TRon

We've played so badly for so long, I think the players are really enjoying their football again, so I don't think motivation will be a problem.

Plus they have been playing shite all season and are supported by Martin Samuel who'll be shitting his over-sized pants at the prospect.

As far as this old tosser's concerned, we did it on Sunday. I'd love to have seen his face. Hasn't been so annoyed since that dog pissed on him apparently. Who does Martin Samuel support? West Ham. Will make it all the more sweeter when we finish 10th then. That fat cunt waded in big time to have a go at Keegan. If he was watching on Sunday I'll bet he's not relishing our visit to East London.

You mean since we started winning? Keegan's no media darling, he's had to earn every plaudit every step of the way and is doing it all over again despite everyone saying it could never happen. Jimmy Greaves, now there's a media darling. Spouting shit in tabloids, now there's a fulfilling career for a an ex-pro

Not quite true. A lot of the opinion pieces have been utter s****. But I couldn't really argue with any of the match reports that said we were s*** the last few months. Of course Martin Samuel, Jimmy Greavous and the rumour mongering twats will be in no way compelled to chow down on humble pie. I remember in the season we went up, Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves were still doing that Saturday morning preview show. They had just showed highlights of us beating yet another team and extending our lead at the top further. Ian St John ask Greaves about it and all he said was "Well the best team in that league is the 'appy hammers". That comment has stuck with me for a long while we won that championship at a canter and when given the opportunity to praise a truely worthy achievement, a cockney biased wanker like Greaves chooses instead to promote a lesser team from his neck of the woods. Fuck me, I thought I hated Jimmy Greaves, but your resentment goes back over a decade. Top stuff.

Geremi and Butt have been getting up and down the pitch quite well in the 4-3-3 formation. I would have thought if anyone needs to be replaced by a younger better version it would be Viduka. Quality player but has never looked fit since he arrived.

I think 4-4-2 can still be effective given the right players, Arsenal looked great until just recently. I really like Man U's current system with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez running all over the shop. You need to buy the world's most talented and gifted players to make it work which could be considered a drawback though.

He had a hard time against Mcfadden it's true. I wouldn't write it in stone on the evidence of one game though.

...and then Dalglish bought his own players.

Are you?

Very key point that. Keegan's teams always rose in value because the way he plays makes them look good, and if the team starts being succesful, obviously that will also have an effect on the price.

As delighted as I am with the current form, it's going over the top saying he saved us from relegation. Going over the top? What do you think getting carried away is supposed to be about?

We've been over this before so no need to go through the why's and won't's all over again. Things happened in a certain way, but I am pretty glad that Allardyce isn't here, and that Keegan has been able to assess the squad ready for the summer. You call it gambling, I call it planning and forward vision. You'd have Allardyce still at the club, launching balls into orbit with Smith and Viduka waiting for them to land. I'm happy with what we've got right now thanks.

I'm here We'll see in summer if it was a mistake or not though. Whatever happens, Keegan made a decision which has given him 4 more months to take a look at the players that he has at his disposal and 4 more months for him to extensively scout the players that he might end up buying. He's been vindicated in his decision to stick with the squad and see the season through By not getting relegated? Thats all we cared about on Jan 15th? Ok One performance doesnt make a season but if this is backed up by wins against Reading and Portsmouth, i'll agree with you. As it stands, in reality, we are just another side to have knocked 4 past Spurs this season. We were always going to end up as a mid-table team with or without Allardyce because we hadn't accumulated enough points in the easy part of our season so yea, I'd say yea, not getting relegated was the only major goal after Allardyce got sacked. We could have gotten an extra couple of mill from prize money but that would have meant Keegan needing to spend money on players he hadn't scouted and on positions he might have been unsure about (eg. leftback). European football wasn't on the table anyway considering the teams ahead of us at that time, and the fact that now there's only one automatic UEFA Cup place surely vindicates his decision not to spend any money even more. I don't see how his decision not to sign anyone can be construed as a negative one, especially now with the benefit of hindsight and seeing that the short-term benefits weren't much (the aforementioned couple of mill of prize money) but there was a definitely a long-term risk (paying over-the-top fees and wages for average players) there. He gambled on us surviving and it's worked (barring a crazy collapse), and now he'll be way surer of the positions that need strengthening, the players that will stay/go and of course he's had lots of extra time to eye up prospective players as well. That was always my reasoning and Mort's to be fair. Keegan would have a far better idea what would be required come the summer after being in charge for part of this season. He's got all his doubts out of the way such as Duf and Smith so he knows which areas to strengthen? Can you imagine going into next season with a new manager thinking those two were top forwards? It would have been another season fucked.

You've changed your tune. It's actually the other way round, I'm saying exactly what I was saying before, it's you who has changed your tune. I said all along it was perfect timing to sack Big Sam, and you thought we should have waited till the summer when we could get a manager who hadn't been out of touch with the game. I wasn't going to mention it but since you brought it up

Not too concerned either way. He looked good in the friendlies, but I get the feeling he's probably burned his boats with Keegan. He was shipped out pretty sharpish after some comments leaked out about Keegan's team talk iirc.

If we can finish the season on a high, which I think we will, I can see Newcastle United under Keegan being a big draw again. We might be able to compete for players that you would have thought were out of reach otherwise. I could quite easily see David Bentley for example, wanting to be part of the Keegan revolution if we can keep playing the type of football we have in the last few games. I am looking forward to the summer activity to say the least.

Yeah I hope it is quickly forgotten, as we return to the level we got used to and regular European football. I just can't help feeling that Owens goal was an absolutely massive for us, but there again I had become convinced, at one stage, that we WERE going down. No doubting it was a massive goal, but having been through both situations for me it doesn't really compare. Kelly's goal was literally just about the last throw of the dice, there were no home games against fellow strugglers to give us another shot.

Woodgate's played against us twice now and they've shipped 7 goals. Love it

I don't agree with this, I'd say Bent's header was fantastic and extremely hard to defend against, it was so well placed and even Harper had little to no chance. I've liked Faye ever since he arrived. I'd love for us to buy another big central defender to partner him with Faye actually kept Bent pretty quiet and you are right, Bent did fantastically well to get that header in from there. It's not like he was unmarked.

You've just reminded me how badly I want us to shaft Harry Redknapp. Lord, make it come to pass

He's a pretty dominant centre back in the Darren Peacock mode, in that he's not really top class in the Terry or Woodgate mode, but he's pretty solid and will do a decent job. I would prefer a specialist midifelder so I say stick with him in defence, hopefully alongside a really top class CB. Taylor's done ok recently, but the two together still aren't 100% convincing.

Would be difficult to believe, except they actually played like they believed it.

I don't know how good a coach he is but he seems to fit in well as part of Keegan's team, while Pearson always acted and sounded like a Souness type. It's a happy camp again.

Both players lack the legs to compete at the highest level and that's not taking anything away from how well they have done last few games. We need players to be able to go 4-4-2 as well, and I think that's where they will struggle.