Big Joe has his work cut out in Toon
With confidence at rock bottom in the Toon dressing room going into Joe Kinnear's six game stint in charge, you have to admit that the former Wimbledon boss has nothing to lose when it comes to his St James's Park experience.
He's got a lot of work to do though and after shaking his head in disgust at the way United went 2-0 down against Blackburn, he will clearly be having words with his defence.
Secondly he will probably have to question United's battling qualities after Blackburn won almost everything in the air.
At least Charles N'Zogbia tried to give it ago when he wasn't getting sliced down to the ground by Blackburn players that is.
But there weren't too many great performances from United even though they gave it a good crack in the second half.
Everything seems to be going against United at the moment with an FA touchline ban for Kinnear coming out of the closet ahead of the game today.
Nice to see the trusty admin staff at Soho Square are on top of things as usual.
Michael Owen's penalty aside though, there was little to shout about.
And by the end of the game, desperate Toon fans will have nothing but good luck wishes for Big Joe.
By God, he's going to need it isn't he?
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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We are Championship bound - most people have firmly realised that now. Wait....maybe not that rotund git who I wouldn't count on running a successful bath.
What an utter tragedy - the work of a handful of almost unfathomable incompetent mugs.
With the present paper thin squad, it does not matter who is put in charge at NUFC, unless there is a miracle we are going down. In my opinion Ashley and his cronies have made an absolute backside of running this club and unless a buyer is found very quickly with some plan and intent, then god help us.
Kevin Keegan obviously seen the writing on the wall long before it happened and 'got out'. However, he should not have spat his dummy out - this just compounded the problems at St.James. The squad he inherited are either not good enough or injury prone. We have 4 centre forwards who are normally injured (Michael Owen/Mark Viduka/ Oba Martins and dare I mention Alan Smith who is a complete waste of space.
There is no excuse for not having a manager although Sir Alex would roust this lot. This squad with perhaps the exception of Michael Owen either wont play, cannot play or cannot be bothered to play, they are a 'ship without a rudder' and an early candidate for the Championship.
It frankly doesn't matter about who manages the current crop of no hopers.
Having witnessed the debacle yeasterday afternoon I then took in the Arsenal Hull City game on Setanta.
What a contrast! A squad that collectively cost less than Michael Owen hustled, harried and ran their hearts out to take the points from an undoubtedly more skillful Arsenal. Hull City however possessed two particular traits that have been sadly lacking too often from our bunch of highly paid whiners: application and HEART!
Even when KK was manager, our performance at the Emirates suggested the shape of things to come. While I'm sure no one can expect this squad to vie for top honours, what is always expected is a display of effort. Little of that has been present lately.
Maybe a relegation to the Championship will have the positive effect of clearing out the 'fat cat' do little players that are bleeding the club dry.
I hope and wish Joe Kinnear all the best. At the very least he will have the ability to tell the players exaclty what he thinks of them; he's nowt to lose in that respect.
Woeful yesterday. I'd give Joe a chance, he knows he's only keeping the seat warm but he's an honest bloke. Let's hope we get rid of 'dead ball specialist' Geremi in January, and Cacapa. I still can't get my head around Hughton, If you have a defenders slot spare and a midfielders slot spare, why put the defender in midfield and the the midfielder in defence. It's not as if either are blessed with much skill or pace. Cacapa never goes over the halfway line and Geremi passes the ball sideways !
Hi Lee
What a mess, I said this during the summer and was told by yourself to just wait and see what happens after the transfer window closes?
Thank you I was proved right, the reason we are in such a mess is the fact we did not buy any descent players in the summer,
Nothing to do with Keegan going, just crap players,
People seem to forget we were only 2 games from relegation last season?????
As for Shearer and Keegan, the club is in the worst mess it has been in its history and where are they when we could do with there help.
NO WHERE TO BE SEEN, SHEARER HAS NOTHING BUT DENIALS WHEN BEEN ASKED BY THE MEDIA IF HE IS WILLING TO GO TO NEWCASTLE ,
WHY DOES HE NOT GO TO ASHLEY AND SAY HE WILL HELP?
AND WHY DOES KEEGAN NOT SWOLLOW HIS PRIDE AND GO TO ASHLEY AND VOULNTEER TO HELP
THEY HAVE ALL DESERTED THE SINKING SHIP???????????????????????????
I, M SORRY BUT THE PEOPLE ABOVE ARE ONLY INTRESTED IN THE CLUB WHEN THINGS ARE GOING WELL.
They have both made plenty of money out of the me and the rest of the fans,TIME FOR PAY BACK?
I think the players are using the situation as an excuse for poor performances while others are deliberately prolonging their injuries. None of our squad has broken legs.
God help us if owen gets crocked - he's the only 1 that looks like scoring.
What difference does it make to the players who owns the club, they still get their money, the worst that will happen to them is they get transfered next open window (if we have a manager by then).
Yes kk going probably shocked them abit and would distract them but they are supposed to be professionals.
If we dont get a new owner by christmas then owen wont get a new contract offer and he'll be off, along with a few others i suspect.
The worst form of torture is to support Newcastle, it is mentally draining!
Now shearer has denied the latest mutterings from ashley that he's ready to come in with the new regime. Probably more attempts by ashley to try and calm the anger amongst the crowd, nothing more.
As for kinnear, good luck to you mate. I dont think he'll take any crap from the players and thats what they need, a good kick up the ass.
The silly stories just keep coming. The latest is that Shearer says the idea of him and KK taking over is just rubbish. And of course now there is talk of a takeover by South Africans which should have the credibility of talk of Nigerians. Necastle stories have become a soap opera for the whole world to get involved in.
Regarding matters on the pitch it sems like Owen is playing to get a move away in January. Poor old Joe can do no worse than the others who have tried but his approach will probably result in a lot of sending offs for Toon players. Soon supporters will just give up on them.
Only Mike Ashley could hire an interim manager who is banned from sitting in the Toon dug out for most of his reign ... WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING ABOUT IT!
Honestly, the bloke's incompetence knows no boundaries.
Relegation might represent a mercigul release at this rate. At least our JOKE of a club - I'm a fan of 25 years, and it kills me to say that, but that's what it is - would hopefully be in the national media spotlight far less.
Remind us all again why we're not the biggest laughing stock in the Premiership??? We've just made the worst managerial appointment since the mackems took on Howard Wilkinson! Joe's performance on Football Focus had me cringing and I had to tell the bairns to leave the room! As for KK coming back - he's been hard done to, but he's not the answer, and never was the second time around. And neither is Sir Al, who is too wise (no pun intended!) to put his reputation and legendary status on the line. I can see my boycotting of the stadium lasting until well into the new year at this rate!
Completely agree with Terry about Shearer. Everytime the club is in trouble and looks to Mr Shearer for help he goes all sloping shoulders on us and looks the other way.
You just wait until a manger comes in and starts to turn things around. Once he sees the fans coming back and success beckoning he'll be there saying how much he'd like to help and positioning himself as the heir elect.
We need people who want to hepl NOW not when the times are good.
I know we are all concerned about the current situation of our beloved team..the confidence and the paper thin Squad and now the appointment of an OAP manager who everyone thinks is passed it and does not have the physical health to cope with the job.....HANG ON!!!! this sounds very familiar..Dare I say Glen Roder. I seem to remember he actually got us in to Europe with most of the starting players out..infact who would of thought Bramble would have scored against Chelsea to get us there. This seems like a very an identical situation Glen knew he would not last more than a season and he did a very good job..better than most. So lets take some heart..now that we have got the Mafia on the run lets start taking care of our own and get the lads on the pitch playing with us rather than not playing for Fat Boy and Weasel.
I am with you Lee, Joe might not be the man we all want but give the guy a chance. And if you were him wouldn't you take it on??? I mean, he has nowt to lose, if he wins every game he is a hero, loses every game and he leaves anyway!
As for Shearer not helping us out, well why would he want to come into this mess and destroy his great reputation with the club. What if he comes in and we get relegated, will he and the fans be happy with that??
It wasn't long ago that Ashley was our hero, he had got rid of Shepard, brought back the Messiah and the good times were coming back.... Then our King quits and all hell breaks out, where is Keegan now??? Sitting in the sun with his feet up waiting for a phone call from Nigeria?!!! Come on, this is beyond a joke, KK has acted just as badly as Ashley in all this, like Terry says, he has deserted a sinking ship.
I for one cant stand Wise and the rest of the bunch, but soon as fans, we have to let this rest and get back to giving our club, yes our club, the full support it needs and deserves. The attendances are down, the players confidence has gone and we dont look like getting another 3 points before Christmas. So what we need is a full house against City, hopefully a few players back after the International break and for the players to run out at St.James's to the loudest support they have ever heard. Make them realise it is our club that they are playing for, and make them player for the shirt that they are paid to wear.
Right, I feel better now!
It is far too early to be talking about relegation. We've only played six games with 32 still to go! Alright some of the performances have been poor, some alarming weaknesses - e.g. defending agst crosses into the middle of our defence - but once some of injured return I believe we will start picking up points.
MO needs support. Without him I think I would also be part of the R brigade. However, there are SEVEN teams within three points of us and MU are only one further ahead! I haven't resigned myself to any eventuality this season and neither should anyone else.
Haway the Toon.