macphisto

I was just googling and it came up on this fans forum I like the line that they hadn't promised to spend it all in one window. I forgot about the links to Ruiz who ended up at Fulham where he just wasn't suited to English football. It's like reliving a nightmare reading those minutes again.

Not sure if this has already been said but they'll be some clubs not wanting to sell just yet as they'd then be expected to reinvest the money in a replacement within this window. If they leave it a few more days then they can always say they ran out of time to find a replacement. Similar to when we sold Carroll and "ran out of time" to sign anyone. I remember we pledged to reinvest all his money which then turned into money we just used for the general running of the club. For some reason, I remember his transfer fee being linked to work at the training ground, including new manhole covers. I might be completely wrong on the last point but something rings a bell.

Yes, for the top players but not for what we need for the here and now to improve the team. This is a unique situation in terms of our position in the league relative to our finances now. I don't think you can go off the past too much. I would be staggered if there had not been numerous approaches to the club prior to January by agents offering players this window who we could get and would improve the team. Maybe not the best players but definitely better than what we have which wouldn't be difficult.

4 days? Where's that come from, did they buy the club in late December?

Two thirds of the Premier League are not facing relegation and 19 teams in the Premier League have won more games than us. The league title is sown up by Man City, realistically only four teams are in relegation trouble all there's no reason for most teams to push the boat out in terms of buying players.

With a team as poor as our team, I'm surprised we haven't had more deals lined up at the beginning of the month. We haven't got the luxury of time and every point is so important now. Yes, it is a difficult month to buy top players but not to upgrade on our team.

His remit is to keep us up so we can judge him. You can also judge a manager by how much a team improves. I really hope he does turn it around but so far I've been very disappointed by him. As someone said previously, we're now scoring fewer goals than under Bruce. One shot on target against Watford at home is terrible.

Is that not balanced by getting more out of other players being enthused by the future ahead such as Wilson, Joelinton, Willock, Lewis, Saint-Maximin, Dubravka and possibly others? I'm not saying they all have a future at the club but nearly all footballers have an ego that surely Howe could tap into as a means of motivating them by future opportunities at the club. Based on Howe's last season at Bournemouth and so far at Newcastle, the bloke has forgot how to win at the top level.

Of course he should be getting more out of the team, particularly when combined with the positive atmosphere around the club now. Realistically, he couldn't have made a worse start. I know people will say give him time but we don't have that luxury.

That's not how I see charisma, I've given you a rough idea of my definition both in the examples I quoted and Forbes article. You can't divorcee man management from charisma as they are intertwined (again, refer to the Forbes article). I couldn't give a toss about interviews but for me Howe doesn't have much of a personality or presence (charisma) to inspire players. We certainly haven't had the new manager bounce under him.

1 win by mid-January?

Even more depressing when you consider that he only won 2 of his last 13 Premier League matches at Bournemouth. Worth noting that both Bournemouth then and Newcastle now are not newly promoted teams that you might expect to go on these type of winless runs. I'd love to what his relegation with Bournemouth taught him?

You wouldn't say Pep, of all people, doesn't meet all of this criteria? Going back to Howe, one of the most important things you need to do be able to do in a relegation fight is to inspire players to believe they are better than they are/play without fear and he just hasn't done it. We have all mocked Bruce but I can see how he initially lifts the morale of a team when he first joins a club and I just don't get that with Howe.

Completely disagree, I think it's the most important quality in a manager. All the top managers have it, looking at our own history you only have to look at Keegan, particularly Keegan, and Bobby Robson. Further afield look at Klopp now or Clough in the past. All those managers have/had the ability to lift players and make them feel they could win any game through their natural personality/enthusiasm/charisma to inspire players. There's a load of top managers who leave training to their assistants and the reason they are where they are is through their charisma and ability to motivate players (all connected to man management). Howe has spectacularly failed to lift the mentality/inspire the team. There's been no significant difference.

I think a lot of the motivation for Wood was to weaken Burnley.

Each to their own but he doesn't to me. Indeed, I find him quite bland. He's well presented, probably had good media training as he talks well enough but that's not charisma in my book.

The biggest weakness of Howe for me is that he's just not inspiring, no charisma. With Benitez, you can see he has a natural authority/respect and with Bruce you can see why players would take to him at the beginning of his reign. With Howe, I just don't see him having any impact, he certainly hasn't so far and you could argue that the mental side of a relegation fight is the most important part.

I never thought we'd go down until today. Got no faith in Howe at all now, he's had an awful start. Hope I'm wrong.

100% agree with everyone, hopeless.

It was in Jeddah in around 2009 that I got the most pissed ever on a work trip. In my hotel room chilling when there was a knock on the door and a Saudi guy who I'd meet over there on business asked me to come out with him for the night. Went to his place and got absolutely wrecked drinking whiskey. He then wanted to go on to a place with Lebanese prostitutes but by that time I'd already been sick in his apartment. Got back to the Marriott pissed out my head talking/shouting very loudly to all the hotel staff. Next day on the way to the meeting I had to ask my driver to pull over to be sick on the motorway too. All of that day, the Saudi's kept asking if I'd been out with naughty people? To top it all off, the Saudi guy again knocked on my door that day to give me flowers as he felt bad! All in all, a good trip! Fond memories of the place apart from my last visit as that was the January where we sold Andy Carroll.

No, I don't think they were great business (Krul wasn't under Carr). How long did most of the players above and others like Sissoko, Thauvin, and Wijnaldum stay at the club? None of those players were hidden gems, everyone knew about them; Cabaye had won the French league the previous season. It doesn't take a genius to work out that the midfielder in a league winning team might be half decent. We make out that he was some great guru at scouting when in fact he mainly operated in the closest country to our shores and had a good relationships with some agents; relationships that were "cultivated" on the premise that the players would be off as soon as we received a decent bid. I don't think that latter part is conjecture as what was the longest a Carr buy stayed at the club? Indeed it would be interesting to know what the average duration at the club was for a Carr player? 1 and half years-2 years? Truth is though that none of them had the fight in them to really put themselves on the line for Newcastle as they knew they'd be off soon enough and most agitated to move as soon as possible to be off. Yes, we have recruited better since he left as we haven't been relegated (yet) since he left. I never said anything about a 100% success rate in the transfer market, I just don't think he did anything exceptional. Doesn't say a lot about the bloke that he kept on being told no by Ashley for all these soon to be world class players that he wanted to recruit and yet stayed at the club. Anyone with any self-respect would have left and gone to work with a club with a bit of ambition where he could have bought some of these players. I wonder why he didn't leave? Speaks volumes that one of Benitez's, who's knows football, first acts was to show him the door.

All this talk about Carr, we're looking back on his time with very rosy glasses. He worked with one or two agents in our nearest neighbouring country where agents and players were sold on the idea that players could come to Newcastle for a year or two and were then guaranteed to move on if they performed well. In the process, the player and agent received big payments/bonuses in quick succession. We were an easy introduction to the Premier League for players with no pressure as they only had to avoid relegation. Do we really want Newcastle to still be selling itself as a stepping stone? Carr wasn't that great, if he was then he would not have stayed at Newcastle for so long. He would have gone elsewhere where he could have signed all these "supposedly" missed players.

By the time Allardyce came to the club, we had an established boom and bust cycle after Keegan. Some years we didn't have much, parts of the Dalglish era/the year Robson could only sign Bowyer whilst at other times we spent a fair few quid, Owen and Luque. I suspect Allardyce was promised a few quid in a season or two after he arrived.

Ashley was a dick from the beginning. His "strategic review" of the club at the start and "surprise" at the debt of the club were a load of crap, he knew all about it and never had any intention of spending a a penny on the club and bleeding it dry/promoting his tat for no outlay. Same thing that he's done with House of Fraser, Lillywhites and any other business he's taken over; they all go downhill. Probably only exception is Flannels.

As the Saudi's are involved it's almost guaranteed that they'll splash the cash to get ahead of PSG (Qatar) and Man City (UAE). I realise nothing is certain but it would go against everything they have ever done in the past and relations with their neighbours. Difficult to put into words but I have visited Saudi a few times for business and their national pride wouldn't allow them to play second fiddle to the other countries in the region.