Walking in a Hughton wonderland?

Posted on October 19th, 2009 | 74 Comments |

Shake on it?
Shake on it?
Well it seems the big fella has followed his words with actions and verbally offered Chris Hughton a permanent contract as Newcastle manager. It’s a pity the offer will be clouded slightly by his ramblings in The Sunday Times, which leaves us under no illusions who is really ‘the boss’ around here.

As for Hughton, it’s arguably an offer that he deserves given where we are in the table, recognised by the league when receiving his Manager of the Month awards. Moreover in being able to do this with the cr*p state of affairs he’s had to put up with.

Many will argue he’s the wrong choice and point to failed previous attempts by Richard Dinnis and Glenn Roeder to successfully move their decent caretaker record into a permanent role. Chris will now potentially have time to prove or disprove those fears as real or not.

Hughton told the Chronicle today:

“I am honoured to be offered the job, we are still in negotiations, it is something we hope will get resolved.

“I’ve always felt that the manager’s situation was an issue, but not the most important one.
“Getting results has been the most important thing.

“Once we have got Scunthorpe and Doncaster out of the way, we will have discussions with Derek Llambias.

“It will involve moving from caretaker to manager on a full-time basis.

“They have indicated to me that they want to turn it from a temporary role to a permanent one.”

So nothing is certain yet but it looks like, unless talks break down, Hughton will be installed as manager and Ashley could be planning to stick around a bit longer. Now there’s something to give you sleepless nights.

More on this, and reflection, later…

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74 Responses

  3. Unless the severance pay is rubbish and this is just another ‘temporarily’ permanent move? Hughton might just take it anyway.

  4. This can only mean fatcash is staying. HUGE GROAN.

    Naturally, like most other toon fans, I wish Hughton the very best of luck and hope that he can make a success of the job – for all our sakes.

    However we all know, this is an appointment in ‘name only’ and means very little other than giving Chris a little more job security – no don’t laugh, ensuring things will proceed as before.

    According to the recent words of our illustrious owner, poor Chris will have to make do with the players that pastyface himself selects.

    Why does this make me feel suicidal?

  5. you cant fail but to like hughton and admire the job he has done he wouldnt have been my first choice i guess he deserves a chance also since when did notts county start getting more media coverage than us i know they are ownedby billionaires but we are still the bigger club

  6. Something doesn’t add up here. Was it only yesterday that Ashley was quoted as as saying that he was reducing the price to £80m, and supposedly people had a week to provide the funds? And hasn’t he been resisting appointing a permanent manager because he is selling the club?? Why now appoint Hughton if he is still trying to sell? Nothing against Hughton, but if it means that twit of an owner is staying its all rather depressing!

  7. Appointing Hughton on the crest of a slump, what a joke, the chance to build on the good start to the season has been wasted and we will finish up mid table at best.
    No ambition, no cash, no style and now no hope.

  9. Is it a case of: Right, if no-one (moat) is gonna pay the quoted price for the club, we will be appointing CH as manager/coach? But, anyway, you’ve (moat) got a week to sort it out & therefore appoint your own man?
    All the very best to CH, if he does take ‘proper’ charge.

  11. What a disaster !

    Ashley is clearly mad… From his comments to the timing of his appointments….. Mad !

    It’s almost as if he wants to be hated !
    What makes a person actually want to be hated ? Stardust ?

  12. Can’t argue with Hughton being given the chance for the rest of the season, but this indicates to me that Ashley either has given up hope of selling the club for a while or it’s an attempt to prove he’s serious about bidders only having a limited time to come up with the £80m now.

  13. hitman says:
    October 19, 2009 at 4:56 pm
    i reckon this is a tactic by ashley to hurry moats bid up like.

    We dont normally agree Hitman but I agree with that – even Hooouughhhton has said they are sitting down after the next 2 games. To Moat its put up or shut up times me thinks.

  14. Hands up all those that want moat now.
    All his dithering or hand in glove tactics don’t auger well for any possible future, do they?

  15. Hitman I think you have hit the nail on the head.
    Stardust > To Moat its put up or shut up times me thinks
    Its not often i agree with you Lol. But If Fat Ma was really given CH the managers name badge why not today why wait even longer I dont think it would take that long and why not wait untill CH excepted it before telling us. This story is to fishy

  16. stardust do you not post on the other blog anymore under your other usernames Nando, Troy stavers or Bennytoon as I haven’t seen you on lately or heard much of your onesided views

  17. CH was probably gonna be manager all season anyway, so i don’t see the point of making it ‘permanent’ & causing further distain & despair among the fanbase.
    They shoulda just carried on with their usual ‘say nowt, act casual’ approach.
    It’s either a machiavellian move or a bitter endorsement of gross stupidity, par excellence.

  19. Big Dave says:
    October 19, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    “Stardust tut tut tut any truth in that ? you dirty dog”

    Of course there isn’t, Dave. Some people just like to throw mud around and hope that some of it sticks.

  20. Worky hows it going, whats your thoughts on CH being in talks for the managers job ? do you think it strange

  21. Thanks Worky – I have learned to wear a teflon suit – people even posting as me on other sites now lol – hilarious.

    Its even funnier you think Troy and I are one and the same – I have had about 10 texts off him today fizzin mad about hooouugghhtons appointment.

    Personally as long as its a year long rolling contract I think its a good thing.

  22. Big Dave says:
    October 19, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    “Worky hows it going, whats your thoughts on CH being in talks for the managers job ? do you think it strange”

    It’ll be gannin’ better when I can move me heed a bit like (long story) how about yourself?

    I don’t think it’s finalised yet Dave, and I think the next two games might have a big influence. I don’t think that Hughton can win either way with alot of the fans though. This way will only reinforce the prejudice that Ashley is making him permanent because he’s some kind of obsequious ‘yes man’, expecially with Ashley’s comments that he will have the “final say” on players coming into the club. Of course, ALL owners have a final say on players coming into the club when they decide whether to put their scrawl on the cheques or not, but this won’t stop the sniping, and it was unnecessary for Ashley to say that.

    As for it being “strange”, I think it’s a strange situation that he has been a caretaker for so long, but that’s because the sale of the club has been such a strange farce. I’ve known for a long time that no-one serious has been really interested in the club, and that people like Moat and Sheard are just oppotunist clowns who could be even worse than Ashley.

  23. Worky your right Hughton can’t win either way and I do feel for him as he is a good guy in all this sh1t. As for Moat I was all for him at 1st but the longer it goes on for the more I worry, incase he was just being used by Ma and Co. I think Ma was having a dig at him to basically say right im pissed of with you hassling me now put your money were your mouth is. In general I just find everything that Ma does Strange ;)

  24. Despite his incompetence, attitude and general obnoxiousness we’re better off with Ashley than we would be with someone who simply doesn’t have the money to run the club.

    Naturally the best solution is for the club to be bought by someone who can afford it. I don’t know whether Moat can actually afford this club – certainly if the press is to be believed he’s struggling, although I have no idea how reliable the press reporting is.

  25. Hughton?

    Here we go again……do people never learn from history?

    Richard Dinnis, Willie McFaul, Glenn Roeder…..now this puppet bloke…

    I despair

  28. UTD111 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    “Hughton?

    Here we go again……do people never learn from history?

    Richard Dinnis, Willie McFaul, Glenn Roeder…..now this puppet bloke…”

    UTD111, that’s a logical fallacy, and therefore irrelevant. Your unnecessary sniping at Hughton just proves my point above. :-)

  30. Worky’s latest pearls of wisdom LOL:

    “UTD111, that’s a logical fallacy, and therefore irrelevant. Your unnecessary sniping at Hughton just proves my point above.”

    Come on then….(yawn) – show me the “sniping” – I notice you were quick to amend your post and take the other words out….LOL

  31. batty says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    “stardy loved your comment in notw m8 lol”

    batty, this one made me chuckle.

    By stardust. Posted October 18 2009 at 9:50 AM.
    IT WILL ALWAYS BE KEEGANS WONDERLAND

  32. Worky, like it or not, there’s a lot of people wary of promoting caretaker managers, and with good reason. It’s just as knee-jerk to champion his case after a handful of games in the Championship as it was to ridicule his previous stints as caretaker manager last season. No Hughton. No Shearer. A proper manager please…

  33. In rhetoric, a fallacy is a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning in argumentation

    So Worky – your argument is that the 3 fellas I mentioned were all raging successes at the Toon then??

  34. UTD111 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    “Come on then….(yawn) – show me the “sniping”

    UTD111 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    “now this puppet bloke…”

  36. workyticket says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:54 pm
    UTD111 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    “Come on then….(yawn) – show me the “sniping”

    UTD111 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    “now this puppet bloke…”

    Is that it????

  37. A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure (Hughton) animated or manipulated by a puppeteer (Ashley)

    Everyone can see that Worky…..why is it “sniping” in your mind??

  38. ShiverMeTimbre says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    “Worky, like it or not, there’s a lot of people wary of promoting caretaker managers, and with good reason.”

    Shiver, it’s a logical fallacy and you could use the same kind of false ‘reasoning’ for all manner of things. For instance, I could say that Shearer was a crap manager because lots of other great players have also become crap managers in the past. It means absolutely nothing.

  40. Hardly false reasoning when there’s virtually no examples of a caretaker being appointed full time and making a success of it, whereas Daglish, Clough, Guardiola, Kendall made the transition from top player to top manager pretty smoothly. If you’d suggested that great players automatically make for bad managers, then you’d have a logical fallacy on your hands.

    You really want to give the full-time job to a coach after several games in the Championship, nice guy or not?

  41. batty says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    “worky didnt you read the 1 wen he sed i agree with batty he always talks sense”

    Aye batty, I got a bit mixed up there because I didn’t check it first. ‘Stardust’ (lol) said that, then you replied: “IT WILL ALWAYS BE KEEGANS WONDERLAND”. It’s still funny though. You and Stardust should be a double act.

  42. batty says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    “worky who would you want as manager”

    There are a few batty, my initial choice would have been Alan Curbishley. However the last thing Newcastle United should do is change managers again at this point, as that was the reason for our downfall in the first place. It has been thus for many decades now.

  43. ShiverMeTimbre says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    Shiver, how many caretakers managers have been appointed as full time managers, only a tiny handful in comparison to your example, and one of those won the European Cup. Trickery doesn’t work with me I’m afraid.

  44. It’s not even so much the changing of the Managers, more to do with the fact that the right one is rarely appointed (Souness, Roeder, Gullit to name but a few). On the rare occasion when the club has made the right appointment (Keegan, Robson), we’ve had the best football/times in recent history.

  45. i would also have prefered curbs the only problem is he tends to play quite defensively

    ps worky did you read my comments about soccerlens ??

  46. Oh, Tony Barton you mean, who was subsequently sacked for his disappointing record in the league? Not the best example, i’m afraid. If you can give me at least five successful examples though, I would be happy to admit there’s mileage in doing so.

    Again, any good reason to appoint a coach after several games in the Championship?

  47. summerof69 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    “i would also have prefered curbs the only problem is he tends to play quite defensively

    ps worky did you read my comments about soccerlens ??”

    Yup, I meant to say a big thanks for that when you were on next. It’s still early days here though.

  48. sounds promising worky but the fact that i recommended you for new blog of the year and the fact he is thinking of putting you in a more advanced category is a good sign

  49. Although I harbour doubts as to whether Hughton deserves to be given the reigns, I respect the guy for his dignity, and he comes across as a thoroughly decent chap and a darn fine coach.

    Just don’t see him as a top-class Manager. Does that make me deluded? No. Does that make me anti-Cockney? No. Do I automatically think Shearer should get the job? No.

    A proven, experienced Manager is required. No more, no less. You know, the kind Fulham and Villa appoint.

  50. Shiver, you know perfectly well that a caretaker manager taken from a lower level within the club stands less chance of success on average than someone who has been hand picked from outside. As I have already written, the sample group is far smaller, so it’s hardly a valid comparison anyway. However to judge Chris Hughton on what other caretaker managers have done in the past is unfair and illogical.

    It is also imperative that Newcastle acheive some kind of stabilty and consistency under one manager for more than five minutes.

  51. shiver but we arent fullham or villa they are sensible straight forward normal clubs…………. we arent we are experts at shooting ourselves in the foot but someday our time will come. when ?? i dont know. but the chances are chances are it will come in an unusual perhaps even controversial fashion. shiver jsut remember this………………only at nufc

  53. Indeed Worky, it’s certainly more difficult to attain success from such a position, which is why very few appointments are made permanent. Successful clubs do not appoint caretaker managers on a permanent basis. I’m judging Hughton on the rather important fact that he is first and foremost a coach and not a Manager, which to my mind is more troubling than the historical records of caretaker managers.

    Judge him on last season and he’s awful. Judge him on this season and he’s done spiffing. In essence, far too early to consider handing him the full-time position. A good coach and a nice guy, but to consider giving him a long-term contract at NUFC as Manager? File me under wary.

    Stability? Oh yes but again, only with the right man at the helm, otherwise we could still have been stuck with Souness.

    Is it really so difficult to appoint a proven, experienced manager? Or must we persist in a straight choice between two vastly inexperienced options in Shearer and Hughton? Maddening, truly maddening.

  54. summerof69 says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    “sounds promising worky but the fact that i recommended you for new blog of the year and the fact he is thinking of putting you in a more advanced category is a good sign”

    When did he say that 69? I think we’d stand more chance as a new blog as there’s still such a long way to go.

    ShiverMeTimbre says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:44 pm

    “A proven, experienced Manager is required. No more, no less. You know, the kind Fulham and Villa appoint.”

    You WOULD have a point there usually, but Fulham and Villa aren’t the same as Newcastle. They didn’t have five changes in one season for a start. Hughton may not be the perfect choice in terms of experience, but we really need to STOP CHANGING MANAGERS EVERY FIVE MINUTES.

  55. Just to clarify, if he is indeed appointed as the next permanent NUFC Manager (an oxymoron if ever there was one!), i’ll be delighted for the guy and will back the chap to the hilt, as i’ve done with every single NUFC Manager, reservations or not.

    We all at some time or other may disagree over certain aspects regarding NUFC, but ultimately we all want the same thing – a successful Newcastle United, or at least a club to be proud of.

  56. ShiverMeTimbre says:
    October 19, 2009 at 11:03 pm

    “I’m judging Hughton on the rather important fact that he is first and foremost a coach and not a Manager”

    Many good managers were coaches before they became managers. I really don’t understand what you’re trying to say there?

  57. Okay Worky, how about Spurs as a yardstick, who were -just as we were – lurching from one managerial appointment to another with no success. However, they eventually plumped for a guy with the neccesary credentials in Harry Redknapp, and haven’t looked back since.

    Not a coach cum caretaker manager, not a former player/demi-god, but a bonafide, experienced proven manager. Once we’ve done that, THEN we stick by them. It really can’t be that difficult, surely?

  58. Quite simple Worky. He is not a Manager. He is a coach. But if you’re happy appointing someone full-time after a few games at Championship level, then fair enough.

  59. worky

    i wrote to soccerlens saying

    i just thought i would bring you to the attention of a brilliant new blog called nufc blog.org as i know that that the blog awards will be coming up soon and i think this should be a contender for the new blog of the year competition it was started by members of the nufc blog.com when ed announced he would be closing the blog though in the middle of the process of beginning the blog the news came that ed would be carrying on with nufc blog.com which meant that there is now 2 blogs for toon fans and both blogs should be in contention to win an award this year

    then ahmed bilal of soccerlens wrote back saying

    Had a look at the site – very nicely done. Will be included in the contenders for sure, but can’t confirm the category yet.

    surely this means he is considering putting the site in a better category-not that new blog of the year is a bad category

  61. Because he is one? The fact he was hired primarily for that very position? Don’t get me wrong, i’m not suggesting he is jettisoned immediately, in fact I do think he deserves and indeed should be given until the end of the season. But to give him a lengthy contract at this stage? Crazy.

  62. You really are a workyticket.

    I had a pint of it the other night in Durham. It was cold and uncompromising too :)

  63. Methinks there exists a degree of contrariness out in the ether for the sake of it, BBM. Naming no names of course!

    Are you as non-plussed as I am about recent events then, BBM?

  64. The latest musings on recent events on Barrack Road from True Faith for the persual of all good ladies and gentlemen of this fine, upstanding blog:

    So then, Chris Hughton is set to be offered the NUFC managerial post on a permanent basis. What absolute and total nonsense from those running Newcastle United FC. Chris Hughton has done an adequate job keeping the plates spinning (the whole pre-season preparation having been planned by Alan Shearer) as those above him display yet more their unsuitability to run a professional football club. I am sure Hughton is a decent man and he has kept some semblance of dignity at the shambles calling itself Newcastle United but manager of Newcastle United? Please.

    For me Hughton has now crossed the line. He is no longer coping with a situation, he is complicit with it. Everyone with even the remotest interest in Newcastle United FC knows exactly why Ashley has selected Hughton and its not because he wants a strong man with a deep knowledge of the game, a charisma to pull everyone together and provide leadership for the institution of Newcastle United. Its because he’ll do everything asked of him by Ashley/Llambias and has no power to challenge them. Hughton will have absolutely no authority in the boardroom and I’d guess once the novelty of him being the “manager” wears off, he’ll lose the tenuous authority the senior players have allowed him in the dressing room. Chris Hughton has thrown his lot in with Ashley only a day after the FCB told a national newspaper that he didn’t have a clue about football but he’s still going to be in charge of which players come and go. It is beyond illogical. Its enough to have you checking out the Mental Health Act to see if we can’t get this goon sectioned.
    Hughton will work for Mike Ashley. We’d like a manager who will work for Newcastle United FC. This is an appointment rooted in incompetence and doomed to failure.

    Not without good reason Mike Ashley doesn’t speak to the press much. Every time he opines to the media and his words are relayed to the cognoscenti the reaction is one of piss-boiling rage levelling down to head-shaking despair.

    The latest bull-shit from him about how he puts more money into the club than all of the supporters collectively has an undercurrent of petulance running through it which hints that this charmless oaf has learnt nothing either about the mistakes he has made or how to cope with the frailties of his own fragile psyche.

    Is Ashley seriously telling us he is dissatisfied at the level of support Newcastle United is getting from its public this season? If so, the man lives in a fantasy world. The support given to Newcastle United this season has been nothing short of phenomenal and if he wants to learn how good it really is he should consult his counterpart Steve Gibson at Boro, a decent man who has quietly bankrolled his home-town club for a very, very long time and whose long term legacy at Boro will be a state of the art training facility and a decent modern stadium. Gibson, acknowledged as one of football’s good guys has been repaid for his stewardship of his club by an astonishing desertion from the stands by the Teesside public. That isn‘t opinion – it is statistical fact. Newcastle United FC had 43K for Bristol City. Go and ask Steve Gibson if he’d be happy with that in the good times for Boro let alone the bad ones. Or 70% of the teams in the Premier League. Mike Ashley hasn’t earned the support of a single person clicking through the turnstiles.

    Ashley has stated he is putting £20m of his own money into NUFC every season as though this was some demonstration of his largesse. The fact is Ashley is having to subsidise his own stupidity. It was Ashley himself who failed to conduct due diligence when he bought the club from Sir John Hall, who I congratulate for being able to keep a straight face when agreeing a price for a company which had served its purpose as a nice cash cow for the Hall and Shepherd families. The final £135m denouement paid to Hall-Shepherd by a grotesquely reckless Ashley, obviously thinking he was getting a bargain he could quickly sell on at a nice little earner in my opinion was Mr Trackie Bottoms’ fault and no-one else’s. Act in haste, repent at leisure. Fail to prepare. Prepare to fail. And on and on. No-one put a gun to his head and forced him to buy NUFC did they?

    It was Ashley himself who has consistently appointed the outrageously unqualified to run Newcastle United. And it is that selection of fools and knaves – Mort, Llambias, Wise, Jimenez and Kinnear who have ruined his business and cost him dearly. Listen to Alan Shearer speak of what he inherited last season as the club lurched towards relegation and you will detect professional bewilderment and desperate sadness at the manner in which an institution that means so much to us all has been dismantled by a desperate stupidity and venality.

    Players have been signed at fees and put on salaries well above their value (step forward Collocini) and players have been sold at fees well below their worth to clubs who can easily afford much more (Shay Given to Man City). Players have been signed without the relevant clauses put in their contracts to cope with relegation. As recently as January 09 when Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor joined NUFC contracts were signed without relegation clauses. Ashley approved the practice of paying out £1m on a player who was hopelessly inadequate for the PL as a favour to two So American scouts and backed the architect of this madness over a manager who carried the respect of the whole squad and the support. And where exactly is this stream of young So American talent that “favour” was meant to generate?

    It was Ashley who appointed Joe Kinnear as manager – another clueless lickspittle with no respect in the changing room or in the stands who should now be retired to a home for the perpetually bewildered.

    Ashley may be taking a massive hit in the wallet but the responsibility for his errors rests with him. He deserves the support of fuck all from those of us he has sent to despair with his appalling stewardship of something we all love very much and which is a massive part of our lives. This oaf will take us to the limit.

    *

    The imminent appointment of Hughton would tend to indicate the game is up for Barry Moat‘s takeover. The Tyneside millionaire appears to have more high hopes than high finance. If Ashley is to be believed and let’s get it right, that is a massive IF, Moat simply does not have the dough to buy the club. It is galling but Ashley may be right to suggest Moat just can’t afford the club if he is wanting to pay for it in instalments. NUFC for £80m is a snip and how a club with one of the best stadiums in Europe, excellent training facility, a really strong brand and massive potential can’t be sold now just leads us down another road of speculation and mistrust. Or it could just be the economy stupid. What Seymour Pierce have achieved other than stringing journalists along with tales of imminent takeovers escapes me.

    *

    Just as Hughton prepares to be appointed as a permanent manager, the big questions about the team and the strength of the squad have returned with a vengeance. One goal in three games two of them at home tells its own story. There is insufficient attacking options and the whole game plan looks one dimensional with no Plan B. There is a crippling lack of pace in the team, very little creativity in the midfield and we lack width. The performance at Forest was awful but those of us who have been part of big expectant away followings down the years tend to have an expectation that the players will frequently fail dismally to match the fervour from the away end. As it was, as it is.

    Whether opposing managers in this division have sussed us remains to be seen. We’ll have a better idea at the end of this week when we reflect on games with Scunthorpe and Doncaster. From the QPR game onwards I’ve detected a tactic of opposing teams substantially raising the tempo and exposing the lack of pace in our team. Playing a fast passing game in the middle of the park puts us on the back-foot. When we win with the Hughton style its acceptable but when the points don’t come our way playing his football its bloody awful and as far as removed from the football Newcastle United aspires to be about as its likely to be. Have we been sussed? We’ll see.

    *

    For some the games against Scunthorpe and Doncaster underline how far we’ve fallen. Well, they certainly aren’t Juventus or Barcelona in the Champions League are they? But to my mind there are only two types of clubs – good ’uns and bad ’uns. To achieve their place in WTCTSDTD they have had to be well-run and they have made maximum use of their potential and should be congratulated. Both clubs have had flirtations with the abyss but their status in the game these days gives hope to all. On the other hand, Newcastle United is a bad club. The people running NUFC are absolutely clueless and not deserving of any sympathy whatsoever for the money they have lost because although they unquestionably inherited a club in decline they or more accurately Ashley has put his foot down hard on the accelerator to oblivion. I’d have the people running Scunthorpe or Doncaster over this fuck-wit any day of the week.

    *

    There was a short piece in one of the Sunday papers just gone which hinted KK is concerned at some of the things being said about him by supporters. The report referred to posts on messages board etc. Now don’t get me wrong, not everyone who uses a message-board is a 35-yr old friendless virgin who spends his time treating the world to his extreme opinions on most subjects in between bouts of masturbating furiously thinking about the lollipop lady that smiled at him a fortnight last Tuesday. But there are lots who fit that description perfectly. Anonymous and cowardly bull-shit spewed with all of the uncertainty of the truly ignorant; intolerant, poisonous and one-eyed – some even take a grim satisfaction in their (ahem) edgy prose, imagining themselves as the gun-slingers of the ether. Honestly. They appear to forget they are typing shite about football. I’m aware of the irony of a fanzine carrying this opinion but the vast majority of stuff you’ll see in this and other fanzines will be supplied by people giving their names unless there is a reason they don’t want to. There’s a world of difference.

    Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting anyone with a less than flattering view of KK given this recent twist and turn in his relationship with our club or that he has beyond reproach. What I do know is that in almost 40 years of going to matches at SJP KK, above all others has given me my best times following the club. Those who accuse him of a love affair with money tend to forget KK could have guaranteed himself a lot more cash than what he ever earned from the FA Panel, simply by going along with the whole Ashley-Llambias-Wise-Jimenez garbage and counting the pay-cheques. KK blew apart the whole rotten core of NUFC under Ashley, his resignation, although forced, clearly rested on a point of principle and demonstrative of an integrity those who throw unjustified slurs against him fail to get at all. We’re all entitled to an opinion but when discussing the affairs of one of the club’s greatest ever servants I think KK is deserving a lot more respect than some of the shite I’ve seen posted on message boards.

    *

    Anyway, that’s it – thank you to whoever stuck the true faith flag over the back of the seats at Forest so it could be easily retrieved at the end of the game – much obliged.

    I’m off to slash my wrists.

    Keep On, Keepin’ On …

  65. Just got in from graft. Fifteen hour shift, bloody projects!!

    Hard to say how I feel about Hughton. On the one hand, Ashley has yet again timed things to perfection by offering the contract just as we’ve shown signs of crumbling. While also publicly undermining the gaffer and pissing off the fans. So Hughton is probably being hung out to dry on a more permanent basis now.

    Objectively I agree he’s championed rightly more as a coach and yet his results until recently were good. But my gut tells me he’s not the right guy. I’d hate to see him not get the support he needs and to be seen to be a failure as a result. Though I’m sure Mike is capable of ruining another reputation.

  66. That pretty much covers my feelings on the subject, BBM. As a coach and a human being, he’s top notch. As a Manager, with the attendant responsibilty and requisite charisma, reputation and standing though, I do have my doubts, sadly.

    What I do know is that’s it’s impossible to state with any agree of certainty as to whether he’d be a success or failure, given the amount of games at the helm. And that is why I feel it’s essential an experienced, proven man be given that chalice, poisoned or otherwise.

  67. Shiver – yep, I never ceased to be amazed by our club. You really couldn’t make it up? I can’t see an end to the circus, which is the worst of it.

    I know it’s not a popular view but I’d prefer to see the back of this board and find ourselves as a well run Championship side than a Premiership side with Ashley et al still in charge and the ill-feeling around the place. Choice would be a fine thing I guess….

  68. Some damn fine individuals on this here blog, with varying opinions and musings on that beloved club of ours. Good stuff, folks.

  69. It’s nigh on tragic, BBM. If we were all the slobering, rabid anti-Cockney, deluded reactionaries of popular repute then fair enough. But we’re not. A dispirate bunch of idealists, romantics, pragmatists, moaners and dreamers drawn together like gullible moths to a not especially incandescent flame in the form of Newcastle United football club.

    Has such unquestionable love ever came so unrequited?

  70. Only in the film Pretty In Pink.

    According to wor lass I mean………

    Ah we’ll get through it Shiver. Keep on, keepin on as TF say!

  71. Indeed my friend. Speaking of other halves, I feel it’s time to retire for the evening to maintain cordial relations, so to speak! In a bit, BBM…

  72. To ShiverMeTimbre post # 64 What an excellent article by the ‘True Faith’. Very well said. Also like your other posts, you come across as very articulate with well thought out comments. Plus I nearly always agree with BBM. He is a great poster too. I really like this site and everyone who posts on here has a real feeling for the club.

  73. I agree with Jill…..

    As always, True Faith have hit the nail on the head and summarised the situation perfectly….

    Ashley staying? It’s going to be a long, cold winter

  74. the last few games have shown hughton to be totally inept as a manager,this futile attempt by ashley will backfire fantastically.
    i think ashley has signed his own death warrant with this latest folly,it will end in tears.
    the poor fans will bear the brunt of this outrage down the line,this finally shows mike ashley for the short sighted greedy individual that he is.
    no long term planning for the good of the club,but cheap solutions so ashley can hang onto his money,and not invest in the squad.