pinkeye

It must be one hell of a bind though eh, training 6 half days a week in a top quality gym or in purpose built surroundings with an enthusiastic coach who wants you to be the best. Having to live in Darras Hall and getting paid £50,000 per week.......... I don't think I could cope with that and at the end of the week going to play football while being watch by tens of thousands of people who will talk about that goal you scored forever.......... I feel so sorry for the prick!

I'll have one as I am running out of bog roll at home!! Where do I apply?

Is there any truth in the rumour regarding Viduka and Keegan falling out over the fact that Viduka puts zero effort into training and Keegan uses more energy on the toilet etc. I heard that Keegan told Viduka that he would not play for Newcastle again as long as he was the manager of the club. Was that just hear say and rhetoric?

In the same interview he said that he didn't think Newcastle were in a relegation battle.............. Is he on the same planet as the rest of us? We are knacker deep in a relegation battle you fool!!

Maybe the reserves should play instead of the first team, we might just about survive!!

Joey Barton is so hard it takes 4 men to hold him back.

I would happily take a point from this game, sadly we will almost certainly be soundly beaten!! The run of MUST WIN GAMES start the week after at Birmingham. Still can't get over the result on Saturday, shellshocked!

Not wanting to get all knee jerk about things I have been quietly pondering our options and my conclusion is as follows: When Keegan was here the first time around Newcastle were probably 2nd or maybe 3rd most powerful team in the Premier League, based on finances / resources, stadium, crowd etc. In the intervening years the rest have caught up making us very much an also ran type of club in terms of attractiveness to potential new signings. Teams like Spurs, Portsmouth, Man City, Everton, Aston Villa and Blackburn are possibly more attractive to join that us at present. All the money in the world is not going to buy us a team to win us the league because all we would get would be a team of Vidukas who are here for the money and nothing else, we have nothing to offer the top top players. We need a team that has heart and desire, a team of Alan Shearers if you like. There is no point is quoting figures like £100m or £150m as a kitty for new players if you can't attract the right players who will come here for the right reasons. At best we can hope to take the core of our current team and bring in 5 or 6 players to compliment them on the field, in other words good solid premier league standard players who can take us into the top half of the table and keep us there for a couple of unremarkable seasons, no dramas, win the games we should win etc etc. Once we are stable we can then look to spend the £'s to bring in 2 or 3 more players of the highest quality we can attract so that we can push on for European qualification. Individually the majority of our players are bloody good players, some have played at the highest standard either here or abroad, we have Champions League players, Internationals in every position and at least one Premier League winner. There is something missing, that to me is the will to play at their best every week and the confidence to do something that might not come off but, if it did could change a game. I have faith in Keegan still, the league fixtures have been evil since he joined us and I doubt that many teams would have had a better record given the same run of games, I would have been delighted with 5 points, accepted 4, maybe even 3. As it is we have taken 1 point but, few would have done much better. We have a period of matches coming up where we can amass some points, who knows - maybe in a months time we will be all be saying what a good squad we have afterall, and wondering who will have to move aside when new players arrive......................... Funny game football!!

Realistically based on our current form we will be lucky to get a draw but, a defeat is far more the likely outcome. I will be really happy of we see some guts and a performance out of our players, surely they have some pride left and can still remember being dumped 6 - 0 at Old Trafford in December?? Come on boys, guts and hell!! Lets give Man Utd a game!!

I was having dinner in Hanahana on Saturday night and Titus Bramble came in with a group of people I didn't recognise as footballers. (Not sure I actually recognise Bramble as a footballer actually!)

Man Utd will be wearing a Retro strip for their match with Man City on Sunday in memory of the Munich deaths: http://cache2.gettyimages.com/xc/79641178.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1935121260197D6DE78B4252DB80F08C6AB I think that, while the sad event is worthy of rememberence, people from Manchester seem to expect the rest of the world to feel as passionately about it as they do. To be honest, in my opinion there has been far worse events occured before and since that are more worthy of rememberence that that one.

I didn't bother with correct scores or anything, just worked around 2 - 1 results or draws, basically which team would win, lose or draw to get a position in the final league. I sort of worked out that we would finish on 40 - 43 points and that is where we finished in my league.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/predictor/default.stm I got Newcastle in 12th with 43 points, Boro in 13th with 38 and the mackems 16th with 30.

That is where Niall and Biffa really score, they have a knack of putting into words exactly what most Newcastle fans are thinking but, do not really know how to express. I don't remember one thing I have read on their site that was not right on the button. True fans who dedicate an awful lot of time and money supporting NUFC.

And snowing in NE8 as well.

The weather is ok here at the moment but, the forecast for this afternoon is snow spreading from the North. Worst areas seem to be going to be the trans Pennine roads such as A66 and A69. If you get you ferry into Liverpool, I assume, your driver will probably opt to go M62 and A1 so no doubt about getting into Newcastle and the forecast for Sunday is for rain so there is a good chance that the game will be on. It will just be very cold. Why not get a train? Cheaper than a cab I would have thought. You should be able to get into a late bar or club anytime before 1am, maybe even later. Not sure about that!

Shouldn't it be "I should know"

George Burley?

Don't understand any of that? I can see Owen becoming even more dispondent with Newcastle if he loses his place in the England squad.

And some bloke called Kuyt looked alright in Holland!!

All I know is that it is going to be bloody freezing in St James' on Sunday lunchtime and we are going to struggle to get anything better than a draw.

Being interviewed for club chemist or diet expert?

Why would you compare him to Flamini? I suppose to compare him is unfair but, the way that Flamini played last night with bursts of pace and his cultured crossing of the ball I guess that is the sort of player that we should be targetting for Newcastle.

He looked really out of sorts last night, not really up for it at all. (Arsenal) If he had better pace he would be a star but, he is a bit slow. Compare him to Flamini for example and the gulf in class is immense.

Leeds fans I know don't seem in the slightest bit bothered!! Most think that since the departure of Poyet the team has become very average, Wise has one tactic and if that doesn't work - panic! I'll just wait to see exactly what role he is going to play before worrying, I would guess that he will do the admin and paperwork side of things leaving Keegan to concentrate on the coaching side of things.