David Kelly

The makems should have signed him really. Did you see their second goal on Saturday? They make our back four look water tight.

Hopefully Senegal will get knocked out but I'm less concerned about what happens to the rest. I just can't bare the thought of having to suffer Carr in the team for an extended period. Having Faye back would be canny too!

Exactly what I thought. But he would be an excellent signing if we could get him, we're crying out for someone who can pass the ball.

Excellent point. I was fairly happy coming away because at least we tried to play some football. Under Allardyce the midfield was usually completely bypassed unless N'Zogbia managed to get the ball from Given, but now they were clearly under instruction to avoid the long ball as much as possible and build from the back. The confidence is still low and with the amount of players out (not to mention Boltons ten men behind the ball at all times) it was always going to be difficult but at least we tried which was nice to see (although the tit end that sits behind me was complaining every time they got the ball from Given, I can't for the life of me undertand why someone would spend £600 on a season ticket and want to see out keeper hump the ball the length of the pitch at every oppertunity). Shearers coments on motd were also very interesting. Not that he had spoken to Keegan but that he identified how badly we are missing a door opener in midfield. Hopefully this is something that was brought up in his discussions with KK. The media are always so keen to jump on our defence but never noticed our complete lack of ability in attack and it was good to see someone mention it.

Thought it was very good myself. He's right when he says he understands us more than others from the outside. I think he knows we've depressed as fuck about what has happened in the last few seasons. I also get the impression that he has been promised serious funds (don't know about a blank cheque book but I'm sure he'll have a very good wedge) and they really are aiming to do something big again. I think he also realises how difficult this will be but aiming to scrape europe will get us nowhere. I think we will aim for the top (aim not expect or achieve) and for me that's the best way to go. I must admit that I'm more excited about tomorrows game than I have been for any in a long time and I'm starting to feel like I did when I was a kid. And you can't ask for more than that.

The Simpsons. Like a long not incredibly funny episode. It's the Simpsons so it's still canny but they've done much better.

Got to admit, I'm still far from 100% on his appointment but god isn't this better than before. Even if some of it's pure fantasy you can still beleive there's some possibility of it happening under Keegan. Remember when signing Maldini didn't seem impossible?

I was touch and go from what I saw on the telly. But clearly that fuckwit Rennie is to blame. He let their guy get away with a shocking challenge on Emre just minutes before which sparked the situation off. If he had took some action then Emre wouldn't have lost it and would have stayed on the pitch. Is there a worse referee?

I have my reservations about the apointment but this in bold is quite clearly bollocks. He took us to within an inch of the title and I for one would be over the moon to get anywhere near that again. He's got teams promoted no bother at all and never got a team relegated. He's also never had any problems attracting quality players. So Championship leven is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.

Not sure about this tbh. The thought of getting back to what we had is obviously exciting but I'm far from certain that he can do that again. Fingers crossed though and he will certainly have me full support.

Not a problem apologies for the fuck off then I noticed someone else the other night mention the Shearer Haters. I for one idolise him as a player and I would fully support him if he was to get the job. Its the mass hysteria that surrounds him that I am questioning. I really think Tyneside would be up in arms if it was anyone else in the same position getting linked, but still cannot get my head round why its ok for Shearer then. I know some argue "he knows the club" whatever that means, but so do many other ex-players but i really do not think they would get the same acceptance. The mass hysteria could well be the key reason to give him the job. This club is as flat as a fart at the minute and we could do with some hysteria to get things moving again. More than anything else I think that was what worked with Keegan.

I've got nothing against him, I've always quite liked him actually, it's the decision to appoint him that I have a problem with!

Is there a word that means the same as no but is a million times stronger. I really do not see the point in exchanging one mediocre manager for another. Yes he may try and implement a better style of football than Allardyce but really anyone could do that. I would like to think that we are a club with ambition, and I'm not talking about some wild belief that we should be challenging for the league next year or anything like that. We are a club with better resources than 90% of the teams in this country and as such we should be able to compete with anyone and look to be sniffing around the top five on a consistant basis. Appointing a manager who has no track record, is managing a team only three places above us, a team who have won only two home games all season and have failled to score in most of their home games is not showing any sort of ambition as far as I can see. If he is given a vast transfer kitty who will he be able to spend it on? What has he got to attract top class players? The level he has been at for years is what he is good at and isn't what's going to be needed to take a team into Europe. Yet another fuckup by this club and a worrying sign of either the intent or intellegence of our owner.

Yet another case of a manager being overrated by the press a la Souness. I really am struggling to find much in the way of positives here other than his teams usually play half decent football (albeit without any great success in winning games). Most of all I am just pissed off that we've made no effort at all to bring in a top class manager. Chirst even Birmingham showed more ambtion than us. I'm not suggesting for a minute that I expected the likes of Mourinho to be banging down our door but surely we could at least try. Maybe we can get a couple of seasons out of Redknapp where we start moving forward a bit and get into the UEFA cup and then we can try again with a top class manager. Now have a look at their away record I very rarely get to away games these days so that means fuck all to me Anyway you won't get very far if you can only win away. You need to be picking up points at home.

Yet another case of a manager being overrated by the press a la Souness. I really am struggling to find much in the way of positives here other than his teams usually play half decent football (albeit without any great success in winning games). Most of all I am just pissed off that we've made no effort at all to bring in a top class manager. Chirst even Birmingham showed more ambtion than us. I'm not suggesting for a minute that I expected the likes of Mourinho to be banging down our door but surely we could at least try. Maybe we can get a couple of seasons out of Redknapp where we start moving forward a bit and get into the UEFA cup and then we can try again with a top class manager.

And I think Shearer would demand a significant transfer kitty before accepting the job

This might be true but clearly we haven't gone for them or a deal for Redknapp couldn't be nearly done. And if we were putting feelers out before Sam got the bullet and found out that they weren't interested then why bother sacking one mediocre manager to get another in. Would have much preferred Jol myself and surely he would have been interested.

Sums up my feelings. For what it's worth, here's Redknapp's recent record: West Ham 1997/98 8th 1998/1999 5th 1999/2000 9th 2000/2001 15th (sacked after 37 games) Portsmouth (1st spell) 2002/2003 1st, promoted to Premier League 2003/2004 13th 2004/2005 resigns in November Southampton 2004/2005 20th, relegated after taking over in December Portsmouth (2nd spell) 2005/2006 17th after taking over in November 2006/2007 9th Slightly better than I had expected but generally what I thought. Mediocre. True he's never had the funds of mangers at bigger clubs but there is a reason why the've never appointed him.

Hughes would be bad enough but at least he still has his career ahead of him, Redknapp is 60 and done nothing in carreer to suggest he is capable of building a team that is capable of mounting an attack on the top six. His preferred style of football might make the team play a bit better than Allardyce but that is the only positive I think of. If he has players in mind that he wants to sign this transfer window they are going to be Portsmouth standard players and while they might have a better team than us at the moment they are still a club that would see top ten as an excellent acheivement. While I would accept that this season, this certainly isn't where we need to be targeting going forward and these types of players aren't going to get us there. If this happens we really need to stop deluding ourselves that we are a big club because yet again we have failled to show the vision of a big club. To say I will be pissed off would be an understatement. It would be a worse day than the day we appointed Souness because before then our previous managerial appointments had been positive (even if they were failure in Dogleish and Gullit's cases) but now it's just one mess after another.

This is the kind of rumor you need to keep to yourself mate. I've already got the post christmas blues the thought of that useless cockeny being our next manager might send me over the edge!

Does being ITK help you spot someone in Ponteland. Surely all you need is working eyes!

I can't understand why we would even consider Redknapp. What sort of long term plan does that provide with him being 60. Surely he's not planning on working for much longer.

I'm with the lets get it out of the way brigade. Hopefully we will have some quality options and a quality apointment will be made. I'm not convinced though and if we're going to waste time with the likes of Redknapp, Hughes, McClaren or whatever we might as well go with someone unproven who will get better backing (both financially and from the fans) than the majority.

This is true. A few people I worked with back then thought Souness was ideal to sort out Dyer, Bellamy et al. You just have to bite your tongue sometimes like. Exactly. We all heard the 'Souness is just the hard man to sort out those overpaid premadonnas' shite. It's no good believing that all football fans have the sense to consider managers from across Eurpoe with glittering cv's. The fact is that there is a very large vocal section of supporters who are thick as shit. While we would all like to believe thet retarded charvas that Sky find outside the ground at times like these have been searched out just to make us look bad, the fact is there is always plenty of them about. And we're not alone in this by any means, if you ever listen to the Legends most of the callers are fucking retarded and Talk Sport and Five Live isn't much better.

Personally I think the bit about Shearer is spot on. You have to remember that most of our support isn't based around message boards like this but by the masses that believe every word Anal Oliver writes. These people who enjoy but know sod all about football all think Shearer is a god who can do no wrong and him being manager is the only thing that will pacify them. I've already had several people say to me that we should get him in (some suggesting along with Keegan) so no one is going to tell me that 98% of our fans don't want him.