tmonkey

O'Neill, Moyes, Hughes, Bruce, etc etc. All much of a muchness, and none of them are any better than Hughton. None of them can coach or build a team into playing good, entertaining football, it's all about hard work, getting stuck in, getting players who are a physical threat, and buying enough average players with Premiership/top flight experience to ensure the squad isn't too exposed after a few injuries. Had we given Hughton time and a reasonable amount of money to replace substandard dross like Smith, Xisco, Lovenkrands, Best, Guthrie, etc etc, he'd probably have achieved what they did. 100% wrong. Otherwise, completely stunned at this news. Within context, I would disagree. Compared to what Keegan and Sir Bobby built for us, with all due respect your best team under Moyes doesn't come close in terms of attacking football. The team Moyes has now has been decent for years now, but nothing beyond above average. And I recall his first few years with yourselves (one was near relegation was it not?) involved putting out a team that essentially kicked players off the park at times, similar to Sparky's Blackburn, until he eventually put together a decent group of players who could match some footballing ability with the aggression. Where did I say our football matched Keegan's or SBR's? The point is, he has done exactly what you said he didn't: built up a team gradually, with good coaching and management, a relative lack of funds, into a team that plays pretty good football. I rate him above all the managers in your original post. I appreciate what you're saying, and certainly I'd agree that Moyes is the best out of that small list I named. But I can't agree that your team plays "pretty good football" because to state the obvious it's a subjective statement based on what you consider to be "good football". The bar I'm setting for that is what we've seen under the likes of Keegan and Sir Bobby, hence why I mentioned their teams. I mean, we could say the same about Hughton, that we've played good football now and again under him (the game against yourselves, with Ben Arfa's goal, being a good example of that), or others like West Brom or Blackpool could say the same about their respective teams based on what their managers have achieved with minute resources (they do play good football given the teams they have). The point I was making is that this standard of "good football" you've enjoyed under Moyes isn't all that hard to achieve for us, in fact even with our current squad we can play just as well as your side can but lack the consistency to be able to do so due to a lack of depth and some serious dross sitting on the bench. Had Hughton been given more time to reinforce the squad, just like Moyes has had, there would be very little in between the standard and attractiveness/attacking ability your team has right now under Moyes and what we would have had. Hence why I'd lump Moyes in with those other managers.

O'Neill, Moyes, Hughes, Bruce, etc etc. All much of a muchness, and none of them are any better than Hughton. None of them can coach or build a team into playing good, entertaining football, it's all about hard work, getting stuck in, getting players who are a physical threat, and buying enough average players with Premiership/top flight experience to ensure the squad isn't too exposed after a few injuries. Had we given Hughton time and a reasonable amount of money to replace substandard dross like Smith, Xisco, Lovenkrands, Best, Guthrie, etc etc, he'd probably have achieved what they did. 100% wrong. Otherwise, completely stunned at this news. Within context, I would disagree. Compared to what Keegan and Sir Bobby built for us, with all due respect your best team under Moyes doesn't come close in terms of attacking football, it's only decent at best, hence why I'd seperate him from managers who can, and have, put together very good "footballing" teams. The team Moyes has now has been decent for years now, but nothing beyond above average. And I recall his first few years with yourselves (one was near relegation was it not?) involved putting out a team that essentially kicked players off the park at times (with Phil Neville leading by example), similar to Sparky's Blackburn, until he eventually put together a decent group of players who could match some footballing ability with the aggression.

O'Neill, Moyes, Hughes, Bruce, etc etc. All much of a muchness, and none of them are any better than Hughton. None of them can coach or build a team into playing good, entertaining football, it's all about hard work, getting stuck in, getting players who are a physical threat, and buying enough average players with Premiership/top flight experience to ensure the squad isn't too exposed after a few injuries. Had we given Hughton time and a reasonable amount of money to replace substandard dross like Smith, Xisco, Lovenkrands, Best, Guthrie, etc etc, he'd probably have achieved what they did.

Fucking hell, imagine if we have JFK back again.

Absolutely disgraceful. Nailed on to be relegated now.

...in the Championship.

Why is he so fucking slow? At this age?

A manager would be making changes when things aren't working! Shearer were good at spotting what was wrong and instantly made a sub or tried to fix it Shearer stuck with Butt and Nolan in the middle, absolutely the worst central midfield partnership in the history of the league (both panting after 20 minutes). Dropped Jonas and threw Guthrie on the wing on top of that, taking of an OK winger and the only source of pace in the team for an out of position, slow, useless central midfielder.

He really isn't. He looks like a faster version of Ronaldinho.

Thomas is class.

Nice on Lovenkrands.

Jonas had flashbacks of being Moses in a previous life there. Was expecting the defenders and goalkeeper to part like the Red Sea. Pathetic.

Get your facts right. That wasn't Jonas Gutierrez, that was Josep Guardiola.

Hopefully a bollocking from Hughton will raise our game entirely.

Still utterly frustrating in the way his thickness/complacency as a footballer breaks down so many moves.

Either a 2-1 defeat for them, or a 2-1 win for us. Nothing else is impossible.

He's done alright for someone tasting Premiership football for the first time (I think). As a backup centreback, would say he's definitely better than others we've brought in in the past (Rozenhal, Cacapa, Onyewu, Craig Moore). If he can iron out the overly blatant holding/grabbing issues, he'll be well worth keeping hold of for at least 5 years assuming reasonable wages.

Has this been posted already? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/9206710.stm

He's easily top four "squad player" material. But that's on current form. This is NUFC we're talking about, plenty of time for us to ruin him after a good breakthrough season.

Williamson looks at times like he was coached on how to defend by Bassong. I.e. let the opposition striker get half a yard on you, then grab every ounce of shirt you can before the world runs out of them. Bearhug if the shirt isn't an option.

We could do with a few Turkey adverts on this forum like, what with Christmas coming up. That lady has two of them in those bags.

http://www.redcafe.net/f7/andy-carroll-306115/index4.html If they want to give us Berbatov and a cool £10m, then no problem...

It was a case of pure retribution dished out by the fists of justice. Images stolen from a Pacquiao forum btw

Having never attended a La Liga or Serie A match, I can only judge by what I see/hear on the TV. However, I've also watched Premier League games on the telly on top of being to many, so I can make a comparison of some sorts. And the comparison I would make is that from what I can hear on the telly, the atmopshere just sounds kinda s*** in La Liga/Serie A games compared to what we have in the Premiership/UK. It's a different type of crowd altogether almost. Granted, in Italy there is an issue with many stadiums being extremely poor for matchday fans, but in Spain it often sounds like the entire stadium is filled with tennis spectators (i.e. the type who'll sit down and be silent, then clap and cheer on cue). Contrast that to over here, where fans as a whole seem to view both singing in unison and antagonising the opposition fans as a requirement (it's better with away fans of course). Apologies if I'm wrong, I'm not denying ignorance on the matter or that audio levels on the TV isn't a great way of trying to judge the atmosphere in foreign countries, or that there aren't exceptions (e.g. "El Classico", dull Premiership games where fans are quiet, etc), and I'm guessing the matchday atmosphere in those other countries is more fun than I'm giving credit for, but it does strongly come across as being at a lower key, so I'm sure I'm not alone in this opinion. Furthermore, many players themselves refer to this difference in atmosphere/crowd noise levels, especially ones coming from abroad (e.g. didn't Figo say St James' was the loudest match he ever played in when Barca come over here?), although admittedly that might just be a cliche some of them (the new imports) are conforming to just to get on the right side of their new supporters. So this is one major positive factor the Premiership has for me in terms of attractiveness which Serie A/La Liga lacks. If the atmosphere is dull, games become alot less interesting - I probably wouldn't even watch football if all games were playing in empty stadiums for example, as spectating the sport without the crowd and the passion is nearly as dull as watching American baseball sober. Other leagues in other nations do have the vibrant, loud, vociferous, aggressive matchday crowds that the Premier League has (SPL, Bundesliga, Turkey, etc), but in terms of star/world class players, those leagues are all a few steps down from the Premiership (naturally due to money). E.g. take Robben out of Bayern, and there's no real big name left in Germany apart from a few decent/good German internationals or the odd good foreign player (e.g. Lahm, Dzeko, Diego). Whereas over here you have Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Spurs, etc, all littered with top class players and top internationals from various nations. This is probably why I enjoy knockout CL games involving British teams so much, especially ones where a top team like Barca, Madrid or Milan come over and spank assholes like ManU or Chelsea off the pitch (jealousy btw). Not only are the fans shitting themselves with the tension of facing someone significantly better on the deck but yet whom they hope/expect to beat because they're just about good enough to pull it off, but they're also singing their hearts out and trying their best to influence the referee in every decision, a combination that leads to an atmosphere where you can actually hear what the collective fans are feeling. When an opposition goal goes in, the silence is deafening. It's class.