fredbob

so if i dont spend £££££ on nufc, im just a fan? Its not a negative definition, by no means is it a negative definition, all im doing is quantifying the difference im my opinion of a fan and a supporter, i think they're slighlty different but one is no worse than the other. At the end of the day if they truly love the club, then thats all that matters.

Fan - who doesnt actively support the club either in person or financially, but looks out for the team. Supporter - Someon who follows thwe club actively and supports the team in person and financially. Neither of the definintoins are different in there love and passion for the team.

The Carlos Alberto goal in the 1970 World Cup against Italy is my all time favourite goal, bit unoriginal. Also the Roberto Carlos free kick at the Le Tournoi (?), unbelivable goal. Greatest freekick ive ever seen. Could watch that all day. For England, Beckhams goal against Greece was pretty memorable, Owens goal against Argies in 98, and the best games ive seen England play, that i can remeber, was vs Holland 96, and vs Germany 2001. Memorable games.

I cant believe peopleactually sit here and actually say that Bobby went too late, its absolutley baffles me. It defies logic how stupid people actually are, the job was untouchable after a legend in the game got sacked for finihsing 5th. Was there any wonder that we ended up hiring Souness, he would of been the only man to take the job after that. Yet people actully sit here like numpties and say that he should of gone when we finished 3rd. The idiocy in that statement just makes me laugh, then cry. How is any nufc manager gonna suceed with that sort of mentality.

I wonder even more if things turn round by the summer, we spend big and start heading in the right direction next season, whether NE5 will be big enough to say "you lads were right to wait to see how things panned out, rather than dumping a skip-load of turd over the new regime at the first possible opportunity" I won't hold my breath though. Like I said earlier to you, how long have you supported the club [if you think the last decade has been s****] - have you replied BTW ? - I haven't supported this club for over 40 years and wanted them to fail [what a daft idea], I admire your optimism which I have had for all these years myself, but not your grasp of reality of the current situation I was here before Keegan if that answers your question, soo I've seen my share of incompetents in charge at Newcastle. Can't you recognise a sensible viewpoint without needing to check how long someone's supported the club? It doesn't seem so because just like you drag Fat Fred into every thread, you are always questioning everyone's opinion according to their age. Does it not occur to you that a thick t*** could still be a thick t*** even if he'd watched the town for 30 years? It certainly does occur to me. The proof is right here in this thread, anyone who says they supported the club in the 1980's and doesn't see how massively superior the club is in comparison, and the rise of the club during the years it was run by the Halls and Shepherd, has simply got to be not the brightest tool in the box So how long will that argument stand for? 15 years down the line if we were in the exact same situation we are in now and we still had Shephard in charge, would you still make references to revival of the club in the early 90's. Football, like all businesses are progressive, some businesses dont have the means to progress any further, we were in a fantastic position to progress massively, yet because of one reason or another we didnt. It's someones fault we are in that position. At the end of the day who is responsible to the fans? The faceless board or.....?

Fulham did better with Coleman who had nowhere near as much as Lawrie S & I doubt Coleman ever spent as much as Roy Hodgson in a January window. Same thing with Souness backed but signed s****. Good managers who sign well are worth more than a board backing managerial losers with big numbers. After seeing the cloggers Sam A brought in I am glad he didnt get backed. I just hope KK has the cash in the summer & signs first team players that will improve our team & not sign other clubs fringe players with big reputations. I don't disagree, but a boards obligation is to back their managers, then it becomes the managers responsibility. Current situation is that we are in the s*** and sliding due to poor buys in the summer, some in an average price bracket, the rest cheapo's. This tells its own story, especially when Allardyce was talking about lack of support. Why, when he paid the rate for a striker like Anelka for a club like Bolton [including the wages] did he not see fit to go even go to that level at a club like Newcastle .? Whatever the reason, we are in a relegation scrap because of it, and the transfer window has passed without the addition of a single and badly needed player and a boost. Mort said before the deadline if we brought in any players it would be young ones for the future. What sort of bollocks is that when you are looking at a relegation struggle ? With Allardyce in charge yes he did, but when Keegan was appointed, ie there own man, it was clear that money available, do you know how i know that? Because keegan said so himself. It was his choice not to sign and therefore, im afraid to say it partially his responsiblity if we go down.

That is one of his major strengths, as a player he;s not the best ability wise but his mind is so sharp on the pitch that he gets the best out of what he's got, i think he could go on for a long long time if he keeps fit, just like Sherignham has.

I am not sure if he did but what I do know is I struggle to think of good foreign players Charlton had. Apart from Man United & there deal with Antwerp I have yet to see a club really benefit from having a link. Dont Chelsea have a link with Ajax or some other big club in Holland something to do with Arnesen, also, not quite an offical link but Man U have a very close relationship with Sporting Lisbon.

What's it like in Europe? Europe ? Now there's a memory. It's where that man who called you nasty names ran the club you say you support and played there more than any other chairman in the clubs history Fancy that eh mackems.gif d'you think we'd have got back into europe with a fat fred board ? I'm pretty confident we will get back into europe with a board that backs their managers. I don't see what personalities has to do with it. Unless you are one of those who are massively offended by being called nasty names and for some strange reason conclude that such things mean that it makes them s*** chairman who don't back their managers ? As has been said. Haven't things been GREAT since the new board came in who were automatically better on account of not being fat bastards who ate all the pies So, what makes a good chairman in your eyes?

It's not so strange, Shepherd had used up any goodwill a long time ago. If Ashley and Mort make blunder after blunder with their decision-making they'll soon find support dwindling just like the old board. In the meantime you can either buy in and see if they deliver, or you can decide they don't know what they are doing and hark back to the Shepherd glory years. the hilarious thing about this, is you seem to have convinced yourself that the new board have done better already I'm not convinced of anything, but will give the benefit of the doubt until I know better. If you can tell me for definite that we are doomed to failure next season under the new regime and why I'll listen, otherwise your conjecture's no better than mine really. Except, mine isn't "opinion". The highest 3 consecutive league positions in 50 years is a FACT AND NOT OPINION As is also the FACT that only 4 clubs have qualified for europe more than us in the last decade, and also in the last 15 years. Your "opinion" may tell you different if you like but I prefer to go by facts. Cheers Have we been here before? and your "opinion" is that these facts aren't facts, correct ? mackems.gif "Facts" which dont tell the full story, or are a true reflection of the clubs actual position. What a load of bollocks. You can state stats and "facts" till the moon turns to cheese but if you cant use them with the correct perspective then they are in essence, meaningless, its exactly what you are doing, and its actually laughable that you belittle other peoples opinions when they show the same level of wieght that your crappy facts do. "7 European qualifications in 10 years" holds about as much weight as "we were in decline" I can guarantee you one thing fredbob, if the club follows the path of spending little money and relying on young players which you trumpeted on about as being the way to go only a few weeks ago, we will decline at a massive rate while waiting for all these young players to mature into the new Gazza. Ok, well if you appply context and perspective to what i say then you might finally see what i am talking about, it seems you are bereft of both. I never for one second said we shouldnt spend alot of money over the course of the season, i was against sepnding too much money in january. I gave the reason that jan is a bad time to spend money because of the inflated prices and because Allardyce hadnt proved to be a success with any of the signings he'd made, i actually advocated spending moeny where it was essential but not where it wasnt. As it turned out there werent many signing that were made which we needed desperately, however i advocated Keegan getting money because the squad wasnt his own, its always important for a new manager to imprint his own qualities into the team. Ill always say that rebuilding the youth side will be of major benefit to the club long term and i stand by it, however to suggest that i think this is the best and only way to make a success of the club it quite frankly ridiculous, im very aware that money needs to be spent and i have, from the very start said that summer is the best time to spend big. You have me down as someone who has an agenda against Shephard, but i dont, i just say things how i see it, and forgive me for addressing him persoanlly for the deficiencies at the club, im well aware that the board is involved etc etc, but as a chairman it was job to be the boards representative to the public, he takes the flak for the decisions the board makes even if they arent his own, its the way the world works. I am persoanlly of the opinion that the decline of the club occuring at the same time that Shephard was chairman was far more than coindence.

It's not so strange, Shepherd had used up any goodwill a long time ago. If Ashley and Mort make blunder after blunder with their decision-making they'll soon find support dwindling just like the old board. In the meantime you can either buy in and see if they deliver, or you can decide they don't know what they are doing and hark back to the Shepherd glory years. the hilarious thing about this, is you seem to have convinced yourself that the new board have done better already I'm not convinced of anything, but will give the benefit of the doubt until I know better. If you can tell me for definite that we are doomed to failure next season under the new regime and why I'll listen, otherwise your conjecture's no better than mine really. Except, mine isn't "opinion". The highest 3 consecutive league positions in 50 years is a FACT AND NOT OPINION As is also the FACT that only 4 clubs have qualified for europe more than us in the last decade, and also in the last 15 years. Your "opinion" may tell you different if you like but I prefer to go by facts. Cheers Have we been here before? and your "opinion" is that these facts aren't facts, correct ? mackems.gif "Facts" which dont tell the full story, or are a true reflection of the clubs actual position. What a load of bollocks. You can state stats and "facts" till the moon turns to cheese but if you cant use them with the correct perspective then they are in essence, meaningless, its exactly what you are doing, and its actually laughable that you belittle other peoples opinions when they show the same level of wieght that your crappy facts do. "7 European qualifications in 10 years" holds about as much weight as "we were in decline"

id disagreewith that to be honest, its a league with the biggest clubs and a faster pace, spznish football maybe techincallybetter but there are far too many inconsistent teams in there bar the top 2 or 3. id much rather watch the best that the PL offers over th best la liga does.

When we didnt qualify for Euro 2008, alot of peole were looking at the reasons that the team failed and went on about the grass root schemes and the youth, i remember one bloke saying that english youth were lazy and not disciplined. He said there was a definite attitude difference between the foreign lads and the english lads. He said the foreingers were always more determined to suceed and improve there selves where as the english lads were happy to do there training and leave. 16m for Bent sums up things to be honest, i stil cant get over that. i dont believe in this "bad foreigners being a problem" surely ppl arent suggesting that the quality is there but they'd rather go for the cheaper crapper version? I for one would hate to see the quality of the EPL suffer because of the introduction of a home grown player quota.

Arsenal or Spurs i reckon, Zogs saying he misses his family in London, so thats where he'd go. If he went to Arsenal he wouldnt play for a while becuase he's not the finished article yet (mind you neither is Walcott), and that would piss him off immensely. I can see him at spurs though. which is a horrible thought, just watching a few videos of him and he just looks like a quality player. If anything i thnk in this team his contribution is underated. There havent been too many productive players this season. He's such a dangerous player, i dont know of a player who has had him in his pocket, ive seen him have quite games where he doesnt get into the game but havent seen a RB dominate him at all. As for Downing, ridiculously overrated, his delivery is his best asset and even then its not amazing, he cant beat a man either and hasnt got the aility to cut inside so he's pretty predictable as a winger. No thanks.

For me personally, i'm not sure if i'd of been happy if Keegan was appointed under Shepard. Im a lot more happy that he was appointed under Ashley with his millions but id be more happy to have any apppointment under ashley because of his millions. However i think the appointment was a little short sighted and i think there were better appointments out there, again though, arguably, this was the only appointment bar mourihno who could of appeased the fans and bought some time for the club. Which may of been a factor in the clubs decision so...

Its kind of strange, i look at what Mort and Ashley have done and only a couple of things that they have done wrong in my book is the timing of the sacking, which arguably they had no other choice, the other thing they have done wrong, in my opinion anyway, is the appointment of Keegan, dont get me wrong i love having him back, buti dont thing its the best appointment ashley could of made. Id like to say i woldnt of given Shepard any stick if he;d of done the same, but who's to say....

Ya...was against Compostela (Not the best name for a football team...kind of like Nutella but made of....). Long time ago...I think they're non-league now. Great goal tho. YouTube classic. The defenders pulling his shirt might as well have been water skiiing. Football from another planet. There was a goal which always stick in mind for me, not sure if its the game your on a bout but i remember him break picking the ball up from 40 yards out then forcing himself through a sandich of defenders with just pure power and pace, then slap into the back of the net.

but divers often get caught,and i'm not just having a go at the cynical hack. whati mean is cheating....is the dive as bad as the trip on a midfield break ?,they arent tret as such by refs or fans Do divers get caught as much as hackers though? Probably not, there are alot a variable factors as well, as a cynical foul will often occur during a counter attack either in the middle of the field or a bit further up, occasionally you get the professional foul which is dealt with accordingly. You often dont get to see an end product from a set piece resulting from a cynical hack, whereas diving is more concentrated around the opposition box, which is a lot more of a dangerous position, you often see a lot of penalties resulting from dives which cost games, which is inexcusable. There is a deceptive element in diving, but none is the hack.

Whats being debated now? I dont understand where you're coming from NE5, money was available, and Keegan has openely said it was his decision not to bring anyone in? Are you suggesting that Mort andAshley told keegan to tell the media that there was money available when there wasnt? I dont understand your logic with Bentley, that is blackburns very best player, are you saying we should pay the premium on a player like Bentley and the fact that we havent makes us unambitious? Thats a bizarre opinion in my book.

Alot of what occured can be contrived either way, it was either an irrational decision on one hand, with no back up plan, or was something that needed to happen under the circumstances. For me i think the timing of the sacking was about as close to the best they could of done. We have to remember that the club had an extremely busy fixture list which i imagine was being met with intense training my Allardyce. In my opiinion, the board would of been in no position to sack Allardyce with such pressure of imporatant fixture. Games were coming up days after day and to get another manager to assess the squad, assess the target and assess the strategic review of the club and get the team prepared for all these big fixturewould of been impossible. This is why Allardyce stayed to when the fixtures started to die down, maybe he should of gone a week earlier in the transfer period, but to me there was no doubt that he had to go then and not in the summer, what would of been the point of backinga manager you know you dont want? As it stands, Keegan did have a bit of time to look for targets and he made an attempt (that we know of) to get one of only a handful of players that could of improved our squad. To me that shows that there board do have good intent and ambition, within the fist 2 weeks of a new mans appointment they were willing to spend a decent amount very soon.

My issue with the team at the mo is how to fit Zog, Enrique and Duff in the squad. There a lot of issues with the squad at the mo. - Duff has been pretty good since he's been back, doesnt really deserve being dropped -Enrique offers alot defensively which Zog doesnt at LB -Zog offers a hell of a lot more attacking wise at LB, in fact as an attacking option its probably his best position because he gets a lot more space as a LB than he does as a LM. -Zog cant play in CM, he doesnt get the space he needs to be effective, his passing isnt good enough and he loses the ball a little too much and with the DM back up we have at the moment, thats the last thing we need. -Duff and Zog as a partnership down the left have been excellent, in my opinion, Enrique + Zog/Duff dont have the same strengths. The issue really is that we have 3 good players whose best qualities clash with the each other and the interests of the team. The olnly way i can think of accomdating all the players is having Duff and Zog on either wing, swapping throughout the match, with Enrique at LB and Emre in the centre with Faye. Faye is both our best DM and CB, i think though that he is more needed in the DM because its important that we are able to win back possession well and distrubute play well, he'd provide a decent amount of protection for Emre who i think is needed in the centre because he doesnt give the ball away much also his distubution can be excellent. For me, the team should be Harper Beye Taylor Cacapa Enrique Faye Duff/Zog Emre Zog/Duff Martins Owen

People writing Owen off seriously need to have a word with themselves. Can anyone actually name me a striker similiar to Owen who would of thrived is the exact same situations? Maybe Eto'o? Do people genuinely think that he would be effective in the team that Allardyce put out, having come back from such serious injury? After all, in a 3 year period we can only really judge Owen on this seasons offering? In 3 years, Owen has only had a handful of games and has had to come back from career threatening injuries. He may of lost a yard of pace but he hasnt lost a single brain cell, i think it was Hoddle who said Owen isnt a natural finisher but an instictual finisher and that is a gift not many strikers have. So far he has played 4 games for Keegan ( inc.Stoke) where the team has played carpet football and tried to put pressure on teams, and has stuck 2 away. I think its unfair to judge Owen in a team manged by Allardyce because Owen was never going to be succesful under Allardyces tactics. I have absolutely no doubt that if Keegan gets the team playing with confidence and fluidity then Owen will be prolific again and i hope people who have written him off on the back of a handful of games under Allardyce eat there words with a side ordering of humble pie.

Great post, i cant help but think that it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. There have been some ridiculous articles written over the course of the past 2 or 3 weeks which have been desigined to do nothing but antagonzie a region and its people. It has created an us versus them mentality which needs to be address in the best possible way which is to ignore it. Unfortunately i think the threads created do nothing but relay those antagonistic views and also induce this victim mentality which is so vitriol to the club.

Depends where you see our main weakness, if you think its the midfield then Faye should play in the midfield, if you think it is the defecne then Faye should play in the centre of defense. Simple as that really. Persoanlly i think the weakiness lie in midfiled so i wouldnt think twice about putting faye in midfield.

Are you taking the return of Beye and Faye into account when you say that? Beye has been the best of our new players this season and will be an improvement over Carr. But I can't see why people are hailing Faye as some sort of defensive savior. Other than Stoke away, where he look immense (against fizzy pop players), he has been unimpressive at best. In fact, in 9 league games he has started we have conceded 18 goals, an average of 2 a game! I really can't see the return of those two making that much of an impact. Faye has arguably been our best CB this season. I seriously doubt he is to singually blame for 18 goals being conceded. The best of a very bad lot. And while he's obviously not individually to blame for those 18 goals, he clearly didn't make our defence much more watertight before he went away. So he's probably not going to have the impact a lot of people seem to be expecting on his return. I think he'll be alot better in a team which doesnt invite pressure on itself. Also, it shows that for player to play so well, whih he has and still concedegoals shows that the protection of the defense is substandard.