Thomson Mouse

The little conversation in the directors box at the end there looked promising.

It's actually good to see them playing with smiles on their faces.

Was thinking that about Smith as well

One of the worst headers I've ever seen.

One on one with the keeper, notice jayson. At the same time atleast he made the run to get the chance. Who else would have ? Its better to miss a chance, create pressure and push their team back than get nothing atall Wayne Fereday, with the same result.

Someone listens to Talk Sport and reads too much Louise Taylor. The only people who spout that s**** are the lazy journos who don't have a clue about the area. Pretty ironic that you mentioned her. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/aug/06/newcastle-united-mike-ashley-joe-kinnear TBF Dave, that;s not too bad an article. Apart for the Ssshteve Mac bit. She's improved a little bit recently, still despise her though. Kezman - are we not allowed to do certain things just because they may, at times, fall into a lazy stereotypical image? Thomson, name me one example of when a club in the Premier League has protested with success, I can name a fair few that have fallen on their arses by doing it. Go on then. Why the PL? Surely the change needed is particular to the circumstances for that particular club? The Magpie Group protests and the Shepherd protests are two that I can name.

Someone listens to Talk Sport and reads too much Louise Taylor. The only people who spout that s**** are the lazy journos who don't have a clue about the area. Pretty ironic that you mentioned her. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/aug/06/newcastle-united-mike-ashley-joe-kinnear TBF Dave, that;s not too bad an article. Apart for the Ssshteve Mac bit. She's improved a little bit recently, still despise her though. Kezman - are we not allowed to do certain things just because they may, at times, fall into a lazy stereotypical image? she's started taking it easy on us because we're no longer a threat. You need to think like a Mackem - we're always a threat, it's in their genes that they are inferior in every way.

Someone listens to Talk Sport and reads too much Louise Taylor. The only people who spout that s**** are the lazy journos who don't have a clue about the area. Pretty ironic that you mentioned her. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/aug/06/newcastle-united-mike-ashley-joe-kinnear TBF Dave, that;s not too bad an article. Apart for the Ssshteve Mac bit. She's improved a little bit recently, still despise her though. Kezman - are we not allowed to do certain things just because they may, at times, fall into a lazy stereotypical image?

Someone listens to Talk Sport and reads too much Louise Taylor. The only people who spout that s**** are the lazy journos who don't have a clue about the area. I think that's his point entirely. He's not saying that's what he thinks himself he's saying that's what other people think and it's for exactly the reasons you've identified. Maybe I have the wrong end of the stick Indi, but I can't see what he was getting at with the protests comment. People look at these protests and see people whinging, but they don't understand them. As Wullie mentioned, others protest more than us, Newcastle fans by their nature have historically struggled to get together en-masse for a protest. The Scouser clearly knowsfuck all outside of stealing hubcaps.

Will be watching it in Perth at 12.30 on one of Dave's not allowed to mention channels on the computer. Will be soon moving into the new house and Foxtel is on it's way. The only matches I'll struggle with are the 8pm KO's. First time in 20 years I haven't renewed my ST, not missing it one bit.

Someone listens to Talk Sport and reads too much Louise Taylor. The only people who spout that shite are the lazy journos who don't have a clue about the area.

This this this. The bit in bold especially. I hate that man.

It will be interesting to see if he drops his court case against us once Ashley has gone. If he doesn't, then it show what his true motive was in coming back.

Yes and being the modest bloke he is, he's called it Geordie Legend - The Saviour of Newcastle United

Nice copy and paste.

"On a page revealing "Michael Owen - Brand Values" they list 21 of his virtues including "Fit and healthy" - which will provoke disbelief on Tyneside. Then there is "Good looking", "Sincere", "Respected" and "Charismatic". My favourite part I wouldn't be surprised if this finished him and he had to get more hands on with wanking his horses off.

Article with direct quotes from the brochure. "Once upon a time Michael Owen was coveted by every club in the world. His breathtaking pace and lethal goal-scoring instinct established the young striker as a 24-carat superstar. His clean-cut image and impeccable sporting pedigree ensured only David Beckham could claim to be a bigger star in the England set-up. How times have changed. This month his management company, Wasserman Media Group, have sent a 34-page document to selected clubs telling them why they should give Owen a chance. The man who honed his footballing skills at Liverpool is virtually saying: "Gizza job," just like Yosser Hughes did all those years ago in Boys From The Blackstuff. Like Yosser, the Scouse anti-hero of the Eighties, Owen needs a break. Unlike Yosser, he isn't broke. Owen, 29, is out of contract on June 30 and available as a free agent. Sunday Mirror Sport has a copy of the WMG document. It's an astonishing read full of hype and marketing speak. It claims: "Were it not for an unhappy spell at Real Madrid and two injury-scarred years at Newcastle, he would be spoken about in the same breath as Torres and Ronaldo and valued in the priceless figures that only match-winning goalscorers ever justify. "Through circumstances he finds himself, with his contract expiring, about to make the biggest decision of his football career." Owen's advisers admit their client wants to stay in English football, which makes the logic behind translating their sales pitch into Italian and Spanish in the document hard to comprehend. But they love their buzz words. On a page revealing "Michael Owen - Brand Values" they list 21 of his virtues including "Fit and healthy" - which will provoke disbelief on Tyneside. Then there is "Good looking", "Sincere", "Respected" and "Charismatic". The fact that four pages are spent defending his injury record suggests they know why some clubs may be reluctant to step into the breach now. Advertisement - article continues below » There is even a section titled: "Tabloid stories and the Truth!" That deals with suggestions that Owen is always injured, has lost his desire and made a mistake in joining Newcastle. Owen has earned a fortune from football. His £17million capture from Real Madrid in 2005 was hailed in Newcastle as a footballing coup. About 20,000 fans turned out to welcome him joyously to St James' Park. Unfortunately, he is now acknowledged as the most expensive transfer flop in the club's history. Owen's four years on Tyneside have cost Newcastle an astounding £37m in wages and transfer payments. Even Freddy Shepherd, the man who signed him, admitted: "At the time it was seen as a major coup for Newcastle to land England's top scorer. "We took a gamble to give Newcastle fans a player most people thought was a worldclass signing. "But it quickly went sour for us, although to be fair he had bad luck with injuries. "In retrospect it turned out to be a disaster for us although we couldn't have known that at the time." Sam Rush, Chief Operating Officer of WMG, told Sunday Mirror Sport: "As one of the world's leading sports agencies, Wasserman regularly utilise comprehensive documentation and audiovisual material to illustrate the benefits of our clients. "Although there has been interest from abroad, Michael has told us that he would prefer to stay in the Premier League. "In the week after the season ended, we prepared a document showing all the information an interested club would require and this was circulated to a select group. "We also included a medical report and answers to frequentlyasked questions as well as a review of his commercial benefits and international name awareness." A Premier League chairman, who received the Owen sales pitch, said: "I've never seen anything like it. "I didn't need 34 pages to know who Michael is, what he's done and why we should sign him. "I think we all know the pros and cons surrounding Owen." http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/06/14/gimme-a-job-115875-21439030/

Why on earth would they do this? You could hardly picture Wenger opening his post and rushing to the Chairman to buy this exciting centre forward he hadn't known of before. It also smacks of desperation, desperately trying to sell his commercial value over his playing talent

Fair enough, it's not like anything reported lately has been 100% accurate. It was in a few different places that Shearer and Shepherd had met to discuss the plans though - I doubt that would happen if Shearer wasn't interested. Wonder if he's met with any other interested party? That's a reasonable point Dave, but you'd need to know who approached who. If it was Shepherd's lot approaching Shearer, then Shearer isn't in the position to approach 'interested consortiums', is he? James - what has Shepherd done ever to make you trust him?

No. And I would hardly call Neil Farrington an "old FFS cronies" Direct quotes from Shearer would be interesting, or this means nothing at all.

YES! Someone with a memory. But no brain. NUFC’s financial position wasn’t great when Ashley ousted Shepherd, but we weren’t nailed on certainties for relegation. Shepherd would never have appointed JFK, and he’d never of chosen Wise over Keegan. Not that he’d have appointed him DoF in the first place. One more point last season and we’d have stayed up, a season of stability would have been enough to avoid the drop. It took Ashley’s idiocy to bring us to where we are now. Blaming Shepherd is plain stupid. This debate is irrelevant unless Ashley significantly lowers his asking price, which he’s almost certainly not going to do. Utter rubbish. While JFK might be the bottom of the barrel, Souness and Allardyce weren't that far behind him when you look at this club. Shepherd DID contribute to this mess, although he was obviously not to blame for it all. I'm not aguing over who was worst, that is plain to see. What I'm saying is that Shepherd was not and will be no good for this club.

In what way is it an awful argument? Those keen to have him back will all be moaning about him as soon as the old tricks start again. If you think we'd not all be in here having the same whinges and moans about Shepherd after 6 months of his second tenure then you're hugely optimistic. He's not intelligent enough to have reflected on his tenure and learnt anything imo. A leopard can't change it's spots. The argument stands, just because Ashley is s****, we should not forget the sense of relief most fans had when he'd stitched the fat b****** up whilst he was on his back in hospital. Well done for completely changing the subject. My point is that no one has forgotten what he was like. And saying that we have reaks of pompous, self satisfied assumption. Then I can't understand why you would want him. Do you honestly think he has changed or has the ability to change. You need to think about what motivates people like that. One clue: it's not making other people happy.

Did I get it wrong?

I see the literacy standards in Sunderland are going backwards. Bit like the place really.

I'm interested, would you take Shepherd over any of the others mentioned?