Ken

Well if you look at the Champion's league, not that shit. Although what there certainly is in the Premiership is pretty much two separate leagues. Last time I checked there were more than 4 teams in The Premiership. Mate besides Inter, Roma and Fiorentina, the Serie A is shite. Besides Real Madrid, Barca and Sevilla the Primera League is shite. All four Premier League teams are still in the Champions League. Tottenham, Portsmouth and Everton are good sides. The Premier League is still the best competition in the world. Unfortunately though, there aren't many Englishmen playing in the domestic league. That is where we lack. As for relegation, Newcastle are shite. Every player has a blatant weakness about them. Every fuckin' player. If we don't get relegated I'll be happy to drink 'till I need to be taken to a hospital. It's never happened to me before, but I'll be happy to do it on this occasion...

Or Barcelona if they don't win the CL (looks like Madrid are going to win the league). One or the other would be my guess. Steve Archibald was on talksport yesterday saying how the fans were sick of Rijkaard as his approach is based on defence and not the attacking Barca way. He went on to say Mourinho would be great at Barca !!!! Fuck me, if the fans think Rijkaard's football is boring they're in for a hell of a shock once Mourinho goes there. Steve Archibold hasn't got a clue. Barcelona's philosophy on playing is free flowing and attractive football. Anyone can see that that isn't how Mourinho likes his teams to play. Real Madrid have changed there philosophy from free-flowing attack to a more conservative and solid approach. If Mourinho chooses to go to Spain it'll be to Real Madrid. But all my money is on him going to AC Milan. It is a match made in heaven. Technical, but slow and defence orientated, Mourinho would love it at Milan. That plus the team has to be rebuilt virtually from scratch. It's the oldest team going around in any division in Europe and it'd be a challenge 'The Special One" would savour.

I had a read at some of my old posts on NO the other day, and fuckin hell when you read them back, some of them, I come across as such a cunt. I can't even be reasoned with on some of the threads, but it's good to be self critical. However, I've never come across as big of a cunt as the posters mentioned above. Geez you must be one bored geezer...

Useless tart. Waving his arms around and trying to direct players around. The sooner he goes the quicker our defence will improve...

Seeing that it's a NOTW article are they proper quotes or are they souped up and bogus "quotes" like the one with Mike Ashley?...

Ive given up on the blind faith and optimism and replaced it with "were all fucking doomed to a life of hell and misery" Good...you've come to your senses then

£50m is absolutely peanuts. Remember KK spent £50m at Man City the year they got promoted and they came 9th. The quality of our squad now and Man City's the year they were in the Championship before they got promoted bears a strinking resemblence. £50m would be needed on our midfield alone, and that's minimum. But then you need to look at our defenders, strikers (of which we need to replace a minimum of two) and maybe a gk if Shay cannot overcome his chronic groin problem. Splash the cash Ash...

That's rubbish imo. Of the three or four players I'd keep for next season, Duff would be one of them. N'Zogbia, Owen and Milner are the others. The rest can go and ponder a future elsewhere. What's Duff done to warrant that? Over and above...say...Martins. I think Duff has done well since he's come back from injury. He's a better left winger than N'Zogbia. Duff has the experience and puts himself about. He'll bob up on the left, then switch to the right and try and link up with other players. The sort of stuff he did well while at Chelsea. N'Zogbia is sort of one-dimensional, but I'm not critisisng N'Zogbia at all. He has pace to burn, a decent shot and he takes on players too, but Duff is all over him with his experience and know how. I just would have Duff over Martins myself. Although in saying that Martins isn't our worst player and he wouldn't be in the group of six or seven I'd love to see the club get rid of in the summer.

He's looked uneasy the times I've seen him play. Could be the language barrier. Could be he isn't good enough. Could be he isn't used to such a physical and direct way of playing football. Could be a combination of all these things. Congrats by the way Sam my my mate, Newcastle born and bred. The mighty Jets are flying high! Three cheers to Sammy. Hip hip...HOORAY. Hip hip...HOORAY. Hip hip...HOORAY. I shall be traveling down that way down October, to Sydney and its beautiful surroundings.

Well...you're lucky there like. If we weren't so relegation-tastic I would love to see the likes of Troisi and Carroll in the first team. Just to see if they could cut it...

Enrique. Upon reflection, and not from depising because of lack of sleep and other reasons; I'd keep Beye, Faye, Given, N'Zogbia, Duff, Milner (as a squad player only), Owen. The rest can FUCK OFF RIGHT NOW. PISSANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is dirt. To think the lad wants a pay rise too...

That's a huge call, especially the later, joke or not. Have you actually every seen Troisi play? If he isn't joking than it's fair to say the poor lad wouldn't know what day it is.

Agreed - Taylor is awful and shows no positional awareness at all - the tackle(?) he made for the second ronaldo goal was nothing short of disgraceful and he should be viewed by all as a liability. I still like faye - he was not as solid as i have seen him but he has good positional sense and wins loads in the air - best of a bad bunch and i thought he was having a blinder for much of the first h Couldnt agree more with this, Taylor has learnt nothing positionally and makes rash decisions which dont pay off. He is our new Bramble unfortunately. Barton needs to be dropped. Gave the ball away several times, played passes too heavy, looks like a man waiting on a prison sentence. How bad must Enrique be to not get a shot at LB? N'Zogbia needs to be put back into midfield, although where Im not sure as Duff was one of the better players yesterday. Do you want me to go the full dig? Nicky Butt cannot pass a ball 5 yards. Watching yesterday it's like he purposefully gives the ball to the opposition. I don't care for his "hard" play. Milner cannot cross a ball, or if he has the ball he prefers to dance and wriggle with it...into 4 defenders, while a player is unmarked on the wing. Barton is shite, hope he does time. Smith is a pansy. What Scott Parker was to us last season in midfield, Alan Smith does for us now as a forward, except he can't score like Scott Parker. The team tried for 20 minutes, but once it settled down, we couldn't compete. God help us.

I love the smell of optimism in the morning. Optimism?..what the hell is that, it's been a while?

Taylor is no better than a Championship player. In fact if he doesn't go in the Summer, then he should be loaned out to a Championship side next season. He was pathetic. Waving his hands around, trying to tell others where they should be. I mean who the fuck does he think he is? Then doing a dance that led to the Ronaldo goal. Those who think he is worth the time are kidding themselves. He is no better than Bramble. Our squad are pathetic, and not much better than Wigan's or Birmingham's. That is how shite we are.

That's rubbish imo. Of the three or four players I'd keep for next season, Duff would be one of them. N'Zogbia, Owen and Milner are the others. The rest can go and ponder a future elsewhere.

Yes, but being a better team on paper means fuck all mate. I'm not saying we're in a dogfight right now, but in two weeks when we get smashed by Man Utd and if Fulham, Reading or Birmingham sneak a win, then things will be different. Anyone with half a brain should realise that.

This post for me sums up why signing KK was a mistake. We dont have aspirations or hope anymore its merely blind faith in a man who once, many years ago took us up there. Nothing based on concrete reasoning just the whole nostalgiatastic scenario of the messiah. Thats not knocking you AP or even KK its merely the worry I had from the start, we will blindly follow the man like lemmings regardless of what he does, refusing to give criticism because hes the messiah. I see your point of view PP, but KK will get criticism sometimes. Yesterday he made a mistake not playing Faye [but I'm sure he's learned now]. The only thing that matters now is staying up, and making the board understand that the way forward in football doesn't come cheap. I really don't think they will spend that much. I'll be happily surprised if we spend more than £30m net. I would agree with this comment only for the fact that I doubt KK would have returned to the club if he wasn't promised a decent transfer kitty to play with. I think KK will spend, and spend more than £30m net but only if we stay in the Premiership. The thing with KK as you may well know is that he hasn't gone to a club that hasn't promised and delivered him a decent transfer kitty. And by today's standards £30m is chicken feed.

I expected us to lose against Arsenal like everyone else, and was disappointed we couldn't get 3 points against Bolton and the Smoggies. After all they are battling to avoid relegation and were expected to put up a fight, and we can expect more of that from the other relegation battlers in the coming weeks. But yesterday's performance really, really concerned me. The first half was OK, without being dominant. The second half we looked like shit, and I don't use the word shit loosely. As I said in my post in the game day thread, Ashley and Mort have timed this badly. I won't critisise KK at all, but his input at the club at this time of the season was always going to be limited. You can only talk up the players so much before reality sets in and they fail because they aren't good enough. Where can KK go from here to motivate the players? That's why I'll always view the sacking of Allardyce as a huge mistake by Ashley and Mort. They couldn't have got the timing anymore wrong imo. If it leads us to relegation (and obviously I hope it doesn't!) then these two will go down as the biggest failures in the club's history (of which the most recent of it is unenviable to say the least).

This is what worried me from day 1 though. Allardyce didnt turn us into a nothing team, he did nowt I agree but he didnt dismantle a squad of creative flair players and bring in knackers. Yet already we're planning to move any blame, should the unthinkable happen, firmly away from KK. Allardyce didnt pick that team today, Allardyce didnt give the team talk at half time and Allardyce sure as fuck didnt sit there on the bench nattering to Terry Mac while we were torn apart. Which brings me to my original argument back when Allardyce got the sack. Mike Ashley and Chris Mort are clueless in regards to football. There hearts might be in it, and Ashley has the cash and paid off the debt, but to rid Allardyce like they did was suicide. To bring in a bloke (who may be able to turn us around a bit next season) that had no connections to the modern game and expected him to do any better was just stupid. He doesn't know that the players that once could play can't do it anymore. Carr, Smith, Barton, Butt. Bloody hell, next week he'll start Ameobi. He obviously doesn't rate Viduka. We are too close to a relegation fight for KK to "acclimatise" to where we are at as a football club and the players who aren't up to it. He should never had been made manager until at least a couple of games before the end of the season when we were safe. I'm just looking at the fixture list now, and I don't see too many victories coming our way. We are a joke of a club. People want to bang on about the club being victimised by southerners but it is playing out exactly how they predicted. Do you think the club has any credibility? I think we have none, and with that comes the hardships of a relegation fight, and decent players we'd want to target for next season looking at us and thinking we should be avoided like the fucking plague. Avoiding relegation this season should be met with the same enthusiasm as if we had won the treble. It will be a magnificent effort.

Is Football so different here these days. In many ways NO! tbh.

Ken, are you one of us in disguise? Culina had a good game last night by the way. Nah mate. I is English, but am an adopted Southerner (London). I've been to Australia a few times though and know Sydney pretty well. I brought Jason Culina up as I believe he is the perfect man to replace the useless Nicky Butt. I watch the Dutch league with interest and he's done well for PSV. I know his contract is up this season so he'd cost nothing. I remember him from the World Cup also. His passing both long and short is second to none, and he protects the two centre halves well, he used to be an attacking player too so I think he's the perfect KK type player. As for Bresciano, I think he'd do well in the PL myself. IIRC Sven had him at Man City this season but his Italian club pulled the plug at the last minute because they couldn't get someone to replace him. Great freekicks, great eye for a pass, loves to get in the box. He has qualities that none of our current squad have. We missed out on Elano, so we should get straight in and get Bresciano imo. Direct replacement for Emre. Culina yes, Bresciano no. Culina yes, yes. Bresciano yes. Both players would prosper imo.

Ken, are you one of us in disguise? Culina had a good game last night by the way. Nah mate. I is English, but am an adopted Southerner (London). I've been to Australia a few times though and know Sydney pretty well. I brought Jason Culina up as I believe he is the perfect man to replace the useless Nicky Butt. I watch the Dutch league with interest and he's done well for PSV. I know his contract is up this season so he'd cost nothing. I remember him from the World Cup also. His passing both long and short is second to none, and he protects the two centre halves well, he used to be an attacking player too so I think he's the perfect KK type player. As for Bresciano, I think he'd do well in the PL myself. IIRC Sven had him at Man City this season but his Italian club pulled the plug at the last minute because they couldn't get someone to replace him. Great freekicks, great eye for a pass, loves to get in the box. He has qualities that none of our current squad have. We missed out on Elano, so we should get straight in and get Bresciano imo. Direct replacement for Emre. Ken, I knew you were english from our various conversations but thought maybe you were living here, mind you after your quip at me over sacking Allardyce it's lucky you're not because I would of sent my mum 'round! Culina would be a great shout, especially on a free and as much as he's a twat I'd rather see us in for Cahill than Marco. I'd also like to know what the hell is going on with Troisi because the games I've seen him play (for Australia) he's been outstanding. The only problem I see with having to many Australians is the long and drawn out world cup qualifying process. I'd hate for two of our first choice midfielders to be knackers every game after an international round and I'd hate to see them not available for our country because they have club responsibilities. I'm usually pretty reserved in the worst of times, but things did look pear-shaped for a while there and my passion and concern got the better of me. My apologies friend, and tell your mum there's no need to roll up her sleeves. Thankfully now things have settled a bit and there is a bit of direction about the place. Tim Cahill would be a superb buy, but the fact is he wouldn't leave Everton for us. That's not to say that the players I named would leave their respective clubs for Newcastle, but Cahill has something good going on at Everton and he'd be foolish to move. His predatory skills would be invaluable though. He guarantees 12-15 goals a season every season from midfield. Is he better than Bresciano?...yes probably, the way the game is played in the PL. I rate Bresciano as probably the most technically gifted Aussie, but Cahill has the spark and scoring ability as a midfielder and he's proven himself. I'd have Bresciano at the club regardless though. Better than Emre, and has more skill than the whole of our current midfield combined. Sven wanted him at Man City, and that's good enough for me. KK will need to target unproven quality in the summer and Bresciano fits the bill. Have a look at Joe Cole and tell me if he's too small for the PL. In fact he's one of the better Englishmen playing football so size means bugger all if you have the quality in certain cases.

Ken, are you one of us in disguise? Culina had a good game last night by the way. Nah mate. I is English, but am an adopted Southerner (London). I've been to Australia a few times though and know Sydney pretty well. I brought Jason Culina up as I believe he is the perfect man to replace the useless Nicky Butt. I watch the Dutch league with interest and he's done well for PSV. I know his contract is up this season so he'd cost nothing. I remember him from the World Cup also. His passing both long and short is second to none, and he protects the two centre halves well, he used to be an attacking player too so I think he's the perfect KK type player. As for Bresciano, I think he'd do well in the PL myself. IIRC Sven had him at Man City this season but his Italian club pulled the plug at the last minute because they couldn't get someone to replace him. Great freekicks, great eye for a pass, loves to get in the box. He has qualities that none of our current squad have. We missed out on Elano, so we should get straight in and get Bresciano imo. Direct replacement for Emre.