Bad Mongo

I think Ashley is the main reason (and Wise the secondary one) for Newcastle's predicament, not Kinnear, though I'd agree it was a lousy appointment.  Spurs were in a worse situation than Newcastle, the difference was that Levy did something about it.  Ramos went, Redknapp was brought in and he was given a fortune to buy new players, one of which (Palacios) changed the season and the mentality.  Ashley lost Keegan, brought in Kinnear, didn't spend and wound up making a profit on transfer dealings.  I still find it bewildering that Wise couldn't tell Ashley he had to spend serious money.  Wise was the DoF after all.

 

Perhaps that's why Wise is no longer on the board. It's fairly obvious that he wasn't behind last window's transfer dealings. Also, as a football person, he probably wanted his team to do well -- surely he wasn't the one who decided it was more important to make a profit on transfers.

 

nolan and taylor?  what point are you trying to make here?

 

My reply follows from his two last sentences: "I still find it bewildering that Wise couldn't tell Ashley he had to spend serious money.  Wise was the DoF after all." We don't know that Wise didn't ask for more money to be spent. I'm just saying he apparently didn't have any input on this winter's transfers.

The sell-to-buy policy is certainly Ashley through and through.

He's like a harder working version of N'Zogbia, who creates a bit of excitement but usually runs into blind alleys, but unlike N'Zogbia he never crosses and never scores. Or a completely useless version of James Milner. At any rate, he's not as good as what we had.

The one minor thing that people forget, though, is that our own form is actually just as bad as Hull's. Yet the optimists expect them to get nothing from Villa, and us to grab a point. Them to lose to Stoke, and us to beat Middlesbrough. Us to beat Fulham, and them to get trounced by Bolton. Their run-in is nearly as easy as ours.

 

Their three home games are Manure, Liverpool and Stoke.  Our home games are Pompey, Fulham and Boro..  Don't bother comparing away games, neither side has a chance of getting much if anything from them, its the home games remaining that really matter.

Stoke have won just one away game all season, against WBA, and have just four draws away from home. Hull are as likely to win that game as we are for any of our home games (looking at their head to head stats, draw seems most likely). We usually draw against Boro (last win at home: 2004), and guess which team in the Premiership has the most draws? Us. Newcastle against Middlesbrough is a game with draw written all over it; Fulham may be even more difficult. That leaves Portsmouth. 3 points. Anyone thinking we're likely to stay up is delusional.

I think Ashley is the main reason (and Wise the secondary one) for Newcastle's predicament, not Kinnear, though I'd agree it was a lousy appointment.  Spurs were in a worse situation than Newcastle, the difference was that Levy did something about it.  Ramos went, Redknapp was brought in and he was given a fortune to buy new players, one of which (Palacios) changed the season and the mentality.  Ashley lost Keegan, brought in Kinnear, didn't spend and wound up making a profit on transfer dealings.  I still find it bewildering that Wise couldn't tell Ashley he had to spend serious money.  Wise was the DoF after all.

Perhaps that's why Wise is no longer on the board. It's fairly obvious that he wasn't behind last window's transfer dealings. Also, as a football person, he probably wanted his team to do well -- surely he wasn't the one who decided it was more important to make a profit on transfers.

The one minor thing that people forget, though, is that our own form is actually just as bad as Hull's. Yet the optimists expect them to get nothing from Villa, and us to grab a point. Them to lose to Stoke, and us to beat Middlesbrough. Us to beat Fulham, and them to get trounced by Bolton. Their run-in is nearly as easy as ours.

 

 

Have a word with yourself man.

Sure, they have Manure the last day. That's most likely a loss, unless they've already won the league and field a bunch of youngsters. They have Liverpool at home. We've got Liverpool away. The main difference is that they're 4 points ahead of us, and we'll be lucky to get 4 points from the rest of our games.

The one minor thing that people forget, though, is that our own form is actually just as bad as Hull's. Yet the optimists expect them to get nothing from Villa, and us to grab a point. Them to lose to Stoke, and us to beat Middlesbrough. Us to beat Fulham, and them to get trounced by Bolton. Their run-in is nearly as easy as ours.

I think we do look better. At least now we're trying.

Duff still plays for Ireland, doesn't he? He'd probably want to stay in the Premiership. We won't get rid of Butt, Smith, Ameobi and Ryan Taylor, though.

Hopefully, Llambias will have the decency to resign. Not doing so would be an insult.

If Enrique gets injured, then yeah, we have Duff.

 

Duff has been an adequate left back when he's had to play there.

It's the naively positive thread, not the naively optimistic thread. Enrique is injured, and will be injured again. We have no adequate cover for left back. That's the reason why we have to play 3 CBs and a formation that doesn't work.

Personally, I have no faith in us avoiding relegation and keeping Enrique, so we'll need a new left back regardless.

All this talk of "we need to win x amount of games" or we're down is bollocks.

 

It all depends on how Blackburn and Hull do.

Yes, let's take those home wins for granted.

Even though we have a theoretical possibility of staying up, I don't believe in it.

Just come in. How have we been 1st half..?

Let's just say we're heading for relegation.

Winning only "the" must win game will see us going down, most likely 19th.

iv got us staying up on 40 points, finishing 15th, winning all 3 home games and drawing against villa on the final game, mackems(36), smoggies(31) and brom(25) going down 

We need more than just optimism to win all three home games. I mean: can we expect to win them all? No. It will be a fantastic achievement if we do. Then again, your optimism shows what kind of faith people have in Alan Shearer, and if that faith can be transmitted to the players, then we just might win.

I had the weirdest dream last night that Ashley invoked FA Rule Directive 308, which allowed him to remove Shearer from his management role for a couple of games to see if he was the problem behind us not being able to play well and get a win.

 

I just remember turning to the person next to me when I saw it on the news and saying "This is the guy that hired f***ing Joe Kinnear!"

i think someone should corral all the dreams that have been posted on this forum and put them into a dream depository so we can look back and check if there were any substance to their message.

I remember someone back @ the old toontastic.linuxdriven.net recalling a dream he had with Michael Owen lifting a trofy (might have been the FA Cup) and thanking his manager, Alan Shearer, for resurrecting his career. I still believe in that dream.

Not this season, though, obviously.

Comparing Michael Owen to himself Aye you were class Iain - your best remembered goal being an OG n all that.

 

erm... you realise he said "He is blessed with something I never had" right? Hardly bigging himself up...

He was, as he didn't mention his looks.

He wouldn't have kept him warming up from the start if he didn't intend to use him. But it's hard to say whether it worked or not; he certainly had an effect, as we started dominating, and I don't think we would if he played from the start, but we also were worse than usual in the first half.

All of those statements are matters of opinion, so of course there's no proof.

 

But I can't see that there's much doubt that Keegan didn't like working to a DOF. He'd stayed away from the game for three years and not been to a single match, so the idea that he was disillusioned with football isn't a wild one. His company wasn't doing well so again it's not exactly sticking your neck out to say that that influenced his decision to return. Not to mention he quit after only a few months in circumstances that are still unclear.

 

The most logical explanation is that his motivation was always a bit brittle. Not for the first time either.

 

What you're saying is that you base your opinion on nothing tangible. Which is correct. But that's not an aspect of opinion as such.

My opinion is that Ashley made a mistake in not supporting Keegan. That opinion is well reasoned, since Keegan had harped on for a long time about not having sufficient backup in some positions (which both Shearer and Kinnear have confirmed). Milner was sold and not replaced. That's a fact.

Which other manager would make that squad play good football? A squad with no creativity in midfield. Not one winger who can put in a credible cross. A squad without leaders and lacking severely in natural fitness. Unsuited for 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1.

Of course Keegan's motivation would crumble under those circumstances. So would everyone else's, even if he was "desperate for the job".

5

 

I think people are forgetting about the other teams. 9 for fucks sake.

The other teams have just as many points to pick up as we have, and seem to have the ability to do so now and then.

Everything wrong is down to Nicky Butt.

 

Looks to punt the ball every single time despite us having five in midfield and two upfront to allow us more options for the short passes.

 

He is a terrible, terrible, terrible footballer.

 

 

Very short sighted.

 

We've no movement up front, everything in the middle is congested because we've nothing in wide areas.

 

Abysmal attempt at a formation today.

Agree with this, except I don't think we have an attempt at formation.

I hope Shearer's half-time talks are more inspiring than his punditry.

His half-time team talk now will be his first real test as a manager. Whatever his tactics have been so far, they haven't worked. We're really shit. Not good enough for promotion to Premier League next season.

Possibly the most one sided half of football since liverpool played here. Infact atleast we managed a goal. If Gerrard was playing where Kuyt is it would be about 5-0.

Probably. Liverpool play without the drive Gerrard offers, but just neatly rape Blackburn anyway. With a bit more aggression, this would be really messy.

colo proved to me under keegan he was good. he has though been absolutely awful in recent games and cost us points with that and therefore i would bench him till things getsorted in the summer. I would not sell him though, he has proven he is good, just needs a centre midfield in front of him.

He was poor in Keegan's last game. Arsenal should have gotten a penalty from him, but had to do with the three other goals instead. He was poor against Coventry as well.

Duff is awful, but i believe that Jonas would've been excellent in his team as well as a Bassong on form, as O'Brien was sh****

Jonas can't cross at all. Robert and Solano were expert crossers.

Still 9.