HawK

I haven't read any of the replies so far, but I know the consensus on here is that he's a c*nt and should walk off the nearest cliff, and I agree for that tackle. He should have gone to prison let alone been banned. I've only seen him a couple of times in games, and he seems to be a bit like James McLean but can also dribble the ball a bit. In the traditional winger role, he seemed to be quite effective. This was when he was in the PL mind, haven't seen him in the Championship or even how many games/assists etc. he has gotten. That said, I think there's no way he's going to be here at the same time as Haidara, can see Haidara being shipped out if McMananaman arrives. If he does arrive, he's got more balls than most and he's going to have a massive job to turn the fans around. He's a c*nt. But maybe we need some c*nts in our first 11...

Really hoping for the Taylor/Carroll altercation version 2, with Mitrovic and Colback. Is that wrong?

Tbf they couldn't really attack less

Not even an undertone

Pancrate MkII tbh, except it would have taken Gouffran years to get to that point

Took that like Carroll took that England goal. Great header.

Making plays ?

http://www.pet-products.co.nz/image/cache/data/Poor-Paw%20Sock/pp-sock2-500x500.jpg

What the fuck is that poll

Did I relegate us?

I think there's a quality player in there somewhere, but if Shelvey can't be arsed with Rafa Benitez as manager, he hasn't a hope of realising his potential with us or anywhere else imo. Such a waste.

How can you think hiring a s*** manager is the right appointment? Fearing that the players will not react well to the new manager is a flawed expectation to begin with. That is what a manager's job description is all about, moulding players into his philosophy and getting them onboard. If he doesn't do it then he's not much of a manager. Contrary to popular opinion I don't think he's a bad manager, there are plenty of other managers that are significantly worse. Not saying he's great by any stretch of the imagination. I think we needed a manager who can say it like it is and work with limited players, which we seem to have in abundance. Only a couple actually seem to me to be decent enough to fight for a spot in a top European club. We've tried decorated foreign managers (Sven, Capello), home grown managers with European experience (Hodgson), promoting from within (McClaren), and gone with the popularist choice (Keegan) and I would say all had caused England to under-perform with the players they had at their disposal. The closest appointment I can make to this is Graham Taylor, but even then he had nowhere near as much top level experience as Allardyce does. I was worried about the player's perception of him and how it will influence their performances and effort. If they just feel he's working above his station and they 'deserve better', there's not a lot he's going to be able to do to change that other than drop them and hope for a reaction. If a manager as big headed as Sam can't get the players to buy in, then he can't blame the players. Just pick some different ones. His whole public trumpeting of his own abilities means he has to be able to deliver without looking for any excuses. If he is as good as he claims he is, then he doesn't need to beg for players for co-operation. The best managers command respect because they know they can deliver and that's picked up by the players pretty quickly. Just look at Rafa at Newcastle. Perhaps he needs to trumpet his abilities to try get the respect of the players, remembering how thick as mince 95% of them are. I think it boils down to the opinion of our players - if you rate them, then a better calibre manager should be able to deliver better results, i.e. Pep, Rafa, Conte etc. And I would understand completely why people would be disillusioned with Allardyce in this regard. However, I think most of our team is overrated toilet, and a player base like this I think a manager who is used to working with toilet would be the right way to go which is why I think Allardyce is the right person at this moment in time. The problem I was alluding to is if the players just don't want to work for the manager, there's not much he can do, see Chelsea under Mourinho last season. Yes he can drop them, but the fallout he'd get in the media would be hysterical if he dropped any of their darlings. On the other hand, when he was at Newcastle, the players never really took to his methods and we looked awful. Yet the same players under Keegan were transformed into a slick passing football team, which Allardyce insisted was impossible to do with the same resources. With England, he will have the opportunity to use the players to fit his system. At Newcastle he was humping long balls in the direction of Michael Owen and it wasn't a great plan. At least this time he can pick Andy Carroll or the nearest player of his type. No excuses. I'm not disagreeing with that - he clearly picked the wrong system for the players and Allardyce 'football' was utterly dreadful at Newcastle. I agree he didn't have a clue how to get us playing to our potential. I think I covered myself in this regard when I said it comes down the quality of the players in the team. The team Allardyce had I thought was better than him, just to pick out a few he had - Viduka, Barton, Beye, Milner, Owen, Martins and at a stretch Enrique and Emre - could have been playing for teams better than Newcastle imo. I would say Allardyce was the wrong manager for us at that time and I was happy when he was got shot off, and ecstatic when Keegan was appointed and it didn't take long for him to make us look very dangerous. I suppose my opinion hinges on his ability to transfer his 'skills' to the international stage, the world of international football isn't blessed with top-rate managers and I don't think Allardyce would be out of his depth in this regard. Perhaps he's doomed to failure from the outset, if he picks a system that doesn't work for the players he has, like at Newcastle, it's going to be curtains early doors.

How can you think hiring a s*** manager is the right appointment? Fearing that the players will not react well to the new manager is a flawed expectation to begin with. That is what a manager's job description is all about, moulding players into his philosophy and getting them onboard. If he doesn't do it then he's not much of a manager. Contrary to popular opinion I don't think he's a bad manager, there are plenty of other managers that are significantly worse. Not saying he's great by any stretch of the imagination. I think we needed a manager who can say it like it is and work with limited players, which we seem to have in abundance. Only a couple actually seem to me to be decent enough to fight for a spot in a top European club. We've tried decorated foreign managers (Sven, Capello), home grown managers with European experience (Hodgson), promoting from within (McClaren), and gone with the popularist choice (Keegan) and I would say all had caused England to under-perform with the players they had at their disposal. The closest appointment I can make to this is Graham Taylor, but even then he had nowhere near as much top level experience as Allardyce does. I was worried about the player's perception of him and how it will influence their performances and effort. If they just feel he's working above his station and they 'deserve better', there's not a lot he's going to be able to do to change that other than drop them and hope for a reaction. If a manager as big headed as Sam can't get the players to buy in, then he can't blame the players. Just pick some different ones. His whole public trumpeting of his own abilities means he has to be able to deliver without looking for any excuses. If he is as good as he claims he is, then he doesn't need to beg for players for co-operation. The best managers command respect because they know they can deliver and that's picked up by the players pretty quickly. Just look at Rafa at Newcastle. Perhaps he needs to trumpet his abilities to try get the respect of the players, remembering how thick as mince 95% of them are. I think it boils down to the opinion of our players - if you rate them, then a better calibre manager should be able to deliver better results, i.e. Pep, Rafa, Conte etc. And I would understand completely why people would be disillusioned with Allardyce in this regard. However, I think most of our team is overrated toilet, and a player base like this I think a manager who is used to working with toilet would be the right way to go which is why I think Allardyce is the right person at this moment in time. The problem I was alluding to is if the players just don't want to work for the manager, there's not much he can do, see Chelsea under Mourinho last season. Yes he can drop them, but the fallout he'd get in the media would be hysterical if he dropped any of their darlings.

How can you think hiring a s*** manager is the right appointment? Fearing that the players will not react well to the new manager is a flawed expectation to begin with. That is what a manager's job description is all about, moulding players into his philosophy and getting them onboard. If he doesn't do it then he's not much of a manager. Contrary to popular opinion I don't think he's a bad manager, there are plenty of other managers that are significantly worse. Not saying he's great by any stretch of the imagination. I think we needed a manager who can say it like it is and work with limited players, which we seem to have in abundance. Only a couple actually seem to me to be decent enough to fight for a spot in a top European club. We've tried decorated foreign managers (Sven, Capello), home grown managers with European experience (Hodgson), promoting from within (McClaren), and gone with the popularist choice (Keegan) and I would say all had caused England to under-perform with the players they had at their disposal. The closest appointment I can make to this is Graham Taylor, but even then he had nowhere near as much top level experience as Allardyce does. I was worried about the player's perception of him and how it will influence their performances and effort. If they just feel he's working above his station and they 'deserve better', there's not a lot he's going to be able to do to change that other than drop them and hope for a reaction.

I still think he's the right appointment, I just hope he gets the right reaction from the players.

How could you tell which ones were the dogs? I'd imagine it was because when they went for a shit on the pavement, the dogs gave Lee a disapproving look as he should have got the family to wait till they got home.

We're going for Scottish power now Expensive tbh

Only a few to be honest, Gazza and Shearer the stand-outs in 96 but there were loads of players better than the rest of our team across the world.

The best England have done in the past 30 years is when we had passionate players - Italia 90 and Euro 96. Maybe it's just that simple, too much flakey, snowflake, technical players and not enough Cattermoles. Getting the balance right is the tricky bit.

This is the kicker. Was I really annoyed when Cabaye went for comparative peanuts? Didn't care. Am I delighted we've got £25m for a gutless, invisible player that wants nothing more to do with the club, with Benitez in charge of transfers? Absolutely It's almost like supporting a normal club again. Is £25m a record for a player in the Championship?

Hope we can get Newcastle Brown Ale back on board, from loan sharks back to alcohol but I loved their badges.

In ability, when Kluivert could be bothered, which was not very often, he was definitely ahead of all but early Shearer. The guy oozed class, no doubt that Kluivert + Bellamy > Shearer + Bellamy in my mind. In terms of effectiveness though, Ba did some great things with the team he had around him and was great to watch, gave it his all even when he was narked off for being played out wide to accommodate magic-shins Cisse. On ability Kluivert. In effectiveness, Ba all the way. Owen was worse than Wijnaldum at hiding in games and the captain to boot towards the end.

Hope he recovers, he loved his strawberry squash.

Tobin? Or not, Tobin?