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what an absolutely ridiculous post. Why on earth would Taylor see that as a kick in the teeth? He isn't quite stupid enough to believe he's anywhere near Bassong as a player. Yeah, the England u21 captain who has been universally praised throughout the mainstream media isn't going to think he's anywhere near as good as a recently called up cameroon international plucked from obscurity the year before... Whilst everyone on this board might recognise Taylor's flaws / Bassong's better all round game, I doubt Taylor trawls the net for his opinions on his own game. Not saying it's likely to be a reason for him to leave but to think Taylor openly recognises Bassong as this wildly better player is far more ridiculous. 'yes' or 'no' do you think Taylor would be offended to hear that Shearer rated Bassong more? Yes, to hear it come out in the press that the 'one player' shearer would have wanted to keep more than anyone was Bassong would have been seen as a kick in the teeth. I've no doubt this wasn't how it was put by Shearer but it's been twisted and Taylor has always had the club at heart, no matter what anyone says he is a good young player who plays for the team and in this league he stands out as one of our best players (only 3 games in accepted). He'd probably have hoped Shearer wanted to build a team round him, as the young (almost) Geordie, in the same idealistic way the team was built around Shearer for all those years (not comparing the two as players, just the whole local hero thing that i'm sure Taylor desperately still wants to become).

what an absolutely ridiculous post. Why on earth would Taylor see that as a kick in the teeth? He isn't quite stupid enough to believe he's anywhere near Bassong as a player. Yeah, the England u21 captain who has been universally praised throughout the mainstream media isn't going to think he's anywhere near as good as a recently called up cameroon international plucked from obscurity the year before... Whilst everyone on this board might recognise Taylor's flaws / Bassong's better all round game, I doubt Taylor trawls the net for his opinions on his own game. Not saying it's likely to be a reason for him to leave but to think Taylor openly recognises Bassong as this wildly better player is far more ridiculous.

Hmmm... that'd be Liverpool who only have a couple of million to play with and have just had a bid accepted for some shitty old greek guy? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8211133.stm Don't believe the hype. If Everton don't sell Lescott, Citeh will go after Upson, Taylor wouldn't go to West Ham and I don't imagine anyone else could really afford him. Maybe Arsenal but with the start they've had with Vermaeylan would Taylor really want to go there to sit on the bench? I'm hopeful he should stay, if only through default. This could all change if Everton do give in on Lescott, although i'm hoping Moyes is as stubborn and scottish as he says he is.

I said that, covering 16 years, as I went to Fulham home at the end of last season... Not the nicest way to see that particular record broken

Gutted. RIP. Seems he held on for Sunday.

The final line made me laugh a lot. From F365

This is now in the 'ten most read' on BBC news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8095917.stm deary me

Ha, i received that via text about 5 minutes after we got relegated... Still fucking dark here

Agreed re CL places, but i would point to my logic re Bundesliga this year - it's more due to a lack of quality than genuine competitiveness. The English teams all qualify, year in year out, for the knockout stages, no other country can lay claim to this, so i think those in there are there on merit. Agreed, the PL is boring.

Most predictable? I'm sure Man U have just won a third title with the exact same top four in all those seasons. I would argue that doesn't make it 'predictable'. Would you say now, in all certainty you think that Manchester United will win the league next season? I think there are 3 genuine contenders. Just because the same team has won it the last 3 years doesn't make it uncompetitive at the top. Also, the whole top 4 thing miffs me, other leagues have a top 1, 2 or 3 that invariably are streets ahead of the rest, we have a top 4 and that seems to be worse. Surely it's better?! My view is that familiarity breeds contempt, not only do most of us watch a lot more English football, those of us in the UK are subject to an ongoing barage of coverage and hyperbole which makes it very easy to get pissed off with the Premier League. It's certainly not all it's hyped up to be, but i do think pound for pound, it's got the best quality in the world. All a matter of opinion though as whatever stats we throw at it no one is going to change their view and unless one of you can arrange for all the teams placed in the same position in all the leagues around the world to play off against one another, we will never get a conclusive view.

Really? The MLS are all 'qaulity footballing units'?! Now, i'll be honest, all i've ever watched are highlight reels but didn't exactly seem like much of any quality was going on.

I'm sorry, but next year the following will win their respective leagues: England: Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool Spain: Barcelona or Real Madrid Italy: Milan (AC or Inter) or Juve Whilst the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 may be more open, they are just as likely to have runaway leaders due to the lack of quality. See Bayern Munich / Lyon most years regarding runaway and then the Bundesliga this year with regards being so shit no one could get around to winning it. All leagues are predictable to an extent, those that aren't, such as the Championship, are so generally because the quality is so dire no one knows who will luck out. I defy you to show me any league in the footballing world where any team could win any season as they are all quality footballing units.

my fifty quid says ban him. He thinks were deluded, going bust, heads up our own ass, we get it, now fuck off and worry about your bankrupt club from the asshole of the capital that is east ham / dagenham

I don't think it's that much stronger than it has been in the past and it's so unpredictable. If you were doing this at the end of last season Charlton and Norwich would have got a mention, maybe even Southampton with their youth set up and look what happened to them. Boro are as well prepared as us (= not very). Been a while since they've been down and they're squad has arguably even less quality likely to stay on than ours. West Brom - here's hoping Celtic nick Mowbray and they're left in a bit of disarray Sheff Utd - Blackwell has said he is thinking of quitting as they have no cash at all, parachute payments have stopped and they have to cut the wage bill to pieces, moving out a lot of players. Reading are dangerous and I'd say good outside bet for winning the league, Preston, Cardiff, Bristol City, Ipswich and Palace are tidy, nothing more, if they're the best in the league i'd hope we can match them. Swansea, QPR, Leicester and maybe Peterborough, they'll have me a little more worried. Surprise packages seem to be order of the day in the Championship so expect someone unexpected to be in and around the automatic places. But to reiterate, i don't think it stands out as particularly strong this year, or any other recently, i see it more as a massive mire, collectively fucking difficult to get out of.

Hitting the post, off the line, disallowed goal, last minute push round the post. That's off the top of my head having been rather drunk through the game and not watching highlights. I may be totally wrong but other than scoring, some long range attempts and the last 5 minutes i don't remember Fulham threatening.

Hmmm... without trawling back through the comments my musings (from Level 7 without being able to suffer the indignation of watching the highlights): Seemingly good goal disallowed and dubious red card at best. The player was going away from the area, had to be yellow with stern warning in my view, but then again Bassong's luck had to run out at some point this season. Thought Webb was shite, allowed Fulham to time waste throughout the second half and got the major decisions wrong. Got the feeling he wanted to have us as a 'scalp', so he can say he was the referee in the game when Newcastle were effectively relegated. I realise that sounds massively conspiracy theorist but I don't care. We were the better team. Created more chances, even when down to 10 men matched Fulham and they only had a few clear cut chances at the end when we were desperately pushing forward. That said, very very average match. Nolan is like a fucking tanker, unbelievably slow, I can only defend Jonas so much, he just doesn't possess the killer cross / confidence to shoot that we need. In our team he doesn't work, which is not to say he's not good enough, just not right for us at this time, sadly. Guthrie looked more likely than most in my view and i was a bit gutted he got taken off. Duff was fucking dreadful, does he do nothing other than cut inside? Atmosphere was a little on the disappointing side but understandable. Only real irritation was the tourists the row in front laughing and giggling as the end approached and then following the final whistle. I understand that they're a necessary evil for our revenue stream but fuck me it's not what you need at that point in time. All in all a very expensive, frustrating and disappointing day. Still had a fucking great weekend though, always feels like home as i pull into Central Station, people are quality and the city... as always amazing. I Love London but this weekend made me remember just why i always want to settle in Newcastle. As for Manchester and Liverpool, give me Newcastle and the Championship ahead of the North West abyss and a few bits of silverware any day. I was reading a book on my way up that discussed a marathon runner's mantra - pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. Going to try and apply that as best I can. It will hurt like hell if we go down but i'll be buying a season ticket and dragging my sorry ass up there every other weekend if we're in the Championship.

sat in central bean opposite sjp having spent an hour strolling around there. 50 tickets left according to box office girl, all in the bars and over £50, some rather bemused punters but tough luck for waiting til this morning I guess! Bag of nerves.

If he does it will be a header from a free kick

I suppose the logic is Owen has a point to prove and whilst his reasoning might not be to our benefit (ie securing a move away, proving us wrong, etc), the fact that it could fire him up and make him want to play well will do.

Fuck, that's good news.

Good work. I've just booked tickets and hotel also (which hotel you go for?) and am desperately trying to find a cheap solution to travel from London. I cannot be fucked with bus, I don't want to drive and train journey is fucking extortionate. I also hate flying... Looks like it's going to be extortionate train journey! I went with the Thistle Hotel. Anybody had any experience with it? I looked at the train it's fucking well expensive so I've opted to drive, not going to be fun. I flew from Stanstead before but I've driven from my house to Cornwall quite a few times in the past which is only about 20/30 miles shorter a journey, so I'm gonna firm it. I've relocated to the Thistle as couldn't get two nights on the trot at Premier Inn on the quayside. The anomoly of the booking was that it cost me £110 for both nights (fri and sat) as opposed to £115 just for the Saturday night at the same place in the same room. If you see a tall, overweight lad with 'jockey - 21' on the back of his toon shirt, feel free to say hello / throw something at me.

You do realise we had only won 1 game between then and the boro game? vs WBA in Feb. We're shit. We've won fuck all games. Looking at our record this year, I'm shocked we ever managed to get 2 wins on the trot. I think the point was we didn't then... If memory serves me correct we didn't beat Wigan away?

What happened to the dodgy metal club... the Mayfair was it?

Not that loaded sorry Kasper Out of the two I brought where should I sit>? I might nab one of these off of you if you still have? Will be calling the box office shortly, my tickets hadn't arrived this morning and i couldn't wait for post as had to be at work, i need to head straight up from work tonight so cannot get home, so i'm hoping they'll cancel the post out and let me collect at box office, but in light of previous traumas with the nufc box office i'm not holding my breath.

I was brought up in the West Country, very rugby orientated place, i can't stand Union, all this "we're all real manly men, look at us grabbing each others talliwackers in the shower, but we aren't gay, we're super-rugged and just having fun" League on the other hand i enjoy. High paced and fun.