AyeDubbleYoo

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?

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.

Thing is, to me Ashley has made very few wrong decisions. The previous system we had in place (while it delivered success short to medium term) was leading us into terminal decline and financial hardship. An endless media circus and managerial revolving-door, each appointement the opposite of the last. That is no way to run a football club. I can only see a couple of reasons for the Ashley hating, I'm discounting the fact he's a southerner because I hoped most fans could see beyond that. 1) IF Keegan didn't know about his role in the system when he took the job then that was a mistake. 2) The emotional attachment to Keegan from his history with the club. 3) Dennis wise as a player was someone we all hated. 4) The terrific feeling of hope we had that we would be progressing as a club and out of the papers for a while, instantly crushed in a way that is very hard to deal with for us. This sense of injustice needs a scapegoat. Other than that I can see what Ashley is trying to acheive with the system and I still think he can acheive it. I might be marked out as an apologist or whatever, but that's my gut feeling. It could even be said that, on the surface, Keegan would be a manager that would fit into the system - a motivator, an excellent man manager but a man whose knowledge of the transfer market must have been diluted by his time out of the game.

absolutely spot on word for word Agreed, the only question is whether what Ashley thinks is best (and therefore will do) is actually more sensible and successful compared to waht fans would do. We're passionate and we really care, but not many of us has the background in running big organisations that Ashley does.

I hardly think we've got the most secure of futures now, do you? We lost a manager. I hardly think that jeopardizes the future of the club. We'll get a new manager and move on. Yeah, into the Championship... Funny you should mention that, don't forget that's where we would be right now if Ashley hadn't come in and made changes when he did.

I live in Oxford at the moment, I think it does help being away from the hysteria of the whole place, as much as I love it. From Gateshead originally though, been down south for a couple of years... I get to as many away games as I can and about 5 or 6 home games. I suppose I do feel like I'm looking in on this a bit, but I remember the first Keegan era clearly and I'm as hurt as anyone else. All I ask myself is 'what did I want for the club a year or so ago?', and the answer is something like what Ashley has come and put in place. Therefore I can't bring myself to hate him, or the system.

I had a brief moment of doubt when it was announced, but I'm back to this view now.

If it's any consolation I think a lot more agree with you than Sky TV etc, would have us believe Ian. Cheers, I never posted much until this week, I'm not used to having as many opinions! I think everyone wants the same anyway, hopefully we will be able to ride out the initial backlash and salvage something with potential from all this. I'm wondering if I'm too optomistic, but won't be changing over this.

Yeah of course selling the club to someone who will put good players on the pitch will be a disaster. complete load of crap isn't it. The only thing that matters in a football club, is nothing to do with the "system", its the ability of the manager, and the degree of backing and support he gets. The manager is a massive factor in success season-to-season, but only a well-run club can sustain long term consistency.

Meh, think I've said everything I've got on this, people just have opposite views... my fingers are tired trying to argue the same points.

Who me? Born and bread 4 miles from SJP my friend. And even I wasn't, that comment is idiotic.

and the fact that they are undeniably a bunch of London cun.. outsiders. Aye, but I had hoped before this that our fans would be able to see past the fact that Ashley's not a Geordie. Obviously some of them can't, but if they think being managed by Shearer or having a Geordie owner would automatically make things better they're kidding themselves. This 'cockney' thing is a load of balls TBH.

What are we protesting against again? Or for? Any info will do, cheers.

I don't think any of them have done a great deal wrong to be honest, I think most of the vitriol directed at them just comes from the fact we all loved Keegan so much.

What would be the motive behind that though? I mean, everyone of Ashley, Wise, Llambias, Jimenez and Vetere benefits if Keegan gets the team playing and the club is a success. They just had differring views on how to achieve it, and Keegan stuck to his guns.

Keegan might have decided to resign, but I don't think we can say he was 'forced out'. The club have already said they tried to work things through, we know how emotional and volatile KK can be. What The Prophet says about Feguson is true as well, no manager is the only man involved in player recruitment. Yes, he should have a massive say, but a lot of other things have to be considered as well. There was fault on both sides here.

The club have put out a couple of statements in recent days, I know we'd all like to know exactly what happened but there's no way they're all going to air their dirty laundry in public.

If that's true it was obviously a bad move, can't argue with that. However, I completely disagree with us being desperate for a LB, we have Zog and Bassong as adequate cover for now. We really needed a strong, mobile forward who could keep himself fit - I hope Xisco will turn out to be that.

Have you seen those games though? The football we've played has massively improved, can't see how anyone can dispute that. Man Utd still had a quality team out. We struggled a bit against Bolton true, but they were very negative and we still got a result. I was at the Coventry game, we could easily have obliterated them by 4 or 5 if things had run our way. Aye we got hammered by Arsenal, but no team in the league would have taken anything that day.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2008/09/05/the-reasons-why-kevin-keegan-resigned-72703-21681798/ Thing is, if Jonas and Coloccini weren't on Keegan's list, then Wise and Jimenez did him a favour by getting two top-quality players in for him anyway. And if he tried to veto Xisco and get a left back instead then he was wrong on that as well, most probably. That said, I don't think Oliver actually knows what happened.

Aye, that's the way to go about things. The players need our support at the end of the day. That's nearly the way to go about things, just cut out the protesting and moaning in between and you're there.

Sadly I have to agree, maybe this is one walk-out too many.

Keegan's a great man, but he's not even the best manager in the league never mind Europe/the world.