OzzieMandias

Shit, I'm quoting neesy and Ronaldo!

You're right. "Ba" isn't a very big name. Not like, say, "Vennegor of Hesselink".

Agree. My only grievance is that it should be a gradual step away from this, as opposed to a complete dismantling of it over one summer. It's no kind of deliberate dismantling, though. It's the confusion of so many players' extremely lucrative contracts coming to end at the same time. Nolan, Barton, Enrique -- they've all been offered new contracts. It's not like the club is trying to push them out of the door. Smith is the exception.

I finally stopped going to clubs and bars when I was around 50. It's different in Berlin, though. Kind of ageless. None of these boring clubs populated solely by adolescent beginners.

I see it as a lose-lose situation. He does well, and f***ing Cardiff and their arsehole supporters are in the Premiership. He does badly, and we have to suffer him as a pundit again. So I'm hoping for a mediocre, mid-table kind of performance. Mid table also = the sack and also = the MOTD couch. You're probably right. Scrape into the play-off places, then, followed by an agonising defeat at the final hurdle.

I see it as a lose-lose situation. He does well, and fucking Cardiff and their arsehole supporters are in the Premiership. He does badly, and we have to suffer him as a pundit again. So I'm hoping for a mediocre, mid-table kind of performance.

"Aren't allowed"? You can say what you want, mate. And so can those who think you're talking shite.

He already began his management career at the top level, and then quickly dropped down a level. Now he's just taking up where he left off, only with some horrible club in Wales.

Don't see what was wrong with him on the show really. Apart from him being as boring as a wet Tuesday afternoon in Doncaster and offering zero insight into the games, there was nothing wrong with him at all.

I still hate them both, and I wouldn't support anyone except Newcastle regardless of who they employ.

Hooray! Now we won't have to suffer him on MOTD.

Have a good cry. It'll make you feel better.

Wouldn't surprise me if his next move was not to move anywhere at all until next summer.

He clearly wants to leave. It's now just a question of whether we can get a fee for him. Most likely, no one else will be offering what we're paying at present, so, like Barton, he'll run down his current lucrative contract and then leave on a Bosman.

He's waiting to see if a better offer will turn up.

I think he's just telling a Tyneside paper what it wants to hear, and a Brighton paper what it wants to hear.

Ian Rush

Yes.

Don't give much of a toss about where he goes (the only plus about Barca would be that it wasn't Liverpool) but if he's not going to sign a new contract I'd like to see us get a fee for him.

Good piece. Just was going to post this after finding it in here. Very good read indeed. It's a load of bollocks. We've offered Nolan an improved deal (and rejected an offer for him) and this -- along with Barton also rejecting a new deal and deciding to run down his extremely lucrative contract and leave on a Bosman, and the club trying to get rid Smith, a player even nufc.com must see is contributing nothing -- leads to 'a feeling that any dissenting voices in the dressing room are getting "our way - or the highway" treatment from Mike & Del boy'? Well, I suppose it might be, at a stretch, if we hadn't offered Nolan an improved contract and rejected an offer for him. As for the assessment of the owner as being unlikely to listen to "players, fans, journalists" concerning how he should run the club. Well, gosh, that's a big surprise, like, because every other club owner does exactly what players, fans and journalists think they should do. Knackers.

The dream scenario would be: Allardyce buys Smith, Allardyce gets sacked by new owner, new manager fails to get West Ham promoted.

That Swiss manager seems canny good, like. Maybe we should start a betting scam campaign to get him here...

Be a joke, Barton going to Liverpool. It'll be like Clarky at the mackems -- bound to end up in some comedy disaster.

Blatantly just the club hiring actors to go out shopping in Jesmond and behave like potential signings.