Kitman

Agreed. People's views on this will be coloured by whether they think he was forced out or "bottled" it. Personally I believe he was misled from the outset re transfers and his position was made untenable. I think he has every right to sue the club in that case and I don't think any the less of him for it, I would do exactly the same in his shoes. He is not stealing from the fans' pocket - Ashley owns the club not us - and this should not affect transfer funds one jot (I'm cynical over whether any money will be spent one way or another anyway). I wish it wasn't happening but the responsibility lies with Ashley imo.

I'm gutted he's gone. He was doing a great job taking them back to the Championship. Hopefully they'll get in an equally inept replacement, a la Howard Wilkinson.

I don't agree with a word of this tbh.

What have we got to do with him? He'd have more credibility if he didn't look like a giant tangerine with a mullet

Were you and your ex-lass together at the time? Or did you go round to watch the match, drink the old man's ale and sleep it off? Did they even know you were in the house?

Why not? £18m extra TV revenue in 07-08, no interest payments to make, reduced wage bill, money from advance season ticket sales. Where has all the money gone? I don't think there is any doubt that Ashley had the idea to find players at low cost and sell them on. As Johnnypd also said, a few announcements made over a year ago clearly signalled this intent. Which is really no good to a club like us. Its behaving like a 2nd rate club, not the big progressive club which we ought to be. Which leads me on to bobyule's comment about "throwing money at big name players". What do you think the other clubs do, do they or do they not buy "big name players". What is the fixation that some of you people have with this attitude that you don't want the club to buy top footballers, then you say on the other hand that we are one of the biggest clubs in the country. What a small time attitude. I can guarantee you one thing, a few more years of Ashley, and you will be screaming for the club to buy these so called "trophy players", or "big name players" again, just like the other trophy winners do. You have seen where the penny pinching leads. Its already lost the manager who could have put us back whereabouts he did the first time, you still haven't learned. What a load of cliche ridden bollocks. Only a few people opposed the sale of Milner, given the fee, and fair enough they are entitled to their opinion of him as a player and his worth. But any progressive club would have handed the manager the money - at least - and told him to go out and buy someone to strengthen the team elsewhere with it, being that Guittierez had came in and was ready to take Milners place. Good scouting ? Of course it is, but poor reactions. To put a slightly different way, it makes good sense to scout and sign good prospects but they won't develop into top footballers overnight. In the meantime you have to have a squad fit to compete and that costs money unless you have a reserve team stuffed full of talent, which we didn't. it was obvious to everyone, including every manager from Roeder onwards, that the squad was thin and needed building up and that needed investment. We haven't invested enough on players for the first team, it's that simple.

In all probability it's gone on ill advised spread betting or lucky number 13 at the Golden Nugget, with a kebab for afters with the money left over

iirc even his own team mates called him Fathead.

I agree. Kinnear deserves credit for what he's done. However a run of bad results and injuries/suspensions and we'll be firmly in the clarts. I think we're on a knife edge personally, we need some luck in the year's remaining matches and we need to sign a few ready made players to boost the squad. Not of the Dean Windass/Stephen Carr variety either. I agree man but I don't know how bad you want our injuries to be, yet again we are top of that league currently with 7 (9 a couple of weeks ago). It couldn't get much worse,touch wood, with our thin squad. Jay-sus, wasn't aware we still had quite so may out. Still I take issue with your "It couldn't get much worse" comment - this is NUFC, it can always get worse

I agree. Kinnear deserves credit for what he's done. However a run of bad results and injuries/suspensions and we'll be firmly in the clarts. I think we're on a knife edge personally, we need some luck in the year's remaining matches and we need to sign a few ready made players to boost the squad. Not of the Dean Windass/Stephen Carr variety either.

Fat, substandard and always injured. What a waste of money. With Babayaro surely the worst value full back pairing in the history of the premiership. I expect they had to buy a new physio couch after he left on account of the large arse shaped indentation he left in it. He can now look forward to years of pub football, having already acquired the perfect physique for it. No doubt the left winger will still merrily skip past him as he tries in vain to foul them and isn't quick enough to do it.

There's offensive chanting at most footy matches. That's hardly news tbh.

Martins [ERRATIC], Owen [iNJURY PRONE], Viduka [VERY INJURY PRONE], Ameobi [PLAYS LIKE HE'S SERIOUSLY INJURED], Smith [CRAP], Xisco [NEEDS EXPERIENCE], Carroll [RECOVERING FROM INJURY/RESERVE PLAYER] for the two strikers roles Butt [PAST IT], Guthrie [AVERAGE], Geremi [PAST IT], Barton [NUTTER] for the two CM roles. Beye, Enrique for the two full back roles. Aye, we need a striker...... Let's face it, we desperately need players all over the park except GK.

Or maybe he's just a rubbish owner?

Yes. FWIW, I still think he'd be better than JFK, but the dream's died for everyone including Keegan now, time to move on

The end is nigh. Whi ch is a shame, I think he's doing a great job

No

I think that's an intriguing point. Why is it he's never had a real chance under these managers in his best position? And they've consistently preferred the underperforming Duff?

True, but everyone knows they've got problems, and so far addressing them in house has done fuk all. He's trying to seek action and stir emotions by going public, could turn out to be the kick up the arse Arsenal need, could turn out to by another blow, either way, its probably better than coasting along with baggage and problem makers in camp. Sweeping s*** under the carpet just leads to a lumpy carpet, he's French and a loony, his reaction is typical of him, don't make him captain if you don't like how he goes on, but it is a reaction and it could be what Arsenal need. It's probably an upgrade on the Joey Barton way of sorting things out. Still if he was properly French he'd sit them all down in a cafe and force them to smoke Gitanes and talk about existentialism until it was sorted. Or something.

Somehow Gallas comes across as a bit of a loon to me. It's probably that terrible mohican style haircut he had :colo:. That and the radgee attack on the ref (both last season I think)

I can't see how Shearer would want the job under the current set-up. It would require Ashley to make a complete U-turn on the issue that KK resigned over. If Ashley can't or won't sell, it seems more likely to me JFK will stay to the end of the season or we'll end up with someone like O'Leary, George Graham or maybe even Terry Venables on a 3 year deal. I fear for the future

Hopefully they will allow some vaseline to be applied before our ringpieces are mercilessly ripped to bits. I salute anyone who travels to see this match.

I'm not surprised if in the current economic climate some lads decide it's not worth it. I expect some people have gone further and further into debt to pay for a season ticket in the past and had enough. Given the shit they've been served up on a regular basis from Souness onwards, the lack of communication from the club under Ashley, the lack of exciting signings in the summer, and the contempt Sky have for fans in general, it's no surprise to me. Plus my impression is that the club has done fuck all for years to attract kids, other than dressing two wankers up in bird suits, and are only doing something now in a bid to fill the empty seats. The owners have lways gone on about the wonderful fans, but they've not given a shit really, and can't complain now when people stay away imo. Like NE5 says, at least FFS put his money where his mouth was.

Why do we need a DoF structure unless we are going to keep appointing crap managers? I can see you really need it when you don't trust the manager to make decent transfer decisions and expect him to be through the revolving door within a season or so. If we had a decent manager you wouldn't need fancy structures to provide continuity or make signings. By all means get a decent scouting system to support them and put proper investment into the youth set-up to back fill the lack of young talent, but you don't need a DoF for that. The main problem with the Shepherds & Halls was their choice of manager imo. Like Role Model, the only appointments I really didn't want were Souness and Roeder. Souness had disaster written all over him and we've never recovered. We need a long term appointment to do the same job as SBR or Moyes at Everton in building the club up, that was the idea of Allardyce I think. We don't need a DoF to do that imo. We probably need to move on from Keegan for the same reason. Would love to have seen what would have happened if he'd been in sole charge with the sort of net spend Souness enjoyed though.

Crumpy Gunt seems to have a similar approach but I'm not really too sure if it's too far from what they're really thinking in any case. Personally I don't like either attitude towards Keegan, whether it's belittling his past service to this club (which is massive and unrivalled) or believing he is infallible or incapable of putting himself first before the club. It's perfectly possible, of course, to give due credit to what he did for the club in the past, whilst acknowledging his faults at the same time. He was the right man for the job in 1992, and the wrong man in 2008. Funny because he very much felt like the right man for the job as we were thrashing Spurs away 4-1 or drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford. People seem unable to or willing to concede that while walking out hasn't helped matters which I agree with by the way, the people really at fault are those that caused him to take such action and are therefore the wrong people for this club. Do you know exactly what happened behind the scenes at NUFC this summer? Its simple, you appoint a manager and you back that man 100%. They didn't so are at fault. I don't really care about the details. All I know is a very good manager who had the team going in the right direction and enjoyed the rare unanimous backing of fans (a crucial ingredient here at Newcastle) didn't get the support his position as manager demanded for reasons yes we can only really speculate on but still, have proved very costly for this club. KK would walk 10 times out of 10 if not backed 100% or if undermined which has obviously happened for him to quit a job no-one can deny he obviously loved doing. Any manager worth their salt would walk. Fergie would be out the door tomorrow if Man Utd sold Ronaldo behind his back or signed a player without consulting him. Wenger too. Most would. Regardless of KK walking, the people who run our club haven't done anything that suggests they are the right people for the club, before and since. Prior to KK being apointed, the Ashley enjoyed what I'd call good will from fans which meant he didn't really have to do anything of note to have our support and that's exactly what he did - nothing of note. When he brought KK back it was something of note. It showed ambition and a sense of wanting what we want but he didn't back it up resulting in his moment of glory if you like proving to be nothing but an empty gesture. If Ashley were the right man for this club he'd have resolved this a long time ago now and KK would still be our manager. All KK asked for was to be backed which I think he had a damn right to not only expect but demand as the manager, a good manager, proving himself out on the pitch where it matters. For whatever reason which I have said I don't really care about (the details), Ashley did not support the man he appointed 100% and I find that incomprehensible especially factoring the total none entities that survived. As far as I'm concerned if he rates Wise more important to his club than KK then why the f*** didn't he make Wise manager before he went for KK. The answer, he doesn't have a clue. Stick to selling cheap clobber Mike. Btw not backing your manager, the man you appoint, its like us not getting behind the team despite claiming to be fans of the club. Not on. Very well said and i agree entirely . This sums up my feelings too. This 'system' has done fuck all for the club. I know what KK's done however, as a player and a manager.