Spit the Dog

Well as we all love that game. It would be interesting to see who still plays. I know Spit The Dog and Sunderland play. Scousemouse is not a bad player. He trains the kids at school since i left and he used to help me before. I played in the casual league for a couple of seasons. I won a couple of indoor 5's comps and helped the TV team win the Global soccer nines . I still play 5's once a week in Sydney. Also this will be my second seasoon playing for Coogee United. Though this year i will be running the team as well as playing. So who else still plays regularly? Just curious.

The last time I saw Sunderland (the forum member, not the team) play football was just before Christmas against the Japanese. His right football boot burst open midway through the first half and he had to play the rest of the game in a pair of grey hiking shoes. Funnily enough, it was one of the best games that I've ever seen him play.

Since then then skinflint mackem hasn't played as rumour has it he doesn't want to spend 2000 Baht on a new pair of boots. Either that or he too busy competing in the Supali Squash League with Mr. Toad.

So as Northern Rock has been nationalised I guess that makes every tax payer in the UK an official sponsor of 'the Barcodes'.

You are, therefore, entitled to make your own conditions of sponsorship.

The only one that I can think of is that they play in the Scottish Premiership and change their strip to red and white stripes.

But I'm sure that others can think of things more imaginative.

As the "sponsors" of the club, I belleive that they should try to pressure the club into showing that equal rights should be promoted in football. Therefore, I believe Newcastle should have a quota on the playing staff of gays, lesbians, physically disabled, learning disabled and asylum seekers. Tony Blair should also become the next Manager.

Good to see taxpayers money being put to good use.

If Newcastle were to sign some gays, lesbians, physically disabled, and asylum seekers, they might actually have more chance of scoring a goal than Alan Smith. A couple of lesbians in defence might actually toughen up the defence.

The only thing that Newcastle don't need are any more players with learning difficulties. Joey Barton fills that quota already.

I've changed my mind about Keegan winning something.

I think they'll win promotion to the Premiership in 2009

I doubt he'll be around that long. In fact if things don't improve soon, I think he'll quit before the end of March.

Relegation is a distinct possibilty under the current regime. There's normaly one team that slides down the table, and at present Newcastle and Reading are vying for that particular spot. Keegand looks lost and bemused, and even at the hight of his powers he wasn't the greatest tactitian, so with the <deleted> he has at his disposal and the facft he's been out of the game for a few years, it really doesn't look like a good mix.

In honesty though, I'll still plump with my original prediction, Derby, Wigan and Reading (apologies to TP).

I think that Newcastle could well go down. In their last 17 games they've only had 2 wins and collected a mere 11 points which is relegation form in any league. The only thing that might save Newcastle is that they already have more points in the bag than the other relegation candidates.

I've changed my mind about Keegan winning something.

I think they'll win promotion to the Premiership in 2009

I doubt he'll be around that long. In fact if things don't improve soon, I think he'll quit before the end of March.

Out of curiosity,I decided to watch the Newcastle v Middlesboro game just to see what team the Chosen One would put out when,holy crap,there they were AGAIN,those two has beens,Smith and Butt.I know he hasn't been around for years,but why hasn't he got the message after four games that they can't hack it anymore?

My sentiments exactly. Possibly the last time Keegan watched a Premiership game Butt was still at Man Utd and Smith was a promising youngster at Elland Road and both were decent players. These days, Butt looks past it. I don't know how many times he gave away possession agianst Boro. As for Smith, he has never really recovered from theat serious injury that he had a couple of years ago. No goals this season. That about sums his contribution up. I wonder what KK will do when Martins comes back and Viduka gets match fit. Surely he can't persist with Smith.

Will Newcastle be down by Easter???

No because Sunderland, Fulham and Derby will still have less than 27 points at Easter.

Totally agree JS, I think Burley was the best they could have chosen.

Good luck to him and the lads in the World Cup qualifying group.

Yes agreed. Burley would have been my choice out of the 4 candidates. In saying that I think McGhee could have been a good appointment as well.

At least half of the teams that qualify for the last 16 will be non Premiership teams. There a good chance that we could see another Millwall with a lower league team reaching the final without playing a Premiership side.

In that last Luton match, Benitez actually put out a stronger side than many Premiership sides. They just didn't play well. How about Everton? They lost and put out a "weak" side. People talking about Liverpool's rotating is overstated and has become a boring cliche. I often see Masefield harping on Liverpool so I think he just doesn't like them or Benetiz and has become biased.

Masefiled is a failed Liverpool apprentice, so I think he enjoys getting the digs in every now and again. He did play for giant clubs like Stocport and Exeter though, but he was <deleted> at that level as well.

Thanks for the the Masefield biography,Mr.T.but how did he get a job on ESPN with a CV like that?

To be honest OG, I have no idea. I can remeber him when he was playing at Exeter, as used to go up and watch a fair few games, but he generally was a pretty average player at that level and struggled to get in the team anyway. He had a smattering of Apearances for Birmingham, Preston and Stockport. I have a vague recollection that he played football in S'pore a few years back, and I'd imagine that is how he ended up with a job with ESPN. As for the standard of Football in S'pore, it has improved in the past 3/4 years, but going back when Mase would have been playing, it was truly shocking. In fact the standard was well below anything in the top 5 tiers of English football, during the first few years of the S-League, and I can't remeber him playing in S'pore, so that suggests the sort of impact he had there.

As for Jamie Reeeves, never a professinal footballer, but I beleive he played Semi - Pro for someone. PJ, played in S'pore and Australia, and Shebby played for a number of years in the Malaysian league.

As for McMahon, well I think we all know about his management credentials, or should we say lack of them.

Talk about getting a lucky break in life. An average football (Masefield) players seeing out the last few days of his footballing career in Singapore. Next thing you know he's got a spot on ESPN as a football pundit. Lucky git!

Keegan will win the Premiership with Newcastle in 2009 and then the Champions League in 2010 and he will eventually become Prime Minister in 2112.

In the meantime Big Sam will return to Bolton and relegate them back to Division 1(old division 3) were they belong.

Short term I think that Keegan will scrape off the cobwebs and spark a bit of life back into St James'. Long term I don't think that he's the answer. It wouldn't surprise me if Shearer is brought in as number 2 and is groomed to be Keegan's eventual successor.

Are Sunderland playing their home games at the Riverside now?

The reason I ask this is because I watched some of the Pompey game a couple of days ago and I saw thousands of empty red seats. I thought it was just Boro that played in half empty stadiums.

I won't comment on Newcastle in this thread though.

The difference being that Newcastle at least have a full stadium at kick-off. It's only when they're 3-0 down after 30 minutes that the stadium empties.

Are Sunderland playing their home games at the Riverside now?

The reason I ask this is because I watched some of the Pompey game a couple of days ago and I saw thousands of empty red seats. I thought it was just Boro that played in half empty stadiums.

How about this guy?

I give you Joseph Blair (No relation of Tony).

The manager of Jossy's Giants would be perfect, and he also owns a sports shop, so he'd get on well with the chairman.

In fact there's a very similar story between the two.

http://www.jossysgiants.org/

He could probably do a better job than Souness.

I think Sam should have been given to the end of the season.

When Sam took over Newcastle they had just finished 13th, 43 points from 38 games. When he left they were 11th, 26 points from 21 games. Looks like a small improvement to me. Certainly not a disaster for someone they brought in who committed to a longer term plan. Realistically no-one will turn around Newcastle and their fair-weather fans in half a season.

Yes a small improvement statistically but if you take into account that Newcastle still have to visit Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa, Pompey, and Tottenham then there hasn't really been any improvement. Certainly not if judging by the performances on the pitch. The fact that Derby have achieved 4 out of their 7 points against Newcastle pretty much sums things up.

At the end of the day Sam was an average manager who had great belief in himself. His managerial tactics revolved around playing percentages. Eliminating flair and hoping to score from set pieces wasn't going to win over the fans. The point he was missing was that Arsenal/Man Utd score goals through flair/creativity and have an organised defence. Under Allardyce Newcastle had neither.

I think that Allardyce will be back soon. I heard that the Republic of Ireland want him as their next manager. That could be the ideal job for him. His methods are very similar to Jack Charlton's so Big Sam may be more suited to this job..

Another mutual consent departure. Any thoughts on who is going to replace him?

Apparently Shearer has ruled himself out? Wise man!

Its a done deal.

And that man is.......................................

HARRY REDKNAPP

Yeah, he's odd's on, but he probably had a wager on himself before the prices started coming down.

As for Shearer, he's not going to risk his reputation just yet, it just shows that for all his posturing and preening, he's full of <deleted>.

For Harry, this could be one job that he doesn't suceed in, until the fans get there golden boy in the managers chair all the usual <deleted> will continue.

I think that Southampton fans may disagree with you. But seeing as Andy Penders is one of them, I have little sympathy

Need 1 goalkeeper for RBSC 7-a-Side tourney 26 - 27 @ RBSC ground- tp play for OVA (Old Victoria Association) FC

All paid you dont have to spend a single cents for the team joining fees

Age : 36 +

p.s Please make sure you can do a diving saves lol

Sorry, love to, but I am 35 . Would have been ideal as well.

Yeah I'm just too young also. Perhaps next year when I'll be 36.

Good Luck in the tourney.

Half way through the season, 12 points safely away from the relegation zone and the manager is (by mutual consent) sacked. What the hel_l is going on, and what do people expect? What do Newcastle supporters really expect with injuries to key players and without Chelsea type spending power...

How long will the new manager get....10 games?

Anyway, they deserve to go the way of Leeds for the booing of Gerrard

If you are Reading, Wigan or Fulham then being 12 points away from safety at this point of the season is acceptable. But when you've spent big money on players like Owen, Barton and Martins, are regularrly getting crowds of 52000 and your manager is one of the top 5 paid managers in the league then I think that the Newcastle fans are entitled to expect something better than the crap football that Allardyce was producing.

I keep hearing that it was a 3 to 5 year job. Fair enough. However, after 8 months of Big Sam's reign there was zero sign of improvement and if anything the team was worse.

Newcastle are critisied for continually changing their manager. The problem is that the last 3 managers appointed by Fat Freddie were bad appointments. This will be Ashley and Mort's first managerial appointment. I hope that they can get it right this time.

A few minutes away from kick off between Man City and Liverpool and Somchai and the raging flame reckon there are more thai City fans than Liverpool fans , I wonder why .

Cos Thaksin bunged them 500 baht last week.

It's Dr. Thaksin not Thaksin. Well that's what John Dykes was calling him in the Football Upclose interview.

The FA Cup is definitely on StarSports. The Burnley v Arsenal, Luton v Liverpool and Stoke v Newcastle games are all on back to back on Sunday night.

I remember when O'Donnell first burst on to the scene with Motherwell in the early 90's, many people thought that he was destined for a great career. Unfortunately he suffered from terrible injuries and never really fulfilled his potential.

RIP Phil O'Donnell

Whilst agreeing that Barton is without the "Moron Of The Year", please spare a though for our own moron at Reading

Leroy Litta had an excellent summer playing for the England under 21's and was being touted as a future England regular.

So the little twerp really helps himself by firstly injuring himself while having sex, then uses his mobile phone to video himself havng sex with another girl and sends it to his mates...who kindly pass it on until it reaches someone in the press.

Result ...Litta can't get a game for Reading and although he may well be able to "Score" as many times as he wishes off the pitch , he has not managed one goal all season on it.

Could well go in the transfer window......what a talent...what a shame.....Moron !!

Seems like a waste of talent. But you still have Kitson and Doyle. They look like a good partnership.

Does anybody know what Alan Smith's goal celebration is like. Still to see one.

Allardyce wants time and he is right.

The mess he was left by Glenn Roeder was never going to be sorted quickly.

Exactly. I say he should be given more time.IMHO

Agree, 100 per cent, but we all know that Managers do not get much time these days. Newcastle has been a poisoned chalice for a number of years, pretty much since Keegan went, and with Shearer continuing to hover in the wings waiting for hius chance, most of the managers who have gone there have been on a hiding to nothing. Big Sam is no different, and some of his signings so far just haven't performed, along with some pretty dull football inot the bargain. I think he doesn't deserve the <deleted> he's getting, as he is a more than capable EPL manager, but the rot runs deep at Newcastle, and has done, for a number of years. It takes time to sort it, but no one has been given the time, and I rather suspect that Sam won't either.

Spot on Mr Toad. Out of the 9 signings he has made the only half decent player looks like Beye. Cacapa, Rozenahal and Faye are no better than Boumsong and Bramble. Enrique isn't ready. Barton is a tool. Geremi is crap. Viduka doesn't look interested and Alan Smith runs around like a headless chicken.

I watched probably the majority of Newcastle's games this season and it's been painful. I look at Villa and Everton, which are 2 teams Newcastle should be competing with, and it has to be said that they are far superior.

Managers should be given time. But Newcastle and Big Sam just isn't going to work. It's time for Ashley to cut his losses and get rid of him.

PREMIER LEAGUE

1. Manchester United

2. Chelsea

3. Arsenal

4. Liverpool

5. Everton

6. Aston Villa

15. Middlesbrough

16. Reading

17. Wigan

-------------------

18. Fulham

19. Sunderland

20. Derby

You must be feeling confident if you think that Sunderland will finish above Derby.

Apart from that, your predictions look pretty good.