Chris_R

Ouch.

To manage to contradict yourself in the same sentence as you're making your point is quite impressive.

Well as I'm getting made redundant from work in a few weeks, I'm not exactly at my most productive during the day. So I tend to refresh horribly frequently. Once home though, perhaps just a couple of times on an evening to see if anything's happening.

Horrible news. Really feel for the lad, hope he's OK and that he has people round him to help him get through this.

Especially as Owen will miss 30 league games through injury.

That's pretty hilarious.

Can't see past Hull, West Brom & Stoke tbh. Would love to see the mackems dragged into it though, but I honestly can't see that. Sadly.

Well Smith has the most improving to do, so I'm tempted to say him. However in all seriousness I'd hope N'Zogbia improves a lot. He's got a lot to offer and if Keegan can get him running at men down the left flank then I think he could achieve what we all suspect he's capable of. Mind you, a lot depends on how he is mentally. Martins is another one who Keegan will hopefully get good things from. But I must admit, I don't see Keegan turning average players into great players. What he does is get teams playing a certain way, and the reason that I've picked out Martins and N'Zogbia is that I think that Keegan's way of playing will suit them and they'll play well, rather than that Keegan will turn them into better players.

Once again, Keegan manages to single-handedly restore my faith with a few words and make me feel foolish for allowing doubts to start to enter my mind. I feel so bad.

Cautious. I flit between content and concerned though, depending on the day.

Or perhaps Benfica offered better wages, so he decided to go there. Then he announces that he always wanted to go to Benfica in order to endear himself to his new employers / fans. So it's not "End of" at all really, is it? better wages my arse, the max wage in portugal is 30-40k and that is for the queresma's etc, he decided to go there to play in europe and because he old manager is there we still haven't been named as the club, and the club hasn't came out to say they we're interested until that happens we didn't try and sign him if we try fine, but it was always gonna be an up hill struggle unless we offered stupid amounts Haha, head in the sand - proper "ostrich mentality". Love it. Why would we come out and say it was us? What do we possibly have to gain from that? We've been named by every news source going, in this country and abroad. There's no guarantees, but it's fairly likely it was us. And when I said "Better wages", I apologise. Maybe they DID offer better wages, but I should have said "Better package", which encompasses everything from European football to better wages to nicer weather. The point still stands though that him saying he always wanted to go to Benfica is not worth a thing. He's bound to say that once he's agreed to join his new club.

Keegan needs to be there selling the club to new signings. I don't trust Wise etc to sell the club half as much as I do Kev. His passion is legendary and it rubs off on those around him. Get him in a room with a potential recruit and I think more often than not they'd end up at Newcastle.

Or perhaps Benfica offered better wages, so he decided to go there. Then he announces that he always wanted to go to Benfica in order to endear himself to his new employers / fans. So it's not "End of" at all really, is it?

They (the Chronicle) said he'd told friends about the move IIRC. Still doesn't negate the fact that their conversion ratio is pathetic. Maybe it's OUR conversion ratio that's pathetic? Just a thought. Not defending the papers or anything as personally I don't ever buy them as I think they full of shit-stirring rubbish. But just because a mooted deal doesn't come off doesn't mean there was no interest from us at all.

I think people are taking this "Don't believe the papers, they know nothing" thing to too much of an extreme now. Just because we didn't sign him doesn't mean we weren't interested. Of course it doesn't mean we were either. But to start slating the papers or websites for saying we were the club involved when you haven't a clue yourself is more than a little mongy.

Yeah, right!

I remember being very "meh" when during his first stint in charge Keegan signed a 26 year old midfielder from Championship side Charlton for 700k. Still, Rob Lee turned out all right, didn't he?

I would love all our players to come good, Smith included, but I just can't see what he offers to the team. He can't beat a man, he can't finish or even shoot, he's got no real pace. All he has is a good engine. Well my car's got a good engine but I wouldn't want the fucker playing in midfield for us.

At uni when Shearer signed. Can't remember what I was doing exactly, I was probably drunk somewhere. As for Cole leaving, I was in an A-Level Maths lesson when I was told. I was gutted.

I can understand his concerns (Playing out of position or hardly playing at all) and have no problem with him having the opinions he has, my problem is with the move-engineering little shitbag going to the press with it all. Oh, and can someone do the world a service and find where that pariah Willie McKay lives, go round his house and kick the life out of him. Thanks.

Too harsh IMO. 15-20 points would have been enough. 30 is just silly. They're going to need league-winning form just to stay up.

All our midfielders are better? That's not really the point is it? He didn't say our midfielders are better, but he is saying if we bring in new ones we'd be better off setting our sights higher than Steve Sidwell. A late reply, perhaps, but nevertheless: As Role Model says, I wasn't suggesting all our midfielders are better. For example, Sidwell or Smith? I'd take Sidwell. But I'm hoping that's not the only choice we have. I don't think Sidwell would have represented much, if any, step up in terms of quality. I'm not suggesting we should be getting Messi or anything daft like that, but it would be nice to think that somewhere in the world of football there's someone somewhere with a bit of quality that we can sign. Sidwell is another grafter, and with Smith, Butt and Geremi already in the squad I don't think he was what we needed. We need a midfielder who can beat a man. Who can unlock a defence. Who can shoot from distance. Who scares defenders. That's not Steve Sidwell.

Not good enough.

Perhaps we can now all concentrate on more important things. Not sure what the Chronicle are going to put on their back pages now though.

Well do us all a favour and f#ck off for a week so we can get a decent squad together!