KEEGAN'S honesty will drive Owen to the exit door as Magpies prepare to trail feeble Hammers again


ARSENAL can do without greedy Flamini - but will they rue Diarra's departure?


ARE there better fans anywhere in the world than Celtic's?

What else do Newcastle expect now after Kevin Keegan's latest outburst?

Why would Owen choose to stay with a manager who admits he is too far behind to even have a go?

• Yesterday's HATCHET MAN

A boring league? Only if you're the biggest club with the smallest chance of achieving success. Newcastle have done well to avoid the battle at the bottom, but they're going to finish behind feeble West Ham.

Once again 52,000 fans paid to watch them lose – and then to hear their manager confess they are heading for years of mediocrity.

How far short were Newcastle? A long way short.

Not just in their result and performance against Chelsea, but in their size.

Take off Mark Viduka and they were a small team shuffling around like Diddy Men.

Modern football is about power – and that is where Keegan needs to spend his money this summer but who will come to Newcastle now?

He was honest enough to admit there are problems ahead, perhaps too honest. "The owner thinks we can get up there and challenge clubs like Chelsea, but we can't," said Kev. Sounds like trouble to me.

Gone are the days, however, where Newcastle can attract the top names. Chairman Chris Mort has even accepted as much and said: "We will want to acquire players that can help make Newcastle United a top team for the medium and long-term, not just for the next season or two.

"That is why we put a substantial offer in for Luka Modric, who is aged 22.

"It is frustrating that Modric, like (Jonathan) Woodgate before him, should take less money than we offered to move to the bright lights of London, and European football with Tottenham next season, but these are the sorts of difficulties that should get easier to address once we build a squad that competes at the right end of the table."

There are not so many bright lights in London. Just bigger clubs and better teams.

The sounds you can hear from the North East are that of punctured ambitions. And of Owen heading for a fast get-away.

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It has been drawn to my attention that 15,000 supporters turned up at Parkhead on Monday to watch Celtic train. There are some clubs in England who would like that for a home game.

But are there any clubs in England who could attract such a crowd for training (and you can't include Newcastle when they unveil a new signing)?

And let's remember, Celtic are likely to end up losing the title to rampant Rangers.

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"I have six years on my contract here and I am sure I will win a trophy," says Fernando Tores.

You might, but it's only a might given the way most of the rest of your team mates have played this season.

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Is there a more overrated player than Alan Smith?

And before you hit me with a deluge of comments about how he has come back from a serious injury, I know.

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But what does he do? Is he a midfielder or a striker? And he was meant to be picking up Michael Ballack when he scored the opener for Chelsea yesterday.

He can't defend either! Poor player, who cost a lot of money ... and is one of the reasons why Newcastle have fallen so far behind.

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Stand by for a row. When John Robertson left Nottingham Forest for Derby, it created one of the great football fall-outs and Brian Clough and Peter Taylor didn't speak for years.

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Now, fresh from Forest's return to the Championship, their impressive winger Kris Commons is planning to head for their fiercest rivals – and it will create merry hell.

Commons to Derby in a possible swap with Rob Earnshaw might not count for much among the Chelsea's and the Manchester United's but in that neck of the woods it will lead to fierce debate.

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This is getting ridiculous – Avram Grant is only two wins from the double.

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It cost Wigan £3million to take Steve Bruce from Birmingham who gladly showed him the exit door and then put the boot in once he had gone.

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Now who's laughing? Bruce will be if Birmingham go down on the last weekend as Wigan sail to safety.

Often Hatchet has wondered if Wigan deserve to be in this league, but Bruce certainly does.

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Good news from Arsenal where Arsene Wenger refused to cave into Mathieu Flamini's wage demands and so the greedy Frenchman is off to Milan.

Wenger gave him his chance and this is how he is rewarded. Arsenal are better off without him, but they will need to fill their problem holding role and shouldn't they have kept hold of Lassana Diarra?

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Clever Diarra will be playing in the FA Cup Final for Portsmouth and should end up with a trophy, while his old mates finished the season empty-handed. One good decision, Arsene, one bad decision.

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Jose Mourinho will soon be back in management, he says. Which means we can stop all this posturing and he can show us whether his performance at Chelsea was all about money, or good management.