greydos

NE5 will have enough material to write a book - Check FYP

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See you next tuesday

I personally was heart set on getting Deschamps in. A young, inspiring attacking manager that had potential to go very far with a club given backing, a real french dynasty could have been created here. When i heard it was KK i was too astounded for rational thoughts. I was disappointed but knew KK would put the intent right in our team (win matches not hold on for a point at wigan, derby et al). I still feel the same about KK. I know he's got the ability to get us back into the top 6 playing decent football, and even top 4 given enough time and say 5 years. But i thought getting Deschamps in for a long 10 year period would offer huge stability and we'd have an advantage over Manure, Arsenal as they'll lose their managers within 3-5 years and there would have been a chance for an established manager at the toon to supersede one of them. Now though, with KK, we'll likely be replacing managers at the same time. Having said all that I'll take getting back into the top 6 with KK playing football i can enjoy.

They're only individualistic because they're a new team. This will change. I do however hate spurs with all my heart. I was nearly brought to tears trying to consider who i wanted to lose more, spurs or the sudetanland yesterday. However, i think spurs have a similar problem to what liverpool had in the middle of the park before they got mascherano. They have a deep-lying water carrier in the deschamps mould (modric) who can't tackle. An they have Jenas who gets up and down but also can't really track back well or get forward well. They need Jenas higher up the pitch to be at his best. Similar to old liverpool, they had alonso deep-lying playmaker who spread it well but couldn't really tackle/defend, and gerrard who could go up and down but to be at his best really needs to be higher up the pitch. If they get a mascherano type player, freeing modric to spray passes from higher up the pitch where he can threaten teams' defences better, they'll be fine. Also, Bentley is undoubted class

why is that curious? they're doing they're job ffs!! do you expect KK to sell the tickets and the burgers aswell? all clubs have scouts, we've got some pretty good ones at the minute by the looks of our three new signings yesterday. its extremely small minded to suggest that you could be 'stirring up trouble' by quoting kk. its been said countless times by people within the club that KK has final say on transfers, he's just got some people working with him to find good players, its a pretty sweet deal if you ask me, get a grip. Small minded? Get a grip? How am i being small-minded? The difference between what you say happens with a DF and what we seem to have here is that Keegan as the manager knows who the DF is going after, either by recommendation from the DF or instruction to the DF on who to bring in. It's completely different if the DF brings someone in and THEN informs Keegan who he's got. Which is what keegan said in that interview. Like you say, all clubs have scouts. I agree with having a big scouting team. They 'scout out' players and identify them to the manager PRIOR to any action being taken. No scout signs players without prior authorisation from the man who will have to manage that player. Yet Keegan suggests this isn't the case at the toon. In which case, i find this curious. N.B. i've responded to your post without making jibes at your personal character and using over-the-top suggestions which you have above. I'd like the same courtesy in return. Whether i get it or not says more about you than me. 'when dennis wise and tony jimenez told me they'd got this guy called spiderman i looked him up' so you take from that, that jonas was signed without kk's say so? over his head? despite ashley publicly stating that keegan has final say on transfers? despite keegan saying he's happy with the way they're all working together? is it not possible that by 'got' he meant 'scouted' rather than 'signed'? in recent days we've heard nothing but positivity and sense (imo) from the owner and manager, we then went to old trafford and put in a great performance, and whats more all the new lads looked great. why come out with this stuff man? do you work for the sun? and ultimately, even IF all the players are signed with out kk's say so, which is a ludicrous assumption imo, knowing the man as we do, he's happy, he's smiling, he's positive, the team are playing well, whats the problem? N.B. i didnt say anything about your personal character in general, i said it was small minded of you to assume you could be stirring up trouble. maybe you've gotten what you wanted, which is a reaction, but when i see our fans helping out the media in the attempts to mess with us, i cant help but react. Look, i'm not looking for a reaction. And of course i don't work for the sun. All employees of the American must support Manyoo or Liverpool (Villa don't count). I'm not saying all signings are made above keegan's head, just that it's 'curious'. WTF is wrong with saying that? I'm not saying it's good or bad, but merely curious. I'd like to know more about what's going on with recruitment, how it's run etc. Ashley also said in that interview that Dennis Wise' job was to bring in 6or7 youngsters per season. What keegan says about Jonas ostensibly contradicts this. Why not quote that at me? For any REAL fan of newcastle united, a debate about the actualities of our club is welcomed regardless of whether some c*** from the Sun or any other paper might pick up on it. Keegan cares not about the press, but the club and so do i. I love discussing my club. All aspects of what's going on at my club. Not everything but that which the press might use. They're resourceful enough to come up with their own rumours anyway (they often do). Again, please refrain from asking stupid questions of me which are obviously not going to be true. Can it be i'm just a die-hard newcastle fan that wants to debate the club i love? Let's leave it at that hmm Dr?

why is that curious? they're doing they're job ffs!! do you expect KK to sell the tickets and the burgers aswell? all clubs have scouts, we've got some pretty good ones at the minute by the looks of our three new signings yesterday. its extremely small minded to suggest that you could be 'stirring up trouble' by quoting kk. its been said countless times by people within the club that KK has final say on transfers, he's just got some people working with him to find good players, its a pretty sweet deal if you ask me, get a grip. Small minded? Get a grip? How am i being small-minded? The difference between what you say happens with a DF and what we seem to have here is that Keegan as the manager knows who the DF is going after, either by recommendation from the DF or instruction to the DF on who to bring in. It's completely different if the DF brings someone in and THEN informs Keegan who he's got. Which is what keegan said in that interview. Like you say, all clubs have scouts. I agree with having a big scouting team. They 'scout out' players and identify them to the manager PRIOR to any action being taken. No scout signs players without prior authorisation from the man who will have to manage that player. Yet Keegan suggests this isn't the case at the toon. In which case, i find this curious. N.B. i've responded to your post without making jibes at your personal character and using over-the-top suggestions which you have above. I'd like the same courtesy in return. Whether i get it or not says more about you than me.

don't even f***ing start What the hell's your problem?! It's a forum so i will "f***ing start" to discuss issues/topics/points of interest at my leisure. I'm not getting involved in an internet argument with you as that's just lameo. If you have an actual constructive view that engages with the facts then please respond. If not, read the post and move on. The fact is, out of Keegan's very own mouth, he said Wise and Jimenez told him they'd got Jonas in, and so he then went to look him up. Also, Keegan hadn't seen much of Coloccini before he came here by the sounds of it. Watch the post-match interview on the bbc website in the manu-toon report. Skip forward to 2minutes and 7 seconds and listen on from there.

gonads? Gaylord. CD's closest so far... the word is pluralised

N'Zogbia did as well at left back as an attacking midfielder could to playing there. Also, one poster said that Zoggy was at right back with Beye at one point, which he was in the second half. But the full story was Guthrie moved to left back and Zoggy to CM for 5 minutes. Why i don't know, but it's what happened. Watch the match again you'll see around 70min mark. Zog's young and has plenty of time to develop a football brain. A lot of posters on this forum are too quick to point out the weakness a player has (no player is perfect, no player!!) and scream sell sell sell! In 5 years time Zoggy and Taylor will be around 27/28 have played thousands of matches and will be at full physical strength and the benefit of 3+ years with Kevin Keegan. They absolutely have to be kept. They'll grow into being class footballers, no doubt about it. Carragher was Sh*te until he reached 27, Adams wasn't the complete defender before 25. Keown was a good defender who never really recovered from his weaknesses but learned to constrain them in his play. These players give me the sense to realise that sticking with Zoggy and Tayls is what's needed. Not peddlin them for the latest in-fashion fm-suggested foreign player

Don't want to stir up trouble but if you look at Keegan's interview after the game yesterday (bbc website) he didn't actually recommend or give the go-ahead for the Gutierrez signing. He says that "Wise and Jimenez called me and told me they'd got this bloke called spiderman in...so i looked him up" Curious...

I'm a bit late on commenting but here's my twopenneth worth: Gutiererz was amazing going backwards, and full of promise going forwards. Duff's sh*te!! Playing in a free role he never bothered to get into space much and be FREE! And the amount he lost the ball tamely falling over appealling for a free kick in the second half was anger management sessions right there! what we needed was someone to drop deep and feed martins or give an off the ball option for a pass but no, duff's more interested in performing like Hilary as opposed to the pre-2005 Damien. Colo's quality. Quality performs well. Taylor had a surprisingly good game. I just wish he'd bulk up a bit with his upper body strength so he could dominate in the air like Terry does. He lost a few headers to Rooney in the second half. Given's always been Given. Those writing him off were footballing virgins or G*****!

For some reason??... BECAUSE HE'S CRAP!!

I'm all for what mrmojorisin is saying. Net spend is worryingly similar to last summer. If our transfers stop at where they are now (with Colo) it's not been a good enough summer. We needed a bigger squad last year, yet numbers wise we'll be the same. Wish Dave would stop talking down spurs to be honest. Yes they've let go of Keane and POSSIBLY Berbatov, but they've brought 3 good players in place of 2. I'd take the 3 every time. Bentley can give you more than Keane's assists and possibly get you 10-15 goals. Bent plays as an out and out striker on the shoulder and can get 15-20 if he gets enough slide rule passes. And with Modric and Dos Santos behind him, it'll be like accurate slide rule passes are going out of fashion. We need more quality players. At the moment we don't have them. If on September 1st we don't have them, i'm backdating my b*tching for the summer months when the 'wait a bit longerists' said we couldn't complain yet cause the window weren't over.

Why would Berbatov come here? His mum said he was a Toon fan cos of Shearer...promise him the no. 9 shirt an he could think about it. Anyway, my question was more intended 'assuming he wanted to come would you take a straight swap?' (you meaning anyone)

Straight swap Owen for Berbatov would you take it? I definitely would

Staggered payments for players is often how clubs sign people. What's the problem with having money outstanding on players we bought?

I'll kick it off... Arteta is a right winger, and probably the best one!! Even left wing he's better than bloody kranjcar, young, and the unproven Guti and Modric (in this league). Cahil's a midfielder who scores more goals than most of those he's up against, never mind assists. Carew and Viduka better than Yakubu Milner better than 2 people?

It's interesting you say that as i watched the last 10 games of last season and clearly witnessed barton getting down the left wing as much as he could, and similarly geremi was always getting out to the right touchline to help Beye. Tell me it wasn't so? In which case Guthrie can't play in that right of 3 central midfield position if you ask me (which i know nobody did but still )

After a couple of pre-season games? Yes that's my impression after a couple of games. If he does even better i'll revise my opinion. If he does worse i'll do likewise. What, i'm not allowed to draw comparisons until he's played 50 games for us or something am i?

His positional sense was what impressed me. That and his recovery ability. He doesn't seem the most dominant coming onto the ball heading at the moment, and he's not dynamite with the ball at his feet. But his open play positioning is already better than Tayls and Faye i would say.

with the 3rd biggest crowd and support in the country, and 14th /15th turnover [something like that] in europe ? We won't mention who created that but I'm sorry but punching that weight is what you should be expecting. http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=36320.msg712421#msg712421 http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=36320.msg714507#msg714507 Yeah but most of what I posted there about the transfers we are targetting are a cut and paste job on your opinions from 18 months ago. Why the change of heart? mackems.gif Look for posts where I've said that when they have proved real ambition I won't criticise the odd mishap ...... I've said it often. When they have proved real ambition, then fair enough. I'm not getting carried away by one [hopefully good] signing, unlike others. I can't be arsed to look for it though I'll let you do that as you seem so inclined. This is a direct reply by the way, which is more than most people make. I notice nobody is admitting that they called such signings in the past "trophy signings". Why the change of heart ? You've answered / replied to nothing tbf. Nice try at wriggling out though I spotted that post the a couple of days ago when you said you've never been this unhappy in recent memory. I asked you if you were less happy now than 18 months ago, & when you avoided the question I decided to look for your opinions at the time for myself. Just goes to show that when it comes to most of your opinions, it the person making the decision that counts rather than the decision they're making that matters. Exactly what you accuse others of. Like I said, you're wrong. Ashley will win me over when he proves real ambition, one signing doesn't do that, I'm talking real ambition, which must be higher than yours. In the meantime, I've renewed my season ticket for the next 3 years so I'm obviously more unhappy than a lot of other people. Still no answer though. And seeing as you keep banging on about it, I've renewed for 3 years upfront as well, just I don't see how its relevant to what I've asked you above. Perhaps you should read your posts I've linked to then try and answer why what was acceptable then is less acceptable now. I'll not hold my breath though. because they had proved their ambition. Simple as that. If you don't buy a ticket you won't win the raffle. And attempting to succeed and not quite getting to what you hoped for is a lot more acceptable than not attempting it at all. The situation you talk about 18 months ago still stands, so why shouldn't the reasons you mentioned then still stand? They were no longer showing any ambition 18 months ago, surely any fool can see that? Its all very well harping on about the Champions League placings they did achieve (and fair play to them for that) but when they left we were miles away from that happening again. Even you can acknowledge that? Basic fundamental number 1 requirement for a board. Back your manager, punch your weight in the transfer market. Will always stand a better chance of succeeding than a board that doesn't back their manager, and doesn't punch their weight in the transfer market. That is the basis of the point I've made since day 1. As long as they back their manager, they stood a chance of getting back among the top clubs. That means buying more than one player. Whatever the quotes say that you've found, and I repeat when Ashley has shown ambition to punch the clubs weight [which is all I'm asking for him] he'll get the same acceptance of the odd mishap that the old lot did, thats my point, and I'm sticking to it. I would put appointing the right manager a long way above that to be honest. On the second point, would you say trying to sign players like Modric, Woodgate and Colocinni shows ambition? Gordon Lee was a good appointment. So was Arthur Cox. Both pissed off [to Everton and bloody Derby - bigger club ?] because the board was s****, both underachieved at Newcastle. You will know Cox was mate , not so sure about Lee. Both those managers with a board that backed them would have done better, a lot lot better, and wouldn't have left either. Agreed.........but I don't really see any relevance to this point. Do you think Shepherd did the right thing backing Souness to the tune of £50M. And how about Ridsdale at Leeds, would you say he carried out the basic fundamental number 1 requirement when backing O'Leary? What's Ridsdale and O'Leary got to do with anything? As far as i'm aware Newcastle didn't get a) relegated, b) bankrupt and c) left for dirt in the third english division. All this talk of financial difficulty for Newcastle is unsubstantiated. Disseminated by a new board who were eager to get people on side, and could offer an opinion on something nobody else could prove. I wonder, if we really were so close to folding like a financial tonne of bricks, why was Shepherd and co so keen to hang around and fight off all the other takeover bids? Any seriously self-interested financially minded person (which the last regime clearly were, the amount they benefitted from the club in various ways) would have been out in the proverbial flash!

I agree with NE5. The phrase 'trophy signing' is stupid with negative connotations. We should be spending good money to bring in players who have the best chance of making us better than other clubs around us. Simple as that really. The Old Board went all out to get players their managers wanted (on the whole, bar Souness' claims and rumours Shepherd told SBR he couldn't have Seiteridis or Miguel but Carr instead as he's cheaper). The evidence on the New Board is so far inconclusive. I think it comes down to a fine line decision to make: do you spend slightly recklessly to get a player in, knowing your manager wants him and says he can bring success or do you miss out on a player and keep a weak squad/team as you don't want to be held to ransom, ensuring you won't achieve much and may get invovled with relegation scraps? The old board would most of the time plump for the former when push came to shove, the new board shows signs of the latter. Which is a shame as the New Board has a billionaire at its helm.

Guthrie problem is that he poses no carry threat going forward. If our CMs get it, you know they're going to pass cause they can't run with it like when we had dyer/jenas in the side. Butt can't play as a sitter when in a midfield 2, he needs someone in their to do his running contributing forward as he can't get up or down. This is exacerbated by Guthrie not getting up either, just playing in the middle or deep. Milner can't cross, has little/no off the ball movement and his first touch on the run is generally poor. Geremi can cover RB if he stops diving in. Reminds me when solano filled in their. Nothing great defensively but able to play his way out of trouble. Zoggy's got a good attitude. Did well at LB. Nothing amazing, but good for him. Guti looks quality. I'd like to see him play a little higher up the field, and try a few runs in behind his full back in teh space between CB and FB. Still early days tho. Cacapa needs more belief in himself. He goes in for challenges the same way as Rozehnal used to. As if he's only going in because he knows he should, not because he knows he's gonna batter the ball into the stands at all costs.

They're taking the p*ss!!