Mr Logic

"A weaker Ameobi at best.."

Dalglish, less than 4 months at Celtic after over 2 years out of the game since leaving Newcastle.

Gullit, 5 years out of management after leaving Newcastle before a failed season at Feyenoord. Currently LA Galaxy celebrity manager.

My point was they weren't exactly hot property after their careers ended here. So in our search for the next manager how many would be put off by the track record of hiring and firing that went on here.

One thing I am pretty sure of, if Mort and Ashley set about finding a new manager they're unlikely to make a mistake and he will be given time. I'm looking forward to it already.

Just struck me, reading that, off-topic. I wonder how many managers have never really worked again (to date) in management after being sacked by Newcastle.

Dalglish, Gullit, Souness, any more?

 

No, i think 11th, maybe 10th is Allardyce's level with us.

 

This season 12th to 14th is looking increasingly the more likely.

Poll results seem pretty conclusive. Post it to Mort.

Pissing myself here, lad hasn't even signed on the dotted line yet and he's shite already.

Was it Cloughie who said 'It's not rocket science is it..'

I said a couple of months ago  Sam had his head so far into statistics now that he had forgotten the simple things. Need a Back to Basics campaign here, get the dossiers out.

He needs an hour long session with his own clinical psychologist after comments like that..

"It was a poor performance - we couldn't cope with Wigan being high-tempo and hard-working.

"Some of our players have not lived up to their reputation.

"The front players have not held the ball up and the creative players have not created. Today the appetite to beat the opposition was not there. I'm not happy to have my future in their hands.

Firstly how the hell can you admit they couldn't cope with the tempo of the game. If the other side is dictating the tempo it's your job as manager to change things on the pitch and sort it. And this was Wigan tempo, god forbid what happens when it's Manyoo tempo.

There is no secondly.

Thirdly, I am getting increasingly concerned with his apparent inability to hold his own hands up and admit some culpability. It's not the first time we've seen this level of confused sunday park football. All these players knew how to play before he got here or, if he signed them, before they got here. He must have had some input on the current shambles we're watching.

Just hold your hands up Sam and admit the current players are not adapting to your tactics, and as the competitive fixtures of the PL is not the place to continue experimenting just get back to basics for now and let them play.

Get the players you need in the next window, but in the meantime don't blame the players for their inability to follow your instructions when presumably you work with them week in week out in training and can see what is being taken in and what is not. Work with what you've got, don't try and make something that isn't there when there are 3 points at stake every week.

The all time Premiership table lists Man Utd as top, scoring 1140 goals compared to 516 conceded. Again it rather points to the brand of football known as attacking to be rather succesful on the whole.

 

Teams who score more goals than they concede win matches.  Who would have thought it? 

It was the manner in which they win them that my post alluded to, but you knew that, didn't you.

Watching football has to be entertaining or I won't watch it, simple as. Big Sam's team is currently serving up dross the vast majority of the time, and I personally don't have the patience to watch that for 2 more years to see if it gets a bit better.

If we are going to have to wait 2 to 3 years before the team and system are complete, (and we are, for if there's one thing that's established it's that no manager ever produced a succesful team in 6 months), I'd rather watch something like Mowbray's brand of football whilst I'm waiting. Just as I enjoyed watching Keegan's brand of football.

We have conceded a ridiculous amount of goals this season, something an attacking team is actually far less likey to do as the other team are often kept busy defending. Also a factor with Keegan's team, who conceded far fewer goals than most people seem to think due to the oft quoted media perception of Newcastle's poor defence over the years.

I'm not, god forbid, arguing for a 'Return of the Messiah' scenario, but pointing out what I feel most would prefer. To watch attacking football. I was reading the Newcastle Miscellany just yesterday and was surprised to see the goal tally column for a league table from 1926/27 where the team that had finished bottom had managed to score 65 goals; that's more than some top 3 teams get in a season these days.

The all time Premiership table lists Man Utd as top, scoring 1140 goals compared to 516 conceded. Again it rather points to the brand of football known as attacking to be rather succesful on the whole.

So yeah, I'll throw my hat in the ring for Mowbray too.

He's trying to make amends for the away defeat by hammering them by the look of it, that's as 4-2-4 as you could get with our squad really.

TBH, who cares?

 

I was only trying to demonstrate the standards of journalism in this country.

Couple of days before they (Express) had a small bit about Tozer in and next to it they had some random photo of a negro chap.

Definitelty Ginola on the second shirt, I could just see him wearing it. I'd put Bearsley on the other away shirt and Ferdinand ,Shearer or Lee on the first one.

Can someone who goes to the games comment on Geremis ability as a captain.

Ignoring whatever brand of football he plays when he's out there does he perform like a captain, talkative, encouraging, demonstrative?

....any advance..............              Realising 11 is impossible of course..

His reasoning behind it seems sound enough though.. I think part of the difficulty we’ve had – particularly in defence – is getting those guys working together. “I’m not convinced adding another two names in defence is necessarily going to be the solution this season.

TBF he doesn't say it won't happen, just he's not convinced. A lot of the new players are getting slagged off as not good enough before they've had a chance to develop understanding together. That some of them also look unsuited to the premiership is also too early to say with any certainty.

If it means a solid productive summer tranfer window I'd be happy enough with a couple of youngsters for the squad.

Sunday Sun; Neil Farrington..

THEY say Chris Mort is a puppet chairman, his strings pulled by the man with the money and the power.

 

They say he is a stuffy, southern lawyer who will never understand Newcastle United or Tyneside – or their conjoined relationship.

 

They say he and owner Mike Ashley are ready to peddle Sam Allardyce – and even the club – at any time.

 

“They” should read on.

 

Yes, Chris Mort is both an outsider and an emissary. But he sounds like no errand boy.

 

Instead, in the most in-depth and candid interview of his five-month reign, chairman Mort makes numerous things clear.

 

Not least his and Ashley’s long- term commitment to United. And to Sam Allardyce.

 

But most of all, Mort makes plain – Big Sam take note – that he is very much his own man.

 

It has been a largely upbeat week at a club down on its uppers in recent months, so Mort’s unequivocal backing for Allardyce, who continues to divide opinions among fans, is unsurprising.

 

Talk of sounding out other managers, including Fabio Capello, is dismissed with derision.

 

Instead, Mort insists he and Allardyce are already planning for next summer and beyond.

 

But what adds spice to Mort’s solid show of support for Big Sam is his readiness to defy his manager’s January transfer window wishes.

 

The admission that Mort and Ashley decided whether to dispense with Allardyce before the season even began is another eye-opener.

 

More of which later.

 

First, Mort is keen to tackle the theories that Ashley is making all the decisions that matter at St James’s – and that sacking Allardyce could yet be prominent among them.

 

“If people want to say I’m a puppet, fine. But it doesn’t reflect the reality,” says Mort.

 

“I’ve been consistent throughout, Mike’s been consistent throughout. He didn’t want to get involved in the business side.

 

“He’s got his own massive, multi- national business. That’s his day job and he doesn’t want Newcastle United to become a day job as well.

 

“So he wants me to run the club and he wants to come and support it, which he thoroughly enjoys doing.

 

“He just wants me to get on with it. I understand what the financial spend of the club can be, but within those constraints it’s for me to go and run the business, and that includes deciding to sign players.

 

“In the summer, he didn’t get involved in any of the signings. That’s not the role he wants.

 

“We travel to games together, we talk as mates do about the team and how it’s going. But he’s not out to influence who’s in the team.

 

“He seems less involved day to day than, say, Roman Abramovich is at Chelsea. Mike’s a passionate supporter. In fact, my conversations with Mike in the context of Newcastle tend to be on matchdays and not often in between.”

 

So is Mort’s faith in Allardyce, never mind that of Ashley, more substantial than the positive soundbites issued by chairman and owner?

 

Despite the revelation that Big Sam’s tenure might have been over almost before it began, the answer is yes.

 

“Mike and I discussed at the start whether he (Allardyce) was the right person, because he wasn’t our appointment,” admits Mort.

 

“We had to decide whether we were going to stay with Sam or not. We concluded then that we should.

 

“He’s an experienced manager – and this club needs one because it’s a big club to run and there are some significant demands here.

 

“Since then, we’ve never sought to think about ‘right, who’s next?’”

 

Not even amid the slump in form which had seen United take two Premier League points out 18 before yesterday’s visit of Birmingham?

 

“Nothing’s changed between Sam and me,” Mort adds. “We sit down, go through business and talk about what’s happening with the team.

 

“We are both very frustrated by the level of inaccurate Press comment that’s been around over recent weeks, particularly in the nationals.

 

“But I assume Sam would say he feels that, in terms of a management and ownership team, we are stable and not going to do anything crazy.

 

“He and I are making plans about what’s happening next summer in terms of signings and the like.

 

“We’ve talked about how we’re planning to build this club up over a long period of time, and those are still our topics of conversation.”

 

Mort is dismissive of the idea that Ashley, although widely regarded as a loose cannon in the business world, is impetuous enough to fire Allardyce on a whim. His long-term investment in firms like Slazenger, Dunlop, Lonsdale, Everlast is cited as proof that Ashley has stickability.

 

“He has taken them under his wing and developed them over a period of years,” says Mort. “That’s what we talk about doing with Newcastle.”

 

They may be talking now, but frostier conversations may lie ahead for Mort and Allardyce.

 

Asked about their New Year transfer plans, Mort responds: “We had nine new signings in the summer . . . I think part of the difficulty we’ve had – particularly in defence – is getting those guys working together.

 

“I’m not convinced adding another two names in defence is necessarily going to be the solution this season.

 

“If I made any signings in January, they’d be young guys who I could see staying for a very long time, not immediate first-team regulars.”

 

Braced for the prospect of losing Abdoulaye Faye, Habib Beye, Geremi and Obafemi Martins for six weeks or more in January and February to the African Nations Cup, Allardyce may beg to differ.

 

But Mort insists: “Sam’s not pitched to me that we need to sign players because of that tournament.

 

“If I was going to sign anyone it would be with a much longer-term view than January and February.”

 

That means a policy shift at a club synonymous with trophy signings.

 

“Yes, we’re looking to build a first- team squad capable of competing at the top level, but we are also looking to improve at youth level and make signings there,” says Mort.

 

“That’s an area which Newcastle United, historically, hasn’t worried too much about. But Arsenal are the classic club to look at and see the value of making very smart young signings and developing players.”

 

In a city struggling to look past its team’s next game, that would be a bold policy.

 

Yet just one of many being pursued by a chairman who, never mind Mike Ashley, is warming to his task.

Some interesting statements in there, not least the potential direction the club will be taking in buying policy.

On the basis that Cacapa doesn't make mistakes?

We must be setting some kind of record for conceding goals in quick time.

He could be frustrating as hell sometimes, but one moment of magic and all that was quickly forgotten.

I wouldn't miss him, not difficult like as he's hardly been on the pitch. 20 games in 2 years isn't it?

What was the atmosphere like, lots of noise?

As someone else said, boo at the end of 90 minutes. During the game do your utmost to lift the team on the off-chance the positive sounds from the crowd will lift the team.

What I find the most amazing is, even knowing what the press are like, so many here are calling Barton for this piece. For all you know he was pacing up and down his room today kicking the cat and thinking. "That's not how I meant it, and yes, I said that and that, but he missed out all the stuff I said about this and this."

Anyway, all said and done. You don't need a degree in psychology to understand how uplifting cheers can encourage people and how negative jibes can make them nervous.

The point made about Crouch was also a valid one. A great player (not Crouch, obviously) with a slightly nervous disposition, who needs a bit of encouragement because of insecurity issues, but is fantastic on his day.. might think Newcastle? No way, I'm not going there. The St James' Park, or rather the press reporting of the atmosphere, could be a negative factor in the decision making process.

You frequently hear players saying one of the reasons they chose to come was because of the crowd, I guess that could go both ways.

Oh aye, but the last line still made me chuckle. And despite the heading the piece falls under you know it's for a wider audience.. ie. anyone who will listen.