NJS

Initially angry and numb at the same time. Admire his honesty and the stats/explanation from the scab when he went there gives me hope. Could work - more interested in what he had to say regarding sale progress.

I've never liked the bloke but thought his statement made a lot of sense and I admire his stance.

Despite being one of his staunchest defenders, I'd prefer to see a clean break. I think as has been said on N-O, no matter how "right" he was, there'd be too many people waiting for him to quit again - I think he's lost a bit of trust whatever the actual circumstances. Having said that, I can see how new owners would like to get the "everybody on your side" factor by trying for him. I would hope Kevin himself would have the "grace" to turn it down.

Criminal.

He was a shining beacon in a very dark period (in his first year at least) - unfortunately for him Keegan signed and didn't really like him as he was a bit of the cliched "needs a few chances to score" kind in Keegan's eyes.

Burn the heretic!!! (Unless he's another exception in which case I'll let you off) Should have Heard (Pat) and Stewart (Ian) if you want to up the shittiness.

I had a persistent cough/bronchitis last month which meant "sleeping" in my armchair with the tv on all night and that meant I caught repeats of Weeds on Sky. You don't want to know how many people I would happily see killed for 5 minutes with Mary Louise Parker.

Leaving aside the lies and distortions, I lean towards agreeing that a fresh start would be better with no baggage. However I think DK makes a good point about him being the best we could probaly get who actually would have backing.

I keep thinking we'll be alright when the better players get back but as proved by last year, that means nothing without a manager who can pick the right team and inspire confidence. The current limbo has to end before we can judge.

I hate to say it but I think the Mackems have the sort of setup I'd like - okay the backers aren't locals but they have a bridge to someone with the club's interests at heart with Quinn. The local consortium sounds good in principle but I think if it was feasible they'd probably just stretch to the asking price leaving nothing for large investment in players. I guess it is following stereotypes but I can't help being worried by the possibility of Nigerians. As I said before the Chinese one sounds okay in terms of any property development meaning a full scale investment in the club and city but again we don't know what plans they'd have for transfers. A lot of the Arab investors courted last week seemed to be strictly interested with a view to investing in the true sense of the word which is probably better from a business angle but again unsure about the football side. I agree with Isegrim that in many ways Ashley was ideal (though we would have liked more transfer funds) if he had been serious about being in for the long haul (which I now seriously doubt). So What we really need is an over-subscribed in terms of money allowing a major splurge, local consortium which would have links to the club, an inherent long term plan but probably not linked to Shepherd - not much to ask for surely.

Might have changed in recent years but they always had a reputation for looking after their staff really well - hope that's true Magma.

Did he actually manage Leicester at some point ? A mate on Saturday was saying he'd been talking to some Leicester fans who asked why we had Wise when he'd ruined their club.

I just read Bombadil's post about desperation and realised the lad opposite me is on the phone to his mate who's a Sheff Wed fan - the horrifying thought of Wilkinson crossed my mind. Oh for the days when my mate rang me for a communal laugh when he got the Mackem job.

A mate of mine went there when we played in a pre season years ago - reckoned it was full of Scousers and Irish kids looking for bother.

From what has been dished up so far i would tend to agree - but i can't see him taking any shite off the likes of wise et al much the same as keegan so it would surprise me if this was a non starter - i thought he was a little unlucky with some of his signings - Tomasson went on to be a good player with milan and the likes and andersson looked a superstar when he played for sweden but neither could hack it in our league. I think he had a similar success rate of transfers to sir bob -in my opinion like - not that it really matters like cos i reckon its all media shite-but then as has been proved what do any of us really know It wasn't so much his transfers as such - he made a lot of good ones - it was the way that despite finishing 2nd with Keegan's team he set out to dismantle it and build his own which I think was wrong. Having said that if it was to be a rest of the season job, given those who allegedly want out, a temp would need to make his own signings anyway.

If it precluded transfers I actually think this is the "best" option put forward so far.

This coming from someone who wanted Ashley to sell the club cheap as "Every pound saved on buying the club is an extra pound for transfers" Add to that you telling people Jonas and Coloccini are no better than Milner and Faye, yet kicking off saying they can't say how good they are yet when people disagree with you, the hypocrisy must have gone right over your head. No wonder you prefer talking football on here. Don't see the problem with my position - he wouldn't have spent it on players and now he wants a profit on top of the money he put in as opposed to just wanting it back - both ways the man is not someone who cared about anything else but money. Guttierez looks a lot better than Milner but the reduction in numbers is still criminal. I stand by the Collocini/Faye remark after Saturday.

See that's the thing isn't it, I mean it must be blatently obvious that we were doing great up until the point Kev left. On the face of it then if you owned a club, you wanted to be successful, the team was working and things were progressing, why mess with it? More to the point would you choose a Director of Football (ie Wise) over the Manager getting the actual results from the team (ie Keegan). Hmm, I'd have thought it was a no-brainer personally because fuck me, look what happened when you choose the wrong one - the team stop playing, the fans get pissed off and you end up looking no only like a complete cunt but a stupid, lying one at that. I think it's been more than Wise, Jimmy and Vetwhatever, Lambruso seems to have played a large part in the whole palaver since replacing Mort. The whole management structure probably needs to go and to be replaced with people with experience, or at least with intelligence rather than just arrogance. Can't see that happening though. The decision to back his boys over Keegan seems to suggest he was telling the truth about caring about the long term - however his repeated attempts to sell the club pre-shitstorm show that up for the bullshit it is - he's protecting his bum chums.

Yeah I think people are naively reading the "I had to spend 110m on debt" as thinking he would have spent that on players if the debt it hadn't existed - would he fuck.

The debt on the stadium was a compulsory condition of the sale of Hall shares so he had no choice in that matter though it obviously served him right for not knowing about it.

erm.. they did go up hugely on Friday.

Aye I wasn't getting a Geremi today - just saying it highlights the squad depth. I wouldn't call myself a fan of his but I do think he isn't half as bad as some make out - he is slow but I think he's got a decent footballer's brain somewhere in him.

As I've said about last week and today his effort has been untouchable. Of course if it was Viduka people would be saying he was just playing for his next contract

The reason I tend to talk football here and just read over there is that there are too many spoilt brats and yes I'll say it foreigners. The way they dismiss people who actually go to the games because "well actually, you get a much better view on TV" really fucking sickens me. I haven't spoken to one person who isn't at least disappointed with Keegan as has been said but I'd seriously consider giving the starter of that current thread a good kicking.

Just read the first page of the "He's gone down in my estimation" thread over there. Fucking hell :icon_lol: Fighting a lonely battle over there. I dont want to turn the whole thing into an "us and them" thing but how can one message board have such different views from almost all of the others? Yes, the odd person has asked questions here and elsewhere but generally those have been questioning posts rather than out and out support for Ashley etc. If I ever meet anyone who uses the phrase "the structure was working" in real life I fear for my actions.