TRon

Barton can actually hit a decent strike when he plays far enough up the pitch, but that just highlights how poor the others are in this regard.

Mentioned this last week, but why is it that the strikers get the blame if we don't score goals? We have plenty of midfielders who look good but between them they probably haven't contributed enough goals in half a season to count on one hand. N'Zogbia (when he's played), Duff, Guthrie, Jonas...these are all attacking players but they rarely get anywhere near the penalty area. What makes them better than Danny Murphy or any of the West Brom midfielders for that matter? Is it not true that they are in reality mediocre and over-rated? Is it really Kinnear's fault that they lack the balls to go for goal?

OGod obviously loves Sam Allardyce. The high ball tactics must have been seen as some form of worship to the powers in the sky.

because all this is his fault isn't it?

That makes a change then.

Of course they'll stay up, the Blackburn team Hughes left him was an identikit long ball team to the Bolton team Sam built. Allardyce's real test came at Newcastle where he tried to adapt his style to proper footballers, just like Hughes is failing with City's footballers since he went there. Both managers look like one trick ponies at this moment in time. Did he really try to adapt this style? I don't think he did at all. And this was after he said watch me at a bigger club and the football will reflect that. It certainly didn't. What I meant was that Allardyce tried to play long ball football with players who weren't suited for it. What worked with Bolton's players wasn't going to work with our players who are more suited to passing football. At Blackburn he's got the players to suit his football philosophy.

We had Martins in that game and IMO he's crucial to our chances in away games bbbecause he has pace. Not everyone agrees but I've yet to see us play well away from home when he's not in the team.

Like Smith he doesn't want to give up his bumper pay packet, that's all there is to it.

Maybe Sam can convince them we are too dangerous and deflate them enough for us to get a draw.

What position does he play? Striker ok I remember him from the Euros. Plays for Germany although he didn't do much in that tournament.

What position does he play?

Shows how little Mike knows, it doesn't matter how bad an option we look at to manage, I'm sure theres a score of managers who would jump at the chance of earning 4million a year, plus the inevitable payoff they would get. Stacks of mediocre managers would come, no decent manager is on the horizon. Who's to guarantee the managers who will come will get better results?

He'll be announced before then! More like he'll be sold to Spurs for £7m while we are still contemplating whether to increas our offer to £5.1m

You never know. How many on this forum would have expected us to get £12m for Milner. I reckon most would have shipped him out for less than half. Very true. That's all I thought he was worth, I'd have snapped Villa's hands off for £8m. I still don't take the M'bia bid seriously though, if it was I don't think it would have been made public. PR stunt in my book. That's my thoughts about this bid too. I can't see us spending any money on first teamers without players being sold first. Let's hope Lovenkrands is desperate to earn a contract and plays out of his skin for the next 6 months. Ashley is going to make significant investment in the team according to the Mail. If that's true and if Joe really rates M'bia that highly I would expect us to make a serious effort to sign him, which will mean going back in putting in a higher offer than £5m.

At least we might have a decent team in a couple of years.

Can I ask why you state that so assuredly? I got the impression he did try but realised it was too much. He owned more than enough of the asset already to put in as security to purchase the rest. I'm not criticising him for getting out, but to say he couldn't have raised the finance if he'd wanted to is naive in the extreme. It would have depended on how determined Ashley was though. If FS wanted to purchase the 70% at £x per share then Ashley could have refused to sell his 40% or entered a bidding war for the remaining shares. I do think his illness was a factor as well in him thinking sod it but I also think if he'd wanted to do what you suggest, there had been nothing stopping him doing it at any time since the Halls took a back seat. Why didn't Shepherd buy out Hall before Ashley could, that's what I can't understand? Couldn't he have put together a consortium with like-minded partners if he didn't have the money alone? Greggs? the Irish Bar? Peter Lee? HTT? Why can't he do it now, if you believe he is the answer? You misunderstand me - I just said if he had raised finance which included transfer money then I think we'd have been better off now - what I was questioning was how easy it would have been or would be now to do that. I honestly think if he could have bought the Halls out he would have done. As for now I would have no objection to him coming back with the right deal. He's struggling to clinch the deal for Mallorca at £40m right now. Just to put in perspective what Shepherd can really offer to Newcastle right now other than stupid observations.

I still don't understand the stick Sir John Hall gets. He was the guy who actually made things happen when Newcastle were ambitious. Other people take the credit despite producing much less when they took over the hot seat. I'm not necessarily talking about Shepherd btw.

Can I ask why you state that so assuredly? I got the impression he did try but realised it was too much. He owned more than enough of the asset already to put in as security to purchase the rest. I'm not criticising him for getting out, but to say he couldn't have raised the finance if he'd wanted to is naive in the extreme. It would have depended on how determined Ashley was though. If FS wanted to purchase the 70% at £x per share then Ashley could have refused to sell his 40% or entered a bidding war for the remaining shares. I do think his illness was a factor as well in him thinking sod it but I also think if he'd wanted to do what you suggest, there had been nothing stopping him doing it at any time since the Halls took a back seat. Why didn't Shepherd buy out Hall before Ashley could, that's what I can't understand? Couldn't he have put together a consortium with like-minded partners if he didn't have the money alone? Greggs? the Irish Bar? Peter Lee? HTT? Why can't he do it now, if you believe he is the answer?

I seem to remember people on here finding it pretty funny at the time...kind of like it was some sort of poetic justice for his mismanagement of the club...and everyone was in thrall to our new moneybags saviour. Aye, we had very little if any sympathy for Shepherd at a time. Perhaps a bit unfair on him. Argh, let's stop this. A few more posts down this road and we're all going to be jumping out of our seats screaming "OMFG NE5 WAS RIGHT!" Well, he was right all along wasn't he. I guess we'll all need to learn a bit of humility and swallow som humble pie and apologise to him. Speak for yourself mate. Complaining and whining doesn't equate to offering a solution in my book.

Being fair, Shepherd didn't want to sell - I had no time for the Halls (or indeed FS) on a personal level but I know they wanted success. Now I always said the reason they wanted success was to make money and I saw no objection to that because everybody was still happy. Now we have an owner who just wants money. Being fair, if Hall and Shepherd didn't want to sell they wouldn't have floated the club on the stock market, the ramifications of which led to Keegan walking out the first time (sorry to jog the memory). Being fair, if Shepherd didn't want to sell he should have bought out John Hall and took the club private like Ashley did. What was stopping him? What's stopping him now for that matter?

It's too late to cancel next month You misunderstand me - I'm cancelling the direct debit. I don't care about getting a renewal form in the summer as I'm not buying another ST. You need to cancel it this month & repay your discount then. How long have you had a season ticket for? I might do that but don't really care either way. 26 years. You can't just cancel the direct debit (as I'm sure you know). And if this is the worst you think you've seen it in 26 years you have a very short memory. Sunderland will be my last home game anyway - if the lad who usually takes my ticket wants to go to any more games after than he can pay the £50. It's not the worst but its the most hopeless - also when we were shit I still enjoyed going to the games - I don't now - probably an age thing or to do with in the past no matter what kind of shitbags were running the club it still felt like my club - it doesn't now. The previous owners sold up and left, that's the only reason we have "shitbags" running the club now. Let's be fair now.

You never know. How many on this forum would have expected us to get £12m for Milner. I reckon most would have shipped him out for less than half. Very true. That's all I thought he was worth, I'd have snapped Villa's hands off for £8m. I still don't take the M'bia bid seriously though, if it was I don't think it would have been made public. PR stunt in my book.

I am still waiting to see what happens in the next two weeks before I say anything. I'm assuming Ashley is going to hit the transfer market with intent and then give a victory speech at the end of January telling us why with the right players Joe's the man to take us forward. I know there's an alternative scenario but I can wait two weeks.

Shut up you're ruining the mood.

Some people can swear and still make mmore sense than others. It only gets ugly when it degerates into personal attacks between board members IMO. The anti-board stuff can go a bit over the top as well.