No disrespect to the Championship but ...

[Barrel of Fun]

What really pisses me off is that these players (Duff etc.) pledge their future to the club, despite this awful relegation business. So you f***ing should. You put Newcastle in the drop zone in the first place AND you have a f***ing contract to see out. Poor fella. Forced to play in a league that they are far too good for, yet he keeps the same wage. You have to admire him. Tsk.

 

[fatbadger]

Hubris. Have these wankers not learnt the Leeds/Southampton etc lesson? Dear oh dear.

 

[Dr Q]

at least we won't have to see tv shots of fat geordie c***s with their shirts off week in-week out on MOTD

 

[Storer68]

I just feel sorry for Burnley and their poor fans who will miss out on a trip to Newcastle next season.

but have a local derby against Blackburn to look forward to

 

[hans kraay fan club]

at least we won't have to see tv shots of fat geordie c***s with their shirts off week in-week out on MOTD

Unfortunately, 'The Championship' will now consist of 48 minutes of said fat geordies, followed by 8 minutes of the other Championship games, and a 4 minute round-up of Leagues 1 and 2...

 

[Pavilionaire]

In my opinion Duff is one of the players Shearer should look to get rid off. He's still an international player who many a Prem outfit will think they could use and get something out of - the likes of Mick McCarthy at Wolves or Niall Quinn at Sunderland I'm sure would be interested in his services, possibly Robbie Keane might persuade Redknapp to part with £6mill to fill that difficult left-midfield spot?

The danger in retaining him is either he doesn't cope in the lower tier or gets injured.

What he said was EXACTLY what he shouldn't have said and probably what Shearer would have least liked him to say in these circumstances. That sort of talk is what stokes up the opposition and makes life harder than it should be.

Personally, I'll miss them from the Prem because they were one of the sides I'd bother to watch, albeit more for the soap opera aspect than the quality of the football.

 

[Hiney]

I do feel for their wonderful fans though..They have had to put up with so much

The first home attendance will be interesting. I reckon around 25,000 'wonderful fans' will somehow fail to turn up.

 

[mr sheen]

The first home attendance will be interesting. I reckon around 25,000 'wonderful fans' will somehow fail to turn up.

Indeed, much of this marvellous support was absent for quite a while before the first keegan era

 

[hans kraay fan club]

They'll start with decent gates, on the crest of the Southampton-style "Won't it be fun winning EVERY week" vibe. Then, when they start losing to Doncaster and Ipswich, they'll be down to 20,000.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Realistically, there is a good chance they'll go up first time around. 2009/10 is hardly going to be a vintage year for the Championship with big boys Wolves and Birmingham out of the way and the X Factor of Leeds in League 1.

The betting has them top with West Brom, Boro, Keane's Ipswich and then play-off losers Sheff Utd and Coppell-less Reading. Shearer couldn't ask for a weaker division, and the real danger is if he doesn't bounce back straight away the division in 2010/11 could include Hull, Birmingham, Wolves and a resurgent Leeds, Charlton and Norwich.

 

[shoreham moonraker]

It has just hit the news that Hull have been charged with fielding an unregistered player at the end of January '09.
Apparently when they signed Kamil Zayatte from Young Boys for £2.5M on 23 January this year, there had been some irregularities with the transfer and he was not formerly registered when Hull drew 2-2 with West Brom. West Brom have been awarded 3 points for that game instead of 1 but it has made no difference to them, they are still relegated.
However Hull have been stripped of their point, which puts them on the same points as Newcastle but with a poorer goal difference.
Newcastle have complained immediately and if their claim is upheld, Hull will be relegated retrospectively and the Toon will stay up!
















Carlsberg don't do e-mails for delusional Geordies, but if they did, they would probably be the best e-mails in the world!

 

[Simster]

The thing is, you CAN just about manage the finances - it just takes some balls. Sunderland have player contracts that all stipulate a huge wage cut if they go down. That will not have been easy to negotiate with players or agents, and there will have been some ultimatums, and players who went to other clubs as a result.

But what you are left with is a group, albeit of slightly lesser quality, that genuinely want to be there and are playing for their own futures as well as the club's. Fans have to buy into that as well, realising that going for top players on four-year deals on big money when you could get relegated after a year is a recipe for disaster.

Top players? Newcastle? That's thing isn't it, how many of these overpaid players are really "top" anymore?

Come to think of it, some of these players WERE top players until Newcastle got hold of them. How come Damian Duff and Michael Owen were world beaters until they arrived at Castle Greyskull? Clearly it suggests the club is a complete mess from top to bottom, except I guess maybe their marketing department, because they were pulling in 50,000 most weeks to watch utter dross.

And Pavillionaire is right; some of those players will prove to be too good for this division as long as they're managed properly because it's a week division. They need to ditch Shearer (or persuade him to learn his trade in the backroom staff) and get a proven manager in, ideally with no previous connection to the club.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I do feel for there wonderful fans though..They have had to put up with so much

Absolute horseshit. What horrors have they had to "put up" with? Finishing mid-table in the Premier League for a few seasons, followed by a rare relegation? Well get the violins out.

We've had to "put up" with a lot, as have Luton, Bournemouth, any other team that's bobbed around the lower reaches of the football league for years or suffered continual and traumatic levels of uselessness.

Would I be that distressed if the Albion had to ensure a few seasons of mid table Premier League mediocrity and an occasional relegation to the Championship? No, I'd probably bite your hand off at this stage.

Newcastle's problem is their deluded expectation. On a playing basis, for the last few years they've been no different to Wigan, Middlesbrough, Fulham and a host of other boringly average Premier League sides. Yet I don't see anyone feeling sorry for Middlesbrough's "poor" fans.

I'll be putting my violin away, thanks.

 

[shoreham moonraker]

edna you have summed up my feelings perfectly.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The first home attendance will be interesting. I reckon around 25,000 'wonderful fans' will somehow fail to turn up.

Hmmm, I reckon the crowd will get a bit of a seige mentality on for now and stick with them initially. Many because they think they're going to have a really successful season and walk all over other teams, others because of this whole "Geordie nation" sticking together in adversity thing.

Leeds' crowds didn't drop massively when they got relegated (twice ) and I'm sure Newcastle's will hold up for a while at least.

Might be different for a midweek game in February when the realisation has set in that the Championship's not as easy as they expected, however.

 

[Uter]

Damian Duff? Name rings a bell. Didn't he used to be a footballer?

 

[Pavilionaire]

Alan Shearer will, quite rightly, have a clearout to reduce the wage bill, but I understand he's at loggerheads with Mike Ashley over the transfer budget, which he wants to be £15-£20 million.

I have some sympathy with Mike Ashley here. Hypothetically, Man City could pay £10milion for Owen, Athletic Madrid £6 million for Coloccini, Villareal £4 million for Gutierrez, Wolves £6million for Duff, Birmingham £4million for Viduka, Sunderland £10million for Martins, Bolton £5million for Barton, Hull £5million for Ameobi, Espanol £3million for Xisco, Rangers £3million for Lovenkrands.

That's £56million right there. I realise they may get a bitr less than that, but the point is made that why SHOULD Ashley have to put his hand in his pocket YET again?

Without making any purchases Shearer could then field a side of:

1. Harper
2. Bassong
3. Jose Enrique
4. Steven Taylor
5. Beye
6. Ryan Taylor
7. Nolan
8. Butt
9. Guthrie
10. Alan Smith
11. Carroll

I'd suggest he needs to spend big on a centre-back, a young, fast winger, a couple of forwards and a couple of other squad players.

 

[crodonilson]

The Premier League will be a poorer place without Newcastle but I think they will bounce back at the first attempt.