Mick

It may also just suggest that he's never been used in a predatory roll, not that I think he's capable of it.

I'd only be against it if Allardyce was against it.

Keegan had been out of football for years before he came back as manager, it didn't take him long to get up to speed and he'd spent most of his time in Spain playing golf or getting beat up over here in service stations.

You might have a point.

Robbie Elliott, how did you forget him?

Do you think Keegan would ever want to become manager again? I don't, I don't think he's daft enough to put himself under that pressure again so I wouldn't think it's nearly as bad as having Shearer doing the job, I would worry for Allardyce if it was Shearer.

Agreed, and just for Kasper, i’d should have a capital "I" for it to be grammatically correct.

Keegan being spineless wouldn't come into it as the pressure would still be on the manager, I don't think Allardyce would have anything to worry about either as I doubt Keegan would be a threat, he's done it and moved on. I wouldn't like to see Keegan ever return as manager but I think he could do a job bringing players in. I doubt anybody could sell the club to prospective signings better than Keegan, he didn't have a bad record here. He's also be good with the press if the manager was ever in trouble because of results, I can't see why people wouldn't want him here.

Keegan is one person who would get Ashley to splash the cash.

Good move, him or Sir Bobby would have both been ideal.

The last thing I heard about the resignations at Bolton was the Bolton Chairman saying they had 1 year contracts so would have to honour them, I don't know if they called his bluff. As for how Mort and Allardyce get on, they seemed comfortable with each other when we played Celtic. Did Allardyce not say that they were in daily contact but not always face to face?

It could be a plus point, I really think that we'll benefit for having someone who isn't a fan and who can distance himself before making decisions.

Financial backing is no good if it brings the wrong people in, we've spent almost nil so far and have brought 4 players in, I'm more than happy that the 4 people we have brought in will do a job for us. I want to see more coming in but I'd rather see another 4 come in for next to nothing than some of the shit we've paid over the odds for in the past. I expect the Chairman to back the manager as much as he can and I think he will, it may not be this transfer window but I'm sure they want what's best for the club as they own it so have a lot at stake. You say you'll be happy if Ashley backs the manager, I'll also be happy if he does that because we look as if we've got a manager who can take us forward, time will tell on that one. If we don't look as if we're showing ambition at the minute then I'll accept it, that's not to say that I would accept it if it became the norm. I don't have a hatred of Shepherd, I just don't want him running the club because he's made a pigs ear of it, what he's said to the press isn't something I've taken personally, I take it as a sign of us having an idiot running the club, only an idiot would repeatedly get caught out in the way he did, you've just said yourself that he was daft. I don't think it's impossible to appoint the wrong manager, once is a mistake but to do it so often should have people questioning his ability to get it right, something he probably has done with his last one, that'll be two that will have turned out to be right, 4 that have turned out to be wrong, that’s a hell of a failure rate, a failure rate that I wouldn't get away with at work, why should he get away with it?

Shepherd and Allardyce didn't have long to work together as Shepherd was in Hospital within days of his appointment, he was seen on TV at the Allardyce press conference in pain so how would Allardyce be able to make up his mind if he liked working with Shepherd or not? Allardyce isn't at Newcastle to run the club so he wouldn't need help with that anyway and from what I'm aware he's been given all the help he's asked for as we've appointed the people that Allardyce has asked for, contracts permitting. I get the impression that Chris Mort is not a 24/7 chairman at the minute because he's still got commitments to Freshfields, he's not taking on anything new but he's finishing what he was involved with. Normally if you take on a new employee you have to wait until they have worked a period of notice, Mort didn't, he came in from day 1, that doesn't mean on that day he was finished with his previous employer, I also think that has something to do with him becoming vice-Chairman while he reduced his work-load in London.

I agree with most of that anyway, a lot of people were sick of the shit football and the way the club were being run, a lot also kept going because they still enjoyed it although it was as much for the day out as much as any expectations of how well we were going to do. It still doesn't change the fact that our gates were not shit and were much better than they should have been, they were better than quite a few of those on the top division. It also doesn't make our current gates an endorsement of Shepherd as he was clearly unpopular yet people still went. You've just said that those who stopped going had higher ambition, is that why you're happy to support Shepherd, because you don't have high ambition? Last season was the first time in years that our gates had dropped, does that mean people thought Shepherd was shit?

Excellent, enlighten us.

Why do you think?

Scottish teams will never play league football in England, too many people would be against it.

In 1991 we were in the old 2nd Division, the teams listed below were all in the 1st (top) division. why was this ? Why was the share issue aborted ? Why was there so little interest the club couldn't even sell 2.5m worth of shares ? shot yourself in the foot, predictably. Why were Leeds, Chelsea and Liverpool getting higher gates than we were, at the time you mention, but don't now ? You are getting into that area where you are going to claim that Newcastle United needed the sky TV money to exist in the premiership, and get above the likes of Oxford, Southampton, Swindon, Oldham, Ipswich, Port Vale, Hull, Watford, Plymouth, Barnsley, Brighton, QPR, Millwall, Charlton, Luton, Norwich, Bristol City, Millwall, Notts County, Bristol Rovers etc were ALL above us in the league during the period when we were in the old 2nd division ? You're a bigger joke than ever, for making such a pathetic, and stupid claim. If you aren't then please tell us how this was the case anyway ? What is the point of you ? bump I'm surprised you bumped that without editing some of those teams who we had to "get above" when they were never actually above us anyway. I'm also surprised that you bumped a post where you were asking about our poor crowds before Hall & Shepherd only to be shown that most other clubs were also having problems with lack of crowds.

Great piece as in great reading for NUFC fans? icnewcastle have a story about Ashley having a bad time with SDI so it could be something along those lines. http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0500business/businessnews/tm_headline=sdi-fails-to-score-with-city%26method=full%26objectid=19534951%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

Excellent, nobody would have noticed if it wasn't for the upper case.

I can't remember Ginola getting clattered all of the time, I remember him jumping as if he had springs in his boots any time he was tackled.

The same could have been said about Ginola, it didn't stop him from being a good player for us.

What sort of ratio of goals to games does Luque have since coming here? I bet it's not bad.