Dokko

requiem for a dream, i think thats what its called. Anyone see Top Gear this week in the Arctic? That was the song they kept playing.

I didn't say Bramble did the tactics, we didn't have any, Bramble did the hoofing and he was the main culprit. I’m 90% sure that if Bramble had of been playing today he’d have been launching the ball up to the left wing. Surly SA would tell him not too, and he'd stop, thats my point. Souness openly admitted he just allowed the players to get on with it, whereas GR simply would refuse to look Bramble directly in the eyes to tell him anything as he was too scared to do so.

Newcastle + shit manager = Hoof it. Newcastle + good manager = pass out of defence. FYP. Don't blame one person, its not him doing the tactics.

Manu, Barca & Feyenoord, 3 of my best footballing memories to date. Sometimes i think they are in my top 10 all time memories, i struggle to think of many other moments that gave me such pleasure and ecstasy. Tino was responsible for one of them, and for thant he'll always be a legend to me, but a success here? No, nowhere near, but thanks for that one memory.

Erm. Actually thats better!

Is there anywhere you can crop Mike Reid's tits out of that sig? It's fucking off-putting, man. Respect the tits tbh.

Fitness has certainly improved but for me the biggest difference was the concentration levels. Even in the second half where the game started to pitter out with all the changes the lads were still focused right till the end. This is good stuff.

Aye but their pages are only 5 posts long, making it easier for their readers to digest.

Sensibly: for a medium term (3-10) hands off investment Just because Vic made the poll doesn't mean its a shit one and need ridiculing, its actually a good question, and i wish i knew the answer too.

I know! I bet pass the parcel in Iraq's a blast!

I saw that, probably so they can link Martins to Juve in the morning.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1277633,00.html At least four people have been killed and 17 others wounded in celebratory gunfire after Iraq's Asian Cup football triumph, say reports. The bloodshed took place as Iraqis celebrated their national football team's 1-0 final victory over Saudi Arabia in Jakarta, AP news service said. The Iraqis beat the three-time winners in 90 minutes to claim the title for the first time in their history. The win triggered jubilant scenes and volleys of celebratory gunfire across the capital Baghdad. Security had been tight in the city after suicide bombers killed at least 50 people as they celebrated the team's semi-final win over South Korea on Wednesday. The Iraq team, whose members play at clubs all over the Middle East, underwent enormous challenges just to reach the tournament, co-hosted by Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Many of the squad have had relatives caught up in the conflict, with skipper Younis Mahmoud claiming he and several other players were held up by the authorities for hours as they travelled to Jordan for pre-competition training. Before the win the striker said: "We know that by winning, we can make the Iraqi people happy. "We have reached the final, but that is not enough for us. Our ambition is to win the title." Many in Iraq have seen the team's success as a potent symbol of national unity amid bloody ethnic, religious and sectarian violence.

Canny match, very pleased with the result obviously, but we played well. Got boring in parts, but we concentrated for the full 90mins and got what we deserved. Carroll i thought was excellent, especially after being taken out by Buffon which even in pre season should of resulted in a red card. To think someone of Buffons stature and experience would to that to a kid. Fuking prick. Zoggy did well, Pattison was shite, and why Given got MOM i do not know, one or two good saves but a quiet day out especially by his standards.

Smack me down with a cat-o-nine tails to think we'd be signing a LB since we haven't even got a natural one on the books (Babayaro doesn't even count as a footballer) Your right though, better than previous, but not what i really want to hear. >

He just gets more depressing everytime he opens his mouth at the minute.

The PA guy posts here doesn't he?

i agree (i know you were taking the piss, but i actually do . it needs to be something that has a bit of power to it imo, not just a shitty song half the stadium don't know. I listened to local hero last night, brilliant tune. Semi taking the piss tbh. In agreement, something powerful and rising, 1st things that came into my mind were the T2 theme tune & LOTR's battle music. Both classical and classic pieces without signing and both will not date and both are known worldwide. Is that venturing on the Boro/Bolton foam hands shite with crap music after goals?

The Battle music from LOTR's Or the music from T2. Intimidating, especially if we give Barton a few slaps in the face beforehand just after the war paint has been applied to the payers faces! RAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

I saw that quote and I agree with it, but I don't suppose too many people will quite have it in them to admit that he is right about anything at all. Isn't that going to be Morts job (and the team he brings in) though? FS was doing the job of about 5 people in the end, and why not enough opinion was ever given only his and the Halls mattered. Surrounding himself with his own family didn't help the situation. I don't think we need Ashley to be hands on, we just need his money, what we do need though is his people, an d hopefully more arrivals will come in the coming months. Mort himself probably hasn't had the time to be hands on with the manager etc, but maybe this is intentional as that role is seen for a DOF to come in and handle. It reads to me as saying that Sam is unhappy with the fact that he had someone to help him run the club and take weight off him, doing the day to day things that Shepherd did whatever they were, and now that isn't the case. Its a bit of a one in the eye for those who said he "interfered" to have a manager insinuate he found him helpful. Which backs up what other managers have said too, Gullit and Dalglish have both said they have no complaints about him at all. The danger here is if the new owners want to run the club in this way, we could also lose Allardyce. Whether you are happy with this depends of course on how good you think he is, and who a replacement would be But what Shepherd is saying is that Newcastle is too big a club not to need a small team of people running it in constant attendance on a day to day basis in their various roles whatever they may be, and he is right. Too right it takes a big team, but FS tried to run it all by himself. I remember, i think anyway, board members leaving, positions opening up, and those never replaced, but FS taking control of them instead, for long periods of time at least. Its no wonder he made too many mistakes in the end, he was making far too many, and i think that's where people see it as interference. We will never know how much of a hand he had in transfers, but am sure he did, but if we had a DOF that would be his job, and if SA was happy with how he saw FS taking on a form of that role, then in the end SA is saying he could possibly work with a DOF in some capacity and make it work. Am i reading too much into that? No, I can agree with you that he was probably doing too much, and anyone doing too much makes more mistakes than they would. That is entirely fair comment and significant too TT. Baggio is going to come along now and tell us about his DOF's etc but essentially if Sam feels he has lost some support and Mort is not an ally to him like Shepherd was, then it needs to rectified quickly with an appointment of someone, and someone else too if the club needs it to run the club on a day to day basis. Most managers need a number 2 these days, or they have them should I say, as well as whatever job Shepherd did. Must admit, I'm not up to date on any backround changes he's made yet, have we missed something, I did read that a lot of his staff at Bolton handed in their notices, is this true ? I'm all for the club changing its scouting, coaching and medical setup , thats one of the main reasons I wanted Allardyce as manager. His own staff are not here ATM are they? Loads of talk about them resigning, but i haven't heard of any coming here since then. Last i heard a 'war room' was being built at the training complex, but that's not going to be much use if its manned by Terry Mac & Lee Clark is it? An assistant would help, but maybe he finds enough of what he needs in Pearson for that. I hope so, i've taken a liking to him, but no real idea why. Bond i just didn't like from the start, again no idea why. SA could possibly feel isolated ATM with the man who brought him in gone, no direct or working link to the board & owner, and press reports saying he might not be the man for the job, also not being backed so far in this very important transfer window might be playing on his mind. But whats clear right now is he has 99% of the players, and 99% of the fans, and that alone will keep him in a job, when either dwindles, then the board can act against, but i'm sure the fans will be more patient than usual (signing players is a different ball game as you can only do it at certain times, form picks up etc), and i think his personality is reaching all kinds of players (even Luque), and as long as that happens and were winning games and progressing, the fans are onside. DOF? Wow, its a strange role isn't it? I'm not sold on the idea, simply as there is no real definition on it. Some people reckon its this, some something totally different, some find the role insulting, some find it useful, some think its key to a successful football club. For me a DOF is the go between from the board to manager. He should be working with the manager, and slightly against the board. Pushing for money and signings, the footballing voice on the board. For me, if thats how it is, we need one. Right now SA is so busy with training and tactics he doesn't have time for a now and then plan of players, academies, facilities and targeting and signing the right players or looking elsewhere and building up shortlists for the future, and the now. Signing players gets more difficult as the years go on, the market is cut throat, a DOF could ease the load on SA, and at least get him communicating with the board. For me FS saw himself as DOF and a Chairman, and it simply doesn't work, and again, another reason why people call him interfering, especially with transfers. So if we theoretically decide on a DOF being a good idea, who has the larger input on who it should be? Board only appointment, a recommendation from SA or a joint decision? That's where it gets tricky. Yep. A DOF, 2nd in command, call it what you like, but he is appealing for a helping hand, no doubt about it. They say a manager needs to have a good relationship with his chairman for a club to be successful, and the one between Mort and Allardyce seems to be a bit distant right now. I must admit I am getting a feeling that there won't be a good relationship between them at all in the future, if what sam says is true "they don't really understand football" etc etc it doesn't bode well, they will have to learn quickly. Unless their intentions are to run the club on tight budgets - not in the brochure at all this one was it - which means that clubs with more ambition are going to outbid us for all the top players and we can basically say goodbye to any chance of getting among the Champions League clubs. Someone like Keegan would actually push for more money, he is very persuasive in this way, but it shouldn't be like this. The people running the club have to understand football themselves. I also think that when it comes to buying players, the manager should really have the last word. After all, the buck stops somewhere, so those decisions must be his. By all means, have someone going around hunting for talent - like Keegan - but if that is what they do, then they are a scout. It depends on their relationship, for instance, Allardyce could trust Keegan implicitly but if there came a time when the club signed a player on his say-so and Allardyce wasn't so keen, then he is undermining him. Stuff that goes on on the training ground, is for the "coaches". This is a grey area though, Sam is deeply into monitoring fitness levels, heartbeat rates, blood pressure, amount of miles run during games, weight before and after training and matches, dietary things, all of this. He has his people to do this, but it all amounts to a hell of a lot of work, so he needs his staff if he is going to run the club in the way he chooses, which of course must be the reason he was appointed, and if he is being prevented from doing it must be really pissed off, and rightly so. Its fair comment that Shepherd hasn't been involved with the club since he came because he was in hospital, but he would have expected someone to be so when he came, and now has found that isn't the case. I think the manager should appoint all his staff, personally. If the board choose any particular person to work with him, they are undermining him, this is football and the relationships between a manager and his staff have to be good ones. The board that has no footballing experience suddenly gets it with KK. The board who's communication with its manager is strained, suddenly gets a new link and life breathed into it by KK's arrival, the manager out on his own suddenly gets someone to talk to and help him out with all the messy stuff. KK won't be anywhere near a training pitch if SA doesn't want him too apart from maybe brining down a new player of a potential player to show around the place. SA would have final say on transfers, most of them will be dealt with by him in the end, but the painstaking task of narrowing own targets to bids accepted then talking to a player can be done by KK, and finished off with managers acceptance. I like the idea. If true Ashley has seen a problem and has quite possibly found a very good solution to it. It also will appeal to the fans on mass, some will be skeptical and for good reason, but looking beyond the obvious clashes that could possibly happen between manager and DOF, Ashley and SA could of planned this together, it could be something they both want, and as i said before, if he's worth his salt this has already gone past SA, and SA wants a DOF in principal and he wont find anyone who'll support the manager (and not the board) when it comes to what the football club needs on the pitch. I've nowt against the idea of KK doing something like this, but at the end of the day, Allardyce is the manager, the buck stops with him, and he should choose his own staff and nobody else. So, would he choose Keegan to be his number 2/DOF or whatever ? He's never worked with him before, it could be a good partnership and would give him the support of a football man who knows the club and the area, but its completely up to Allardyce. I'm quite bothered that he sounds so pissed off to be honest, I wouldn't like him to walk out because he feels isolated I'm bothered as well, as i want him here, i want him to stay. He's exactly what this club needs right now, we don't need a Wenger etc to move us into the 21st Century, we've got a man more than capable of it right now. In many ways he could be one of the most important appointments of my lifetime, sounds dramatic, but it could possibly be. SA must be happy with the appointment or its pointless. All he'll see it as is another brick wall in front of him to the board instead of a direct line, so more damage than good. No one will tell SA who he signs, no chance, and the board wont do that, and thats where is must be clear from the start with the DOF and what his job is. If they work together then its a great idea and like i say KK will be on his side more than the board by default, and i think personality wise both would get on quite well. KK would be DOF, board level, in a suit never a tracksuit, if SA needs a new No2, then he must go get one or do with Pearson. Again a definition of the role needs to be clear, if KK stays above him as a go between a voice of football in the boardroom, an ambassador of the club and someone to help find targets and negotiate prices etc for SA then its a partnership that would work well. As soon as KK comes onto the training pitch as a coach it looses shape, but i dont think that would happen.

The whole Owen saga has pissed my off from the start. Everything about it. His injury at the WC pissed my clean off considering he went to the WC unfit and shouldn't of gone (whole other argument) then to be injured all season only to find that we risk losing him for pittance just about made me want to kill him. Him not even coming to NUFC for several weeks at a time, not even meeting Martins until March riled me more, and all this time were paying more for him in wages than any other player in NUFC history. Not to mention his love affair with England and never even mentioning the club who pays his wages on a regular basis. 100% utter cunt. I cannot stand him. So instead of thinking on how much worse this can be and putting myself six feet under, i hope and pray that this really is as worse as it gets. There are no more surprise as this fuker has had us over a barrel as much as any player the club has had the misfortune to sign. My only saving grace is the £10m payoff from the FA.

Gerraway man; a couple of ice-baths, a strap-on heart monitor and a session on the vibrating plate and he'll be as good as new.

blueyes.gif Diop has hardly set the world alight in the last two seasons due to injuries, but before that i'll admit he looked a cracking player. A real powerhouse but a big gamble considering our proneness to injuries. Do we really want another crock? If Sam believes he can sort out his fitness i think he's worth a shot. Especially considering he is injury free right now. How long has he been injury free? I've not heard much of his return, as he and Fulham just went down for the last two years (probably not a coincidence) If were talking £2m then i'd take him, but i doubt Fulham would accept. Another thing though this IIRC is the last year of his contract, it could force a sale.

How is it not based on fact? What are the facts again? We've been told he has a clause which was trigged when we didn't achieve European football, and that's all we've been told. We've now been told that ends on 31st July, which sounds to me like it was for this year only, and that logically means as long as we get European football next season the clause wont be triggered again. I'm not guessing what went before to guess what might happen after, just what we've been told about it so far from FS and the original slip that FS reacted too, and the latest news about it running out. This clause going down in price was only paper talk and has not been backed up by anyone reliable so far. "How is it not based on fact?" • You are arguing based on speculation, much like myself, albeit speculation that says different. You said what I was arguing on was "all speculation", which it is, but like I've already said so is everything that you're using to back-up your argument. "What are the facts again?"/"July 31st" • The facts are that Owen has a minimum release clause in his contract and that the clause becomes void on August 1st 2007. The contentious issue is whether it becomes void for good or void for another season. Shepherd himself says that this means Owen has to stay "another year" - nothing at all about the clause itself being terminated for good, which makes it look more likely that the clause will re-surface next summer. 'European Football'/'Champions League' • Again, all speculation. You surely cannot knock my opinion for using "paper talk" and then say "everything we've been told says 'European Football', not 'Champions League'" when "everything we've been told" will have been through the media as well? "As long as we get European Football the clause won't be triggered again" • This is one thing you might have right, I can't deny that, as it's the main bone of contention here. Of course we'll probably get the answer to this someway down the line, but for now I'm not sure how it can be entirely "logical" to argue what you have done when Shepherd mentioned the "another year" line and when you take into account the clause was still rumoured at £13M or so when we qualified for the Intertoto in 2006 (before Owen got crocked at the WC.) "The clause going down in price..." • Again, I can't argue that this couldn't be bollocks, but to me it seems a likely/sensible solution to the clauses. It ties in with what some media outlets have reported on the Owen deal since the early days, but like you say we don't have any concrete evidence either way. It does strike me as funny that he has around an alleged £9M release clause two years into his deal, though, after initial reports of around £13M before the 2006 World Cup. Again, we won't know the facts on this until the summer, which is a pain in the arse. "Shepherd" • I can't help but smile that we're both using Fat Fred as a reliable source here, either, after some of his past words/actions So in a nutshell its all speculation that we won't be able to crack properly until one of us see the contract itself! I know FS was desperate to bring him here, but a clause like the one you are suggesting just puts the man on another level of thickness, and i simply cannot believe he'd do that to the club. The one im suggesting is bad enough, yours is pitch fork time (or it would be if we got an injury free Owen instead of the crock we have)

Diop was once class, but injuries have knackered his career. Appiah really wants to leave Fener, we should have a shot at him.

I saw that quote and I agree with it, but I don't suppose too many people will quite have it in them to admit that he is right about anything at all. Isn't that going to be Morts job (and the team he brings in) though? FS was doing the job of about 5 people in the end, and why not enough opinion was ever given only his and the Halls mattered. Surrounding himself with his own family didn't help the situation. I don't think we need Ashley to be hands on, we just need his money, what we do need though is his people, an d hopefully more arrivals will come in the coming months. Mort himself probably hasn't had the time to be hands on with the manager etc, but maybe this is intentional as that role is seen for a DOF to come in and handle. It reads to me as saying that Sam is unhappy with the fact that he had someone to help him run the club and take weight off him, doing the day to day things that Shepherd did whatever they were, and now that isn't the case. Its a bit of a one in the eye for those who said he "interfered" to have a manager insinuate he found him helpful. Which backs up what other managers have said too, Gullit and Dalglish have both said they have no complaints about him at all. The danger here is if the new owners want to run the club in this way, we could also lose Allardyce. Whether you are happy with this depends of course on how good you think he is, and who a replacement would be But what Shepherd is saying is that Newcastle is too big a club not to need a small team of people running it in constant attendance on a day to day basis in their various roles whatever they may be, and he is right. Too right it takes a big team, but FS tried to run it all by himself. I remember, i think anyway, board members leaving, positions opening up, and those never replaced, but FS taking control of them instead, for long periods of time at least. Its no wonder he made too many mistakes in the end, he was making far too many, and i think that's where people see it as interference. We will never know how much of a hand he had in transfers, but am sure he did, but if we had a DOF that would be his job, and if SA was happy with how he saw FS taking on a form of that role, then in the end SA is saying he could possibly work with a DOF in some capacity and make it work. Am i reading too much into that? No, I can agree with you that he was probably doing too much, and anyone doing too much makes more mistakes than they would. That is entirely fair comment and significant too TT. Baggio is going to come along now and tell us about his DOF's etc but essentially if Sam feels he has lost some support and Mort is not an ally to him like Shepherd was, then it needs to rectified quickly with an appointment of someone, and someone else too if the club needs it to run the club on a day to day basis. Most managers need a number 2 these days, or they have them should I say, as well as whatever job Shepherd did. Must admit, I'm not up to date on any backround changes he's made yet, have we missed something, I did read that a lot of his staff at Bolton handed in their notices, is this true ? I'm all for the club changing its scouting, coaching and medical setup , thats one of the main reasons I wanted Allardyce as manager. His own staff are not here ATM are they? Loads of talk about them resigning, but i haven't heard of any coming here since then. Last i heard a 'war room' was being built at the training complex, but that's not going to be much use if its manned by Terry Mac & Lee Clark is it? An assistant would help, but maybe he finds enough of what he needs in Pearson for that. I hope so, i've taken a liking to him, but no real idea why. Bond i just didn't like from the start, again no idea why. SA could possibly feel isolated ATM with the man who brought him in gone, no direct or working link to the board & owner, and press reports saying he might not be the man for the job, also not being backed so far in this very important transfer window might be playing on his mind. But whats clear right now is he has 99% of the players, and 99% of the fans, and that alone will keep him in a job, when either dwindles, then the board can act against, but i'm sure the fans will be more patient than usual (signing players is a different ball game as you can only do it at certain times, form picks up etc), and i think his personality is reaching all kinds of players (even Luque), and as long as that happens and were winning games and progressing, the fans are onside. DOF? Wow, its a strange role isn't it? I'm not sold on the idea, simply as there is no real definition on it. Some people reckon its this, some something totally different, some find the role insulting, some find it useful, some think its key to a successful football club. For me a DOF is the go between from the board to manager. He should be working with the manager, and slightly against the board. Pushing for money and signings, the footballing voice on the board. For me, if thats how it is, we need one. Right now SA is so busy with training and tactics he doesn't have time for a now and then plan of players, academies, facilities and targeting and signing the right players or looking elsewhere and building up shortlists for the future, and the now. Signing players gets more difficult as the years go on, the market is cut throat, a DOF could ease the load on SA, and at least get him communicating with the board. For me FS saw himself as DOF and a Chairman, and it simply doesn't work, and again, another reason why people call him interfering, especially with transfers. So if we theoretically decide on a DOF being a good idea, who has the larger input on who it should be? Board only appointment, a recommendation from SA or a joint decision? That's where it gets tricky. Yep. A DOF, 2nd in command, call it what you like, but he is appealing for a helping hand, no doubt about it. They say a manager needs to have a good relationship with his chairman for a club to be successful, and the one between Mort and Allardyce seems to be a bit distant right now. I must admit I am getting a feeling that there won't be a good relationship between them at all in the future, if what sam says is true "they don't really understand football" etc etc it doesn't bode well, they will have to learn quickly. Unless their intentions are to run the club on tight budgets - not in the brochure at all this one was it - which means that clubs with more ambition are going to outbid us for all the top players and we can basically say goodbye to any chance of getting among the Champions League clubs. Someone like Keegan would actually push for more money, he is very persuasive in this way, but it shouldn't be like this. The people running the club have to understand football themselves. I also think that when it comes to buying players, the manager should really have the last word. After all, the buck stops somewhere, so those decisions must be his. By all means, have someone going around hunting for talent - like Keegan - but if that is what they do, then they are a scout. It depends on their relationship, for instance, Allardyce could trust Keegan implicitly but if there came a time when the club signed a player on his say-so and Allardyce wasn't so keen, then he is undermining him. Stuff that goes on on the training ground, is for the "coaches". This is a grey area though, Sam is deeply into monitoring fitness levels, heartbeat rates, blood pressure, amount of miles run during games, weight before and after training and matches, dietary things, all of this. He has his people to do this, but it all amounts to a hell of a lot of work, so he needs his staff if he is going to run the club in the way he chooses, which of course must be the reason he was appointed, and if he is being prevented from doing it must be really pissed off, and rightly so. Its fair comment that Shepherd hasn't been involved with the club since he came because he was in hospital, but he would have expected someone to be so when he came, and now has found that isn't the case. I think the manager should appoint all his staff, personally. If the board choose any particular person to work with him, they are undermining him, this is football and the relationships between a manager and his staff have to be good ones. The board that has no footballing experience suddenly gets it with KK. The board who's communication with its manager is strained, suddenly gets a new link and life breathed into it by KK's arrival, the manager out on his own suddenly gets someone to talk to and help him out with all the messy stuff. KK won't be anywhere near a training pitch if SA doesn't want him too apart from maybe brining down a new player of a potential player to show around the place. SA would have final say on transfers, most of them will be dealt with by him in the end, but the painstaking task of narrowing own targets to bids accepted then talking to a player can be done by KK, and finished off with managers acceptance. I like the idea. If true Ashley has seen a problem and has quite possibly found a very good solution to it. It also will appeal to the fans on mass, some will be skeptical and for good reason, but looking beyond the obvious clashes that could possibly happen between manager and DOF, Ashley and SA could of planned this together, it could be something they both want, and as i said before, if he's worth his salt this has already gone past SA, and SA wants a DOF in principal and he wont find anyone who'll support the manager (and not the board) when it comes to what the football club needs on the pitch.