Nate

Not only is Dennis Wise possibly the most unsuited person in football to a DoF role i can think of, but hasn't Keegan already stated he doesn't want one?

Ameobi has been doing it for years, that or just fouling every time there is any chance of him getting the ball. Milner wasn't great but I don't think he was awful. He hasn't really looked up to it for most of the season though, hopefully young Lua Lua will give him a bit more of a push for competition or a new signing. Still rate him and think he has a lot of potential with the qualities he does have he just needs to do more. I'd like to see him given a run of games in the centre, with N'Zogbia and Duff on the wings. He does show some good technical ability but this season he's been absolutely hopeless at taking the ball past a player out wide. He could also be suffering from fatigue considering how many games he has played in the last 12 months, i think Kazenga has shown enough now for Milner to be rested in at least one of the games at the Emirates.

Why did Ameobi repeatedly run into defenders, fall over and then look gormlessly at the referee in hope of being given a penalty? We desperately needed him to attack crosses and i can only remember him doing so on one occasion. Milner was awful too, he hasn't looked anywhere near good enough to be a regular at this level for quite some time now.

i just cannot figure this one out - who is the third? owen and martins... and then? Viduka. He will need to be replaced soon but currently i would rather have him in the team than Defoe. What did Viduka do, since his arrival... Yeah I know about his ability to hold the ball up, but it's very ineffective. I am disappointed with him so far... 5 league goals in 11 starts isn't bad for a 32 year old on a free transfer. Anyway, it was just the 'bordering on unrealistic' comment i was disagreeing with. For the money we'd have to spend on Defoe there are plenty of better strikers available.

i just cannot figure this one out - who is the third? owen and martins... and then? Viduka. He will need to be replaced soon but currently i would rather have him in the team than Defoe.

Jermain Defoe is bordering on unrealistic? There are three better striker than him at the club already.

If we are going to go on a Chelsea-eque spending spree Berbatov would be a good place to start. http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00375/Berbatov_375683a.jpg

They're going to Anfield.. Maybe not, 3-1.

'Inventive, energetic, attacking play'

Havant 2-0 Swansea

Cannot believe it.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/01/16/black_widow_shearer_answerable.html

Aye, I'm surprised at such goodwill towards him tbh. Not to say he isn't good (I have no idea), but he's done nothing compared to Houllier, for example. A foreign Hughes? I think the Champions League run is swaying a lot of people and rightly so. The main concern with the likes of Hughes and Shearer is wether they would be found out, tactically, at the very highest level. I agree with KaKa and Parky, it would an exciting and ambitious appointment; the opposite of the last three.

He couldn't manage to beat the current Man Utd team (minus Tevez, Anderson & Hargreaves) with his own Chelsea squad. Liverpool are still a couple of truly world class forwards short of winning the title under any manager.

They need to be careful on that front, but I think it's commonly accepted (by the board and the fans) that winning is first and foremost. ... and that Newcastle are not soon to be a team that can expect to win all games, hence a "style" of football where at least those kind of inevitable losses are at least in some kind bearable and not resulting in booing-orgies again. Agree with this, most definitely. From what I've witnessed at SJP from the crowd over the past few seasons, I genuinely think the booing will be quelled if the team is going all-guns-blazing against whoever we are facing. It's different being utterly atrocious and getting beaten by Sheff Utd, etc. than it is having a go and going down fighting. For all people say that results are the top priority (which is right, of course), the performances do have a major impact on things. Even as recently as Man City, where we went 0-1 down before half-time, the players were applauded from the field because we'd been playing it on the deck and having a real go at the opposition. That said a lot to me at the time, and resonates now. Do we not have to make a choice between a manager who will come in and win and lose, in equal measure, but with flair; and one who will grind out results, build from the back and gradually create a side capable of competing with the top four? As Mort said, it is only the great managers that can combine both - how many are available to us? How many are there currently working in the league for that matter? Talking about stylish football is only going to heighten the expectations of fans when realistically nobody is going to come in and having us playing 'the beatuiful game' overnight. I'm not convinced Houllier ever would.

Does anyone else think all this talk of stylish, 'carpet' football is heaping unnecessary pressure on the new manager before he's even arrived? I'm convinced Newcastle fans would be delighted if significant success came with winning 'ugly', it was losing ugly which was the problem.

If a manager shows signs of improvement he'll get time. First full season he finished 6th and then sold his best player at the time. sadly "signs of improvement" and finishing 6th won't appease some of our fans. Are you joking? Give the fans more credit than that.

Pinochet, i would have thought.

How can they get away with fabricating an entire interview?

Keegan: 'I would not rule it in or out. It's a club I love, everybody knows that.'

prolly get slaughtered for this but if your scenario there happens and in 2-3 years man u come calling for hughes then the likelihood is that NUFC would have had a pretty good 2-3 years??? i'd fucken take 2-3 good years right now and hope we could build on it then.... Then we'd hire Shearer who by that time will have had 3 years experience under his belt at Blackburn.

BBC Interview Have a look at his reaction to being asked about the job from 2:35 onwards. He'll come.

That's exactly the same as you wrote it the first time. Oh yeah, i just reread the part you bolded. :-[