Gallowgate Toon

I agree that Martins hasn't been the best player this season but he's pretty much played half of his campaign injured, and there has to be respect given for the fact that he actually carried on. You say he looked like he didn't care and i would agree with you in that he didn't appear to but does it not seem plausible that perhaps he was under instructions from his manager to not waste energy on pointless harrying considering he was carrying an injury that needs an operation? could it be that Shearer told him to save his energy to make a run or save it for when the opportunity in front of goal actually arose?

This is what I don't get as well. Simple, over the last 3 seasons, the only good times i can remember came through Martins. The best goals, the best matches, the best bits of skill, the best celebrations. In these dark times at the football club Martins, is a breath of fresh air, someone people look forward to seeing. People will debate his ability all year long but you'd have to be blind to see it's not there. Apart from Jonas, Martins is the only player who had the ability this season to get the ball and beat some players with great bits of skill and quick feet. Nobody complained when he was banging them in at christmas tbh and through no fault of his own his momentum has gone this season, until he got injured his scoring record was 1 in 2 with 6 in 12. It's no coincidence that when there was a lot less pressure, he put more chances away. I personally find it staggering that a player who has actually given us some joy and excitement over the past few seasons, albeit not on a consistent basis (which hasn't always been his own fault) can be slated so much. He deserves more then he gets off some people, he isn't a world class player but that doesn't mean he's not a good one. He may not have the best mental strength with his confidence greatly affected, but in case you haven't noticed every single player in our squad has had the same issue all season, yet there's barely another thread in sight on any other player. Oba like Owen was treated to being part of the cream of the crop at Inter, and he obviously wasn't prepared mentally to cope with the relegation pressure on him at times, but then the solution is simple, put him in a team where that pressure wouldn't be there and i bet he'd score double figures every season.

I wouldn't be so sure that we won't get shown a fait bit still tbh. There is a huge TV following for our lot, and although it will go down this year, there will still be mass interest in us imo, we are probably the biggst team to ever go down and a lot of people will be very interested in how well we do. It may just be seen as another twist in our tale.

Is that a joke? God I hope so. We need someone to do what Morgan does for Sheff Utd is how I read it. And he's spot on too. We need a true leader in the back 4 to organise things and deal with the physical stuff we're going to encounter. To pretend we can just keep the same squad and just play our way out of the division is pie in the f***ing sky. We're going to have to fight tooth and nail to compete. Morgan is no leader, he's a thug that should have been thrown out of the league for what he did to Ian Hume. We can still play in this league with class even if we sell our players, you buy cloggers and go up and you'll come straight back down when you ask them to try pass. dont ask them to start passing then - see stoke city we should be building a team that has what it takes to get promoted not a team that we think might do ok in the Premiership. I think whoever we sign will be seen as not good enough as people still are in the mindset that we are a premiership club. A team that would do ok in the Prem would surely be a team that does well in the Championship? We need that base, we need to keep 4/5 of our Prem quality players (not the best players, just ones that would still get into a Prem side a la Beye/Enrique). We should be looking to be in the Championship for only one year, a transitional period where we get our act together. Having no PL quality at all basically means that we'd turn into a yoyo club, that's the area i really don't want to be in and then we'd have to spend copious amounts to replace players if we get promoted, and probably for higher prices. This time NUFC has to be smart with it's money, we should not make it public knowledge on how much we have because i don't want teams ripping us off. We should be planing as much for the season after next, i'm not saying it's a gimmee we'll be promoted but our intentions and plan A must be to get promoted next season and gain stability in the Prem after that.

Class comment from Geremi that, isn't he our most intelligent player?

Even the best journos go a bit stupid when transfer season come about, Caulkin's a great journalist but that right there is bollocks.

Butt will be even worse because you have to do more running in the Championship.

I don't think he's the type that's too arsed about wages, and he's built a very good rep in Spain over the last 5 years. Can see that being an easier sale tbh, probably about £5 million.

We must keep a hold of some players, we need the PL quality base so if we get promoted straight away we won't have to spend gigantic amounts on replacing all the Championship players. I'd do my best to keep Enrique, Beye and Guthrie first and perhaps a couple of others.

No doubt. Also lets say we were to get back up, it's gonna be such a huge task to actually stay up. Not if we do things properly. We have a lot of advantages at our disposal compared to every other team that has gone down. We are a debt free club, owed money from various clubs for players like Milner. We will have a reduced wage bill which has eaten into our club by about £50 million, we will have player sales, which could easily get us £20 million, we have a good base of youngsters and we have appeal, the best Chamionship players would want to come to us imo. All we have to do is be smart with the money tbh. If Alan does take over, i can imagine him persuading a few of our senior players to stay for at least 6 months, see how we're doing, if we're doing crap then they can leave, if not then stay for promotion. It is key for me that some players stay, i'd like Enrique to stay, Beye to stay, Guthrie and Viduka on a lower wage. If this is done well, then getting back into the PL won't be hard, and staying there would not be too much of a challenge either, we wouldn't be firing for Europe or anything but isn't that the point in rebuilding. The club needs a change of culture, too long have we been the homeless man's galacticos.

I'd only keep Duff if his wages were slashed at least half.

Yet we still equalised and had a chance to push on then, but we didn't. Arsenal were on a 16 game unbeaten streak, you really think we would've won still, that they would have just rolled over? considering we were up on Man U at one point yet still lost, i seriously doubt it was anywhere near as critical as a one-on-one against a team that have pretty much been as s*** as us all season. if we had scored that penalty we would of won imo, we we're all over them 1st half Meh what does it matter, we're down anyway and he'll be gone. In reality there are numerous different occasions which cost us tbh, could easily blame Howard Webb for being a tit, Owen or Martins, or Steven Taylor for playing Kamara onside, or Loven missing vs. Everton, or Barton being sent off, or Nicky Butt for giving away about 5 pens, or Ryan Taylor for chesting it down, or Jonas for not scoring vs West Ham etc. There's so many things that could have saved us, and we never took one of them, yeah Oba had a few chances but so did others, nobody stepped up.

Yet we still equalised and had a chance to push on then, but we didn't. Arsenal were on a 16 game unbeaten streak, you really think we would've won still, that they would have just rolled over? considering we were up on Man U at one point yet still lost, i seriously doubt it was anywhere near as critical as a one-on-one against a team that have pretty much been as shit as us all season.

He blew chance after chance even with a poor midfield. The penalty against Arsenal, the volley over from 6-yards versus Portsmouth, the two good chances against Fulham, the volley over yesterday, the header just wide (granted that was tricky). Take just one of those, and chances are we're still a Premiership club right now. They weren't overly difficult chances either. As for the "he can create something out of nothing" crap, what's the point of that if he can't finish a bowl of soup? None of the chances you mention were anywhere near as simple as Owen's vs Pompey. If there's one chance that should be to blame for all of our troubles, that's the one.

Top and bottom of it is, when you think over the last 3 seasons, some of the good times and you think who was pretty much the main reason for them, it is Martins. He was involved in every single one like UEFA cup vs AZ at home, the win against Liverpool, the draw vs Man U, the wins against Tottenham, the end of last season he played a massive part in that, beating Villa, beating Pompey, the goal vs Boro. Whether you think he's a fucking clueless prick or mint, facts are that in this crap season he's the only one that's provided something with some pretty good goals and some flair and passion at times, yeah he bottled it in the latter games but that was down to pressure and low confidence, something that everyone else was suffering with. He probably will go to someone like Genoa, and have a good career, he'll be a huge miss imo.

Got to say I agree at the moment. Yes they messed him around but the way he just quit so easily has tainted my view of him forever. Hes a quitter and hes hid ever since he left us. I'll never welcome him anywhere near this club again. The rest of you can of course, but hes a bottler and a coward in my eyes. I'm so sick of our past, I just want this club to move in the right direction for a change. Both these posts are utter bullshit and show a complete lack of respect for and understanding of what Keegan has done for this club. The man wants 8 million compensation still even after we've been relegated. If he was such a great man, who loves the club, he'd show some fucking compassion for us and just leave it, it's not as if he's flat broke. That is the sign of a right greedy twat.

There are positives to take tbh however depressing it feels now. It is key though that the right decisions are made when we start to rebuild. We need to get rid of the old, slow players and bring in some youth and vibrance. I personally am looking forward to seeing Kazenga Lua Lua get a game over the likes of Damien Duff week in week out, and Danny Guthrie will hopefully start over Nicky Butt etc. I hope we can keep a hold of a couple of players like Enrique and Martins (very unlikely) and i can see perhaps Beye and Viduka both staying, particularly the latter. It has been a shit season, but last time we came up we took the Premier League by storm with KK, and i hope with the right man in charge (Shearer would be no. 1 choice) we can do the same.

Jason Scotland.

Butt was heading for the tunnel from what i could see from the 'tears on tyne' video. Were any of them at all emotional?

He'll go back to Depor, be their captain again and play in the uefa next season.

What makes you think we'll rebuild? We might be consigned to the lower leagues from now. See Charlton, Norwich, Southampton, Leeds etc etc. Those clubs we're broke, had relatively no appeal to anyone and are a totally different breed to us, you could perhaps take Leeds into account but they were bankrupt. Now i might just be in a shit load of shock that i really haven't taken it or i really just think that football is a game and i have more to live for. The reason we've gone down went back to 5 years ago we've pissed about and we've bought some real shite, to see the back of Butt etc makes me smile tbh obviously there'll be some real losses like Martins but for the first time this season i have felt fully optimistic that things will be better. And i don't give 2 hoots about whether we've previously not gone straight back up that was 1989 this is 2009.

Best fucking thing imo i don't give a shit if we're in the championship for one year, because next year may have been even fucking worse because we might have kept half the same team. Honestly getting rid of some of the shit like Butt and Owen and Duff and Harper is what i've wanted for more than a season. All we have to do now is rebuild the right way and we'll be fine.

Same, i actually feel fine, i'm surprisingly optimistic about it all.

I sometimes however think that Martins is quite reluctant to use his pace tbh as like Pompey he loses control, may be why he doesn't use it all that often because it'll make him look shit, especially when he's not in a period of confidence.

Not quite, problem with Martins is that he's always on his heels in those situations, everytime the defenders already been running and in 10 yard sprints that you get in football, being on your heels nullifies the threat no matter how fast you are. Martins is very quick see Fulham, Chelsea, Sheff United, Villa, Pompey, Liverpool (where he scored) and Birmingham but he just doesn't use it well.