STM

If he's a direct replacement for Dyer then i will be happy. If he and Dyer leaving aren't connected then i will be worried with how Big Sam is utilising his transfer funds. Time will tell i suppose but i'm not against signing Smith.

We know fook all about him but he's versitile, experianced and seemingly rated by a good club so he does tick a few boxes. Lets hope this one doesn't slip through the net.

The hit the target three times in the whole match. Only twice did Given have a real save to make. Nedved was good and Iaquinta looked dangerous but apart from that they were very average.

I love this guy!

Robinson Vidic Carragher Dawson Evra Milner Lampard Gilberto Bentley Owen Berbatov I think you will all agree a spiffing side.

Good lad, it cheered me up. Although currently my first 11 would be: Given Nobby Rozehnal Taylor Zoggy Butt Barton Geremi Milner Viduka Owen

The chronicle is fairly useless. I have no idea whether the echo is any good but you could understand why they would be interested in the story due to the everton link. The Echo reckoned Everton had signed Emre and Parker ahead of us Ha, like i say i can only say how accurate he ronny is. Have no idea about Liverpool.

I'm a massive fan of Gudjohnsen but we plain and simply don't need him. However, we dont particulalry need smith either.

I don't trust anyone..... accept Sam hahahaha.

The chronicle is fairly useless. I have no idea whether the echo is any good but you could understand why they would be interested in the story due to the everton link.

Theres another one gone.

IF we are after smith for 6m then it makes me think Allardyce would rather go into the season without more faces in defence if there not good enough. I wouldn't be suprised if it turned out we are getting smith on the cheap. 6m just doesn't make sense.

Personally i think that Shepard was a good buisnessman. I don't think he was particularly great at his job but if he was terrible we wouldn't be in the premiership. He gave money to his managers and often made some controversial descions. I don't know anything about Ashley or Mort, therefore the jury is still out.

Fair enough, but you've yet again completely ignored the relevant points that numerous people have made about the very recent takeover, the club's debt, the difficulty we might be having attracting players, etc. It's a waste of time looking at things on such a simplistic level, man. Ashley de-listed the club 12 days ago and alright, we might not have money in the immediate short-term while this infamous "review" is undertaken and while things are sorted out from top-to-bottom (I notice the board are backing Allardyce's backroom rebuilding plans, which won't be exactly "cheap" and which people seem to completely be ignoring while they claim he's going to be forced out.) Where is it written that you absolutely positively need to spend big, solid money to do well/build a solid foundation? Surely you can appreciate it that it might take more than 12 days (or a month or two at the most since they started buying shares/taking full control) to come in and decided what route to take a multi-million pound business. As Gemmill said, it's unfortunate that it's happened in the summer and it's perhaps "unfortunate" that the likes of Man City don't seem to be suffering the same problems, but perhaps they're not doing things the right way and we are. How many of us were calling for a massive upheaval at this football club just a few short months ago? Well we're getting it and people still aren't f****** happy because we're not doing that AND spending millions at the same time. Beggars belief and shows us up as supporters. Call it simplistic if you want but it's equally simplistic to assume more money couldn't have been provided, or to assume that we haven't signed players simply because none want to come to Newcastle. Cheap dig tbh. I haven't ignored the points made about the takeover or the club's debt, I've chosen to comment on actual quotes from the manager and facts such as the minimal spending on defence which goes back years at this club and the very limited options we have less than 2 weeks before the season's opener. I didn't say we need to spend big. Apologies if you think a bit of healthy scepticism shows you up as a supporter. I'll be as happy as the next man if I see us signing good defenders, but making excuses for the board without knowing any of the circumstances is pointless IMO. Agree with this, not spending on defenders will just push us further behind. But we are going to buy defenders. Mort, Ashley and Sam aren't stupid enough to let this window close without us at least getting the numbers in. It's a myth that you need to spend big on defenders though. Look at Rozehnal (so far). If he keeps it up it's a hell of a buy for peanuts. Agreed. I think there is alot of worrying going on a little to early. Obviously we need defenders but if there is anyone who i trust to get them in it is Allardyce, money or no money. Nothing worse than blind faith, you sound as bad as the Villa fans with their "MON the saviour" bollocks. Yes there is, consistent pessimism. Your getting all hot and bothered because we kick off in two weeks and we haven't got a left back in yet. How many times has he come out and said we need new defenders? Yet for some reason you think your complaints stand out above everyone elses and are making a difference. He knows his football, he also knows about the problems that our club has. So why not let him get on with his job FFS. When we kick off then you can up your complaints. There's a difference between getting anyone in to make up the numbers and getting someone in who's a big improvement on Babayaro, which is what we should be aiming for. You came out with a quote yesterday like "In Sam I trust" like you're some kind of f****** sheep with no opinion of your own. Sheep? Making insults towards people you don't know? Okay mate. I trust Sam Allardyce. Nothing wrong with that is there? He's a good manager and he knows the problems we have. No opinion of my own? Whats that got to do with anything? I have many opinions just clearly you just don't agree with them. In future when someone disagrees with you try debating it instead of an attempt to start mindless arguements. We both want this club to succeed don't we? How can you have a debate with someone who's opinion consists of "In Sam I trust"? Basically your only opinion is that you're happy to follow Allardyce in whatever he does without questioning him or the way he does things. Brummie on here made one of the best comments on the subject I've seen in a while... "Faith is excellent, blind faith is naive and dangerous, and that, for me, is why we need to maintain this healthy scepticism."...He's spot on too. First of all, the only thing that i have stated is that i trust Sam Allardyce, correct? No more no less. Now if your telling me that i'm wrong in that trust then okay. Your fully entitled to question my judgement. However, what your saying is that i have "blind faith" in Sam Allardyce, implying that i think he can do no wrong. Not once have i stated that i think this, therefore you have made a poor assumption. I could go into much detail about what i think he could improve on and what he could have done better so far. Would you agree that he has a good record in transfer window? It's because of this and the fact he has pointed out our defensive deficiancies on many occasions that i believe he will get the right people in. If you disagree thats no problem to me, just don't assume that i have "blind faith" in him as a manager.

Yeah, 'cos that thing is fact-filled, isn't it? There both a load of shite to be honest.

Fair enough, but you've yet again completely ignored the relevant points that numerous people have made about the very recent takeover, the club's debt, the difficulty we might be having attracting players, etc. It's a waste of time looking at things on such a simplistic level, man. Ashley de-listed the club 12 days ago and alright, we might not have money in the immediate short-term while this infamous "review" is undertaken and while things are sorted out from top-to-bottom (I notice the board are backing Allardyce's backroom rebuilding plans, which won't be exactly "cheap" and which people seem to completely be ignoring while they claim he's going to be forced out.) Where is it written that you absolutely positively need to spend big, solid money to do well/build a solid foundation? Surely you can appreciate it that it might take more than 12 days (or a month or two at the most since they started buying shares/taking full control) to come in and decided what route to take a multi-million pound business. As Gemmill said, it's unfortunate that it's happened in the summer and it's perhaps "unfortunate" that the likes of Man City don't seem to be suffering the same problems, but perhaps they're not doing things the right way and we are. How many of us were calling for a massive upheaval at this football club just a few short months ago? Well we're getting it and people still aren't f****** happy because we're not doing that AND spending millions at the same time. Beggars belief and shows us up as supporters. Call it simplistic if you want but it's equally simplistic to assume more money couldn't have been provided, or to assume that we haven't signed players simply because none want to come to Newcastle. Cheap dig tbh. I haven't ignored the points made about the takeover or the club's debt, I've chosen to comment on actual quotes from the manager and facts such as the minimal spending on defence which goes back years at this club and the very limited options we have less than 2 weeks before the season's opener. I didn't say we need to spend big. Apologies if you think a bit of healthy scepticism shows you up as a supporter. I'll be as happy as the next man if I see us signing good defenders, but making excuses for the board without knowing any of the circumstances is pointless IMO. Agree with this, not spending on defenders will just push us further behind. But we are going to buy defenders. Mort, Ashley and Sam aren't stupid enough to let this window close without us at least getting the numbers in. It's a myth that you need to spend big on defenders though. Look at Rozehnal (so far). If he keeps it up it's a hell of a buy for peanuts. Agreed. I think there is alot of worrying going on a little to early. Obviously we need defenders but if there is anyone who i trust to get them in it is Allardyce, money or no money. Nothing worse than blind faith, you sound as bad as the Villa fans with their "MON the saviour" bollocks. Yes there is, consistent pessimism. Your getting all hot and bothered because we kick off in two weeks and we haven't got a left back in yet. How many times has he come out and said we need new defenders? Yet for some reason you think your complaints stand out above everyone elses and are making a difference. He knows his football, he also knows about the problems that our club has. So why not let him get on with his job FFS. When we kick off then you can up your complaints. There's a difference between getting anyone in to make up the numbers and getting someone in who's a big improvement on Babayaro, which is what we should be aiming for. You came out with a quote yesterday like "In Sam I trust" like you're some kind of f****** sheep with no opinion of your own. Sheep? Making insults towards people you don't know? Okay mate. I trust Sam Allardyce. Nothing wrong with that is there? He's a good manager and he knows the problems we have. No opinion of my own? Whats that got to do with anything? I have many opinions just clearly you just don't agree with them. In future when someone disagrees with you try debating it instead of an attempt to start mindless arguements. We both want this club to succeed don't we?

Fair enough, but you've yet again completely ignored the relevant points that numerous people have made about the very recent takeover, the club's debt, the difficulty we might be having attracting players, etc. It's a waste of time looking at things on such a simplistic level, man. Ashley de-listed the club 12 days ago and alright, we might not have money in the immediate short-term while this infamous "review" is undertaken and while things are sorted out from top-to-bottom (I notice the board are backing Allardyce's backroom rebuilding plans, which won't be exactly "cheap" and which people seem to completely be ignoring while they claim he's going to be forced out.) Where is it written that you absolutely positively need to spend big, solid money to do well/build a solid foundation? Surely you can appreciate it that it might take more than 12 days (or a month or two at the most since they started buying shares/taking full control) to come in and decided what route to take a multi-million pound business. As Gemmill said, it's unfortunate that it's happened in the summer and it's perhaps "unfortunate" that the likes of Man City don't seem to be suffering the same problems, but perhaps they're not doing things the right way and we are. How many of us were calling for a massive upheaval at this football club just a few short months ago? Well we're getting it and people still aren't f****** happy because we're not doing that AND spending millions at the same time. Beggars belief and shows us up as supporters. Call it simplistic if you want but it's equally simplistic to assume more money couldn't have been provided, or to assume that we haven't signed players simply because none want to come to Newcastle. Cheap dig tbh. I haven't ignored the points made about the takeover or the club's debt, I've chosen to comment on actual quotes from the manager and facts such as the minimal spending on defence which goes back years at this club and the very limited options we have less than 2 weeks before the season's opener. I didn't say we need to spend big. Apologies if you think a bit of healthy scepticism shows you up as a supporter. I'll be as happy as the next man if I see us signing good defenders, but making excuses for the board without knowing any of the circumstances is pointless IMO. Agree with this, not spending on defenders will just push us further behind. But we are going to buy defenders. Mort, Ashley and Sam aren't stupid enough to let this window close without us at least getting the numbers in. It's a myth that you need to spend big on defenders though. Look at Rozehnal (so far). If he keeps it up it's a hell of a buy for peanuts. Agreed. I think there is alot of worrying going on a little to early. Obviously we need defenders but if there is anyone who i trust to get them in it is Allardyce, money or no money. Nothing worse than blind faith, you sound as bad as the Villa fans with their "MON the saviour" bollocks. Yes there is, consistent pessimism. Your getting all hot and bothered because we kick off in two weeks and we haven't got a left back in yet. How many times has he come out and said we need new defenders? Yet for some reason you think your complaints stand out above everyone elses and are making a difference. He knows his football, he also knows about the problems that our club has. So why not let him get on with his job FFS. When we kick off then you can up your complaints.

Spot on, boils my piss too. Make that a third, i didn't see much evidence of weight watchers.

Stop being bitchy. You know an arguement has come to an end when it comes down to "i'm a bigger fan than you". Fucking hell i used to do that in the playground when i was 5.

Fair enough, but you've yet again completely ignored the relevant points that numerous people have made about the very recent takeover, the club's debt, the difficulty we might be having attracting players, etc. It's a waste of time looking at things on such a simplistic level, man. Ashley de-listed the club 12 days ago and alright, we might not have money in the immediate short-term while this infamous "review" is undertaken and while things are sorted out from top-to-bottom (I notice the board are backing Allardyce's backroom rebuilding plans, which won't be exactly "cheap" and which people seem to completely be ignoring while they claim he's going to be forced out.) Where is it written that you absolutely positively need to spend big, solid money to do well/build a solid foundation? Surely you can appreciate it that it might take more than 12 days (or a month or two at the most since they started buying shares/taking full control) to come in and decided what route to take a multi-million pound business. As Gemmill said, it's unfortunate that it's happened in the summer and it's perhaps "unfortunate" that the likes of Man City don't seem to be suffering the same problems, but perhaps they're not doing things the right way and we are. How many of us were calling for a massive upheaval at this football club just a few short months ago? Well we're getting it and people still aren't f****** happy because we're not doing that AND spending millions at the same time. Beggars belief and shows us up as supporters. Call it simplistic if you want but it's equally simplistic to assume more money couldn't have been provided, or to assume that we haven't signed players simply because none want to come to Newcastle. Cheap dig tbh. I haven't ignored the points made about the takeover or the club's debt, I've chosen to comment on actual quotes from the manager and facts such as the minimal spending on defence which goes back years at this club and the very limited options we have less than 2 weeks before the season's opener. I didn't say we need to spend big. Apologies if you think a bit of healthy scepticism shows you up as a supporter. I'll be as happy as the next man if I see us signing good defenders, but making excuses for the board without knowing any of the circumstances is pointless IMO. Agree with this, not spending on defenders will just push us further behind. But we are going to buy defenders. Mort, Ashley and Sam aren't stupid enough to let this window close without us at least getting the numbers in. It's a myth that you need to spend big on defenders though. Look at Rozehnal (so far). If he keeps it up it's a hell of a buy for peanuts. Agreed. I think there is alot of worrying going on a little to early. Obviously we need defenders but if there is anyone who i trust to get them in it is Allardyce, money or no money.

As I said, but having a board who's manager is coming out in the press and saying "they know nothing about football" doesn't look too good does it ? I didn't expect Ashley to bankroll the club, unlike others, but this could be a bad situation. They have got to wise up, and you have to face the real possibility that they may not have the ambition you thought they would. Time will tell. I don't have any preconceptions about them, that's the whole point. I didn't buy into this "£50M budget", "unlimited fee for a megastar" stuff and I don't buy into the fact that Allardyce is now getting nothing. I can understand people getting twitchy with the lack of activity, but from the looks of it things are certainly not being missed out on because of the want of trying. As you say, time will tell. I do see your concerns about their lack of football knowledge and it's obviously the case otherwise Allardyce wouldn't have said it, but I'm not sure what else we expected? Was Shepherd too ill to be of any real use to them in the early stages? Did they discover some things on his part that were unforgivable enough to get shot of him straight away? Did he want to help them anyway? We don't know the full story, as always, which is a f****** killer on here. If I can speculate on a personal level: to me it seems like David Dein would have been their ideal solution to this problem because of his knowledge and it certainly seems like they've been forced into biting off more than they can chew on a personal level (especially Mort) after this didn't come off... and also that Big Sam might be doing the jobs of a "DOF" and a manager at the moment. Something, which if true, will obviously need resolving sooner rather than later - but on both Sam and the board's terms, not just one or the other. This obviously shows that I do have personal concerns about things, but I'm not arrogant enough to think that I know better than those involved at the club currently and I certainly don't know what they do about the takeover/finances/etc. I can appreciate, however, that the changes we've seen/will see are absolutely massive and will perhaps eclipse anything we've seen before at this club, yourself included. All we can really do is hope for the best for now. The optimism I feel is solely down to Allardyce. The board have done absolutely nothing yet. I hope they do. If they don't do any more, or generate more money, than the old board, what then ? If they don't back him so much, what then ? Face facts, so far they haven't shown much inclination. They know nowt about football, that in itself is pretty damning. You don't have to know anything about football to know that you need to back your managers if you want success and get among the money, if thats his objective. I've no doubt that there has been some changes, and will be more, but at the moment they appear to be Allardyce inspired ones, unless he goes. I've never been one of your critics, mate, but as Gemmill says you're coming across as f****** desperate to whip out the "I told you so!" posts at the minute. It's not on from somebody who has always apparently had the best interests of the club at heart. To me it seems like you're putting being "right" above wanting this new regime to work. You're ignoring all of the sensible counter-points that people are making about it being early days and about things going on that we can't possibly know about/comprehend and sticking to your party line of "Shepherd good, Ashley probably bad". It's not debating, it's ramming your beliefs down people's throats and praying to God that they're proven right. I've already agreed with you on the footballing knowledge thing and I offered you some material which you've completely ignored, I've admitted that I can see why people are becoming concerned and I've said that I can understand, to an extent, some of the opinions that you and Baggio and others have. But you have to admit that you're all being extremely quick to judge here after all the changes that have just happened. It's not going to be an overnight solution. People are also VERY quick to forget that this time last year we were in exactly the same boat under Freddy Shepherd and Glenn Roeder. Ashley and Allardyce are going to have to go some f****** distance to top Duff, Martins, Rossi, Sibierski and Bernard for dealings this summer after losing Shearer, Bowyer, Faye, Boumsong and Chopra from the first team squad. What was our net spend last summer, by the way? £7.5M according to NUFC.com, and that was with European football as well! It sounds very familiar to me so far this summer, albeit last summer we didn't have the club being taken over during the window. Although with over a month of transfers still remaining, we've already brought in two more players than we had by this time last year and seem to be making breakthroughs in other departments as well. And it's only July! This tit-for-tat stuff is a piece of piss, like. I suppose you're alright though because it's win-win with your current stance, if you genuinely do want some success under Ashley. If it goes tits-up you can revel in your glory of telling people "so" and if it goes the way we all hope it does then you can revel in the club's glory, with the rest of us. Great stuff. Thats a good post mate. Not having a go at Ne5, just the whole situation in comparison to last summer.

Is it worth me pointing out the financial mess Shepherd has left the club in contributing to the new owner's unwillingness to spend? Or will that fall on deaf ears and be attributed to Souness, and to a lesser extent me. And no doubt Mick. Agree Gemmill. If your house falls down you need to clear up the mess before laying the foundations on a new one.

I've always noticed that Dyer only ever performs on an occasion. For example : Returns from injury against Man city (a), come on and has the performance of his life and nearly wins us the game. Second game back, first start in many months scores against Arsenal in the emirates. Months go by of average performances in many positions, then Roeder gets sacked and he knows Allardyce is our new manager then scores against Watford on the last game of the season. Basically unless the Enagland manager is watching or he knows there is pressure on him to perform he simply doesn't give a f***. We always hear about the games Dyer plays well and never the ones where his lack of effort is a liability. As for booing him, i wouldn't even give him the effort. (btw he was out on the lash with nobby last night).

As I said, but having a board who's manager is coming out in the press and saying "they know nothing about football" doesn't look too good does it ? I didn't expect Ashley to bankroll the club, unlike others, but this could be a bad situation. They have got to wise up, and you have to face the real possibility that they may not have the ambition you thought they would. Time will tell. I don't have any preconceptions about them, that's the whole point. I didn't buy into this "£50M budget", "unlimited fee for a megastar" stuff and I don't buy into the fact that Allardyce is now getting nothing. I can understand people getting twitchy with the lack of activity, but from the looks of it things are certainly not being missed out on because of the want of trying. As you say, time will tell. I do see your concerns about their lack of football knowledge and it's obviously the case otherwise Allardyce wouldn't have said it, but I'm not sure what else we expected? Was Shepherd too ill to be of any real use to them in the early stages? Did they discover some things on his part that were unforgivable enough to get shot of him straight away? Did he want to help them anyway? We don't know the full story, as always, which is a f****** killer on here. If I can speculate on a personal level: to me it seems like David Dein would have been their ideal solution to this problem because of his knowledge and it certainly seems like they've been forced into biting off more than they can chew on a personal level (especially Mort) after this didn't come off... and also that Big Sam might be doing the jobs of a "DOF" and a manager at the moment. Something, which if true, will obviously need resolving sooner rather than later - but on both Sam and the board's terms, not just one or the other. This obviously shows that I do have personal concerns about things, but I'm not arrogant enough to think that I know better than those involved at the club currently and I certainly don't know what they do about the takeover/finances/etc. I can appreciate, however, that the changes we've seen/will see are absolutely massive and will perhaps eclipse anything we've seen before at this club, yourself included. All we can really do is hope for the best for now. The optimism I feel is solely down to Allardyce. The board have done absolutely nothing yet. I hope they do. If they don't do any more, or generate more money, than the old board, what then ? If they don't back him so much, what then ? Face facts, so far they haven't shown much inclination. They know nowt about football, that in itself is pretty damning. You don't have to know anything about football to know that you need to back your managers if you want success and get among the money, if thats his objective. I've no doubt that there has been some changes, and will be more, but at the moment they appear to be Allardyce inspired ones, unless he goes. "they know nowt about football" Where is your evidence of this?

I agree with what your saying. However, i'm a firm believer that there is alot going on behind the scenes that we don't know. If Mort and co aren't releasing money just to be stubborn then i will be disappointed but because this is a new takeover there has to be more to it than that. Obviously Sam is going to be disapointed by his lack of funds but he know he is capable of building defences with less than hes suppoed to be allocated now. I'd be shocked if we didn't end up with a couple of decent defenders before the window closes.