AyeDubbleYoo

This is the reason why I never warmed to Owen in a Newcastle shirt. We have always been used as a training camp for his England career. Poetic justice that his international career has nose-dived anyway. I know he won't stay here unless nobody else wants him, but if he can score a few goals and keep us up he can leave on a half decent note. I think that's a bit harsh TBH, most players would go to a World Cup if they were even half-fit. I'm sure loads of them have - it doesn't mean they don't care about their club. Shearer did in '98 to be fair. Was clear to see the second half of that season that he was nowhere near good enough/fit enough to go to the World Cup, but he did. Who wouldn't though? Most players only get a couple of opportunities like that... can't hold it against them.

This is the reason why I never warmed to Owen in a Newcastle shirt. We have always been used as a training camp for his England career. Poetic justice that his international career has nose-dived anyway. I know he won't stay here unless nobody else wants him, but if he can score a few goals and keep us up he can leave on a half decent note. I think that's a bit harsh TBH, most players would go to a World Cup if they were even half-fit. I'm sure loads of them have - it doesn't mean they don't care about their club.

Dropping Coloccini would be insane, it's not like we have Vidic waiting to come in, we've got Taylor and Cacapa.

I think he's right TBH, can't argue with many of his points in those quotes.

Just for Men ad?

I was warming towards Brown at the start of the season, but since things started going wrong for Hull he's losing it by the day. Hopefully they'll keep losing obviously. Fabregas does look like a snotty teenager on the photos from last night though, WTF is he doing on the pitch anyway in jeans and trainers... having a go at Hull staff? What a dickhead.

I noticed that too, I suppose the 'we're doomed' camp are more likely to vote in this thread.

I freaking love Oba. I freaking love Oba. I freaking love Oba.

That bit will do for me.

Class HTT, just the right post at a time like this.

There's a difference between being up for a scrap and being certain we're doomed though. Obviously I want the players to be fighting for our lives, but I don't want their heads down.

I hope they are thinking like the fans, and i especially hope the management are. Sleepwalking into relegation is about where its at at the moment. And it may have done us good to have spent some time in the bottom 3 before now to galvanise the minds in the same way as its produced 'shock' results for the smogs and Blackburn. I'm still an 8.25 but another of those shock results this weekend for us will go down very nicely. I know what you mean, but thinking "we're doomed" does nobody any good. I hope that they are being positive and determined to get out of it, I don't hope they think they're 80% certain to go down.

Luckily all the other teams have the same amount of games...

The amount of people on 8, 9 and 10 in this poll is scary... let's hope the players aren't thinking like the fans!

The Geremi/Smith/Butt thing is criminal, there's not a less mobile midfield in the country.

They know a good player when they see one?

It probably does, aye. He's a coach anyway, we've established now he's not yet a manager - certainly not at a club of our size.

I hope that Kinnear will choose to retire for the sake of his health at the end of the season anyway. He is obviously putting himself under too much stress being in full time manager.

Do you think Harper decided himself to punt the ball upfield at every opportunity against Bolton and Hull or did Hughton have some influence?? The team selection, tactics and confidence of the manager has a huge influence on the way the players set about the opposition. I don't think it's any coincidence that we played very well for half an hour against the Mancs when very little was expected of the players and Hughton stumbled across a formation that suited the players we had available for that game. He obviously told the players to go out and hit the Mancs with pace on the break. It's also obvious that Hughton wasn't able to look Michael Owen and Nicky Butt in the eye and tell them that he wasn't going to start with them against Hull. Yeah, all fair points, I'm not a big fan of Hughton either. He wouldn't be the only manager unable to drop a big-name pro though.

The players have to take their share of blame for not being up for the smaller games too. If they could put in Man Utd work every week we would already be safe.

Still no, it's not about those specific players, they're just one symptom of being a poor manager.

Same here, the only thing I can accept is the fact that JFK is a yes man and is just happy to have a job, therefore Ashley has nobody to talk back to him. JFk knows that if he says anything out of like Ashley will just chop him. It's an easy appointment for Ashley to make, he & Lambias are just pupped masters as long as JFK stays. Yep, I know what you mean. I don't think that Ashley really wants to be in control of the squad/team via a 'yes man' though, I suppose it's only when it comes to transfers he doesn't want a repeat of the Keegan situation. He needs to accept that managers want a large say on transfers though, and he either needs to let them have it or get in a manager that is used to a DOF system.

We usually do well at home against Arsenal, just hope we do have a few players back, something with legs in CM is vital.

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but the question is ludicrous. In what world could that happen, and for God's sake why?

Do you really want to drink another 3 or 4 pints at the match anyway? People are already complaining it's too expensive.