Saturday 2nd August

Don't start reading just yet. Go and get yourself a nice cup of tea or better a cold beer. Block out a couple of hours. Make sure the valium is next to you. We were going to give this until Monday but there's just too much to keep back for after the weekend but decided in the circumstances to go early.

Eyes down, you'll be crying and raging by the end ...

Dear tf

Ref: Perfect 10 – Appalling Central Defenders

You are obviously too young to remember Bill Paterson who joined us from Glasgow Rangers for the then huge sum of £22,500 pounds. He was signed as a replacement for Bob Stokoe. However he turned out to be the forerunner of people like Boumsong, Bramble etc and was soon on his way at a huge loss.

Regards, Ken Coombs


PS: I was at the England - Portugal game in Gelsenkirchen and got stuck in the tram with a load of wankers from Nottingham; probably the very same who made your return journeys to Dusseldorf, my home town these past 35 years, such a memorable event:-). Howay the lads


Dear tf,

From the Guardian website

This straight from the heart of Sam Lucas, Sunderland fan: "I am one of the long suffering Sunderland fans and have been for over 50 years. That road though has been a roller coaster ride with many highs and just as many lows. That is what being a Sunderland supporter is, a long bumpy road and I would not have it any other way. I do NOT want us to buy instant success, to hell with that easy option. Sunderland supporters are the best in this country and this up/down pattern has made us that. We appreciate good football (not seen much of that lately but it will come back, it always does) and the highs of being in contention for the play-offs (the best game ever at Wembley was the Sunderland 4 - 4 Charlton play-off final). The real relegation scraps. Nearly every year we have something to elevate the boredom. I live in the South East and three friends of mine are Charlton/Arsenal supporters. They say that without any hesitation the best away fixtures they have been to are at Sunderland. The hospitality, humour and friendliness of the people there make it the best weekend of the year. I feel sorry for the Chelsea/Man Utd supporters, They have everything yet have nothing when it comes to supporting a real team. If they lose two games on the trot it is a disaster, they are all prima-donnas and spoilt kids. That is not the real world and it is one we do not want at Sunderland. We have had a season of real lows and now believe we are on the way up again. Quinn has tuned in to the Sunderland people and can only succeed. Roy Keane has bought us front page coverage, which is where we should always be, so if you want to experience real football and passion then spend a week in the north east at Sunderland and I promise you will come away richer for it."

Doesn't want instant success, bet he wasn't saying let's give Quinn a chance last week.

Best in the country, the stadium only ever fills up when they hand out free tickets!! They couldn't even sell out a derby match!!

Appreciate good football!! Do they fuck, none of them where whinging when monkey heed had them hoofing it up the pitch to Quinn.

The best game EVER at Wembley is not any of the cup finals or the ‘66 World Cup final or ‘68 European Cup but the play off epic against Charlton which thrilled the world of football to its very core.

Three friends - lying bastard!

And as for the last bit, fuck me. Their own players don't even fucking live there.

Glenn


Dear tf,

I need someone to answer me what I feel is a sensible question!! Why for the last 10/15 years has every manager that we have welcomed into the Toon family failed to put together a defensive partnership that for the first time in a long time instil in me and many of the other Toon faithful confidence that we weren’t not going to leak goals like a Mackem’s hat leak’s brain cells. Sunday came and went and our defence looked decidedly amateurish and thinking back to the home game against Wigan I personally think the Pie Eater’s would have come away with a different result if Heskey or Camara would have had a couple more games under their belt.

I don’t tend to compare us to the likes of Chelsea, Spurs, ManU, Arsenal or Liverpool due to them all being far from the finished articles but these are the teams that I feel are the ones we must beat on a regular basis to give us the chance of Champions League football again in the near future. But again I find myself looking at the likes of (Terry, Gallas Carvalho) (Ferdinand, Silvestre, Brown) (Dawson, King Gardner) (Toure, Senderos, Eboue) or even (Carragher, Hyypia, Agger) and thinking that each team has at the very least 3 maybe 4 strong central defenders that look on a regular basis like they can work as a team and also look like professional high paid central defenders. If you look back over the winners of the Premiership for example it is always the team that concedes fewer goals than everyone else that comes out on top or a very close second. A great team is always built on a strong defence.

If you break down our current batch of central defenders my confidence is at an all time low. Taylor is a very promising young defender but he needs 2 or 3 seasons to really appreciate how hard and important the role of a central defender is to the team. Bramble has great distribution and passing ability and again showed masses of potential at Ipswich but I always feel that he has something more important on his mind during the game (have I left the iron on or what’s my mum making for my tea) which leads him to make horrendous errors of judgement. Moore is a confident defender and always looks like he can take everything in his stride but he isn’t the natural born leader that we need to get the defence looking half decent. Ramage, again very similar to Taylor where he needs more games and more experience working day in day out with a natural born leader with bags of experience.

In my opinion we have been far to focused on the present than the future of Newcastle United over the last 10 years. We have been far too quick to condemn managers, the board and even the players without giving them that all important “TIME”. 53k fans on any given Saturday wants to see progressive attacking football and some much maligned success. I really feel strongly about putting together a 3 year plan where we slowly build a team of players that are the future of NUFC. It wouldn’t be a problem to put together a list of either average defenders that have moved on due to them being a complete waste of space. I feel we need to get the mix of young and experience players into the team where the experienced ones need to impart knowledge on the younger ones. We need defenders that have longevity at the cub where building a partnership and effectively a stable and structured defence is paramount.

I feel my words again will be muttered every transfer window closure, every time some leaves or another great defender goes to another Premiership team that lacks the passion and desire of NUFC….

Ewan Stephenson


Dear tf,

Ref: Transfer Window

Excellent planning by Shepherd and Roeder for new signings, two in, desperately short of
firepower and defence, our two targets look Boro bound (and I'm not too fussed on that, but on the other hand, if we have no other targets....). Yes, a standing ovation please, I think they deserve it. Lucky if we scrape in at tenth at this rate.

Darren Gladstone


Dear tf,

I just wonder what has happened about Garth Southgate. Glenn Roeder takes over and there's a big furore because he has no Pro License. It takes a couple of meetings and eventually all of the chairmen to agree (apparently only since Roeder would have the license had he not suffered his collapse before taking it last time). Then Southgate takes over, a
few murmurs of "has he got the license?" are heard and then no more. The chairman "says they let Roeder so why not Gareth?" and it's gone and forgotten.

This makes no sense to me and I just wondered how Southgate got away with it.
Oh, and in ref to Avi in Israel, I don't think the pro License is needed in the Championship, and since he's managing Sunderland there's no danger of him needing one soon!

Rich, Herts


Dear tf,

Today The Beasts signed 2 central defenders that we were also in for. Woody is no great loss - a fantastic defender but injured to much for a team like us in need of a consistent stopper. Huth on the other hand would have been an excellent buy. Tall, strong and better than anything we have at the moment (Taylor still needs time). Why would a player who we chase, sign for the Smoggies over ourselves??? He must have seen the place!!! Something stinks at NUFC and god knows what it is. My suspicions point to Fat Fred and the totally unacceptable way in which our club is run. How can it be good business sense to have the chairman’s son running an agency based at the club (Ed: that may not be the case we hasten to add)? Talk about a conflict of interests. Are we only getting players that go through his agency? I have just bought a season ticket having saved hard but fear if nothing materialises in the next 24hrs my hard earned money is going to be spent watch Shay (through no fault of his own) picking the ball out of the net. Shepherd has to go and go soon. We didn't want Roeder - although he has my full support - we wanted a WORLD CLASS manager who would grab the club and sort it out. We're a mid table team - which sounds ok after the mess of Souness - but its not good enough. The way our club is run is not good enough. Can't wait for the season.

Alex Scott


Dear tf,

We have been very quiet in the transfer window we are needing a left back centre back a possible right back midfielders and a another forward we need a big squad for if we want to win anything .our squad is good BUT not enough ,we will finish 7th unless we bring in more players!

Euan Murray, Blairgowrie, Scotland


Dear tf,

If we don’t get some good players in with one day of the window left we’re fucked its as simple as that. the season will be over for us in terms of actually achieving anything of any note even before it has got going properly.

It would appear there isn’t a great deal there for Roeder to spend so I won’t blame him for not wanting to waste what little cash he has on more shite players as he might get some quality in come January if he saves the money (as long as Fat Fred doesn’t sack him before then of course).

The blame this time around (seems like its every time around to me) does lie clearly with Fat Fred and his wacky plans for signing players, or should I say lack of plans ?

Last season Shepherd would have rather paid £10m for Luque instead £6m for Boa Morte, which would have effectively saved us £9m to spend this season on defenders, £4m saved signing Boa and then add another £5m as we wouldn’t have needed to sign Duff. This summer highly rated English centre-half Curtis Davies who has Premiership experience is valued at around £10m by relegated West Brom and has been mentioned as a player Roeder likes.

Even if Shepherd pulls out the hat some amazing last minute (literally) signings it will be hard to cover what has again been a complete fuck up of epic proportions in the transfer market for our club. our already small unbalanced squad has lost 7 (8 through injury if you include Owen) and brought in 4 if you include the two loaned players we got back.

Martins was Roeder’ first choice ? Yeah right like we should believe that after being knocked back by Charlton’s' Bent, the entire West Ham strike force, Van Nistelrooy, Kuyt and fatty Egyptian Mido.

As I write this we are signing Rossi on loan from Man Utd who is definitely not the target man we were led to believe might come to partner Martins, but why doesn’t that surprise me ?

Iain Nicholson


Dear tf,

The club policy on transfers is a complete joke. When will we ever build a squad instead of our usual £10m "Hollywood" signings who more often then not fail or are injured.

Players such as Hassailbank, Campbell or even Bernard were all available for free transfers and would have boosted our squad with only wages, although high, to pay.

Do we have a scouting system as we never seem to pick up any lower league bargains. We could have had Ashton for 3 million when he left Crewe!

We have no overall plan in the running of he club with no long term planning at all. How long did we know Shearer was going to retire!!!

No doubt come January with an average league placing it will be more panic buys again!

Langy


Dear tf,

Going by the media, it seems apparent that it was Huth, Woodgate and Graveson that were Roeder’s proposed transfer coups

The fact we lost out to The Beasts on a new centre back pairing, when playing the likes of fucking Kilmarnock and Motherwell is a more attractive proposition than running out at SJP, and are forced to loan players from Man Utd's reserve team; it really does show the decline of NUFC over the past few years (good luck to Rossi by the way, he'll be a decent player)

It’s agonising

One more day of transfer scrambling, then the window is slammed firmly shut.

Or in our case, shattered into thousands of little pieces and sprinkled on top of fat fucking Freddie’s Quaker Oats

We still need a striker,

Denzil Escobar


Dear tf,

Currently, I'm not happy with the quantity of players brought in during the transfer window. At time of writing, we've got Duff, Martins and Rossi (loan). I've no complaints on the quality, although I would have liked a signing option for Rossi. However, to me we're still lacking some of the following: a left back, a right back, a centre-half, and another striker. I'd quite like another wide right midfielder too, but I think Solano and Milner should be sufficient for this season.

So in an idea world, that's Ashley Cole, John Terry, Pascal Chimbonda, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Thierry Henry.

But to be realistic about it, I'd settle for another striker (ideally quality rather than bench fodder) and a defender who can play in more than one position. Which reminds me - why did we sell Aaron Hughes?

Jack P


Dear tf,

Who is to blame for the lack of players coming in this summer? It was mentioned that we needed 6 to make any kind of progress next season (Ed: mentioned by Roeder). So far I think we have lost that many and brought in (at time of writing) 3. Duff, Martins and Rossi on a loan. Granted, they all seem to be good signings (although Martins is still a gamble in my book), so does that mean we need another 6 to account for the players that have left the club and match the squad that Glenn wanted to start with? I think we will all find it tough to blame Glenn because of the fantastic job that he has done for us and the sheer honesty he possesses (unlike a certain Mr Sourness).

I heard on The Legends phone in on Wednesday night, some silly mare tried to convince us that Glenn hadn't put any suggestions forward to FFS. Her main point was that FFS has always put up the finances when needed. I guess this is true, so we should hand that to him. Bare in mind though, the £50m that Sourness squandered included £10m on Luque, £8.5m on Boumsong, £16m on Owen plus two exceptional signings in midfield in Emre and Parker. The previous three...what have we got to show from them. A so-called world-class player who can't control the ball, some French guy claiming he's a footballer and a very, very unfortunate class striker. But we knew the gamble we were taking with Owen, and it's happened. Come the end of this season, he will have been injured for almost all of his time here!

Back to my point about the caller suggesting that Glenn had put nothing forward -rubbish! He wanted Huth for a start but for some reason only he would know, he decided to join The Beasts. It must be the fans who dress up as red plastic seats for all home games. If The Beasts can stump up the money for him, then surely we can stump up £6,000,001 for a superb, young defender who I'm sure could only have benefited us. Then you have Woodgate, who also joined that lot down the road on loan and Campbell who joined Pompey. Granted, one is very injury prone and the other has lost his marbles in my opinion, but they are both class players and a loan deal for Woody and Sol on a free would have been no gamble in the slightest. They be able to teach poor Titus how not to fall on his arse. So there's 3 proven Premiership class defenders that we've missed out on, all of which we could and should have snapped up before The Smogs and Pompey. Who's to blame? I think a lot of us will point at FFS.

Steve Farrell


Dear tf,

Sorry but this is taking the piss. I have just been to the Official Newcastle Website, Its transfer talk is about :

Andy Cole moving to Portsmouth, Kevin Keegan returning to management with Donny Rovers, Woodgate to Boro, Patrick Kluivert to PSV.

WHAT THE FCK! Who gives a rats ass about players not coming here ! Ex-Toon players or not!

Seriously, this doing business thing on the last day is no way to build a team to move up the league. Its half arsed keep the club ticking over business. Freddy Shepherd is taking the fucking piss in my opinion.

Oh I forgot we signed that Rossi kid from Man U for a four month loan spell. That tells me we have no cash or Roeder couldn't get who he wanted and settled for second/third best.

I was fairly confident after the decent finish to last season, with a few players coming to shore up a few cracks, but having seen the defence in pre-season and the start of this season it is glaringly obvious to anybody that we need a new left back and right back, and maybe a quality centre back.

Sadly my confidence has virtually gone, having watched other teams improve again: Spurs, Boro, Bolton, West Ham, Charlton. (notice I didn't include the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Arsenal). We aren't in their mini league and won’t be for a while yet, well not under this current chairman.

Looking at the big picture, Fred’s big gamble was giving all our money to the Scottish Darth Vader. Freddy your gamble failed.

I hope I eat my words, big time and forced to eat a massive slice of humble pie, but I can’t see it happening. Rant over.

We are not a professional football club when it comes to transfers.

Neil Renwick


Dear tf,

Mixed feelings on the transfer front. Roeder has addressed the major problem facing us in the close season, signing Martins and Rossi should certainly give us some options up front (mainly the option to leave Luque out of the squad) Signing Duff wasn't particularly necessary but extremely welcome, missing out on Graveson doesn't worry me, Parker and Butt have the combative qualities to compete in the middle of the park. The obvious issue that is left is our defence. Ideally I wanted to see an experienced / high quality central defender and a good left back to come in. Missing out on both Campbell and Woodgate could prove to be a disaster for us. The Bridge situation has always been out of our hands whilst Ashley Cole farts about. There isn't a great deal of decent left backs out there aside from that, apart from maybe young Baines at Wigan, and as a result our hands are tied. Surely we have a decent young left back playing in the reserves who will at least but in more effort then our old friend Celestine. On the out going side I am reasonably happy. We shed Boumsong and Faye and actually recouped some money on them which is close to a miracle. I'm happy Roeder has held on to Milner, although it seems his name is touted when ever a player swap deal is mentioned. Selling Chopra was surprising considering our lack of strikers but not surprising considering the lads goal return. Losing Bowyer was always inevitable once a London club came in for him.

In total things have gone pretty well. Who knows, if we sign a defender on the deadline day things will look a lot brighter for the season. Importantly Freddy seems to at least be backing Roeder, he can't be blamed for not signing a defender it was Roeder who passed on Campbell and Woodgate. Personally, I'm blindly optimistic this season, Martins will bag 20 goals, Bramble will turn into the defender he has always promised to be and Dyer will play more then 15 minutes. Lets wait and see.....

Edward Sides


Dear tf,

Ref: Shearer’s Paradox – online on 30/Aug/06

Bloody excellent article! The last paragraph (Jackie Milburn - Golden Goals) stands out most for me, reminds me of my own youth and the times spent playing football until too dark to see and waiting for the next morning to start again. When was the last time you saw that?

Well done.

Darren Gladstone


Dear tf,

Graveson – Celtic

Huth – Beasts

Woodgate – Beasts

Bridge – Rent Boys

Malbranque – Spurs

Mido – Spurs

OK so won one lost one isn’t a bad start for NUFC but I am a little concerned. We still seem to have the same old problems at the back and, even though they are both good signings, Duff and Martins will not fill the gap left by the departing players from last year. We will be playing more games this year (assuming we do get further in the UEFA Cup) but will be doing so with a much smaller squad and this could mean that we actually have a worse season. You can’t maintain the kind of challenge we all want with a squad of 19 players with Premiership experience. Even if we add three more players (as has been widely touted in the weekend / Monday press) then we still look woefully thin at the business end of the pitch. The mantra from TF has been ‘we need two strikers’ since the early part of the summer, yet here we are with a bloke signed on a Thursday and being thrust into the first team a couple of days later (remind anyone of Luque last year?). Recently we just seem to be under prepared at the start of every season, making signings late, which means the chances for injury to the player are greatly increased and the chances for early impact on the team are greatly reduced. Am I reading this wrong or do we seem to be way behind in the planning stages every year?

What really disappoints me is that we are looking at the likes of Viduka – does anyone else think that Aussie’s only ever stay fit / play games / look interested when there is a tournament on the horizon? (FAB / Moore / Kewell before the World Cup for example). The fight has gone – I can’t be fucked anymore. I will just see what happens and accept our mid-table finish along with everyone else. FFS and Glenn can spend the rest of their lives on their mobile phones for all I care – why didn’t we just get our squad in place early and prepare for the new season correctly. This way it looks like we are going to be throwing new people into the squad and hoping they gel together quickly. It is all so fucking predictable. Is anyone else fucking sick of it like me? It is boring, not exciting.

I read, earlier in the week, that we were at the top of the list for three players and, so far, we have got a Man Utd reserve – speaks volumes to me. We will probably end up making a Hollywood signing today (Thursday) so that the ‘Spin Fed’ fan will be happy that ‘Freddie has done it again’ when all he has done is try and fool us all for what seems like the 100th year in succession. Don’t worry FFS your friends in the local press will make sure that you are held up as a hero for the fans but I see through it and I’m sure that a lot of us do. We are coming for you! When our ‘target’ players (and manager) are choosing the Celtic / Beasts / Villa ahead of us, then it shows our Chairman up for what he really is. Is this man the greatest advert for the North East and NUFC?

Don’t believe the hype!

Dave Edwards


Dear tf,

Milner talking to Villa according to .cock (nufc.co.uk)! As if squad not thin enough!

Rod Fraser


Dear tf,

This is becoming increasingly worrying and the thought of relegation is slowly creeping in. Not due to the quality of our first 11, which would give most teams a decent game but the quality of our depleted squad. We need to be pushing each player to do a decent shift at every game and if one of our top players is injured, the back ups are not of similar quality. We are behind Chelsea, Man u, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, West Ham, Portsmouth, Everton and maybe even the likes of Bolton, Wigan and Middlesbrough in terms of squad quality and quantity.

As much as we hate to see it, football is now business orientated and our business isn't being efficiently managed by the top man. Passion and a large arse he may have but business acumen at this multi-million pound level he hasn't. The club is looking good on the thin surface but with a bit of pressure things might come crashing down - we'll still be there but deserve more.

Cheers for the good work lads.

Chris Steele


Dear tf,

52,000 ever week and we still can not compete with the big boys. Why do the others have international class players on the bench? Why did Kuyt look great at the weekend along side Bellamy? Why do I waste my time constantly monitoring the Internet for news of new signings ever summer? Why do I renew the pay TV every year? How many different Home and Away
shirts do my kids have? How much money do we all contribute to our life's love? And where does this money go?

How can a man who has made his money buying and selling scrap be trusted with hopes and dreams of the Geordie nation? We will become the next Aston Villa waiting 30 years for a Yank to line Shepherd's pocket and send him back to the bottom of Byker bank where he belongs. Lets hope we don't have to wait too long, as Freddy may be taking his business in the direction of aluminium can. Coca-Cola cans!! This club is destined to laughed at for an eternity. People of the North East use one voice and force the Fat B*****d to move on.

West Ham get two World Cup Stars and we get a donkey and a kid from up the Manchester ship canal. Piss both of them off and play the likes of O'Brien and the Zog up front. A disillusioned Geordie in exile!

Dave McDonagh


Dear tf,

Not sure where to start, Woodgate and Huth both snubbed us for Boro!!!!???? What?? OK maybe Woodgate was too much of a gamble with our current millionaire sick notes but Huth? A player that Roeder has been an admirer of for some time, so why wait till the last hours of the window to go for him? Maybe because we've become overawed trying to find at least 2 strikers, something that should have been done before the World Cup everyone knew Shearer was bowing out and that Owen doesn’t play a full season so of course our scouts have been scouring the globe finding replacements/alternatives........haven't they? By the looks of things no. I’m not expecting us to unearth the new Ronaldinho but what about Nugent from Preston surely he's worth a punt he'll be a hell of a lot cheaper that Luque and knows the English game because its all he's played. I can feel this becoming a proper rant so please excuse me....

So it looks like the fat Aussie from that small team in Yorkshire and a highly rated 19 year old off Manure on loan. Hmmmm add them to Shola and Martins and we've got 4 strikers who could possibly work well together (trying to convince mesel here)......

Sorry there's a Boro press conference on Sky Sports News-they're unveiling Woodgate, oh and Malbranque's gone to Spurs-weren't we after him too. Bollocks to the lot of em!!!! Hang on though its just Woodgate does this mean we could get Huth?....Nope Keith Lamb's just blown that one out the water!!!!

Anyway back to our striker search after sending scouts to every corner of the globe we've ended up going for Mark Viduka.....Andy sorry Andrew Cole has just signed a 2 year deal with Pompey I for one would have love to seen him back in Black n White. He got 12 in a shit citeh side last season 1 against us.

Last point I promise. Why are we selling Milner? Milner n’ N’Zog on the flanks are the future of the club, Milner is as good as Aaron Lennon whose become the new saviour of the England wings. I just don’t get it we've spent all summer keeping hold of him welcoming back and now we're almost forcing him out to fund a move for Viduka (Keith Lamb's just quashed that by the way)

Just gonna have to wait and see. Sky Sports News till midnight.

Dan Nolan in Liverpool.


Dear tf,

Disastrous – the best way to describe our closed season. I really don’t think you could write the script, yet more tripe from Shepherd and I’m beginning to wonder if Roeder has any idea what he is doing. All last season we were told the squad was too thin, Roeder tells us we need six new players, the product of which is 5 (possibly 6, with Milner) players leaving the club and a spectacular inability to sign any of the players we led to believe were identified as targets at the end of last season. Meanwhile, minnows such as Pompey, West Ham and ‘Boro, while perhaps not signing world-class players, have significantly strengthened their squads. We laugh at Niall Quinn calling Keane a world-class manager – I suspect Mr Shepherd is guilty of much more extravagant claims?

I really do fear for this season, there are way too many players in the squad who either don’t understand what it means to wear the shirt, or simply don’t care. Put simply, we will not get into the UEFA Cup next season unless we sign a (good) centre back and another striker in the next eleven hours. Rossi doesn’t cut it for me – I thought players from the big clubs went to small clubs to get their loan experience…or is this what we are witnessing here?

Let’s try to be optimistic for the new season though, eh?

Richard Shield, Bath


Dear tf,

Milner to A Villa ! A promising lad. To be replaced perhaps by Lardarse?

The club has no money and my prediction that Shola won't last the season will be proven correct after the transfer window is shut.

Glen is doing a good job working under an inept, low IQ traveller in my opinion.


Dear tf,

The facts are that we have known for three years that The Lion was going to retire and whilst the signing of Owen was a positive step , there was no way that he was a like for like replacement. If Ameobi was to be that man, why didn't he have the operation that he so clearly needs, on his hip?

I think we should be told.

At the time of writing we need a centre-back , two full backs and at least two forwards.

At least the current management team appear to have a long term strategic plan - but are clearly being hamstrung (are you listening Kieron?) by the previous incumbent's penchant for spending money on players who weren't fit to wear the shirt - that list is almost endless...

The one constant throughout this is FFS , who has overseen this debacle. Perhaps his sycophantic pal at the Ronnie Gill can put yet another spin on " he always backs his managers with money". That’s just my opinion.

I fear another year of frustration awaits the Black and White horde

Keep on, Keepin’ On …

Kevin Smith


Dear tf,

I think we have been far too slow in the transfer market and as a result, have missed out on good players because we allowed other clubs to act before us. I think we should have sorted it before the World Cup because any decent player's price is going sky-rocket but we just waited and waited and missed various players because of it, Kuyt is one example. There are other times we have just been too slow to react and have not been ambitious enough, i.e. Huth and Woodgate. Roeder said he wanted 6, he got 2 that he probably would have wanted but I don't believe he would have chose to get Rossi unless he missed out on all his other targets.

After Martins and Duff, I would have liked to have seen us get a left back (i.e. Bridge or Baines), a quality centre half (e.g. Woodgate?) and at least 1 forward, preferably 2 (i.e. Klose and Huntelaar/Villa) - instead we got Rossi on loan, a bit of a step down from who I was expecting.

Anyway, still got 7 and a bit hours left...

Sean Douglass


Dear tf,

Never in 30 years of following Newcastle United home and away has my contempt for the club been higher than today. We are a complete embarrassment! No doubt Freddie is more concerned with making signings for the Celebrity Match to confirm our status as a club of boasts and gimmicks.

If past behaviour is the best indicator of future behaviour then we can expect the 'fans choice' Glenn to lead us to the 3rd relegation of his managerial career.

Micky Little - Mr fuckin angry and annoyed


Dear tf,

A manager can stand or fall on his signings, so Mr. Roeder should be ok as he has difficulty in signing anyone, is the man so blind that he cannot see that our greatest need is a 6ft+ striker as we are desperate for a target man in the box, otherwise what’s the point of high crosses, How long have we got to tolerate Bramble and Luque, perhaps another 2 seasons just to give them a chance? We also desperately need 2 new fullbacks; Carr and Babayaro are poor
defenders and fail time and again to stop crosses coming into the box and we need another centre back with speed. What about poor James Milner and the way management are treating him, an English U- 21 international, I would certainly have Milner than Viduka in my side. Sorry Glen but you and Freddy are just not up to the job of making this club any better than mid table.

Scott McGhee -Crawcrook Mag


Dear tf,

Well only a few hours to go before the transfer window closes and the sum total our acquisitions totals 3 to add to an already threadbare squad that has lost several players, granted the majority were crap anyway but that’s no good to us when the inevitable injury flood gates open and we’re left with the usual players being played out of position!!!!

I’m no football manager but I always thought that successful teams built from the back, so where are the centre half and left back that the Toon are crying out for? I’m sorry but I feel that Titus has been given a fair crack of the whip but he’s 25 now and I don’t think he’ll ever be able to cut out the costly mistakes! The midfield is the soundest part of the team at the moment but I think Charlie Zog should be given a decent run in the team. The striking dept. is sadly lacking at the moment, while I think Rossi is a good prospect, since when have we been a nursery club for Man U? I think it shows how far we’ve fallen as the only part of a BIG CLUB we are is the fans!

But not to worry, in my opinion, we’ll just keep putting money into FFS and his knacka oppos` pockets ..


Dear tf,

Fiasco just about sums up the last day of transfer window. Why the last day for heavens sake?

As usual unprofessional activity from NUFC. Milner can go, no he can't ,yes he can....If he stays how committed will he now be to club which seems to be prepared to let him go? Can't blame the lad and he should be encouraged not passed around like a parcel. Get some pride.

If Viduka is the best we can do then god help us. Other clubs are buying better players and improving their squads, we let players go without replacements lined up and then in the scramble we get the dregs, losers and hasbeens.

We have had two years to get someone in for the retirement for Shearer and nothing has been done. Beattie was probably a good bet at the time to come to NE1 and develop along side the Lion. Missed chance? He's crap now anyway.

Why weren't we in for Woodgate - the best defender probably to grace the SJP turf?

I am still waiting to be astounded, we still need two strikers plus...pole position for three? Please god I hope so.

Geoff Buffey -Preston


Dear tf,

What the fuck is that clown (Shepherd) up to? – He sends Milner to Villa for transfer talks (sending out the message that we don’t want you and you don’t feature in our plans) and then recalls him as if nothing has happened (telling him that when we get the chance to sign someone new you will be sacrificed). If this is our clubs way of motivating our players then is it any wonder we have got so many footballing mercenaries on our books bleeding us dry?

Dave Edwards


Dear tf,

As I write, 150 mins left of the transfer window, no desperation £25m bid for Wayne Rooney and no desperation signing of a crock with a walking stick and manic driving wife. 'In pole position for 2-3 players', apparently Schumacher, Alonso and Button were busy (Owen's lass was well eager but two of them robbing us would be a joke, wouldn't it??). Even Fat Freddie's cash (sorry, OUR CASH) couldn't tempt them from early retirement for this ride.

As a club, we have no respect, either FOR the fan's, or FROM players. Who wants to play for us? A 19 year old reserve and a Frenchman with not much hope of a contract at Man City after this one!!!

I have one thing to say: Freddy, stop fucking us around, we all know we can't attract the big boys anymore, just don't patronise us anymore with tales of great signings to come. We don't believe you. Give us our dignity, or 50% of our season ticket price back, which ever is cheaper.

Keep On keepin’ On …

Purple Debra


Dear tf,


Ok so I am a bit one eyed in my hatred for the current NUFC regime but look at transfer deadline day. Its been a bloody joke. I reckon the only thing we achieved was pissing off the one lad who seems to have tried a light(Scott Parker aside).You know James Milner loves it here, he doesn't even want to go to bloody Villa despite reports to the contrary. How many of our fans genuinely believe we will achieve anything other than mid table mediocrity? I think its about time one or two of us nailed our colours to the mast and began a campaign to oust this current board. I have never gone into a season before without at least a tinge of excitement but I’m sorry this whole sorry mess needs weeded out from top to bottom.

Am i alone? I keep hearing people ringing Malcolm Macdonald moaning about people like me complaining before the season has started, but its as clear as day the team are nowhere near good enough to challenge for honours.

Paul Smith


Dear tf,

Antoine fucking Sibierski!

Are Fat Fred and that nice chap from the bank, sorry, Glen Roeder incapable of signing players that someone else actually wants?

I know that they said we were going to sign players with proven Premiership experience, but Rossi and Sibierski? Sounds like a dodgy watch brand - you know the ones advertised as " Normal Price £595 - on your wrist for £95". Anyway, it'll be broken by New Year.

What's wrong with taking a chance on Nugent or Eastwood? Andy Cole didn't have Premiership experience - his record at SJP compares with anyone.

Things are starting to feel like the dreadful three years that from 1975 to 1977 - good, entertaining, morally bankrupt team, ripped apart by arseholes (Westwood and Lee); faceless, "proper" footballers - what the fuck does that mean anyway? - signed (Nulty, Keeley, Bird) then the baton handed to thoroughly nice man, Richard Dinnis; qualify for Europe by the skin of our teeth and then freefall for the next six years.

Move forward twenty nine years - Westwood and Lee - Shepherd and Souness; Nulty, Keeley,Bird - Faye, Boumsong, Babayaro; Richard Dinnis - Glen Roeder.

I've often been very critical (not in print, but certainly in conversations with friends and family) of your stance regarding Freddie Shepherd. I have met him and know a number of his business contacts and have been impressed by his passion for the club.

However, my window cleaner has passion for the club - it appears that Freddie can't attract quality players any more than my window cleaner's cloth can attract dirt off my windows. If we've sunk to a loan signing from Man Utd - the embarrassment of becoming a proving ground for their talent is bad enough - and a reject from City, having been both beaten to the punch and rejected by the Beasts for Huth, Woodgate and Viduka, then Freddie has shown he can no longer deliver.

We pay absolutely top whack for our football at SJP and we want what we deserve - entertain us, excite us, put a smile on our faces or fuck off. The club is ours, it always will be regardless of what the shareholders might think. It's about time we stopped being as bad as the prawn sandwich brigade at every other club and campaigned in every possible constructive way to et these nonentities our of our lives and get some professionals running the club.

It's going to be a long, cold miserable winter - apart from for the blokes who make "i"s for the football shirts!

Declan Harrington


Dear tf,

Hold on am I dreaming? - Where are the new defenders we desperately need? and another striker (even of the standard of the now missed Chopra) would have been nice!

Poor Jimmy Milner - his only crime? to sign as a youngster to a club that has plummeted to such depths that this young player (who's attitude is beyond criticism as far as I am concerned) is paraded around as a cheap cash-in for an option on the likes of Viduka!

Sky's breaking news - TEVEZ to the 'Ammers and SIBIERSKI to the Toon.

FAT FREDDIE FUCK OFF

T Hall


Dear tf,


Right this is it, the end. In my opinion we here at SJP and other countless areas have put up with this fat parasitic f****r leeching off the club. In my opinion, he has gone to far, he lied to us the supporters, he promised us this calibre of player and that calibre of player to make us renew our Season Tickets and this is how we are repaid. Antoine Sibierski, a bloke who couldn't even break into the Manchester City team, and this is a team that includes Paul Dickov! If Shepherd had revealed that we had no money I'd have been angry but understood his position however he didn't and led us along with, in my opinion are his lies. I've had enough, and think that Shepherd must know now his days are counted.

P*****d Off and Angry,

Simon, Durham


Dear tf,

Antoine bastarding Sibierski? We would be better off with Antoine de fucking whats-his-face off eurotrash!

What’s going on?

Denzil Escobar


Dear tf,

In my opinion our scumbag of a Chairman has, once again, let Newcastle United and it's supporters down. Our inactivity in the transfer market has been an embarrassment to the many thousands of supporters who plough their hard earned money into OUR CLUB. How on earth Shepherd Offshore makes a profit I'll never know but then again, he's probably not running it now as he seems to spend most of his time ruining OUR CLUB in my opinion.

Please, Mr Shepherd, if you have the balls enough to read this website, FUCK OFF. IN MY OPINION YOU ARE NOT WANTED AT NE1. Give your shares to someone who would actually cares about what happens to OUR CLUB and who will run OUR CLUB properly. Newcastle United is not your play-thing, it is OUR CLUB. It is not your money, it is the money WE put into OUR CLUB. PLEASE DO THE RIGHT THING, FUCK OFF.

Craig Dixon


Dear tf,

Antoine fucking Sibierski! I hope he can play left back.

I am utterly astounded at the 2 loan signings made. What are we? A fucking Sunday league side scraping dregs together at the last minute. It's just as well Fat Fred spent them weeks before and during the world cup eyeing up Manchester's finest reserve players!

Vinny Seymour


Dear tf,


Ref: Antoine Sibierski

Well you did say you wanted a baldy back in the team...

Tim Brock

Ed: I knew we’d get the blame from someone. Tsk!


Dear tf,

That’s it then – according to Roeder we were in poll position for 3 signings on Sunday night and we bring in two loan signings – fuck off. At the end of last season we were told the squad needed six new players. Roeder is Shepherd’s patsy as I suspected all along. We’ve known Shepherd was a cunt for years but if Roeder wants to line up alongside this fat useless piece of shit then he is as much to blame as the fat bastard who has been fucking our club over for years in my opinion.

Paul Robinson


Dear tf,

Van Nistelroy – Real Madrid

Thomas Graveson – Celtic

Sol Campbell – Portsmouth

Jonathan Woodgate – Boro

Steed Malbranque – Tottenham

Wayne Bridge – didn’t move

Robert Huth – Boro.

Fuck Off Shepherd. You have failed miserably. Rossi? Sibierski? You are taking the piss.

Colin Pringle


Dear tf,

Antoine Sibierski…………well done FREDDY. You pissed around all summer and panicked into buying another waste of space, and guess who was behind the deal - the same agent that gave us Faye and Boumsong. We need a left back and a centre half, he should know that shouldn’t he? Sibierski scored 11 goals in 92 appearances for Man City, not prolific is it.

Alan Wilson

Dear tf,

The window has closed and we’ve missed out big style. Everyone including the Chairman knows there is no cover for strikers. Why leave things to last minute? A.Sibierski – what’s all that about? Unless there’s no cash. Perhaps FFS doesn’t want to spend with the rumoured takeover.

Glenn did well last season but should have received better backing from FFS ! like his predecessor enjoyed. Top six finish is not out of Question but we are on dodgy ground if
we get forwards injured. Goals will become a problem as at Villa.

Keith Mason


Dear tf,

After the close of the transfer window, and seeing the players we have brought in between July and September I can't help but feel we have missed the opportunity to sign some quality players.

From my knowledge Carlos Tevez is an exceptional player (maybe even good enough to replace Shearer?) and yet we weren't even linked with him. Too many times we have missed out on good young players (Ashton,Tevez) who could really carry the club forward.

Instead of waking up on the 1st of September to find out we bought a decent centre-half I read we had signed Antoine Sibierski, a player that I don't believe could even get in oir squad now.

We signed Duff who should prove to be a good signing however did we really need him? We have N'Zogbia on that left wing and we don't want him putting in a transfer request because of the lac of first team football. Hopefully Martins will prove to be a good signing as well however I severely doubt he will replace Shearer.

We needed to sign at least one defender - instead we signed Sibierski. When will we ever do things the way normal clubs do?

Chris Bradley, Dumfries


Dear tf,

Hail to the faithful...

Am I pleased with the summer signings? Am I bollocks, sorry, but as you have said in your blogs before, the club have known that Shearer was leaving for the past two seasons minimum - and yes I am taking into consideration Michael Owen - Would any other Premiership club in the country be happy with Ameobi and Luque as back-up? I think not unless we are talking about newly promoted clubs.

I also realise that Ameobi has done well for us this term and last term, but the question I ask myself every time is: Is Ameobi as good a striker as Defoe, or Bent, or even John? The answer always comes back to me that on his moment, yes he is; but that is on his moment.

These strikers are not even that special, think about that same question if you said, is he as good as Henry, or Rooney, or Schevchenko? The answer would always be no, he is not that good at the moment and (all respect to him) he probably will never be that good.

I really think that Shepherd is a true megalomaniac who thrives on his own sense of power and the reason we never sign anyone until the very last moment is because he is always wanting to be the greatest Premiership director who pulls off the biggest coup.

Quite frankly I am sick of all of this crap and I am sick of Shepherd. I hope that someone takes over the club and I hope that they have the passion to, or at least the business acumen to, take this beautiful club to the dizzy heights that we so deserve. Until that happens I will remain a true fan, a depressed fan and a disappointed fan, but always a fan.

Oh, and forgot to whinge on about the tea-bag we call a defence.

Stewart Dine - now thankfully living in Devon, so I don't have to put up with the week-in-week-out tears as I leave the ground to go to the Three Bulls or Rosie's.


Dear tf,

Roeder has done all he can given the fact Freddie gave Grim a blank cheque and left the coffers near empty. I am certain Glenn would have spent the £20m wasted on Luque Faye and Boumsong a bit more wisely than Souness did. Martins is an excellent buy and will come good, Rossi is a great loan signing and this is of benefit to all parties concerned. By the time he goes back to Man Ure we should more about when Owen is back (stop sniggering). As for Sibierski I think he is there to bring in a bit more height to the attack due to Shola’s dodgy hip, back, thigh etc. At least we didn’t have to strengthen our defence.....oh bugger.

Mark Trotter


Dear tf,

Antoine Sibierski? I mean, Antoine Sibierski? An olding, balding Frenchman? Not that I've got anything against the French per se: give me William Gallas and Thierry Henry and I'll start singing the Marselleise, waving the Tricolor and spelling my name Jacques. But Antoine buggering Sibierski? What the fuck sort of ambition are we showing here exactly? Are we hoping for a decent cup run (i.e. maybe the fourth round of the FA Cup), and avoiding relegation, or are we seriously trying to get back into Europe through the league? Well, we're not, obviously. We didn't even get Graveson because we seemed to be prioritising a bigger name - are you telling me that's Sibierski?

Or has Fat Fred let someone slip through his clutches again because their club wouldn't part with him for £38.27, the promise of a ticket to 'The Match', and three packets of pork scratchings? You remember, like last season, when he wouldn't pay a penny over £5m for Boa Morte - that's the proven Premiership player, Boa Morte, by the way - because he wouldn't be held to ransom, then he goes and hands Deportivo £9.5 million for Luque. Oh yes Fred, a great piece of business. Maybe Boa Morte was overpriced - but if so, Luque was even more overpriced. Yes, it's a good job Freddy is so shrewd in his transfer dealings, isn't it. Otherwise we'd have been £4.5 million better off and with a better player into the bargain.

I couldn't renew my season ticket at the end of last season because I couldn't afford it, but right now I'm feeling quite glad about that because I'd be telling them they could stick their fucking season tickets up their fucking arses. I mean West Ham, yes, West frigging Ham - no disrespect to them, but we're a bigger (if less successful) club - can sign top notch internationals Tevez and Marachino (I think he's a type of cherry), and we manage to attract only the sort of players who Man City are desperate to shift off their wage bill. Even Freddy: you've had your chance to make us a successful club, and you're making us a laughing stock, with our "big signings" and our pissing around with poor James Milner's career.

Well, according to the Beeb, that's the end of the transfer window. I'd love Glenn to publicly revise his ambition for the current season to something like 15th, saying "because the board were unable or unwilling to back me in the transfer market, I have to make do with a reduced squad, and I think 15th is a reasonable target". What could Freddy do? Threaten to sack him? He knows Glenn was his get-out clause when no-one else wanted to come last time round (or they wanted more than £5.35 an hour). But basically, thanks a fucking bunch. Enough is enough: we can't force Fred to sell, but we can, and should, let him know in no uncertain terms, and as often as is necessary, that he's no longer welcome at our club.

Jack P


Dear tf,

I think the chairman and manager have let the supporters down this summer. I was hoping for at least six players; three decent defenders, a couple of strikers (at least one world class) and a midfielder. I think if we had got players of a decent standard our squad would have been sufficient for a top 6 finish. There were so many players, several top-class, linked with us over the summer yet we only managed to sign three (one a has-been) and take one on loan. Our transfer activity shows the way this club is regarded amongst players and other clubs in the Premier League. E.g. the fact Woodgate (an excellent player who I would welcome back) chose the smoggies over us and the fact that we are loaning players from our “rivals”; isn’t that something inferior clubs do?. This summer has been a disappointment for NUFC. I was optimistic for good cup runs both domestically and in Europe as well as a top six finish. Now I feel deflated and expect another mediocre season with a manager who’s turning out to look mediocre and a board that still just say what the fans want to hear whether it’s truthful or not! All I can say is I pray for Michael Owen to have a miraculous recovery and that we are a bit more active in January.

Choco Boy
P.S. Great news on keeping Milner - that lad can play


Dear tf,

Woke up and 2:00 am Friday morning and thinks... .. .put the text on to check teletext - Cole to Chelsea and we've secured Wayne Bridge. Our Lass isn't to pleased, but not half as bastard put out as I am when I see - 'kin ANTOINE SIBIERSKI.

We get rid of two pieces of shit in Faye and Boumsong (both on Willie Mackays' books) and bring in Antoine Sibierski - a piece of shit on Willies' Books !! ! Is this fucker holding something on FFS - The last thing we needed was (another) no-mark mid-fielder.

People doubted Glens' ability to attract Players and absolutely nothing has happened in the last three months to dispel those fears - looks like he can talk the talk but can he walk the walk ? Can he bollocks.

Never mind Mr Oliver will back him to the hilt in tomorrows' Chronicle - he (Roeder) hasn't been to bed for days you know ! I never thought anybody would provide that bellend (AO) with more copy/space than Aaron Hughes but Glen manages it on a Daily basis.

So thats' it then, we're now reliant on Manc Mackem reserves and ManEWE juniors. Next we'll be back to making anonymous seventies signings like Graham Oates (Blackburn Rovers) and Alex Bruce (Preston NE). Hold on.. . I'm gettin carried away, we can't afford or attract Lucas Neil or David Nugent can we!

Think I'll go back to bed.. . this is just a bad dream.

TIRED & DISILLUSIONED, LOW FELL.


Dear tf,

Alright, maybe if we'd have signed Martins and Duff and got Rossi on loan, all at quarter to twelve last night, maybe I'd not be feeling as disappointed as I am. But Sibierski? THAT'S what we were waiting for?

We'd better learn to start scoring shed loads of goals, because the defence is still suspect. We needed a top class centre back, a top class left back, and we didn't/couldn't get them. I don't know the reasons, but it's not good enough.

As bloody usual, we've the makings of a cracking team, with some glaring problems that haven't been sorted out. The squad's too small - there's going to be an early exit from one or more cup competitions this year because of it, and what happens in January when Rossi goes back and no centre backs or centre forwards are banging on the doors at SJP to be signed up?

And what the f*** are they doing treating James Milner like that? One minute he's being welcomed back into the fold as a bright young thing, the English future of Newcastle United, next he's hoyed back out to Aston Villa to free up a bit of cash, and then dragged back because some other player (possibly fat, possibly Australian, possibly a b******d) turned us down. Milner must be looking at how Luque's played in recent matches and comparing it to how he's run himself ragged for us and wishing he'd cost us enough money to be too scared to flog him. For shame. Still, he's back where he ought to be and that's good.

Still, let's look on the bright side. Martins could be great, Duff is great, Parker's a top player, the Boy N'Zogbia, Prince Charles, would be New French Wonder Kid if Wenger had picked him out of European obscurity, and there's Wor Shay at the back. And we've shipped out Boumsong (for money!), Faye, Elliott ...

Howay the lads.

Rich Johnson.


Dear tf,

Is Roeder insulting our intelligence? He said that if he got all of his targets he would be very happy. Rossi? Sibierski? We have fallen back into the pack and given the transfer activity other clubs a top half finish looks unlikely. Please explain yourself FFS or get out of OUR CLUB. Unless this clown puts up or shuts up I fear the dark old days may return, still at least all of the players tried their best then unlike a certain Mr Luque or Mr Babayaro.

Martin Johnson, Newton Aycliffe


Dear tf,
I think the transfer activity of NUFC has been a joke. Two months ago the players we were linked to included: Kuyt, Klose, Wright-Phillips, Campbell, Woodgate, Bridge. Over the last few days this has suddenly turned into F.A.B. Viduka, Diawara and some Egyptian bloke. In the meantime we accept an offer for Milner from Villa only to tell him to hotfoot it back to St James's coz it turned out we didn't need the finance for the Viduka deal. That will do wonders for Milner's confidence who ironically has looked one of our best players so far. And if he goes, who puts pressure on Nobby to perform??

I can't believe we didn't take a punt on a few lesser names to boost the squad. When Isee forwards with pace like Roberts, Johnson etc changing clubs for relative peanuts it makes me wonder why we always seem to want to sign 'name' players. Whatever happening to picking up nuggets from the lower leagues? Or abroad? What the f**k has David Mills been doing since he's been at the club? How many players who've signed have actually been 'scouted'?? The players we signed last year were obviously good players - Owen, Parker, Emre, Solano. Ray Charles could have decided they were good players. It’s a 'kin joke....

Micky Campbell


Dear tf,

It's January 1943, the setting is the arctic killing ground of Hell on the Volga...Stalingrad - 250,000 crack troops of the German Sixth Army Group South are surrounded by Red Barbarians thirsty for blood, in his command Bunker Major General Von Paulus is experiencing an epiphany. Rather than being allowed to extricate his men, the cream of the Wermacht, from certain doom, news has just arrived from Berlin that he has been created Field Marshal n.b. no German Field Marshal in History has ever retreated in the face of the enemy, suddenly the scales dropped from his eyes and he realised that the Fuhrer was a mad man surrounded by bungling yes men!

Fast forward to Tyneside 2006 and in his spartan quarters, tear filled eyes glued to the teletext in the wee small hours, sits the Jarra Para of the elite Toon Army Airborne Brigade reading and re-reading the flickering electronic syntax. He can't quite believe what’s not happening.

Jarra too is experiencing an epiphany, Frederick Shepherd, Chairman of Newcastle United, the Phileas T. Barnum meets Crazed Dictator of the Premiership, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Geordie Republic, having promised his troops so much has delivered so little! The Jarra Para finally realises that the man he's often defended and blindly followed is an incompetent buffoon who has betrayed the massed Black & White Legions.

He comports himself, checks his ammunition belt and ceremonial dagger then slips out into the night. It's time for radical change, a night of the long knives :- Freddie OOT ! Fuck off Fattie ! So die all traitors!

Nigel Pearson


A LETTER SENT TO THE SPORTS EDITOR OF THE EVENING CHRONICLE WHICH HAS BEEN COPIED TO TRUE FAITH:

There is an expression along the lines that we get the politicians that we deserve. However, I do not think this applies to the media and, specifically, the press.

Newcastle United supporters are continually let down by information and analysis they receive, or fail to receive, not so much by the often-derided, southern-based media, a populist and puerile argument at the best of times, often made by self-serving local journalists. It is the latter, especially those based at Thomson House and, specifically Alan Oliver, who continually fail the supporters of Newcastle United.

If you find this surprising, please take a moment to look at any of the supporters forums on the internet (some of which you list on icnewcastle) or indeed the 'Have Your Say' section of your website.

The fans are enraged by what they consider the total mismanagement of the club, of which Freddie "I'm a Geordie me, like" Shepherd is the arch culprit. The culmination of the closing of the transfer deadline yesterday, and specifically the gross mistreatment of James Milner, sadly highlighted the shambolic management of the club.

Yet, the mood of the fans is never reflected in the daily 'PR' emanating from Alan Oliver's key pad. Never do we see anything approaching an investigative piece of journalism. Time and time again the stories from this journalist - yes, I know, I'm being charitable in affording him such status - have proven to be unfounded and never does he question the direction, strategy and finances of the club. For example, has he ever queried the staggeringly high salary and pension payments made to the likes of Douglas Hall? Has he ever queried why the board authorise such massive dividend payments at a time when the team is in serious need of investment? Has he questioned why, as a PLC, Newcastle do not have an effective board of non-executive directors? Of course, he hasn't.

Instead, we are fed a daily diatribe of nonsense in which he lauds the ability, character and so-called high reputations of Freddie Shepherd and his puppet-boss, Glenn Roeder.
Have the powers that be at Thomson House ever asked why this terrible situation has arisen and is, indeed, getting worse?

Alan Oliver has no credibility among the supporters of Newcastle. He is regarded at best a fool and, at worst, some sort of employee of the club.

Thankfully, we do receive decent coverage - George Caulkin of The Times and Michael Walker of the Guardian spring to mind - two reporters of southern-based biased media, the very sort which are derided in the rags that come out of Thomson House.

We deserve better than this.

Feel free to respond or better still, publish this letter in either The Journal or, better still, The Evening Chronicle.

Yours in good faith,

Richard Spowart

AND THE REPLY…

Richard,

Let me assure you that we share the frustrations of Newcastle fans - if for no other reason than most of us at the Chronicle (myself and the Editor included) are also fans.

We have carried a comment piece today (written by Alan Oliver) criticising the club for their farcical failings in the transfer market. Not only did we feel we had to reflect the feelings of the fans, but in fact we carried the comment piece because that is how WE feel as well.

Alan Oliver is an easy target, but all summer he has kept fans informed of United's transfer targets - not wild speculation but developments re genuine moves for Martins, Graveson, Kuyt, Huth etc. It is not Alan's fault that some of these deals did not come off!

What few seem to realise is it not easy for a local paper to be over-critical of their local club when we have to main a relationship with them on a day-to-day basis. Yet we have been highly critical of NUFC in the past to the extent that we have fallen out with everyone from the chairman down at some stage.

Regards,

Paul New, Sports Editor

AND THE LAST WORD ...

Paul,

Many thanks for your prompt reply.

I agree, Alan Oliver is an easy target given that he is the main journalist at The Evening Chronicle. And, indeed, it is not his fault that NUFC is badly managed or the fact that the club have failed to secure their transfer targets - that is assuming that these players were ever realistic targets. After all, only a fool would trust Freddie Shepherdin my opinion. However, Alan Oliver's lack of criticism of the board, and especially Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall, that many of us find so galling.

I accept that he has a very difficult job in attempting to keep the fans informed, to reflect their divergent feelings while still keeping the club - his main source of information - 'onside'. However, their seems an ever-greater reluctance to criticise the many failings of the management of the club while continually promoting the so-called merits of the board, especially Shepherd. Of late, his articles are increasingly sycophantic.

I do not think I am alone is asserting that the journalism at The Chronicle is regarded as nothing more than company PR.

However, I look forward to reading today's edition of The Chronicle. Our club will never move forward as long as the likes of Freddie Shepherd and his parasitical bedfellow - no pun intended given their exploits in Marbella - Douglas Hall receive such an an easy ride in the media. The forthcoming article in which you refer to will go some way in highlighting the ineptitude of the management of the club and is therefore welcome.

Regards,

Richard Spowart


Dear tf,

Antoine Sibierski??? Are Newcastle taking the piss??? I couldn't believe it when that scrolled across the screen on Sky Sports news. We have arguably the worst defence in the premiership and yet once again fail to strengthen in this area. Does Fat Freddy / Glenn really think what we have is good enough to see us through. Are Moore, Bramble, Babayaro going to go through a full season without being injured? Out transfer policy is an absolute joke, no forward planning, nothing. How many scouts do we have on our books? Who are they? Would love Freddy to answer these questions…

Gavin Hedley

P.S. Olivier Bernard is out of contract and available, he's better than Babayaro whatever's happened in the past. Go and get him.


Dear tf,

Bloody Nora, it has been a confusing few months!

I can’t work out whether we have been lied to for 3 months, or whether noone at the club knows their arses from their elbows. Roeder has been getting stick for being inconsistent but the poor man seems as confused about transfer policy as the rest of us. His latest statement that Martins was our 1st Choice striker smacks of having fobbed the fans off with so many half-truths that even he doesn’t believe what he says any longer, and doesn’t expect anyone else to either. His transfer criteria (price, nationality, age, PL experience etc) combined to exclude every possible target – including his 3 actual signings - which he told us would be 6. Let’s just brush over Sibierski completely, eh? These are surely the helpless utterings of a man who simply doesn’t know what is going on behind closed doors.

I just can’t believe that if Roeder had known he had £20m to spend back in April, that he would have bought just 3.5 players with 5m change to fill 6 positions by transfer deadline day. It makes no sense. Even Souness must have been amazed to find at the end of August last year, after blowing 20m on Scotty, Emre and Boumsong, that there was still £30m in the coffers to buy him 2 strikers from Spain and an ageing Peruvian. Surely this is because the manager has almost nothing to do with transfer process? If so, Fat Fred seems to have no idea how much money he is making available to the manager until about August 20th. And then he spunks it himself on whim buys.

Policy seems to have been to make no money at all available for specific transfers, and then to chase players as they became available in the interests of being at least seen to do something. Fat Fred couldn’t say ‘Sorry lads, we have no cash’, because he knows it’s his own bloody fault, and so we endure the months-long charade of being linked with World Class which we can’t afford, whilst being told that we can!

If Kuyt was apparently worth an initial £5m offer, and Golden Boot Klose was worth £7m, then how is peripheral Inter striker Martins suddenly worth £10m, and where did the money come from? If there was no money for Kuyt, why chase him? But if there was money for Martins, where was it for Kuyt? If they weren’t interested, then why the pointless pantomime trip to Ireland to watch Kuyt for the 53rd time after he had already agreed terms with the Scousers? Either FS is fucking stupid, or he believes that we are. The two explanations are not, of course, mutually exclusive, but there simply cannot be a third.

Duff – great signing, but he hardly fitted anyone’s idea of a master-plan, did he? This ironically made many, me included, foolishly believe that there must be one! D’oh!

In the middle of this, club and local press conspired to be as unhelpful as possible. The reporting has been shit. They rushed to crush the Real players rumours (Beckham / Woodgate) but the rest (Malbranque, Graveson, Huth, Klose especially, Campbell etc) were left to ride for weeks. That is sort of OK, but then Alan Oliver brushes them aside with shit such as ‘wide of the mark’ with no further fucking explanation! If that was the case why didn’t he say so earlier? Roeder then gets quoted as saying we are in pole position for 3 anonymous top players, who of course never arrive. Either they were never coming, and Roeder was lying to cover for Fred, or the poor man was himself being lied to, and there was no money to sign them. If there really was money, and 3 real players, and all 3 turned us down, then I’m buggered if I know what is going on. I am quite certain that Glen didn’t, and ultimately he carries the can.

The long and short of it is that the board obviously doesn’t trust the fans with the truth, probably doesn’t trust the manager with the truth, and the fans no longer believe a word even if it’s true. So much for SBR losing the dressing room. This board has lost the fans.

Ned - Gosforth


Dear tf,

Sibierskie, does he fit with our transfer policy? Milner, I would tell Newcastle to fuck off and hand in a transfer request for January. Rossi, please Sir Alex can we borrow some more. Freddy your time is up. you have had your chance now with Dalglish, Gullit, Robson, Souness and Roeder. There seems to be an emerging pattern -YOU WERE THE CHAIRMAN FOR ALL THESE MANAGERS! Somebody please take the club off this lunatic.

Neil Renwick


Dear tf,

So Sibiersky eh? I'm baffled! Just re-signed Olivier Bernard as well which I'm quite pleased about. I always thought we had a good left back in him who could run, tackle and score goals. My favourite moment was when Robert tried to play a long ball, but instead whacked him on the head. The comic way in which he fell over was genius!

Stephen Farrell


Dear tf,

Picture this, Titus has just got us European football, and we are all laughing in the pub at Spurs losing. A chance to put the dark days of the Souness mistake behind us, sell some deadwood Boom / Baba / Chopra / Bowyer / Faye and buy 2 fullbacks, a defensive midfielder (now parker is a free flowing goal scoring attacking midfielder!!!) and 2 strikers we end up buying duff (to play ahead of Charlie, our best player last year – see him signing for Arsenal in the summer, and lord knows what future favour we owe Chelski for £5m Duff) a 21 or 28 yr old forward for 10m (who we immediately play even though he has no match fitness, and inevitably picks up injury – what happened to Roeder’s ”I wont make soonmess mistakes playing unfit players patter) and then deadline day, and we sign Manure’s 5th choice striker on loan for 4 month, and Sibierski for a year (where and when the feck is he gonna play), at least Malbranque could play up front , and we try to sell Milner (again!!) to buy Viduka…in the meantime, West Ham have signed 2 pure class Argentinians, Bolton have signed Anelka, and Spurs have signed Malbranque (Sibierski??? is someone kidding me) and Chimbonda, even Portsmouth have signed Andy Cole, I’d be happy with him ahead of blooming Rossi so by my reckoning we are going into the season with 2 rubbish full backs (with no back up) Carr too fat, too many yellows, can’t head the ball, and Babayaro who doesn’t want to play for us 3 decent centre backs (with no back up) Taylor ain’t half as good as we are kidding ourselves, and Titus 1 mistake from being crucified again more midfielders than we can shake a stick at but only one of them defensively minded Butt (now parker is the new Scholes / Lampard/ Gerrard– cough) and Butt is never gonna win the fans over, and it means dropping emre, and parker will never get double figures unless he starts taking pens and a strike force that doesn’t look like it will get you 40 goals between them, with poor Shola still unable to cut the mustard or prove doubters wrong, as he still hasn’t been allowed to get fit / have operations we were lucky as hell to get 7th last season, we are going to be nowhere near it this season, another season wasted and mistakes needing put right. The sooner we bite the bullet and give Shearer the job the better, then if he works great, if not Fat Fred will have to go, and we can try and grow up to be a proper football club, because if we don’t we are in serious danger of being the next Leeds.

Bill Kimage


Dear tf,

Freddie Shepherd:

So where do we start on this subject? A man who, in December 1996, took the mantle of Chairman of Newcastle United after Sir John stepped down, promised a lot. Has he delivered? In some aspects yes, in others a resounding no.

Lets look back further. Before heading to NUFC he was/is an established businessman along with his brother Bruce and another business partner, they own Shepherd Offshore. A lot has been made of the, I don't want to say fact but for this I will use it, that Bruce is the brains behind Shepherd Offshore and the main reason the company has good financial strength. So, with that in mind, does Bruce regard Freddie as a risk?

Shepherd became a shareholder at NUFC in the 80's and became a part of Sir John's consortium, which took over at NUFC in December 1990. *By Shepherd's own account, he became involved in the takeover when Sir John Hall, a family friend, called him and suggested he speak to Hall's son, Douglas, about the club's dire financial situation.

Lets move forward a little. March 1998. The News of the World expose. Tyneside awoke on a Sunday morning to lurid tales of Shepherd and Hall being trapped by a "Fake Sheikh". The allegations amounted to both parties slating the clubs supporters, laughing about them being ripped off over Club merchandise, calling the females of Tyneside "dogs" (your mothers, wives, girlfriends) and also mocking the leading scorer at the Club, Alan Shearer, labelling him "Mary Poppins". All this done while visiting a brothel! Clearly good, sound leadership we have at Newcastle. Or maybe not. The result was not immediate. After a lot of ducking and diving by Shepherd and Hall, eventually both stepped down but less than 12 months later were to re-appear on the board, both voting themselves back into the fold of NUFC. This resulting action led to the resignation of PLC chairman David Cassidy, who had only joined NUFC 6 months previous. Shepherd took over as PLC chairman. Freddie, to use one of your own sound bites, "Geordies are forgiving folk, but they never forget". And we haven't sunshine, we haven't. The following is a joint statement released by Shepherd and Hall:

"Douglas Hall and Freddie Shepherd sincerely apologise for any offence that has been caused to members of their families, the fans of Newcastle United, the people of the North-east and their fellow directors. "They particularly apologise to the women of the North-east. Anybody who knows Douglas and Freddie would realise the comments attributed to them are totally out of character and do not represent their true views."

So far under the "leadership" of Shepherd and Hall, we have seen the following managers through the in and out door: Dalglish, Gullit, Robson, Souness and now we have in Glenn Roeder. In between them we also had in as cover managers, Terry Mac and John Carver.

Each of the managers have been given great sums of money to spend, seemingly all ours as none has come from the pockets of Shepherd or Hall, but both have continued to take their dividends or when things were tight, take more shares. The last two managers (Robson and Souness) often alluded to players being forced upon them by Shepherd (Butt for Robson - Solano and Owen for Souness). As great a signing Owen was, the club was forced to take a 17 million pound overdraft to afford the player. £17m? A more astute chairman should surely have stopped to think more, especially when other bids centred around 8-12 million for him. So why did Shepherd see fit to pay £5m more? Conspiracy theories suggest the Woodgate deal had something to do with it. I think it was sheer stupidity, personally. And even more so when you consider Luque had been signed a week previous for £10m plus. Seems Shepherd thought we wouldn't get Owen but when presented with the chance of another Hollywood signing and the chance to get his face on the TV, he couldn't resist. The present incumbent, Roeder, was promoted from Academy Coach to caretaker manager after Souness was sacked, guiding Newcastle to a respectable 7th place finish last season.

Shortly afterwards, he was awarded the job of first team coach after a host of "big names" had failed to live up to Shepherds expectations at interview stage (Hiddink, Van Gaal, Hitzfeld all not good enough). Some would say that Shepherd is waiting on Shearer to decide he fancies the job and Roeder will be easily replaced with little or no friction and he can slip back to the Academy.

Going back to Sir Bobby's time in charge, I believe the time the rot set in was in 2003, when we signed Lee Bowyer from West Ham, at a time when we'd qualified for the Champions League and he was the only player to set in foot in at NUFC. We slipped back badly when the chance was there to push on. Have we ever recovered from that? I don't think so.

Again, the finger pointed at Shepherd, with Robson rumoured to be bemoaning in private that we missed the boat. The infamous "we're keeping our powder dry" quote was touted to club lap dog Alan Oliver, who gladly lapped it up with the promise of more big name signings in the January.

Forward onto Souness, £50m was given over to the mad Scotsman, who was 5th choice for the job after a host of other managers were alleged to have been offered the position, with rumours of Allardyce coming for the interview, found Shearer sitting in and promptly walked out and into a waiting car. Make of that what you will. Souness was well out of his depth and he knew it.

Talk of proper players gave way to the likes of Boumsong, Babayaro, Faye, Emre and the classy Scott Parker coming to St James'. Of the 5 of them, Parker stands out a million miles. The one good buy sanctioned by Shepherd (though Emre's goal against you know who stood him in good stead for a short while but he has flattered to deceive).

Shepherd's share holdings at Newcastle are an often discussed issue. Starting at the floatation in 1997 he has increased his holding by some 22%. Currently he stands at owning a little over 28% of the shares. Slowly he has been building these up and rumour of a take-over by him have never been far away. He needs 30% to make an offer but certain sources seem to indicate that he cannot afford to take the club on. Certainly as little as 24 months ago, rumour abounded of him approaching Graeme Wylie, the former SAGE chairman, over a proposed joint take-over at NUFC only to be re-buffed.

Rumours of a take-over from Polygon earlier this year helped the share prices increase a little, once it became known that the Halls were looking to sell their shares in NUFC. The Polygon bid came to nothing but now Belgravia are on the horizon and the Halls seem more receptive to their approach. Shepherd has privately stated that he will see off their bid but also privately, people are believing this could be the beginning of the end for Shepherd and his time at NUFC.

*The Shepherd's have made ₤8,351,298 from Newcastle United, ₤5,489,239 in share dividends and ₤2,862,059 in salaries. In 2005, Shepherd's annual salary from the club was £552,954.

So far Shepherd's tenure at NUFC is littered with major mistakes and minor triumphs. Certainly he has enjoyed a few minor successes, only a fool would say otherwise, Wembley and various romps into Europe with UEFA and Champions League football, but overall his tenure will be looked upon as missed opportunities and bad management. His never ending quest to be the mouthpiece of NUFC (whilst chairmen at clubs such as Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs and Boro just get on with it and shun the limelight) will forever be a stain on the club. He just cannot help himself. His quotes of "Geordie Nation" and other such luminaries are embarrassing in the extreme and must delight fellow fans around the country, a stick to beat us with if you like. Indeed, in the last 48 hours we seem to have had a farce in the transfer market with only bench warmers at Man City and an out of contract Oliver Bernard (who we cast off 3 seasons ago for being greedy/badly advised) coming in. I believe Roeder gave Shepherd his wish list and Shepherd acted decided against signing who was on it, citing players as too old or too risky (Woodgate and Campbell two players who would have improved our team considerably). Other players rumoured to be on the list, if they are to believed and had Shepherd have landed one or two, and NUFC would probably sit in a more comfortable position come April 2007.

I somehow get the feeling that Shepherd is no longer interested in our Club. It is OUR club, we make it what it is, not him or the board, US, the supporters. Shepherd's time is running out now and he knows it. A concerted effort by ALL FANS to let him know we won't put up with his shenanigans needs to be mobilised and to let investors know that NUFC is ripe for a take-over. A clean sweep is required from top to bottom. But be warned, the mistakes of the past cannot be made again, we need to rebuild and any new owners need to have a supporters voice at Club level from the start, something that Shepherd has flatly refused to acknowledge since he became Chairman. Times they are a changin............the sooner the better in this case.

Darren Gladstone


Dear tf,

So that was that. The Sky Sports News countdown ticked away, and miraculously we had avoided the sight of Freddy Shepherd making a bid for Ronaldinho/Ashley Cole/Johan Cruyff. Progress you might say.

We also had the joyous news that Newcastle United had signed Antoine Sibierski. What a momentous day for the club. Did nobody see the 20,000 packed into the Leazes as he put pen to paper? How could you miss the media circus that goes with NUFC signings these days? Oh, because there were none.

A bit like in Premierships of yore, we started exceptionally by buying a class article in Damien Duff. We then maintained momentum of sorts with the signing of Obafemi Martins to take the number 9 shirt. We all knew the business end of the window was still to come, with another striker and maybe, just maybe, a couple of defenders. But Glenn Roeder informed us faithful Geordies that we were in pole positi