Chris_R

Why the fuck did we not start with a formation more like this? Fucking clueless.

We're going to create naff-all with that team out. Geremi, Butt and Cacapa must be the 3 slowest people ever to grace the same midfield lineup. N'Zogbia isn't a left back, when will managers actually realise this? Shambles tbh.

N'Zogbia so good he's playing twice!

Can't disagree with anything Beardsley has said tbh.

A step up from Souness or Roeder. Perhaps, but only in that where Souness or Roeder is like Aids or Cancer, I guess Bruce or O'Leary is more akin to choosing between someone stamping on your head or someone stamping on your balls.

O'Leary or Bruce. For fuck's sake, is this what it's come to?

When banners are up saying "Cockney Mafia Out", I hardly think the appointment of this wideboy crook would really help matters. On a personal note, I'd not set foot in St James' Park if he was in charge on principle. That's how much I dislike the man. Oh, and to those saying he's a good coach - What did he win exactly? A cup and a league in 3 years with Barcelona (Well done Terry, you're supposed to win things with Barca. They were the best team back then) and getting England to the Euro semis (Have a look at the history of that competition, every home nation prior to 1996 had qualified for at least the semis, including such footballing luminaries as Sweden, Belgium and Yugoslavia). The most over-rated coach ever, has achieved nothing other than becoming the darling of the southern press for being a cheeky chirpy cockney. [in case you haven't noticed, I don't like the man!]

I want Terim, Bilic or Zico. First off, I think they're attainable and would do a good job. Secondly though, I've been putting a bit of money on them on Betfair so if any of them turned up at the long odds I've managed to secure them at then that's the season ticket paid for!

95%?? Where on earth do you get that from? Here's the only figures I can find: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56213.0 http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56160.0 Wow, you've disproved my point by showing me some internet polls. Well done. Like it or not, the vast majority of Newcastle fans don't spend their lives on internet forums like us, and don't think about the club every hour of the day. If you ask a broad cross section of fans (both young and old, internet users and not), I would be willing to bet my house that 95% would like Keegan back in charge asap. That's how I gauge it at the moment. At least I have some real figures. You're quoting 95% based on absolutely nothing. I've spoken to plenty of casual, non-internet using fans over the last week or so and while many of them DO want Keegan back, I'd say many don't as well. It's certainly nowhere near 95% of all fans clamouring for his return from my experience. I'm basing the 95% on my family, friends, work colleagues, and many people I've met through work over the past week. If you disagree on figures, fine, but could we agree that certainly the vast majority want Keegan back (over 70%)? I'm not putting a figure on it because I simply don't know. But I'll accept that a majority may want Keegan back. Personally, I think any manager needs a scouting network as one man cannot do everything himself. He needs people to go out and find players for him, I'm sure Fergie and Wenger have scouts scouring the world for them too. I also think that the existing scouting network of Wise, Vetere etc have done a very good job in terms of quality if not quantity. But I can understand why Keegan needs overall control and if such a system is to continue and if it were possible for Keegan to return then Wise, Vetere etc should report to Keegan and not the other way round, but there's no grounds as far as I can tell for them to loose their jobs. I do still think though that Keegan is a terrific motivator and man manager and could do a great job for us. That said, we don't know what was agreed when Keegan came. If he agreed to work under a DoF and then changed his mind when reality set in and threw his rattle out the pram then good riddance. I guess the short version of what I'm saying is that I'm reserving judgement in light of more facts.

95%?? Where on earth do you get that from? Here's the only figures I can find: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56213.0 http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56160.0 Wow, you've disproved my point by showing me some internet polls. Well done. Like it or not, the vast majority of Newcastle fans don't spend their lives on internet forums like us, and don't think about the club every hour of the day. If you ask a broad cross section of fans (both young and old, internet users and not), I would be willing to bet my house that 95% would like Keegan back in charge asap. That's how I gauge it at the moment. At least I have some real figures. You're quoting 95% based on absolutely nothing. I've spoken to plenty of casual, non-internet using fans over the last week or so and while many of them DO want Keegan back, I'd say many don't as well. Mainly saying he's a quitter, always throws his rattle out the pram, is unstable etc rather than looking at the politics and trying to figure out who's lying like people on here tend to. It's certainly nowhere near 95% of all fans clamouring for his return from my experience.

95%?? Where on earth do you get that from? Here's the only figures I can find: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56213.0 http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=56160.0

There's always a choice. Maybe he could have stuck to the contract he signed and let the director of football sign the players like he agreed when he came here? That's just one version of the truth that's going round, but the point is to say it's all Ashley's fault and not Keegan's when you have NONE of the facts at your disposal is just plain daft. And you've figured this out how exactly? That's not to say he won't negotiate a good price, why shouldn't he? But to speculate on what that price is would be silly. Some would argue that the club is now worth a hell of a lot more than it was before anyway, as we're now solvent and not liable to have to call the receivers in any day. The qoutes from Ashley, Keegan, and Wise over the past few months (all stating that Keegan had final say on transfers), would lead me to believe that the club statement about Keegan agreeing to have no say was a face saver, and complete bullshit. Quite possible, I agree. But it's hard to know for sure. The club have released so little information that we're all scrabbling round in the dark and trying to put 2 and 2 together. I'm sure some of us have got the right answer but until the lights are turned on we don't know if we've made 4 or 104.

No, but the agreement was reached extremely quickly, in about 24 hours. Admittedly they're looking at the books but that's probably only because they heard about Ashley getting done over by the Halls to the tune of over £100m. It always takes one person to get stung before others start becoming cautious.

There's always a choice. Maybe he could have stuck to the contract he signed and let the director of football sign the players like he agreed when he came here? That's just one version of the truth that's going round, but the point is to say it's all Ashley's fault and not Keegan's when you have NONE of the facts at your disposal is just plain daft. And you've figured this out how exactly? That's not to say he won't negotiate a good price, why shouldn't he? But to speculate on what that price is would be silly. Some would argue that the club is now worth a hell of a lot more than it was before anyway, as we're now solvent and not liable to have to call the receivers in any day.

What, like Man City you mean?

Nope. The man's a billionaire, I'm sure he knew there was debt and was aware that he could pay it. The only thing he didn't know was the amount. Now I knew (Or suspected very strongly) as a fan that we had a lot of debt, but when I found out exactly how much I was horrified. I'm sure Ashley was the same, knowing there was lots but never imagining that it could be as high as it was. He probably thought "Ah, it'll be about £30-£50m, I can pay that no bother". Then found out it was over £100m and we'd spent all the sponsorship for years to come and still owed money on transfers. Nobody could have predicted that a club could still function in that state, nobody. He took a gamble, in order to achieve his dream and buy a football club. You have to take risks in business if you want to get to the top and sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't. This one didn't.

I have no reason to trust him over anyone else. But then I have no reason to trust anyone else over him. It's amazing how many people have formed such fast-set opinions in the almost total absence of any facts whatsoever.

Utter, utter shit. We'd have done or been perilously close to "doing a Leeds" had Ashley not stepped in.

Christ almighty, not sure where to start with that mess but I'll have a go... Fickle? Not at all. My opinion on Ashley has been consistent throughout. Only interested in the money and "U dont become a billionaire by luck!" - You also don't become a billionaire by buying a football club. If Ashley wanted to make money (And he's proven he's pretty good at that), there's a thousand better ways to do it than getting into football. Keegan wasn't sacked, he resigned. "50 million profit" What?? We're not sold yet. And as for the last paragraph, it's common knowledge that he was given a deadline by the halls to buy or not and had no time to do checks on the books. No doubt that's because the Halls knew fine well that if he DID look at the books, they'd not get half the price they were asking. Apart from all that, your post was great.

True, Romanov brings new meaning to the words 'board interference'! I've always had a soft spot for Hearts, and remember them having an amazing start under George Burley a few years back until Romanov decided he knew better. Things have never recovered since then, which is a shame as when he took over I thought that if Romanov backed them then they had a chance of getting up there near Celtic and Rangers. So True! He decides who the club sign and sell, he picks the team on a saturday too!! Yeah we finished 2nd in the league the season Burley started. we would have grown to be constant title challengers if he stayed and was left to do his own thing IMO. Ashley was nowhere near as interferring! but hopefully if this new buyer comes in we get all the s**** behind us and get back to Glory days. 'Back' to the glory days? I must have blinked and missed them, unless you're referring to 1952-55. I'm scared about who the new buyer might be. It's one thing if it's Saudi billions wanting to buy success, which may be fun for a while, but what if it's someone like Fat Fred who manages to scrape together the money to buy Ashley out but then can't keep it going and ends up racking the debts up again? But then going back to the Saudi billions, would that really be fun? Part of the pride I've always had about being a Newcastle fan is that nobody could call me a glory hunter. I've often looked at Man U fans celebrating winning yet another trophy and thought "That means nothing to you. You'll clap it up then go home and forget about it". If we won anything, even a league cup, it'd be a party like we've not seen in over 50 years here. Buying our way up the league would put us in with the "expect to wins" and would, to me, devalue any success. Maybe Ashley's way of steady progress wasn't so bad after all?

True, Romanov brings new meaning to the words 'board interference'! I've always had a soft spot for Hearts, and remember them having an amazing start under George Burley a few years back until Romanov decided he knew better. Things have never recovered since then, which is a shame as when he took over I thought that if Romanov backed them then they had a chance of getting up there near Celtic and Rangers.

Jesus Christ. I hope all those who have wanted Ashley out have a long, hard think about that.

I'm not sure I can understand any protest when nobody has a clue what's gone on at the club so has no real idea about if their protest is justified or not. The only protest I could understand is one about the lack of communication from the club. Now THAT would have got my support. Anything else has just reinforced the nation's opinions of us as a bunch of moronic, jobless (And I say that as all the protests bar Saturday were on weekdays) charvers.

Cheers, I was thinking the same myself! Had to take a 2k pay cut to get back into work straight away but it'll pay the mortgage for a while until I find something better. Being a Newcastle fan you expect a bit of a rollercoaster ride but it's getting silly (for all of us) in the past few weeks now.

Probably the best post I've read on this forum in my entire time here. Though before you get a big head, bear in mind the standard of the competition. He may he some decent points, but he ends up looking like a complete f***ing cock with his snobbish use of 'mongs'. Could you also tell me what being unemployed has to do with it? Do you not realise the history of the area? Are all the decent, hard working people made unemployed going to be tarred with the same brush? Hopefully it'll never happen to you. Prick. On another point, maybe it's time for the media to stop believing what the media write. Not sure if that's aimed at me or DJ, but I'll answer it anyway. As it happens, I got made redundant on Monday gone. But rather than sit at home and watch Jeremy Kyle in my boxer shorts (Or worse still, going up to St James' Park dressed in a tracksuit, cap and eating a Greggs pastie), I've spent the week looking for new work and start my new job tomorrow. 6 days unemployed, I guess there's jobs out there if you look hard enough. Anyway, I digress, but only because of your use of the word "prick". But I don't think the use of the word "Mongs" is unfair, given that the people that have been spending their days camped outside St James' Park trying to get their ill-judged and ill-formed grunts onto Sky Sports would probably fail to reach an IQ of 100 if they all clubbed together.