Leazes1986

Pav and Terry Mac still a vital part of the setup

He's been one of the only players playing this season like they want to win anything. Even a game tbh.

Went from 11th (twice) to 4th. Aye Bobby had build foundations ps They're dead important Had he? How many of his signings that he'd used to "rebuild", before Bellamy & Robert, were important in our top 4 finishes? The likes of Cort, Gallacher, Bassedas, Cordone, Gavilan...only really Acuna, and that was only about 20 appearances in one of the seasons. The foundations were already there before Bobby came in. Gallacher was a very important signing though. He also brought Helder in on loan. How many games did they play the season we came 4th? Ah shit, misread your post.

He was a bit f***** in his 2nd season in charge though. Shearer was knackered for the whole season. He was injured for quite a big part of it, and in the games he did play he was s**** mostly. He wasn't even training properly for most of the season i don't think. He played worse than he played under Gullit and at times worse than he played in his last couple of seasons here. I remember it very well because i used to have argument after argument with my mates when they were saying he was finished, but it was obvious he was just playing totally unfit. Thats a big reason why we didn't really progress in Bobbys 2nd season.

Went from 11th (twice) to 4th. Aye Bobby had build foundations ps They're dead important Had he? How many of his signings that he'd used to "rebuild", before Bellamy & Robert, were important in our top 4 finishes? The likes of Cort, Gallacher, Bassedas, Cordone, Gavilan...only really Acuna, and that was only about 20 appearances in one of the seasons. The foundations were already there before Bobby came in. Gallacher was a very important signing though. He also brought Helder in on loan.

Who's expecting 5th? I'd say it's the very best we could possibly be expected to do (i.e. we are very unlikely to break into the top 4). Will we get 5th? Christ knows but I bet people didn't expect Bobby to take us from 11th to 4th in one season. We may get relegated for all we know! Bobby done one hell of a job but he didn't do that in one season really did he. In his first season he finished 13th if i remember correctly then he finished 11th then 4th. He did jump from 11th to 4th of course in the space of a season but he built the foundations for it in the two seasons before that. He steadied the ship in his first season with hardly any money, then it has to be said he did waste some money in his second season, before he got it right in the summer of 2001.

That would be a good season for any new manager coming in.

If people are expecting a 5th place finish next season then i wouldn't blame any manager for not wanting this job. The expectation is absolutely ridiculous for a club with so many poor players, such a small squad, and has had three piss poor seasons in a row.

http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/fools/fools19.jpg "You know his name, always plays the black fella"

If you want to finish top 6 then you need a good enough squad to finish top 6. At the minute our 4 centre halfs for next season are Taylor, Ramage, Edgar and Huntington. Don't expect the next manager to come in and instantly turn us around with the state of our squad.

The sort of attitude which means we will never win anything.

Top 8 next season would satisfy me. We aren't gonna be challenging the top 6 for a couple of years yet though. Its gonna take a lot of rebuilding.

Boothroyd has just signed a new contract

They've been removed now.

Great value at £80,000 a week. We paid him £80,000 a week to do absolutely nothing, except lie on an injury table, for about 18 months. I reckon we'd probably be able to cope... i feel he is worth one more chance. By the way, where has this figure actually come from? It seems to be the standard number whenever the Dyer wage issue is brought up; when did it come about - is there a statistical analysis of the wages or is it just guesswork...? I wouldn't know. Nobody really knows any players exact wage but it is widely reported his is around the £80,000 mark so it is probably round about that mark. If we don't sell now we lose him for free in 2 years. His wages will cost nearly £4.5m if we keep him on for 2 more years. Is he really worth it? I say absolutely not.

His bollocks and Rob Lee's leg used to play together? Wha? I take it you never seen the Shearer and Rob Lee talk in clips what were on youtube a few weeks back

Great value at £80,000 a week.

Sir Les is no cunt tbh. He was a top player, he's a top man, and his willy used to play of Rob Lee's leg when they roomed together by all accounts.

The thing about Keegan is one of his biggest strengths was his passion and enthusiasm, and he doesn't seem to have that anymore for management. Move on i say. The manager who is capable of getting us back up there is available and seemingly wants the job. Lets not keep Terry Mac at the club any longer eh?

Typical bullshit.

Looks distinctly s*** / average to me. I think a line up very similar to that is very likely and realistically about as good as we are going to get. What would yours be then? We can do better than Dyer and Ameobi for a start. Youngs decent but i think we can do better than him as well. I think we will be seeing a team quite different from that lining up next season if we get Allardyce, and it will probably be better as well. Based on the back end of this seaon Dyer and shola have admitedly been very poor, but i'm guessing Big Sam will probably keep them on and will really fire them up. Young is good imo and probably the best we'll get, i'd preffer Richards from Citeh but not too sure they'd sell and if they did it'd probably be to Chelski etc Care to make a line up/formation prediction of your own then? On what i would do or what i think Allardyce would do? First of all what i would do is show all of the s*** the door if possible. I would get rid of Carr, Babayaro, Bernard, Bramble, Moore, Gooch, Dyer, Pattison, O'Brien, Sibierski, Luque, Ameobi. I don't rate Ramage either but i wouldn't be bothered if we keep him as a reserve considering he's probably on a small wage and he'll be happy enough. We've then got players who i would sell under circumstances. If we got our money back or more on Emre and Duff i would let them go as well. I would consider selling Butt if we got around £1.5m for him as well. He's had a good season but he has only got a year left on his contract and he's on good money. Realistically though we will not be able to ship all of them players out in one go so we have to get rid of the biggest earners and the ones we might get money for first of all. I could tell you a team i'd possibly try but it will probably be totally different from Allardyce's because he will probably try and identify some cheap players from abroad who he knows he can get the best out of who we might not have even heard of. I'd definitely look to bring in Ben Haim, maybe Leighton Baines and possibly Sami Hyypia because i think Allardyce could probably get the last few ounces of what he has left in him out of him. We are gonna need a new right back because even though Solano does a more than decent job there he isn't getting any younger and we can't expect him to play 38 games in that position. I cant think of a right back of the top of my head at the minute but i would have every faith in Allardyce identifying one whether it be a big name or a cheap one i'm sure he will find one better than Young. As far as the midfield goes i would definitely keep Milner, Parker (i think he will do well under a good manager but that debates for another thread) and N'Zogbia. I wouldn't have any problem with us keeping Butt, Emre and Duff either but at the same time as i mentioned above i would let them go if we got decent offers. I think we will probably need to spend big on a goalscoring creative midfielder this summer though. If Butt does go i think Allardyce would replace him with one of his typical cheap signings who will come in and do a good job. We'd still have Nobby who can play 2nd fiddle to Milner down the right when needed. I would look to keep Owen and Martins but at the same time i would sell Owen if we got our money back which is unlikely, and i would also consider a stupid bid for Martins. Ameobi would leave in an ideal world with 2 strikers coming in. I'm not so sure if Owen and Martins is gonna work although i'm not writing them of after 2 games like some people. I wouldn't mind signing Nugent but i wouldn't pay over the top for him because he will probably be overpriced. Gudjohnsen would be a top signing if we could get him. Fill in the other gaps with some of Allardyce's cheap bargains who we could get a couple of years out of.

Looks distinctly s*** / average to me. I think a line up very similar to that is very likely and realistically about as good as we are going to get. What would yours be then? We can do better than Dyer and Ameobi for a start. Youngs decent but i think we can do better than him as well. I think we will be seeing a team quite different from that lining up next season if we get Allardyce, and it will probably be better as well.

Possibly some good news: Overrated.

Like i said, its unfair to promote Krul to no2 as he needs games (loan move) but as for Harper, well i think we'd be better off with someone else as no2 as he doesn't bring anything to the table that Given cannot do. Like Leazes1986 said - who would come here to be number two to Shay Given, and in the knowledge that a highly rated youngster is biding his time to take over as the number 1? Steve Harper isn't as good as some make out, but under those circumstances is probably better than any other option I can think of. A number two keeper at NUFC doesn't need to be pushing Given, just provide suitable backup in cases of emergency. As I said, this has been Given's worst season for injuries, surely a one off...? Injuries are not what i've got a problem with, he's just not learning at all and i feel its because he's guaranteed his place as long as he's fit. I would have a problem if he wasn't performing, but he performs brilliantly consistently. It amazes me that some people can moan about Shay Given of all people. He might be lacking in parts, but he makes up with it in other parts of his game. We should just hope for our sake that he stays loyal to us for the next few years.

One of the things i'm gonna be most interested in is what he will do with the backroom staff. Most fans are in agreement that the backroom staff are useless (at least the first team ones anyway). We've had injury problems for a while now. Wonder if we will see the medical staff here next season under Allardyce. I can't see it somehow.