keegan himself only valued him at £7-8m. He might be useful for a functional and direct Martin O'Neill side, but a footballing manager like Wenger or Fergie wouldn't look at him twice.

It's not a bad thing at all, but it's only a good thing if those savings in interest payments are reinvested into the club. Would that include ploughing money in the academy and in signing youth players? Not aiming this at anyone in particular, just moving a point along but to a lot on here reinvestment in the club ONLY seems to involve signing players for the first team now. I would suggest (as indeed many others also do) that we need investment into the here and now and also for the future. It would appear that the future has been the boards priority right now. Oh certainly, as long as it as spent wisely and not at too much of a detriment to the immediate needs of the first team. If you or anyone have figures for how much the spending on the academy has increased under Ashley, then you'd certainly improve your arguments for how well the club is being run. However I'd also say that at this time I personally would not be convinced that any improvements in this area were motivated by a desire to make the club successful on the pitch as much as by a desire to sell them on for a profit later. Having the player for 3-5 years and benefitting from their rise to stardom > never having the player and not being able to compete on price for them with Man U/Chelsea when they reach their peak tbh. Sure, but there's a massive difference between developing players like Arsenal or Man U, hanging on to the best and moving on the one's who don't quite cut it, and eg Ipswich or the old days of West Ham where you develop some really good young players but sell them on as soon as they show some promise and are just a feeder club. The contract situation and subsequent sale of Milner (who I consider was out best young player) don't fill me with confidence that we will be following the first route. Everyone sees things coloured by their own opinion. I would class Milner as one of the ones you described as not quite cutting it and being moved on, so not a great example of this proving we are becoming a feeder club. He's hardly a Waddle or a Gascoigne. If you're expecting a conveyor belt of players better than Milner to come rolling off the academy production line, then I think you're setting massively high expectations for it and will be waiting an awfully long time. Milner was a first team player under a number of managers, and is obviously highly regarded by people more qualified to rate him than you or I, yet he was seen as not important enough to keep happy with what I am sure were quite modest contract demands, and was sold not because we had someone better to replace him with, but simply for profit. Milner out for £12m and Jonas in for quite a bit less seems like a fantastic piece of business to me. I find it difficult to fault the club on that I have to say.

It's not a bad thing at all, but it's only a good thing if those savings in interest payments are reinvested into the club. Would that include ploughing money in the academy and in signing youth players? Not aiming this at anyone in particular, just moving a point along but to a lot on here reinvestment in the club ONLY seems to involve signing players for the first team now. I would suggest (as indeed many others also do) that we need investment into the here and now and also for the future. It would appear that the future has been the boards priority right now. Oh certainly, as long as it as spent wisely and not at too much of a detriment to the immediate needs of the first team. If you or anyone have figures for how much the spending on the academy has increased under Ashley, then you'd certainly improve your arguments for how well the club is being run. However I'd also say that at this time I personally would not be convinced that any improvements in this area were motivated by a desire to make the club successful on the pitch as much as by a desire to sell them on for a profit later. Having the player for 3-5 years and benefitting from their rise to stardom > never having the player and not being able to compete on price for them with Man U/Chelsea when they reach their peak tbh. Sure, but there's a massive difference between developing players like Arsenal or Man U, hanging on to the best and moving on the one's who don't quite cut it, and eg Ipswich or the old days of West Ham where you develop some really good young players but sell them on as soon as they show some promise and are just a feeder club. The contract situation and subsequent sale of Milner (who I consider was out best young player) don't fill me with confidence that we will be following the first route. Everyone sees things coloured by their own opinion. I would class Milner as one of the ones you described as not quite cutting it and being moved on, so not a great example of this proving we are becoming a feeder club. He's hardly a Waddle or a Gascoigne.

It would be a pretty stupid mistake if it happened. I agree with the theory that if there's any chance of a takeover then it makes sense not to appoint just yet. I don't hold out much hope on that though. I think it could be a case of letting things drift until fans realise the value of getting someone in. For a short term fix, Hughton is probably ideal. I would imagine he's well liked in the dressing room so should be good for morale.

None of those clubs would take Keegan as manager because he wouldn't be willing to manage on shoestring budgets. Keegan is high maintenance, which isn't necessarily a criticism. If you are going to call a thread ridiculous at least think your arguments through before telling other people to get their head examined.

Not really. UPDATE: Wullie has explained it to you. If you need any more info on this subject, feel free to drop me a PM What for? Is my dropping you a PM going to get Keegan a job better than the one he walked out on?

An education in what? I watched Paraguay this morning and they play like Jack Charlton's Ireland. The less said about Venezuela the better. Well obviously you've learned all you need to know so no need to discuss further.

What I find ironic is that fanzines are jointly promoting action which will harm the club financially and publicly to the delight of the gutter press which they so often rail against.

If you have Sky Sports, try watching the South American WC qualifiers. Quite an education.

Same here. Far too nice to survive here. Poyet would be my choice.

We need to win the football match basically. Then people can shout and protest all they want, deep down that will make most people happy.

Well I had a different reason for hating Oliver, than the populist "LOL, he said we were going to sign Brett Emerton and we never did" crowd. I was appalled at his integrity as a journalist because of his role as a mouthpiece for Shepherd. He would not print anything without the club OK, which is not journalism in my book it's propaganda. Anyway since he's lost his pipeline to information, he's really not stepped up at all to show us his has any journalistic talent, today's reference to Wiki is just further evidence that this guy is the luckiest man alive to have the job he has. Agree 100% with that. Which makes a change. Fucking hell I just seen a pig flying past the window in the office here. And I thought all hope was lost for you Tron, good to see there's still a chance to ward off the men in white coats Well, now you know I'm a man of reason you probably want to re-think some of your other opinions as well tbh

I didn't say it was all Keegan's doing but they all had a better starting point because of where he got us to the first time he was here. You have to also point out John Hall's millions played their significant role. Keegan deserves his dues, it was a special time, better than winning a cup here or there for me. I am quite angry that the decision to bring him back has ended like this though. He's gone, no doubt getting on with his life, but our club is left in a mess due to the mistake of bringing him back to do a job he wasn't prepared to do.

Well I had a different reason for hating Oliver, than the populist "LOL, he said we were going to sign Brett Emerton and we never did" crowd. I was appalled at his integrity as a journalist because of his role as a mouthpiece for Shepherd. He would not print anything without the club OK, which is not journalism in my book it's propaganda. Anyway since he's lost his pipeline to information, he's really not stepped up at all to show us his has any journalistic talent, today's reference to Wiki is just further evidence that this guy is the luckiest man alive to have the job he has. Agree 100% with that. Which makes a change.

The same could have been said for almost every manager we've had for as long as I can remember. I know. I'm just pointing it out because some numb nuts probably haven't figured it out yet.