oldtype

If we get him, he'll be shit. If he's any good, he won't come. Optimism!

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k245/Andrewr05/FACEPALM/facepalmxd.gif I'm going to leave it at that. Really, the fact that people actually have to explain why this is a silly thread is almost as sad as the thread itself.

Not really, because i wanted to point out how influential black players can be Surely they're influential because they're physical and not because they're black

Apparently England doesn't have a monopoly on shit refs

A simple "we lack physicality" would have sufficed?

I get your point, but... Dear God, there has got to be a better way to phrase this than that

I think it's naive to assume that Ashley will leave if we get relegated. It's obviously more easy to sell a premiership club than it is to sell a championship club, and Ashley isn't suddenly going to be willing to sell the club for nothing just because we've been relegated. He'll still want to recoup a significant portion of his investment. The more likely scenario is that Ashley simply lets us rot down in the lower divisions for God knows how long until he can find someone daft enough to spunk down major cash. The club will be much, much more salable if we retain our place in the Premiership.

Rennes getting ripped apart so far. Can't string two passes together. M'Bia should fit right in here then.

M'Bia looks pretty static just protecting the space in front of the back four. To be fair, it's a shit match so I'm not paying all that much attention.

Or Derby, or Watford, or Norwich, or Sheffield Wednesday, or Sheffield United, or Nottingham Forest, or Wimbledon

I'll no longer be able to watch matches if we go down. Choice is out of my hands.

which one of these would we actually want to win? Portsmouth have got the better chance of being relegated, but it's just so much more fun seeing Spurs at bottom...

f***ing hell. I give up. I swear, you must see the names "Shepherd" and "Ashley" in your breakfast cereal. You're simply incapable of having any discussion that does not involve the ownership of this club.

I'll just bite the bullet. I'm not his biggest fan, but we needed him more than we needed the 12m. His goal today looked suspiciously like he punched it in. See it on MOTD, weirdest goal ever. Unfortunately, I generally can't bear to watch motd when we lose. On a similar, depressing note, I end up watching less and less motds every year.

mackems.gif Admire the cheek of the shop owner though.

Something much worse happened to me right after the match, so talking about NUFC is actually a welcome diversion at the moment. cf. the "mood" thread in general chat.

I'll just bite the bullet. I'm not his biggest fan, but we needed him more than we needed the 12m.

Given Taylor-Colo-Bassong-Enrique Duff-Barton-Guthrie-Jonas Owen-Carroll Seems the most likely. Decent side that. Couple in players getting some much needed rest and it might even be a good performance. Would've been great if we could've played Blackburn then as opposed to today.

Nah it's bollocks. I am local and I don't fall into a downward spiral of depression when we lose. Half my mates aren't even Newcastle fans. Also, while living in London and Italy I got equally as pissed off when we lost. The 'local thing' is just used by those who want to make their opinions seem more valid than the people they disagree with. Its not bollocks. Those who don't go or don't even live here can't possibly share what those who do are feeling on a daily basis where NUFC is concerned, much less question those feelings whatever they are and how they are expressed, be it via demonstrations, booing, boycotting or ranting and raving on here. That part I disagree vehemently with. You can question the implications of such gestures, but you can't condemn someone for taking such a course of action. Not from hundreds or thousands of miles away anyway. What's the difference? I just think it's a bad idea. What does "condemn" even mean in this context?

Nah it's bollocks. I am local and I don't fall into a downward spiral of depression when we lose. Half my mates aren't even Newcastle fans. Also, while living in London and Italy I got equally as pissed off when we lost. The 'local thing' is just used by those who want to make their opinions seem more valid than the people they disagree with. Its not bollocks. Those who don't go or don't even live here can't possibly share what those who do are feeling on a daily basis where NUFC is concerned, much less question those feelings whatever they are and how they are expressed, be it via demonstrations, booing, boycotting or ranting and raving on here. That part I disagree vehemently with.

Dont forget Big Mike is going to tell us everything once the window closes. If there is actually a big grandstand Mike Ashley "statement" at the end of the window, I'll eat my hat. I'll eat two if we end up liking anything he said.

While I don't advocating him beating up his own team-mates, at least he shows some emotion. Michael Owen looks like he is bored stiff and just waiting for Man City to come and get him. How inspirational and motivational that must be! An ineffective captain is better than a captain that has a negative effect. What are you on about? How can Owen's glaring desire to leave this club be seen as anything but a negative effect? What does Owen actually do in a match when he doesn't score to gee the lads on? Have you seen how annonymous he is when he doesn't have the ball? There is no one man bigger than this club, even England's Michael Owen! I can only assume you didn't see the game today. Whenever we broke through their back line it was usually down to Owen finding some space in behind. This "glaring desire" to leave is entirely your own opinion, by the way. Everything he's said so far has been to the contrary and the club has only recent started contract talks with him. On the other hand you have Barton who is quite clearly a t*** of a man. No I didn't see or hear the game today. But I have seen plenty others. The glaring desire I speak of is to wait about talking about his contract until he is a free agent. Surely if he wanted to be at the club (and he claims money is not the object) then his agent can negotiate the deal and he can sign it. His refusal to sort out the deal until the summer points towards the fact that he doesn't want to be here. or he's keeping his options open... as I'm sure you would if given the same situation... as I'm sure any decent players would given the same situation. If Ameobi and Butt had any real prospects in the Premiership do you think they'd have re-signed? Fact is; Owen wants to win. Whether it's because he wants to get into the England side, or he's in the shop window, or whatever. He wants to do well regardless. Anyway, we're digressing... A rule of thumb in our situation should be: first do no harm. While Owen may or may not be the ideal captain he's certainly a better influence than a lose cannon. Don't get me wrong, Barton is a good player and I want him in the side for the time being. However, as passionate as he is, he doesn't exactly have the best judgement does he? He's certainly not a leader of men that the changing room are going to look up to and rally behind. I am not saying Barton is the man for the armband, but by "keeping his options open" Michael Owen can have a detrimental effect on other members of the squad who could see it as a lack of loyalty. If the captain isn't bothered then why should they be. If Michael Owen wants to do well, then he has been damn good at hiding it this season. He has on more than one occassion looked as if he couldn't be arsed. How can he be a good influence on a team? Just because he doesn't go drinking in Tigertiger? When was the last time you saw Michael Owen spurring on the lads on the field? If we had a striker who could score goals at the same rate as Michael Owen would you automatically make him captain? Are you suggesting he's missing sitter on purpose? Are you suggesting he doesn't care one way or the other if he scores? Come on... I don't think he does care if he scores. All he is bothered about is the ££££££££££'s. His heart isn't in it at Newcastle, that is why he is missing chances, he couldn't give a toss. eyup, thats a new one! Explain games like Wednesday then, when he had clear chances that he f***ed up, and pulled out of at least 3 50/50 tackles then. Everyone pulled out of 50/50 challenges on Wednesday, it seemed like the players had been told not to get injured. He certainly didn't pull out of any today. To be honest I thought Owen was giving it 100% today. At least until we conceded and everyone just collectively gave up. I honestly have no fucking idea what's going on in that man's head. One day I think he's as good as gone already, another I'm not so sure.

Attitude today was a disgrace. Makes me sick almost as much as Joe Kinnear now.

Joe Kinnear would undoubtedly be getting better results if he was backed by his board/manager. Does that makes sense to you or not ? Do you think Joe Kinnear would get what you deem as "the results we deserve" if he was backed by an "ambitious" board? All of this, of course, is meaningless. The question we should be asking is whether he's the right person for us here and now. Is he going to save us from relegation under the s*** board we currently have? Do you think so? ah well, if you are still denying the ability to buy better footballers is crucial to the chances a manager has of succeeding or getting better results, then you [if you did] and the others [who definietly did] that backed the "long term plan" and still subscribe to it etc and all this bollocks, should stop complaining and get on with looking ahead to our rosy future. I'll repeat this one more time. After that I give up. Honestly, I can't believe I've already given you this much courtesy and attempted to engage with you in a proper argument despite the fact that you obviously have no intention of doing so. We cant' change Ashley. Look, I'm agreeing with you here. I think he's useless and I'd be shot of him in a second if we could. But we can't. We can't sack the owner, he's here whether we like it or not. Given the situation, it's up to us to find the best manager we can to work under these shit conditions. Do you think Joe Kinnear is that man? Is what he's doing right now the best anyone could do with our squad?

I actually agree with HTT. I'm probably the only Toon fan in a 100 mile radius. I'll never understand what it's like to be in Newcastle as everyone around me is devastated by bad news after bad news after bad news, watching the entire city sink into depression. Whatever pain and anger I'm feeling right now, I'm sure you're feeling more. That's not why I think protesting during the match is a bad idea though.