afar

Damn we've announced that line up early.

Given Edgar Colo Taylor Bassong Geremi Nacho Butt Zoggy Xisco Owen Would be my prediction.

I move to change the name of this thread to "I am super itelligent accountant, look what I can do with numbers". That way we can let the likes ChezGiven, Macbeth and Scott Parker's haircut, stroke their collective egos without having to hide behind the mask of a "Shepherd was shit" thread.

Most of the people who I know that have been really successful in what they have done think they are always right, no matter what they do. I think that's how they are good although that's a bit too simplistic. Do you seriously expect us to believe that anyone sucessful would be associated with you Mick ? Or are you talking about NE5 here ? What's he sucessful at ?

I doubt he'd have known how things were going to turn out, none of us knew that. I just think it was too easy for him to walk but he was happy enough to meet Ashley so I still think he probably wanted a return. I agree with that. I think they've both called each others' bluff & both ended up losing You don't get it right very often Liam, but that's spot on. f*** off, I'm right all of the time Sure you are

I doubt he'd have known how things were going to turn out, none of us knew that. I just think it was too easy for him to walk but he was happy enough to meet Ashley so I still think he probably wanted a return. I agree with that. I think they've both called each others' bluff & both ended up losing You don't get it right very often Liam, but that's spot on.

Don't agree with you singling out Ossie for passing, he is one of our best for technical ability. Worth bearing in mind that he wasn't even fit last night and was left on for the full 90. Same with Cahill who was also below par. We can definitely go there and beat them. We had the better of the play, created more chances and scored two good goals rather than two that were gifted by daft mistakes. If we can get the defence back to the way it was last season then we are through. I'm not holding my breath though on the defence suddenly clicking though! Obviously you'll want your team to go through but do you think that going out may help your league form, not sure that your have the depth in your squadd to cope with a long uefa cup campaign.

Oh it's not irrepairable, for sure, but there are very, very few positive signs at the moment that things will get better. Things always get better. This, as usual, is another typical knee-jerk thread. OK whatever, you obviously weren't around last time we went through turmoil like this off the field. Things back then got a hell of a lot worse before they got better.

Obviously they are desperate get a more sympathetic ownership to them, than the current board. Oliver was spoilt under shepherd, he had a direct line to what was going on within the club. Now his contacts are no better than any of ours. They'll do a deal with anyone to get a relationship like that back. I wouldn't put it past them to be used by some interested parties "to test the water". Perhaps Llambias has thrown them a bone and told them to get O'Leary's name out there.

Oh it's not irrepairable, for sure, but there are very, very few positive signs at the moment that things will get better.

I don't think there is anything crucial about an ex-player trying not cut his ties with the owner of the club. Beardsley knows about as much as any other hanger on does. This is a pretty Ashley apologistic piece, from this Matt Slater guy, if you read it carefully, it tries to paint a picture of fan impatience and that Ashley's been driven out and done no wrong.

I don't agree with that, I would have expected 6pts in the bag now. Bolton and Hull at home should be pretty close to "bankers" in anyone's mind. But like I keep repeating this has nowt to do with the Hull game.

Who's going to get the players "up for it" though ? It's easy to say we need to win games but can you honestly say any game at this moment looks a "banker" for us ? Not aiming this at you HTT, but a lot of people on here are not totally appreciating the effect stability has the players who go out to perform for us. Until the situation behind the scenes improves, we'll struggle, confidence will dwindle, results will be even harder to come by, the better players will look to leave and if we start get cast adrift at the bottom things will be very hard retrieve. That's why its imperative IMO, that the situation is resolved quickly, unfortunately I've witnessed nothing from the ownership of the club, outside the buying of it, that would indicated that swiftness is a particular skill. Sadly I do appreciate the effect this will have had on the players and therefore I don't expect the players to be up for it and everything else that comes with that. I'd love them to though as that will be the right answer to everything and will pull us altogether. A win at Upton Park would be great and will taste much sweeter after all this so here's hoping. Absolutely, I would love nothing more.

Who's going to get the players "up for it" though ? It's easy to say we need to win games but can you honestly say any game at this moment looks a "banker" for us ? Not aiming this at you HTT, but a lot of people on here are not totally appreciating the effect stability has the players who go out to perform for us. Until the situation behind the scenes improves, we'll struggle, confidence will dwindle, results will be even harder to come by, the better players will look to leave and if we start get cast adrift at the bottom things will be very hard retrieve. That's why its imperative IMO, that the situation is resolved quickly, unfortunately I've witnessed nothing from the ownership of the club, outside the buying of it, that would indicated that swiftness is a particular skill.

Teasy read my previous posts, this has nowt to do with the Hull game. Honestly there are worrying signs here that we've seen before. No one is doubting that we have the quality to expect much more than 17th but all this off the field crap will hinder any progress on the field, you might think that they are not related but I can tell you they certainly are. We've seen it happen at our own club but for recent memory, Leeds's team that droped down could easily be described as "too good to go down", there was a lot of talent in that team and a few teams a lot worse than them on paper, but they went down largely because of the mess they were in off the field. Of course our situation is not as bad as theirs was but we are in one hell of a mess right now and it's not exactly looking like a solution to all our problems is right around the corner.

Way better put than my waffle, exactly my thoughts too.

The more stuff that comes out, and who knows how much of it is true, the more and more convinced I am that he really has no intention of selling unless he gets an offer that he just can't turn down. The thing is he could have ridden out the storm, if he pulled out all the stops and got in a replacement for KK who fit within the system and had the talent to motivate the players. If results began to pick up, the events of the last few weeks, although never forgotten would have been pushed to the back of the minds of the supporters. But what I can not fathom atm, is what the hell is he thinking ? No one is stupid enough to hand him a huge profit on the club, maybe he knows that and is fully aware that he'll not sell. But why in the whole process make the managers job untouchable ? Why devalue your asset even further? Why put the club in danger of losing it's PL status and making your asset worth considerably less ? He's an extremely cautious man when it comes to public speaking, I doubt his statement was made in the aftermath of the Hull protests. Surely he would have known the potential issues he would have by saying what he did. So what now for him, what's his next move ? Seems like this plan to offload onto the rich arabs, if he was serious about it, has failed. Does he have a back up plan ? Or does he now issue a statement to say, I tried, no one was interested so your stuck with me ? I really believe something has to be done within the next week, first and foremost to make the manager's role attractive, I think the game tomorrow will highlight the need to do that. He could issue a statement that he's not selling now and hanging around, he could set a realistic price for the club and start negotiations to sell it or he could sack Wise and announce that he's abandoning the DOF structure and that the next manager he employs will have the control he requires. Whatever he does, to avoid disaster he has to act quickly now. Sorry for the incoherent rambling, I've forgotten what my point was myself now

Since I no longer pay money out for my season ticket (kind of a long trip from Calgary for me now ) I can't really comment here. I still buy some merchandise and pay for setanta (which inderictly goes to the club). So I guess I can make a small statement. As much as I wish I could, I can't divorce myself from NUFC. Having said that if I was given a choice to have them removed from my heart and Manure or some other equally succesfull club inserted in their place, I strangely don't think I would take that option.

We won't. I wish I was as confident of that as you, there's an awful lot to fix right now.

I'm sorry but from my point of view this has nothing whatsover to do with the Hull game. The old blokes on here have seen this before. The really old blokes remember only too well the off the field problems of 77/78, which no matter what anyone says effect hugely the team on the pitch. The slightly younger old blokes like me remember some 20 odd years ago when we were last relegated. We had a shitty board back then, who had no ambition whatsover, crappy manager who had done a Roeder, the crowd were chanting sack the board and trying to organise themselves. We were an absolute mess off the field and we went down. We can't go on the way we are at the moment for too much longer, if we don't get a proper manager in, have some resolution to the ownership situation, the turmoil will continue and I don't care how good the players are their performances will be effected.

I went to investigate the light at the end of the tunnel, more bad news I'm afraid - it was only Ashley with a torch.

I don't think anyone doubts that we have the qulaity of players to not even contemplate a relegation battle problem is at the moment they have no direction and the coaches have no direction from above them. To be honest I do think we are indeed "too good to go down" but are at this moment in time in serious danger that we could go down. If that makes any sense ??

if you read the post properly it says the owNER doesn't want us. LOL, I didn't even notice he'd mis read it, I just thought he was going off on a targent about Owen

For sure, it'll be worth about four and a half pence by then.

So what are your expectations, right now then ?