alpal78

Any idea how bad Colo's injury is?

Any idea how bad the injury is?

He would have to be either pissed or mentally unstable. I wouldn't know where to start pulling that to pieces as it's so full of crap. My favorite part is "And if Hughton, brought up in London's tough East End, wants to flex credible muscles, he may remind certain people he came from a mixed race background during the 1960s and 70s when that was not easy"

Didnt McClaren also went on an awesome run in the UEFA Cup before being exposed as rubbish...I remember his tactics when Boro was trailing seems to be just throw in an additional striker, at one point they were playing with 4-5 strikers! Don't think success in the UEFA Cup proves anything

You're right to a certain extent, change of management may lead to instability but the operative word is may. If the change is done mid season, then yah definitely. But if we do at the end of the season, get a proven Premiership manager to install his new staff, strengthen the squad, train the players and have friendly matches, then it is reasonable to expect that things will turn out well. I disagree that the reason for the instability over the last few seasons was change of management, it was more the timing. Keegan's example provides the best proof of how things can be done right and wrong. Getting him to replace Big Sam with time to spare filled the fans with optimism, chopping him off a few games in and bringing in such a lousy replacement created instability, so it all depends on how and when the replacement is carried out. If we don't change Hughton at the end of the season, highly likely Ashley will replace him in January when Hughton's deficiencies are revealed (again) in the Premiership. Nothing against him, I appreciate what he has done for us in the Championship, but that is all he is...a good Championship manager.

Have you been to Fulham, great little club, fantastic stadium but you are never going to achieve much. Dangle the prospect of managing in front of 52,000 fans and saying he has full control over the football side would tempt him. Any manager with ambition would know that if he had full control of the football side of things at the club and did well that the possibilites are endless. If not him there would be others, I’m sure of that! As things stand, Fulham are a bigger club than us. He wouldn't leave for anyone, let alone Newcastle. Wrong - as things stand, Fulham are CURRENTLY a more successful club ; they haven't won as many trophies, haven't got anything LIKE the stadium of fanbase, haven't been in European football as often...this is a worse statement than if someone had tried to claim that NUFC were a bigger club than Liverpool back in 1993 simply because we had a better team spirit at the time. Fulham will NEVER be a bigger club than Newcastle United - just as we will never be a bigger club than Man U. The issue about Hodgson is really nothing to do with the relative size of the clubs - he is not a young man and is unlikely to want to have the task of taking over a club like NUFC, although I very much doubt he will be given the chance. Newcastle = Newly promoted side, big expectations, alot of deadwood still remains in the team. Fulham = Established top half side, playing European football, decent playing side. That's how a manager sees it. They don't go "ooo that's a big ground'" or "Well they've won more trophies than that team in the last 100 years". Whether Hodgson is 18 or 80, he won't touch 'the poisoned chalice' when he's doing so well at Fulham. Why else have our last few managers included Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder, Sam Allardyce and Joe Kinnear? ...so why did Shankly leave a comfy post to join a run-down Liverpool ? Simply because he could see that the potential was much better than where he was and that is EXACTLY why a decent manager would join NUFC. The reason why we have had all the names you mentioned as manager is because Shepherd had made such a mess of everything and our name was mud after the way he treated SBR ; in the case of Kinnear,you only need to be able to recall events with Ashley/Wise etc 18 months ago to see why we got HIM. We would not attract a top manager right now because there is too much uncertainty surrounding Ashley's ownership and running of the club - if we were taken over by a major concern run by the likes of Makhtoum there are very few managers in the game who would turn the job down. Sorry, but they DO look at things like the stadium, support base and financial standing when deciding to join a club and in the circumstances I have described, we would be looking at bigger names that Hodgson. As things stand, the club has little choice but to persist with Hughton AND give him the proper support in the market ; if the club struggles after that, they will have to look at replacing him because relegation once more would be a disaster. Based on this thread, I think it's pretty clear that the consensus expectation for next season is not merely survival. Because survival is going to mean struggling, playing poorly, losing and living with the prospect that you might go down again. That is what it means to be in the bottom fourth of the league. And if that is the story of 2010/11 it will be because of team selection, tactics and Kevin Nolan. We know this already. If Hughton wants to survive, he needs to do what Reading managed in their first season in the Premiership or Birmingham are doing this year. 2010/11 needs to be comfortably mid table, with a very strong start. Because if his support is lukewarm now, the knives are going to be out when we drop points at home against mid table teams. People might say their expectation is survival, but it won't play out that way. Anger, fear and frustration at a return to bad results (which everyone might acknowledge before the season begins) will build quickly, and he'll be hated again when reality sets in. You can practically hear the intake of air before the giant 'I f***ing TOLD YOU SO, HUGHTON OUT' and a return to the good old days of speculating whether Curbishley or Mark Hughes would be a better option, before they sign up Gary Megson or Joe Kinnear. Exactly what I was saying! When things go belly up, the same people who are now having a w*** over Hughton will get on his back and things will get ugly again with blame pointed in all directions. This will bring us back to the instability of 2008/2009, a situation that Hughton has proven to be unable to cope with. Barring the Carrol-Taylor fiasco, this has been a quiet seson for Newcastle, do we really expect the same will happen next season with more eyes and cameras following Premiership players/teams. Hughton has done well in the Championship and we owe him that. But if we can get a good replacement (Hughes would be just right), offer Hughton a coaching/assistant manager role and he refuses that, then it's thank you and goodbye. Tell me you do see the irony in what you're suggesting? You don't want to go back to the instability of last year, so your solution is to replace our manager who has just got us promoted to the Premier League with 6 games to spare and is seemingly immensely popular with the whole staff? Yep, that would bring players and a new manager leaping to join us. f***ing hell, people wonder why this club is a circus when we've got clown fans like yourself. Why would replacing Hughton with a manager who has proven himself in the Premiership lead to instability? If you think players are going to be so severely affected by a change in management that their performance will be so drastically affected, then you're the one who belongs in a circus (and not as a clown too) Cut out the personal insults and I'll engage you.

To begin with you misquoted me, I said "bulied in the air for the two goals" not just bullied in the air in general. And so being pushed over so easily is no big deal for you? well Colo better get used to it coz he's gonna get many of that in the Premiership against bigger and stronger players. If you are going to misquote me just to win your argument, then I'll stop here...typical Ronaldo bullshit

There's Mike Ashley's ambitions for next season. Can't say it's any big surprise tbh. Come on, put your prejudice aside will ya?! Of all papers, you're quoting "a Toon source" as your reference? The season is not even over yet, I doubt Ashley and Hughton has even talked about next season, until then all figures low or high are just speculation and people are just using those numbers to justify their position

You want to have a look again at the first goal when the striker pushed him off so easily before Harper's fuck up, ditto for Sheffield's 1st goal or have you gone blind when it comes to Colo?

Have you been to Fulham, great little club, fantastic stadium but you are never going to achieve much. Dangle the prospect of managing in front of 52,000 fans and saying he has full control over the football side would tempt him. Any manager with ambition would know that if he had full control of the football side of things at the club and did well that the possibilites are endless. If not him there would be others, Im sure of that! As things stand, Fulham are a bigger club than us. He wouldn't leave for anyone, let alone Newcastle. Wrong - as things stand, Fulham are CURRENTLY a more successful club ; they haven't won as many trophies, haven't got anything LIKE the stadium of fanbase, haven't been in European football as often...this is a worse statement than if someone had tried to claim that NUFC were a bigger club than Liverpool back in 1993 simply because we had a better team spirit at the time. Fulham will NEVER be a bigger club than Newcastle United - just as we will never be a bigger club than Man U. The issue about Hodgson is really nothing to do with the relative size of the clubs - he is not a young man and is unlikely to want to have the task of taking over a club like NUFC, although I very much doubt he will be given the chance. Newcastle = Newly promoted side, big expectations, alot of deadwood still remains in the team. Fulham = Established top half side, playing European football, decent playing side. That's how a manager sees it. They don't go "ooo that's a big ground'" or "Well they've won more trophies than that team in the last 100 years". Whether Hodgson is 18 or 80, he won't touch 'the poisoned chalice' when he's doing so well at Fulham. Why else have our last few managers included Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder, Sam Allardyce and Joe Kinnear? ...so why did Shankly leave a comfy post to join a run-down Liverpool ? Simply because he could see that the potential was much better than where he was and that is EXACTLY why a decent manager would join NUFC. The reason why we have had all the names you mentioned as manager is because Shepherd had made such a mess of everything and our name was mud after the way he treated SBR ; in the case of Kinnear,you only need to be able to recall events with Ashley/Wise etc 18 months ago to see why we got HIM. We would not attract a top manager right now because there is too much uncertainty surrounding Ashley's ownership and running of the club - if we were taken over by a major concern run by the likes of Makhtoum there are very few managers in the game who would turn the job down. Sorry, but they DO look at things like the stadium, support base and financial standing when deciding to join a club and in the circumstances I have described, we would be looking at bigger names that Hodgson. As things stand, the club has little choice but to persist with Hughton AND give him the proper support in the market ; if the club struggles after that, they will have to look at replacing him because relegation once more would be a disaster. Based on this thread, I think it's pretty clear that the consensus expectation for next season is not merely survival. Because survival is going to mean struggling, playing poorly, losing and living with the prospect that you might go down again. That is what it means to be in the bottom fourth of the league. And if that is the story of 2010/11 it will be because of team selection, tactics and Kevin Nolan. We know this already. If Hughton wants to survive, he needs to do what Reading managed in their first season in the Premiership or Birmingham are doing this year. 2010/11 needs to be comfortably mid table, with a very strong start. Because if his support is lukewarm now, the knives are going to be out when we drop points at home against mid table teams. People might say their expectation is survival, but it won't play out that way. Anger, fear and frustration at a return to bad results (which everyone might acknowledge before the season begins) will build quickly, and he'll be hated again when reality sets in. You can practically hear the intake of air before the giant 'I f***ing TOLD YOU SO, HUGHTON OUT' and a return to the good old days of speculating whether Curbishley or Mark Hughes would be a better option, before they sign up Gary Megson or Joe Kinnear. Exactly what I was saying! When things go belly up, the same people who are now having a wank over Hughton will get on his back and things will get ugly again with blame pointed in all directions. This will bring us back to the instability of 2008/2009, a situation that Hughton has proven to be unable to cope with. Barring the Carrol-Taylor fiasco, this has been a quiet seson for Newcastle, do we really expect the same will happen next season with more eyes and cameras following Premiership players/teams. Hughton has done well in the Championship and we owe him that. But if we can get a good replacement (Hughes would be just right), offer Hughton a coaching/assistant manager role and he refuses that, then it's thank you and goodbye.

Out of curiosity, as a Colo fan. What have you seen in Colo to make you think he'll perform in the PL, over Jonas who you're convinced by. As I saw it Colo was a good player, who had bad moments, whereas Jonas was fairly similar to how he is now, but with no end product. I think Colo's made more of an improvement. He's looked very good all season, to me at least. You mean like the way he was bullied in the air for the two goals we conceded against Peterborough and Sheffield? I can't see how you argue that Colo is premiership standard and not Jonas when they have both made similar improvement in the Championship, unless of course your intention all along is to just prove that you've been right on Colo.

Admit it, you're just trying to show off your French aren't you

So all of his success this season is totally qualified yet last season's caretaker record isn't in any way misleading despite the fact the club was being absolutely ripped apart from every angle? We could have got Capello in as caretaker last season and he would have likely struggled such was the state of the club. As for complaining re the players selected, after ONE transfer window he has remedied that almost completely with most match day threads showing people are pretty content with the line up. With regards substitutes, we moan about this all the time, yet time and again the player we're all saying should be taken off scores / gets an assist. See Nolan last night as a nice recent example. Also, see Pancrate at half time in the game before at Peterborough. A change was needed and Hughton made it. I genuinely cannot believe we are having this debate. Promotion sealed with 6 games to go and yet still people aren't happy. I was one of the nay sayers right up until the Christmas / New Year period but he has won me over. He has signed the right players, got the right results and instilled the right attitude. f*** knows what more you expect. But you're right, lets get rid now, have our reputations as laughing stocks restored and continue with our policy of screwing up any stability the club has had to chase a possible short term solution that likely won't even work. Brilliant. Right coz that's what I said that I am not happy with what he has done this season. Well done Try to calm down and read the post again will ya

Colo has done well (especially his passes out of defense) but I went for Jose. I still have issues on how Colo can be bullied by big strikers (yesterday's goal as a case in point). I worry how he he will cope against the big men in the Premiership, strikers might mark him as the soft spot in our defense and the likes of Carew will piss all over him. He needs to be stronger when challenging in the air coz the other aspects of his game is already Premiership standard. Jose on the other hand has done well both in defense and attack, his partnership and understanding with Jonas is our main strength which will give even Premiership teams a hard time.

Let's not kid ourselves, against the likes of Torres, Rooney and Drogba we will be slaughtered even if we get two new centre defenders (CD) unless we are talking about getting world class CDs (which we won't be getting). Our challenge next season will be to see how our defence holds up against the likes of Wigan, Bolton and Blackburn

Look we are all feeling a tad sentimental and there is no doubt that Hughton has done well in CCC. I would say though that our performance in this league has also been aided greatly by having the best squad/first XI in the league (how many other teams can boast having players going to the World Cup?), so it's not like we've done well purely out of Hughton's tactical brilliance. What he has undoubtedly brought to the team is stability, a sense of calmness and team unity. Having said all that, to pretend that he has not done poorly as caretaker when we were in the Premier League would be lying to ourselves. How many times have we complained that he kept on playing the wrong players, how many times have we noted that he makes his substitutions way too late to change games? When we came from behind, is it because Hughton changed things around or because the players just pushed harder? I like the man a lot, but I have my doubts on whether he is good enough for the Premier League, I would not mind getting him a credible assistant or if push comes to shove, then giving him a different role (as coach maybe), but only if we get a good manager lined up. At the end of the day, what matters is NUFC not any particular individual. Mark my words, if we screw up the first 10 games, then the same people loving Hughton now will get on his back pronto and things will get ugly.

I'd do the same for you! Hate those sort of myopic xenophobic managers

You're right all the off field disruptions didnt help, but the way I see it, he has also failed to deliver in the premiership. The mark of a good manager is the ability to get the player focussed on football when everything else is going crazy, Houghton has proven to be inept at doing this. Knowing us, despite the current stability, we are always just one step away from things going crazy so we will need a manager who can deal with these problems.

This is a hard one and I still don't know what'sbest. On one hand, Houghton has done well and seems to be well liked by our key players, a new man might disrupt the stability or decide to sell the likesof Enrique, Colo, Jonas...etc and replace them with 'proper' English players. BUT I'm equally convinced that Houghton is not good enough for the Premiership, (he has failed before) and to me our success in the Championship is more due to us playing poorer teams that some sort ofimprovement in Houghton's managerial/tactical acumen. So I voted to just give him around 10M and see what he can do till January...though I'm unconvinced that is the right path to pursue.

For the last time. I’m not questioning that he’s done a good job, because he has. I’m questioning how good a job he’s done as this will have a major bearing on the fortunes of NUFC next season. So you're not questioning that he's done a good job, but you're questioning how good a job he's done?

they've got a dedicated section discussing us hidden from our view!

A bit worried reading through the thread. Some are beig overconfident and may be expecting a thonking. If we don't score in the 1st half, crowd may get on players' back which might increase their anxiety. Forest knows our home record and will be coming with a defensive set up, if we go all guns blazing, they might open us up with one of their fast counter attacks. I'd take a 1-0 without a problem

I hope you've covered your tracks!

Financial security Didnt you know only playing for the top few clubs gives footballers financial security! I don't give a dam what he did before he left, when we needed him the most, he fucked us big time and that is how I will remember him.