The people writing letter to this weekend's local papers slagging off Bobby are a fecking disgrace. There are letters calling for his head for God's sake. Could Bobby have legislated for our bad luck with injury? Could Bobby have foreseen the tranfsfer debate that would curtail our spending? WHO precisely do we imagine would take over a club that has such difficulty holding onto managers? What good precisely do we think getting YET another manager in would do to our long term hopes? I really hope Bobby doesn't think these letters represent a large section of NUFC supporters or he'll feck off too. Why bother at his age?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

Answers

Where are the letters Dougal, in the Journal?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

They were in the Pink, the Chronicle and the Journal. There's one gutless nob who even withholds his name and address cos he's abusing Bobby so strongly but won't back it up.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

This is a crucial period when Bobby must be thinking the Board are against him along with 'someone up there'. The last thing he needs is the fans to get on his back. He needs backing from the fans and the board and his players and a little help form that 'someone up there'.

The next few days are critical," he said, suggesting the possibility of a first-ever rift with Shepherd and his board. "Alan Shearer is a flogged horse and he needs a long rest. If Goma has aggravated his calf then he'll have to spend at least three weeks on the sidelines ­and Aaron Hughes was in a bad way after Saturday. "When I discover the true extent of Alan's injury I will have to look at bringing someone in. Otherwise I just don't know what wešre going to do on Saturday."

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

I agree, DB. It's a bit unfortunate that we have the AGM on Friday as I think FS will have to placate our creditors about our finances and he won't want to have shelled out for players that we possibly can't afford (but have to buy). We may have to face a tonking at Highbury before we buy. The other thing is, how many strikers are available to be bought?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

Surely this sort of crap was inevitable having allowed ourselves to go from being a football club to being a business ?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

There seems to be far too many negatives to being a Plc on the playing side. Obviously the negatives get more press or discussion on here but to what extent have Newcastle United Plc benefited from going public?

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

Ooh - did I win the Star Letter prize then??

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

There's one gutless nob who even withholds his name and address cos he's abusing Bobby so strongly but won't back it up. I don't believe it was Mr Battersby from Cheshire, more like Mr B'stard from Seaham.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

Robson is reported as saying

>>>>When I discover the true extent of Alan's injury I will have to look at bringing someone in. Otherwise I just don't know what wešre going to do on Saturday

That would be an appalling thing to say if he meant it. A bit of kidology is fine. Mind games with the board or with Arsene are fine but he'll be telling the players a different story I'm sure. As for people slagging Bobby, they are either idiots or Mackems (ie Mackems AND idiots obviously).

As for plc's I'd like to see a whole thread on this. We've done badly since we became one, but then again, we started with TSM at the helm and I know which of the 2 I place the greatest blame on. Newton Heath plc has won the Premiership nearly every year since it started. Leeds, which is also a plc, bought the most expensive player in British transfer history last week with the FIFA/EU situation still pending. I just dunno what to make of it.

I do like being a shareholder and attending the AGM of my club and I welcome the accounts being public and subject to the highest standards of audit. I'm not convinced that plc status is either good or bad for us in terms of results.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2000

Sorry but the venom in some of these letters was incredible. Clueless muppets. Also, some buffoon saying that he had supported Newcastle for 30 years and had never felt as low as he did after the Birmingham reverse and YBR was as bad a manager as we'd had. Jonno, re PLCs, I have come to the conclusion that the plc structure is not compatible with footballing business. Man United have done ok but everyone else has done appallingly from it. I was thinking - what do Spurs, Villa and NUFC have in common? PLCs.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2000