James

It makes sense to me, the manager should be the most important person at the club. And if he is the most important, he should be paid the most.

Just to enforce this cult of personality, I would have the new manager as the highest paid person at the club.

When we've been at our best, the manager has been the biggest individual at the club. Keegan was Massive. Robson was always centre of attention, until Freddy started poking around In less successful periods, the club's attention has been centred around big name players such as Shearer and Owen, or even the chairman himself. Looking at other clubs, Ferguson has always been top dog at Manchester United. Mourinho gets the attention ahead of his so called world class players. Liverpool have done better since Owen left and Gerrard took more of a backseat. Arsenal have declined since Thierry Henry has become the biggest part of Arsenal. Real Madrid fell apart with their galatico system. What is clear to me is that we need to get back to having the manager being the biggest thing at the club. Obviously reputation isn't all, you need to have good management skills. But he needs to be big such that he commands the respect of players fans and boardroom. I look at Louis Van Gaal and I see a cult of personality coupled with a good upbringing of attacking football. That is why he is my favourite choice for the NUFC job.

Not how I remember it. Sir Bobby seemed to be begging for the job; there was no need to court him. In his book, he says that Shepherd approached him once with an inferior wage, Robson said no way, so Shepherd went off for a week, only to come back and beg with a larger offer.

This isnot an assessment of the standard of NUFC managerial appointments, rather a description of the circumstances leading up to each appointment. I'm goiung to start with Gullit, as I was too young to remember Keegan's (BWJ) arrival, and I was on holiday when Dalglish was appointed. Gullit Dalglish got sacked/resigned out of the blue, and Gullits appointment was also very quick and suprising. Robson General fan clamour for Robson Was very much a case of just waiting for the club to agree terms and then announce the deal. No alternatives were really discussed. It took a while to court Robson, but he was persuaded eventually, after he had initially turned down a derisory offer. Souness Every day, there was a new candidate, and they would rule themselves out. Problems related to the apparent lack of options. Then as soon as people started looking at the continent, Shepherd pulled Souness out of nowhere. Roeder Fans failed to unite over this one as there were too many alternatives to choose betwen, especially as we got closer and closer to the end of the season. Because things took so long, the caretaker was given a long time to prove himself, and thus got the job. Conclusions Prior to the last two appointments, nobody particularly appealling appeared to throw themselves at the job. Obviously, it is up to Shepherd to take all the possible steps to court the managers. Shepherd has behaved differently for each appointment, although another point to make is that only once has the initial favourite got the job. We were lucky that all the circumstances were perfectly timed. Has Shepherd timed Roeder's departure such that the circumstances can suit him for once? Or are we going to wait for Shepherd to pull out another totally unexpected 'pleasant suprise' as we have seen the other three times?

Van Gaal for me.

Like I said before, last time around, there was a closed book on numerous candidates including Glenn Hoddle. This means nothing.

Has Freddy asked for your shortlist yet? Nope, but I'm 99% confident that when the manager is appointed, it will be someone on this list. Is he going to ask for your shortlist then? Nope. I dont intend to give it to him, as he would probably read it upside down and try to appoint Mr. Eko I'm intrigued. Who is this Mr. Oke you refer to upsidedown-wise? "Lift up your eyes and look north" - John 3:05

Has Freddy asked for your shortlist yet? Nope, but I'm 99% confident that when the manager is appointed, it will be someone on this list. Is he going to ask for your shortlist then? Nope. I dont intend to give it to him, as he would probably read it upside down and try to appoint Mr. Eko

Shepherd or Roeder I suspect, plus whoever the new caretaker is.

Has Freddy asked for your shortlist yet? Nope, but I'm 99% confident that when the manager is appointed, it will be someone on this list.

Klinsmann could be the new Gullit based on his lack of club experience. I'd steer clear of that one.

Numbers 3 and 5 on my shortlist, so I'd be extremely happy with either.

Source?

He's on my list of managers that I could see improving the club, but there are many others I would have before him.

They've also gone and removed all the Roeder interviews from the Official Site, which is really quite a petty thing to do.

Another crap club statement that takes up less space than the accompanying photograph.

Like I've said, don't praise him now, as we don't know the full details. He might have done a Dalglish - said he'd resigned to save his dignity, the sue for constructive dismissal a couple of months down the line. Now if he does a Gullit, ie resign, apologise, and not ask for a penny - now that is honourable.

Have you read the front page? (I know you wont have) There are a few interesting comments as to where our readershipstand with relation to season ticket renewals.

Think it can now be considered as official, given that shepherd has confirmed it to the BBC.

Still to early to see who has survived the cull. Pearson might have pissed Shepherd off with his horizontal performance.

We're not on the betting now are we? Last time round, we were shitting our pants because betting on Glenn Hoddle was suspended.

Harry Harris - Allardyce will be Newcastle manager, Bolton are ready to sue us.

Have another look.

I will take any of these managers who I consider as either realistic, or semi-realistic. The list is in order of who I prefer: Louis Van Gaal Marcello Lippi Juande Ramos Sam Allardyce Mark Hughes Gerard Houillier Manuel Pellegrini Quique Sanchez Flores Sven Goran Eriksson Claudio Ranieri Henk Ten Cate Roberto Mancini Thomas Doll Gordon Strachan Ronald Koeman David Moyes Harry Redknapp Alex Inglethorpe