macbeth

I think that withotu a Uefa (or CL) place from this season he'll be out. The home results have been fine, but the performances both home and away haven't been good enough. Abramovitch couldn't cope with all his money being spent to produce a winning, but dull, team. I cannot see Ashley being more relaxed and happily accepting losing, dull football for his investment. At the level Newcastle shoudl be playing at Allardyce does not have the credentials required. If I was Ashley I would be expecting CL every year, and serious challenges in all competitions. To do this I expect to need a manager who has proven ability to (in no particualr order) 1) manage a side to that level in a top league 2) manage a successful side in Europe 3) attract and motivate "star" players 4) have the skills to produce a side which is tactically aware, and able to change tactics as required 5) have the ability to nurture a side that has a blend of old and young players 6) have the ability to build a club culture so that everyone knows what they are doing, and everyone buys into that 7) have the ability to connect with the fans, to lift their spirits Roeder had at most one of these Souness had one Robson had 6 or 7 For me Allardyce has 3, maybe 5, 6 and maybe 7. So two yes and two maybe. I'm not convinced this is enough, or that Ashley will see it as enough. I also suspect that Levy did this analysis with Jol and decided that he wasn't good enough either. The only way for Allardyce to prove himself now is to do it with us. SO if he gets us into the top 4, if we play in Europe, and compete, if gets us playind well against all sorts of opponents, if he gets SJP bouncing, then he may well be okay. But I don't think he will

I thought it was a bit out of character for you mate Never mind man. Tony Green WAS special mind, he was simply the best. Merlin is sadly right, we took a chance on him and brought him into the 1st division when other clubs were looking, and unfortunately although I would rather not think about it, but we would probably have sold him on to a better club at the time just like Pop Robson, Terry MacDermott, half the team in the aftermatch of Gordon Lee leaving for Everton, and our 3 major players in the 1980's who followed. I think you're being a bit slective in your memory now. Green had played for Scotland 4 times, had had the previous season in the top flight before joining us. He became the most expensive Scottish player at that time. It wasn't a big chance we took. As for selling on, who knows. Of his 39 starts for the club 2 of them were against Hereford

unless you have some means of measuring you just have to accept that say Billy Wright getting 100+ caps in the 50s/60s has to be fantastic. Never saw him play, may not have fitted now, but he was clearly way ahead of his generation, in England. In Germany, since the 80s their sports paper has rated all their players. So they look at the national team and try and judge how many are world class. World class means if you were picking a World XI then a German woudl be in it. So in 1990 when they won the World Cup, they took the view that only Brehme and Mattaus were truly World class. They then judged how many were interntaional class. Their definition od that was that the player woudl get in any interntional side, or be first choice for Germany. This brought in 3 or 4 more. They do this all the way down through their leagues, for each team. They are very hard in their judgements If they did England now, then I'd guess there would be no English players inthe World XI. Players liek Owen and Rooney may get in the international class, and so on. You can do this with clubs too. How many of our players are international class ? So first choice for theri country .... Owen, Rozenhal, Given, Emre, Viduka. This gts a bit blurred as how many woudl be in the Premeriship Team of the year ? Maybe Owen? How many are Premiership class, or first choice for us ? Well clearly most of them get a game for us, but how many would be in our first XI, clearly only eleven of them, at the most. How many of our cuyrrent side get in out own personal best Newcastle XI. For me none of them !!

Another player held back by injury when his country needed him. he was great, and lovable, but he ALWAYS seemed to be injured, partly because of the way he played. Not sure he was the best of his generation, although the mid 70s to mid 80s didn't have much competition. Gerrard isn't over rated, he has got hsi club to major finals and the won finals for them. That is performing under pressure. Never done it for his country though when we've needed him. I'm not disagreeing, but it could be argued that Robson never really did it for his club, and his country never got any further than Gerrard's has. Reallly not sure there is much to choose. Probably Robson, although in 1984, when we failed to qualify for the Euro championships he was exactly the age Gerrard is now, so still plenty time for Gerrard to impress.

in 88 when Monaco played us in a friendly I was dying to see the young Gazza play against Hoddle, clearly the southern poofter wouldn't stand a chance. Hoddle took him apart, vision, control, awareness, everything. Gazza looekd like the kid he was. Gazza was ulitmately better, but not that night

Another player held back by injury when his country needed him. he was great, and lovable, but he ALWAYS seemed to be injured, partly because of the way he played. Not sure he was the best of his generation, although the mid 70s to mid 80s didn't have much competition. Gerrard isn't over rated, he has got hsi club to major finals and the won finals for them. That is performing under pressure.

Not sure. Cantona never did it for France but was head and shoulders better than anyone in England for a few years. Hoddle was a fantastic player at club level. Geore Best too. That they never made it at international level may be down to circumstances. I'm prepared to listen to your opinion on players, cos you've actually seen them play. Neither of us has been in the board room to see first hand how we end up with £100m debts, so its open to debate.

David may better than Shearer then? :parky: Mick, I always thought that too as he is from Sunderland but his dad (mother a mackem) was a mag and 'swayed' him and his brother to supporting Newcastle. Wierd comment by billy, its like saying Vinne Jones is better than Rob Lee because he won an FA Cup Winners medal. For my money, I think Irving Nattrass is possibly one of the best, if not the best, most athletic, versatile and accomplished all round defenders I've ever seen at Newcastle. Kennedy was an attacking full back, and fitted into the Liverpool team as the other full back - Phil Neal - was an out and out defensive one. But give me Nattrass, on their own merits, every time. oh God I feel sick. I agree with every word you say.

I'm not sure I agree with that. Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland. The crowd is miles from the pitch. It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games. We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game. We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him. but the place bounces, in a way it never will when England play at Wembley That's probably got more to do with our drink culture than anything else. It's easy to jump around shouting and singing when you're pure blootered and for 10 years the players have playde like that too

I'm not sure I agree with that. Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland. The crowd is miles from the pitch. It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games. We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game. We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him. but the place bounces, in a way it never will when England play at Wembley

The ratings are wonderfully worked out, and are amazingly accurate. They look at the last 4 years worth of results, to avoid the nonsense that a single win in Paris may make to a team's ranking. Games played in the last year count 100% to your points total, sliding down the scale to only being worth 20% of their face value if they are 4 years old. You get more points for winning a competitive game than a friendly, you get more points for results gained against a more highly rated side than a lowere one. (So beating France is better than beating the Faroe Isles). So Scotland beating France would get them 3 points for the win, a 3 times multiplier for it being a Euro qualifier, a 1.94 multiplier as France were ranked 6th in the world, so roughly 17.5 points. When Scotland beat tghe Faroes Isles they got 3 points, a 3 times mulitipled for Euro, but a 0.07 multiplier as the Faroe Isles were ranked 193 in the World. So 0.6 points. You don't get up the top of the list unless you get results against sides above you. Scotland have twice fluked wins over France, and have beaten Ukraine has made all the difference to their results. England beating 37th ranked Israel, and 130th ranked Estonia has no great benefit. Last time England beat a team above them was the Argentina friendly, in a competitive game it was Argentina in the 2002 World Cup.

there will never be another Tony Green mate Agreed. One of the best players I've ever seen. Sometimes it pays to be one of the aulder people around here to have seen some of these great players. Away from Newcastle players, I count myself lucky to have stood on the terraces and seen the likes of George Best and Bobby Charlton, for example. Best goalkeeping performance I've seen was one from Shilton when we drew 2-2 with Leicester. I don't know how we scored at all he was that bloody good in that game. I thought it was the Derby game ~1988, when Darren Jackson ended in tears cos we just couldn't score ? And it was 0-0

there will never be another Tony Green mate I have played against Tony Green in a competitive game ! He did his teacher training at my school, and he was on the opposition side in a games lesson

he's really small in a brick-shi* house sort of way. All over the place, dominating midfiled. Strong tackler, just the sort of player to build your rock solid midfield around. Celtic don't need the money, won't happen. Sadly

The day Radio 1 started, 30th September 1967. Beat Arsenal 2-1, and it was a present for my upcoming 7th birthday

their wage bill in 2006 was £15m. Their expected turnover in 2008 will be £17m. In that time they have sold 4 players for transfer fees, which were probably the bigger earners, still not enough really. They have only survived on Delia loans.

Something dodgy is going on at Norwich like - they've sold all their assets for good money (not crazy money like some do, but decent) and they're still absolutely skint. just the fact that there is no money coming in, and players who have played in the Premiership want Premiership money

Logic is Sven has a pile of money, Sven's league sides always do excepionally well, City are a team on the way up, Owen is best finisher in Premiership and wants t play in Europe

they were dodgiily involved in a couple of heartbreaking sunlun relegations

Noriwch also have big financial problems. In 2005 in the Premiership they had income of £37m. In 2006 with a £7m parachute payment they had an income of £25m In 2007 it will be similar. In 2008 with no parachute payment it will be £17m. So from £37m to £17m in a couple of years. That must be horrendous to try and cope with.

which did you think was the correct approach ?

Never understood why Shep gets more grief than the Halls.... The RoI calculation can be done from the figures in bold. I think it was because Douglas hid in the background just taking the money and rarely putting his face in the public eye. Freddie on the other hand loved the limelight, loved being asked to be on the TV and radio, and therefore was more likely to accidentally say something that wasn't quite what he meant. SO for example his statement that he had never taken a penny out of the club, was a bit silly, and just wound people up when they coudl see that not a penny was £500,000 per year in salary, and ~£1m per year in divis. The Halls do deserve more criticism than they get, they get away with it through being less public, and for actually putting more of their own money in when it it was so desperately needed. People remember Sir John warmly, he was the catalyst.

I actually think that would be a brilliant idea. I think that would be as bad an idea as there possibly could be. When, at the 10th attempt, they eventually managed to beat Arsenal's Under-11s in the final the clamour for them moving down here would be even worse. They are s*** and should stay where they are. I dont think that any of them should join our league, but I think that a British cup would be a good idea. Each country still has their FA Cups, it could just replace the League cup. the top sides are short of games at the moment so it could well catch on as a good idea