merlin

The lad had an excellent game in a difficult fixture - he stuck to his task defensively and the back 4 looked better as a result He was up against some good players and was never overawed. Got a promising future if he keeps his attitude right.

We should be producing more young players than we are, but the truth is that the NE is no longer a hotbed of football or football tradition -and the reason for this is more prosperity. Look at Brazil - more people there are having a better standard of living and therefore the young kids have higher ambitions than playing football in order to get out of poverty...they have more choices. Also, because of the loss of industry in the NE, many families have moved away, people whose children may well have been fans/potential signings for the club. Our Academy system is also clearly not fit for purpose and people like Beardsley are just there for the pension..

Think the club has been on a downward spiral since John Hall stepped down as Chairman, we had the couple of years renaissance under Robson but the first killer blow was the appointment of Souness and since then we have fallen from grace at an alarming rate and now we are at the shipwrecked stage. Ashley had the chance to steady the ship under Keegan but blew it big time and now we are in a hopeless position with second rate stooges running the operation of the club and we are now a pitied shell at best and a laughing stock at worst. That's why some people on here really boil my p*ss as you just don't get it and don't appreciate how serious the situation is. This is a great summary of the situation. Once Sir John went, the B team were well and truly in charge and they started the rot by allowing Sky(aka the NOTW, part of Murdoch's empire)to con the 2 stooges into showing themselves to be people who had no depth, were only interested in money and power and who made terrible decisions at crucial times - the sacking of SBR instead of easing him into the boardroom and asking him to find his successor was the beginning of the rot ; the appointment of Souness made things worse and we began a long descent into mediocrity from being one of Britain's most popular, wealthy and exciting clubs. NOBODY owes you anything in football - we became a top club because SJH and KK had the ambition and knowledge to make us one...Shephard was out of his depth and a blusterer who even had his own family involved with a player's Agent in a SJP office, something certain to provoke questions throughout the game and the crazy signings like that of Owen and others proved poor value for money. People blame Dalglish for destroying KKs side but that is not strictly true - he signed some good players like Nobby, Given and Hamann and the decision to part with Ferdinand wasn't just his - the board saw it as good business to get 6m for a 30 year old striker but Shearer's injury killed the logic in that and also caused Tomasson to be played as a target CF, which he wasn't - he proved how good a player he was when he went to AC Milan and won trophies/scored goals, but people at NUFC thought he was rubbish. Dalglish was fired after we started a season with 2 draws....McClaren would certainly not have lasted 2 minutes using that logic and then we had sexy football which ended with a home derby defeat in a downpour and Shearer being dropped for the game... When you read all this, you realize what a mess the whole thing had become in a couple of years and eventually we got Ashley... the rest is history. Neville's article has a lot of truth in it but unless Ashley stays beyond next season, we are still recoverable as a club and a decent power in the game - but ONLY if we get an ambitious wealthy owner who appoints a proven quality manager/coaches and allows them to sign proven quality players. Where we would struggle is to compete for many mercenary continental players who want to be close to the capital but there are still plenty who would join an ambitious well supported club like NUFC. OK, Abramovitch/Makhtoum money is going to talk loudest when it comes to the cream of the crop....but NOT always and we could still be a decent club without mega-spend...the problem now is that the whole club is rotten from top to bottom and needs a complete new broom with the people as described above. If that doesn't happen, Neville's fears will be proved correct sadly.

We've scored three times. If you're gonna jump down the throat of Ashley and McClaren, at least get your facts straight ffs You must be one of those who view every goal as a triumph - one more goal makes everything OK does it..? And that scored by a full-back..... You are pathetic son. No wonder Ashley laughs at our fans...

Ashley, once again, has allowed his hubris and sense of business superiority to get him into possibly the tightest spot he has faced since buying the club. He has appointed know-nowt-about-it people like Llambias and Charnley(totally out of his depth)to make crucial decisions about employing mediocre managers and signing players who are either not suited to the PL or have no wish to stay at the club other than to use it as a stepping stone. He has allowed these clowns(and Carr has to be included in the culpability)to spend 50m over the summer, much of it too late for pre-season training, and the result is a team in free-fall having scored twice in its PL games so far, rooted at the bottom of the PL and bundled out of the cup by a lower league side with Chelsea and Man C to face in the next 2 games.... Things could hardly be worse and Ashley is now faced with what for him is a nightmare scenario - either spend another wedge of money in January, with no guarantee of success, or fire the manager they appointed in June with no likelihood of securing a decent replacement.. The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost after 7 years of poor investment and lack of ambition - if this continues, my money is on him bailing out as soon as he can get a half-decent price for the club and turning his full attention to Rangers who are likely to be back in the SPL next season. Where this leaves NUFC is anyone's guess but I will be very surprised if McClaren is dumped yet - it may be almost Christmas and even then only if the dire results have continued. Another spell in the Championship is looking more likely by the week.

It might be tempting to recall Armstrong in view of the dire striking ability of the first team, but it probably wouldn't be a major success. There is a huge difference between Lg 2 and the PL and in any case, chances are not exactly being created by the midfield so any striker would stuggle, esp if asked to play a lone role up front and being of Armstrong's size. A spell with a Championship club would give a more accurate pointer of what his success level would be back in the PL, but he's doing OK. We should have bought and experienced and proven striker like Austin - Cisse is hopeless playing on his own and his heart went out of the whole thing years ago. He needs to be moved on ASAP.

What a load of horse s***. Some advice which you badly need - it is better to keep one's mouth SHUT and be thought an idiot than to open it(or in your case, type it)and prove the matter beyond doubt. I think even you might just get this....

This - the heart of the problem.

Last time it was a 7 from me - now raising it to 8 and it will stay that way until Christmas at this rate.

Carr has been found out big time - he is, as has been said, living off the back of signing Cabaye and even then, it wasn't exactly rocket science as the guy was an established French international. He has been successful in conning Ashley and the CEOs he has worked with because none of them know anything about football and Ashley just wants bargains he can move on. Carr obviously enjoys his trips to France and his Duty-Free booze etc....probably too late to do anything this season but really the whole background team of the club are a shambles...amateurs being exposed badly by the rest of the PL..

Another dire performance, slightly improved in the second half, but nowhere NEAR being acceptable for a decent PL side. Watford deserved their win, they attacked in greater numbers once they got the ball and always looked more dangerous. They are a poor side and as someone said earlier, we would have been hammered by a better team...roll on Chelsea and Man C eh..? This Newcastle team is going down - even though this is early in the season, you cannot see any real goal chances being created around the box apart from Janmaat's crosses and they weren't always accurate although he WAS our best player by a mile, mainly because Watford either elected not to put a man on him to try and block his forward runs, or didn't have the brains to suss out what was happening. Colo was woeful and so too, on the day, was Haidara so we conceded early and easily. Colo is struggling for pace even more these days when the opposition catch us on the break and we will pay heavily for Charnley's decision not to buy another experienced CB as both Colo and Taylor are unreliable...Williamson we won't even mention.. Wijnaldum does disappear, and I have noticed this since the first game, even though he scored in that....our m/f generally is lacking in creativity and vision, Colback getting worse by the game and Charnley is responsible for the whole fiasco in my view - he was given carte blanche to control buying and selling and we are stuck with 2, possibly 3 players who do NOT want to play for us, Cisse, Tiote and Sissoko, 2 of whom are midfielders and who would make a real difference if their hearts were in it and the 3rd who plays in the area of the field that we really ARE short on - striker. All this should have been sorted out before the season and players moved on/brought in so we had everyone pulling the same way - as it is, we face a desperate fight against relegation and after the next few games could be marooned without realistic hope of recovery. Confidence in McClaren is now at a very low point and although he is not responsible for the summer transfer activities, he shows no sign of being able to organize or motivate the resources at his disposal. There is no way Ashley will fire him if he can possibly avoid it and the chances of us being able to get a really decent manager are nil so that avenue is closed. The main problem is that Ashley should have tried to sell in the summer and we may then have had a board with real ambition and vision - we really are in a horrendous position and unless some sort of miracle occurs, we will struggle to stop and score goals for the foreseeable future.

If you are a realist, your first option is the correct one...if you are a dreaming optimist, try choice No 2...

The crucial thing about BOTH of them is that they fit the Ashley mould...and that's all he cares about. They keep their mouths shut and let Carr/Charnley sign players that fit the Ashley criteria - likely to make money when sold on. Other than that, and they would be out of a job.

This - all of it. Anyone thinking that 'its early days, tough fixtures etc etc' is living in dreamland or has never seen a REAL relegation season/team. Once you get into a long losing streak it becomes very hard to get out of it and I have seen 3 relegated Newcastle sides in the past 38 years, not to mention numerous poor seasons where we escaped by a few points. Even in the season after we signed Supermac we struggled until November when we signed Tony Green and he almost single-handedly sparked life into the side. However, we DID have players like Macdonald and Tudor who had the potential to be a really good strike force and Green's addition to m/f got them going....this side has NO goalscorer in Tudor's class, let alone Macdonald's and the defence is much worse than the one in 71-72. We DO need a dominant and constructive m/f player but we are not going to get one and by the time Christmas comes things will be very difficult unless we start looking like creating and taking chances which we are not doing now. After Watford, Chelsea and Man C lie in wait and Chelsea are not going to be poor for long - they have too much talent all round and we could cop a hiding unless they break their losing streak before then. OK, so we have played Man U and Arsenal but neither are really the power they were and we have also played sides we should expect points from so Watford IS a cruncher. The rot has to stop or it will be too late - relegation sides show a distinct lack of confidence and ability to score goals...this is NUFC right now, not last season or the one before - NOW, and after spending a reasonable amount of dosh(probably nowhere near enough), excuses for continuing poor performances are going to wear thin...its one thing to be playing well, creating chances but not taking them, and another thing not to be creating chances at all whilst conceding easily at the back ; there is only one ending for sides who do this regularly in any league.... We are a 7 and will remain that way until things pick up.

This is a MUST win....anything else has the alarm bells chiming wildly.

Didn't show the game live here in Oz, but I won't watch the recording - another dire show by the sound of it and another game with a failure to score. We have scored twice from open play against Saints, failed against Man U, Arsenal and Hammers... If we lose to Watford, McClaren is going to start feeling the screw big time and his honeymoon period is now well and truly over. We are in big trouble, bottom of the league and not looking likely to create danger to any opposition - if this doesn't change quickly we will be in deep relegation trouble as confidence continues to slump. Happy days again at SJP.....

Yep - the knives will start coming out if we lose at WHU and then at home to Watford next week...even a draw in the Watford game will not be really acceptable.

I don't think you will have to worry about winning anything with this team - they are light years away from being strong enough and I believe Ashley & Co know this but just aren't prepared to make the necessary investment to achieve that in one or even 2 transfer windows.

Absolutely this. KK said they would lie and lie to the fans and they have - he was right when he said nothing would change until they all went - esp Ashley.

Heard some stories about McNamee and Ollie Burton and I actually think Kevin Scott was up for it, always first on the scene and protective of his team mates when things got ugly, his problem was he was so polite in play. No one bullied Shearer and apparently if Benny Kristensen could be roused he was mean, Kevin Dillon had a reputataion that it seemed he was trying to live down when he came here, Joey Barton was/is a pussy in comparisson. On the pitch Billy wasn't that hard but he had a reputation, put him in the car park with a Shearer could be interesting, as much because Shearer could take it. Both McNamee and Burton were hard cases - McNamee more obviously, I once saw him get booked for a clattering foul on Alan Clarke of Leeds and McNamee had only been on the field as a sub for a couple of minutes. He was a decent CB though and intimidating for opposition forwards - he often weighed in with crucial goals too, saw him score against Spurs after just about battering his way into their penalty area after working a 1-2 with Pop Robson(I think) and there was that never-to-be forgotten moment when he swung from the Sunderland cross-bar at Roker Park after scoring there...I think it was a 3-3 draw after we had been behind. Burton was a more cultured defender and he had decent ball skills but he could be very nasty on the quiet....always thought him and Moncur were our best defensive pairing during the Fairs Cup run. Some real hard cases around at that time...Chopper Harris of Chelsea, Peter Storey at Arsenal and of course, Tommy Smith(Liverpool)and Norman Hunter/Jackie Charlton at Leeds. Some of these guys wouldn't last 5 minutes with today's rules/refs....

Does your free season ticket work? It's been like this for ages, increasingly so all the time. Whenever we play one of the better sides, home or away, the crowd goes home absolutely buzzing if we do anything other than get absolutely obliterated. It used to be just the top couple of sides in the division. Now if we play Swansea City and don't get f***ed up the arse, it's treated as a moral victory. Meanwhile West Ham have already won away at Liverpool and Arsenal. As a support, we write these games off and are delighted to do so. One of the many reasons I can't be f***ed with it any more. Yep - the Ashley propaganda machine has done a fine job on NUFC fans...or what is left of the genuine ones. He set out to lower expectations and because many fans have nothing but SJP on every alternative Saturday/Sunday to look forward to, he has probably even bettered his aims. The club will never do anything whilst people are prepared to accept mediocrity - I'm not particularly referring to Saturday as there were mitigating factors, but even so, a more ambitious owner would never have allowed a club of our size to start a season with such an inexperienced CF with a reputation for being physical or without PL experience. Its all about investing in young players in the hope that they will come good and make a profit when sold on. How long have you supported Newcastle? Where does your view of the life and times of 'the genuine' NUFC fan come from? (An unseen Tyneside-based Ripping Yarns episode?) Have you considered what the realistic aims of most premiership clubs are in this era? I'm all for a bit of Cashley criticism, where warranted, but the above imo comes over like some kind of NOTW-flashback Southern, ill-considered, and patronising journalism. You have picked the wrong one to lay out 'I'm-a-better-fan-than you' crap pal - I was probably supporting NUFC when you were still in your father's imagination(or whatever you want to call it in your world). Was going to SJP back in the 1960s and was part of the Magpie Group that got rid of an unambitious board..a bit like this one except most of them were Geordies.... Your comments are typical of many of the modern generation - think they know it all but actually know nowt, and you have done a fine job in cementing my views about many modern NUFC fans. The hilarious part about your ramblings are that I looked up your profile and saw you only joined the site in July this year... Pots calling kettles, or what..? Grow up lad and come back when you can play with the big boys.

Totally agree ... and I think it is worse due to the current political environment of England. Not sure what you mean about this one....Liverpool are in a very left-wing city and yet they are both media darlings(lots of scousers in the media)and followed by loads of fans outside the area because they were successful once. Its more that people think NUFC are a mediocre club and shouldn't get ambitions above their station..!!

Does your free season ticket work? It's been like this for ages, increasingly so all the time. Whenever we play one of the better sides, home or away, the crowd goes home absolutely buzzing if we do anything other than get absolutely obliterated. It used to be just the top couple of sides in the division. Now if we play Swansea City and don't get f***ed up the arse, it's treated as a moral victory. Meanwhile West Ham have already won away at Liverpool and Arsenal. As a support, we write these games off and are delighted to do so. One of the many reasons I can't be f***ed with it any more. Yep - the Ashley propaganda machine has done a fine job on NUFC fans...or what is left of the genuine ones. He set out to lower expectations and because many fans have nothing but SJP on every alternative Saturday/Sunday to look forward to, he has probably even bettered his aims. The club will never do anything whilst people are prepared to accept mediocrity - I'm not particularly referring to Saturday as there were mitigating factors, but even so, a more ambitious owner would never have allowed a club of our size to start a season with such an inexperienced CF with a reputation for being physical or without PL experience. Its all about investing in young players in the hope that they will come good and make a profit when sold on.

Waddle was just as bad on our commentary in Oz....supported Marriner over almost every decision apart from his not awarding a pen for Thauvin's tackle..! Tbf to pelanty his initial reaction was that it wasn't a red, it was only after he realised he had better fall into line he changed his view. He also said that Colo's tackle wasn't a free kick. Not that I'm sticking up for him like, can't stand him. Whereabouts in oz are you? In WA. south of Perth...great place and weather AND we get almost all Newcastle PL games throughout the season. Because we are 2-3 hours behind the East depending on the time of year, the games are not on at stupid times either as we are only either 7 or 8 hours in front of the UK..!

Lets see how Pardew does after another year...he did the same at every club he's been with including us.