Heron

Goals to game Michael Owen is 2nd to very few people. However, I agree his best times are past him now. On the flip side, Shearers best days were when he was at Blackburn and when he had just came to us, but he was still magnificent for the remainder of his career because he adapted his game and offered something else to the team. You cannot really compare anyone to Shearer though tbf. Oba > Owen in our current team/squad though...

exactly. And so was Alf Ramsey. Morale of the story is don't believe everything people say or what papers portray them as saying Basic stuff really. Yep. Slagging off your players in public is the quickest way to lose the dressing-room.... usually followed by your job shortly afterwards. Debateable. It all depends on what the manager and everyone involved with the club portrays as acceptable and unacceptable. If you're a manager and your players stop playing for you then you lose your job quite quickly. Agreed. However, if one of your players clearly does something wrong then you cannot defend the undefendable. For example, if Joey Barton started a fight in Liverpool or wherever, if you were his manager and you were questioned about his actions you could only really give one answer. A tactful one like, but you would have to say he was in the wrong. That might be a bad example but I'm sure you get the sort of example I mean.

Martins will create you something out of nothing, Owen needs to be surrounded by good players.... Obviously you would rather have Owen as a striker, but in our current climate I think Martins is more useful on the pitch.

...when I read this (below) I went through a series of thoughts amd emotions in quick succession, they went as follows.... Rally round the Mags: NUSC update Following Wednesday's public meeting, the Newcastle United Supporters Club (NUSC) has confirmed that it intends to organise a rally in the city centre before the next home game, versus Everton on Sunday Feb 22nd. The police-authorised protest will begin from Grey's Monument at 3pm, allowing fans who are going to the game to take part as well as those who are boycotting. Coverage of the meeting has now appeared in a couple of the nationals, online as follows: Times and Mirror. Why of all times do a rally against Ashley when we are about to go into our last 10 or so games of the season? Are people that obsessed with the stuff behind the scenes that they cannot actually focus on the stuff that happens on the pitch? I really foudn it quite hideous and ridiculous. Oh well... Now this thread can be locked before w ehave another board room debate on our hands...I just wanted to get this off my chest.

exactly. And so was Alf Ramsey. Morale of the story is don't believe everything people say or what papers portray them as saying Basic stuff really. Yep. Slagging off your players in public is the quickest way to lose the dressing-room.... usually followed by your job shortly afterwards. Debateable. It all depends on what the manager and everyone involved with the club portrays as acceptable and unacceptable.

I disagree. I don't think the Premiership is too predictable... Based on league positions..yeah maybe, fair enough. But there is always games that the complete underdog beat the top dog and thats what makes it so entertaining. Villa are breaking itno the supposed "big four", Hull have been loitering around the European spots for the first half of the season and big clubs like us and 'Spurs have both been bottom and in and around there for most the season.

Aside from the fact that he lacks the objectivity to see the weaknesses in his own squad and will forever teeter on the "if only..." edge. Maybe he just refuses to let his teams' and players' weaknesses to be exposed to the rest of the footballing world?

I kind of disagree. Not on the points you mentioned but on what you claim we do and don't have. I believe we have pacey defenders (well at least two) in Bassong and Beye. We have intelligent defenders like Coloccini and Bassong, Beye and even Enrique. We don't have a leader I agree and I think we are reasonably OK Goalkeeper wise. Like I say we are missing a leader and I agree with that, but I reckon our biggest flaw is our managers' (and possibly scouts') work in addressing our oppositions strengths and weaknesses. For example, playing a high line like you say against pacey strikers is pretty dangerous as it is more than likely at least 1 will come off. Sitting deep is equally as dangerous if you don't have the players with the legs to pressure in and around their own goal, especially when you're playing a team with players who can strike one from distance and score. So aye, I don't think it's necessarily our back four, but I would say it is our lack of a midfield and our managerial/scouting weaknesses that force us to concede goals.

I must admit at first I thought it had turned into "one of those threads" like. Bassong is mint, end of.

Bassong is the Premier League signing of the season.

Or maybe realism ? Realistically, (and to use something similar to what someone else said) we don't even have our head in the noose at the minute never mind having it tightened and the stool kicked away. We decide our own fate, and we can certaintly do alot as a club to remove ourselves from this position. I must admit, I myself am far from a realist, I'm an optimist as people have probably gathered by now. However, I am also of the opinion that optimism is a massive factor in what makes us human beings achieve. Where the f*** would we be if everyone said "ah no we just cannot make it" or "that's it, it's a certain failure...no point in trying". True Faith never seem to give any of the positives in these articles at the moment, or even if they do they manipulate it to slate something else. What positives. No, we haven't got our heads in the noose, but so far we've gone from Sitting in the living room eating crisps to standing on a stool with noose in hand. Logic dictates that if we've gone this far, we're eventually going the whole way. In the near future if not this season immediately. We seemed to have stability at this club for the first time in a long, long while for a short period before one little thing started going wrong, immediately triggering a chain reaction that's piled up into a clusterfuck of epic proportions, like a single car breaking down on the highway triggering a thirty-car pileup. You really couldn't make it up. Only at NUFC. We've been flung into the abyss, and while we may not be dead and buried yet, we're stuck into a course that inevitably leads to total destruction. It's like the title of the article: "knife slits water," a feeling of total hopelessness, just watching us slowly die. Watching this club right now is like watching someone who's just passed over the event horizon of a black hole. We all know what's coming next. Yes, but to use your example, if someone behidn the car breaking down slows down and puts their hazards on then the car behind does as well you can avoid a 30 car pile up. So to put that theory into perspective - instead of panicking and thinking "shit i'm going to crash and die" why not show a bit of steel and pull yourself out of the potential mess. Why don't we stick our hazards on to help our fellow club members like we would our fellow drivers? Why not lead the way in driving us to safety? We have a club in which the majority seem to want to expect to crash and die, now is the time to steer clear and be the first to show people there is always a chance of survival if you want there to be. By doing our bit in the stands some more, and by being encouraging to the lads on the pitch, at least we are providing a bit leadership...something we seemingly lack. No i'm not saying you need to sing to be a supporter, but you do have to support to be a supporter. Boycotts and protests don't support anything other than the increased likelyness of relegation.

Sholas one of our best penalty takers like.

Or maybe realism ? Realistically, (and to use something similar to what someone else said) we don't even have our head in the noose at the minute never mind having it tightened and the stool kicked away. We decide our own fate, and we can certaintly do alot as a club to remove ourselves from this position. I must admit, I myself am far from a realist, I'm an optimist as people have probably gathered by now. However, I am also of the opinion that optimism is a massive factor in what makes us human beings achieve. Where the fuck would we be if everyone said "ah no we just cannot make it" or "that's it, it's a certain failure...no point in trying". True Faith never seem to give any of the positives in these articles at the moment, or even if they do they manipulate it to slate something else.

Blah blah blah, is my opinion on this. Same old pessimistic shite...

What makes you think the next owner will be any better than the current one? What do you classify as being treat with common decency? Who said you're not a fan if you don't support the team? What do you classify as not standing up for ourselves? How is the club ours? How is relegation going to help us? How is boycotting club merchandise or tickets going to help? Can you please answer all of these?

Good assessment. I could have stood losing Zog and Given if we'd used the cash to bring in quality players but we didn't. I disagree with that evaluation tbh, I think it's an extremely negative look on things baring in mind they haven't had much of a chance to prove themselves yet.

Bump.

Given G Neville Vidic Bassong Evra Ronaldo Gerrard Fletcher Young Robinho Berbatov

Strengthened, we got rid of Charlie N'zogbia who despite being one of our best players, was becoming a disruptive influence by the sounds of things, he generally seems like a twat too. Shay Given was a brilliant servent to the club, he is a brilliant shot stopper, but I don't think we have lost too much quality in this position as to be totally honest I think Harper could potentially be the England keeper if he gets a long enough stint as our number 1 goalkeeper. The two aren't much different really Shay has always been number 1 because of his International career and reputation, but in Ireland there is less competition for that place compared to what there is for Englands number 1. Kevin Nolan, someone who is no stranger to a bit of a relegation fight, he is quite a decent player and is the sought of player who will organise and lead by example, he is probably our best central midfielder now, but we'll see how he does... Lovenkrandz has shown a good bit of energy and I think he could be another to show people the way forward, he appears to be an organizer and I think he might pose a threat to teams. Taylor provides cover at right back and you can also push him into midfield if you have to, with Midfield being in my opinion the worst area of our team I think the cover and increased choice there can only benefit us. If Nolan, Lovenkrandz and Taylor can push out the likes of Duff and Barton then i'll be happy. We have more money now also, however whether or not that gets put back into the club remains to be seen, I doubt it will though.

Bassong = signing of the season.

I'm still in the mind set that I will back Newcastle right the way through this mess, alot of people have seen us in a lot worse times than I have ever seen them, and to be honest everyone my age (19) or younger has only ever seen us be reasonably successful. This IS the worst i've ever seen us and it IS the worst many my age and younger have seen us, but to me it's upto us to live upto this test as supporters. For those older than me I can understand the frustrations and anger amongst you, but to be honest, protesting against the board and manager etc isn't going to help what so ever. We need to stick together and be united in this, and scrap our way to safety again. At the end of the season is the time to decide how you want to support your club. We are in the most fragile place in the Premiership, no stability what so ever and a passionate support who are gradually resigning to defeat. That same resignation to defeat is being shown on the pitch. I'm not quite sure which came first to be honest, but all I know is it's reciprical (spelling?), therefore if we show a bit of fight and encouragement then we might see a bit more on the pitch. On a seperate note, some twat in the concourse yesterday was effing and blinding at people buying beer, etc. and this really pissed me off. No-one whinges and argues with people when the transfer window is shut, if people are THAT bothered then surely they should get argumentative with everyone all the time. Besides if he wanted to buy a ticket for the game isn't that "putting money in Ashleys back pocket" too. On the other hand at least the twat was showing some passion, something we could do with on the pitch. I just think if we want anything to become stable again we have to look at ourselves first instead of pointing the finger when in reality we are no better..

HOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY THE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!

1-0 Nolan 67th minute from 20 yards, bottom left hand corner at The Gallowgate End.

First of all can we get out of the habit of calling them the "big four" they were there fore 3 or 4 years but other clubs have waded in and out recently too, just look at Villa now and it wasn't THAT long ago we were in the top 4 or 5. Anyhoo, aye I am totally disinterested in them at the moment, apart from the big games like Liverpool vs Chelsea this weekend, but even then I wont give a shit aboutt hat because we play S*nderland 1st.