Fatwax

I refuse to listen to any article written by Alan 'socks off' Oliver. He can give me all the Keegan quotes in the world, I aint buying it. Could be a smokescreen for Kaka!

He appears to be an attacking midfielder, of the mould that sits behind the strikers, but ahead of the midfield, pulling the strings and creating chances. I've seen a few articles call him a playmaker. Sexy stuff.

About 4m apparently.

Beye doesn't get injured. Ever.

I wouldn't be surprised to see either Taylor, Beye or Given get the captains armband. I think we really need a leader, though. Something that we're lacking.

http://www.qarl.com/qLab/pile/300/SPARTA.jpg Get this man in.

Tbf, he's only had one real job. The other one was a mickey mouse one in which anyone could have succeeded (bringing Juve back up). It's an ambitious move and has come out of nowhere but I don't see much difference between him and Shearer. He'll know more about football in general because of his international and club experience but Shearer will get more time from our fans. I wonder why they've gone for him and not Shearer What I mean is more this type of manager, rather than specifically Deschamps.. although I do like his attacking approach from the Juve matches I watched.

I don't see how anyone could object to an appointment like this, really. All for it.

Depends how much Ashley and Mort rate him ? He would be their choice. Not yours, or mine. What would you then say would be the reason for sacking Sam ? When replacing him with a manager who likes to wheel and deal among the 2m pound johnny average footballers ? You have to accept this, or concede that they genuinely rate Redknapp. The acid test is, how do they back him, rather than the actual choice, because we all have our opinions and they are no different to anybody else in that respect. If they see him as a reasonable manager who will hold our own in the premiership, and don't really back him, and appoint him on that basis, then I'm sorry but you are going to have to accept that their ambitions for the club are also limited, and not so much as the old board. So - do you think Liverpool etc would appoint Harry Redknapp ? After all, we've listened to people spouting off for ages that the fat b****** was taking the club backwards, lowering standards etc and anybody else would be better ? Don't get me wrong, I'm disappointed this has all happened yesterday, but the fact is that now they have to show their hand now, so we will see what they do. As always, I will believe they are better when they prove it, and their ambition for the club. I think asking what Liverpool would do is quite misleading. You're right in that the real test will come in how much they back whoever they appoint, but if you're going to ask whether Liverpool would appoint Harry Redknapp, I could easily ask whether Liverpool would hire Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder or Sam Allardyce? Yes they would.

Didn't know where to put this little piece of ITK mis-information.. this seemed the best place. I work in a casino in Derby and tonight we've had quite a few Geordies in the place, since Stoke is fairly close. I was chatting over a busy roulette table about this story and he told me that apparently the NUFC board have been talking with Alan Shearer about taking over as manager.. and Shearer agreed to the idea. ..I want to add now that I have no idea if this would be mid-season, in theory or at the end etc. He said that his source was the club doctor, a close friend of his. He also said something about a signing taking place, but I could only get bits and bats since I was working at the time. Probably nothing.. but if true.. Hm.

Man Utd have turned down United bid. Breaking news.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you say something about Crouch coming to us this window a while back? Not having a go btw, honestly enquiring.

In regards to signing foreign players, I'm sure I read a later interview where he said that he would always travel to the players and sign the paperwork at that end if possible. This way, if the players were put off by the cold weather when they arrived at Newcastle airport it'd be too late for them to change their minds. Who knows though.. He did sign some fantastic players.

You know, he did look a bit like Hugo, but definitely wasn't him. He looked early to mid 20s and was speaking Italian/Spanish (I'm not the best with languages, but that's what it sounded like. Ahhhh, Spitalian.

I think you're on about Victor Moses.

Fuck a duck!

Enrique not even on the bench..

When all is said and done, the fact of the matter is that the old board and the way in which the club was run was an embarrasment. By no means am I going to take away from the investment in players and stadium expansions and all of that.. but every time I read another one of Shepards comments in the papers, or another scandal - the whore house incident as an example - I just cringed. Since the boards departure, it has been revealed that the club was not too far away from collapsing financially due to the way it had been maintained and was heavily in debt.. I at least feel that our new board adds some professionalism. Even if we aren't storming the premiership, at least I know that the club is being rebuilt. The worst thing of all about the old board though is that they simply did not care about the fans. Argue what you will, but Shepard & Hall saw us as nothing more but cash cows. As far as I see it, I would rather have several seasons of mid-table graft and building with a professional and well run boardroom in place, with the same manager at the helm, rather than the joke that we had before. I don't care what the stats say and I definately will not disagree with the fact that when Dougie and company stepped in it got us into a much better place, but I would rather have what we have now - a developing football club with enormous potential - than the soap opera rubbish that we have had to deal with for so long that made us all out to be jokes.

Best insult ever.

Classic commmentary. "It's an Australian on for a Nigerian.. sums up the Premier League right now."

It was the promotion season of 92-93 - we had just come off an 11 game winning run, finishing with the win at Joker Park the previous week...ironically, it was AT Grimsby, in May the following year, that we clinched promotion with a 2-0 win ; Andy Cole got the first, just after half-time and Ned Kelly clinched it on around 85 mins - one of the best nights supporting NUFC I've ever had ; was lucky enough to get into the Directors' Box at Blundell Park, we were all going berserk when Ned scored. KK had a bucket of water chucked over him by Ned afterwards - always wondered if that was why he let Ned go to Wolves after the season ended(just joking !). What an amazing night that was. I was born and raised in Grimsby, but have always supported NUFC through family ties and my upbringing, although I've always followed Grimsby closely, what with it being my home. I always love it when these two teams play eachother.

Ditto, if Big Sam can get Duff playing how he used to, then we'll look a hell of a lot better in the middle of the park.

The morning headlines will no doubt read "MARTIN WANTS OUT OF TOON" or "EMRE TO HAVE SHOWDOWN TALKS".

4 points in 2 games.. this could be the turning point! This result was needed after a frustrating November, no matter how hard it was to finally get the result.

Totally agree!