No, I don't think Brown did a good job.
I don't think Shepherd did either.
Nor do I think frugality is the way to save the economy.
We need to spend our way out of it.
Now you see fundamnetally I agree that in both the economy and for the Toon that spending is needed for the long term good of both.
However my view (again on both points) is that money should be directed at rebuilding infrastructure, be that roads, schools, hospitals, communications or the academy, buying younger players with room to develop and training facilities.
Of course some money needs to be spent on the here and now, money in the pocket of the man on the street (interest rate cuts, VAT cuts (wrong move but its happened so I can include it..), or investment in the first team. If you can balance out the cost of improving the here and now with proceeds from clearing out the dross then its all good.
I've said it before, but with the exception of Given we've replaced every player who has left the club with one of better quality or of a similar standard but at lower cost. That. Is. Good. Business. It could even be argued that we didn't need to replace Given directly anyway.
The summer is pivotal, we're running out of dross with any sort of resale value and desperately need to improve the centre of midfield and in all likelyhood replace Owen. A Left Back would be nice to push Enrique on, unless one of the reserve players is ready to step up to provide this.
the more he leaves it, the longer it costs to get back. It's just more proof in my eyes that he hasn't got a clue, or doesn't have the desire. I don't accept that rebuilding means creating a situation whereby your best and most important players want to leave the club for career reasons and ambition, this tells you pretty much everything.
When you say "best and most important players" I take it you mean the singular Shay Given.
We got an exceptional deal for Charles N'Zogbia. For the first time in years we have a player who can get a corner past the first man in Ryan Taylor, and we scored from a corner too, something not seen in eons with Newcastle. We definitely seem to have got the better deal there.
Who else has left that you can name as a "best and most important player"? Not James Milner, most people where whinging about him last season, and £12 million is a steal for him too.
Michael Owen? How he is meant to score from the physio's table is beyond me. If we replace him with a competent and fit striker we will be laughing again.
Fact is, other than Given [who was the very fabric of the club], the club captain will go too, when he ought to be seeing us as a club where he could captain the club to a trophy in the last years of his time at the top. Charles N'Zogbia is a talented player who also should be seeing this club as a club where he can win things. Now if he had gone to someone like Arsenal ie being French, or ManU, or back to Paris I could have stomached it, but to Wigan ? You're taking the piss, and are seriously misguided if you can't accept this. And Ryan Taylor might take good corners and be solid but he can't lace zoggy's boots.
No doubt, as in the words of Chris Mort [Ashley's previous mouthpiece] it is "good business" to swap a player for another one with a cash injection into the bargain.
Milner may have had his price, but the manager didn't want to sell him, or at least expected the money to bring in a player of his own choice for a weak position. Now, the whole scenario of Milner going, ie giving the manager less than the fee he generated and buying a cheaper player for him, was the last straw for Keegan and is nothing other than the actions of a small minded, 2nd rate club.
Charles N'Zogbia's Assists & Goals records = shit. He's pretty much as effective as Damien Duff, and well all know how wank Damien is.
