oldtype

We ended up with Joe because the job was being offered on a temporary basis. How many currently unemployed managers do you think will refuse a permanent contract at a Premiership club, regardless of that club's position on the table?

Wrong. no he is right. If I have to explain this again I'll start sounding as boring as NE5 so I won't. But if you think there's literally nobody better than Joe Kinnear who would be willing to manage our football club given a reasonable length contract, then you really need to take off your shit-tinted glasses.

Wrong.

The Enrique quote is the most abominable thing I've seen any football manager do. Ever. And that's including the South Korean bloke who got sacked for physically assaulting his assistant last year.

mackems.gif and at the same time

Kinnear you fucking, fucking, fucking idiot. Just oh my God. FUCK YOU.

(I know he's not, btw) Alright, so by all indications, Ashley no longer expects to sell the club. Talk of a sale has cooled, he's given Kinnear a longer contract, and there's even rumors of transfer money being handed out. But despite strong evidence, we can't actually know that any of this is true because Ashley and Llambias (who's so silent he can't even be called a mouthpiece) have seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth. Why the f*** has there been no club statement about our ownership status. I don't even expect anything as long as his 20-page "I'm selling" expose, nor do I expect himn to sit in the stands again. I'll settle for something as simple as a statement saying "Owner Mike Ashley would like to confirm that he is staying at Newcastle United for the foreseeable future, and is fully committed to operating and supporting the club." I think there are a lot of fans out there who would be willing to forgive him if he came out and said he wanted forgiveness. And I for one would certainly be less uneasy about our current predicament if I knew that the people at the top still gave a s*** and weren't just warming the seats for the next owners.

That is, assuming that the fucker ever comes out of his self-imposed "exile" and starts communicating with the fans again. As it is I'm not even sure if there's anyone running our football club that gives a shit anymore. For all we know Ashley has still washed his hands of us and desperately wants to sell.

Eh? Are you joking? I'd say that's probably the weakest part of the entire team, both in terms of numbers AND quality. Speechless.... two words, central midfield. Barton, Butt, Guthrie, Geremi, Gonzalez and N'Zogbia are all players who would call central midfield their preferred position. Then you take into account all of the other players in the squad who have/can play there. Enrique... the player who would call left-back his preferred position. N'Zogbia can play there adequately, Bassong can play there adequately, but that's about it. The Zog may "call" central midfield his preferred position, but that certainly doesn't mean we should let him play there. Out of the remainder, Barton is good, Guthrie is adequte, and the other two are liabilities. Also, Barton is also the only one out of any of our CMs who contributes much on the break, and he's crocked till January. CM is the most important position on the pitch, but we're lacking in quality, variety, and numbers. a new CM is clearly our highest priority, followed closely by a second new CM. You only really need 2 LBs and we sort of have that with Enrique/Zog/Bassong.

That guy's pretty much a pauper compared to Ashley, so if people weren't happy with what he was putting in, then they're in for a big disappointment as he couldn't even afford to match that even if he wanted to. Means nothing, firstly he's obviously not trying to buy the club on his own. Secondly Ashley had/has billions yet how much was spent on players?, nowt.. If there's anything we all should have learned from his time here its that the amount of money the owner has isn't what's really important if he's unwilling to spend it. A millionaire who's willing to invest his money is far better then a billionaire who isn't. Obviously exceptions are to be made when the entirety of his personal fortune would barely fund two years worth of transfers. Obviously, but like I said he's not trying to buy the club himself. Though to be honest even if he spend half his money on players he'd still have spent £20 million more then Ashley If he gets to be termed the "head" of the consortium with 40m in his pocket, I doubt the people he's running with are swimming in money either. I know it's a bit more complicated than that, but this really doesn't seem like a good proposition.

That guy's pretty much a pauper compared to Ashley, so if people weren't happy with what he was putting in, then they're in for a big disappointment as he couldn't even afford to match that even if he wanted to. Means nothing, firstly he's obviously not trying to buy the club on his own. Secondly Ashley had/has billions yet how much was spent on players?, nowt.. If there's anything we all should have learned from his time here its that the amount of money the owner has isn't what's really important if he's unwilling to spend it. A millionaire who's willing to invest his money is far better then a billionaire who isn't. Obviously exceptions are to be made when the entirety of his personal fortune would barely fund two years worth of transfers.

40m is no chump change, but honestly, this guy has about as much of a chance of owning NUFC as I do.

It's all good and pragmatic. I'd rather re-sign Shola than bring in someone random as a backup striker given what he's shown us this season. Given the sorry state of the midfield we can't allow Nicky Butt to be talking to other clubs in January, so we need to tie him down to an extension. Giving Owen a decent offer and blurbing it all over the press so that the pressure will be on him is exactly what the club should have been done this time last year or so. Good to see they're finally getting around to it.

I'd have Noble or even (gasp) Parker back before I had Bellamy back. He's just not the type of player we need right now. (dons tin hat)

Based on what? Common sense. It's infinitely more likely that he's not than he is. Common sense but you've not seen him play? Wayne Rooney was 16 when he scored for Everton against Arsenal - at the end of the day, if Lua Lua is going to be good enough, the only way he'll get there is by playing football, and I'm not talking reserve or U18 stuff. It's Catch 22 but at the end of the day kids don't develop sat on their arse or playing against Whitley Bay in the NSC. Somewhat unlikely he'll be the next Rooney but he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up with no other midfield options - if in five years he's not improved, fair enough, but when the alternative is shuffling everyone else out of position and hoying two points down the drain, I'll take my chances tbh. I think you'll agree that Rooney is literally a one in a million case. And believe me, if we actually had a Rooney, we'd know. I agree, he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up. What I don't agree with is the extremists who think he should get a starting place just because Butt and Duff are s***. There's no way he's ready for that and it would just torpedo his confidence. The thread wasn't about throwing kids into the first team picture because it feels exciting. We had a bench against Stoke which didn't contain one single midfielder, despite the fact we have three first team central midfielders out injured before Guthrie limped off. Instead of giving one of our more promising young midfielders a place on the bench...I repeat - just a place on the f***ing bench - we ended up playing Beye on the right wing and throwing away a crucial 2 points. I find that sort of bone-headed management unforgiveable tbh. Straight out of the Graeme Souness school of decision making. Again, you're not saying a single thing I'm disagreeing with.

I don't agree with that whatsoever, really. Our youngsters have just been s***, that's the problem. Ramage, Taylor, Edgar, Huntington, Pattison, Brittain, O'Brien, Chopra, Carroll - off the top of me head - have been our alleged 'better products' of the academy. And they've all had a fair amount of playing time in the first team. We do seem to have some sort of phobia of using the young'uns at crucial times, though. We throw our kids in far too late though. Clubs like Everton, West Ham, Boro and Arsenal throw young 'uns in at 16, we wait till they're in their 20s, by which time kids at other clubs are too far ahead to ever catch. If we had young players like Vaughan, Noble, Wheater, or any of Arsenal's youngsters, we would have played them more. Which of our young players over the past 5 years would you have given more game time to? If anything, the likes of Shola, Taylor, Ramage, Lua Lua etc. were forced to play far too much. The clubs in question have also had the luxury of being relatively stable for the past few years, which we haven't. I think the problem is in the quality of our academy itself, not with how much of a look in youngsters are getting to the first team.

Based on what? Common sense. It's infinitely more likely that he's not than he is. Common sense but you've not seen him play? Wayne Rooney was 16 when he scored for Everton against Arsenal - at the end of the day, if Lua Lua is going to be good enough, the only way he'll get there is by playing football, and I'm not talking reserve or U18 stuff. It's Catch 22 but at the end of the day kids don't develop sat on their arse or playing against Whitley Bay in the NSC. Somewhat unlikely he'll be the next Rooney but he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up with no other midfield options - if in five years he's not improved, fair enough, but when the alternative is shuffling everyone else out of position and hoying two points down the drain, I'll take my chances tbh. I think you'll agree that Rooney is literally a one in a million case. And believe me, if we actually had a Rooney, we'd know. I agree, he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up. What I don't agree with is the extremists who think he should get a starting place just because Butt and Duff are shit. There's no way he's ready for that and it would just torpedo his confidence.

Based on what? Common sense. It's infinitely more likely that he's not than he is.

I think everyone should take note, the last time we made signings of any substance in January was when we brought in the Boumsong-Faye-Babayaro trifecta in 2005. Even disregarding the instability at the club and our insane manager, I wouldn't be holding my breath for any signings.

If U18 (not even reserve) performances translated to the first team, we'd be winning the league with a frontline of Ranger and Carroll by now. Have him on the bench to cameo when we're 3-0 up or as emergency cover, fine, but in no way is he even remotely ready for first team action, and any suggestion that he should be starting is nothing short of insane really.

I'd rather talk about him than anything else giong on at this club right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God

...I miss the Albert Luque thread.

We're worse. The better team doesn't always win. What is this, nursery school? Well you said it's not beyond the realm of possibility for us to win. It is, because we couldn't even beat Stoke at home. I can't see us winning any time soon. Aye mate, we're FUCKING NAILED ON TO NOT WIN A SINGLE GAME TILL THE END OF THE SEASON. I'm sorry, but idiocy just boils my piss these days.

We're worse. The better team doesn't always win. What is this, nursery school?