Unbelievable

What an utterly, utterly ridiculous comparison.. You're showing yourself up a little bit there Lib. what part? the food bit? that was a joke. You'd be better off not trying that again..

What an utterly, utterly ridiculous comparison.. You're showing yourself up a little bit there Lib.

Mike Ashley is to blame for Newcastle crisis, not me, blasts Freddy Shepherd By Brian Mcnally, sundaymirror.co.uk 1/03/2009 Michael Owen's £16million move from Real Madrid in 2005 is being used as a smokescreen to disguise Newcastle's crippling financial problems of 2009. Former chairman Freddy Shepherd has accused Toon owner Mike Ashley and his board of trying to hijack the up-front funding of the club record Owen deal to deflect from their own financial inadequacies. And Shepherd has blasted Ashley's net investment over four transfer windows as "a joke". In a blistering broadside Shepherd has warned billionaire Ashley to "stop making excuses and blaming everyone but himself" and remember his own words to his unhappy Sports Direct investors about "acting like cry-babies". Ashley's first balance sheet since his Toon takeover shows the Magpies parent company making a massive loss of £34m on 2007-08 and more than doubling the club's net liabilities to nearly £36m. The Magpies now owe Ashley, who paid £134m for the club in 2007, a staggering £248m. Shepherd has taken off the gloves after Magpies managing director Derek Llambias described as "crazy" Newcastle's decision to pay for the Owen deal with sponsors' cash. Shepherd said: "Newcastle bought England's top striker without borrowing from the bank or being landed with any interest charges. The fact we paid up front was the factor that allowed us to win the Owen race. "It was a gilt-edged deal from a financial perspective, even if the injuries that have blighted Owen's time at Newcastle meant it didn't quite work out on the football front. "The fee for a world class star like Owen was £4m a year over the period of his deal and with turnover in the £90millions it equated to less than four per cent of turnover. "I think fans will question how such a miniscule proportion of turnover could spark a cash crisis in 2009. "They are trying to camouflage the problems they have created and distance blame from themselves with a pathetic PR campaign. "When we broke the world transfer record for Alan Shearer in 1996 the fee was £15m. We borrowed at high interest rates when turnover was much less so it was a far costlier and riskier deal in real terms than Owen's. "I make absolutely no apologies for trying to bring the best to Newcastle. Shearer worked brilliantly, Owen didn't - but that is how football works. "I'd challenge any one to compare the cash I backed managers with to the break-even transfer policy that now appears to be in place." Shepherd believes many of Ashley's decisions have heightened the club's cash problems. He added: "He sacked Sam Allardyce, that cost £4.6m. They failed to back Kevin Keegan above and that's brought a legal claim for a reported £8m. "They have lost the fans which has sent gates down to below 48,000 and cost revenue. They've sold nearly £50m of talent they inherited and lost top players such as Shay Given, James Milner and Scott Parker. "This comes at a time when the net spend on players is virtually invisible. The financial performance of the club is as worrying as what is happening on the field. My salary was criticised but it never matched the £1.35m it cost to bring Chris Mort in as chairman. "Ashley's Sports Direct company advertising is plastered all over the stadium and the club publications but the accounts show that just £42,250 was paid to Newcastle. "And what sort of business sells Shay Given to the world's so-called richest club, Man City, and has to to wait until the summer to be paid? "When blame is being dished out for the present predicament I don't think too many people will be fooled by the excuses coming from the people who have been in charge for two seasons. "I have been attacked for everything from the fact that Ashley failed to exercise due diligence to that I set up a deal to sign a world-class star without borrowing to do it. "I wouldn't buy a secondhand car without checking it was road-worthy and whether there were any HP deals on it, so I don't see how it can be anyone's fault but his that he didn't look at the books before forking out £134m for a football club."

Both him and Boumsong got more flack than they deserved in their time here. As fans, when a defender is having a rough time mentally we seem unable to cope with that and our reaction to minor and major mistakes just aggrevates the situation until it spirales out of control. Since them the only two central defenders I have seen who were a cut above them are Bassong and Faye. Colo could well go the way of Boumsong and Cacapa: a promising start until he makes a few mistakes and the weakness in his game gets found out and suddenly he's not good enough for the Premiership. What we often fail to see is that central defenders need good coaching and confidence; both issues that come from good management. Luckily, we look like we're sorted on that front for the next two or three years...

A bit simplistic don't you think? It's not as him being gone or the circumstances surrounding his departure could have no ramifications on our future..

By "right" I mean we'll see who caves in first on the negotiating. You are saying Newcastle shouldn't have let Given talk to Man City. My opinion is that Newcastle buy themselves negotiating time by letting everything else be sorted out apart from the fee. Losing Given isn't good but he wants to leave. £5m is a joke offer. The money Man City have paid for other players in this window mean Given should be going for at least £12m in my opinion. If he goes for £8m it isn't great but it is better than £5m. It looks like whatever we get will be too late to spend. We may as well try to screw them out of every penny we can. We had a discussion back on Jan 31st about it being wise or not (pun intended) to let Given discuss personal terms and have a medical before agreeing a transfer fee. Some people thought this wouldn't make a difference to the transfer fee negotiable, some numtpies even thought it would strengthen our negotiation position... In the end it is confirmed we will receive 5,9 million, and that's in a future payment. In my view the club have f***ed up badly here and it was easily foreseeable, yet some people just can't look beyond their desire for Ashley & Co to work out at this club and critisise them for their mistakes. They are new to football and it clearly shows. Let's hope they wise up (or even wise out) quickly for our sake.

Thanks. I can't stop laughing now..

Man U is getting bumraped so far second half..

It took time to bring the change about FFS. He had to get the players minds switched from nagative football to open football. Birmingham was the turning point, where got a draw but could have won it. Libertine always sniping at KK, any little chance. Its ok tho, you just bend history to suit your argument. it took time to get 3 very good players back (and staying fit) to take the team forward in matches and score goals. the front 3 took the pressure off the s*** midfield the same as a good midfield will take the pressure off a defence. simple as that. Obviously the manager doesn't deserve any credit at all for changing the whole shape of the team though. to some extent. "playing your best players" is what its called at other clubs. dropping smith and ameobi to play martins and viduka isnt rocket science. You're absolutely pathetic. martins or viduka didnt start a game for keegan before the birmingham match and then they come back in and we start doing well. did keegan "change their mentality" or did we just get 2 very decent/vital players back in place of 2 s*** ones? the keegan thing. obviously. The players coming back was obviously instrumental but it was Keegans tactics that got us the results we did. Not many managers would have had the balls to play Owen, Martins & Viduka together. Allardyce certainly didn't. and prior to those players coming back? where were the tactics and the balls? Keegan did his best to inject confidence into the "name" players like Duff and Smith but in the end dropped them and accomodated all three strikers saying that he couldn't see any goals in the team and he didn't want to go into any future matches without goals in the team. By the way not only did it take balls to play 4-3-3, the most important factor was Keegan's refusal to stop playing passing football. That's actually what this thread is about, not about Keegan, he's gone and you can't turn back the clock. It's about the football and Ashley being overjoyed by the way Keegan's team swept the ghost of Allardyce's turgid s**** away with proper football...carpet football as SBR would say. That's what had Mort saying "Kevin's got them playing again". I just wonder what Ashley's vision for the club is now? With Keegan you knew what it was about. Is Ashley happy with muck and nettles football now? For anybody who's failed to notice, this is the central question in this thread, not whether Keegan could have got or should have been expected to get instant results. The owner and chairman have promoted free flowing attacking football publicy, but their actions in the past year, especially their manager appointments (including contract extension offer), have been in sharp contrast with this. What kind of manager do they want for this club. What style of football can we expect from them?

Similar to NJS's criticism of Jonas in the match thread...with so many bad players in our squad, I find it weird how people are concerned about two of our better players in their respective positions. Left back and left wing are the least of our problems IMO, although it would be nice to have some back up for Enrique. I think we can get away with cover from Raylor if we strengthen other positions. I'd rather we signed a decent midfield than spunk good money on a full back. Is there any evidence to suggest Raylor makes a good left back? He seems decidedly right footed to me. Besides, we need him in midfield anyway. We are crying out for one or two central midfielders AND a left back for cover. Unfortunately, we've been saying this for the last two years; our "system" seems to unable or unwilling to deliver..

True, seems to work quite well with Raylor too..

A lot of decent performances, most notably from Bassong, Enrique and the Taylors..

What made you hope that?

Had a good match so far. Seems a case of the head wanting to go on for the win, but the legs unable to deliver..

Smith, Butt and Ameobi ffs!!! All they provide is comedy.. How did we end up with these clowns?

Strange one.. Why was it a foul on Oba?

Come on, we can still win this!

Oba wins headers Shola never would..

Great by Bassong again!

Smith miskicks..

Oh dear, I've been dreading this day..

You call that unlucky?

Great end product as usual.. He just panicks doesn't he?

Oba springs in action..