AyeDubbleYoo

That's surreal, Rafa is so funny. He might be right like...

I'm just expressing my personal view and my feelings towards the banner and what it stands for. Firstly it makes us look 'thick' (or whatever word you want to use) because only one of the people involved with the club could remotely be called a cockney. And even him, Wise, was born in Kensington - West London and definitely not a 'cockney'. Kinnear is Irish and connected to Spurs so also not a cockney, and Ashley is from Buckinghamshire. The banner just looks like unfocused ignorant vitriol. If you don't care about how Newcastle is perceived then fair enough, I can't argue with that. And if you think I disagree with the sentiment behind the banner then I've already clearly said that I do, I haven't made a U-turn or changed my views about Ashley at all since he arrived, except to express disappointment about how we have done so far this season, including with transfers.

Whereas every quote that comes out from Zoggy is gospel?

Trying not to? Link? I have nowt against Riise coming in as he has experience fo the league - But it'll be a shame if him coming in means Enrique is moved on, rather than as competition. I think .com have jumped the gun a bit saying Enrique will be 'moved on', I would be very disappointed if that happened. Despite the fact that Joe Kinnear has actually said that he will let Enrique go. Fair point, I'm just hoping that either Enrique has done enough recently to convince him, or he will be stopped by someone above him from actually selling such a potentially good player.

I know it's easy to stereotype footballers as thick, and by their actions a lot of them may not appear to be the sharpest tools in the shed, but they'd have to be pretty moronic to think the banner had anything to do with them, so your insinuation that they would be is far more closed-minded and ignorant than that banner. This sums it up: On the first point, what I meant was that it demonstrates an attitude from the fans that might make players feel that we're not 100% 'on their side'. The second point, in my case wrong. Yes, I do disagree with the sentiment... but I also disagree with the way it is being expressed. To be honest, they're one and the same thing because IMO forming the opinion that you want the 'Cockney Mafia' out and displaying the banner to that effect require the same level of ignorance. If you just disagree with the way Ashley has run the club and want him to leave, then fair enough, but to me that feels like a slightly different point, or at least one formed more rationally.

Trying not to? Link? I have nowt against Riise coming in as he has experience fo the league - But it'll be a shame if him coming in means Enrique is moved on, rather than as competition. I think .com have jumped the gun a bit saying Enrique will be 'moved on', I would be very disappointed if that happened.

That is bollocks for a start. Where does it say that you cannot present your anger as a football fan? Are we supposed to just sit there and take it, no matter what? As a whole our fans are crap when it comes to getting behind the team on a match day. You have little pockets of fans (and now the singing corner) who are prepared to sing and shout, but the majority of the ground is just happy to sit there and whinge (or occassionally punch the bloke in front of them). I agree that the fans of Newcastle should be doing more to help the team, but if one banner actually gets a response from the people who usually sigh and tut then christ, its done more than the football on the pitch has done all season. It's an interesting point about what being a fan means, I've got mixed feelings about it. Yes, I suppose if you pay your money then you're entitled to complain, but at the same time you should realise that it won't acheive anything other than negative outcomes, and will have a harmful effect on the team. Not just from the negative protests towards the board, but also in terms of the time it takes away from actually supporting the lads. Also, I can imagine players who aren't committed to the club for regional or historical reasons (i.e. like Taylor and Shola are) will be further alienated by the closed-minded and ignorant message of banners like that.

You're right, that's our biggest worry at the moment I reckon

He's just trying to give Carroll a boost, don't see any reason for criticism.

Just read an article about Blackburn saying they have had no bids. I don't know what to believe!

The banner just makes us look thick as mince and won't achieve anything. Supporters should concentrate on supporting the team to get them through the match at hand.

I seriously doubt that Kinnear was the main man behind the decision to offer Shola a new contract... he's an interim manager at best. Sounds like a dubious attempt to have a dig at him to me.

Aye, but if all the rumoured signings of the last couple of windows happened we would have about 237 players.

The only point of the FA Cup for me is to watch these early rounds games with the little teams... it really is magic. Very disappointed it isn't on, and Kettering should be rightly annoyed about missing out on the cash.

As much as I'd like rid of Barton, we can't possibly let a central midfielder go this window.

The last thing we should ever do is have Owen as our only striker, we always play shit with that formation. Carroll, Xisco, Ranger, just pick anybody FFS.

Not surprised Shola looks happy!

Thing about Shola is we've backed ourselves into a corner by horribly mismanaging many of our players' contracts, combined with the perilous situation we're in regarding relegation. We need to tie Shola down because, firstly, we might be able to sell him if he does alright this season. Second, we might well lose Owen and Viduka, and even Martins might be sick of battling relegation come the summer. So for many reasons signing him up again was the correct decision, in our current situation.

Is anyone actually expecting any decent business to be done this January? Very few clubs ever manage to make any good signings at this time of year, except the mad spenders.

By the future I mean from now onwards. Our short term target is to not to get relegated. Ashley's medium term goal seems to be to sell the club. Long term depends on the short and medium goals. Well, he said the club's no longer for sale. Whether he'll change his mind when the economy perks up remains to be seen, but that could be another 3-5 years. From now onwards you're right, first thing is to stay up... and that will continue to be the objective in future seasons unless we get a good manager and Ashley is prepared to invest in the squad. Otherwise we will continue to allow other teams to overtake us, sadly.

The Big Sho

I still don't feel the bone-chilling fear of relegation that I did during the Allardyce era. Not sure if that's justified, but it's how I see things. The future is challenging, but I don't see why we can't turn things around. We saw the quality players that the Ashley regime managed to bring in already. I don't think much will be done in January, but I assume by 'the future' you mean long term rather than the next couple of seasons?

Woo!

In the position we're in, we need exactly the type of player that Darren Bent is... physically strong, fast but lacking the world class ability that would make him too expensive for us! Similar to the type of side that Pompey were building I suppose, or other teams who have overtaken us in recent seasons.

I thought this was going to be about Dean Windass! On a serious note I would take Darren Bent.