Chris_R

I do rate Martins, but have you actually seen him get past his man? In the games I've watched, Viduka gets past his man far more frequently (and with surprising ease) than Martins does despite his lack of pace. Yes.

With Butt's ability to pass the ball away EVERYTIME he gets the ball, how can you even place him on the bench? Barton and Emre, or Faye and Emre in CM for me. Barton has been terrible and is going to prison , Emre is too lightweight and isn't consistent, Faye is needed in defence.... Butt gets it by default for me. Of course we need better, but we don't have better available.

Pace is the wrong word to be fair. It's his ability to have a snap shop at goal. Smith doesn't even look at the goal in a game, where as Martins would shoot from 40 yards if it dropped right. Whilst he does have the ability to have snap shots, I think his pace is more of a worry to the opposition. He has genuine pace, and the ability and willingness to go past his man. Something that is lacking in the rest of our forward line and it's that pace that creates space for others when he goes on runs (With or without the ball).

Martins plays. End of. Whilst he's far from perfect, he's the only forward we've got who can create something on his own and given the poor service from midfield we need someone like that. His pace terrifies people, and with him playing then we'll open teams up more, this will create more space for the rest of the team and everyone will benefit.

OK, so for (At this stage) just over £100 you get: - A Munich memorial scarf with letter from David Gill. I presume these are on general sale or at least are very recent and widely available - Maybe a mass issue like for Shearer's testimonial? ie it's hardly a one-off. - A copy of the program from the Man U - Sheff Wed match 50 years ago. Yes, it says a copy. Given that the original will be in black and white and their being no picture of said program on the listing, then my money is on it being a photocopy. - Program from todays match. What's that, £3.50 and still on sale? That said, fair play to the guy. People that stupid to bid that much money on that frankly deserve to get fleeced. Call it a stupidity tax if you like.

We need better than him. Like Smith, tries hard but not good enough.

Wheater needs to be in any modern-day ugly 11. Repugnant.

If we sell him for an amount that would allow us to recruit an equally talented replacement of a similar age, then I'll have no problems. However that amount is not £7m. Double it and you're getting there. And don't sell to Spurs, for god's sake. They're a side we should realistically be wanting to get above, not sell them our best player. I could understand selling him to Arsenal or Chelsea as they're out of our sights at the moment but not to clubs right around us in terms of the league position, even if they are on an up at the moment and we're on a down.

Given Beye Faye Taylor Enrique N'Zogbia Duff Milner Owen Martins That said, I'd not be devastated if we sold any of them with the possible exception of N'Zogbia. Everyone else needs to either improve massively or gtf.

Perhaps, but that doesn't mean he's going to blame no-one but himself.

Shearer? Seems harsh as Alan has said repeatedly he's been nowhere near the club since he retired.

There is no panic. Sure, we didn't buy anyone who will play in the 1st team. Sure, that's disappointing. But we've got plenty of players here who are good enough to not go down. I see no problem. Never say never of course (Notts Forest, anyone?), but there's certainly no panic here.

Beardsley and Cole didn't need aerial prowess, so I'm happy to see Martins and Owen given a run out. Pace, finishing, flair. Get the ball to them (Which we've consistently failed to do so far this year) and watch them wreak havoc.

Yeah, Chelsea, Man U, Man C and Arsenal (All away) should really be disregarded. The only results that matter on there are Derby, Bolton and Wigan. 2 of them were under Allardyce, so again need discounting. Against Bolton, they came and put 11 men behind the ball and shut up shop. Keegan had been back about 2 days, and we played the majority of the game in their half. Hardly time to panic. Let's get the Boro game out the way and see what the performance is like against them. That'll say far more than all 7 games listed in the opening post put together tbf.

Safety?

Just to echo what others have said, if he's going for about £3m we should snap their hands off. He looks a decent player I hope we can get him.

what did we pay for shamble bramble again? Yeah, but tightarse is English. Rubbish young English players cost about £4m, good ones cost 10 times that. At least they do if you believe Roy Keane.

This strikes me as strange as Keegan has always been able to pick a good player. Nobody has a 100% record but Sellars, Cole, Albert, Lee, Ginola, Gillespie, Beresford, Bracewell and countless others all came in from nowhere and did fantastic jobs for the club. This for me was always one of Keegan's strong points, and to have players foisted upon him by men upstairs scares me a bit. What are we leaving Kev to do - Sort the tactics out on match day? "Go out there and score shitloads!"

I'm keen to read anything said by anyone who has played for Newcastle. It's articles like this that help build a picture about what our club is actually like, beyond the tabloid rubbish that is either propaganda spread by the club or it's shit stirring written by journalists. The closest we get to the truth is what comes from current or ex-players. I know there's nothing ground breaking in what he's said but it's all pieces of a jigsaw. Put them all together and you can see the bigger picture. Sure some of them have an axe to grind but it's more reliable than most sources of information.

Desperation signing who did better than we expected him to do. Always tried his hardest, never hid and put himself about a bit. Hope he does well for the rest of his career, wherever it takes him.

Was just about to bring that up. He's just making sure he backs the winner!

Fucking excellent. Didn't know that feature was there.

So if you're an alcocholic, and you stop, you die. THAT is an absolute crock of s***. To be fair, he's right. But it's not as cut and dry as that. Have a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic#Alcohol_withdrawal

Well it shouldn't be because of the club. I took the photos myself and there was nothing anywhere to indicate that I shouldn't take them. If they don't want people taking photos then they should put up signs and make people aware of this. I've never seen anything in all the years I've been going. I think you'll find if you read the club rules and regulations you aren't actually allowed to take photographs inside the ground. I've been going to watch Newcastle for over half my life and have never yet seen these club rules and regulations. Care to point me in the right direction? Have you got a link for where you've read this? Not doubting you, just curious as to what these regulations are. I thought the only rules and regulations we had were "Turn up whatever the weather, sing your heart out and cheer like a b#stard if we score".

I love Shearer for what he's done for this club and the player he was. BUT: I get the feeling he's too big for his boots. If he came as assistant, I'd worry that he'd be angling for the top job and that he'd be hanging over Keegan waiting for him to fail. This way, Shearer will either get another job at Newcastle where he woudlnt' be "next in line to the throne" and therefore couldn't exert that pressure, or else he'll move somewhere else and we'll see if he is any good or not. I'd love him to prove himself and get a crack at the Newcastle job eventually, but ideally only when Keegan has retired of extreme old age having won us everything in sight. I'd love him to take up a coaching role at Newcastle now though as I feel he'd have an awful lot to teach the likes of Martins about finishing. But that's up to him, whether he feels that he will take that job or wants a more substantial position straight away.