tmonkey

It's terrible to think if he could pass, cross and shoot as good as Milner we'd have stayed up. It's terrible to think if we hadn't sold Milner we'd have stayed up. Milner had end product? No-one said that when he was actually here, he was another one not good enough to replace Robert/Solano. He had a lot more than Jonas. I was all for Milner staying, really wanted him to develop his central role and said so for about two years before his departure. Milner was one of the players contributing to us playing s*** and looking like relegation material during Allardyce's tenure/Keegan's early games. Soon as he was out of the team, along with a few others, we played much better. and got relegated. We weren't relegated when Keegan's team started to play good football as soon as Milner was injured and Smith/Duff were dropped. The shambles that happened last season, in terms of on-pitch performances, has nothing to do with not having Milner, but instead having s*** managers/owners once Keegan walked.

It's terrible to think if he could pass, cross and shoot as good as Milner we'd have stayed up. It's terrible to think if we hadn't sold Milner we'd have stayed up. Milner had end product? No-one said that when he was actually here, he was another one not good enough to replace Robert/Solano. He had a lot more than Jonas. I was all for Milner staying, really wanted him to develop his central role and said so for about two years before his departure. Milner was one of the players contributing to us playing shit and looking like relegation material during Allardyce's tenure/Keegan's early games. Soon as he was out of the team, along with a few others, we played much better.

The sad thing is that I'd rather have Nicky Butt starting than Kevin Nolan. At least Butt doesn't hide, no matter how shit he is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4-Sfl74v5Q&feature=related

Full Italian international.

Makes perfect sense that ManU would at least consider him, always has done since it was clear he was going to leave on a free. It's easy to see him being viewed by Sir Alex as another cheap Sheringham/Larsson/Solskjaer squad striker, an intelligent, experienced player who'll fill in for others and chip in with a few goals here and there.

At least if Freddy takes over soon, we can start signing players straight away and sorting out a few contracts. I dont think Shepherd is someone who'll be balancing the books as soon as he comes in, he'll be more inclined to say "f*** the overdraft, fuck the wage bill, if we're back in the Premiership next season we'll immediately write off the debt created this season, so lets do it. Get me the best quote for a £50m loan now". If we can sign someone like Frazier Campbell as a star Championship signing in amongst several other youngsters, and keep some of Bassong/Beye/Taylor/Jonas, we'll have a big, big chance of bouncing straight back up. In fact, with Freddie and his acceptance of racking up debt in order to keep star players at the club, I'd be confident that we'll trounce the Championship and be straight back in the Premiership for 2010/11.

Blackburn aren't Allardyce's NUFC though. Allardyce's strikeforce at the time of leaving was Owen and Smith, one a player he couldn't drop due to reputation and the other his favourite signing who he dropped only once in 28 or so games. Together they were the shittest, slowest, weakest, least inspiring strikeforce we've ever had in the Premiership, and coupled with Big Sam's defensive, play for a draw against all opposition tactics, we were an awful side playing awful football who weren't picking up results despite having a very forgiving fixture list in the first half of the season. At Blackburn, Allardyce has had big Christopher Samba to lump up front for them, a cheap get-out clause that enabled his team to play in the familiar "lump it to Davies' head lads" style he had at Bolton. We didn't have a Christopher Samba, that option wasn't there for us as Allardyce hadn't banked on needing someone like that, so the closest thing we had to a tall penalty-box player who could win headers aggressively and cause defenders physical problems is Shola Ameobi. We'd have gone down with Allardyce for sure, and the only reason we didn't was because he was thankfully sacked and his replacement somehow turned that shower of s**** squad into a pretty efficient side by dropping Owen into midfield and getting the players to play the ball on the deck.

Postives: - Ambition in the playing staff: Understands that every top side is built around a star attacking player, and will seek to purchase a player of this calibre. - Experience: Will know what he's doing he's done it for a decade. - Fan of Shearer: He'll not be undermining this manager, as not only is Shearer too big a personality, but Shepherd seemed to hero-worship him like many regular fans. Negatives: - Too numerous to bother with. Meh, at least he's better than Llambias and we'll have a good chance of getting back into the Premiership sometime soon. Definitely not happy about it though, just because we've found someone worse than Shepherd doesn't mean he's the only fish in the sea.

Prefer Everton's model the best. Villa, not really sure about lumping them in with Everton. I don't know the extent to which they've spent their cash so may be wrong here, but I've had the impression that they've spent heavily since Lerner's takeover, more than they would have been able to afford previously. Therefore they're being funded by a billionaire and aren't really operating like Everton, i.e. within their means. Granted they've not been anything like as horrid as Chelsea/City who've gone out and bought players way above their station by offering ridiculous fees and ridiculous wages, including buying players that they don't need/want purely to prevent the competition from landing them, but still, the ideal is that all clubs should be spending money that they earn or have access to on account of the revenues they produce, rather than having some super rich guy take over and bankroll them to unearnt/undeserved success.

Whatever his reason for saying it, he's hardly been proved wrong has he. “They have a lot of potential and money to spend, but no genuine vision on how to run a club or create conditions to ensure success,” he explained. Pretty much spot on for both the Shepherd regime and the Ashley/Llambias regime.

It's not based on what he says though. We know for a fact that Souness wanted Anelka and Boa Morte, Souness practically baited Anelka as best as he could through the media. It was also clear that Souness favoured the 4-3-3 system, and wanted Anelka/Morte for that system. As for the Owen bid, that was clearly entirely Shepherd, and I can't see it being any other way. He wanted a big name, big money, long term replacement for Shearer, he wanted the best England had to offer, so he went for Rooney first and foremost, and when that failed, he used the same funds a year later to sign Owen. Souness by that time had been told Anelka was a no-go as Fenerbahce had rejected our no-doubt derisory bid. It was compeltely obvious at the time what happened here without any need for Souness' eventual confirmation of the undermining that occurred.

Another agent trying to shift s*** has-beens onto the one club gullible enough to not only buy players based on reputations from 3+ years ago, but also offer them contracts that reflect what they used to be. No doubt the agent is pissed off at not having this easy option of making a small fortune by lumbering NUFC with s*** that noone else remotely values compared to us. "Top quality player with CL experience on a Bosman"...most likely the guy isn't even close to top quality (anymore) if he wants to sign for us when we're in the f***ing Championship with no manager and a s*** squad. And he's on a Bosman, so how s*** must he be if we're a likely destination? As for backing the managers, yeah right, we all saw how the managers' list of players fell through the window because they weren't worth the asking price whenever Shepherd thought there was a better alternative. Wonder if this is an attempt to suck up to Shepherd before he takes over, or if he's just a "mate" who enjoyed having Shepherd happily taking has-beens off his hands. Really hope it's the latter.

"There were no dissenters back then". The man lives on his own planet, a planet where everyone has one voice and that voice is in complete agreement with him.

Frazier Campbell.

As a guess, the Italian/Spanish parts may have been solely directed at Ancelotti and Benitez.

Didn't think anyone was sold behind his back? The issue was that after Milner's sale, Keegan had publicly stated that fans should wait until the window closed before judging his transfer acumen, i.e. that he had a plan and was looking to sign several other players. Immediately after the window closed, he resigned because we signed players he didn't want and missed out on those he did want. One of whom we know to be Kamil Zayate, who we were in for at the time of the window closing and who afterwards is quoted as saying that Keegan wanted him but the board didn't.

Keegan would be my first choice as our next manager providing what you've alluded to didn't happen, i.e. that he walked because he was undermined by Wise/Llambias without there being any truth in the "Madness of King Kev" story where he wanted Henry, Ronaldinho, Lampard, and whoever else was mentioned. Not too fussed about Messiah talk, "never go back" theories, his reputation of being a "serial walker", and anything else irrelevant/unsubstantiated. The bottom line with Keegan is that he took a woefully shit team from Allardyce, a team that couldn't pass the ball to save it's life, a team that had no shape or system, and without any signings had them playing decent to good football and winning games in a unique system tailored to get the best out of specific players. To be able to do that suggets, nay proves, that he's still a very good manager indeed. A manager who by his managerial skills alone can turn a shit team/squad into a pretty decent one would be invaluable right now.

2-0, Milner. Quality run from Walcott.

Xisco, a.k.a. the Keegan Killer, is on.

Campbell has looked decent all game, good hold up play, good movement/positioning, decent touch and physique.

Quality goal from Frazier Campbell.

Spain look toothless in the final third.

Milner

Justifying City's purchase of Given.