The Prophet

It's a small squad full of quality but injury prone players with distinctly average players to plug the gap.

Chill out Kaka you can't win. We sign a player from a bigger team: "He's past it" We sign a player from mid-table team: "He's a side ways step" We sign a player from a smaller team: "He isn't good enough" Some people will never be happy, let them get on with it. For the record I think it would be sensible to take him on loan for the rest of the season with a view to a permanent deal.

Cue "She has (a) big/small nose/eyes/chin/ears/smile/other irrelavent feature" post. Looks like a right dirty bitch in that picture aswell.

*gulp* On a completely unrelated note it's interesting that the top sides have progressed so far that in this day and age our two highest points totals in the last decade, which left us 1st and 4th respectively would now mean we would be positioned 5th and 6th.

We know there are three camps on the Kevin Keegan front. Those who will always stick up for him, those who backed Ashley over him and those who are sick to death of hearing about it in every other thread. So why not create thread one thread where we can either slag him off or defend him until the cows come home. Think of it as an NE5 v The World type thread. Enjoy.

I've heard they have big dicks as well...

Coming to a store near you: http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9166/pcnufckitut8.jpg

We need some talkers on the pitch, should get some of the birds that live next door on the pitch they never shut the fuck up.

The PC brigade will be all over this one.

I think people have lost sight of what is being discussed here. We're not comparing boards, we're not asking if Ashley has done a good job, we're discussing has he shown ambition. The rest of the topics have been discussed to death.

Excellent post. One thing though, I haven't read the full thread but what I have read I don't think too many have said they would want Shepherd back. I think what most are trying to say is they hoped Ashley would be and still can be ambitious by backing his managers like Shepherd usually did.

I give up, my French treble fucked up as well. Toulouse won 3-0, Nice won 2-0 but St. Etienne drew 1-1 conceding three minutes from time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/predictor/default.stm A better indicator if you have the time.

But it had nothing to do with the amount of players Keegan wanted it would appear it was the actual players brought in that Keegan was narked about

The problem with Owen is his lack of self sufficiency. He's at that stage in his career where he needs service to thrive as a footballer, service that is becoming less and less frequent the poorer we play. At this moment in time we need self sufficient strikers, ones that will make things happen. Yes I know he's fantastic at what he does but when he isn't getting the chance to do it makes him little more than a passenger.

People are still basing their posts on speculation, all we know is what can be seen through statements to the media and players that are transferred in and out of the club, the rest is just reading between the lines, an educated guess if you like. What we do is know is Freddy Shepherd would always and would sometimes recklessly back his managers. I was never a fan of the bloke but money was more than frequently spent, he was ambitious. When Ashley came in I welcomed him with open arms, a man who can take us to the very top, oh how wrong I was. What Chelsea and Man City are now attempting to do is destroying the game, an un-level playing field is developing. But no matter how much I dislike what they are doing if you dream and have ambitions of reaching the very top, and you want to do it quickly you have got to spend money in vast amounts. Now I applaud Ashley's sentiments. To run an academy Arsenal-esque with a seemingly limitless conveyer belt of talent coming through the ranks but there are two observations to make about this: 1) Arsenal already had a title winning team when they began their youth development programme 2) They're struggling in the current climate. So yes we'd all love to be run by Arsenal but they're going to have to spend money themselves, they're in serious danger of falling behind. So you look at Ashley's motives for wanting to run the club like this. I don't know if it was Mike who made the comment but I read somewhere that he wants to be able to buy players dirt cheap and flog them for a huge sell on value, in other words he wants a profit. Being a businessman this is understandable but that's the problem, he's a businessman, personally I feel his mistakes have come through not understanding the game properly. But Ashley's been in the game for a season and a half now, he must know the climate, any old divvy can see the only way to the top is spending money, then once your at the top you start to reel in the profits, it's give and take. Ashley is still in a position where he can salvage the club. He's shown glimpses of showing ambition with the signing of Colo and the attempted signing of Modric but we need more. I'd love to do things the Arsenal way but right now we can't think about our long term future when our short term future is in such perilous danger. If Ashley really wants to show us he has ambition at this very moment there's only one way to do it, get the bloody cheque book out.

That's an intresting knee-jerk reaction right there. While I agree with some of your post your forgetting one key factor. Form, it can change, even with the slightest bit of luck. Yes in current form it isn't looking good but it only takes one large slice of luck to turn the whole issue on it's head. We just need to hope it changes sooner rather than later.

I think if we looked hard enough we'd find a keeper good enough to replace shay, I think it would be the symbolism of him leaving that would do the damage.

Let's put this in perspective. He's 16.

And we are supposed to be basing our whole future on youth At the end of the day sticking a youngster in here and there isn't going to do us any harm. To me our current form is due to a lack of confidence after getting battered by Liverpool. We need some luck to turn it around even if the ball deflects of somebody’s knob end and into the back of the net to give us an undeserved win, we need some slice of luck to turn our form around. Anyway I'm getting side tracked as per. Basically a lot of the players out there have thrown in the towel. You can have all the quality in the world but if you don't try why bother? One thing you know about any youth coming into the side is they will try. They'll be hungry and what they'll lack in quality they'll certainly give in effort. The question is what do you want in the team during the current injury crisis? A couple of senior players who have quality but don't apply it. Or a couple of raw talents who are no where near the finished article but will still give it there all?

Gutted. They don't need him. Still you might as well go in for ireland now. They won't sell Ireland, he's been their best player this season. Better off going for Gelson or Johnson, both very good players from what I've seen. Gelson is rubbish im and Johnson is injured, Besides i doubt city would want to sell. Not to bothered with us missing out on Palacios but we need Appiah. Aye you need an injury prone midfielder to go with your injury prone back line.

It's not really a predictor though is it? Will our form change? What about the form of those around us? Will we get injuries? Will they get injuries? What about incoming players? What about outgoing players? Will lady luck have a say? What about the bubbly pitch? What about the swirling wind? Will Kinnear get a happy ending or will he have to polish his own wood? You get the picture...

It's got something to do with that idea Partridge had for a TV show. 'Bad Attitudes.' I suppose. I know he fell out with the management but there again I think Rijkaard had lost most the dressing room anyway, Eto'o was just more public with his feelings.

Eto'o is top class, defiantly one of a rare breed of world class players knocking around at the moment. Don't know why Barca wanted to sell in the summer to be honest.

Am i reading this right? You want to risk the future of the club just to force out the man who could change it all, even though he;s given us the best first team in 5 years? Yet we're in our worst position as a club since gaining promotion in 1993. So its isnt the best first team we've had in 5 years? Is that what you're saying? No because it's not better than the team we had in 2004. Id say it was mighty close, closer than it has been for 4 years at least. Point pretty much stands still. How does your point still stand when it isn't even the best for 5 years? Best in 4 years then? January 05, the window we signed Boumsong and Babayaro. Id still argue that this first team would give the SBR 04 team a run for its money. My opinion anyway. With the right man in charge, definitely. The problem is since the Bobby Robson era the rest of the league has improved and progressed while our continuous conveyer-belt of managers have continued to tare apart the spine of the squad and attempted to build from scratch resulting in little if not no progress.