Offshore

Lets not get too carried away about out-singing or the non-singing of Liverpool fans eh. Plenty of times at SJP we've had the away fans singing 'shall we sing a song for you' as its been as flat as a fart.

On its own, i'd say no. But it would be a good start, Hindsight is a wonderful thing but i'd say that 'if' Mort had still been here when it all kicked off then this (Ashley v fans) wouldn't have lasted as long, if at all, as it has. One of the worst things that the club did or didn't do in the immediate aftermath of KK going was giving us nothing to go on, no comment, no press release. Don't think that side of things would have been neglected under Mort.

The quotes they've used are just from that Countdown thing. Kn'ell, had a dyslexic moment....for some reason thought that was Ashley!!

No quotes from anyone connected with NUSC. Just a shit-stirring article. (still don't agree with NUSC's aims though, but fairs fair.)

Ince or no Ince its hardly surprising Blackburn have been struggling. Tough job to match the season that Hughes had last season after two of their three best players left (Freidel & Bentley).

He obviously hasn't heard the excuse that it's supposed to be about Richard Reid. If thats the best the lawyer can come up with, then he's an idiot.

We're worse. The better team doesn't always win. What is this, nursery school? Well you said it's not beyond the realm of possibility for us to win. It is, because we couldn't even beat Stoke at home. I can't see us winning any time soon. Howay man, its not that bad - just seems like it after that 2nd half!! If we're that bad we wouldn't have taken a two goal lead in the first place, or even drew away at Chelsea or beat Villa. We had a run of 13 league games last season without winning, so its a bit early to right us off yet. This is one of the most even leagues for years, everyone is capable of getting something from everyone (top 4 or so excepted)

Jonas has the engine to suggest that he'd be more than suited to 4-3-3 as he can and does track back. Its the other two I can't make my mind up about. Geremi's got no legs so he'd be stuck in the centre, decent delivery, but immoblile and the Zog only goes one way. It may seem odd but perhaps having Duff instead of the Zog would make it work better, and i'd have Guthrie (or Butt) in the centre. But i'll have probably changed my mind about it again tomorrow night (again).

We'll have chances to score in this one, Portsmouth aren't the same team they were last year. Don't think JFK will make the same subs/tactical mistake as last week, so i'll go for a 2-0 win.

Need Barton or another competent midfielder for that, although if its a toss up between going 4-3-3 with what we've got now and what we had out the 2nd half, then lets go for it. I thought Geremi would half do a decent job in the centre. 'Half' being the operative word. Jokes aside, all of our centre midfielders have some sort of major'ish fault - pace. Geremi, the mind is willing but the legs are shot. Butt is canny good defensively but takes too long to decide what to do with the ball then loses it. Guthrie is probably the best out of that bunch (imo) but is still learning, not blessed with pace and can get bullied quite easily, but would probably last 90mins. If we 'had' to go 4-3-3 then i'd put Guthrie in with Jonas and Zog/Duff (depending on who we're playing). But for me i'd stick with 4-4-2 until we had Barton back as it would compensate for the lack of drive we have.

Need Barton or another competent midfielder for that, although if its a toss up between going 4-3-3 with what we've got now and what we had out the 2nd half, then lets go for it.

You're right on the money, HTT - good to see that there are at least a FEW realists on this board. I made the same comment about Villa on the '80% Chance of keeping Owen' thread a few days ago, and was told to Piss Off by Asipith,who found support in Bobyule.... Lets see who is right in a few weeks.....OR months. The only thing i'd agree about that is the fee amount. Ashley may well be intend on getting as much cash for himself as he can, selling Owen increases the chance of relegation so it doesn't make sense to get £5-7m in Jan and risk losing £50-100m in the summer if/when we go down because we couldn't score enough goals. He may be daft but he's not that stupid.

I'm a bit late to this party like, but what late reversals? As far as I can see, its only the Stoke game where we've drawn after leading that had Martins being subbed before the opposition equalised. Someone else (O Nut) got it, mountain being made out of a molehill.

Does the statement say that the chant against Mido was racist, in fact does it specify any match? No, the club statement is a reiteration of the clubs anti-racism policy.

Wouldn't expect Viduka to have 90mins in him yet, so i'd start 4-3-3, then if/when he tires go back to 4-4-2. Can't decide who i'd want as the midfield 3 yet though.

OK, I don't see any Racism in that. It's interpreted, quite understandably, as the negative stereotype which says muslims = terrorists. Racism is the wrong word because Islam isn't a "race", but it's the same kind of bigotry: taking a negative characteristic from one or some and applying it to all members of a human category. "All them blacks/Jews/Muslims is lazy/miserly/terrorists." Why weren't the Newcastle fans singing it at Tuncay? Yeah, great excuse. "It can't be prejudice because it was only directed at one guy." And why do you think it was directed at one guy, and one guy only. Could it possibly be the fact that (pre-haircut) he had a passing resemblence to a Mr Richard Reid, something that had already been picked up by other football club supporters and the press? You can chunder on about Richard Reid to your heart's content, but anyone looking at this is going to deal with the words that were actually said. Ok then, why don't you tell us all why Mido was singled out last year then if it wasn't anything to do with looking like Richard Reid? f*** knows how these morons think. But if they hadn't realised after last year that the chant would cause this kind of trouble, then they deserve what they get. I've got no sympathy for any knuckle-dragger who brings the club into this kind of disrepute. Make your mind up, are you up in arms because you think its racist, or because of the impact it had last season? Mountain out of a molehill this, similarities with Brand/Ross v Sachs, ambulance chasers out in force.

OK, I don't see any Racism in that. It's interpreted, quite understandably, as the negative stereotype which says muslims = terrorists. Racism is the wrong word because Islam isn't a "race", but it's the same kind of bigotry: taking a negative characteristic from one or some and applying it to all members of a human category. "All them blacks/Jews/Muslims is lazy/miserly/terrorists." Why weren't the Newcastle fans singing it at Tuncay? Yeah, great excuse. "It can't be prejudice because it was only directed at one guy." And why do you think it was directed at one guy, and one guy only. Could it possibly be the fact that (pre-haircut) he had a passing resemblence to a Mr Richard Reid, something that had already been picked up by other football club supporters and the press? You can chunder on about Richard Reid to your heart's content, but anyone looking at this is going to deal with the words that were actually said. Ok then, why don't you tell us all why Mido was singled out last year then if it wasn't anything to do with looking like Richard Reid?

OK, I don't see any Racism in that. It's interpreted, quite understandably, as the negative stereotype which says muslims = terrorists. Racism is the wrong word because Islam isn't a "race", but it's the same kind of bigotry: taking a negative characteristic from one or some and applying it to all members of a human category. "All them blacks/Jews/Muslims is lazy/miserly/terrorists." Why weren't the Newcastle fans singing it at Tuncay? Yeah, great excuse. "It can't be prejudice because it was only directed at one guy." And why do you think it was directed at one guy, and one guy only. Could it possibly be the fact that (pre-haircut) he had a passing resemblence to a Mr Richard Reid, something that had already been picked up by other football club supporters and the press?

Out of curiosity what have these 2 been charged with then? Racial chanting. But what were those two chanting to get lifted?

Fair cop.

Who? Tuncay? Beye? Richard Reid? *ballz, Greg quicker on the draw!!* EUFA, the FA, the Police, the media, NUFC (vide the statement) and me. And those above too, possibly. Even this is not an exhaustive list. Eufa, the FA, and NUFC are all, and should be, anti-racist. If someone says they've been the subject of racist abuse on or in a ground then they are duty bound to act and investigate - which usually starts with a reiteration of their standing on racism. This would be 'before' the investigation, if there is indeed one by all three, begins to actually look into what actually happened. Same noises were made last year, and despite the outrage shown by those with an agenda (supporters of other clubs, journo's etc) nothing was found against the fans or club.

Who? Tuncay? Beye? Richard Reid? *ballz, Greg quicker on the draw!!*

Can't believe some of the bollox in this thread. Look, it wasn't a racist chant last year, and it wasn't one this. Just because 'some' jumped up and down about it last year doesn't make it wrong to sing it (fleetingly) this. Clever is isn't, original is isn't, funny it isn't, racist it isn't.

It'll come down to interpretation. KK will say they over-stepped, and the club will say they didn't. Both probably really believe they are in the right and the other is wrong. If the club thought KK had a watertight case they'd have made moves to settle by now.

I'm pretty confident Keegan knows exactly what he's doing and he knows how strong a case he has. He had the LMA onside from day one of this fiasco. The LMA will back a manager if asked to. They don't know the other sides story either.