Bad Mongo

I like that quote. Yes, but it's not true. Blackburn is a good example. Success took years of stability for them, but the success wasn't followed by stability. It would be more correct to say progress brings stability.

We haven't sold Given or Geremi yet so the money is coming out of his pocket. Yes, if you consider all the club's money to be in Ashley's pocket. It's not as if they never got any money from Sky or from ticket sales.

Question is why the hell would we get rid of our only actual left back.

If you can only judge a team on merit of its individuals, you can't judge a team at all. Shearer, for instance, scored 22 league goals in 2003/2004, while "individually" not being the great player he once was. He still contributed more to NUFC that season than Owen has done in his whole career. Why? Because he had Bellamy to make runs, Robert to cross the ball, Speed and Jenas to support from midfield, etc. The current first team has loads of individual quality, it just lacks the qualities needed for being a good team. There's no one to create chances, for instance.

What? Shearer/Bellamy vs. some striker combo that just doesn't work particularly well? Robert vs. whatever winger we have who can't shoot or pass (all of them), our current spineless midfield vs Gary Speed in combination with Jenas, Dyer, Bowyer, and so on? That's a team with a hell of a lot more fight in them, and many many more goals. The current team wouldn't stand a chance. All we have is a theoretically better back 4, injuries permitting. In reality, the current team has let in 37 goals so far this season, whereas Woodgate et al conceded 40 in total the whole season. We may have a first team that may look better on paper, if you disregard the fact that we don't have a single player who can shoot from outside the box, not a single player with decent off the ball movement, not a single player with any aggression up front, no one to hold up the ball, and no one to go on runs so that the ball can be successfully laid off again. We've got a bunch of decent players, but our first team is shit.

What best first team in 5 years? The purely theoretical first team that never did anything of note? Some people made the same argument for Souness. And his first team was theoretically better anyway.

Knee-jerk non-knee-jerk thread. I knew someone would start one.

A couple of years ago, under Bobby Robson, we used to come back and win games after a goal against. For some reason, it rarely happens under poor management. Weird, isn't it.

Maybe they're different types of players?

Then they could give him a budget and tell him to work within that.

Souness managed to turn a good team into a shit one. First through performances, then by alienating and selling the best players. I can't see how any of the others have done worse. OK, second half away to West Brom was a pretty good performance, but apart from that? Also keep in mind that we're still struggling with rebuilding the squad he dismantled.

Beye was an Allardyce signing. "The system" has brought us Bassong, Guthrie and Jonas while failing to adding more bodies to a threadbare squad.

Where all our good players always are. The physio room. And? We don't have a particularly good first team, this is how it looks with a injuries to a few important first team players. It's not like this is our second team, even.

Wonder why we're playing a shit excuse of a team, with all those great summer signings The System has provided us with?

I'm just saying passion doesn't equate idiocy.

Keegan is also passionate. Doesn't make him behave like an idiot.

Ah, that explains my desire to punch her in the face.

Roeder was the worst manager we've had for years IMO. If he was a school teacher the kids would be firing pellets at his arse through a pea shooter every time he tried to write on the blackboard. I disagree So do I. The team played much better looking football than under Souness and Allardyce, and had no worse results. Remember us holding Manchester Utd to a 2-2 draw with a defence consisting of Solano, Taylor, Huntington and Edgar? Sibierski up front? Hell, even Pattison got a few minutes. Our squad was even worse then than it is now. Roeder's main problem was that he was incapable of getting good players in.

It will be like in the cartoons, where a blow to the head leads to amnesia, and a second blow takes them back to normal. At least, it was worth trying.

Smith is ten times the player Butt is. Unfortunately, that makes him ten times as bad. I prefer Butt.

Not exactly much competition. (without meaning to play down Bruce's abilities) Come to think of it, it's basically just him or Redknapp now isn't it? Not forgetting Big Sam Roy Hodgson?

As an attacking player, he's not unlike Jonas, with a poor goal and assist ratio, but with pace and an impressive ability to skip past opposition players -- but unlike Jonas, he doesn't track back and defend much (although he's been improving). Erik Huseklepp is only a pseudonym, though, his real name is Inconsistent: at his best, he can rip through teams like Deportivo La Coruna, at worst, his passing and crosses are like Geremi's set pieces yesterday. There's a chance he might succeed, but I think he's more likely to fail.

He was also the player making by far the most passes, according to the same stats. This tells me he supports the other players far better than they support him.

I think it's more of a mental thing than poor technique. His poor passes don't lack precision, they go directly to the opposition. As if he passes to the player he tries to avoid.

Oh, and Bellamy reminds me of what an utter cunt Graeme Souness is.