wibble

i want keegan as keegans replacement to come in whe ashley fucks off ...

 

i can dream

Keegan didn't give it enough of a chance for me. At least he could have waited to see if thes players were bad or if it was too difficult to work with them, or if the team was faltering badly because of them.

 

Don't talk s***. Who the f*** do you think gets the blame if they're s****?

 

How often do we say of a new manager "he needs time to get his own team together" and you reckon that he shouldn't get the opportunity at all? Give your head a f***ing shake.

 

Who's to stay the club didn't bust their balls to get the players Keegan wanted but couldn't for whatever reason?

 

Did Keegan then offer up alternatives? Or did he not have any?

 

If he didn't have any alternatives, should the club then do what? Are they then wrong to offer up alternatives and try to bring these in as long as they are good players, which they have been?

 

My head doesn't need a shake. I'm thinking about this very clearly and rationally, without getting emotional.

 

A lot of you guys need to calm down. Bailing out on the club now will acheive what exactly then?

 

Keegan is a great man, but he is not God. I'm sure he has some faults as well, and maybe they let him down in this instance.

 

Everyone is just assuming the club was hell bent on making his life hell. I am yet to see good evidence of this.

 

We are now hearing Keegan was not even willing to take their offers of changes into account ... why?

 

This is just an infortunate situation and we have to move forward, and continue to support the club.

Keegan didn't give it enough of a chance for me. At least he could have waited to see if thes players were bad or if it was too difficult to work with them, or if the team was faltering badly because of them.

 

Don't talk s***. Who the f*** do you think gets the blame if they're s****?

 

How often do we say of a new manager "he needs time to get his own team together" and you reckon that he shouldn't get the opportunity at all? Give your head a f***ing shake.

 

Who's to stay the club didn't bust their balls to get the players Keegan wanted but couldn't for whatever reason?

 

Did Keegan then offer up alternatives? Or did he not have any?

 

If he didn't have any alternatives, should the club then do what? Are they then wrong to offer up alternatives and try to bring these in as long as they are good players, which they have been?

 

My head doesn't need a shake. I'm thinking about this very clearly and rationally, without getting emotional.

 

A lot of you guys need to calm down. Bailing out on the club now will acheive what exactly then?

 

Keegan is a great man, but he is not God. I'm sure he has some faults as well, and maybe they let him down in this instance.

 

Everyone is just assuming the club was hell bent on making his life hell. I am yet to see good evidence of this.

 

We are now hearing Keegan was not even willing to take their offers of changes into account ... why?

 

This is just an infortunate situation and we have to move forward, and continue to support the club.

 

Yes Kaka we know.

 

You're an Ashleyite.

 

Very cute Parky.

 

I don't think I'm being unreasonable in what I am saying.

 

It's very unfortunate people talking about sabotaging their own club. Turning on players who have just joined your club? It's not right.

 

At the very wost the board has made a huge mistake, which unfortunately they were unable to correct by convincing Keegan to stay.

 

Let's give them an opportunity to get it right then. I think they deserve that much at least, afterall they did bring in Keegan in the first place and initially it was great.

 

 

Seriously, are you on drugs?  Ashley the cockney asset-stripping shyster and his cronies are fatally wounded by this whole affair - there's no way back for them after this. 

Keegan - "I didn't have a brochure this time. It came like a whirlwind. This is one of these lastminute.com holidays! There was no brochure - I just came.

 

Perhaps next time, instead of letting your heart rule your head, you actually sit down and ask what your role is, what you want your role to be, etc. instead of just breezing in, and then walking when you don't like it...

 

 

I dont mind admitting, i'm really sad about this, the romantic in me wanted him to complete the fairy tail and win us a trophy. I am a bit wobbly here about whats happened but just because i'm upset about the turmoil, the sadness for Keegan, the fans who all love him.

 

However, am with you on the point you make completely. I also cant believe that this has come about over Smith, Milner and Barton. He's left us in the lurch again too.

 

Exactly. He should have done this in January or February if he wasn't happy. Not f*cking September leaving us in the lerch.

*ahem* - did you read his statement?

"It’s my opinion that a manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any manager any player that he does not want.”

Phew - and there I was beginning to doubt there was such a thing as Karma...http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/07/daily_mail_lost_laptop/

What remains the great mystery for me is why they have written articles that seem filled with so much derogatory text.

Fair enough, they may want to comment on the fact that to bring Kevin Keegan back may not have been a very good decision but its the way they word it - using phrases like "Disaster-in-Waiting", "Disaster-Movie", "Laughing-Stock" - that I cant get my head around. These are comments that you would expect to be made by petty opposition fans, not supposed award winning-journalists.

Probably biased I know, but Kevin Keegan has always seemed very media friendly and not the type of character that would make enemies that would have resulted in this kind of vitriol.

 

KK mst be applauded for not having risen to it and for maintaining his usual level of class throughout it all.

 

I dread to think of what kind of articles were written by the people that didnt win these supposed awards won by Samuels.

 

Back when KK was appointed I remember listening to the ramblings of assorted journalistic wizards on Sky's Soccer Supplement thingy on Sunday morning.  I was amazed that they really did seem to hate him. 

Anyway, the clown buffoon leader of the journos (I forget his name) went on to explain how they formed their rather negative opinions of our manager during his time as England manager.  The explanation was that he started off being typical KK, and must have given the press a lot of time...but towards the end of his reign he was snubbing certain journos (presumably coz of the crap they write).  That appears to have pissed them off hugely, and the bad feeling seems to have persisted through to this day.

Captain for my Fantasy Footy team tonight... 

Yep, I remember I was on my way back from football when I saw the fire from miles away, couldn't believe it when I saw it was ablaze.

My Wallsend history needs updating - did someone torch it, then?  I did wonder what was up, like, coz its looked pretty dead whenever I've driven past it.  I just figured the government had flogged it off for a housing scheme.

Nowt wrong with High Farm, man.  I moved away a few years ago and was shocked to see they demolished Burnside as well and replaced the old buildings with some new fangled nonsense.  It's like they're wiping out my past...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/predictor/default.stm

 

I've got us finishing in 13th with 38 points.

14th 38pts - Derby, Fulham and Reading go down

For the doom-merchants to go stat-happy with: http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide

Might just be because I don't take a great interest in other teams but I can't remember Sky having any of the sacked managers from other teams on to do pre/post match punditry this season...

lol - knee-jerktastic.  Thankfully, it's not just about our team.

What's heartening is seeing the likes of Reading losing their last 6 games in a row.  I can see them losing their next 5 as well.  How are they going to get above us in the prem?

But it's not just about 2 of the teams below us picking up 3 points...Derby are as good as down, Fulham are going down too.  That means there are 6 teams below us who ALL need to overhaul us.  Not just 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 teams...all 6 of them.  And they currently all have less points than us so they need to outscore us over the rest of the season.

Have a look through Birmingham's remaining fixtures - they have rock-solid home games and tricky away ones.

I'm far from happy with where we'll end up at the end of the season - but we'll not be going down because the quality of the bottom teams this year is absolutely woeful.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2251653,00.html - by Paul Wilson

Funny that Dennis Wise felt Leeds was a little too far north for his liking, bearing in mind the strain of commuting from London, so changed jobs for one in Newcastle.

Funny, too, that Newcastle's new executive director will spend part of his week in the capital, despite Kevin Keegan's clear insinuation last month that people down there visit the theatre when they could be watching football. Clearly, it will cut down on Wise's travelling time, although how it will benefit the Geordie nation is less obvious.

Funny too that you can criticise him for taking a job with a Northern-based team, and then immediately criticise him again for being based in London...that doesn't quite add up!

Keegan insisted, when Wise was appointed, that you more or less had to have imbibed Newcastle Brown with your mother's milk to appreciate the special importance of the club, which is the reason he was at a loss a couple of weeks later to explain why such an archetypal London geezer was being brought in over his head.

Yup Keegan's an outright liar and knew nowt about Wise's appointment...or perhaps he didn't want to comment on the link between Newcastle and Wise as ol' wobbly eyes was still, technically, Leeds manager.  Take the timing into consideration, you plank.

Newcastle have always been a bit of a funny club, although over the past couple of weeks they appear to have staggered into the realms of the surreal. Keegan and Wise as a double act? It cannot last. You would never win any prizes for clairvoyance by predicting a project involving Keegan will most likely end in tears, but people are already putting money on the toys coming out of the pram before the end of the season. Indeed, if Newcastle fail to take something from today's Tyne-Tees derby there could be developments even quicker than that.

Wise is pissed off with management and wants to work on bringing youth players in.  Get over it.  He's not KK's assistant, he's got sod all to do with the first-team, he's no threat at all.  And, seriously, is this knob now suggesting we're hoofing KK out if we lose to Boro?  Just what fucking planet is he on?

This is the club, remember, that sacked a manager halfway through the transfer window because results were going so badly. Since Keegan was appointed, Newcastle have picked up one point in the League, gone out of the FA Cup, failed to score any goals and mustered just two shots on target. Rather more alarmingly, Newcastle used what was left of the transfer window to bring in an executive director, a vice-president in charge of player recruitment and a technical co-ordinator, but no players.

Why are you waffling on about KK's record 3 just games in?  We are in a run of quite dreadful form, and haven't won in the Prem since 15th Dec.  We only scored 1 goal in the last 4 games of Allardyce's reign.  And KK said himself it was his choice not to bring players in - whether that was a good or bad call can only be judged at the end of the season.

Should Newcastle slide further toward the sticky end of the table, it is fair to say Wise, Tony Jimenez and Jeff Vetere - whatever their other attributes - will not be much use in a fight against relegation. Whereas a Jonathan Woodgate, a Benjani or even a Marlon King just might have been. Newcastle had a fortnight to strengthen their playing squad, and no deadline whatsoever for augmenting their backroom staff, yet they chose to concentrate on the latter at the expense of the former.

See above - KK is obviously making the decisions on which first-team players to bring in.  Mort is in charge of the managerial restructuring.

Keegan himself has no experience of scrapping or discernible aptitude for grinding out results, which is what made his appointment so risky in the first place. It was as though relegation had never struck Mike Ashley as a possibility. Such a cavalier approach to the transfer window leads to the same conclusion. It could be that Ashley knows what he is doing, and Newcastle will set new Premier League standards next season for slick operation and sourcing new players. Or it could be that Newcastle will be in the Championship by then, in which case all concerned will look a bit silly.

"...no experience of scrapping or discernible aptitude for grinding out results" - has this 'journalist' done any fucking research at all?  Remind me again what position Newcastle were in when KK was appointed manager first time around?

Either way, the prediction made here that Newcastle would find ever more bizarre ways of hijacking the nation's attention is already coming to pass. Wise in the boardroom is original, you have to give them that. Can't wait to discover what Alan Shearer was offered. It won't have been as attack coach, heading specialist or anything so conventional. It is bound to have been something completely off the wall, like assistant groundsman, programme seller or Tannoy announcer. They will probably bring in Bryan Ferry, an occasional spectator at St James' Park, as magic sponge man. .

That's it, stick to facts and proper journalism, eh...?

What does Ferry know about football? About as much as Ashley, it would appear. Newcastle's new owner is already regarded as a maverick by the Stock Exchange, who are impressed by his ability to make money and manage companies but less enthralled by results since he reached billionaire status and decided to stop being so hands-on and indulge himself a little.

I know as much about the Stock Exchange as this knob seems to know about football, but Ashley appears to have pretty much done things his way and won.  The Stock Exchange may not like the way he operates, but you can't knock his success.

All the time he was making his fortune Ashley was far too busy working to spare time for supporting a football team, and some who know him were surprised when he suddenly popped up as owner of Newcastle. Possibly not as surprised as Sam Allardyce, but surprised all the same. Apart from the novelty of owning a football club, Ashley had kept an assiduously low profile up until then. There were hardly any photographs of him in the public domain. Now he is everywhere in his replica shirts.

You just don't get it, do you?  Ashley attending games, sitting with fans, wearing the shirt...it's about soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying himself.  He's paid more than anyone else for the right to sit wherever the hell he likes to watch the games, wearing whatever he likes.

The one he wore for Keegan's first game back in charge had 'King Kev' printed on the back, which is either touching, or naive, or splendid, or completely bonkers. Here's a tenner that says Brian Barwick will not take his seat at Wembley on Wednesday wearing an England shirt bearing the legend 'We're Fab' or 'Cap That!'. Ashley can wear what he likes, football needs all the personalities it can get and conformity is a dull thing. On the other hand we could consider the fairytale-parable of The Emperor's New Clothes

I'm searching for a small shred of proper journalism here but can't find any at all.

Because Ashley has been such a blinding success at business, there is a general assumption he knows what he is doing. The possibility exists that with regard to Newcastle, he might not. He has already admitted the club have cost him far more than he thought it would, so he does not seem to be in it to make a quick killing. He said it wasn't much fun watching Allardyce's team, although had he asked around at Manchester City he would have discovered Keegan is no longer a reliable joy-bringer either.

Funny, since the City fans I've talked to loved the bloke.  And it's a nailed-on certainty KK's future team will provide more entertainment than Allardyce's ever would have.

Only Newcastle fans believe the Keegan hype, and they could have been the only ones Ashley canvassed. Yet the great Geordie reunion has been rationalised. Newcastle will now be run by a team of cosmopolitan southerners. Was that in the brochure? Who knows? Will Newcastle turn out to be a fairytale or a parable? We'll find out by the end of the season.

Finally, a vague bit of sense in the final sentence!  I'd almost given up hope...

Balls - aren't the powers-that-be constantly mucking around with (I can't believe there is such a thing) 'ball technology'?

I've seen a few shots/free kicks this season that seem to defy the laws of physics, swerving about at the last second after the keeper has committed himself.  Whatever they've done to the ball seems to have made it easier to curl in/dip/swerve.  Given isn't the tallest of keepers, so perhaps he's suffering a bit because of it.

I'm feeling confident, excited and looking forward to the rest of the season.  An amazing turnaround from last week...

Its also the first time in years I've put a Toon player in my Fantasy Footy team (the Zog - a bargain at 4.9m).

Rodney Marsh - and it was his Toon Army joke that got him the boot from Sky...

Don't suppose Ashley will tap up Fergie....?

I thought he looked a real threat last night. He's obviously lacking confidence and hauling him off at half time is not going to do that any good. He should have stayed on  and Viduka should have been hauled really. I'm hoping he bangs in some goals at the ANC and then gets some games up front in a 4-4-2 when he's back.

With Martins going to the ANC, we need Owen to sharpen up as soon as possible really.  He always takes a while to get back into his goal-scoring runs (we can but pray...).  So I can understand why Martins was switched for Owen at half-time.

I'm prepared to back Allardyce simply because he did do such a good job with Bolton.  Turning a small club with limited resources into a Premiership force is no accidental achievement and there are very few managers who could do it (hell, some of our managers achieved less with stratospheric budgets).  The consistent and long running improvement of Bolton was no fluke, so the guy must have something about him.  On that basis alone he gets more patience from me than the previous two incumbents.

That said, expectation levels are a lot different here.  Lose a few games on the bounce at Bolton and it's not such a big deal.  Lose a few on the trot at Newcastle and there's mass hysteria.

I know Sam's taken a lot of flak for his tactics but - dare I say it - some of the positional and tactical stuff seems to be making sense to me now.

I think Faye, Geremi and Smith were all bought with an eye very much on versatility.  In the past, we've suffered badly from simply not being able to switch tactics during matches (just swapping a striker for another striker, etc).  In theory, we could now shuffle quite a few folks around for tactical changes.  It's not actually worked very well in practise, but I can appreciate what Allardyce is doing.  Perhaps these things just take some time to drum into our IQ-challenged superstars...

Positionally, the Zog in particular, does look quite suited to a left-back position.  He certainly seems to have more effective games at left-back than he does as an out-and-out left winger.  I think someone mentioned he gets more time on the ball/is less tightly marked when coming from a deep position.  That extra space seems to give him an opportunity to start running at players.  So, despite my initial lemming-like tendency to complain about the Zog's position with the rest of the moaners, I'm much more comfortable with Allardyce's use of him now.

Similarly, Milner (to me) does look better on the left wing rather than in his 'natural' right position.  When he's played wide right, he seems fairly plodding and predictable because he almost always favours his right foot from there.  On the left, he does mix it up much more and crosses with his left/cuts inside on his right.

Anyone else think along these lines or have I deluded myself into thinking Sam's some sort of tactical genius when he's actually just an incredibly lucky, one-trick pony, long-ball merchant?

Complacent - yes.  Relegation - nee chance.

Despite the pessimism and eternal gloom-fest going on here, I think we played well at Chelsea and were just unlucky not to get a point.  Last night, yes, Man City punished us for some shoddy defending, but they benefited from yet more ridiculous decisions against us.  And while we're creating some really good chances lately, we're just not being clinical enough and converting them at the moment.

To put it into perspective though, our home results actually aren't all that bad:

Home: DWWWWLLDWDL (18 points)

Our earlier losses came against Liverpool (6 away wins) and Portsmouth (7 away wins) who are both right up there at the dizzy end of the away wins league this season.  I can't put any positive spin on Man City though coz they actually did have a worse away record than us!  I suppose they are top 4 in the league at the moment though...  What I'm getting at is these are decent teams who took all 3 points away from us at SJP.  Given their away records/table positions, it's perhaps not that surprising.

On the flip-side, our away record isn't too spectacular - but then again, we're a mid-table side with limited players so the delusional should just get over it when we don't hump sides 3:0 away from home:

Away: WDLLLDLWLL (8 points)

Unless you're a top side, winning away from home is VERY difficult in the Premiership - I have no problem with the Toon playing for the most boring, uneventful goalless draws in history away from home (apologies to the long-suffering who travel to 'em).  And, if we can keep a clean sheet, we might even manage to nick the odd win (ala Fulham).

So...

We're currently sitting on 26 points from 21 games.  Okay, it's not fantastic by any means, but with 17 games left we should be able to claw together at least another 12 points and beat the drop.  Ignoring all the big teams (who we could still pick up surprise points from) at the 'easier' end of the scale, we have Bolton, Boro, Fulham, Reading, and the dirty Mackems all to play at SJP.  All apart from Boro have ZERO away victories this season, btw.

As we know, the majority of our forthcoming away games are going to be pretty tough going because they're against some decent sides.  Our best chances for some bonus away points are probably at Birmingham, West Ham and Portsmouth (yes, they have a terrible home record).  We simply don't need to go all gung-ho/suicidal - as long as we pick up some useful points here and there.

Also, take heart from the fact that most of the sides below us have truly, truly appalling away records with very few draws, never mind wins.  To emerge from their own relegation plight they'll need to string together more home wins than we do.  A couple might manage it, but most simply won't.

I reckon Derby, Fulham and Boro (hurray!) will all get relegated simply because they don't possess enough firepower to survive in this league.

Don't worry - we seem to play better against the better teams (in fact, we've done this for years).  Now if we were facing a series of matches against the lower-placed relegation fodder, that's when we'd need to start worrying...

look at spurs- 1 game away from top 4 2 seasons ago. last season they came 5th after a struggled start. now, they have fired their manager and got ramos in who was supposed to be a super hero. now, im not suggesting for a second he should be fired, but they just lost 3-2 at home to birmingham city, and their other results havent been that great have they? you cant get success instanty

 

then look at villa, pretty poor last season when they went through the middle of the season for ages without winning a game. finished 11th-12th ish (?) and now in top 6, looking upwards.

 

also everton and moyes.

 

watford and boothroyd went down last season, now look like winning the championship

 

basically, give big sam a chance and he'll come good.

Must say, I agree with this 100%.  Folks mention Hughes, O'Neill, etc as if they could simply step into the St James cauldron and transform us into a decent team.  But we haven't been a decent team for years despite having a squad stuffed full of well-paid international players. 

It'll take time to sort this rabble out - I'd expect Sam to faff around with formations and team selections through most of this season.  If nothing else, he finds out who can do a decent job for the team, who needs to be shipped out, and where to stengthen.  That's not something that can be figured out on the training pitch - it's only in the heat of battle (and the full glare of the supporters and media) this can be done properly.

Frankly, some of his selections are baffling, but I have faith he will get it right and we'll be a much better side...next season.

Surely time for one of the Bonk's famous predictions...

I'll go for Martins.

Beckham is (impressively) earning his cash by sitting through this cringeworthy nonsense without laughing his head off.