Chris_R

Hell, anyone but Venables.

What the f*** has the fact he is from London got to do with it? Nothing really. I just hate the c***. My problem is more with him being a crook and being the most over-rated manager around.

"Cockney Mafia Out!" said the banner. So in (so we're led to believe) comes wideboy crook Terry Venables. You're just not getting this, are you Mr Ashley? Disgusted. Absolutely f***ing disgusted.

I think we "jumped the shark" a good while back now.

Bloody hell, I come home from work and we've got Nigerians bidding on us. Well, as long as they're not paying through Western Union. Seriously though, they can't buy us yet as they haven't raised the £400m. That says that there'll be precisely zero in the transfer kitty. No thanks.

Smith may well be crap, but I'd much rather have seen him in midfield against West Ham than Cacapa.

Whilst he'd not be the worst choice in the world, I'd be pretty disgusted if we didn't look at all the hundreds of better candidates that there are.

Do you not think we are going in the same direction of Leeds now? Especially as we are ATM a club with no leader either at the top or as manager. We might be in a bit of a crisis at the moment, I won't deny that. But we're still only a handful of games into the new season and there's loads of time to turn things round. If Ashley hadn't turned up and bought us out, we'd be in a lot worse of a state now. Rather than worrying about only having 4 points and who our next manager or owner will be, we'd be wondering how on earth we could get back from -15 and still stay up with a squad comprised entirely of kids.

I'd go because I'm used to a bit of masochism supporting Newcastle, but I'm at work until 8 so can't make it. Though given the current situation, I'm not exactly devastated that the decision to stop away has been taken out of my hands.

Agree that the "tell the press nothing" thing was fun with regards to transfers, as if other teams found out about our targets then we could end up either losing out or having to pay a much higher price. It was for the good of the club that we didn't conduct our transfers on the back pages of the Chronicle. However, we seem to have extended that vow of silence to every other matter as well. This means there's mindless speculation (And 'mindless' really is the right word) about what's gone on, and the end result that a guy who a couple of months prior was being lauded as the best owner in the land has now been hounded out of the club with absolutely no evidence that he's done anything wrong at all. There's blame somewhere, that's for sure. But I have no idea where and if we're all honest with ourselves then none of us have any idea. We're all just guessing. In this instance, the silence to the press has NOT been good for the club as once again we're made to look like a laughing stock. The club needs to reassess it's policy regarding saying nothing, as it's really not helping matters at times like this.

- It's been their policy since Llambias took over, hence why I think he's to blame. - Surely you're basing your view that they're doing "nothing about anything" solely on the lack of information coming from the club, thus proving my point? Unless of course you've got access to the minutes of the board meetings that you'd like to tell us about?

This, really. Too many people are calling for Wise's head, and the only thing they can say when asked why is something like "I hate him", or "He's the cause of all the problems" or "What's he done since he was appointed?" without actually giving a single shred of evidence that the guy's done anything wrong. Don't misunderstand me, as a player I hated him. As a person, he may well be a cunt. And maybe, just maybe he IS to blame for everything that's happened but at the same time there's absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever. It's all just mindless speculation. The main problem in all this for me is the complete silence from the club. If people want to protest, then the only thing that they should be protesting about is the lack of any information coming from inside NUFC. The buck stops for that with either Ashley or Llambias, and since things were much better under Mort then I'd think that it's Llambias who has shut up shop in that respect.

Whatever Ashley's failings, I don't think it's wrong to suggest that he pretty much saved this club from folding, or at very least "Doing a Leeds". For that alone, he deserves our gratitude. Personally I like many of his ideas, having a proper scouting network, getting the best young talent rather than players who are pushing towards 30 etc. I still think that if he was willing to make a couple of small ammendments to things (Ie the reporting structure), then he could be good for the club and help get us back to where we want to be.

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.