tmonkey

Agree that Viduka is a good player, and with Allardyce as manager theres good reason to sign a good player on a free. But im still suspicious of him, mainly because he seems the type of waster that would hit form when a lucrative Bosman is around the corner. Make no mistake about it, he knows this is his last big money move - as a Bosman hell get high wages and signing on fees, and its no doubt his last "long" term contract deal he'll get offered as in a few years time he'll either retire or become a journeyman player, and hence you possibly have the reasons/motivation for his improved fitness record and form this term. Who knows, maybe hes completely misunderstood and will turn out to be a great signing for whoever lands him ala Kanu for Pompey this season, but taking into account our luck with wasters who have come here to bleed the club dry and leave whilst giving us nothing in return, I think there are valid reasons to want to look elsewhere, despite him being a good player in great form at the moment. Again though, theres probably noone better than Allardyce to get the best out of this type of player.

Aye, 17 goals in a s*** team in his first season in English football -utter gash. Hes not a natural finisher though. Hes shown on plenty of occassions that he can be very hesitant when through on goal. Hes got 17 goals because hes extremely talented, but he has less than he could have because hes frustratingly inconsistent with poor decision making at times.

Making me cringe. She is awful. A Sue Barker type voice would be acceptable, this isnt for me.

Sidwell having a medical at Chelsea makes it even more likely that we will sign him. A year or two later of course. Chelsea are probably signing him specifically with the view of selling him on a year later to us for something like £6mill, having paid a few mill in wages. If things go well, maybe theyll get an inflated price if he gets picked for England or they make him look better than he is when he plays in the odd easy fixture or Carling Cup game.

Hes going to screw us over one way or the other. If he doesnt go now, hell be going on a free in two years time after giving us plenty of anonymous games and spells on the treatment table in between. Get rid and replace with someone who will do a job for us, not for England.

Baines looks a better defender to me. With Allardyce in charge however, maybe we should go back in for Sorin, who he nearly signed and only turned Bolton down because they wouldnt meet his 35k pw wage demands. Although young, promising English players should be prioritised over foreign players of similar ability and price, Sorin is a better defender, a better footballer, far more experienced, and is alot stronger in the air than Baines or Shorey, and probably wont cost as much, despite being captain of Argentina.

Short/selective memory. Owen was frequently injured for us long before breaking any bones. Owen's first injury, the metatarsal, was half way through the first season, begining of Jan, when he had made just over half a dozen starts for us in something like 30+ games. It needs to be remembered that many of us were getting pissed off at just how often his return from an injury coincided with an England game looming on the horizon - regardless of whether it was more than a mere coincidence, its a myth to suggest that hes merely been unlucky from freak injuries. Hes been unlucky to break bones, yes, but hes a crock who has been unlucky to break bones.

I personally doubt that he lost the players in the way this article suggests after the Alkmaar defeat. As soon as the Alkmaar game was over, several senior players came out and stated categorically that "there is nothing left to play for". They believed the season was over after that game, and some of them have lost all motivation. I remember fuming at Dyer after reading his statement that the season was over, and ignoring the fact that Given had said the same thing, and I had good reason to - Dyer as we know is an unprofessional player, a player who will put in poor performances if hes not happy (eg Norwich at home last season iirc, criminal performance by a spoilt brat), whereas Given is in the Speed mould psychologically, utterly professional, always giving his best. Point is, this has always been a problem for Roeder from the start - he is unable to motivate. In too many games last we came out for the first half completely unmotivated and having to turn the game around after a half-time bollocking. Sunderland at the Stadium of Light for example, and a few others that I have now forgotten. This has been seen throughout most of this season. Weve only looked a motivated side when the players have motivated themselves - namely the big games. Hence, if you combine this with poor tactics and an inability to drop his favourites reminiscent of Sven Goran (Carr, Duff, Parker, etc) as well as complete cock-ups in two transfer windows where he failed to bring in the players all of us knew we needed - defenders along with another forward - I dont think the Alkmaar result was anything like the turning point being made out in this article. In short, weve been shiite all along under Roeder.

I would like toi see how he plays in a B&W shirt under decent management and coaching. I am not his biggest fan but I think a better manager would get some more out of him than we have seen so far In other words, we need a better manager than Mourinho and a better side than title winning Chelsea to see an improvement in Duff's form.

So you know for certain it has nothing to do with wanting to have a more active footballing role, missing the day to day feeling of being out on the pitch coaching the players, having the ability to sign, sell and develop his own players, the enjoyment of competition on a weekly basis as opposed to every two years, in one of the most demanding, most attractive, most lucrative, leagues in the world at present. It has to be for the money, no other reason.

Brazil played 3 at the back in the 2002 World Cup. 3 at the back, 3 up front. Great team, and the previous World Cup showed how having X amount of big name flair players doesnt mean the manager is going to get anything like the best out of them. Portugal are forced to play 5 in midfield because they have shiite strikers and too many attacking midfielders brimming with class. In the last WC, he could have had any of Ronaldo, Simao, Figo, Deco, Rui Costa, Quaresma, etc, on the pitch had he wanted, with only the likes of Nuno Gomes, Pauletta, and that Spurs reject (Helder something) as striking options - huge disparity in class there. Yet hes reached the final of the EC and semi's of the WC, so clearly hes not doing much wrong despite being severely handicapped in the striking selections. Class manager, and looking at the successes that Mourinho and Benitez have been, along with Wenger, and even Sir Alex to an extent (none of them have managed in the Premiership prior to being appointed), whilst on the other end of the spectrum the failures that have been Dalglish, Gullitt, Roeder and Souness (all of them with Premiership experience), im not so sure experience of managing in the Premiership should be a prerequisite at all.

Signed alot of shiite at Pool, had them playing poor football, lost the plot towards the end. Won trophies with them, yes, but im referring to the phase afterwards where Liverpool started to slide instead of improve and he started to look like another useless and derranged manager out of his depth, as weve seen with Roeder. Like Ranieri, hes damaged goods despite the initial success, hes shown hes not able to handle the pressure, so I would hope we go for something better.

Maybe Chelsea are being smart on this one. They know we want him, they know Shepherd is great at buying their rejects (scouting network? Why do we need one, let Chelsea do it for us!!), so why not snap him up on a free, pay him a year's wages whilst hes on a 5 year contract, piss him about in the reserves and give him the odd first team game where hes bound to look good, then flog him to us or Spurs for £6mill? Tidy little profit.

Why would he go to Spurs? He wouldn't but I'd still love to see him playing alongside Berbatov. Even if Levy did stump up the money and MO was happy to move to London, not much chance of fitting Owen into our wages structure! :'( Owen and Berbatov "could" be the best partnership in europe imo...Depending on MO future form Too similar for my liking. Need one of them to drop deep or go wide and give let the other do the poaching, and neither of those players are good at doing one or the other of those. MO and Berbatov too similar? Are you kidding me or have i missed something? Positionally, which is the most important aspect of a partnership. No different to having Van Nistelrooy and Berbatov in the same team.

Why would he go to Spurs? He wouldn't but I'd still love to see him playing alongside Berbatov. Even if Levy did stump up the money and MO was happy to move to London, not much chance of fitting Owen into our wages structure! :'( Owen and Berbatov "could" be the best partnership in europe imo...Depending on MO future form Too similar for my liking. Need one of them to drop deep or go wide and give let the other do the poaching, and neither of those players are good at doing one or the other of those.

Everyone would win if we got good money for him and replaced him with someone far more athletic, and he ends up at a bigger club where he'll get the opportunity to be rested and rotated as he was at Real Madrid. Not sure we are anywhere near the level to afford the luxury of a poacher who does nothing else for the team at a club that isnt in the position to have a good enough rotation of forwards to cover for his potential injury problems. This summer especially is a good time to shop for forwards. Anelka, Tevez, Huntelaar, Pizzaro, must be someone of that calibre we can land, and if not, therell surely be someone like Bent, Saviola or Defoe available for an inflated but nevertheless acceptable price.

The thing is, the Board has appointed managers with better records than Allardyce who have failed and it has been held against Fred. How does this sound... Even if Dalglish fails, people wont be able to hold this appointment against Freddy Shepherd. Even if Gullit fails, people wont be able to hold this appointment against Freddy Shepherd. I can assure you that if Allardyce is appointed and fails people on here will be blaming Fred for another s*** managerial appointment. You couldn't make it up. OK, we give you Dalglish and Gullitt. Good appointments/managers who simply failed. What about Souness and Roeder? Whatever system of thought that Shepherd used to appoint Souness, an appointment which made us a national laughing stock with even the fans of the managers recent club howling in unison, it showed just how out of touch the man can be with the footballing world at times. Clearly, he has it in him to make disasterously bad decisions because the criteria he has for selecting the manager is faulty. If he thought Souness' CV was good on paper, then that was a faulty method of appointing the manager. What about his man management skills, and his ability to manage volatile players who usually happen to be the gifted ones? His success in the transfer market? His use of coaching methods? His tactical nous? His organisational abilities? The standard of backrom staff he requires, and the setup he wants alongside them? None of that will be on a CV, had he looked into those and looked at Souness' failures as well as his success', hed have come to the same conclusion that the rest of the country knew for a fact - Souness is a shiite manager and a big egotistical cunt to boot. And then you have Roeder. A manager with a track record of relegation. Whilst the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea are appointing managers who have won trophies like the CL, UEFA Cup, La Liga, etc, we appoint a manager who has, for whatever reasons, taken down 3 small clubs at significantly lower levels, and never managed a side in Europe. Shepherd should have known that a good spell as caretaker means nothing, half the people on this forum could have told him that, just like plenty on here who used more common sense than sentiment considered Roeder a shiite appointment and an imminent failure. There can be no excuses for Shepherd with the last 2 managerial appointments. He cocked up, he made serious blunders, he appointed managers that should never even have made the list for potential candidates, and as a result weve suffered and gone backwards. Nor can he be excused for undermining Sir Bobby Robon various times during his successful stint here as manager up until his daft sacking. Hopefully, this appointment will be where he redeems himself as chairman. I dont think anyone would care much if he was using the club to line his own pockets to a degree as long as there is success on the pitch.

Great appointment as long as he gets full control of everything football related behind the scenes. Give him the funding required for improvements in the training facilities and technology, room in the wage budget to appoint the 20-30 coaches+scouts+fitness staff he requires, let him have the first and final say on who we sign, and everything should be alot rosier for us than in recent seasons. Im only saying this because I dont believe hes the professor of neanderthal footballing style, the next Joe Kinnear, that alot of people are making him out to be. If he had the money, hed have signed Sorin as well as Anelka last summer, two very good footballers with the ball on the deck. Your Joe Kinnears dont do that, if he was a true advocate of long ball, hed have signed someone like Beattie, or some other lump of a forward, and he certainly wouldnt be signing an Argentinian wingback who admittedly is strong in the air, but is fundamentally a good playmaker on the deck and is great at building up the play from deep positions. I think if he had the funding at Bolton, hed have the exact same system, but with significantly better footballers in the team - more Anelkas and Sorins in various positions - and as a result, theyd be a decent footballing side when on form on top of all the solidity and organisation, relying on individual skill to score goals, and a defensive, hard working one when struggling and the attacking "individual" players are off form. As HTT has said a million times over, and its a good point, this is what Chelsea and Liverpool are, and the reason why Bolton played long ball so aggressively until recently is because they dont have an array of international stars and great footballers in all of the key positions like Liverpool and Chelsea do. Providing hes not undermined, this could be the renaissance weve been waiting for. Imagine an organised, disciplined Newcastle side, with a strong defence, but also with some quality attacking players, which our resources should ensure we have (probably have several already if Allardyce can bring the best out of some of the current lot). Hard to imagine, but I can see some rosy times ahead for us if Allardyce can do what he did with Bolton, but with better players due to better funding. Just have to hope that Shepherd doesnt undermine him the way he did Sir Bobby.

Sunday League standard footballers, if that as ive seen some pretty good SL players given that alot of them are talented rejects.

Lets never go for another English or Scottish manager again then based on Roeder and Souness.

Yes, as soon as we install a competent scouting system to rival our rivals, and stop taking the easy route of buying big names on even bigger salaries just because theyre available and "good". The club probably didnt even know who Samba is before he came to these shores, or Vidic, or many of the other talented defenders unknown to us because they arent household names in this country. Sir Bobby stated in his autobiography that Shepherd listens to a few people whos footballing knowledge he "trusts" - hence probably the reason for our non existant scouting network - one of them being Stretford and another no doubt being McKay, so any footballers not on the radar of these agents are probably anonymous to us other than the extremely obvious ones that weve all heard of. Benayoun? To be fair to the lad... Daft way to run the club, and its no wonder that we regularly make shiite signings. Can only hope that Allardyce or someone else can come in and force some degree of competency and efficiency into some departments within the club. Even then, how long before hes undermined by the current lot sitting on their dividends and sunbathing in tropical islands?

Would be sad to see him go, but its good business sense to get some money for him whilst we still can and replacing him with someone alot younger and for free. Sidwell not being anywhere near as good defensively as Butt could be compensated for by improving the central defence.

give him some boots! bring back Shearer! Or better yet, cut his ties from the club and remove the "must make way for Shearer when he decides its time" line from the job description for the next managerical vacancy. Aye, that's why we're in the s***. Not because Souness and Roeder were f****** terrible appointments. The accusation being that they were meant to be seat warmers and that other, better managers werent interested in the vacancy because of someone casting a shadow over that specific job. Im pretty sure a few people within the game have said this, not that it means theres any truth in it or that I believe it to be true - just that it might be. Its a possibility, as is the possibility of us tapping up Allardyce, or City tapping up Allardyce, or noone tapping up Allardyce.

give him some boots! bring back Shearer! Or better yet, cut his ties from the club and remove the "must make way for Shearer when he decides its time" line from the job description for the next managerical vacancy.

Quality free kick from Tevez, the third goal was another example of his excellent vision - the pass just screamed out "volley me, hit me like you hit your wife you cunt" to Noble.