stalker

Absolute disgrace. The referee's performance was one of the most shambolic I've ever seen and I can understand Drogba going mad as they were cheated but what sort of example does this set for everyone else.

Kinnear was on big wages, no way is Ashley going to fork out for them again, going to be a season of Hughton I imagine.

Since when? I think the rules only apply to english clubs not clubs from different countries. Still I'm not claiming he's not an idiot.

Fair enought though, interesting that llambias finally speaks when season ticket renewals are arriving on doorsteps.

Did he back his managers or spend money on players he wanted (or who Willy Mckay and the rest of his crony friends told him to get)? Seem to remember quotes from managers that the players we got weren't always who they wanted (e.g. Souness wanted Boa Morte and Anelka and got Owen and Luque)

Broken metatarsal I think

It's hard for any player to get back to full match fitness after coming back from a long injury but I think it's especially true for players in the middle of the park who are expected to make the team tick. I thought in January he was the one hope for our season but then he got injured and I just wonder whether he's not going to have enough time now to really make an impact.

Berbatov also wanted out... Bellamy wanted out, Man City knew that as well, yet West Ham robbed them blind, £15 million for that old waster. You've also got to remember that as a club we owed a lot more to Given than Spurs did to Berbs or West ham to Bellamy. For all the years of loyal service he'd given to the club he had to be allowed to leave if he wanted to, and therefore to even get £6 million is pretty good. On another point I'm still shocked and disgusted at the number of you who are willing to abuse Given, he is still and always will be a legend in my eyes. He eventually got fed up with the turmoil at the club, but who wouldn't have, I'm amazed he stayed with us as long as he did. Can you explain this please? I mean that given all his years of loyal service he should expect that he will be treated fairly by the club, along the lines that older players who have given long service are often allowed to move clubs for free even if they are still under contract. A service is defined as something that is offered for free. Given was paid a massive wage. He stayed with us for years, but your suggestion of letting your best players go for nothing is ridiculous, should Liverpool let Gerrard go for nothing then? link? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfless_service Before you claim it as another service, the service above is obviously the one he was getting at if he feels that we should have let Given go for free. firstly, i think you need to read that link, don't think its what I'm implying at all. Secondly, I don't think we should have sold Given for free but his loyalty to the club over many years weakened our bargaining position as it would have been unfair for us to hold city to ransom and possibly scupper a transfer that the player wanted.

Is the fact that they're going to pay out big compensation for Keegan a tacit admission that Keegan was the one who was in the right and they effectively constructively dismissed him?

Berbatov also wanted out... Bellamy wanted out, Man City knew that as well, yet West Ham robbed them blind, £15 million for that old waster. You've also got to remember that as a club we owed a lot more to Given than Spurs did to Berbs or West ham to Bellamy. For all the years of loyal service he'd given to the club he had to be allowed to leave if he wanted to, and therefore to even get £6 million is pretty good. On another point I'm still shocked and disgusted at the number of you who are willing to abuse Given, he is still and always will be a legend in my eyes. He eventually got fed up with the turmoil at the club, but who wouldn't have, I'm amazed he stayed with us as long as he did. Can you explain this please? I mean that given all his years of loyal service he should expect that he will be treated fairly by the club, along the lines that older players who have given long service are often allowed to move clubs for free even if they are still under contract.

Berbatov also wanted out... Bellamy wanted out, Man City knew that as well, yet West Ham robbed them blind, £15 million for that old waster. You've also got to remember that as a club we owed a lot more to Given than Spurs did to Berbs or West ham to Bellamy. For all the years of loyal service he'd given to the club he had to be allowed to leave if he wanted to, and therefore to even get £6 million is pretty good. On another point I'm still shocked and disgusted at the number of you who are willing to abuse Given, he is still and always will be a legend in my eyes. He eventually got fed up with the turmoil at the club, but who wouldn't have, I'm amazed he stayed with us as long as he did.

Not sure I agree with that, look at York City, facing the possibility of relegation to the Conference North and possibly disappearing altogether.

I like the idea of bringing in talented youngsters but how can we expect them to develop into top class players when we have to bring them into a senior team which lacks talent and quality and is more suited to battle than to play football?

Did anyone else find the stuff about Milner only being worth 6 million quite offensive. It might have been true but there's no need to air such a valuation in public, will only make him raise his game next time we play them. Also the stuff about Aston Villa turning his head, I thought he just wanted a contract on a par with other players like him in the side (i.e. Taylor and N'Zogbia) and Ashley and co were to cheap to play ball.

CAN you explain why Mr Ashley completely ignored a request from NUSC to meet in a location of his choice to liaise with fans? WE’RE in dialogue with them. We have a monthly meeting and we need to get the record straight – we are in dialogue with NUSC. We have a monthly supporter meeting where a reasonably representative group of people who represent our fans tell us what for. They have been invited to be part of that forum so there are four or five of them coming along. It’s not true that we have blanked them. We have engaged with them and had dialogue since they formed. And we’re sitting down again with the group. Their initial approach was not in the correct tone. They are a small group and they are charging a subscription fee which was a bit strange to us. They are welcome to come along to our forums. That’s fine, they are coming on February 12 and there will be four or five of them. The whole idea of the panel is basically to give them an idea of where we are going and what the expectations for the future are. We don’t want to talk about Kevin Keegan, which is an issue they will insist talking about. Unfortunately, that’s not what the tone is. There are breakaway supporters groups. They (the NUSC) are a small group and given more credence than they deserve. Anyone any idea who these supporters who have been invited to the meeting are? Given the extra credence that NUSC are given compared to what they deserve it can't be them can it. Personally just have more contempt for the regime after this interview full of platitudes and bullshit.

Hired goon ie the Chairman of the football club ! Yeah...? As in who else should be talking ? It's the chairmans job to talk to the fans and to do the day to day running of the club. That's what Mort did when he was in charge and he did a damn good job of it. Current chairman so far is awful at his job though. Read what I said man! Ashley said HE was going to come out with a public statement after the transfer window. Im suggesting that he's getting Llambias to do an interview with The Chronicle instead. I think your right, didn't the journal and chronicle even claim that they would be meeting with both Llambias and Ashley?

If Kevin Nolan is a great passer of the ball, what superlative can you use to describe the likes of Fabregas and Pirlo?

It's sad how many people have turned against Given. I know he didn't leave under the best of circumstances but he was the one player who on a regular basis has called for Newcastle to invest in the squad (from my recollections he's done it before pretty much every transfer window for the last few years). I guess he finally had enough of not being listened to, or perhaps of being lied to, and has gone. Sadly none of our other players will have the guts to come out and criticise the regime. Perhaps he could have stayed till the end of the season, but he had the chance to get in on the ground floor at a club who are clearly on the up and he took it. I can't resent him for that.

Yes, he has a severe lisp and is very insecure about it.

The usual "love the fans" blah blah that most players spout when being transferred. "Regime were very unhelpful" - well we may be in a mess but "unhelpful" ? Did he expect Newcastle to lie back and let him go easily after him and his agent went public ? Come on Shay we might be daft but were not that bloody daft. Yeah I think he did expect to be let go easily, and he deserved that as well. He gave nearly 12 years of loyal service and I'm sure would have given many more years if it weren't for Ashley and his cronies. He's an absolute legend and it's just a massive pity that he couldn't stay and get the appearance record.

So effectively Kinnear admits he lied during the transfer window, I thought he claimed he was given £10 million to spend

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/02/05/kinnear-ashley-will-be-more-hands-on-61634-22858740/ The second part of the story is: Ashley is still fighting an uphill battle to reclaim credibility with United fans after the club’s January transfer window dealings, which saw Newcastle finish the month in profit. It remains to be seen whether claims of Ashley’s renewed commitment to the club will dent the scepticism that has surrounded United’s owner since Kevin Keegan’s departure, but it does mark a departure from his previous policy of delegation to trusted advisors. There are other moves afoot at St James’s Park, with Kinnear relocating some of the key power brokers at the club to the training base in Benton. Derek Llambias and Ashley will have offices there, while the scouts and club secretaries are also set to be based away from the city centre, so that Kinnear can make contact with them quickly. Meanwhile, United’s manager has expanded on the club’s efforts to strengthen in the transfer window – including their attempt to swap Charles N’Zogbia for Spurs striker Darren Bent. “I had to raise my own transfer funds through selling other players which was not ideal but we just had to get on with it. The credit crunch has hit us hard,” he said. “We tried to do plenty of things but clubs wouldn’t sell. I spoke to Harry Redknapp about swapping Charles N’Zogbia for Darren Bent but that was not something that Tottenham wanted to do. “We went to Liverpool for Sammi Hyypia and got turned down. We wanted Michael Johnson and Nedum Onuoha from Manchester City as part of the Shay Given deal but they wouldn’t sell them, and we were faced with the choice of having a really unhappy player or letting him go. “We were close with Johnson and when we didn’t get that we went for Kieran Richardson.”

Does anybody here follow the Turkish league? Money's talk about Australian Brad Inman made me wonder about young Troisi and how he's been getting on since leaving the toon. According to Wikipedia he's scored 7 in 14 this season in the Turkish top flight, which are very impressive figures for a winger. Maybe one we let go too soon! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Troisi

Not really, he's made his money on Bassong and Jonas tbh Does he then lose his money cos he couldn't get anyone else in?

Agree with this, only 2 players with pace in the first team. Since Robson got sacked there's been a steady attempt to fill our team with stationary but "committed" players. No wonder we play such awful football.