Ashley demands showdown talks

[Guest Patrokles]

I don't know, chaps. We'll see what happens.

[Asprilla 96]

Abject nonsense. We lose a game and suddenly now we're in some sort of deadly tailspin that will undoubtedly end in KK being sacked and Mike Ashley selling out.

 

Who pays these people to come up with this? Do you think I could get a job writing back page stories for these two-bit rags? Surely the Man City circus must be more interesting at this point than a few comments made by KK and some invented "backlash" story...?

I guess not!

[nobby_solano 0]

i'm sick of all this muck raking about the club constantly.

for a so called 'not big club' we seem to get a hell of a lot of column inches.

if ashley did get rid of keegan he'd be shooting himself in the foot and we'd be back to 2005 again.

[Fop 1]

'' ''

 

 

 

Yup.

[Torres 0]

I`d say there`s a strong element of truth in this, Ashley is bound to be pissed off at Keegan over what he said and rightly so.......................it`s not a real vote of confidence in the players Ashley pays week in week out and it makes you wonder why he took the job in the first place if he thinks it`s a hopless case...................probably being madly overpaid!

 

This saga could yet prove very amusing.......

[Fop 1]

I`d say there`s a strong element of truth in this, Ashley is bound to be pissed off at Keegan over what he said and rightly so.......................it`s not a real vote of confidence in the players Ashley pays week in week out and it makes you wonder why he took the job in the first place if he thinks it`s a hopless case...................probably being madly overpaid!

 

This saga could yet prove very amusing.......

I agree, just not in the way you think.

[ewerk 31192]

I`d say there`s a strong element of truth in this, Ashley is bound to be pissed off at Keegan over what he said and rightly so.......................it`s not a real vote of confidence in the players Ashley pays week in week out and it makes you wonder why he took the job in the first place if he thinks it`s a hopless case...................probably being madly overpaid!

 

This saga could yet prove very amusing.......

 

As amusing as a situation where two co-owners can't stand each other, court other managers and publicly try to force prominent figures out of the club?

 

Nah, it's not that amusing.

[peasepud 59]

I`d say there`s a strong element of truth in this, Ashley is bound to be pissed off at Keegan over what he said and rightly so.......................it`s not a real vote of confidence in the players Ashley pays week in week out and it makes you wonder why he took the job in the first place if he thinks it`s a hopless case...................probably being madly overpaid!

 

This saga could yet prove very amusing.......

 

two words

 

Gillette, Hicks

 

glass fookin houses sonna

[Toonpack 9904]

Lot of travelling with this London summons tomorrow for KK, Ashley etc then

 

However Sir Bobby will return to SJP this Friday, when he's the Guest of Honour at a special gala dinner

 

Sir Bobby will be joined by the likes of Kevin Keegan, Mike Ashley, Chris Mort, Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Stuart Pearce plus other football figures including Sir Bobby Charlton.

[peasepud 59]

Lot of travelling with this London summons tomorrow for KK, Ashley etc then

 

However Sir Bobby will return to SJP this Friday, when he's the Guest of Honour at a special gala dinner

 

Sir Bobby will be joined by the likes of Kevin Keegan, Mike Ashley, Chris Mort, Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Stuart Pearce plus other football figures including Sir Bobby Charlton.

 

Proof in itself that this story is bollocks tbh.

[Toonpack 9904]

Lot of travelling with this London summons tomorrow for KK, Ashley etc then

 

However Sir Bobby will return to SJP this Friday, when he's the Guest of Honour at a special gala dinner

 

Sir Bobby will be joined by the likes of Kevin Keegan, Mike Ashley, Chris Mort, Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Stuart Pearce plus other football figures including Sir Bobby Charlton.

 

Proof in itself that this story is bollocks tbh.

 

Yep

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

I wonder if this is Kev repeating his "It's not like it was in the brochure" tactic that he used to get Sir John Hall to open his wallet?

[Guest alex]

Probably about as true as when Ashley was on the verge of selling the club imo.

[Snake 0]

It won't matter anyway as once Ashley sells up, something the shit stirring scum in the press have been telling us will happen right from the start, then the new owners will probably appoint their own man

[Snake 0]

Probably about as true as when Ashley was on the verge of selling the club imo.

 

Twat

[Guest alex]

Probably about as true as when Ashley was on the verge of selling the club imo.

 

Twat

I concur.

[Guest alex]

Biffa from .com's take on KK's post-match comments etc. :

A defeat that in no way was unexpected or undeserved made the finale to our home campaign something of a comparative damp squib, but left players and manager taking the applause from the centre circle.

 

That there was no post-match lap of honour was a common sense decision from United and an acceptance that vast tracts of this season have been wretched and overall unworthy of celebration.

 

But enough positives have emerged in recent weeks for people to recognise that there has been a resurgence in our fortunes and an increase in on-field effort and enthusiasm. Enough to sell the season tickets anyway - which looked like being a monumental task at the start of this year.

 

The opening forty five minutes had seen us take advantage of a slightly listless display from the title chasers, shading the half and seeing two near misses from Michael Owen, either of which would brought the house down had they beaten Cech.

 

Unfortunately, Escape to Victory was the only footballing fairy tale televised this Bank Holiday - and the crowd were treated to 45 minutes each of the positive & negative sides we've shown this season.

Our demise began with the withdrawal of Viduka at the interval and his replacement with the headless chicken that is Alan Smith, turning back the clock to our victory-free, incoherent non-performances.

 

If Nicky Butt was attempting to furnish his former Old Trafford colleagues with silverware via controlled aggression, then Smith's game plan appeared to be to start a fight or dance himself dizzy.

 

Incapable of finding space, unwilling to attempt more than the most basic pass and routinely out of position thanks to his schoolboy ball-following antics. Anyone care to guess where was he playing?

 

And things only got worse when the docile Duff shambled on. With Geremi having been running on empty all day all we lacked was a cameo non-performance from Babayaro to complete a trio of Kings Road duds.

 

It was probably appropriate that Allardyce was present, as his former charges instantly surrendered the initiative to a resurgent Chelsea, who encountered little resistance when they raised their game.

 

A handy reminder though that we remain a work in progress and that the chopping out of Carr is only the first act in what needs to be a fairly extensive and ruthless programme of personnel changes.

 

So to the final whistle and those post-match words of wisdom, dissected as if they were a major work of theology rather than end-of-season soundbites. Well, if you can't beat them, join them....here we go:

 

Keegan is half-right in saying that we're a million miles away from the top four, after a season when we've taken precisely one point and three goals from our eight matches against them. But he seems to be talking about the current form of that quartet and their performance across the whole season.

 

While he was handing out Soccer Circus leaflets at Braehead the opening months of 2007, we faced said big four at SJP - and avoided defeat against them all, taking six points from a possible twelve. That didn't make us title contenders (or keep Roeder in a job) but it proved that we weren't quite whipping boys.

 

As ever, the problems we have are mostly of our own making and become evident against teams who have even less chance of breaking into a Champions League spot than ourselves.

 

Beating Chelsea or Man U is only worth the same as beating Boro or Pompey - and it can be argued that avoiding losing against the latter trio is more valuable in a "don't give your rivals the points" fashion.

 

A lack of preparation, inappropriate tactics and a bad attitude among certain players have been our downfall more often than a lack of talent.

 

If KK believes that the way to our hearts is with more mega money "trophy" signings from God knows where, then he's guilty of falling into the same crowd-pleasing trap as our former Chairman. Buying the 2008 version of Albert Luque for twice the price is unacceptable, even if the deal "makes sense".

 

The problem we seem to have is that football has moved on (not progressed) in the three years since KK relinquished his position at Man City and that he cannot work in the same unimpeded way that characterised his previous reign here - and led to his departure when PLC hired hands sought to meddle.

 

Keegan famously convinced Robert Lee to move to Tyneside - nowadays the two wouldn't even have spoken to each other before the deal was brokered. You lose something there surely, in terms of the manager weighing up his potential signing, even if the schmoozing ability of KK is now life-expired.

 

The reaction of Obafemi Martins to KK's appointment at SJP is a classic example: the player having to resort to Google and YouTube to find out who his new gaffer was. The emerging generation of players don't know who Keegan is - and the older ones who do don't fit into our profile of worthwhile signings.

 

Is Keegan flexing his muscles because the Modric deal went the same way as Woodgate - and the faces brought into the club to do the all this new-fangled fixing failed? Only time will tell on that one.

 

So what do we end up with? A home defeat against the most potent away day side in the country, followed closely by some slightly unexpected comments that the manager quickly sought to clarify.

 

Too late though, as his words were seized upon by hacks impatient at not being able to write "trouble in Toon" headlines by our recent unbeaten streak. Showdown, D-Day, crisis talks... you get the picture.

 

What if we'd won this game? One can almost hear the soundbites that would have rolled off KK's tongue in his post-match reverie. Stirring rhetoric about this being a unique, special place that would be lapped up by those watching on TV in city pubs - and promptly dismissed in the time it takes to buy more beer.

 

But would they have any more gravitas and significance than Keegan's actual comments? No, because they're both transient and liable to alter like the weather. Remember his departure the last time and the variety of reasons he gave for leaving, ranging from the "feeling sorry for Gerry Francis as we beat Spurs 7-1" to the later "revellations" (sic) about the PLC.

 

Stick around, there'll be another batch of quotes on the way soon. Thursday in fact, when KK next speaks to the media.

 

Post-Allardyce, we need to be in a position where we're challenging Villa, Man City, Everton and whoever else drags themselves out of the lower reaches of the league. There's a confidence Keegan can do that.

 

We already know we're eminently capable of clobbering the beautiful people of White Hart Lane - who now seem to who have moved on in two decades from poaching our own talent to copying our wish list.

 

Woodgate and Modric choosing them over us may have annoyed KK, but we cannot get overly-excited about missing out on either.

 

They both join a club routinely lauded as gatecrashers at the Premier League party by themselves and their friends in the press, but who rather annoyingly keep screwing things up.

 

So they've signed a promising young midfielder with the world at his feet - Jermaine Jenas anyone?

 

It's for that reason and the masses of other profoundly average players clogging the league that the opportunity to be competitive in this league remains open to us. If KK didn't think he could put out a side superior to those Sven, Moyes or O'Neill can construct then he'd never have unpacked his bags again.

 

Ever since Ian Woan scored at the City Ground twelve years ago, I've not believed we could win the league - and seen nothing on the field in the intervening period to alter that mindset.

 

But there have been great days and near misses along the way - coupled with some memorable football from some magnificent players.

 

Much of that was orchestrated and inspired by our current boss - who has a damn sight more going for him in the recruitment department than his charmless predecessors (would you sign for Souness, Roeder or Allardyce if anyone else wanted you and you didn't know all the words to The Blaydon Races?)

 

There's hope and there's expectation.

 

We hope to improve, we hope to be challenging for something slightly more credible than the Intertoto Cup. We expect to get competence, entertainment and commitment for our hard-earned.

 

Nothing there is unrealistic, nothing there leaves us open to charges of mass self-delusion. That applies equally to Keegan's comments. What a pity that it differs from other people's world view of him. And us.

 

The one imponderable in all this is what the owner thinks of Keegan's comments. From where we stand though, the supportive quotes from the Chairman would seem to render talk of bust-ups invalid.

[Happy Face 29]

The 3 pages on this shite within a few hours says it all. The Mail and The Sun websites will be getting hammered by irate Geordies and they'll be over the moon whatever bollocks they've dreamed up. They know our fanaticism will get them more of a response stories about Erikson being off to Benfica, the title going down to the wire, or Barry going to liverpool.

 

When the BBC deem it worthy of mentioning the furore, I might believe there's something in it other than fat, greasy tossers trying to maximise exposure for their product.

[TheMoog 0]

London press in Newcastle United shit-stirring shocker... once again a non-story based on fabricated information and out-of-context quotes. Keegan told the truth regarding where the club's likely to be next season, anybody who's actually watched the post match interview can't argue with anything he said and it certainly wasn't projected in a negative manner. For anyone who believes there's even a slight chance of this nonsense being true go and watch the interview, so ridiculous it's laughable. I honestly think that a lot of the time this sort of rubbish is produced just for the benefit of other team's fans who know nothing about our club.

[Guest alex]

It's done to sell papers and generate hits. Nothing more imo.

[Torres 0]

It's done to sell papers and generate hits. Nothing more imo.

 

 

That`s just wishful thinking.

[Guest alex]

It's done to sell papers and generate hits. Nothing more imo.

 

 

That`s just wishful thinking.

Still off to Moscow btw?

[Craig 6700]

Wise is unlikely to be in the best of moods, given that he will not be able to play in his annual charity golf day in Ealing.

 

 

Tough shit ratboy....

[Torres 0]

It's done to sell papers and generate hits. Nothing more imo.

 

 

That`s just wishful thinking.

Still off to Moscow btw?

 

I`m waiting for Rome next year...................it`ll only be our third time winning it there!

[Guest alex]

It's done to sell papers and generate hits. Nothing more imo.

 

 

That`s just wishful thinking.

Still off to Moscow btw?

 

I`m waiting for Rome next year...................it`ll only be our third time winning it there!

That's just wishful thinking.