merlin

Jonas DOES link well with Enrique, but that is more due to Enrique's movement than his ; Jonas is a luxury player in a team like Newcastle...put him in a decent side and he will look better, but his meaningful contributions are rare - very few goals scored or created by him.

If Kinnear resumes as manager, I think you'll find that Enrique is off to another club - even if Kinnear doesn't come back, Enrique will be sold if we are relegated..he's far too good for a Championship side. Even Fergie might be interested after watching him last night...

This - spot on...

Defeat, and its curtains - a point MAY - just MAY - save the club at the death, but I wouldn't bank on it. Hull are guaranteed to give this game everything - they have beaten NUFC in the last 2 meetings, and will see it as a chance to re-ignite their survival fight ; any lack of physical commitment by Newcastle will be punished...expect a nerve-shredding 90 mins which could determine the club's fate next season.

It also helps to have talented players who want to win, rather than a rag-bag bunch of losers..

All Bulls---t ; in his book, he tells about the purchase of Andy Cole, and says 'Newcastle have NEVER been able to keep their best players, so we knew we had a good chance'..... So much for his so-called respect for NUFC etc - the reason he has his teams wound up to play us is twofold - firstly, he has never forgotten the humiliation of the 5-0 in 1996, or the fact that we almost did them the previous season and would have been a serious long term threat had we done so, and. 2. We did them over signing Shearer - they thought they could get ANY player in the UK, and boy, did that humiliate them.. If they can, they will get as many goals as poss tonight, but he will be more worried about injuries - the spectre of Hiddink is looming large in his nightmares, because there is NO way Guus will be intimidated by him as KK was !!!!! One or two slips, and Fergie will be cr------g himself...

Those who have knocked Harper for being 'unambitious, which is why he is still at SJP' should maybe ask themselves whether the lad just likes living in the NE - in this day & age, players like him(and he IS a decent keeper) are like gold-dust...

Look at it as a period of convalescence..you haven't given up on NUFC , but you need a bit of a tonic to restore your faith in the game..nothing wrong in that, and you can often see decent games in the lower leagues - the clubs need support too. Maybe one day, NUFc will restore your faith, but it won't be for a while..

I originally made it a 7, when most were selecting 3 or 4.... It is tempting to raise the stake to 8 now, but I won't ; I still believe a 7(or 7.5) is aboout right, but if we get stuffed by the 'Big' teams we are due to play and then drop points to Hull, I will certainly raise my assessment to 8 or higher. As time(and games)tick by without any improvement, it is beginning to look as if the club is fated - the problems with Kinnear and the subsequent lack of action by Ashley could well be the proverbial straws on the camel's back...

Yeah, I take him. I would take Deschamps in a heart beat. However due to the fact I believe he left Juve over a dispute with the board about transfers this is a non starter. The 'water carrier' has a tiff at Monaco as well. Walked out on two clubs & has been out of the game for while, may as well get Kevin back. This - Deschamps is not the right man for NUFC.

Spot-on again, BG...

Since you ask, I am an older supporter as many on here are aware(been actively following the club for more than 45 years) and I can tell you that I agree with most of Big Geordie's post. When the club was in a similar situation back in 1988/89(struggling, poor midfield, bad board, takeover being contested, mediocre manager), we had hope because we could see that a very rich local guy was trying to get control and improve things..today, its different. The economic situation has ruined any chance of a takeover in the foreseeable future, the mediocre manager looks set to remain in situ, provided his health holds up(and in any case, no decent manager will touch the job with a bargepole due to the management structure), the gap between the top clubs and the rest is almost unbridgeable and the players look largely uninterested. We ended up getting relegated in 89 and it wasn't until KK came back in 92 that we put a really decent side together capable of going up...OK, we missed out in the Play-offs against the unwashed in 1990, but they failed as well and the side we had would NOT have remained in the Top flight. If we go down this time, apathy will set in Big-style because there is no hope on the horizon - when we went down in 89, the Board had to face reality and give SJH a place on the Board because of his shareholding, so we knew it was only a matter of time before he got control, as happened when the club started to sink financially ; this time, Ashley & Co are virtually immovable, the team will need major surgery if we go down(and many of the so-called 'top' players will leave). In addition, people still have the recent fiasco of KK's resignation in their minds and their finances are becoming harder-pressed by the week ; jobs will remain insecure and unemployment will rise steadily over the next year, so NUFC in its present form will NOT be high on the list of disposable income for many fans who buy STs on Credit now ...as BG says, the ST price reduction is simply a sweetener to rty to avoid defections next season. Unfortunately, I cannot see any hope on the horizon at present if the club is relegated - if not, it is not impossible that someone MAY emerge to buy the club when we least expect it, but in reality, unless Ashley changes his management structure the club will continue to be mediocre and apathy will grow. If anyone thinks NUFC is too big to become permanently mediocre, look at Forest, Wolves etc...and Forest won European Cups in recent memory.!!

He is guaranteed to lose any club he plays for at least 6 points a season - and that is being generous.. Suppose he did make errors(and they were always costly ones)for Wigan in just 2 matches that resulted in defeat, there you have the 6 points, and I reckon he probably did it more than just twice a season for NUFC.... Just because he looks OK in televised games where he DOESN'T make his customary balls-p doesn't mean he has suddenly become Bobby Moore or Woodgate. I once spoke to a guy who was in local football in East Anglia and he said that concentration was ALWAYS Bramble's weakness - even from being a boy. He wasn't surprised that things turned pear-shaped for him at SJP.

Sir John left his entire fortune to two fools, Douglas and Freddy and both of them proved that they were not as good as he was, both his business and his football club went backwards once he gave up control. He obviously did have some say but didn't make decisions, juse like every other shareholder in any business. He actually didn't Mick, but he left enough of it for them to squander....Sir John made sure that his own personal wealth was removed from the control of the 2 people you mention. Douglas was in total control of Cameron Hall developments after Sir John retired from the business in 1993 and when he stepped down as Chairman of NUFC in 1997, the club was a PLC so he must have known that Shepherd & Co were under a certain degree of control from City rules etc. As everyone knows, CHD went bust in 2002 but Sir John's personal monies were not part of the business.

We changed a winning system because Keith Gillespie got injured iirc. Yes, and badly by a bad tackle from his so-called 'mate' Phil Neville at Man U earlier in the season ; was never the same player.

He's off his tits. As they pointed out on MOTD, he'd rather enjoy watching his team play well - yet get beat every week - than stay up, or so it seems. And he's a Smoggie. ...and so was Brian Clough...!!!

If you're honest, he really wasn't, for the last few seasons at least. 39 goals in 77 games in his last three season, but Shola should've should've been in his place if we're honest. What's your thoughts on Michael Owen, his goals to game ratio is pretty good too. Shearer did score plenty of goals, who's denying that? He was undeniably magnificent for most of his career, but I wouldn't describe his last few seasons as magnificent, just because we didn't have anyone magnificent to replace him with, doesn't make him magnificent by default. Especially as he's partly responsible for that situation, having played something of a role in the decisions to remove those who might have replaced him or tried to replace him from the club. Shearer is too much of a sacred cow for many people, you can think that he wasn't perfect and criticise him when he does something you consider wrong and still think he was a great player, you know? Sacrilege!! Shearer was great and a geordie, any other details are unnecessary and wicked s***-stirring of the vilest order. Incidentally, while I think he has the qualities to be a good manager, it does piss me off that the only circumstances he'll agree to boss Newcastle is with (probably) lots of money to spend and under the right owner. If he put himself forward for the job now and just got on with it like Kinnear I'm sure no one would slag him if we weren't challenging for the title in 12 months. Like any self-respecting, sane Premier League manager, then? Most self-respecting Prem managers have earned their dues at lesser clubs. Newcastle United isn't a bad first step, even under tight financial controls. Newcastle United is NOT a 'first step' club - it has a huge fan base and, if properly-run, the ability to make money and be in the Top 6 of English football... In order to make the club realise its potential, a manager DOES need a big transfer budget and be able to decide transfer policy. If Brian Clough had been offered the chance of managing a club like Newcastle(which Peter Taylor was on record as saying that he & Clough would have liked the chance), he would have expected at least a budget capable of competing with the likes of Villa and Spurs - because he started at Hartlepool he had to cut his coat according to the cloth... Shearer is NOT a fool - he can see that if he took over NUFC at this time, he is on a hiding to nothing because he won't be allowed to choose his own targets and the money for decent players is clearly not available...if he chose to manage a lower league club, he would be taking that on under far less expectation.

Sir John did walk away from the running of the club and the only quotes from anybody in a position to know have said so, not a single quote goes against this. So you think he was foolish to leave his entire fortune and business in the hands of someone else with no consultation ? Seriously. You need to have a good long look at the tripe you are posting here lad. I know you have a personality complex, having been called nasty names by fat fred, but if you go through life being mortally wounded by people calling you nasty names, you won't get very far. Sir John did not have to worry about his shareholding - because he owned 25% of the total in a Trust, and most of the shares were in the hands of a few, there was little chance of him losing money unless the club was relegated and that never happened... At his age, it was always on the cards that he would sell but it was noticeable that he didn't give Shepherd the chance to buy his stake before selling to Ashley, so that must tell you something...!!

Far from having 'a good working relationship' with Parry, Benitez was unsettled because Parry was interfering in transfers - just the very problem that caused KK to walk out.. Unlike Newcastle United, Liverpool's board chose to back their manager instead of the DOF(or Chief Executive, if that is what you prefer to call him..)...that is also why Liverpool will continue to be a successful club and NUFC among the also-rans.

Why mention it then? I won't be giving NUSC credit for the price reduction, because there's no evidence it's anything to do with them. And I will criticise the fans that caused chaos after KK left, because I don't agree with what they did. because a bunch of people on here got all hot and bothered that 'the fans' are to blame for the state we are in, really laughable stuff like 'the banner made us lose' on one occasion. people are more than willing to point out how much damage an insignificant fan club are doing (and how badly run they are whilst giving the professional club board lots of slack). nusc must be very influential if they can cause such damage! so i just wondered if the same people would also dish out the credit for putting pressure on the board to try and win fans round. you do both or you do none. So you're arguing that fans can have no effect upon the club at the same time as arguing in favour of an organisation whose relevance and reason for existing is based entirely upon the opposite being true. Well said. I was reading today's posts on this thread and working up to posting about precisely this logical disconnect. The very people who argue most strongly in favour of protest, of "doing something" -- ie insisting that fan action of this nature can have a positive effect -- are also the most keen to deny that fan action can have any kind of negative effect at all. In reality, if one is true, so must be the other. Worrying about the effect of protest on the team is horse s*** to tell the truth. 24 points in 22 games without any protests? Christ! What level of confidence are we concerned about denting by having a go at the owner? An already extremely fragile confidence. However, you miss the point. Chez was saying upthread, and I agree, that the atmosphere of outraged protest following the departure of Keegan was one of the factors making it impossible for us to find a better manager than Joe Kinnear. The NUSC meanwhile seem to think that they can somehow oust Mike Ashley from the club. All this is about stuff that happens off the pitch. The fuss surrounding KK's departure would NOT have mattered to a prospective manager of stature PROVIDED he felt the club structure was right and he would be allowed to do the job HIS WAY ; look at what has happened at a successful club(Liverpool), where Parry has been shown the door because Benitez didn't want him interfering in transfers etc...isn't that exactly why KK walked out, and didn't both Fergie & Wenger agree with him ? We ended up with the Kinnears of this world because nobody else wanted to work with the structure Ashley has put in place...can you imagine the likes of Hiddink being worried about taking over from KK? Not a chance, the guy has faith in his own ability to deliver.

Population of India & China ? Whose economy is growing(or not shrinking) at the fastest rate..?? Why are the Germans placing car plants in China..?? Would the EU like to take on either country(let alone the USA)in a military contest? They can't even let their troops out to do soldiering in Afghanistan,,, Whose population is ageing fastest and have a huge demographic Pension problem??? IF you look at realities, you begin to see why Disraeli talked about 'lies, damned lies & statistics' Oh, and who did Hilary Clinton rush off to see first? wasn't the EU... China is even more f***ed than EU & US because their economy is based on us buying crap from them TOTALLY wrong - China still growing at 6% p.a., has also launched world's BIGGEST stimulus package for its DOMESTIC economy...as for western countries buying 'crap' from them, well, if you don't like it, don't buy it, and assuming you live in the UK, that seems a strange comment from someone whose Prime Minister couldn't wait to lick the Chinese PMs boots recently because they now own such 'crap' brands as Rover, having bought it from the UK...! I think you'll find that many of the flat-screen TVs that westerners rush to buy because the price has come down were made in China......

so what you're saying is KK is a w***** and dennis wise would have signed zola then, and we'd have won the title by 12 points? Not EXACTLY...!!! But Zola would , as has been said, have been a great replacement for Beardo who was getting tired - he was , after all, 35 by then.

End of story. Tino was the last person to blame, but he became a convenient scapegoat. I think Tino's goal which put us 2-1 up at the epic 4-3 game at Anfield is one of my favourite memories. No one else could even have imagined a a more crazily crafted finish. Pure genius. It was the third goal to put us 3-2 up that Tino scored - Ferdinand and Ginola had scored Nos 1 & 2, but yes, it WAS a great finish, bent around Grobbelaar after Rob Lee put Asprilla in on their right after we caught them on a break..

With a population of 20m that lives in a land mass almost as big as the Continental USA and has been a nation for just 108 years with masses of mineral resources...now I wonder where Oz will be in another 50 years...!??

Population of India & China ? Whose economy is growing(or not shrinking) at the fastest rate..?? Why are the Germans placing car plants in China..?? Would the EU like to take on either country(let alone the USA)in a military contest? They can't even let their troops out to do soldiering in Afghanistan,,, Whose population is ageing fastest and have a huge demographic Pension problem??? IF you look at realities, you begin to see why Disraeli talked about 'lies, damned lies & statistics' Oh, and who did Hilary Clinton rush off to see first? wasn't the EU...