Christmas Tree

Various guest on, dont know who the presenter is. At least its decent newcastle football chat and will be podcast later via itunes (i think).

sounds quite good. at least they are clued up not like the legends.

Should have said the text above was copied from .com

PS: NUSC Interim Chairman Neil Mitchell is on the guest list for a new online Newcastle fans talkshow that goes on air tonight (Tuesday) online here. Broadcasting until 8pm, fans can take part by phoning in on 0191 538 9781 or emailing in. http://www.loober.com/toon.htm

t has been a summer of upheaval and realignment, broken records, departures and destabilisation. The transfer window (and why is it a window, by the way? Why isn’t it a transfer door or a transfer gate? A window implies that a transfer has forgotten its keys and needs to borrow its neighbour’s ladder), closes at 5pm this evening, and this is the place to be for a stupidly premature evaluation which will almost certainly be overtaken by events. In North East terms, the last three months have been, by turns, exciting and traumatic. Sunderland have been expansive participants, spending in excess of £10m on Darren Bent and shoring up their defence with the arrival of Michael Turner from Hull City. Newcastle United have held a fire sale, while Middlesbrough’s policy has been one of judicious selling mingled with protectionism. BEST SIGNING Given the circumstances (at the time of writing, Newcastle have not actually bought anybody), this must be an award with red-and-white ribbons. Bent’s purchase from Tottenham Hotspur was drawn out and divisive, but provided Sunderland with ammunition in attack and simultaneously made a statement about the club’s ambitions under Ellis Short, their new owner. Yet if a single signing could serve as a summary of the qualities Steve Bruce intends to instill in his side, then it is Lee Cattermole. Like his manager, the midfield player had to leave his native region in order to return, but Cattermole personifies the no-nonsense, hard-working, committed and uncompromising attitude that Bruce’s Sunderland will, in time, represent. Tackle, crunch, crowd on their feet, pass, run. TEARFUL FAREWELL AWARD If Alan Shearer had been appointed Newcastle’s manager, would Habib Beye and Sebastien Bassong have left St James’ Park? Beye, in particular, had thrown himself into life on Tyneside and was appalled by the stasis which followed relegation, while Bassong - who transpired to be a superb piece of business by wait for it, wait for it ... Kevin Keegan - improved exponentially during his single season at the club. Stewart Downing left his hometown club for Aston Villa, a move which became inevitable once Middlesbrough went down, but still felt acutely painful. But in terms of whimsy, the £2.75m transfer of Danny Collins to Stoke City pips the others. Collins may have been a link with Sunderland’s relegation teams, but in terms of humanity, his eagerness to improve, his loss will be felt. Collins cost £140,000. His association with poor results and a penchant for collecting opposition shirts saw him struggle for acceptance, but he grafted, rejected Roy Keane’s attempts to sell him and was named Sunderland’s Player of the Year for the last two seasons. Best chant: ‘For Brazil he could play, Danny Collins’. He once had a proper job, making doors and stairs; my dreams of a ‘Stairway to Hebburn’ pun are now over. CHEERFUL FAREWELL AWARD All we wanted was a bit of love; scratch our ears, tickle our tummies. Having paid a club record £16.5m to buy Michael Owen from Real Madrid, having turned up in their thousands to welcome him to St James’, Newcastle supporters craved recognition. His was a ridiculous signing, made at the expense of team-building and Owen was always a reluctant Geordie hero, but the ice in his veins never melted. We in the media exacerbated the distance; he was always ‘England’s Michael Owen’, not Newcastle’s, we explained away his coolness as a refreshing refusal to playing the badge-kissing game when, in reality, it was probably just coolness. Last season, he barely spoke, presuming that his contract situation was of unlimited interest when, as captain, responsibility should have been grasped. He has gone; he was never really here. GRACE UNDER PRESSURE AWARD Newcastle’s regeneration is quite a story, played out to a backdrop of takeover sagas, half-truths, deception, the departure of a full side of first-team players and the lack of a permanent manager. In guiding the club to the top of the Coca Cola Championship and no matter what happens next, Chris Hughton is the undisputed hero of the transfer window/door/gate. ANOTHER AWARD YOU THOUGHT WOULD NEVER BE AWARDED AWARD Acclaim for Shola Ameobi. Alan Smith - man of the match. Half-decent Joey Barton. Kevin Nolan resembling a footballer. The dynamics of what has transpired at Newcastle is compelling, as players who would have been discarded by Shearer, whether the club had stayed up or not, have come together and forged an unlikely bond. If they had signed a few players, it might not have happened. CAUSE FOR WISTFULNESS AWARD A year ago today, Francisco Jimenez Tejada, AKA Xisco, arrived at Newcastle for a fee of £5.7m and wages in excess of £50,000-a-week. Keegan knew nothing about it and so began the extraordinary sequence of events which led to the club’s implosion. Twelve months later, Xisco joins Racing Santander on-loan. It may not be his fault, but there cannot have been a more disastrous transfer in North East football. A RIVAL FOR THE MOST DISASTROUS SIGNING IN NORTH EAST FOOTBALL Actually, come to think of it, Middlesbrough’s signing of Afonso Alves for £12.7m must come close. Other deals (usually at Newcastle; Jean-Alain Boumsong, Albert Luque, Marcelino), have featured huge expense for minimal reward, but the money spent on the Brazilian, when resources were limited on Teesside, arguably pushed the club towards their present predicament. If they can get £7m for him from Al Sadd ... hand bitey time. AND NOW BREATHE AWARD If, as expected, Middlesbrough retain the services of David Wheater and Adam Johnson and Newcastle continue to deflect suitors for Steven Taylor, both clubs will have retained players who hold their respective clubs in their hearts. All three are too accomplished to remain in the Coca Cola Championship and are destined to play fundamental roles over the next nine months. WHY DOES IT ALWAYS COME TO THIS AWARD Every year, every window, there is trepidation. Why are the final hours filled with tension? At the time of writing, Middlesbrough are attempting to get Alves off their books to fund a deal for Rob Hulse, the Derby County striker. The out of contract Danny Webber is another target. Further departures from Sunderland appear likely, with Carlos Edwards and Grant Leadbitter set to join Ipswich Town and Teemu Tainio interesting Birmingham City. Activity at Newcastle will be monitored closely. Loans and free transfers can be pushed through after today, but if Hughton is provided with a little money to spend, as has been mooted, it will be the clearest intimation yet that Mike Ashley is destined to remain in situ for the rest of this season. Everton’s James Vaughan, Gareth Bale, Matthew Kilgannon, Craig Cathcart and Peter Lovenkrands are all on the radar. BEST TWEET Darren Bent, in his own words: “Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go stoke NO do I wanna go sunderland YES so stop f****** around, Levy. Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest." BEST THING ABOUT IT It’s over. Nearly.

Announced that tie will be played Tuesday 22nd September at 7.45pm

Absolutely excellent post brummiemag, sums up exactly how I feel.

The thing is, you list teams that "we can compete with" forgetting that we couldnt compete with them last year with a far superior squad. I just understand where anyone has any optimism (and im fucking optimistic) that we could survive in the prem under ashley. If someone can explain.....

Is there? I think you just made that up tbh. The odd moron might argue that (I must have missed it), but you're suggesting that's a theme running on here? Bollocks. It was a straightforward engineered question It got to the crux of the argument, don't you think? You didn't answer it of course. Did this not answer the question?

Is there? I think you just made that up tbh. The odd moron might argue that (I must have missed it), but you're suggesting that's a theme running on here? Bollocks. It was a straightforward engineered question

Based on the very limited squad let's just say you're only allowed to prioritise either the league or the cup(s), this season which should take priority? The league is and always will be the bread and butter. Not only do I hope we will be promoted, I think we will be promoted. But there is a theme running amongst some on here that promotion will lead to us challenging for europe and re-building under ashley. That wont happen. we know he will try to keep us there on the cheap with the cheapest players and cheapest management. This being a fact Do I want to have a season like sunderland where we get 5 or 6 points all season. No. To me at this moment, promotion is immaterial with ashley in charge. Sure i'll take it. The whole start of this thread was about people not seeing the wood for the trees. The here and now is what matters to me as a fan and so far it is much more fun going to the match than it has been for many a year. If we have a good cup run, great, if we get injuries and miss out on promotion tough. Its still football. Personally i think the dellusional people are the ones talking about Europe etc. Those days are gone until ownership is changed. People say more tv money if we get up.....where do you really think thats heading? We've sold the first choice team last season....does anyone think this 2nd fiddle team could survive? Is ashley suddenly going to start buying players? ofcourse not.

It would be a shame to see him go (if theres any truth in the story, this being the mirror). nut what we need now is a nice experienced striker in on loan. Hopefully hughton has something up his sleeve apart from his hanky.

Pud, the simple answer is no I would rather have been promoted in 92/93, but you know fine well that's not only a loaded question, it's one that's easy given we know what followed. My point ( that you know fine well), is that promotion under the Ashley regime would bring no glory, no Europe, no uefa, only lots of good arse rapings every week. We couldn't compete last year and we have sold off our first team in the last 12 months. You also know that I want a good cup run and promotion and I have no doubts whatsoever we can achieve both. Enjoy your scran.

bravo! Well cherry picked and avoided.

I want both. However I see no fun getting promoted while Ashley remains. Papa seems to think had we avoided the drop Ashley would have appointed shearer and no one would have been sold! Given, nzogbia, milner.... Ashley the transfer window profit specialist! Had we stayed up I think we would have been seriously mackem style embarrassing this season. Bearing all this in mind, a really good cup run might be more favourable than promotion under Ashley. And don't forget he would still have another two windows to rape and pillage before we kicked off in the prem. Having said all that I am still hopeful of a sale next week that will put a whole new perspective on everything.

"promotion is the only priority" to you, not every fan. A few have already said they would rather win the cup. All the doom mongers spent last year saying relegation would be the end of the world. It's not and from a football point of view we are going to have an enjoyable season, probably the most enjoyable since sir bobs time. Lets imagine we survived by a point last season. Firesale would still have taken place and we'd be getting arse raped week in week out. Promotion, relegation and cups are football. No success is guaranteed and as long as Ashley is in charge there will be no return to any exciting times in the prem.

Totally agree mate. A cup is tradition and all that, a trip to wembley, splodging in the fountains. Promotion is frying pan to fryer territory at the minute. Would ideally like both, but given the choice a cup every time. Think most wiser / older fans would agree with you. The football manager generation, thats a different kettle of fish all together.

While your on, don't cross the road, you might get knocked down. Don't fly you might don't shag you might bollox

but my point is "we" can't guard anything. You do websites, I drive a cab. Nothing either of us can do so stop worrying! What will be , will be ... Que sera. :-) He's entitled to his opinion about what sort of team we should play though. And I agree. We've such a small squad, we need to bring kids through and league cup is the time to do it. It's also folly to flog our first teamers to death when they're so many games to go. I don't think that's being a doom and gloom merchant, it's just common sense. I have no problem with anyone having an opinion. Puds view is basically he probably not be in the cup cos it might lead to injuries and we can't win it. If that's his view then it logically follows that we might not enter the fa cup as well. I understand his logic but don't agree with it. I want to be in all the cups and go as far as possible. If we get stretched and get injuries and don't get promoted this year, then tough, that's football. Had we not been in the cup I would have missed one of the best games in years, a 4-3 thriller. That's what's important to me, not what might or might not happen at some point down the line.

but my point is "we" can't guard anything. You do websites, I drive a cab. Nothing either of us can do so stop worrying! What will be , will be ... Que sera. :-)

But pud, we haven't been "competition" as you put it many years, but you can still enjoy each match as it happens. The big difference is there are some on this board who seemed to have lost reality with the game of football. For me it's about the build up to matchday, the match, the phone ins etc. Why worry. I mean really, what is the point. All these cups and games and Injuries will happen regardless and all we can do is enjoy the ride match by match. We haven't won a domestic cup in my lifetime so getting beat in the cups is nothing new. The only thing you and some of the doom merchants on here can change is how you feel about the situation. You can either worry and always be concerned with what might happen or take each game as it comes and enjoy your footy.

I'm sure alot share your view and I'm equally sure alot will change that view should we reach the semis or even wembley. And it's a shame also, because as happy face, I think, said earlier, it was one of the best matches and st. James for a few years. People should just enjoy their footy. The politics will be sorted eventually and no amount of pointless fretting is going to make a scrap of difference.

Charming Undeniably Nice Twat

Fuck me Fishy, get yerself on Ebay and buy this......

Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion Aston Villa v Cardiff City Barnsley v Burnley Bolton Wanderers v West Ham United Carlisle United v Portsmouth Chelsea v Queens Park Rangers Hull City v Everton Leeds United v Liverpool Manchester City v Fulham Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers Nottingham Forest v Blackburn Rovers Peterborough United v Newcastle United Preston North End v Tottenham Hotspur Scunthorpe United v Port Vale Stoke City v Blackpool Sunderland v Birmingham City Ties to be played during the week commencing 21st September 2009