acrossthepond

Quote me then you disgusting little yank fuck, or fucking button it. If Blackpool stay up, are Brett Ormerod, Ian Evatt, Chris Basham and Keith Southern Premier League players? Did you ever stop to think that the reason we're staying up isn't because of bargain basement players like Mike Williamson, but because they've largely been carried by the members of our squad who actually are PL quality? For every Smith there's been a Tiote, for every Williamson there's been a Colo, for every Lovenkrands there's been a Carroll...oops, no, Best? Shola? Looking awfully light in that department. Liverpool's recent form since they backed their new and capable manager with cash to buy quality players - brilliant. Ours since we lost our best striker without replacement? Increasingly poor. I wonder if there's a connection. Now, you utter, utter wanker, can you make any prediction as to which way you suppose our transfer dealings will proceed from this point onward - that Premier League quality players will be bought to complement the Tiotes, Coloccinis, and Bartons, or that Premier League quality players will be sold and replaced (if at all) with more Williamsons, Perches, R. Taylors, and Lovenkrands?

But still borderline headcases like ASM in his new guise of 'angrysockmonster', Nick, Qwertyo, et al are lining up to tell us that the squad's fine and doesn't need investment, and in fact having the lowest net spend in the last 5 seasons (a period of time that just happens to coincide with the period of time during which we've been the most shit we've been in 20 years) is actually a POSITIVE thing, and signing quality players just turns the team into a vehicle for the new players instead of improving the squad, so we don't need to do that either. It's all OK, Williamson is a Premier League player because we stayed in the Premier League this season. QE-fucking-D.

As a matter of fact, no, but that's not what I'm talking about. Did you read anything I wrote? I'm talking about your assertion that winning promotion to the Premier League somehow makes the player who did it suitable to play in the Premier League, which I disproved by citing Watford and Derby, who both went down after truly abysmal seasons that showed the players they came up with were well out of their depth. But we're not going down, so how did 'citing' them disprove that? He won promotion to this division and has played well enough to ensure his team will be in it next season. Watford and Derby went down after abysmal seasons because their players were well out of their depth as you said. What's your point? What's that got to do with Williamson and Newcastle, who haven't have abysmal seasons (because they aren't out of their depth)? It has to do with how you claim that Williamson is a Premier League player by virtue of being promoted. You didn't answer my questions as to whether Carragher, Skrtel or Coloccini would have committed the foul that gifted Liverpool a penalty. That's because you know they would not have, because they are players of vastly superior quality to Mike Williamson, who is not a Premier League player. Williamson has consistently been the worst player in our starting XI (not to say he isn't better than the other senior centre halves at the club, S. Taylor and Campbell, because he is - which itself says something about our quality in depth) and is simply not cut out for the Premier League. Neither are Routledge (gone anyway), R. Taylor, S. Taylor, Campbell (going), Guthrie, Smith, Lovenkrands or Ranger (or Kuqi.) What a coincidence! Save Smith (a relic of Fat Sam's terrible acquisitions) and Steven Taylor (featured for us for many years, rarely looked like he was going to make the cut as a PL player), we paid bargain basement prices for all of those. Ranger I admit could still come good and needs time out on loan. The rest were brought in for peanuts and it looks like we got what we paid for. This brings me back to my original point, which is that when you pay Championship prices, you get Championship quality, and if we are ever planning to compete for anything more than mid-table mediocrity, we're going to have to invest heavily in the first-team squad. Williamson and his like are not good enough and it showed today, as it has on many days since we came back up. EDIT: Forgot James Perch. Another prime example of 'you get what you pay for.'

As a matter of fact, no, but that's not what I'm talking about. Did you read anything I wrote? I'm talking about your assertion that winning promotion to the Premier League somehow makes the player who did it suitable to play in the Premier League, which I disproved by citing Watford and Derby, who both went down after truly abysmal seasons that showed the players they came up with were well out of their depth.

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Do you disagree? Is Williamson a Premier League player? Would Carragher or Skrtel, for example, be caught dead doing that? For that matter, would Coloccini? Yes I disagree. He's a premier league player, playing in the premier league because he won the championship and earned the right to be in the premier league and will be in it next season. He's not our best player but suggesting he's not up to it because we paid a "championship price" is wrong, especially as we got him so cheap by exploiting his clubs financial woes. Were all of Watford's players Premier League players when they went down? How about Derby's, when they managed 11 points all season? They 'earned the right' too. Mike Williamson is never and has never been a Premier League player, and to be honest most of the squad do not meet that criteria either. If we're to avoid yet another season where we're still looking over our shoulders with 4 games left to go, we're going to require significant investment, not spending 1 million pounds on players from the Championship and gambling that they'll be good enough. Even if it worked this time, it didn't work in January '09 and there's no guarantee it will work again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Do you disagree? Is Williamson a Premier League player? Would Carragher or Skrtel, for example, be caught dead doing that? For that matter, would Coloccini?

Pay Championship prices, get Championship defending. Doesn't matter whether it was a dive or not - Williamson committed himself when he had no need to and we paid the price.

One or both of Lovenkrands and Shola have to be off. We could play all day and all night and not score with those up front.

That's the entire point. This show sadly reinforces the idea that southerners have of - would it be too precious to say 'us' here? - Geordies as a bunch of crass unintelligible blockheads. Great.

I don't think I've ever heard anything as cringeworthy as the so-called "birther" movement. He's a nigger, so he can't be American. Jesus fucking wept.

Maybe next time Lucy will let him kick the ball. Maybe next time Fat Mike and his cronies won't fuck us over. There's always a next time for you morons, isn't there?

'Man City or Tottenham' isn't an independent clause, so you can't join it to an independent clause with a semicolon. Try this: Who do you want in the Champions League: Man City or Tottenham? A dash instead of a colon would work too.

'When was the last time we were anywhere near that level [of Man U] anyway? Never.' Were you born in in 1998? Ugh, reading that shit makes me queasy. I can't believe Ashley arselickers are now sporting the line that Hughton 'wasn't Ashley's choice.' Of course he fucking was you morons, Ashley is the owner of the club, everyone he appointed since he took over has been his choice. If he isn't making the choices, then who is? Who chose to appoint Shearer? Did he simply arrive at the gates of SJP bathed in heavenly light and announce, "I am the Messiah, come to save us from relegation," and Mike & Dekka fell to their knees in adulation? 'At last Newcastle seem to have some young players coming through...It might mean we won’t have to waste millions on Spanish no-hopers – it just won’t feel like Newcastle any more.' How about Carroll, who came through the youth system before Fat Mike had ever heard of NUFC and who your man sold for 35m in January? Compare all of the first team players we've 'produced' under Wise to Carroll. Some legacy - Ranger is shit and acts like he belongs on MTV, nobody has any idea of whether Vuckic is any good or not, and Kadar played 2 games in the CCC last season. Counting chickens before they hatch, I think?

I'd like to hear more about Skjelbred. Isn't he 23 or 24 by now and still playing in the Norwegian league? If he were any good, he'd have moved on by now, I'd think.

Basically, fuck off you utter plank.

That was godawful. Lucky to escape with a point. Best that can be said about that game, time to put it behind us.

Holloway is such a jumped-up little prick, ugh.

Should Freddie or Mike run the Toon?

So, only ESPN are running this story, but it's not from any of their usual bullshit merchants so I thought it might be reputable. Don't shoot the messenger. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/...akeover?cc=5901 "Getafe Team Dubai"? Let's hope Fat Mike doesn't get any ideas.

This was what really did it for me - that he doesn't understand why he was booed. It's because we got nothing out of him. He was always injured, he never looked arsed about what happened to us, he never seemed to put in any effort on the pitch, and he never seemed like he wanted to be at Newcastle. I understand that injuries were not his fault and that naturally the role that he plays was never going to be one that rushes up and down the pitch like a Rooney or some other combative striker, but it all contributes to the fans' perception of him as a waster who collected huge cheques and never had to work for them. Just last night, we saw Lovenkrands rushing about everywhere, even appearing next to Simpson to win back a ball he'd lost in the left channel. This isn't to say that Lovenkrands is as good as Owen or anything like that, but it did display a bit of fighting spirit from a player who plays a similar role to Owen that Owen would simply never have shown. He wanted the ball played to his feet in the box, and I have no doubt that if he'd been in a team that could have done that with more regularity than we were able to for the 4 years we had him, he would've produced a much better goalscoring return. But it just never seemed to click for him that he was a luxury player in a side that could not afford one and that he actually had to graft, and that was one of the reasons why he got the reception he did last night, as well as his terrible showing in the relegation season.

We've been great, they've been shite. Problem is that they have another gear and we don't. All the same, I think we have it in us to nick this.

Lower league manager given a job far beyond his ability thanks to his connections with the charming people we have running the club. Off-field, he's a puppet and not a single word he says to the press or anyone should be believed. May as well get your magic 8-ball out, it'll give you straighter answers than Pardew will. On the field, he seems to rate S. Taylor over Williamson which is unfortunate, doesn't rate Routledge which is ok but that doesn't mean we should get rid, in general seems just about average. Another Roeder, except more arrogant and instantly dislikeable.

You keep bleating on "it's solely about Gonzalez." No. Gonzalez was the symptom; the cause was that KK was lied to - as the tribunal proves - about whether or not "he would have the final say as to transfers of players into the Club." He was told he would. He didn't. That's why he walked. You're the one on the smear campaign when you go "to sue 'us' for 25 million using a loop hole is shameful and pathetic." Firstly, 'us?' I don't think there's anyone on this board - other than possibly you and other N-O Ashley fanboys of your ilk - who think that Keegan sued 'us.' He sued his employers, Newcastle United Football Club, for breaching the contract they made with him. He was perfectly within his rights to do so, as the tribunal decision ultimately ruled, and he deserved the ruling in his favour. Next up is "25 million." We've heard plenty of nonsense from Llambias and the club's PR machine that 25 million would have bankrupted us, etc etc. I thought it was pretty plain that he picked a large number in order to make a smaller payment seem more realistic - lawyers tell you you'll never win anything if you sue a corporation for small change, better to scare them with a big number - but I accept that this is open to interpretation of "greedy KK" and the like. Of course, anyone who remembers what the man did for our club knows that he wasn't out to bankrupt NUFC or do anything of the kind. If he were greedy, he would've waited to be sacked at England instead of walking when it was obvious that the fans were against him. Now, "loop hole." Is it a "loop hole" to sue your employer after your contract is breached? I'd think, knowing KK - and you do know him, right? - you would realise that he was very involved with the buying and selling of players, and I find it incredibly unlikely that he would've seen having the final say on transfers into the club as a minor part of his job, worthy of the appellation of "loop hole." There were no legal tricks or other prestidigitation that should see this lawsuit labelled as a loop hole. And finally, "shameful and pathetic." Well, I find it shameful and pathetic that Ashley and his cronies would lie to a club legend about his role, basically bringing him to the club under false premises. I find it shameful and pathetic that a club legend should be imposed upon to buy (utterly useless) players that Dennis Wise, a poisonous dwarf whose memorable qualities include taking Leeds down to the third division and kicking the living shit out of a cabbie in the East End, scouted on Youtube. I find it shameful and pathetic that people could still be arguing, nearly four years down the line, that Ashley and Llambias are anything but liars and that Kevin Keegan is the villain of this story.

http://www.nufc.com/2010-11html/2009-10-02...-nufc-ours.html If you read the full tribunal transcripts you will see that Keegan made that statement because Wise et al said on several occasions Keegan had final say, which they confirmed was to keep the fans happy. This promise was only broken with the loan signing of Gonzalez. Note the absence of the Milner sale, so it must have been agreed upon. From the judgment: In other words, Ashley and co were bullshitting KK from the start and failed to make their true intentions publicly clear. In other words, they intentionally misled the press, public, and fans of Newcastle United. (And KK.) 2 + 2 = 5 Utter bollocks. All of them points are referring to the Gonzalez loan deal. Keegan won on a technicality - i.e. he didn't have final say on a nobody loan deal. Keegan didn't walk over the loan deal and everyone knows it. The absence of Milner from the entire tribunal speaks volumes. This wasn't an answer to what I said. Did the club mislead the press, public and fans of Newcastle United as regards Kevin Keegan having the final say on players, or did they not? The judgment indicates that they did.