TRon

It will be interesting to see what type of players Keegan has got in mind as transfer targets. Henry would be a typical Keegan signing - quality but maybe past his peak.

If Viduka is fit I'd start him with Martins as well, with Zog on the left, and Geremi or Duff wide right. I doubt we'll see it though.

God no, that hadn't occurred to me. Sure as night follows day, it will happen.

Keegan will have to make a choice between Viduka or Martins. Which means he might well stick with Smith.

He'll replace Smith, that's all that matters. If the fat sponger can stay fit for the run-in, it could be the difference between staying up and going down. It's a nice day outside so he might even train properly today.

I picked them to go down as well. They have a poor squad, and with the pressure of relegation I can see some of their earlier spark fizzling out.

Looks like Viduka could be playing against Brum. Keegan talking him up big time: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article3549953.ece

If Leazes makes a valid point, I don't have a problem agreeing with it. The idea that the appointment of Souness or Roeder were well reasoned appointments I don't accept. Souness had taken Liverpool back years, and Blackburn were heading for relegation when we made our move. No one at that time still regarded Souness as a top manager. Roeder was appointed on the back of decent results as caretaker. At the time, Shepherd ruled out any overseas candidates because he probably didn't have a clue about football outside of England.

It was a cracking goal as well. Kelly was a technique player and that goal was symbolic in importance, timing , execution and beauty. Beat that.

Really? I always thought Milner's good at beating his man even if his final ball isn't always great. He ripped Sagna to shreds at SJP against Arsenal. For me it's the other way round. Milner never beats his man, he usuall does a step over or three by which time the defence has regrouped, so despite the final ball being a good one it's ineffective because everyone's marked or stationary by then.

Each to his own, but for me sinking into the third tier of English football is unimagineable. Plenty of clubs have failed to come back from those depths,so I'd far rather lose some 2nd rate Euro cup final and at least live in hope that next season we could be back amongst the elite.

He signed some very good players for us. He should've we were the 2nd best team in the country, one of the richest in the world and in the Champion's League. and those players still took us from that position to mid-table. given time i'm sure he'd have done better but he did a poor job short-term. The football we played under Dalglish was atrocious. He did make some good signings in Given, Solano, Hamman (for that 1 season) but made some equally bad signings like the jobs for the boys (Rush, Barnes, his son etc), Des Hamilton, Andreas Andersson, Lionel Perez...... falling out with Ginola,selling Ferdinand and replacing them sub standard players. Everyone goes on about him taking us to 2nd place in the CL, but that was with Keegans team. The season after was his team......the one where we performed so miserably, playing largely boring negative football and finishing 13th. Hardly his fault Ferdinand was sold though. i'm no apologist for dalglish but to underestimate the effect losing shearer had is to do him a massive disservice - was the best striker in europe at the time and would have affected everything maassively agreed. The point about Dalglish is that, at the time, he had a winning record better than even Alex Ferguson, he appeared to be a top, top appointment, of the calibre of Fergie, Wenger, Mourhinho etc now. He had also taken a great team on at Liverpool and improved them, and with flair players too. Exactly what we wanted here at the time. Then won the title with another club, a feat few have equalled. Won 3 manager of the year awards, and 4 titles in all. Saying he was crap or anything like questioning why he got the job, well the reason he got the job is for the reasons above. These hindsight merchants really make me laugh. Dalglish was an excellent appointment at the time, which is why I've never slagged Fat Fred for it. You are right in highlighting just why he looked such an attractive option back then. But his limitations became pretty apparent the longer he was away from Anfield. I think the dissent only set in with the consecutive appointments of Souness and Roeder, both terrible decisions from any angle.

Really? Why is that? I just don't understand it. I mean, surely we're all following the same cause? Well before forums became popular, it was very much a case of 'their way or the highway' when it came to independent internet coverage of events at SJP. This place isn't independent though is it? Mort has N-O in his pocket blowing cool air over his ball sack. I'm surprised NE5 hasn't been banned then.

Must admit, these threads wind me up as well. Constructive criticism fair enough, but you have to wonder if people who write stuff like this actually want us to fail, just so they can be proven right.

It's not like Milner ever gets past the full back either, he always ends up crossing from deep as well. The big difference is Milner could get up and down the flank quicker, so defensively it might be an issue.

Seconded. And people really shouldn't use words that they have no idea how to spell. I dunno. I quite like the way he capitalised "Dispondant" in the middle of a sentence. Although he probably should have substituted it with Sad. Less room for error.

Geremi's delivery is first rate. I wouldn't have a problem with him playing wide right. Milner's played quite well recently, but his end product is still minimal.

This has got to be the biggest goal because we had had our 3-0 home lead eroded to 3-2 away and they were all over us leading up to half time. It was just a matter of time before they equalised and then kicked on to beat us, but we came out second half and won a corner straight from the kick off and Moncur banged in his third goal in the tie from the corner to make it 4-2. Uijpest just crumbled after that and minutes later Benny Arentoft scored the equaliser again from a corner, and late on Alan Foggon ran from the half way line to wrap it all up with a third. I think he actually hit the bar and ran in to knock it over the line as the ball dropped. Moncurs goal is definitely the biggest because it won us a trophy. Nothing else comes close to that! This has got to be the biggest goal because we had had our 3-0 home lead eroded to 3-2 away and they were all over us leading up to half time. It was just a matter of time before they equalised and then kicked on to beat us, but we came out second half and won a corner straight from the kick off and Moncur banged in his third goal in the tie from the corner to make it 4-2. Uijpest just crumbled after that and minutes later Benny Arentoft scored the equaliser again from a corner, and late on Alan Foggon ran from the half way line to wrap it all up with a third. I think he actually hit the bar and ran in to knock it over the line as the ball dropped. Moncurs goal is definitely the biggest because it won us a trophy. Nothing else comes close to that! If you could score a goal which could win you the UEFA cup or save you from the third division which would you choose? Shades of Back to the Future here uncannily enough.

When two abysmal teams clash one has to come away with something so we've got a 50-50 chance

West Ham away could easily yield points as well. They are abysmal at the moment, we could get all 3 if we go into that game in the right frame of mind.

I know it isn't going to happen, but why couldn't Carroll have an impact? He doesn't have to score, but I would think he offers more threat in the air than Smith. That would have an impact from set pieces alone.

A very good post highlighting just what a s*** appointment Souness was, from someone who is impartial and no axe to grind. Appointing this walking disaster was Shepherd's biggest blunder from which we are still reeling. What a complete and utter balls up that appointment was. sounds like he's got a massive axe to grind to me like, basically implying souness was the reason liverpool haven't won the league since the early '90's doesn't detract from his post, however If you read his post he says they lost the league under Souness. At no point does he blame future failures to win the league on Souness.

A very good post highlighting just what a shit appointment Souness was, from someone who is impartial and no axe to grind. Appointing this walking disaster was Shepherd's biggest blunder from which we are still reeling. What a complete and utter balls up that appointment was.

howay man, even i can tell you the answer to that robson had (allegedly/truly) lost the players, dyer refusing to play etc...etc... and souness was seen as a disciplinarian with a decent record (to shepherd, this is all from his perspective) blackburn being bottom 3 could be seen as a blip in his time there to an outsider like shepherd as he'd got them promoted and won a cup, back into europe and so on surely you can see that? time changes perceptions but i clearly remember the feeling during that period that the players needed "sorting out" there are your reasons, some sound some not so sound in my opinion...it's more a testament to the short-termism of shepherd that he did what he did shepherd is obviously not an idiot is he? the only multi-millionaire idoits are lottery winners...he just wasn't suited to running a football club - he was obsessed with winning a trophy (presumably to be the local hero) and i don't think you can underestimate the fact souness had previously won a trophy at EVERY other club he'd been to in the mans thinking the fact the blackburn fans were dancing about when we took souness tells it's own story but if ANYONE can tell me or show me that when we signed him they could have predicted just how badly he managed things then i'd be very, very surprised...i basically thought we'd end up mid table but sort out the little turds at the club like dyer, and maybe sneak a cup along the way you asked for freddies intelligent reasoning, not mine i might add Well, I hate Souness, and he would never have been my choice in a million years, but I have to say that post has some merit. There was no merit in it whatsoever. None. It was a shit appointment from start to finish and most sensible folk said so at the time.

Looks like he's going to be in the frame for Birmingham assuming he doesn't suffer another setback in the next few days. Probably warming the bench.