Park Life

" ....but Marcelino García Toral, the Real Zaragoza coach, is much admired by the club's hierarchy and also looks a strong candidate. Deportivo La Coruña's Miguel Angel Lotina and Real Sociedad's Juanma Lillo are other possibilities."

+1

"When this proposal was rejected in a formal letter from Llambias, it became clear that a compromise was impossible. As negotiations shifted to the financial details of Keegan's departure, the manager yesterday spoke to a senior player and told him he would almost certainly not be returning. Newcastle's squad, who almost all liked and enjoyed working with Keegan, were angry that no director explained the situation to them. An agent representing a member of Keegan's squad said: "The players' morale is at rock bottom." From the ever sexy Louise Taylor. © Guardian Online.

Sorry.

Profits down 51% but... or the year to 27 April, Sports Direct delivered underlying pre-tax profits down 51.1 per cent to £85m. The retailer's group sales fell by 6.5 per cent to £1.26bn. Still made 85m profit, not enough for a couple of decent players though eh...

Sports Direct, the retail chain owned by once-reclusive billionaire Mike Ashley, warned this morning that consumer spending will decline over the next six months. The company, which has suffered from the England football team's woes, said this morning that following the key Christmas period it still expected to meet City expectations for pre-tax profits. But in a trading statement that was typically light on detail, chief executive Dave Forsey struck a downbeat note about the company's prospects in the first half of 2008. "We expect the retail trading environment in the UK to become increasingly difficult over the next six months," said Forsey. Sports Direct said that it made gross sales of £280m between October 29 and January 13, generating gross profits of £126m - a margin of 45%. It did not issue comparable figures for previous years, but Nick Bubb, analyst at Pali International, said the trading statement was disappointing and predicted that like-for-like sales had fallen by a fifth during the period. "There is no profit warning on the face of it, but the 45% gross margin for the period is below expectations, and the bar has been set very low in terms of beating £138m EBITDA as our current forecast is £157m," Bubb said.

New fronts open up against Ashley... http://forums.sundaysun.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=193294

Agreed. Be warned Curbs is mates with Vetere. Just popped into me head. naa 'frying pan' and 'fire' spring to mind

That's a good idea.

Dubai Investment Capital. Well at least they should be able to buy really good players that the manager doesn't want.

Agreed. Be warned Curbs is mates with Vetere. Just popped into me head.

Yeah, he's asked Wise to start filling the side with Spanish speaking players.

I don't think Ashley will be at the Hull game.

You can just see llambias and cuntwise cockney spivved with outrage "Oo the fackin 'ell das ee fink ee is " The cockney wanks need chasing out of fucking town, or are people happy with what they've done to our club and one of it's best loved legends? We could have gone on to great things with Keegan running the show, now we've got to put up with these pricks labeling Keegan as a 'Bottler' and making all the fans look like spineless whingers. That's the thing. Any other manager they could have portrayed as clueless and out-of-touch - even Robson, since Fat Freddie managed as much with his undeniably limited brain capacity - but rightly or wrongly, you just don't fuck with Keegan. That's what I suspect (and hope) is going to be their downfall in the end. It's over for them.

Dubai Investment Capital.

Gonna have to fuckin hurry then, marra. If Wise and Jimmy go for him it won't take much to get him out of that tiny club.

That has to be the first mental position before considering this farce.

With new owners I suppose it can't be discounted.

Stay Frosty?

All our players are for sale. We plan to be a mid-table side for 10 years turning over a small profit.

He'll have to pay Zaragoza.

How stupid do they think we are?

Whoever is hired will last 6 months. Some of our best players will be gone in Jan and the rest will take time to bed into a new system.

I don't think it was personal differences. He slowly realised he didn't have the tools to do the job.

It might have helped consulting with Keegan before hiring such a person....Oh well..