AyeDubbleYoo

Is that not a big positive though?

Is a president not what they have, for example, at Real Madrid? I know they've been successful, but I hate that every year some dude promises a mega signing to appease the fans and get re-ellected. Whether the manager wants these players or not seems to be irrelevant, and they do appear to have a rapid turnover of managers.

Better to take time to get the right man now rather than rushing in and having another circus in a year's time. I hope they don't rush into a decision.

Excellently put, not much more to be said than that.

As long as he speaks Spanish he'll be alreet.

Would that person be you? He had stays at both Newcastle (part 1) & Man City which seem very long compared to some stays in the Premier League. Of course he left Fulham early due to the England job. Yeah, I didn't mean Keegan personally, I just meant that a lot of managers don't last for that long - so it would be a bit naive to think he would definitely stay the course.

That and the lies they've told to con thousands of people out of thousands of pounds. If you're talking about season tickets, then I thought they were for supporting Newcastle Utd, not Kevin Keegan. I don't remember seeing any promises about the manager in the adverts or letters. If anyone signed up for three years thinking Keegan would definitely be manager throughout that time, they obviously haven't been watching football for very long. I don't think Ashley is blameless at all, but he's not the devil either. No, sorry, season tickets were sold under false pretences. People have paid to watch a team put together by Kevin Keegan, not one put together by the former manager of Swindon Town. If they were so confident of the same amount of people buying tickets regardless, why didn't they just tell the truth: "Dennis Wise will be choosing the players and we won't be spending any money. Now, that'll be £1500 please"? Just have to agree to disagree on this one. Obviously the sense of renewed enthusiasm would have helped sales, but there's no reason to believe that they hired Keegan solely for that reason. If anything, didn't we sell slightly less season tickets than in the past?

That and the lies they've told to con thousands of people out of thousands of pounds. If you're talking about season tickets, then I thought they were for supporting Newcastle Utd, not Kevin Keegan. I don't remember seeing any promises about the manager in the adverts or letters. If anyone signed up for three years thinking Keegan would definitely be manager throughout that time, they obviously haven't been watching football for very long. I don't think Ashley is blameless at all, but he's not the devil either.

They don't speak for supporters and much of what they have assumed is based on taking Keegan's side because of our emotional attachment to him... in the way a lot of us have done. Can't blame them I suppose, emotions are high, but I don't agree and won't be taking part.

Because the PR and statements they put out have been very poor. The first statement they put out was several hours after the inital rumours broke, and didn't answer what everyone wanted to know - whether Keegan had gone. They then waited another two days to respond further, answering what everyone wanted to know in the first place - that Keegan wasn't sacked, and hadn't resigned, so effectively was still at the club. Then, after KK's resignation and statement of reason (manger should be allowed ot manage, etc) they issued what can only be dscribed as a very unprofessional, almost childish response, with their list of 'facts' - a list of facts that contradict quotes direct from Ashley, Wise, et al in the previous weeks/months. KK isn't blameless in this, but the Board have acted quite poorly, and would do well to remember what they have said in articles/interviews previously, before stating 'facts'. Well I know, both sides have previously said everything was fine on bringing in players. The board have said that KK had a say, and he himself never spoke out about it before. What we don't know is what say he did have and what the dispute was about in detail. But football clubs don't put out statements every couple of hours to respond to ongoing press speculation. When they were having discussions they said so, and when something was decided they announced it. To say the problems were cause by the PR and not by the reality of KK leaving us just seems a bit misleading to me. There's nothing the club could have said that would have stopped people turning against them like they have. At least I can't think of it.

I agree with you on this, but you'd better be prepared to wear out your keyboard defending yourself!

Whoah there! To be fair I think most of the opinions expressed over the last few days on both sides are mainly based on speculation.

So afar, if Keegan has to take some of the blame then how come it is only Ashley/Wise that have to take the brunt of the fans ill-informed rage? If you're saying it's because of poor PR then I can't go along with that at all, they put out statements when they had something to say. No other club would have acted any differently in their dealings with the fans (read 'media'). It seems to me like he is getting a very easy ride on all counts, even if a small minority of people have enough sense to see what Baggio is saying.

I spoke to a lass outside the Sports Direct shop in the Silverlink yesterday who worked there. She said they'd been practically empty all day with hardly any business. Good! But that needs to continue long term for it to have any effect on Ashley. I bought some 5-a-side trainers, shorts and socks in Sports Direct on Saturday.

I'd prefer that this wasn't true, because if it is then my love of Keegan is well and truly shattered. No reason to think it's true though have we? Why would he be able to veto the signings listed above but not Xisco, Gonzalez etc?

never mind that, they are cockney wankers/poisoned dwarves (etc, etc...ad infinitum) It's so dissapointing to see such a simplistic view being taken. As far as i'm concerned, the only issue was in their differences with KK, which I am sure he was equally guilty for. Other than that, they have shown they are certainly good at what they are doing. Calling them all the names under the sun will not change that. A dangerous amount of sense being talked here lads.

Those were players we were 'linked' with, which basically means we have no way of knowing whether we were close to signing any of them or not. I do have doubts over Keegan's views on transfers after him walking out after a summer of good signings, but I think this is taking it a bit far.

I dunno, I think he bought us for a bit of fun and because he likes football. He just doesn't want to make a massive loss in the process. Don't know whether that motive is any better, but to say he's done it 100% for money is a bit unfair IMO.

Despite having roughly half our turnover, Everton outspent us this Summer and last, so I can't see Moyes chomping at the bit to join us. Maybe he's keen to be relieved of the pressure of choosing who plays for him though, I don't know. I know that was probably sarcastic, but I reckon if I was a manager like Keegan (enthusiastic, good motivator etc) I might actually not be that bothered about not buying my own players. If the recruitment guys were delivering the likes of Jonas and Coloccini then I might be happy to let them get on with it.

True, I noticed that as well. Can't disagree with much of Sir Bobby's article at all, all I would say is that even he doesn't know the real goings-on behind the scenes and what Keegan did or didn't agree to when he joined. The principles of what he said are sound though.

He's only sacked one manager because he's only been here for a year. He's also forced another one out. How you can claim he's any better with regards to managers is a huge mystery, because the evidence against it is staggering, and the evidence for it is absolutely non-existant. Well his decision to sack Allardyce was correct, that's all I'm saying. And whether or not Keegan was 'forced out' we don't know. Seems it takes a lot less to force Keegan out than might be ideal. Also, I think that a manager leaving because he doesn't agree with your structure and long term plan for the club is not as bad as just hiring an endless string of big name managers, letting them run the club into the ground with reckless spending, then getting rid of them one-by-one. We've all seen that the old way can't deliver consistent progress.

I hope we hold onto Chris Hughton, seems to be a good coach.

Can't disagree with that at all sadly.

And more importantly, he recognised that the manager was taking us nowhere and made a change. At the time people thought he was incredible - and that was only a few months ago. We'll never get anywhere if we judge people over this kind of time frame. Whether it's on managers appointed/sacked, players signed, money spent or whatever, less than a year is a stupid time period to try and assess a new owner. So is Ashley stupid for judging Allardyce in half a season then? What about the people who have already judged "the system" to be a success worthy of sacrificing the manager who single handedly saved us from relegation apparently? Well fair point, all I would say is that Ashley is just as responsible for saving us from relegation as Keegan is. If he has to take the blame for Keegan leaving then the original appoitment must be to his credit. On Allardyce, yes Ashley only worked with him for a short time, but it was clear that the club was going backwards. With Sam all of the signs were bad, so I think that mitigates the concerns over how quickly he was judged. You can't wait to see if you're relegated before acting, can you?

Hang on, this is supposed to be a defense of Ashley? Yes, he's only sacked one manager, Allardyce. There is only a media circus now because Keegan walked out and the way the fans have reacted. Until then he was keeping fairly quiet wasn't he?