Park Life

His apologist wouldn't let him.

This post seems a bit contradictory. Surely promotion as soon as possible should be the priority? Regardless, the reality is we will lose the better players and be stuck with the shit ones we can't shift. Keeping the current lot fixes nothing though. We get promoted with the same shit and the same crippling wage bill, or we fail and are in financial ruin. I want to come straight back up but the prospect of having a clearout is quite a refreshing one. We should be more than capable of poaching decent youngsters and up-and-comers with a name like Shearer in charge. This I want to lance the boil not put a stick plaster on it. In one form or another the rot has been at Newcastle for many years. I would rather spend a few years clearing out, re-building and letting Shearer learn his trade than hoping for a quick bounce back with the same shower of shit. The club won't survive years in the wilderness though mate. Every year your out the PL the harder it gets to build the momentum to get back apparently (Chez??).

...kinda works though.

I'll be very surprised if we manage to convince to Bassong to stay. That's if we even bother to try. Still has 2yrs on his contract iirc. I would try and get him to give us one more season and let him go if we don't get back up sort of thing.

He backed Kinnear and Shearer more than Keegan? Shearer certainly (Wise was sent packing), but yes I think on balance he gave Kinnear more authority (or allowed Kinnear to take more authority) than Keegan. By all accounts Wise was going anyway, Shearer only got them to announce it earlier. I think Kinnear spouted a load of bollocks, got fuck all to spend and had 2 of his best players sold from under him. Well if you're right (Given and Zog? You think they didn't want to go?) the we are going to have a torrid time in the Championship, if Ashley hasn't learnt his lessons, and won't/can't employ a quality manager and then back him. They wanted to go. But Kinnear said repeatedly he didn't want them to. Once they did, they should have been replaced. Yeah but that's been the story of this season, would they have wanted to go under a genuine Keegan regime in the first place? And if they did who would have made the better choices for replacements out of Keegan, Kinnear, Wise, Lambrusco(?!?), Ashley's daughter and even Shearer? I'm not sure I get your point? How does that point support the argument that Ashley learned a lesson and supported later managers more than Keegan? It's the story of our season....and the only constant through it all has been Ashley/Llambias. It's clear MA has been trying to sell the club for quite sometime, hence his utter lack of professionalism and management regarding day to day football matters (finance worries aside).

I would keep Harper, Bassong and Taylor. There is a good chance we can keep these three. The rest will either want away or we'll get them out due to silly wages.

The noises seem to indicate he will stay, but the harsh reality of day might prove otherwise.

This. We need to get 11 hungry players in (and get them to eat together).

What really pissed me off about the Llambias interview was when he said that Keegan's "sack the numpties" demand had no chance of happening yet 9 months on it was a nothing decision (either pre-planned or asked for by Shearer) to get rid of the dwarf. My theory is that they never really truly intended in any shape or form to back KK, hence the legal nightmare of a contract they handed him.

The sad thing for me is, it's the people who should know better who feel that way. Please elaborate on that 2J. I was a massive fan of Keegan during his stint here as a player and as a manager (1st time), I've met the bloke and was overwhelmed by his enthusiam (this was in in 95 iirc). But the simple fact is for me his passion had been well and truly extinguished when he became a manager for the second time. Blame Ashley all you want but it simply was never going to have a happy ending the second time round imo. It's odd that such sentiments are now deemed as apocryphal on this board. He looked pretty chirpy to me after the Man U game. I actually think the Chelsea game showed as much, not that he was happy, but that he clearly wanted to be in a position to at least be able compete with them (on the park if not necessarily in the league). You would want the manager to be wanting to compete. The problem is MA and Co. by then were obsessed with the books....Books which are going to look like Lehmann Brothers if things go wrong next week. We simply don't have the liquidity to support the wage bill without PL money. FACT. Aye which is again what is worrying regarding the Championship and Ashley, out wage bill is excessive, but not club destroying in the PL, in the Championship it may be, and worse with the revenue drop we'll have less to spend, as well as haemorrhaging players for bargain prices. Next season could make this season look "ok". There is the parachute money, but you have to come straight back up to limit the damage.

The gods of football however write their own music.

He backed Kinnear and Shearer more than Keegan? Shearer certainly (Wise was sent packing), but yes I think on balance he gave Kinnear more authority (or allowed Kinnear to take more authority) than Keegan. By all accounts Wise was going anyway, Shearer only got them to announce it earlier. I think Kinnear spouted a load of bollocks, got fuck all to spend and had 2 of his best players sold from under him. JK the man is a complete joke.

The sad thing for me is, it's the people who should know better who feel that way. Please elaborate on that 2J. I was a massive fan of Keegan during his stint here as a player and as a manager (1st time), I've met the bloke and was overwhelmed by his enthusiam (this was in in 95 iirc). But the simple fact is for me his passion had been well and truly extinguished when he became a manager for the second time. Blame Ashley all you want but it simply was never going to have a happy ending the second time round imo. It's odd that such sentiments are now deemed as apocryphal on this board. He looked pretty chirpy to me after the Man U game. I actually think the Chelsea game showed as much, not that he was happy, but that he clearly wanted to be in a position to at least be able compete with them (on the park if not necessarily in the league). You would want the manager to be wanting to compete. The problem is MA and Co. by then were obsessed with the books....Books which are going to look like Lehmann Brothers if things go wrong next week. We simply don't have the liquidity to support the wage bill without PL money. FACT.

Luca reckons he was on the wind up. LLO is another culprit, but the chain gang upped sticks and left when we slid down the table. The Ashley core are in hiding. I haven't seen where he claims he was on the wind up, but I don't believe it anyway. I don't either, he sensed I was readying the nuke and backed off.

The bit at the start about Hughes and Hageland is the core of our problems, not enough knowledge and professionalism behind the scenes.

The sad thing for me is, it's the people who should know better who feel that way. Please elaborate on that 2J. I was a massive fan of Keegan during his stint here as a player and as a manager (1st time), I've met the bloke and was overwhelmed by his enthusiam (this was in in 95 iirc). But the simple fact is for me his passion had been well and truly extinguished when he became a manager for the second time. Blame Ashley all you want but it simply was never going to have a happy ending the second time round imo. It's odd that such sentiments are now deemed as apocryphal on this board. He looked pretty chirpy to me after the Man U game.

Luca reckons he was on the wind up. LLO is another culprit, but the chain gang upped sticks and left when we slid down the table. The Ashley core are in hiding.

It will play out as paganism v christianity.

Rule NO.1 - Don't buy expensive old players who lean toward niggling injuries.

...and it's worse than that, a lot of them are just ungrateful, thick - donkeys.

We were doomed the moment Parky the started this thread. Über-jinxing tbh.

And Iv'e begun to realise why Zoggy looked better at left back than on the wing....Space to move into.

Give it a few days and you'll realise it was shit.

Film I never get tired of watching.