Shak

Pretty much. Owen was as good as gone with Allardyce here, but with a more attack minded, pass and move style of football he's now potentially a big asset for us. He'll never be the player he was, simply lost too much of his pace. But he's a very intelligent footballer, has a great first touch and links the play very well. An attack minded team could give him the service he needs to be very effective again. I fully expect him to get injured again soon though, sadly.

http://www.take-that.co.uk/discussion/forumdisplay.php?f=226

With great power comes great responsibility. Remember that, Peter.

I'll pray for Kev to come back for good and relight my fire. Everything changes or Could it be magic? Quite clever I guess. But this post doesn't reflect well on you overall.

Jol got a horribly raw deal at Spurs to be fair, they were consistantly improving until his realtionship with the board went tits up. Wanted Elano instead of Bent as well, apparently. I reckon there are better candidates out there, but Jol wouldn't be bad at all and would certainly bring the attacking football Ashley seems to want. Won't be him though I don't think.

I'd have Downing over Milner quite comfortably myself. Milner can be a useful Premiership player and I'm happy to keep him at the club. Can play both wings and you know he'll give you 100% every time. But he'll never be the constant difference maker you need in your team, something I believe N'Zogbia could ultimately be. Better at left-back though, of course.

Young is better tbh, hard to argue that. I think that ultimately he'll be better than the rest if we get a good team around him personally, though ultimately I just have a massive boner for the guy anyway. Downing and Milner don't belong on that list at all though, not in the same class.

Put it in perspective mate. We're a deflated, managerless team in a season that's going nowhere and with a team that is likely gonna be revamped entirely over the next year or so. To all intents and purposes, this match was meaningless as it was always gonna be a walk in the park. The 5-0 was a much hyped top of the table clash between the two best teams in the league at the time. The two don't even compare.

I'd laugh at the absurdity of the post, but I do feel for you for taking such a completely insignificant result so seriously. Chin up mate, things will get better.

Lionel Messi says hello.

only words though It's only words, but words are all he has, to take our hearts away. That hair of yours is going to your head.

Owen and Smith up front, with Duff down the left and Butt and Zoggy in the middle, perhaps? Probably Smith in the middle again though.

To be fair, that would be an absolutely ridiculous set of circumstances. He rejected us though, at the end of the day.

That is a big first sentence. Not really to be honest. I think they decided to give him a chance, but I don't believe that they would have appointed Sam in the first place, given Ashley's apparent desire to see good and entertaining, which Sam has never even shown an interest in delivering.

It's clear that they just didn't feel they could back Allardyce at all, he was never their man and was never going to be. I just don't see the point in keeping him when our season is pretty much a write-off at this point anyway. I'm disappointed as anyone that our sights seem to be set fairly low on the managerial food chain, but I don't see how swapping one above average manager whom you don't trust for another above average manager that you do trust is quite the shambles some seem to think it is. As for how poorly it's been handled, it'll make absolutely no difference in the long run as far as I can see.

Can't put into words how annoying these sort of statements are. Exactly what do you know about whats actually going and not what you've read on here, in the papers and from 'ITKs'? Wait till you know the full story. They sacked Allardyce for one thing, and they had no one lined up at this crucial stage of the season. I couldn't give a s*** what the ITKs and SSN has said, i've slagged SSN off aplenty since Wednesday. But the above reasons qualify my statement imo. Apologies for annoying you so. Crucial stage of the season? How do you figure? We're short on numbers, have money to spend, and it's the transfer window. It's halfway through the season and we're 7 points away from the bottom three, 8 points away from the top eight, and it's a make or break stage imo. Obviously we could, and probably will, just end up in mid-table but i can sympathise with those who questioned the timing of all these events. I dunno, I just see us finishing mid-table regardless tbh. Our fixture list is an absolute bastard from here on in so Top 6 is definitely out, relegation is much more likely and I really can't see us playing any worse than we did under Sam tbh so changing managers won't effect us adversely there. Also worth noting that's it's been three days since Sam left, not like we're floating around in limbo for weeks on end, which would be a concern. Get the new man in, he can evaluate the players between now and the end of the year and know what needs to be done in the summer.

Can't put into words how annoying these sort of statements are. Exactly what do you know about whats actually going and not what you've read on here, in the papers and from 'ITKs'? Wait till you know the full story. They sacked Allardyce for one thing, and they had no one lined up at this crucial stage of the season. I couldn't give a s*** what the ITKs and SSN has said, i've slagged SSN off aplenty since Wednesday. But the above reasons qualify my statement imo. Apologies for annoying you so. Crucial stage of the season? How do you figure?

What time does this kick-off? I actually haven't got a clue. Late game?

Some of the vitriol being spewed towards Ashley and Mort is nothing short of a disgrace, if you ask me. They got rid of an average (and that's being very kind) manager who was taking us nowhere, and because they haven't immediately installed a vastly better manager in a completely smooth manner all of a sudden they're muppets who don't know what they're doing. Have a word FFS.

I think if there was a poll asking if you'd suck off Mourinho if he'd become manager... well, there'd be interesting results. Add in a stipulation that he wins the league title for us within five years and get that poll up man.

Not always, as history has shown. And Chelsea have shown that it can sometimes. Sorry, don't understand what you are saying. Can you rephrase that? He means that Jose wasn't Chelsea's first choice, I think.

Thread being widely discredited here.

He will be yes, almost certainly. What sort of nut-job opens a poll at 4 in the morning mind you.

I'm finding all the mass hysteria a bit funny in all honesty. You'd swear we'd just appointed Souness again or something the way some people are going on. Can anyone really tell me that Sam Allardyce is in any way a significantly better bet than Harry Redknapp to build us a side capable of challenging for the Top 6? The general consensus for some time has been that Newcastle need to find a manager and properly back him and give him the time to build a good team. To me it's quite clear that Ashley just doesn't trust Sam to spend any significant money in rebuilding the team, and if that's the case then it makes absolutely no business sense for Ashley to invest in a man in whom he does not believe. I'd rather he get his own man in now, at least it may be an indication that he's not content to just let this season float by aimlessly, he wants to start improving things now. We'd have all loved to get Mourinho or Lippi in, but that's not exactly easy to do no matter what some people seem to believe. Once you get outside the really top class candidates like that, everyone is a risky appointment. Your best bet is to make your pick and back him until you feel that maybe he's taken you as far as he can. Ashley now has HIS man, the first real test for him is now whether he backs him or not. If anything maybe this will remove some of the Superman image that some people seem to have of Ashley, as if he's some sort of magical angel sent to lead us to our rightful promised land of glory after the tyranny of the evil Shepherd. He's just another chairman at the end of the day. Furthermore, people declaring this to be a 'Massive Sidestep' need to think about what exactly a sidestep is. Doesn't really matter how far sideways you step tbph, you're still the same distance from where you want to be. We have a manager the chairman wants now, one who is every bit as capable/uncapable as Sam of taking us where we want to be. Only crucial difference is that the chairman will back this man, or at least we would hope so.

Dave called... He gonna lock this shit!!