afar

I hope you are right.

Loon. Fuck we really need Parky to be predicting that we're a 10 to go down, more proof I'm afraid that we are doomed.

I've just look through all the fixtures for all our rivals and ourselves, and we still look to be up against it. The problem as well is that we have two tough away games before we get into one of our winnable ones, then we need to go to Liverpool right after that. There's a danger we could be cast so far from safety that the task is impossible before we get to a ease up in our fixture list I was going to change my prediciton from a 10 to and 8 or a 9, but I just can't see a way we'll get through this, hope to god I'm worng, so sticking to a 10.

we're down I think, not even Shearer can get us out of this mess

Colocini is absolutely shit, unbelievably bad defending that

I've just done the predictor thing again: WBA, Boro and Hull, fill my 3 relegation spots, with us staying up on goal difference with 39 pts. Mind you in my table I have stoke finishing 10th ! so dunno how acurate my guesses are.

I haven't changed mine from a 10 just yet. I will though probably after Saturday's game. We still must be one of the favourites to go down, but we've certainly got a chance though now, which we didn't have this time last week.

Argentina is looking good value for ending up fifth if they don't get their act together. And I'd not say they're third rate. They'll get their act together though, they're Argentina after all. But still. Of course they will, Mexico will end up playing someone like Paraguay or something if they finish 4th. I'm sorry but it's just so much more easy for them than it is in Europe.

Thanks and I'm still laughing, not with but at.

LOL at you !

As a side note how fucking easy is it to qualify from Concaf, finish 4th and you still get a chance to qualify by beating some third rate south american team that finished 5th in their qualifying.

This f***ing attitude pisses me off tbh, appeasors and appologists like you, people who try to talk as if they are the voice of reason, but really have no f***ing clue. Some of the crap you post, is mind boggingly niave. It's not too late to take a chance, there's 8 games left, bring a new guy in, get a honeymoon period of 2 or 3 wins, ala BSA at blackburn, Sbriga at the dirty mackems and many, many more examples, even Souness here !! And you're well on your way to getting out of this mess. The crime here is not to act and to sleepwalk into relegation, we are going down without a bloody fight atm. What the f*** are you talking about. If I remember rightly, Ian W was one of the few posters to keep his head and post some sense during the Keegan leaving debacle. He's right, it IS too late to appoint someone now, purely because no-one else would take the job just for 8 games, especially as they can't "win" a contract by keeping us up - because we've offered one to Kinnear already. I did see this at the time, but now LOL Oh how wrong you were, too late And Ian W, is an awful poster, who spouts apologetic "voice of reason" crap all the bloody time, he's nearly always proved wrong, as evidently are you. There are a lot of older, wiser heads on these boards, that are often shouted down by a lot of kids who've known nothing but PL football at SJP. They are branded whiner's and pessimists, by the younger brigade when really it's just experience. Obviously this isn't a young un's versus old un's thing, there are plenty of younger pups that post some really good insightful, realistic, stuff and also some older gits (cough...Mick...cough) that continue to post garbage.

Despite the euphoria the appointment has given us, I still think Chelsea will have too much for us and they'll come away with a win perhaps 1-0 or 2-0. I think we will however see a much improved performance, with a desire to get into the task at hand, this will hopefully set us up for the cruical game at Stoke, we may even be able to take something out of that fixture now.

If they said "we'll look at the manager situation in the summer", it would turn into a popularity contest between Shearer and Kinnear. Common sense says that we all stand united at this time, to make sure the club stays in the division. Full stop. They're smart enough to know that Shearer would win hands down any kind of popularity contest with JFK. It's already a popularity contest, it was when they appointed Shearer for these last 8 games. Not really sure where you are coming from with this comment. Not in public and in official statements it isn't! It would be if they came out and said if Shearer keeps us up, he'll stay on. At the moment the official line is one of unity of all behind the cause. What I'm saying is that the board are not so stupid not to know we'd take Big Al over JFK any day of the week! It doesn't matter. I'm still at a loss to find your point. You are just stating the obvious that Shearer's more popular than JFK. Come the end of the season the comparions between the two will be drawn no matter what they say. DL was way too premature in backing one over the other (especially the rank outsider) at this point. A non commital message was what was required, they could have stated facts like "Alan has aggreed to manage us for these 8 games only, after that we'll sit down a make a decision on our mangement structure, we've just lost our EDoF, Joe is in recovery from a major operation and our premiership status is not secured, so it's a little early to talk about next season", and let people assume what will happen should those 8 games be the success we all hope they will be. Managing people's assumptions is a skill and something this board seems to like to do but unfortunately they are not very good at it.

If they said "we'll look at the manager situation in the summer", it would turn into a popularity contest between Shearer and Kinnear. Common sense says that we all stand united at this time, to make sure the club stays in the division. Full stop. They're smart enough to know that Shearer would win hands down any kind of popularity contest with JFK. It's already a popularity contest, it was when they appointed Shearer for these last 8 games. Not really sure where you are coming from with this comment.

The thing that gets me and shows the ownership as a clueless bunch of idiots, is that here was a huge opportunity to garner goodwill, from the public and they go and screw it up by saying something like this. The best thing to say was "Well look at the permenant management situation in the summer" and end it at that, let people assume that should Shearer do well he might be tempted to extend his stay. That's important for the players too. They seem to be under some kind of weird impression that fans are happy with JFK and can't wait for his return. FFS, read some forums, websites, fanzines or just talk to a few fans, it won't take long to realise that couldn't be further from the truth. All I say is should Shearer pull it off, good luck JFK having to follow that, I know I wouldn't want to.

I wouldn't start believing in all that just yet. I don't think the timing is odd in the slightest, clearly JFK has said something about his plans to retunr (or not as the case is probably), they've just dropped into the bottom 3 and I honestly believe they've only now realised that the club is in deep danger of relegation. So they had to do something, and they have, so as much of a critic I have been of Ashley and his cohorts, my hats off to them for pulling this one off.

He's certainly judged the mood perfectly. Most fans are resigned to the fact that we'll go down. If he can pull a rabbit out of the hat and keep us up, then he'll be a hero, if we go down, then no one will point the blame at him and rightly so. Win, win situation for Shearer but also fantastic news for us and the club.

I'm very late to the party, I just heard the news, being over in Canada here it's not exactly front page stuff. Anyway, I've got to say well done to the board for acting, something had to be done and I think this is a gereat move, he might not save us but at least we've rolled the dice and took a chance.

A very average player, who sometimes could cross a decent ball when he felt like it. A NUFC great ? Hardly.

This fucking attitude pisses me off tbh, appeasors and appologists like you, people who try to talk as if they are the voice of reason, but really have no fucking clue. Some of the crap you post, is mind boggingly niave. It's not too late to take a chance, there's 8 games left, bring a new guy in, get a honeymoon period of 2 or 3 wins, ala BSA at blackburn, Sbriga at the dirty mackems and many, many more examples, even Souness here !! And you're well on your way to getting out of this mess. The crime here is not to act and to sleepwalk into relegation, we are going down without a bloody fight atm.

Shola Ameobi by a mile

Lol

For me, the inevitable relegation will bring huge changes in the squad, I think the players can be classed in four groups with regard to the chances that they'll be pulling on a B&W shirt next season: Certain to leave Bassong Martins Barton Jonas Colocini Viduka Owen Beye Cacapa Nacho Probably Enrique S Taylor Xisco Smith Duff Geremi Possibly Nolan Lovenkrands Guthrie Will not Shola R Taylor Harper Edgar Carroll Lau Lau

They used to be £12 million a season I think but are now going up to £30 million for the start of next season. I think Sky money is about £40 million, or it was for us last season anyway. Match day income was £34 million last season. There are a lot of indirect costs that you also need to factor in. Corporate deals will be renegoiated, there is less desire from businesses to be associated with a lesser league. Advertisement deals of course are much lower, with the same association issues. Match day income will nose dive, fewer bums on seats and lower prices. Less burgers, pies, chips, beer and programmes sold. Less merchandise sold, addidas and Northern Rock deals have probably got relegation clauses in them, new terms will be less favourable. All in all, the parachute payments will not come close to bridging the gap between income as a PL club and one as a champ club. Fire sales and major wage bill reductions are absolutely necessary to ensure our survival.