TRon

I agree, for once I can't really feel justified in urging the board to spend invest heavily in the squad. Best to hold fire till the summer and see if things get any better first.

1-1 at best.

Very quiet on the January window ATM. My gut instinct is very few funds will be made available as Sam has not done well with the current squad for whatever reason. The only player I've seen linked so far is another slowish forward-cum-midfielder in Godjohnsen.

Well, considering our bad run has come against the worst teams in the division I would suggest it isn't going to get better this season, at least.

Talk about not seeing the wood for the trees. Remember Robson's excellent counter-attacking team of a few years back? The only attacking players we had when playing from defence were Robert, Bellamy and Dyer (all lightning fast) but master tactician Allardyce doesn't seemed to have twigged how that worked either

What he fails to mention there is that Sven's team don't hoof the ball 50 yds upfield as soon as they win posession. They attempt to move the ball accurately and quickly to the front men to hit on the counter which is a million miles from Sam's direct football philosophy.

I'm now thinking between 12th and 14th, that's simply not good enough. Does anybody think Allardyce should be here next season if we finish as low as 12th? I don't even bother looking at the league tables any more, I wrote off this season after the Reading game. All I'm looking for at the moment is the slightest hint of progress, or team structure game by game.

I just hope he's not unsettled here already. I can understand easing him in gradually but he hasn't looked so bad as to warrant no first team football at all.

I think if you asked the vast majority of Newcastle fans (not just internet) they would want Shearer as manager. There again, if Shearer wasn't there, they'd probably want Lee Clark given the choice. Me personally, I'd prefer Sid Wadell or an Ant & Dec management duo with Jimmy Nail as first team coach.

What kind of spend and when are you expecting coach? I was expecting nothing really this season. I wrote it off the moment we hired Big Sam. Although that's not to say I'm happy we're losing games and not performing well but I did expect it so therefore I'm not too worried about these in reality fickle aspects of football on the pitch. Next season I expect better performances, more consistency and better management decisions on the pitch. I expect improvements in all areas of the team from defence to attack and with it league standing. I don't expect us to finish in the top 6 next season though. The season after that I do and the season after that one, I'd expect us to be challenging for a top 4 spot and looking to win a trophy. The spend? I think we could attain all that or look towards that on current budget levels. However we could cut out a good few years by spending good money and starting now which is the only way to progress at a quicker rate, the only way. This goes for any manager. If we appointed Ramos and gave him only 10m net spend a year, we'd struggle to break into the top 6 so soon too, where as the CL would be an impossibility to a large degree. No, Big Sam needs backed heavily in the transfer market. It's time to look for quality not quantity. I feel a certain resistance to a big spend coming from Mort. I think Ashley would be happy to spend big if he was confident Allardyce was the right man. Unfortunately, Big Sam's under-achieving results have not helped his cause. Regularly dropping points to relegation fodder teams must have put doubts in the Chairman's mind and for tht Sam has only himself to blame. Even now, if he can get the team to produce the results to reflect their transfer fees he can turn things round for the summer.

Emre is never going to fit into Allardyce's preferred team or style where the 4-3-3 needs a single forward supported by two wide players. The three scufflers who make up the midfield don't need Emre's skill as the ball will be flying over their heads mostly in any case.

A good article related to this subject:

Whats has he brought off it? I dont know anything about whats going on behind closed doors but i'd love to know. from today's Times (Oliver Kay): At Bolton, he and his staff were able to impose a philosophy on a squad that was built slowly over his eight seasons in charge as the team went from the lower reaches of what was the Nationwide League first division to the upper echelons of the Premier League. This was not only a triumph of tactics or organisation, but of the ideas and team ethic that Allardyce and his staff imposed. To be shown around their training ground at Euxton and to be talked through the thinking behind the computer hub, the layout of the gym and even the colour scheme on the walls was like a psychology or a sports science field trip. It's the sort of thing which made me want Allardyce here in the first place

Me too, even though I still rate him and think he could be a good player one day. Swap for Ashton plus some cash? We need a mobile front man, we already have plenty of plodders in the side IMO.

5 years? It's barely been 5 months and there's talk of him getting sacked, that's the reality. I should think he'll get the rest of the season to show some progress, if he thinks he's going to get a blank cheque for 5 yrs he's in for a rude awakening.

There's no point in laying off Big Sam or his staff unless some outstanding coach suddenly becomes available. For all his blinkered approach on the pitch, Allardyce has brought some much needed improvements off it.

Some of us spotted Bobby's flexibilty as opposed to Sam's blind dogma a while back and commented on it. That said, it's a wonderful interview, and for all he's supposed to be senile, Robson's clarity and vision is a master class in seeing the bigger picture.

Feel-good appointments might work in the short term, but as Keegan found out as England manager, you need more than that to sustain success. I doubt Shearer has anything close to the footballing knowledge of Allardyce and I don't think he would have been anything like as thorough behind the scenes as far as backroom staff and fitness regimes. Shearer always comes across as a plank on MoTD. At the moment that's all I have to judge him by so he should stick to doing that (very badly) IMO.

No thanks, I'd rather give Allardyce more time, even though he's doing an abysmal job so far. If Allardyce were sacked I'd want a real manager not a former hero to take charge.

Any coach has to be judged by what he gets out of the players at his disposal. Allardyce's problem is he is getting beaten and outplayed by teams far inferior in terms of quality available. If we were getting stuffed by Liverpool or Arsenal, fair enough. It's the fact that relegation cannon fodder are decking us on a regular basis which is going to indict him.

Well that's mostly how his team have played till this season. Arteta has made a big difference, but given 3 or 4 years who's to say Allardyce couldn't produce a similar team? He's never had any money tbf. I think Allardyce needs time btw. He's only had one transfer window and it's fair to say he had his work cut out then. I don't know whether Allardyce needs time or not, but I agree with HTT that I wouldn't be particularly impressed if we sacked him just to appoint Moyes or Hughes who haven't really proved anything more than Sam at this stage of their careers. Moyes has done ok but his team doesn't excite me like Sven's City do. Maybe with more cash that could happen but I just don't see it.

I don't recall him making any moves for him prior to City jumping in.

Well that's mostly how his team have played till this season. Arteta has made a big difference, but given 3 or 4 years who's to say Allardyce couldn't produce a similar team?

I don't know about respecting players or otherwise, but I wouldn't be inclined to give any of that shower a Xmas break next year. Planks like Barton just end up in jail cells with too much time on their hands.

I'm not interested in Moyes or Hughes as I don't see them doing anything Allardyce won't do. Both have produced hard working functional teams which are eventually going to be limited. There's no point in sacking Sam unless we have enough inside knowledge to produce a Wenger or Ramos type appointment. That takes real insight and patience so no hurry just yet for me.