Shak

We're looking at overhauling the entire structure of the club this summer. Massive changes to both the playing and coaching staff. Next season I expect we'll draw a lot of games. We'll be hard to beat but may struggle at times to click going forward. Top half of the table will do me, pushing for Europe will be a bonus and we should be capable of it. But I'll have a lot more patience under Allardyce as I feel we'll be able to see what he's trying to achieve, whereas with Souness and Roeder you never got the sense there was any long term plan in place. Patience is key, though tbh I will be disappointed if we end up in the bottom half.

sheep hahah. if wed won 3-0 there would have been 40,000 left clapping. I bet he wouldn't. I sat beside him, didn't seem like the clapping type did Bluf.

That's as much as we can hope for I expect.

Can't beat his man? That's complete and utter rubbish tbh.

You know the pair of fat twats would have ended up scrapping over the last spam fritter. Thats why The Fat Man employed Roeder. He knew the little pinchy-faced cockney could be sent down to Greggs without fear of him eating all the pasties on the way back. "Glenn Roeder doesn't eat other people's pasties."

Really can't see what's so bad about it tbh.

Things went fine until there was a real crisis point (Alkmaar) and then they just crumbled. Situations like that are where good managers stand apart from the rest and keep the team behind them. Roeder couldn't do it, obviously. Good read.

Guivarc'h To be fair we had him signed before the World Cup. Once he had it won you could see he wanted to go to one of the top teams and leagues in the world, once Rangers came in it was only a matter of time.

You make it sound like we're a bad prospect. He's won the World Cup, yeah, and fair play to him. But what has that got to do with anything? Name some better prospects for him this summer then if he wants to get into club management?

Hoping to get there for the NFL game in the autumn, love to see what it's like.

Presuming Allardyce gets the job (which isn't by any means near certain) I would imagine that more often than not we'll be utilising the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. Losing Owen looks more and more likely, he's only got two years left on his deal and we'll be losing him for nothing then, so I'd assume we'll be looking at spending the money we get from him on a focal point for our attack, ala Drogba or Kevin Davies. After that, it'll be key we get someone to play in the hole just off our target man, as Lampard does at Chelsea. However, could this be a role which Milner might be better suited to? In a 4-5-1 you look for your wingers to be very pacey so they can get at the full-backs 1 on 1. I think Milner could be effective in one of those roles, probably on the left as it happens due to his lack of pace and how good a shot he has cutting inside. But he may be better through the middle. He's direct, can run at defences and has an ever improving shot. With a role in the middle you can definitely see him hitting double figures for goals. His first touch is good and he's quite a smart player as well so it could definitely be an option. Or should we leave him on the wings?

He says as he presses the 'Post Comment' button. Anyway, what Wullie is likely trying to say is that Duff is more or less a waste of space and the only harm this really does us is that now there's no chance some other club will be stupid enough to try and get him off of us. Shame really.

No, they'll find a way to exclude N'Zogbia yet. If this way includes Luque then i am find with it.. Be nice, in an ironic sort of way, to give him a good send-off I suppose.

No, they'll find a way to exclude N'Zogbia yet.

With Mourinho, Fergie, Wenger, Benitez, Jol or Moyes not looking like they are going anywhere surely we are the best prospect for any would be prem manager? No? I would say so, yes. And I kind of did tbh. Depends on how soon Scolari wants to move into club management though. He might fancy one more major tournament with Portugal then look for a new job next summer, but even then there's not a whole lot of chance that any club particularly more attractive than us in England will be looking for a manager, barring takeovers. Mourinho could leave, but I don't see them going for Big Phil.

I'm happy with Allardyce if he comes because he would fix a lot of things which are the roots of our problems. I reckon he'd have us progress very steadily. But Scolari would be an altogether different level of manager, with him in charge I firmly believe we could be looking at challenging for Top 4 within a couple of years. Very good manager by all accounts. Not entirely impossible it'll happen either, as I can imagine he'd be looking at managing in either England or Spain at some point and we're one of the better prospects here outside the Top 4.

What an awful team. Doubt more than a couple of them lot have any sort of long term future in the national side. Surely Milner is better than Whittingham though.

Shite use of tense tbh. God what I'd give for us to have given Bobby the money that summer we spent nothing that we gave to Souness in that summer he spent a fortune.

I'd say it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time.

Yes and no. Its all comparative for me. In comparison to the last two managers, and our current (justified) league position, he's a good choice. In comparison to where we WANT to be in the league, who we could maybe get if we took the effort to go and seek a good manager from across europe, and delivered to him a plan of the future (non playing aspecvts) of the club, and the resources and support he would get over the next 3-5 years, then he is a bad choice. Bearing in mind the fact that our chairman is short-sighted and ineffective when it comes to the football side of running the club, he's the easy, safe choice. My fear in that is that the safe choice is not always the best one*. * I am also scared of the size of his head. Who would you be happy with as manager then, out of those we could realistically hope to get? Not that I can picture you being happy, don't think I've ever seen it on here.

Gonna stick with that avatar for a while then?

Fantastic if true.

He's played 7 full games this season, and in terms of minutes played about the equivalent of 11 or 12 full games. Hardly a whole lot of chances is it?

My opinion summed up. He's hardly played this season though.