Unbelievable

*waiting for Kinnear to sign his new contract keeping him at the club until 2011*

Hard to disagree with much of that. Martins deserves a lot more faith/respect based on his previous performances though, and Barton significantly less.. What has Barton done to justify saying he will transform the team? He's been mediocre, injury prone and a prick to boot, at the expense of the club.

Worry not, we will challenge for EVERYTHING in 5 years time..

But the system means that they don't have to since the odds ensure a return over time. Wish our system worked like that..

This will officially be the undoing of Newcastle United Football Club if it happens. What are they thinking!?

When the blame game starts the buck stops with one man and one man only..

We knew this when he got the temporary job (again). Even if JFK wouldn't have needed heart surgery we knew we lacked the necessary talent in the management position.. The buck stops with the decision makers if we go down I'm afraid.

Only just tuned in, but what do you expect with a midfield like that..? Butt, Smith and Geremi ffs!

Keep him, give Shola away to anyone who will take him of our hands, give Xisco a serious chance or replace him if we have no faith in him, blood some of the youngsters when conditions on the pitch are such that we can and we will have done well in the squad filling business. Now for the first team strengthening..

Agreed. I can see the point of this contract extension.. Ameobi's however.... Also, two so-so squad strikers seems a bit much. Dave makes a good point: it's seriously worrying that our "system" is not confident it can find better than this level of player..

KK said “That’s the first time I’ve seen him in a match." on 28th July 2008. Which is incontravertible evidence that Bassong knew what you'd expect him to know about his transfer from Metz to Newcastle. His level of English at the time would not have been good enough to understand the nuances of the deal. The key message from his agent would have been 'the manager likes you and wants you'. Of course if Keegan knew all about him and had already scouted him, why did he need to bring him in on trial? And why did he say "“That’s the first time I’ve seen him in a match."? What this debate demonstrates to me is how sensitised football supporters have become to discussing millions of pounds worth of money because the premise of this argument is that one person pops up during a weekly meeting, shouts a name out and from there on in, the player is this persons signing and its done and dusted. Even for Bassong's relatively small fee (Small!! Not even the worlds biggest clubs just throw 1.5m around on the off chance the player is ok), the decision to buy him would have been a mix of someone coming up with a list of needs, somone coming up with a list of players that meet these needs, some lengthy discussion about which ones to look at, further lengthy discussions about whether a trial is needed, the trial itself and as far as i can tell, Keegan having the final choice over the signing like he was meant to have all along. It seems to me that the quote from the player (who would know the least about how his name ended up on a piece of paper in a meeting on football affairs at SJP in 2008) is what he was told (the manager thinks you're great) and the quote from Keegan suggests, contrary to what Bassong thinks, “That’s the first time I’ve seen him in a match." Doesnt all this just tell us that a team of people were in place to manage transfers with the final say being Keegans? Which is pretty much how its been sold to us. Dear me.. Do you really believe Bassong would not understand his own agent who probably speaks French as well as he does..? As for the rest, keep putting your head in the sand.

Looks like Keegan may have paid for his own constructive dismissal claim in the end..

i've heard he's on 85k a week currently, he was 5k at inter, no wonder why he wanted to come 5k?

According to Bassong Keegan was approached by Bassong's agent, whom he knew. Considering the fact Bassong came on a trial first and in most (normal) clubs the managers have a say in incoming and outgoing transfers I would say it's not that unlikely. Looking at it from the other side; if Bassong wanted to move to the Premiership his agent would have started by contacting people he knew over here, and if indeed Keegan was one of them why would it not be possible that Keegan knew about Bassong before Wise did?

It's not confusing at all. I'd believe a quote from Keegan himself, who said he'd have to speak to Wise about whether a deal could be done, rather than a player who would have probably not been involved until his agent had agreed things, etc. Heh, where's the relevance in that? We're talking about who found and decided to bring in Bassong here, not who did the final negotiations and handed him over the pen to sign the contract with.

Who "signed" Bassong is relevant in so far as we are asked by the people in charge to put trust into a system that they claim will reap rewards. They base this on the evidence of one player we have supposedly unearthed through this system and who, it has to be said, is turning out to be a very good deal for the club indeed. The player is now on record with a different version of what happened. Even those who want to believe this system will allow us to compete on the cheap must admit it is a strange and confusing turn of events.

Similarly, Bassong would have referred to people from the club watching him as a France U21 performer, rather than specifically mentioning Keegan as the one approached by his agent because of their previous dealings together.. Why would it bug you if Bassong wasn´t a Wise find by the way?

But Keegan emerged after the game to tell me: I thought Sebastien did very well, and he now goes back to Metz. Weve got a chance to sign him, and Ill talk with Dennis, and just see where we go from here. Thats the first time Ive seen him in a match. Hes a nice lad. We had him all week. Hes in the French Under-21s so hes no mug he can play. Hahaha. So are you saying Bassong is lying now, or could Keegan have been referring to seeing Bassong play in the flesh/in a black and white shirt for the first time?

We don't know for a fact that Llambais is lying though, Bassong was clearly one of those players who fit the profile of the type of player the club were looking to sign. Like Guthrie this was one of those signings that both Wise and Keegan were on the same page on, that was how the system was supposed to work ideally. We don't? Keep twisting and turning..

No surprise to see the usual suspects twisting and turning to make it look exactly like it is: within days of Llambias coming out with a bold statement regarding the subject he supposedly can't talk about for legal reasons he is shown up as downright lying about it. I don't know what frustrates me more at this point: the incompetence of those in charge or the unconditional faith shown to them by some people on here.

I agree in the main, but if the situation arises where we have to chose between a legal and PR disaster or a relegation disaster I would expect those in charge to make the right decision and do everything within their power to avoid complete disaster that would follow from relegation. Legally I don't think thanking JFK for his troubles and moving on would be much of an issue. A contract isn't legally valid until agreed by both parties and an offered contract can be withdrawn without severe legal ramifications I would have thought. If it comes down to PR, they need to make their minds up about what would constitute a worse scenario: thanking an inept heart patient for trying and moving on or hanging onto him and risk causing severe, possibly irrepairable damage to said heart patient and the club itself.

A lot better than what?

No worries... Llambias has assured us we will be challenging for EVERYTHING by then..

This. 0-3 Maybe if we score an own goal from the kick off (if we win the toss) they will have mercy on our soules..?

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