Montey

but there's no way out of the situation we're in - fans can sing shepherd out and roeder out all they want and get on message boards kicking off but at the end of the day the first guy runs the club and dictates the future of the second guy.... it's no use believing that making noise will push the board members to oust shepherd 'cause that won't happen 'til they stop getting dividends, the dividends become very small, or we're headed for relegation it's no use believing that shepherd will sack roedebot 'cause he won't for the simple fact Glenn will do what he says, never criticise shepherd, and again unless we're headed for relegation there's no catalyst for change at that level accepting mediocrity doesn't come into it anymore, accepting the reality of where our club is does Like was said by someone else, I think you're wrong, but for a different reason. It is fairly obvious that the root cause of -all- our issues is Freddy. As long as he is at the helm we're screwed and I think that is a fairly well accepted fact. So the issue is how do fans get rid of Shepherd? Shepherd is chairman of our great club for two primary reasons, money and fame, and as I see it will stay in charge of the club as long as certain conditions are maintained: 1. The club must be generating a dividend for him. 2. The club must provide him with a position on the world stage. 3. The environment in which he works must not become intollerable. Now, it is very hard for the fans to affect number 1, without punishing themselves (i.e. not going to games, buying merchandise, etc...). But numbers 2 and 3 are almost entirely controlled by the fans. Number 2 can be addressed by just ignoring the guy. If people stop reading articles featuring him, stop watching interviews with him (etc...), then the media will stop showing him (as there would be no ratings in dealing with Fat Fred). At that point he loses his stage, he stops being the centre of attention. Number 3 can also be affected and controlled by the fans, especially the local fans. Make his life intolerable. Start a direct local action group to make his life a misery. Drive past his house doing burn-outs at 3am with the stereo on full, verbally abuse him on the streets, sing insulting songs at the game during live telecasts for the world to hear. If no one is paying attention to him, and his life in the community stinks he will soon go away. So I don't think resigning ourselves to our fate is the right answer. It creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, that is to say predicting mediocrity and then accepting nothing can be done to change it, will result in mediocrity being achieved because no one is saying "it ain't good enough!"

Frankly I think the only reason it might look like an over-reaction to some, is because of the complete under-reaction by many. I still don't understand why so many people just shrug their shoulders and say, "That's Newcastle for you", when we are a club who's financial and supporter strength is as good as or better than most clubs in the world who dominate their respective leagues. If you accept mediocrity, mediocrity is what you will receive.

Shay Given, by a country mile!!!!

Club Owners and/or Directors who use their club as their personal fame wagon, line their pockets, run their club in to the ground, disrespect their supporters and who are generally fat b-st-rds who should be run over by their own Jaguar(s).

Whaddaya talkin' about. We only ever have one striker fit. If he does insist on a one-striker system as you say (I don't know) it seems its the only system we -are- perfectly suited for right now.

Have you guys got written permission from the knee jerk police for this thread?

I hereby formally request permission to knee-jerk. So come on, is it socially acceptable to knee-jerk yet? No, keep the faith. Whatever happens it is all part of the clubs grand plan. Grand plan to achieve what tho? To quote two of the world's greatest minds: Brain: Brilliant, Pinky! Oh, no, wait. What if we want to use a plan that works?" ...or... Brain: "Pinky are you pondering.. you know.. " Pinky: "I think so Brain but.. something about a duck.. " Brain: "You're probably an idiot Pinky. Tonight's plan is.. aw who cares, five will get you ten its a stinker like all the others." Pinky: "I'm not listening Brain"

I repeat... I hereby formally request permission to knee-jerk. So come on, is it socially acceptable to knee-jerk yet?

Anyone know what the goals-against statistics are for Standard Liège? Surely that would be an indication as to whether he's any good, or at least a contributor to a defensive line-up that can be any good.

Sorry, but I think this is Shepherd trying to deflect blame from himself for the sale falling through. It's clear what Hall's position is, he wants to sell his stake in the club. It wasn't SJH who wanted more money it was Shepherd. It's Shepherd who has been recruiting and selling players without consultation with the team manager. It's Shepherd who creates all of the uncertainty within the club. I call bollocks on this article.

The best place I can see the match from is the TV. It's too expensive for me to get to the stadium for matches.

Take 10mil for Parker? The only question would I'd have is whether to give the purchaser's hand back.

My left testicle is itchy, we're getting Rooney! smeeagain.gif

(Working with the funny assumption that this thread is based on some modicum of fact...) I think Freddy may have the meaning of "mid field" wrong. He obviously thinks that by having a team full of midfielders we will finish mid table at the end of the year. At least we won't be relegated. :winking:

If there was a smiley for that, i'd use it!

“Sewell man, we're going nicking, nicking things to sell. So how much do you think people are going to give us for something that's nicked from a shop that's called Everything's A Pound?” Classic!!!!

Who are these? Albert Luque Martos Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins Andrew Carroll Carl John Finnigan James Troisi Now, note, I only said 2 of the 7 were of a suitable standard. Of the 5 available, only 1 of them would be up to EPL standards at the moment. But that's more than we have in Defenders, even if we had a fully fit defensive squad.

We need to focus on defenders. There are three primary reasons for this: 1) Defenders stop you loosing games, where as attackers can only give you a chance of winning. I say this based on the fact that if the opposition can't score then they can't win (the worst result being a draw), but if our attackers score the opposition can always score the same or more. 2) NUFC has concentrated on "sexy", "exciting", "attacking" football for almost as long as living memory. Yet, it has been 30 years since we last won a league cup. 30 years of little/no success says we have been doing something fundamentally wrong, and I think this is the blind focus on the teams attacking strength. 3) Based on data from the nufc.com site our squad breakdown is like this (in my opinion): Forwards: 7 players, 2 injured, 5 available, 2 genuine quality. Midfielders: 12 players, 3 Injured, 9 Available, 8 or 9 genuine quality. Defenders: 11 Players, 7 Injured, 4 available, 0 genuine quality, but a few squad acceptable. So essentially, we have some squad forwards and a couple of genuine quality guys to score goals. But we only just have enough defenders to put on the field, and those that are coming back from injury are at best squad players for a Premier League side who has ambitions for European qualification. Based on these 3 points I believe we -must- concentrate on getting in genuine quality defenders. From this we can stop the opposition getting goals, hence meaning we won't loose matches, which after all is the problem, the opposition is getting more past our defence on average than we're getting past theirs and that by-and-large is because our defence is worse than their defence, not because our attack is worse than their attack.

But if you're from CND they all end in 'a'... :-P

I know I am going to get slapped for this comment, but ....... We're also so worn down by crap results over the past decade that we have less expectation of Glenn. With Bobby the expectation was top 5~ish; With Souness it was top 10; With Glenn it's don't get relegated. Despite the fact we're in 14th, again, I don't feel anywhere near as much hostility towards Roeder as I did towards Souness at the same time. Yeah we've won the Intertoto this time, but :lazy:. My best explanation is I don't expect as much, so I can't be as disappointed.

Do we get another player introduction? Perhaps a parade through the centre of town this time?

What we're seeing in this thread, from some, is an inverse knee-jerk with a twist. Difficulty of 3.2 under current circumstance, and overall execution has rated a 6.

Why does anyone believe any articles that come out describing the great things we are planning for the upcoming transfer window? I find it particularly hard to give any credence to any statement from NUFC regarding transfer plans, and even less credibility exists when Fatty opens his yap. Time and time again, each transfer window, the fans get restless lamenting the state of the team and the positions we need. Time and time again the fans grow in to a crescendo of "Freddy Out!" cries. Time and time again NUFC leak details of grandiose transfer plans, backed up by statements from Chairman and Manager, messages like "we can't disclose who, but we think fans will be pleasantly surprised. We have 4 or 5 top flight, champions league quality players all lined up." Then time and time again we end up with utter crap who do nothing to improve our capability. I mean, I would genuinely love to be excited about the upcoming transfer window. Indeed in all past windows I have got myself all worked up with the prospect of who we might get in. Well no more. Until the players brought in prove themselves I will not accept that they were worth bringing in. Until NUFC develops a track record (3 or more windows) of bringing in quality I will not get excited again. I'm sick of it. The fans scream for quality, they even help the scouts and management by doing research for them, yet time and time again we end up with either glitter-boy signings who achieve nothing or crap that are talentless wasters. </end rant>

Or it has been completed already. "is not happening" just means at this instance of time it is not occurring. It makes no statement about what has already occurred or what is yet to occur.

Wrong, offer can come in subject to DD But for an offer to become official and "live" all conditions need to have been removed. This is done by the club satisfying their requirements, hence if the offer has become live/unconditional due-diligence would have to have been completed.