Raconteur

I'm pretty sure he acknowledges both of those points in that article. He makes several pertinent arguments, obviously the Colo line is throwaway hyperbole but otherwise it's hard to argue with a lot of it.

"It's all Wise's fault"

That's very true - and I think there's an element of that in Giggs' award. He's about to play his 800th match, and it's like the membership of the PFA suddenly thought "Holy Shit, how hasn't a champion like him won it once in the past 18 years?" Okay, so it's more likely that SAF had that thought, told the MUFC PR team, who then sent it out as a spam email to the PFA membership

Well, in the fat one's defence, he banked 37m from the sale and I don't think he can expect to pick up the club for that! He's always felt like he was shafted over the sale, why wouldn't we expect him to sound like a jilted lover?

dont give him your money, if everyone does that he'll be forced into either selling or pulling his finger out So what if he is skint? Then how are we going to buy and improve? Also, who would want to buy a club where there are no ticket sales, no merchandise being sold, no quality squad, no quality manager or coaching staff, etc? The most realistic solution is to weather the storm, and instead of pushing parts of the club apart we need to all pull together and gain some stability, financially, in a positional sense in the table and in a moral sense. how are we going to buy and improve with no funds for new players and joe fuckin kinnear managing the s**** we already have? if we stayed away and didnt buy merchandise it would be obvious that it was because of the ownership and prospective buyers would know that would soon change once they stepped in. i'm not suggesting we pull anything apart, i'm suggesting that if, come the summer, ashley appoints kinnear (which is bad enough in itself) AND continues with giving players like ameobi new contracts while not spending enough to keep us progressing, then we say right thats enough thanks mike, we've had it with you and we're gonna force you out. banners dont force out owners, losing money does, and fast. (disclaimer - no i dont have a better owner in mind) ...................... although too much water has flowed under the bridge imo. Ok then lets just kick the s*** out of him instead. Somebody might just try it, a disillusioned & disenfranchised supporter perhaps. And for the record, i'll post one of these - - if such an event ever takes place in the future re:Ashley. To a non-NUFC supporter it might seem ridiculous to suggest someone could visit violence upon the club owner. Toon fans know it's a very real possibility if indeed we do go down. In fact, I thik I'd be more surprised if it didn't happen...

Harsh. Very harsh

While Shearer does have a lot of responsibility for the shite formation, the shite tactics and the shite substitutions, the players are also responsible in that they are required to put in some effort, and shouldn't let a very poor side look like Brazil 1970... Newcastle's best players today included Tim Krul, David Edgar, Danny Guthrie and Shola Ameobi

Is it just me, or is Nicky Butt playing the worst game of his professional career today?

Brayson for me too - how uninspiring...

The salary cap is similar to the MLS - there is a cap for the squad, but each club is allowed one "marquee player" whose salary is not included in that cap. Yorke was Sydney FC's marquee player in the inaugural season - his wages are still the highest paid, above the likes of Juninho and Mario Jardel, although John Aloisi is also rumoured to be on about A$1million per season. Robbie Fowler's wages for next season are still being speculated on, but considering how ridiculously wealthy he is, as well as how old/past it he is, it's unlikely to break any records. And yes, I know what you meant - more like semi-retirement than payday perhaps

Yes, with John Barnes as manager (also badly)

For some reason it seems that: Shepherd taking stock of the awful state of the finances and doing something about it = Ashley taking stock of the awful state of the finances and doing something about it = Now I'm not going to say Ashley has gone about it the right way. He's gone too far, and our Premier League status is under major and unacceptable threat. But something had to be done, whether it was Shepherd or Ashley. At the time of the takeover we were an average football team with crippling finances - this is undeniable. My hyperbole guage explodes every time I dare to enter one of these threads, so a fair-minded post such as this is pure gold. As you were

Just as an aside, there's no such thing as a "payday" in Australian football - which is why full Australian internationals can be found in Serie B and on the bench of Fizzy Pop clubs. The highest paid player in the short history of the Australian A-League was Dwight Yorke who made A$1 million for a season - or approximately 8000 British pounds per week...

In no way, shape or form should Viduka start - "fit" at this stage of the season should ONLY mean ready to bust a gut for 90 minutes, and much as I love the big man, for Viduka "full training" does not mean "ready to save our season". Impact sub for a few weeks is surely his best role...

Not necessarily. AS has said to Nile that he's impressed with him, but at the same time, Viduka has a good footballing brain, and his link up play is great. He might be the difference. Let's say that Colo doesn't make it for the game, what's stopping AS putting both Duke and Nile on bench? Colo isn't injured though, so why shouldn't he be on the bench, apart from the fact that he hasn't been brilliant on the pitch. You need defenders on the bench as well as attacking players. I think Nile will still be on the bench, and Viduka too. However Carroll will start, and I think Shola won't make the squad at all, freeing up a place for Viduka on the bench. Or he could just drop Smith from the squad

I find it amusing to remember the thread from his departure - I'd say maybe only 30-40% of people were saying "Fuck Shay" This time around it's closer to 90%. I'll say what I said then - "Fuck Shay"

All these formations tend to blur after a while, but has anyone suggested Edgar as LB? Wasn't he playing there when he scored against Man U? We really would like our best CB playing at CB, but we also need to look after Lennon, who I have spent years slating but has really come on this season. Edgar put in a very good shift last week - perhaps he is the solution? Beye has been pretty solid in the middle, and Saylor's best performances this season has been his recent efforts out wide - I'd suggest a back four consisting of: Saylor - Beye - Bassong - Edgar ?

Harper - 7 - Generally solid, not fantastic, but solid and blameless for the goals. Great save at the very end R Taylor - 5 - Poor. Set pieces, defending, tackling, passing - poor. Not first team when we've a full squad Beye - 7 - Made a good fist of centre half, sometimes positionally dodgy, but outshone the "natural" centre half beside him Coloccini - 4 - Woeful, utterly woeful. Did he do a single thing well? Must be behind both Bassong and S Taylor when at full strength Enrique - 6 - Consistently inconsistent. Can make a surging run and then miss a five yard pass. Jonas - 6 - More of the same, only less so. Looks great, especially in full flight, but too much style, not enough substance Butt - 7 - Tackled brilliantly, fought hard though tired towards the end Nolan - 6 - Fantastic first half, totaly out of the game in the second half. Lovenkrands - 5 - Not long enough to make an impact, but did get enough time to show he's not a winger Owen - 5 - Poor. Had tiny flashes where he showed the player he used to be five years ago. These flashes were too short and too infrequent Martins - 5 - Poor. Shooting and decisions were disappointing, but at least he made an effort Duff - 5 - Yet another pedestrian performance, offering little other than bewilderment that he was ever a 17m player Guthrie - 7 - An indictement on the rest of the team that a half hour cameo outshone all but two or three other performances. Must start Carroll - 5 - Just doesn't have enough. Xisco please...

Did you expect Shearer to take Owen off?!? Martins might have been poor, but certainly no worse than Owen, who has been poor AND disinterested both owen and martins have been poor but im pretty sure they're better than shite like andy carroll That can't be argued with either

Did you expect Shearer to take Owen off?!? Martins might have been poor, but certainly no worse than Owen, who has been poor AND disinterested

That's exactly right - too bad we've had about twenty minutes of it in four years...

Glad to see Guthrie back - Nolan was very good in the first half, anonymous in the second though...

Jesus

Fucking Coloccini

Eh? When was this stone cold pen? About 30 seconds before the half time whistle, Terry trying to swap shirts with Owen. Yeah nah. 1 - It was outside the box 2 - It was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Hardly. Why would Owen want to grapple with Terry when he can run around him? How can he run around him? He's not very fast anymore. It was very good defending by Terry, you can argue that it was a foul all you want, but you'd be wrong. You'd be fuming if it was given against us at the other end. Don't worry SM, you're not the only viewer with two eyes open. Styles got that absolutely correct, as with the Lampard yellow - I'm curious to know what Terry's half hour chat with the ref was about, because he's actually doing a decent job