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They're not in particularly good form either so I guess we have a chance. ...Or not

Little bit far fetched IMO. He was a deer in headlights most of the time tbh. Like Ashley he was learning on the job, looked like an unassuming average joe but more importantly, unlike Ashley he knew how to address the fans, whilst it he didnt address us quite as regularly as everyone likes to praise him for when he did it was well crafted and thought out. Something you should really expect from one of the highest respected Lawyers in London. I like the guy for the above reasons but best chairman ever is a bit of a push, he took everything day to day and was at fault for not getting the signings Allardyce wanted due to his inexperience initially. His return comes as a happy sight and memory of when everything was looking great for the club, fitting he should be back to finalise the sale of the club. Should have some random Mort chants at the Everton match though! As far as dealing with the press, communicating to fans, and making business decisions for the club, who have we had that's better? Completely ignoring issues considering transfers since that wasn't his job.

Ashley has his faults, but Mort is honestly the best chariman we've ever had. Knew EXACTLY what the fans want.

Let's not get carried away. He's better than Giggs, Nani, Cole, Riera, Lennon, Bentley, Park, Pedersen, Valencia, Walcott, Petrov, Malouda, Downing and any other winger that springs to mind, even Dirk Kuyt... Second best winger in the league I reckon, just edging out Arteta. I pray to God Rafa never notices this (and if he does that Young isn't a little greedy t***.) I think Joe Cole's actually a LOT better than he gets credit for. (I know he's an easy target, but the amount of stick he gets is absurd.) Put him in a side like Everton, Villa, or Portsmouth and I think he'd comfortably be as impressive as Young.

I've resigned myself to the fact that some of the posters here are just going to act retarded, and no amount of well-reasoned pleas will change them. I'll just accept that and try to enjoy the intelligent discourse I can have with the vast majority of posters on the board.

Has been praised on this board as recently as the first couple of games this season.

I normally rate him but Jesus he is so out of form lately. Understandable since losing KK probably hit him pretty hard. Why in God's name did we sell Faye

Let's not get carried away. I'm not. I know his name's not foreign enough but I bet he's involved in about 75% of Villa's goals. Wonderful player, totally consistent with an attitude to match. He's great. Would probably rather have Ronaldo though

I refuse to judge any of these players before they've had a couple games under a proper manager.

will be a key part of our promotion from the Championship next season

spot on mate! tayls need a rest. but he is still only 22 and is not a finished product. I reckon he will be a class act with Colo under a new regime. Hes had a couple of bad games this season, but still... U-21 captain for England.. Run and hide. Praising Taylor here is apparently punishable by death.

Yep, and 18 months of Owen's injuries were beyond his control (the metatarsal injury, and then the knee injury in Germany), yet he still got a lot of unfair stick. Oba always gets a lot of small niggly two-week three-week injuries every season though. I guess that sort of thing happens when you run as fast has he does.

His poor performances up front prior to switching roles are pretty quickly being forgotten. He's a class act playing from deep, and for that I hope he recognises and appreciates that Kevin Keegan has almost certainly given him a new lease of life. What poor performances? He's always looked a class act in a black and white shirt. Sure he may have not been involved much in some games whilst playing high up front but this was the fault of his team mates being unable to produce for him rather than him simply having bad games. I am yet to see him have a game where his touch and distribution are not spot on. There was a (surprisingly long) period last season where he was playing in a front two with Smith and both were completely, utterly useless. And he still got a few goals in that time despite playing in a sh*t team, and sh*t strike partner. Scored 4 in 17 pre-Keegan. Yeah, that's four more than Smith scored, but still pretty shit.

His poor performances up front prior to switching roles are pretty quickly being forgotten. He's a class act playing from deep, and for that I hope he recognises and appreciates that Kevin Keegan has almost certainly given him a new lease of life. What poor performances? He's always looked a class act in a black and white shirt. Sure he may have not been involved much in some games whilst playing high up front but this was the fault of his team mates being unable to produce for him rather than him simply having bad games. I am yet to see him have a game where his touch and distribution are not spot on. There was a (surprisingly long) period last season where he was playing in a front two with Smith and both were completely, utterly useless.

I've stopped watching since Hull. I miss that feeling where we've just had an massive win and you just can't wait for MoTD to come on so you can relive it. Wonder how long it'll be before I feel that again.

Ah man I wish you hadn't just said that Milner would come in more than a little bit handy now as he'd have to be a better option than Duff or Geremi on the RW. Never understood his critics. He was clearly one of our best players. Fantastic young player. O'neil is no mug and paid £12m and Benitez wanted him too. Spot on, his critics didn't like him because he didn't run 150mph like a headless chicken. Twelve million quid is great but not when its sitting in some c***s bank account and not back on the pitch in the form of re-investment. Now now, it's unfortunate that injuries have made us feel his loss, but let's ease up on the revisionist history here. He was a half-decent player, but there is no way in hell he was ever worth 12m. By all rights we should have been laughing all the way to the bank. "Fantastic young player?" Please.

Jesus Christ, with the Hull City result I think I'd now pay money for 17th. Scared shitless.

Holy fuck Hull City. Stoke and West Brom are pretty decent too, really feels like all the pieces are falling into place for us to go down.

I'm already getting to that point where I'm interested in stoke/hull/brom's results almost as much a ours. And it's fucking September

credit to him for that. Even a mediocre manager is far better than none at all

I'd rather have Shearer to Keegan. Like HTT mentioned, there's just something about Shearer that makes me think that he'll do it right. He's got the mentality, got the character, and the intelligence as well so I figure the tactical prowess will come with time. If Southgate, Keane, and Ince can all do a decent job, why can't Shearer? As for Keegan, he's a brilliant manager but as has already been well publicized on this board, I don't think I'd ever be able to trust him not to leave us when the stress becomes too much. By the way, if your one of the people who think Shearer needs to cut his teeth in the Championship before coming to Newcastle... The two might not be mutually exclusive starting next season.

You're right. They shouldn't. It's all obscene, the millionaires, billionaires in this game. Just sticks out like a sore thumb when it's people from a country that has it's begging bowl out. For the record, I've always thought the money these Russian oligarchs have is basically stolen money. Nigeria's also in pretty decent shape compared to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa by the way. Africa, Dubai, Russia, or even Britain, it's all the same anywhere in the world. You'll have people who are swimming in money despite the fact that there are people in their country who are starving to death. It'd be nice if every rich man could be like Bill Gates, but that's not a realistic standard to hold people to.

If he gets us 10 points during his tenure here he'll be a hero for me.

You could donate the money you spend on going to matches to UNICEF. It would probably save a dozen starving children annually. Why don't you? I already contribute to good causes in my home country. It's called NI and Income tax. They probably pay taxes too. Everyone uses money for selfish purposes. You can't fault people more for that just because they're rich. Love how you originally had a less confrontational response and deleted it becuase you felt that you had to be more hardass by the way.