We can't afford a Brum deal

Mike Ashburn wrote...

I view the prospect of Monday's game,with the same sense of foreboding that I've had in the past,when I've had to go to a reception after a funeral.
You're never sure what the atmosphere is going to be like,and you're hoping that nothing will go amiss,so that everything that follows will not be ruined.
Whatever the final outcome on Monday,
I'll be a bag of nerves before and during the game!
At least at a wake the surroundings and ambience,lend themselves better than a
relegation six-pointer in Brum.
Mike Ashburn

Posted by: Mike Ashburn  | March 16, 2008 11:35 AM

COCKNEY_SPIV wrote...

Cor blimey!!! Said Wisey - can it really be that the Messiah is simply the Emporer's Clothes

Do you want to do a Leeds? KK’s grim question
Mar 16 2008 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

KEVIN KEEGAN has a chilling warning for anyone who believes Newcastle are too good – or too big – to go down . . .

“Look at Leeds.�

The Magpies head into tomorrow night’s Premier League basement battle at Birmingham with some fans still struggling to contemplate a drop into the Championship.

But Keegan has no need of a reality check as he looks for his first win in nine games since returning to St James’s Park.

Posted by: COCKNEY_SPIV  | March 16, 2008 12:34 PM

Nenad in Belgrade wrote...

Yesterday I read a few on-the-way-down articles and one thing I couldn't stop thinking is that we won just a single point against Derby all seson...

I believe we could just scrape a point or all three even, loosing the noose a bit, and thus allowing the team to show that there are not one of the 3 worst teams in the league.

On the other hand, I just don't know how will the rest of the season look like...

Oh well... Still believing...

Posted by: Nenad in Belgrade  | March 16, 2008 12:50 PM

gordon wrote...

Its interesting that the sunday sun today done a piece on a new manager very strange.

Posted by: gordon  | March 16, 2008 1:57 PM

Paul Patterson wrote...

I have to take issue with your last line there Lee- Don’t ‘Let’ it happen boys.

The fact that you used the word ‘let’ is very worrying as we don’t have the players capable of not ‘letting’ it happen.

In the past the sides that stay up are filled with a load of grafters with some ability, but their lack of any real ability will prevent them from getting anywhere near mid-table- The current side doesn’t have any real quality in it and that’s why they are where they are.

But worryingly I don’t actually feel there are any players in the current Newcastle United squad with enough about them to not ‘let’ ‘it’ happen.

Nicky Butt is one player who will give the graft and the desire that will halt a potential disaster, but his legs are now well past him and he’s is looking every bit the player I thought he was at Man Utd- The odd one out between him, Scholes and Keane.

I don’t wish to pick on Nicky Butt as I like him, I’m sure he’s a great lad and I honestly thought we missed a chance in having him as a captain instead of Michael ‘Follow Alan Shearer around the country in his £2m chopper’ Owen, but harsh is what we have to be- Owen wouldn’t be anywhere near my first team at present.

The midfield is the biggest problem for me, as if they aren’t doing their jobs, as a consequence, the back four don’t know what the hells going on and the forwards are left completely isolated and perplexed as the where the next chance is coming from.

The first choice central partnership would be Butt and Emre as this gives the engine room a degree of defensive stability and attacking flair, but both players are so flawed it’s untrue.

I’ve explained why Butt isn’t up to it, but Emre- I can’t trust him to play three games in a row, never mind expect him to play three GOOD games in a row.

When Sir Bobby Robson was in charge, I honestly thought ‘a couple of good players and we’d be a hell of a side’ now, our problems are so varied and wide ranging, it’s difficult to actually name players you’d be inclined to keep in the summer- depending on what Division were in- the defence is it’s usual self (Only worse) and the attack can’t score.

Talk of a £50m ‘War Chest’ is absolutely crazy until were safe in this league, but I think that we need eight players (Minimum)

In the present- results went ok for us this weekend- even Fulham are still a few points adrift, but I really hope that it’s a case of ‘as you are now’ with regards to who goes down- I think it will be with Derby gone, Fulham just about so and Bolton continuing to get beat.

Amazingly I honestly think that another two wins will keep us in this league- Shows you how bad the teams are around us.

Over to you Newcastle United.

Paul

Posted by: Paul Patterson  | March 16, 2008 6:47 PM

stevie wrote...

I think we have the players to get the job done, but they are either injured (Emre for example) or not being played (Martins for example). Put out the usual mob, who have been failing week in week out, and we will get the same results. Journalists, fans, T.V pundits have all been asking why the team has not been shaken up, why Martins has not been playing instead of Smith. Surely Keegan has got the message now.

Posted by: stevie  | March 16, 2008 11:17 PM

Siomi wrote...

I agree with Paul, two wins and possibly the odd draw will keep us up, and I think we will get them. I have never believed we will go down, we won't.

This is not because we are too good to go down, or that there are others who are so bad, it is just that the top third are SO good. The fact that nearly the entire bottom half of the table 'could' go down shows the two tier nature of the Premier league today.

We will win a few and we will stay up, even if Kevin would prefer us to go down...

Posted by: Siomi  | March 17, 2008 3:33 AM

STEVE wrote...

I beleive we have the personnel at the club to beat birmingham and the rest of the teams around us,but like it been said countless times,its all down to the side that KK puts out.Play smith,barton,butt,cacapa in the same side and we WILL lose,play emre,charlie,oba and we have more of a chance.Worryingly leading into this game KK has been lauding fatboy viduka,i hope to god he doesnt start with him,he NEVER looks interested or fit.I thought id never seen the new lad diatta play before,then it was pointed out to me that i had,he played in the besiktas side that lost to the scousers 8-0!!!I have been quietly optimistic that we will stay up,despite the rubbish performances and the press who are indulging in our misery(and magnifying it and making it worse)but lose tonight and IT becomes all too real.Im not going down today but i have got setanta, i dunno whether to watch it though,and that just aint me,i am a wreck of nerves already and its only 8am.Its like that away game at leicester and david kellys goal and all that,which somehow doesnt seem too long ago right now.Brum seem to have found their shooting boots recently with 6 in 2 games,and mcleish has them playing a compact,harrying style,i just hope we go into the game beliving we will win,i think brum will be susceptible to obas pace so please god he starts.I watched the makems play chelsea on saturday,and while both teams were crap and chelsea won but i thought the makems battled to the death,we would have capitulated after the goal,weve got too many players who dont care and are just happy to get their fat cheques then bail out if we go down,and they know who they are,i just hope kev does too before its too late.Watched sunday supplement with brian woolnough et all yesterday,and they are just mocking us at every opportunity,which i am used to now,but i do take exception to their claims that we are such a badly run club from top to bottom,this could have been levelled at shepherd etc but these guys have only been at the club 2 minutes,what exactly have they done wrong? anyway its squeaky bum time and chowed fingernails tonight.....HOWAY THE TOON SHOW SOME BOTTLE AND STICK IT UP THE BRUM....

Posted by: STEVE  | March 17, 2008 8:15 AM

tara wrote...

tonight will see the final humiliation of the geordie football nation , the culmination of 5 yrs of mismanagement .your grey haired hero and his gang of under achieving overpaid wasters will be slaughtered by the firepower of brum . 4 goals against spurs ,2 against pompey , forssell on fire ,mcfadden , larsson ,i'm predicting 5 - 1 to brum . by tuesday lunchtime good old kev will have left the club by mutual agreement with 3 mill in his back pocket and on wednesday wise supported by venables will try to lift the demoralised troops in time for the fulham team ,for whom mcbride is just returning to form .....oh dear ....at least you'll get a nice day out in blackpool next season .

Ryder's reply: Didn't quite work out like that though did it?

Posted by: tara  | March 17, 2008 11:34 AM

Andy Fox wrote...

Alan Smith will score!
Joey Barton will string some passes together and not get caught ball-watching.
Nicky Butt will remember that he is not Nobby Solano and he'll keep it simple.
Martins will start.
Owen will be on form!

Have faith!

Posted by: Andy Fox  | March 17, 2008 12:50 PM

Carl wrote...

Ill quite happily take a point right now out of tonights game, sadly i dont think we will even manage that, you just know Smith is going to start, maybe not up front tonight but im sure we will find a place for him in the midfield/right back/wanna be makelele type role, or maybes he will play in goal tonight because we hav'nt tried him there yet. Theres just no point fighting it any more he will start every game this season no matter what anyone says because hes a "battler".
I think we will just survive this season though, not because were any good or have any fighting qualities, but because Bolton are cr** and have a really difficult run in, so they SHOULD prop up the other 17 teams in the league, with fulham and derby already doomed.

Prediction for tonight: Newcastle to get done 1-0 in a sadly sterile, low quality, boring game.

(Apologies for being so negative)

Posted by: Carl  | March 17, 2008 12:54 PM

ben wrote...

best team for tonight:
HARPER BEYE FAYE TAYLOR ENRIQUE NZGOBIA BUTT BARTON DUFF MARTINS VIDUKA. NO SMITH AWFUL! OWEN EMRE GERMEI BENCH

Posted by: ben  | March 17, 2008 3:27 PM

Bill wrote...

If I were offered a draw now I grab it like a drowning man clutching for a straw. We can't keep clean sheets - we are effectively going onto the pitch 1 nil down - and we are not scoring goals! So, OM must start with MO, ie OMMO, sounds like a soap powder (sorry!), MV to be given a runout later in the game and Smith to play in midfield.
I will be very interested in the attitude and effort of the team. If we are out-battled, out-fought, out-thought then we are in deep, deep trouble.
Fingers crossed for a 1-1 result.

Posted by: Bill  | March 17, 2008 6:37 PM

norman sennett wrote...

What was Kevin thinking about by taking off Martins against Brum and leaving that useless Viduka on the pitch. Honestly, Lee, what can Kevin see in Viduka? I was only a printer but, even I, having watched United since about 1948, know the difference between someone who wants to play for his team, and someone who only appears for the paycheck. For goodness sake send him back to Oz where he might just get a game in their League, which, having just returned from Oz after nine weeks, is somewhat similar to our Sunday morning league. No doubt Kev will have a massive cleare out in the summer, getting rid of the rubbish that Big Sam assumed were great buys. If we survive. his first buy should be Micar Ricards from Man. City, who i am sure will help shore up a woeful defence.

Posted by: norman sennett  | March 17, 2008 10:25 PM