Wallace

Lots of people enjoy all the speculation and most know that the rumous are rubbish so I cannot see why the club have to be so pathetic about it. Everyone knows a lot of the stories in the press are put there by the agents trying to move their clients on. What is the harm in fans discussing it and analysing potential teams. I think this attitude could be very damaging for the club in the long tem. They may think cutting out all the rumours will provide some sort of stability but this city thrives on that and if they continue to push fans away and change the club into one where nothing ever happens and there is nothing to talk about, then maybe even more supporters will start to lose interest. As supporters and a city, we are pretty obsessive about the club and I just don't think they understand how to nurture that at all. And I agree that the press will give the club a hard time next season. We are highly likely to struggle and we won't get the sympathetic press that West Ham did. And since Hughton does not play the media game, I think he will be seen as a legitimate target as well - no friendly soundbites they can print as with Redknapp and Allardyce.

Lennon was at the training ground last season to see Thompson and it seemed to be understood from that point onwards that he would be going. I guess he was waiting to see if Lennon got offered the job permanently. However, for the sake of developing our youngsters, it seems we have a real struggle to hold on to the coaches as soon as a better job comes up.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-mcnally/Why-The-Guardian-and-Chelsea-s-Simon-Taylor-need-to-get-their-facts-right-before-accusing-Newcastle-fans-of-racism-The-Brian-McNally-Column-article441725.html Why Chelsea's Simon Taylor needs to get his facts right before accusing Newcastle fans of racism By Brian McNally Published 12:53 29/05/10 Nowhere in England has the fight against racism in football been more spectacularly successful than Tyneside. So it is hardly surprising that the Toon Army have reacted with fury to an error-strewn comment in The Guardian that Newcastle fans protested outside St James' Park in 1993 before the home debut of the club's first major black signing, Andy Cole. The comment attributed to Chelsea's grandiosely-titled head of corporate social responsibility Simon Taylor claimed: "There were protests outside the ground. But Andy scored a hat-trick that day and we heard no more from the protesters." As one of the 30,000 crowd who packed St James' Park that March afternoon I immediately recognised that the statement attributed to Taylor was not only wildly inaccurate, but also a shameful slur on the Newcastle fans who had in fact afforded their record £1.75million signing from Bristol City a tumultuous welcome. Cole's debut had in fact come at Swindon in a 2-1 defeat where he did not score- a 4-0 win over Notts County was his home debut and he scored one goal not a hat-trick. Both The Guardian and Taylor have since launched a damage-limitation exercise to quell the furore created by the embarrassing gaffe. The online version of the article was amended to remove the offending quote, a clarification of the comment was issued, while the Chelsea employee claimed his words were used out of context. But, as the Newcastle Supporters Trust wryly observed earlier, Taylor "has to be admired in getting so much wrong in so few words." Taylor tells us he lived in Newcastle for seven years, but it appears that the pride and passion Geordies have for both their football team and their city passed him by. How else can you explain his attempt to gloss over a ridiculous comment that has been exposed as pure fiction with the claim his words were taken out of context? Or his weak response to the Newcastle Supporters Trust: "I do hope this email helps to explain the context of the quotes and I can only apologise if anyone has taken offence. "I have subsequently spoken to the Guardian newspaper and it has agreed to issue a clarification." Forget context. Forget clarification. The claims made were totally and utterly factually wrong. End of Story. The pathetic attempts to explain them away have only created a bigger chasm between The Guardian, Taylor and the fans of Newcastle United. Newcastle fans are justifiably proud of their reputation in fighting the evils of racism. It was during Kevin Keegan's time as a player on Tyneside between 1982 and 1984 that the Toon Army proved that they really were black and white by kicking the racists out of St James' Park. Racism was rampant at football grounds throughout the land, and, as Viv Anderson vividly described, Newcastle had a bad reputation. But thanks to brave and visionary men such as Keegan, the dark days when the National Front sold their hate-filled rag Bulldog outside the Gallowgate end and opposition black players were routinely booed , jeered and subjected to monkey chants were consigned to history. And it was perhaps fitting in a region that so spectacularly rejected race-based hatred that the anti-racist educational charity Show Racism The Red Card began its life on Tyneside. Indeed, SRTRC grew out of a £50 donation from former Newcastle United keeper Shaka Hislop in 1995 to a Tyneside anti-racism campaign in Newcastle. Founder Ged Grebby a lifelong Toon fan built the massive campaign from a small office in Whitley Bay. Grebby is immensely proud that Newcastle fans successfully rehabilitated the reputation they had for racism and helped spread the gospel of tolerance far and wide. But it seems to me that Taylor and The Guardian still have absolutely no idea why those two sentences in an otherwise praiseworthy article highlighting the role of Asian players in English football have created such an unfavourable reaction on Tyneside. The revelation that Taylor hadn't actually seen any protests, but relied on the account of "eye-witnesses" only dug an even deeper hole. And, quite why, he cited an example of racism at Newcastle to illustrate his point rather than his own club Chelsea riled many Geordie fans. Like many Newcastle fans, I was at Stamford Bridge on the shameful day when Chelsea fans aimed their racial hatred at one of their own black players, Paul Cannoville. It was one of the most shocking examples of racism I have witnessed in four decades of covering football and one that was certainly more disturbing than anything I ever saw at Newcastle when racism was at its peak. I have absolutely no doubt that Taylor did not intend to denigrate Newcastle fans and that his intention was to show how racism could be beaten. But, somewhere during his conversation with the Guardian the facts went out the window. If Taylor wants to make peace with the good people of Tyneside then may I suggest he publicly displays "corporate social responsibility" in action by issuing an unreserved and unequivocal apology.

I think they were banned around October 2009 but I cannot remember what was kicking off then. The local reporter for the Mail said on Radio Newcastle recently that it was due to people higher up so I guess it must be down to something the London based journos wrote.

It has been arranged as part of their centenary celebrations.

I think we have to do out utmost to hang on to Taylor as that would mean, we have to get a replacement and to get anyone better, we are likely to have to pay more for them that we get for Taylor. There are other areas of the team that need investing in first. Williamson did well last season but he has it all to prove in the Premiership and Taylor has proved he is a Premiership player - to what level is another issue. I think our defence was much stronger in the first half of the season before Taylor picked up his injury that afterwards.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1278561/Charles-Sale-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-forgets-table-manners-Football-Writers-do.html?ITO=1490 Obviously not fans of Ashley and Llambias. The local journo from the Daily Mail was on Radio Newcastle earlier this week and said the Mail had been banned from SJP since last October. He said the Sunday Sun was also banned but that the club had indicated they might be withdrawing that ban but were not softening in their stance to the Mail. He has been paying to get into the games and next season the Mail are buying a season ticket. He never mentioned what the reason was other than it involved others higher up than himself.

That was in the Chronicle tonight at the end of the Moncur article.

The Journal says "they understand the news came as a shock to Hughton" so they have obviously been stringing him along like all their previous managers. Feel sorry for him - they are setting him up to fail from the outset.

Has the Academy really improved that much? They seem to have a lot of faith in it but how many of the youngsters are really going to be Premiership level? We always seem reluctant to play the kids anyway and it will be harder to introduce them into a constantly struggling team.

By having a go at the press by saying they will not speak to them under any circumstances because they say the club is constantly mis-reported is just inviting more criticism.

I hope this is just another one of their efforts to spread misinformation but as usual, they have created more confusion and more questions than answers. The press is already reporting this as NUFC have no money to buy new players and can only afford freebies and loan players. I hope other clubs don't see this as an open invitation to put in bids for our better players. It is all very well saying that we have to break even but in order to do that, we have to stay in the Premier League

From Luke Edwards Twitter: "expect a few fireworks regarding #nufc tomorrow. The fuse has been lit "

So the Board ie. Mike and Lambias will not be talking to anyone other than via press releases. So does that mean we won't be seeing any of those anonymous sources giving stories to the News of the World anymore.

I think there is also commentary on Radio Newcastle?

Didn't he sell Scott Parker in order to buy Barton. He certainly didn't waste any time moving him on and I don't think Parker was actively looking for a move. And a lot of the players he left behind had no time for him either.

He was on loan there but I don't think he ended up playing many games and did not impress Blackburn supporters.

He improved a lot when Routledge came in as a lot of defensive focus was taken off him. His final product is nowhere near as good as Routledge's (on the basis of the last half season) even if he is much better at a lot of things. I think Jonas has had a decent season, he was poor a lot of the time pre-Jan though, several times at the start of the season didn't look as though he gave a f***. Seems to have got into it again though, fair play to him, could be essential next season. In the first half of the season, the opposition would have 3 players on Jonas because they did not have to worry about our right side. Once Routledge arrived, they couldn't do that any more.

The newspapers reported that 150-200 staff at all levels of the club were made redundant in the aftermath of relegation.

Definitely is.

Wonder if Shay still has his Y15 HAY number plate.

yeah thats not going to happen In the Chronicle tonight, John Gibson says that Ashley held a meeting with all the backroom staff including reserve team coach and academy staff (doesn't say when) and spoke openly of transfer market support and a personal wish to get business done before the World Cup. So maybe we will get in early for a change. Certainly with finishing the season so early, they have plenty of time to prepare for next season.

Did I not see somewhere that it was the players' "anthem" for this season, I took that to mean that it was the tune they played in the dressing room, etc. Yes it was.

They all got medals even the likes of Ryan Donaldson. Makes sense because of the strong team spirit they all talk about so it would have been harsh to omit a few.

I don't get it. You sound very ITK-ish, but I can't see what information you are actually revealing to us (the stupid public). Maybe it's just me that is so little itk that I can't understand the k even when someone tells me. Not trying to be itk know mate, or come across as being an itk, I've just been told exactly what happened by someone who was there. I'm not going to say what happened because if some daft wench hack or some other media t*** decided for some reason to take what I was saying as gospel (which it is) then it could somehow get certain people into trouble. All I can say is look at the rumours, think about what logically happened as a summary of them and then reduce how much of a big deal it was by half, and any 'damage' by half too. All I care about is that the two of them can play together so that both stay at the club.