OzzieMandias

Fair article, though he gets a bit muddled up in the last paragraph.

They're still going mental here too. I live in downtown Berlin but don't usually get much noise from the street and tonight all my windows are closed, but the cheering and horn-blowing are loud enough to be distracting. Be madness here if Germany play Turkey.

Wasn't it Charles Buchan's Football Monthly? I've only the dimmest memory of the thing, but it always seemed to have a lot of reading in it.

Thanks for sparing us yet more verbal diahorrea.

Fate worse than death, obviously.

Where do those two Ls come from? Is he Welsh?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1295445.ece

absolutely correct. I've said myself that showing players the stadium, the support is a big pulling factor but for some strange reason some people disagreed .......... Not only do Ferguson's personally guided tours of Old Trafford add the midas touch to any sales pitches arrowed at potential signees, they've also become a tradition over there. Something i've raised before, and KK - ie. a charismatic figure in his own right - and the 'SJP Factor' you speak of is the closest thing we can offer from a 'club selling' standpoint. But then again everything is fine according to many here, with regard to the suit-orientated 'selling team' led by Jimenez, and as always we're posting s****. Although you are ignoring the fact that the following people took part in the negotiations for Modric: Mike Ashley, Chris Mort, Tony Jimenez, Dennis Wise, and Kevin Keegan, who tried to charm the Mamic brothers with his Hamburg tales. James, the term 'too many chefs operating in one single kitchen' springs to mind. Too many amateurs - ie Mort and Ashley in particular - trying to play Football Manager. Keegan in this new-age set-up is a peripheral figure, whereas there is nobody who can sell the club better than Keegan, afterall he personally oversaw Asprilla's transfer and prised away a player of undoubted ability from a then high-flying Serie A club in the form of Parma. Parma were at that stage the 2nd or 3rd ranked/placed team in Italy, so Keegan - and this is just one higher profile example - has the track record when it comes to sealing deals for in-demand 'stars' when there are clubs at a comparable level to ours competing for these same signatures, and surely Spurs fits into this category at the minute. The club at the moment needs every advantage it can get at the moment, and while i have reservations about Spurs' continental set-up i'm prepared to acknowledge that Spurs will have a headstart on us - ie. sealing deals - because their 'selling team' headed by Commolli and Levi have been in caper longer than Wise, and longer in the English set-up than Jimenez and as such can sell the pros of English football more plainly as opposed to a high-powered, suit-oriented team issuing contract offer with a higher number ahead of the 0's, afterall we have offered more money in the way of contract offers to both Woodgate & Modric yet we've come up well short on both counts. As such he should be the central player in this regard, Jimenez and Co. should only enter the fray when personal terms need to be put on the table & signed by the relevant parties. There's nobody better than the manager/Keegan who can illustrate the club's on-field direction, and the pros of the English game with regards to tempo. The Croats, based on what i've seen of them, employ a spread-wide midfield line and they're largely a rapier-like counterattacking side. With the defensive bodies around him, and Modric is no shrinking violet either/he hasn't shyed away from a challenge when he's found himself defensively isolated in his often criticised 'deep role' for Croatia, he's ready-made for the EPL imo. Keegan should be the only 'player' within the football front-office, when selling the club & the EPL to prospective targets.... whether that be the player himself or the players' representatives. Right now, at the minute, our prospective targets are hearing too many voices when having the club pitched at them........ especially from blokes who know bugger all about football ala *Ashley & Mort. The 'miss' involving Modric fits into this category imo, as you've implied there were plenty of voices/pitchers in on the act. It's overkill imo. *and this is pertinent when considering that Ashley is supposedly going to be more 'hands on' from now on, whether this extends to transfer dealings/sealing deals, or providing assistance, is another matter. This will be discovered in due course. Keegan ran our transfer business/the front office, up to the point of SJH putting the 0's on the contracts, once before and he managed that task just fine. Over a decade ago we were at the forefront of what was the beginning of the Age of the Super Transfer, and Keegan was a spearhead in what was as a then ambitious drive in the transfer market. Wenger & Ferguson run there footballing front-offices with iron fists......... and likewise they've being doing just fine, especially when competing against the millions being thrown about by Abramovich, Kenyon & Arnesson. Like Wenger & Ferguson, Keegan is our top asset in the football front office, and it's a bloody shame that Mort & Ashley didn't take this on board by installing their continental set-up prior to seeking Keegan's services. He should not be restricted to being a peripheral figure in the front office, as opposed to being just the continental-style 'head coach' who is responsible for what takes place on Saturdays & Sundays & out on the training paddock. And this extends to the hiring & firing of coaches as well, because by going on a recent coach sacking he allegedly has little input & knowledge with regards to movement on this front as well So much verbal diahorrea, so little knowledge of how the current set-up actually works, or is supposed to work.

Seriously, though, while I've never met a non-arrogant Dutchman, I agree with Chez. For football managers, arrogrance goes with the job. It's like film directors. Bunch of cunts, the lot of them.

The whole of Holland involved even in the remotest way in football actually. The whole of Holland, to be fair. ...and perhaps parts of France. Aye, that bit's called Belgium.

The whole of Holland involved even in the remotest way in football actually. The whole of Holland, to be fair.

I guess we're probably safe if we just don't mention football.

Can't think of a decent excuse, eh?

A clever guy who couldn't manage people. This.

Nearly everyone thought Allardyce was just what we needed at the time (and in the circumstances before the takeover) tbf. Me included, and I've admitted so a number of times. Same here. 85% of us did according to that thread. 75% of us thought appointing Roeder after he had got us into Europe was the right decision. My point isn´t that these have turned out to be great appointments, just that they weren´t `wrong` when they happened, they just turned out to be.. In my opinion with the way Shepherd was willing to spend on players more than our competition at the time he couldn´t have done much more than he did. Oh, and I was referring to Ozzie and NE5´s discussion above.. Just noticed all this bollocks. Neither my mistaken opinion about Allardyce, nor anybody's else's opinion about Allardyce, mistaken or not, changes the FACT that it turned out to be a bad decision. You lot twitter on disdainfully about "hindsight". Me, I'm looking for some fucking foresight from the people who are paid handsomely to run our club. Oh, and my first thought on reading that Dalglish had been replaced by Gullit was, "well, that's pretty dumb, sacking KD a few games into the season after giving him (iirc) £15 million for new players.'

According to the linked story, he is doing so at Keegan's suggestion. If KK thinks it's a good idea then it's fine by me. And it doesn't necessarily mean he'll be "hands-on" in a Shepherd -- or an Abramovich -- kind of way.

Maybe he's waiting until the Southampton job comes up.

Loads of Turks round where I live and they're all still going mad outside -- shouting and cheering, car horns blaring, firecrackers going off. You'd think they'd just won the tournament, not merely beaten the Swiss.

Isn't that the club which got £6 million out of us for Marcelino? They'll be, like, rubbing their hands and saying "Hey, amigos, get ready, here comes El Fatso again."

The downside of this policy is that it might take a couple of seasons before the results start to show on the pitch, but it's obviously better to lay some foundations than spunk our load on a "quick fix" whose legs are gone or a season-ticket-sales-booster who immediately gets crocked for a season. I have no problem with being patient. We'd certainly stopped going anywhere under the old way of doing things.

Aye, she's called Stephanie.

NE5's mam is a Sunderland supporter.

A long-term approach. Well, that's a novelty, at any rate.

Since we're being realistic, do you honestly think Shepherd's policy was just fine? That as a result of it we'd soon have been back in the Champions League?

Hmm. Wonder what they're paying.