It's all getting very confusing on Tyneside...

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/...e_united/7593683.stm

It seems Keegan is, according to the club, still the manager.

The reason for the fallout is apparently Keegan's support for Joey Barton.

Now, I'm all for giving people a second chance and all that but how many chances is this thug going to get...?

I think Keegan is making a big mistake in supporting this scumbag.

Barton and his axe-murdering racist brother truly are scum of the earth.

Keegan's support for Barton ? No...not as simple as that. The Newcastle Chairman drinking 3 pints in the Emirates...outside where none are allowed, gives you some idea. And there is the thug, Wise. Just look at his his rapsheet .......

It now looks like Kevin may still be there but (ominous) "lawyers are involved".

I feel a bit the same about sports as I do about music - judge the artiste on the quality of the football/sounds, not on suspected or proven morality.

When Dennis Wise was appointed as "director of football" I was watching Kevin Keegan's face at the press conference and could detect a "Here we go again" expression. The last time he left Newcastle was because decisions were being made above his head, and now the same is happening. Why is Wise necessary? Apparently, Keegan has little say in the buying of new players.

Any manager would want out under these circumstances.

I think Keggan is the best man for the Newcastle job, but a Manager must be allowed to Manage.

I think that Kevin is a manager that does not like to be questioned, and when he is, he walks and I am totally with that idea.

One is either in charge or not, nobody needs to be hen pecked when in such a great job as the appointed Newcastle manager, where football is the life essence to so many.

This is why I walked away from The Brits, offered a lifetime

Premier League football is all PANTO these days.

Real football fans now watch lower league stuff and even Setanta Sports recognises that with its Blue Sq Premier League coverage......alongside its England games and Premier League stuff of course to catch the SUN readers.

Alan Curbishley has just resigned from West Ham.

I wonder if he'll end up at Newcastle.

If you ask me, that would be a bad move - frying pans and fires spring to mind...

Meanwhile, as talks continue with Keegan at Newcastle, Alan Curbishley resigns from West Ham over disagreements regarding their transfer policy.

Is this the future of Premiership football - that managers are to be little more than tacticians working with players chosen by someone else? Will the traditional football manager disappear, to be replaced by board room think tanks?

Keegan goes - and I bet that's why Jose left Chelsea.
Do you think Ferguson allows others to tell him who his players are?

I'm backing Keegan 100% on this one, for the reasons JK pointed out with regards to the BRITS.
However, don't for one minute think this is anything new in football. In the late 1970s, there were 3 candidates interviewed for the job as England manager: Bobby Robson, Ron Greenwood and Brian Clough.
Bobby would get the job a few years later when he was better qualified and had enjoyed success with Ipswich.
That leaves Greenwood and Clough. Both were interviewed for the job, and Greenwood got the job.
Now, I acknowledge Greenwood was a fine and respected coach, but he could not hurt a fly, and that was part of the problem.
The FA were terrified of Clough, because he would have taken over the place, as he freely admitted afterwards (and boy, did it need him to do that at the time). Putting him in charge would have meant a massive clear-out of the old boys in suits, and there was no way they were going to risk that.
Chairmen should appoint managers, then leave them to get on with the job. For Mike Ashley to have a direct say in who comes and who goes is unacceptable, and for Keegan to have to allow Dennis Wise such a big hand against his will is frankly outrageous.
I've criticised Keegan in the past for walking out on jobs, but I'm with him 100% on this one.

I don`t think anyone tells Ferguson what is what!

One of my closest friends unfortunately for him decided to put a bet on with me about Keegans fate, I don`t feel cruel enough to call it in.

The whole thing has been a shocking display of undermining going on in my opinion. What does one do when one is given a job and you get a rebellion against your decisions?
There are only three things that you can do, carry on meekly, (yuk!)walk (hmmm) or lay down the law further, which is now my idea of management, I know this after trying all these ways. (But then I`m not in Football)

If `sthe people you are working for want a manager, then that the job, if they appoint a figurehead as it were, that`s a different job entirely.

Apparently, Keegan did lay down the law. He laid out his terms but, ultimately, those who pay his wages make the final decision. Those powers above him refused to see things his way and so he had no alternative but to resign.

I don't blame him.