Don't We Usually 'Get Over' These So-Called 'Disasters'?

As of yet, I still am unsure of what stance to take on this whole situtation. Barton has been an idiot throughout the summer, Ashley has always been an idiot. Both have made mistakes, along with the complete moron that is Willy Mckay - on TalkSPORT he said JB was willing to take a pay-cut. On 5 Live he said they were never willing to take a pay cut. The admittance of the Leeds' incident was stupid for himself and JB, as well.

Anyway, back to my original point. Over the past year there have been numerous incidents that have got fans on messageboards up in arms.

The Chris Hughton sacking - Ashley's worst mistake, ahead of Joke In Here's appointment. At the time, there was rightful condemnation but, most importantly, talk of impending relegation. Morale would be dead. 'We have no chance of staying up, now' was the call from many, including myself. But we did. Comfortably.

Pardew's Appointment - Only added to the relegation fears. It was pretty much nailed on now. Most 606 fans were flat. But we did stay up. Comfortably.

Carroll's Sale - Regardless of who's fault it was, we have no-one to score goals now. We're down. Ameobi, Lova and Best aren't good enough to keep us up. A 4-4 a few days later and by the end of the season, we stayed up. Comfortably.

All the talk now is on the fact the squad's morale is broken - in tatters. But the same talk happened with the forementioned incidents and we got through it.

We SHOULD be worried about our ridiculously thin squad. We shouldn't be worried about a 'dressing room crisis or the fact we will probably lose a great player, who's silly behaviour led to his own downfall. JB's departure is a minor issue right now. Getting in at least 2 more players is what we need to focus our attention on.

So please no stupid protests. No 'boycoutts'. It's embarrasing. It helps no-one and does nothing.

 

yes we always trundle along as far as i can remember

 

If we were to replace Barton (or he doesnt leave), get a new striker and replace Jose (assuming he leaves), I'd be happy enough with our squad, but I just cant see it happening. We've missed out on 3 strikers now, Liverpool are waiting until the last minute with Enrique and we dont know what Barton will do, and apart from everything else, the league's starting soon, do we even have time to bring in 3 players?

 

Through all the highs and lows we always come back again.

 

Remember when we got relegated? I seem to remember attendances dropped to around the 15k mark and the club suffered a double relegation. Finishing behind Hartlepool this season was just embarrassing, especially after we had to sell Carroll to service our crippling debts.

Oh wait, I remember now, we bounced back!

The club's been through worse than this and we seem to be acting like a few players control the fate of the club. We've got a passionate, young squad of players wanting to prove themselves. Let's get behind them and try our best to ignore the bickering going on at the top. A few selfish gits will NOT stop us enjoying football.

 

This is the worry, for me. As I said, the Barton issue is a minor issue right now. The fact we only have one striker I would call above 'good', one LB who will probably leave and one CB who I'd call great (Saylor is decent, no more) is the biggest worry. Our starting X1 is very good. Our squad isn't.

And well said, Mod Face.

 

I'm struggling to understand why so many are so upset. Didn't we already know that the club was open to offers and that JB would be leaving within a year anyway?

The only thing that has changed is that we will no longer receive a fee if he goes this window.

 

What we could really do with is couple of decent proven squad players just to plug the gaps, regardless of whether we get a ST/RW/LB or not.

 

And the money we save from wages won't be that much less than the fee we'd have recived from him. I couldn't imagine many clubs (if any) biddig much more than 3m for him.

 

Exactly. That's why I think getting rid of Routledge was stupidity. He's not the best, but is good enough to bring on for the last 15 minutes - his pace would cause enough problems.

 

Agree, we need some good Perch's. Like Zabaleta.

 

Spot on!

 

But if we got 3m for him we'd get that AND save 3m in wages.

 

When Kinnear was appointed I thought we could stay up.

When Hughton left I thought we'd stay up.

When Carroll left I thought we'd stay up.

But now we've lost our captain and will lose our vice captain. Will lose Enrique, another key player. Our already small squad has not only got smaller but it isn't even the deadwood we've lost. Now we're in the ****.

 

Agree with the selling of Routledge being silly but I feel now is the time to have faith in our youth. We've got an academy for a reason and we need to start using these kids as our 3rd choice players (2nd in some cases).

It's the best way to uncover a gem (Carroll) who can either go on to be a solid first teamer or (from MA's point of view) bring in a good sum of money to the club.

Look at Everton, plugging gaps with kids. Rodwell, Anichebe, Baxter, Coleman and their bench regularly features a string of teenagers. I just feel we're not using our academy properly, loaning out too few and not giving the older kids a chance.

 

We definitely need to replace Barton with somebody good, Enrique as well if he goes. If we don't get the replacements my optimism will fade away rapidly!

 

Agree, one positive to come out of this is that Ferguson, Vuckic, Abeid etc will get games. This will be their sink-or-swim year for a few of them.

 

To be honest, when Kinnear was appointed I assumed we were pretty much doomed because his appointment was the most bizarre managerial choice available.

It was almost a case of "Who won't turn us down?"

 

I suppose you could look at it from the angle of no matter what ****e gets thrown our way we seem to cope some how. What concerns me is the amount of ****e that keeps coming our way from exactly the same direction and that some people seem to just accept it and carry on. It looks to me that Newcastle United are further away from picking up a major honour then we have been in the last ten years.

 

Well, you kind of contradict yourself there. We have a thin squad, but JB's departure only makes it thinner, which makes it far more than a minor issue.
We need about 4 players to come in (ST, RW, LB, CB), and I'm hoping the club is quietly going about business, but I have my doubts.