TRon

I respect Keegan's decision and his reasons, but I'm disappointed. Disappointed that he couldn't see the spark of a good team and want to take it to the heights Disappointed that his hunger to finish "unfinished business" dimmed so quickly. Disappointed that he didn't want to stay for the city, the fans and his players. Disappointed that all the bastards from the press will be able to say we told you he's a quitter. But it was good while it lasted.

This publication would like to make it abundantly clear that it has NO CONFIDENCE whatsoever in the management structure at Newcastle United which includes the position of Dennis Wise as Executive Director and Managing Director, Derek Llambias. Just been listening to David Davies (former FA) paying respects to Keegan and he actually spoke with the highest regard for Dennis Wise as well. What does he know though, just because he actually knows him?

Very well put indi. Suffice to say I am gutted that Keegan has left. I understand his principles but I agreed with the transfer approach taken by the club. Maybe it could have been done slightly differently, but obviously the damage had been done. I'd like to have seen how our squad developed over thenext couple of seasons, but it might be difficult for Ashley to come back from this. It's a shame because Keegan was supposed to have unfinished business. Looks like it's still unfinished.

Regardless of whether Keegan stays or goes, with the majority of fans now against him, I wonder if Ashley will still be motivated to look for another Modric or Coloccini? If he's not going to be able to run the club according to his own instincts with people he trusts, I don't see him suddenly handing over pots of gold to Keegan or anyone else now that his name is mud in Newcastle.

How is that different from now? The thing I really worry about is what happens when Abramovich (or our version of him) loses interest or in his case gets on the wrong side of Putin and ends up with a Polonium sandwich? Chelsea would be instantly totally fucked. I'm really uncomfortable with the entire future of the club resting on a knife-edge at the whim of some billionaire. You don't get to be a billionaire by being nice remember, these are ruthless people and they wouldn't hesitate to bin NUFC if they felt the need to. There's going to be a global recession in the next few years, who knows what's going to happen to these people's fortunes. They don't even need to be in financial trouble, simple PR could do for us, too. What happens if times get hard in India and all this bloke's customers are suffering the pain, if they start to say "hang about we're fucking skint yet the bloke who owns this company is chucking money about owning a foreign football team", then he could just fuck us off to placate them, it wouldn't be the first time something like that's happened. Apart from anything, being rich doesn't guarantee you anything, hands up those who think Citeh are going to win the league next season, I doubt they'll even come second actually. How much have Real won over the last few years? It's not as simple as people are making out, there are risks, big risks and it's far from a no-brainer. Well said.

When I first heard of players apparently uniting behind Keegan, I was a bit proud, thinking Keegan's loyalty has given us the band of brothers spirit and how we would come out of this all the stronger, but reflecting further I'm not so sure. Firstly, the players being championed were Barton, Smith and Owen. All earning big money, two providing little value for massive wages, and the third refusing to commit beyond this season. Milner was another who didn't think he was getting enough money and was (rightly) shown the door. How does this affect team spirit? What about newer team members arriving on lower wages like Xisco, Jonas etc? Do the big earners feel resentful that cheaper labour is being drafted in threatening their bloated salaries? Does Duff feel threatened? Does Smith? Does Viduka? Well they fucking well should the spongeing fucking bastards.

I see NE5 with his talk of ambition still hasn't answered that one. As for Parky, if it was up to him we would never have appointed Keegan in the first place so this is all a bit rich.

Just one question (which I've asked before): How do you compete for "top players" against Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and now City without their revenue stream?

Absolutely. If we are running the club carefully and prudently, Ashley has done a good job so far. If we have some foreign investor willing to throw enough money blindly at King Kev to compete with Man U I say go for it.

A takeover by a stupidly rich zillionnaire is probably the best way forward from this point. Ashley can retire gracefully with a profit, Wise and Co can be quietly moved out, and Keegan can be given pots of money to spend without (hopefully) having to balance any books or think longer term than the length of his contract.

This is the bunch of cronies who negotiatied the £12m fee for Milner yes? What a bunch of wasters... Yes but these wasters replaced Milner (one of our hardest-working players) with what? Our club might be 12m richer but our squad is seriously depleted. BTW I would have taken 10m for Milner IF we had a decent replacement lined up. We did bring in 6 players this summer as well as selling, including IMO the most important, a striker who can play when Viduka has his feet up. I would agree though, that the squad is still not strong enough - even if it might turn out to be better than some are giving it credit for.

This is the bunch of cronies who negotiatied the £12m fee for Milner yes? What a bunch of wasters... What's Keegan worth? You don't need to ask me, I was championing him when you were opening threads questioning Ashley's judgement in sacking Fat Sam and appointing a manager who had been out of the loop for so long. My point is, it's easy to dismiss Wise and Jiminez as 'cronies' but they have obviously been doing some useful work here. Let's keep things in perspective.

This is the bunch of cronies who negotiatied the £12m fee for Milner yes? What a bunch of wasters...

I would add to that as well as staying within a budget, targeting players who won't lose their re-sale value, e.g, Thierry Henry for say, £12m. That is if we are looking to stay with the long term strategy which the club just re-iterated during this episode.

Personally I don't think there's any comparison between Keegan and Souness. And aren't the problems you describe the same problems faced by all bar a handful of fashionable clubs? Incidentally I quite like the idea of the current set-up, but it has to work on all sides. If Keegan has the final say on who goes and comes, because he has to pick and prepare the team, would that be so bad? And if you don't trust the manager's judgement on players, maybe you should have picked a different manager? The comparison with Souness is only in regards to the stance both managers have taken. Souness wanted his own players and in the end Shepherd reluctantly caved in, and it cost us millions. Obviously Keegan is a lot better judge of a player, but the bottom line is if it goes wrong, Keegan won't be picking up the bill. Should he then be in a position to dictate incomings and outgoings? Turning down offers for Smith, £12m for Milner and handing Owen a massive contract....while these moves might make him popular in the dressing room, I'm not sure it's healthy from a financial perspective.

“Kevin still wants the job. Make no mistake about that. But he would like to be able to buy his own players. “If he was allowed to bring in his own players and he failed he would be the first to hold his hands up." -from a source close to Keegan allegedly. Sounds good but I remember similar noises from Souness when he was trying to force Shepherd's hand in the transfer market. It's all very well holding your hands up if it goes wrong, who pays the bill for players who lose their value or ask for daft wages? "Holding your hands up" won't do it.

I'm just glad we managed to get £12m for Milner before Keegan was in a position to pull a plug on that deal.

I wonder how good Wise was at his job? I'm assuming there was a reason he got it in the first place.

I say if Keegan has taken a dislike to the tea lady she should be stripped ,tarred and feathered and all her offspring should be hunted down and shot, ending her family line.

There's a couple of major business problems with this theory: 1 - Its not the manager's money. 2 - The manager doesn't have the time to dedicate to scouting. 3 - Managers get invested in their own selections ... the new guy wants his own players in ... resulting in a clear out & total loss of value. 3 - You have to be able say NO if the player valuation is not right ... consider that our current admin. team may be having discipline in this area which has rarely been a feature of our recent spending. Bingo - we have a winner. Probably not what people want to read though so best ignore.

Good post. Up until a few days ago everyone on here seemed happy with the way it was going, of course we would have preferred to have spent more money and got cover for our fullbacks but one thing that wasn't in doubt was the quality of the players that had come into the club, so much so that people expect Xisco to be class just because of how good the others have been. Without this set up would we have known that Jonas was prepared to buy out his contract? Or would we have managed to not only find a bright young lad like Bassong but manage to get him here on a trial so the manager can get a good look at him? Someone has been on the ball behind the scenes to make these things happen and it would be a shame to lose that. The only good thing about getting rid of Wise would be an end to the constant media circus claiming everyone is stabbing each other in the back. Both posts sum up my viewing of the situation pretty well. The unknown factor is whether Wise or anyone else has actually done something to deserve getting sacked...other than being a cock-eyed cunt (or percieved as).

I hope that's right tbh, if nothing else it removes one of the major threats to KK's influence. Put simply, I don't think we need a DoF. without any real proof that wise was a threat in any form. Doubt he'd be sacked if he wasn't pissing KK off tbh. Unless Ashley needs to protect his investment by keeping Keegan (and the fans) sweet. In which case it might be considered Wise is dispensable. Or maybe he really has deserved sacking...I have no idea, and neither do most people here tbh.

Before this all blew up I was going to raise the issue of whether Ashley was just turning us into a feeder club. But then bidding for Modric and signing Coloccini doesn't really suggest that. I think we could have signed more players before the summer window closed but the impression I get is that Keegan only wanted players of a certain quality/players he'd heard of.

as others have said, getting your players to play well together is the hardest, and therefore most important attribute, thats what he offers to us. they're dispensable, he isnt. No one who is doing a good job for Newcastle is dispensable unless they've done something out of order. I suppose once these talks are through we'll have an idea if that's been the case.

Since Chelski have done it and bombed everyone out of the water, there isn't really any alternative, other than declare everything they've won null and void and make them give their trophies back. A solution I would favour as it happens.