oldtype

Here's a new vote topic: "how much would you be willing to give for 17th place right now?"

I still refuse to believe that he's actually that bad, but he needs to be taken out of the side right now because there's obviously something not right with his head at the moment.

It's actually kind of refreshing to have another club's supporter come and tell it like it is. All respect to Lien and the other frequent non-Toon posters here, but the talk of "don't worry you won't go down" has gotten a bit irritating as of late. I don't mean to sound like i'm rubbing it in here but take it from me about relegation. I was in the camp of optimists thinking that we could take our pick of players from the Championship's best players and enjoy watching a new group of players walk the league. Instead we spent all our time selling Kanoute, Di Canio, Defoe, Cole, Sinclair, James, Johnson and releasing the rest on frees before even thinking about investing in others. We were lucky that we could still sign players during the season and we picked up Reo Coker Harewood Zamora and Mullins but you won't have the time to do this quick enough. It was tragic to see us down there and the atmosphere on the terraces and messageboards turned really. I saw so many fans turning on each other and even fighting. Of course there's still time to save yourselves but you haven't got it in you. You're just as likely to concede 3 goals in mad 20 min spells than you are to grind out a few 1-0's. If you are relegated the chances of getting in a new board, new director of football, new manager, new look team with direction and the ability to maintain a season of winning 25-30 matches to secure promotion...I just can't see that happening between June - September. Too big a task. You're going to be travelling down to places like Carrow Road and whatever MK Dons place is called on a wednesday night with little interest from the media. I really feel for you guys. If nothing else, it's very slightly reassuring to think that for every Charlton, Leeds, and Forest that disappears into the lower leagues, there's a West Ham or Man City that claws themselves back up to achieve some manner of Premiership stability.

Here's something that does my head in. You blame the management: you get somebody saying "it's not their fault! It's Kinnear!" You blame Kinnear: you get somebody saying "it's not his fault! The players are shit!" You blame the players: you get somebody saying "it's not their fault! It's the management!" How hard is it to just accept that it's everyone's fault. Nobody gets to stand up and say that they are faultless in this debacle.

I know I've been hamming up on the drama a bit lately because I'm quite honestly distraught, but it's the truth. Do you think the stigma of being part of a relegated team will be enough to motivate these players? The "relegated stars" of Leeds United were mostly snapped up by Premiership clubs. While in hindsight most of them have turned out to be poor buys, nobody seemed to mind giving them big-money contracts at the time.

I recon if he was playing in the Hull game we would have won it though. If Nolan hadn't gone mad on Anichebe's leg I firmly believe that we would be at least 3 points richer by now.

Harper and maybe Taylor and Lovenkrands are the only ones on that list I could see staying.

Martins and Lovenkrands have to be our upfront pairing for the rest of the season. For all their flaws, they're still the best we can muster. Harper Beye-Bassong-Taylor-Enrique Duff-Nolan-Barton-Jonas Martins-Loven is the team that just might pull off a miracle. Just pray that Bassong and Taylor will be fit for Spurs.

It's actually kind of refreshing to have another club's supporter come and tell it like it is. All respect to Lien and the other frequent non-Toon posters here, but the talk of "don't worry you won't go down" has gotten a bit irritating as of late.

Do you want to know the one reason right now we're more likely to get relegated than Boro or perhaps even West Brom? Here it is: our players don't have an incentive to up their game. Owen, Martins, Nolan, Barton, Jonas, Enrique, Bassong, Colo, Beye: most of our key players are basically guaranteed a move to a decent Premiership/continental team should we be relegated. Why should they care? Why should they be bothered about NUFC when their individual fortunes are not tied to the fortunes of the club in any way? Why go the extra mile to keep us up when you can just ride out this season and move to a club that's actually going places? It's different for the players in Hull, Stoke, Blackburn, Boro, or West Brom. The majority of players on those teams have fates tied to their clubs. If Stoke City goes down, the likes of James Beattie and Rory Delap are going straight down with it. If West Brom goes, Premiership teams aren't exactly going to be queuing up to sign James Brunt or Gianni Zuiverloon. These players have every incentive to bust their guts trying to keep their club in the Prem: securing Premiership football for their clubs is the only sure way to secure Premiership football for themselves. While it's certainly possible that many of our players whom I've mentioned would be willing to fight for the cause just because they a. love the club, or b. hate losing, or c. are just decent blokes (some in that number have unfortunately already shown that they're none of the above,) but I just don't see how they can match up on a psychological level to players who are fighting for their right to stay in the spotlight of the Premiership when they have their futures secured regardless of the fate of NUFC. Therefore, as our relegation becomes more glaringly obvious, I feel that the performance levels from our key players will simply drop even further rather than rise to the occasion. None of them will have to pay the price for under-preforming. There is no responsibility, no accountability. We are simply not a club equipped to fight a relegation battle. And that's becoming more and more evident as we inch closer and closer to the drop.

I wouldn't even complain if his set pieces were consistently good. It's worth having a slightly off-the-pace outfield player if he can offer that at least. They aren't though.

I fucking hate being right. Absolutely fucking hate it.

I know this is falling on deaf ears, but... Please... I'm just begging at this point. The only hope to save our Premiership status is to roll the dice on a new permanent manager and hope they can pull a Roy Hodgson.

Another player who will not have to pay the price for his poor performances this year as I imagine many clubs in Spain will be happy to take him back for pennies in the summer. The frightening thing is that as we become more and more likely to be relegated, he has less and less incentive to get his act back together and adjust to the prem. He can just sleepwalk through the rest of the season, chalk off Newcastle as a bad dream, and get back to playing in the league he's used to.

9. Nothing is certain until it actually happens, but dear me I can't see a way out of this.

It's the futility of it. We played well, had bucketloads of chances, gave a lot of people on here hope. But we still managed to squander all of them, miss a pen, and walk away with no points. It's fucking soul-crushing and I don't see how you can be so cool about it.

With Joe Kinnear on a three year contract to steer us safely to mid-table Championship mediocrity.

f*** my life. Man U all over again. Hard fought, no points. Who wants to bet on another one of these coming in two weeks? No doubt we'll have Houghton spouting platitudes on MOTD about how this shows we've got the attitude to stay up. Oh, and we've also got injuries to two key players handed to us as a bonus. You know, just to sweeten the deal.

Well, now that our midfield is finally coming back I suppose it's the defense's turn to be devastated by injury.

Cacapa time?

oldtype and kaka i believe but could be mistaken. Yeah I was wrong. Like I fucking give a shit at this point.

I swear I was literally about to jump into my bed and contemplate OD-ing myself out of my misery. That last F5 just saved my life

holy shit

There we go (down).

Can't help it. The Southern media, in their infinite wisdom, is only capable of processing two pieces of information about Newcastle United. 1. They're a shit club that should be ridiculed, lampooned, and lambasted at every opportunity. 2. England's Michael Owen has the misfortune of being contracted to them until the end of the season.