Mick

I'd assume that a DoF would have scouted Luque and not bought him because Michael Robinson thought he might be worth a punt.

7 of the players who played in the first league game under Souness were gone before he left the club and he was only here for around 16 months. As for how things would have turned out differently with a DoF, I think we would have scouted better players than Babayaro, Boumsong and Luque. I doubt Souness would have been forced to play Bellamy, why do you ask? Would Souness even have been appointed if a DoF had any say in the managerial appointment? I doubt that he would.

If we get relegated it will be because the manager pissed off, not because of the structure. If the manager had stayed and worked under the structure then we would not have gone down.

The structure which was put in place was to stop new managers coming in and wanting to turn around the whole playing staff. Pity it wasn't in place when Souness took over from Sir Bobby.

Speed was given loads of stick when he first arrived and was played on the wing.

I would think a 5 to 6 place improvement was possible before Keegan threw his toys out of the pram.

http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/Disciplinary/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2008/10/Beye_claim_received.htm Beye claim received Tuesday, 21 October 2008. A claim for wrongful dismissal has been received from Newcastle United defender Habib Beye. Beye was shown a red card for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity during Newcastle's match against Manchester City on Monday 20 October. A Regulatory Commission will consider the claim on Thursday 23 October. Several claims for wrongful dismissal were considered at a Regulatory Commission hearing today. The Commission rejected claims from Sheffield United's Matthew Kilgannon (three match suspension), Gillingham's Mark Bentley (three match suspension) and Macclesfield Town's Gareth Evans (four match suspension). A claim from Wycombe Wanderers' Chris Zebroski was upheld and his three-match suspension has been withdrawn.

The difference is that if it was Steve Taylor making that tackle it would have been a foul, penalty and a red card. Beye made it and the wrong decision was made by a bloke standing on the half way line.

Your post came after one by madras, not me.

I couldn't tell if it was a good tackle or not, Styles should have been closer to the area of play, lazy useless bastard that he is.

If I had to pick one of our defenders who I thought would win the ball then it would be Beye, it was an excellent tackle.

He was excellent again tonight, I don't think he put a foot wrong and was a real calm head at the back.

Poll is a daft twat, rescinding the red card will not change that.

It's got to be rescinded.

Cheating bastard ref.

That's exactly what I said, I've ripped in to him and hate seeing him in the team but tonight he's actually justified his place in the team. Andy Carroll is the new Ameobi as once again he was shocking, he makes Shola look fast.

I'm not fishing, I have loads of time for Sir Bobby so I'm pointing something out which is true. Shearergol wasn't having a go at him, what he said was true but I added a bit of perspective, nothing more.

He took the club to the CL from 13th in the league and only spent £6 million a year net, I think his spending was self financed or at least very close to it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Newcastle-Kind-Toon-Bobby-Robson/dp/0340977833/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224518011&sr=1-2 The price varies from just under £14 to £150.

I knew nothing about it until today but I will also be ordering it.

He shouldn't have gone in the summer, he should have stayed and been backed. His replacement though, I can agree with.

He should not have gone for finishing 5th or the poor start the season after, all of our problems go back to him getting sacked. I know some think his time was up with us, I don't. I'm sure if he had been given the financial backing which was given to Souness then we would have been pushing Man U instead of finishing 14th and nobody will change my mind on that. We needed to turn draws into wins, we turned them in to defeats.

If Shola starts then I don't expect a win.