Northern Monkey

We should not be signing any more Spaniards. Yeah, only French, like, erm Boumsong, or English, like Smith and Barton.

Why? he plays for blackburn and this is a far, far bigger club with more potential and the ability to offer bigger wages. where we are in the table this season isn't that relevant. not to say we'd get him, but if we were the only side in for him i couldn't see him turning us down. They're a smaller team than us, certainly - we are an average sized club, they are not. More potential? More money, certainly, but lets not pretend we are anywhere fuckng nearrealising our "potential". Some fools thought Bramble, Dire, Shola et al had "potential" - but it didn't stop them being of very little value to us.

Because he's not smacked off his tits, probably. We're worse than the likes of Boro at the moment, we're not in Europe, we've got no history of success, he's young and very talented and English, got a massive future if he plays his cards right (Beckham's replacement ffs!?), he's got a highly-rated English right-winger already here which would be unwanted competition*, and if the top four or a big club from abroad don't come in for him now - he'll wait at Blackburn another season, who are a decent side with a decent manager. Let's face it, Bentley would be mad to come here. He's not realistic at all imo. *Milner is highly-rated, maybe not by us, but on the whole. That's all your opinion and not Bentley's by any means. You don't know what he's thinking, he might decide, and rightly so, that Newcastle next season would be a good move with KK being backed in the transfer market. [/]b] Blackburn are a decent team with shite fans, he might decide a nice wage and a proper supported club is what he wants. He might not, but to say no for certain is a bit premature, besides, why would the top four go for him? I doubt Arsenal will go and pay £13m+ for a player they sold for peanuts, Chelsea have SWP who's back in form, Manu simply have too many mids already and Liverpool are in turmoil in terms of manager and playing squad. Spuds have Lennon. So we don't look too bad a proposition imo, considering he's got no appeal on the continent. Erm, YOU don't know what Bentley is thinking, either. And Keegan hasn't set the world on fire for a good long time now, Hughes looks t be a better manager at the moment*. * Please note, it is now 2008, not 1996.

Possible based on what? On us being a solidly medium-sized club? On us being in the bottom half of the table? On us having no recent history of success? Yeah, players like Bentley and Nani are going to be fucking BEGGING to come here.

Can you remember Dalglish on Sky after the game at Goodison when he was asked about the Ferdinand sale? He said something like not knowing anything about the Ferdinand sale. And you believe what a manager says on Sky. Come one, you know better than that.

Yes, we looked like a f****** hick club. we look like a hick club now, the sports direct logo makes us look like blyth spartans. Yeah, clubs with visible advertising are all tiny clubs. But we looked HUGE without even a fucking clock.

Season tickets for us aren't the cheapest, but i don't think they're a rip off quite yet. Too many rises above inflation would be, though.

Not sure what your problem is with Viduka. I think he's vastly over rated, far too highly paid, and of little particular value to us outside of the fact that we've managed to accrue a pretty shite batch of forwards. We mocked him, rightly, of rbeing fat and lazy before he came here, and then suddenly he signs for us, and he's "world class". He's NOT, by the way. He's nothing more than a journeyman pro, with frequently exaggerated ability and contribution. And he's fat and lazy.

Hopefully he'll never come back. Shame he didn't take Smith, BArton, Butt, Viduka and Ameobi with him. But we can't have everything, i guess.

Yes, we looked like a fucking hick club.

If a logo is all people have to get worried about, they are clearly mentals.

Sacking Allardyce after half a season, sacking a manager in the middle of a transfer window, not buying any players in January, appointing Dennis Wise as Director of Football, appointing a DoF that wasn't the manager's choice, going for Redknapp. Just off the top of my head. Fairly or unfairly I'm pretty confident Shepherd would have gotten criticism for all that (by that I acknowledge at least one of those wasn't neccessarily the chairman and/or owner's decision). Sacking Allardyce after half a season: what alternative was there in reality? Ashley decided to give him a go as opposed to sacking immediately, but if he wasn't convinced once it became clear it wasn't working, it made sense to get his own man in and make preparations for next season rather thasn hang around January window: not always possible to get the players you want in such a short time. Dennis Wise: criticism or no criticism, no one really knows how this will pan out. It might be a masterstroke or a mistake - only time will tell. Redknapp: yes that was a cock up. Wise - its a fucking joke, and you know it is. Transfer window - toher clubs seem to be able to get players in. And our players are, in many positions, shit, so please don't use the "can we get better in" response. Because yes, we could have, or we are fucked.

Thats ok then. That makes reacting in an overtly violent, disgraceful manner absolutely fine. He's a cunt, and the sooner we fuck him off the better.

It'll only take 2 good central midfielders to turn us into a top 7 team. Erm, where is the top 7 quality left back? Or striker? or back up for EVERY position?

hahahaahahahahahaha!! Come on, you can't be so stubborn in your dislike of a player that you would actually talk THAT much shite.

Perhaps he would have bought MF targets in the Jan window...No one can really know. What became pretty obvious was that Allardyce simply did not have the confidence of Ashley/Mort. For a man who built his career on results football, the results started indifferently and were headed south at an alarming rate. He may have had targets but he didn't have the backing to buy them, and he can only blame himself for that. He tried to impose a tactical system with players it clearly didn't work with. Unless he was going to buy 11 new players it was irrelevant. A couple of midfielders would not have changed the fact our entire strikeforce was utterly unsuited to Allardyce's tactics. It would not have changed the fact that our midfielders were by ability, fitness and temperament all unsuitable to his defensive flooding tactics. All we can know is that Allardyce simply failed to come to grips with the players he had to use. So all we were left with was Bolton. The prospect, that given time, and money, he may well turn us into another Bolton, with perhaps slightly better results. No-one here wants to become Bolton. We certainely don't want to risk being relegated trying. So he got booted, and rightly so. At the time I thought 'may as well give him til summer' but in retrospect it was the right thing to do. Allardyce never showed he could adapt tactics, or change in any way to suit far higher expectations and far different playing staff. In short, we do know. We know he wasn't good enough. How would they know shit from shat? in fairness, they got that one right - Allardyce was crap.

Erm, the teams BELOW us might want Emre or Viduka, but the teams ABOVE us (i.e. where WE SHOUDL BE) don't want them. What does that tell you?

Viduka is class? Based on what?

If we're relying on Viduka and Emre, we ARE fucked. Why? Who would you prefer in their place? Good players, obviously.

If we're relying on Viduka and Emre, we ARE fucked.

You don't think Faye was his choice? Or any of the other 8 he brought in? Yes they were his choice, but probably not his first, out of all the players he brought in though most definitely Faye, Beye and Enrique you could class as a success but then again I don't think Sam is the only Manager who has bought in players and they turned out to be shit, this is nothing unique. His first choice players were Distin and Ben Haim, he also went for Silvestre, Wes Brown and Heinze who but got turned down for one reason or another, that's according to his interview in the Mag anyway. You could say the same about any manager that they would do better if they had more money, the fact is though that Allardyce spent around £18 million on Joey Barton with his well known baggage, Enrique who he left out of the first team more often than not and Alan Smith who's shite. We don't know who his first choices were, it was all media talk - i.e. bullshit. He said Distin and Ben Haim were his first choices in an interview so it's hardly media bullshit. Yeah, we shoudl believe everythging that everyone says in an interview - thats exactly how football people do business. Either way, he signed 9 players for £25m, and so far, only one of them has proven to be worthwhile.

You don't think Faye was his choice? Or any of the other 8 he brought in? Yes they were his choice, but probably not his first, out of all the players he brought in though most definitely Faye, Beye and Enrique you could class as a success but then again I don't think Sam is the only Manager who has bought in players and they turned out to be shit, this is nothing unique. Enrique, a success? Fucking ridiculous. And Faye. How many games has he played, in the league?

You don't think Faye was his choice? Or any of the other 8 he brought in? Yes they were his choice, but probably not his first, out of all the players he brought in though most definitely Faye, Beye and Enrique you could class as a success but then again I don't think Sam is the only Manager who has bought in players and they turned out to be shit, this is nothing unique. His first choice players were Distin and Ben Haim, he also went for Silvestre, Wes Brown and Heinze who but got turned down for one reason or another, that's according to his interview in the Mag anyway. You could say the same about any manager that they would do better if they had more money, the fact is though that Allardyce spent around £18 million on Joey Barton with his well known baggage, Enrique who he left out of the first team more often than not and Alan Smith who's shite. We don't know who his first choices were, it was all media talk - i.e. bullshit.

I don't think its harsh - yes, there are other things that seem to go unpunished, but that doesn;t mean what HE does is right. He does bad things. Other people do equally bad things. Only he gets punished for it. That's not harsh? No, its not. Its WRONG that others don't get looked at, but the fact that BArton DOES is not harsh on him - his behaviour shoudl be punished when he does something wrong (again). SO its not harsh on him, its not harsh enough on others.

I don't think its harsh - yes, there are other things that seem to go unpunished, but that doesn;t mean what HE does is right.