HawK

Nothing against you personally, but these sorts of posts on this forum I find confusing. We, of all people, know what Ashley is like. He is a gambler, he doesn't understand football and he really doesn't give two shits about the club or the fans. We are 17th, and Bruce is meeting his expectations. For that reason, his job is as safe as houses while we remain 17th. History has shown him to only sack 2 managers when we were not in the relegation zone. Allardyce when he took over and we were his new play-thing, and Hughton which made no footballing sense then and still makes no footballing sense today. Reading between the lines, I don't believe he was too happy with the power that the group of players seemingly had at the club, and Hughton's sacking was the first action in a series of measures to break apart that power-base. If and when Bruce goes, he'll only be replaced with another halfwit, a yes-man that enables his ownership, and the depth of ineptitude to distract from the larger issue of Ashley himself.

0-6

lol

nwoap, just wanted to reply to see how it looks

He doesn't, he just doesn't understand/agree that it's a risk atm.

Absolutely nothing surprising or unexplainable how he's still in a job, said it months ago, he won't be sacked unless we're in the bottom 3 at the very least. He's fulfilling his remit.

Laters lads, that's me done for the evening

Should stick Bruce on a central pole. Hog roast.

They both reportedly questioned his tactics/methods.

Seen more movement in defensive shape from the mannequins in a Debenhams window-display during lockdown.

Shelvey and Hayden are so deep when Willock went to press and the ball came back to us from their keeper, they were still near our penalty area. Pardew-esque that.

We look like we're light years behind Brighton, state of our club.

Seems fair and proportionate, I concur.

Great news. Any involvement from Dave behind the scenes or is he still in self-imposed exile?

I'd like to have seen him bother his arse for the team he was in What, like Liverpool? Newcastle obviously I thought Wijnaldum started off very well, clearly a very good player, but probably lost enthusiasm as the season wore on under McLaren. Thauvin was also obviously a better player than he showed at the time as well. Like I said, would like to have seen some of these players under a decent manager with a constructive buying policy. He was there for the end of the season under Rafa as well and was so bad that Rafa dropped him for the crucial games I wrote a post that analysed every goal he scored in the 10-goal season, they were all inconsequential and mostly only when we were on TV. He really didn't care at all, and it showed.

Woodgate and Hamann. Probably 2 of the best players that have played for us in the PL era, and both for such a short time.

Bodes well

He really needs to be kept as busy as possible, and away from the drudgery of day to day life, if he's to live much longer at all imo. I think he needs a purpose. Would be good if he could get some production people around him and front a series of sorts, maybe a Netflix biography, or some positive venture where he talks to kids/adults that have fallen off the footballing wagon at various ages and how they've gotten on with their lives since. Just don't want him to kill himself (indirectly) through idle drink and drugs when there could be something for him to live for.

We didn't sack Rafa, we just let him walk away.....not sure which one is worst How often do clubs let managers' contracts expire to go to other domestic clubs? Never. Literally, never. The only time a contract for a manager has wound down for them to then exit has been retirement. Wenger, Ferguson and to a lesser extend Gradi (who kept dipping back in from a technical director position at Crewe) are the only ones I can think of domestically. I don't think this aberration of a decision (to not comply with Rafa's request for club funds to be spent as he directed and thus renew his contract) got enough coverage at the time and is the single most damning indictment of the whole Ashley tenure imo, and that includes the Keegan tribunal, the ghosting of Shearer post relegation and the Joelinton signing.

Enrique was far superior by any metric tbh.

Hislop - Trinidad & Tobago Hughes - Northern Ireland Albert - Belgium Woodgate - England Enrique - Spain Solano - Peru Hamann - Germany Speed - Wales Robert - France Kluivert - Holland Ba - Senegal

Aye

I looked this up, apparently the earliest time this was used as a term on this forum was to reference Kieron Dyer not bothering to earn his money, courtesy of user '2sheds' in 2007: https://www.newcastle-online.org/forum/index.php?topic=43352.msg940653#msg940653