macphisto

Well by what has been said I'd put a bid in for Lahm and see how we get on. I'm not one of these people who gets carried away with how good the Premier League is (as I think after the top 4, the rest last season were very average) but with all the money that is coming in now with TV and new owners then surely playing in England must be very appealing. The reason given by players for wanting to play in the Champions League is that they want to play against the best players, well in a few years time maybe the Premier League will be stronger than the Champions League.

Does anyone know how much it would roughly cost to get Philip Lahm from Bayern Munich?

I wouldn't want him as I don't think he's that great. The other reason is that I could see Ferguson rubbing his hands at us paying 6 million-ish for a guy who probably will not play too many games next season because I've a feeling that Ferguson will want to give Jonny Evens some games after coming back from the Mackems. In fact I'd rather go for a young player like Evens (if he is any good) and recruit an older player like Thuram or Campbell who can organise the defence and show the youngsters how to defend. For me Wes Brown is just an average player and certainly not someone who will organise the defence. Reading this thread and also the one about fullbacks for me shows that people still have the same mind set before Ashley took over. If we’ve now got his financial backing then we should be looking at much better players than have been mentioned, for example in the other thread someone mentioned Geremi as a full back. We should be aiming much higher than that in my opinion.

Well if SA gets the sort of money that has been spoken about in today's papers then I'd expect Newcastle to be challenging at least for 5th place. By challenging I mean that say a week or two before the end of the season I'd want to be within 3 points of that position. I don't think this is being too unrealistic because our league is not that great after the top three.

I don't think anyone is expecting to get their money back through TV deals or new league formats. I think it's all to do with Internet rights, I'd be amazed if matches are not broadcasted on the Internet in 5 years and this would create much more money than any TV deals. That's why you hear all this stuff about "global brand", it's about clubs positioning themselves for when matches are on the Internet. Only then would clubs make money on having all these fans in the far east and other places. Biggest thing for me is if the internet deals are negotiated on a club by club basis or by individual clubs.

I was one of the few who picked big phil in the poll the other day for the next manager. My thinking was that he would either be brilliant or a disaster, don't think they'd be an in between. Based on that I'd take the gamble.

Assuming Sam Allardyce is indeed appointed as our new manager ... 1. How much time are you willing to give him before you demand success? As long as we are making progress both on the field and behind the scenes I don't mind how long it takes. The thing with Allardyce is that he gives you some hope that he would do well by his track record. There's some logic behind his appointment, the same would be true with some other managers who have been mentioned. I would not want SGE but I could see why someone would. I would not want Shearer as manager yet but if he was I would have hope in that he could improve as he learnt his trade. With the last two managers I could not see any reason for appointing them and there was no way they were going improve. 2. What's the target you set for him? Depends on what the other clubs are doing. For example for the last two seasons I think that a good team would have displaced Arsenal in the top four. At the start of next season Arsenal's young players will be more experienced and possibly have the backing of the American guy so they should be better, Liverpool have the money from this seasons CL run together with the new owners, Man U have a good young team and resources and then you have Chelsea's millions. So I really can't see how we could get into the top 4 for the next few years. What I would want is for Sam to have built a good team here that could possibly capitalise on any blips that the top four may have. For example in the next three years Wenger and Ferguson could possibly have left there jobs which would disrupt things. Apart from the league, I would expect/demand a good cup run in the UEFA cup at some stage and by this I mean we do not get beat by a team like AZ. Also expect a run in the cups too depending on the luck of the draw. Any big games we do get to, be it semi's or finals I would expect the team to put up a fight not like the finals at the end of the 90's and EUFA blow outs. 3. If we play ugly, but get results, are you happy? If we play ugly, yet results are not good, will you still be happy? Most important thing for this club is to WIN something at any cost, not bothered at all about the type of football we play. Obviously i would like good football but at Newcastle all we've ever had is a team that either plays good football and wins nothing or the team plays bad football and wins nothing. 4. If Sam Allardyce decides to pick a fight (verbal or whatever) with someone (FA, Arsene Wenger, Roy Keane, Freddy Shepherd), will you support him? Depends. 5. Will you applaud the board if the appointment of Sam Allardyce turns out to be a good one, eventually? I don't think they have much choice, I really think that this is the time that things could really go down hill for Newcastle if things do not change. It reminds me very much of Sunderland when they finally got sick of Murray. Not saying our decline would be the same but we would decline. 6. Will you slag the board, if the appointment of Sam Allardyce turns out to be a sad tradegy? No, I could see why they would appoint him. I didn't blame them for Dalglish 7. If Sam Allardyce turns out to be a success, will you gloat that you have always wanted him to be our manager? No 8. If Sam Allardyce does not turn out to be a success, will you gloat that you have always NOT wanted him to be our manager? No, I would just be surprised that it did not. One important thing for me is that the next manager is allowed to manage without interference from above. 9. Does it matter if Allardyce's recruitments are mainly foreigners, regardless if he delivers results? I really could not give a hoot where people are from. If they are just here for the money I don't care as long as they put the work in. To be honest the only reason I would come to Newcastle would be for the money. 10. Will you be happy to trust the club's sizable (assumption) on Allardyce's hand? I think it's allardyce's biggest strength from what I've seen at bolton.

scroll down the page and have a look at poll of the day http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/ Good to see the local paper asking for views on the important issues of the day. It might be a little bit better off asking about the commitment of people who at the club now. Did make me laugh when I saw it though!

Does anyone know how is easy it is to get the setup with the South African channel, I think it's called Supersport? That seems to have loads of footy on. Also with regards to ART do you get still get the option of both arabic and English commentary?

Just been reading the 3 Legends book and found it to be an alright read and there are some interesting bits from Malcolm. According to him he reckons that fat Fred wanted Woodgate back in the summer but Roeder wanted Huth so we ended up with no one! He also claims that Robson knew nothing about the signing of Milner! Bernie also states as fact that Mclaren tried to become the manager of the Toon when he was at Middlesbrough! There is some rubbish in the book though as Malcolm states that Mclaren had not done enough in management to become the England manager and then says he would have given the job to Alan Ball!!

Not sure if this should be in the takeover thread but I thought it deserved to be a separate topic! I was just wondering what people thought were the reasons for the mad rush to take over football clubs? My guess is that they must all be expecting to make money on Internet rights and subscriptions in the future as this is the only way that all the new owners will recoup their money with out having to rely on Champions League qualification and other non certainties (i.e. whether Newcastle will be granted rights for a casino, West Ham making money on relocating to the new Olympic stadium). It doesn’t take too much of a smart person to know that Internet rights will happen at some stage and when they do the clubs will make a fortune. It all looks very similar to just before the “sky revolution” kicked off and I can see it having the same impact. For example just before and after Sky was launched many clubs floated on the stock market. Only difference now is that new owners are coming in and taking the clubs private again. Speaking about the early 90’s I think it was obvious what was going to happen with Satellite TV and it’s impact on football which is one of the reasons I never had too much affection for John Hall. Fair play to him for putting his money down but I don’t think he had the Toon at heart, it was strictly business, though possibly for the adulation as well (naming a stand after himself). The very fact that he decided to watch the Falcons instead of us when he took them over says it all really! Going slightly off topic, if I am right with regards to Internet rights, then the one club who would benefit more than any other is Celtic as I could see them making a shed load of money!!

Just been reading this thread and quite surprised that so many people think Dalglish did so badly when you look at the facts!! I doubt he wanted to sell Sir Les but rather it was the decision of the board. He also wasn't to blame for Beardsley getting too old, which meant he lost one of the best players ever to play for the toon. Looking back I find it strange that more of a fuss was not made about Beardsley leaving Newcastle and the impact it would have. I think his leaving had the same effect as say Shearer leaving at the end of last season. The only other player he got rid of was Ginola which he was right in doing because after he got sent off at Arsenal and his move to Barcelona the next summer got blocked was never the same player again. With regards to his signings, after Keegan I think he bought better than any of the other managers since. Yeah you can go on about Rush, Hamilton,Pistone and Anderson but some of his other buys were decent servants, with some still at the club: Solano Given Speed Hamman (Can't deny he's a good player and one we should not have sold) Dabizas (not really a good defender, but by Newcastle standards he did OK and was fairly cheap) Griffin (Good buy for the price paid) Tomasson (did poor for us but I'm including him as he's done enough since then to prove he's a good player) Compared to Gullit who bought absolute rubbish with his only decent signing being Dyer. With regards to Robson, can't deny he did a good job here but most of his signings were poor. Sure he made some half decent signings for little money in Gallagher, Bernard, Acuna but I think he really fell down with his big money signings. Only ones who stand out are Bellamy and Robert and they only lasted a few seasons and we lost money on them! I'm not saying Dalglish's transfer record is fantastic, but rather he did a better job than any of the other managers since him in the transfer market. If anything though it just illustrates how much money we have wasted over the years and for any future manager the first thing I would look at is his record in the transfer market.

The guy who is going to become a lawyer is not Paul Winsper but the assistant physiotherapist, Ferris I think his name is!