tmonkey

In a pointless bid to justify why many of us wanted him appointed at the time (i.e. save face), in addition to the earlier point raised that we had appointed Fat Sam a few months after his Bolton side had finished 7th (whilst playing OK football for that era), I'd like to add: 1) That given how tiny Bolton were, he was essentially unproven from our point of view. He had done well with very little money in some seasons, having to work with Bosmans and players in the twilights of their careers, so it was only natural to assume that he might do even better if given a solid transfer kitty, which he duly received when appointed. Unfortunately the bellend thought the likes of Smith would be great purchases. 2) It's also easy to forget that one of the main arguments in favor of his appointment was his "scientific" approach to fitness. At that point in time iirc we were the worst club in the Premiership for players picking up injuries, something that had gotten out of hand given how often key players and first teamers were on and off the treatment table. I remember newspaper articles at the time giving us theories about why our players were frequently picking up injuries, and iirc Souness a few years earlier had tried to do something about it by installing an artificial pitch or something along those lines. Given how advanced Allardyce came across with his "War Room" and mini army of tacticians, the training and diet regimes he boasted about in his interviews, on that front alone appointing Allardyce did seem like a sensible step forward.

I firmly believe that we should sack a manager and move on as soon as it's absolutely clear that they're not capable of coaching a pass-and-move style of play, especially if they have the right set of players to be able to play that way (and with Pardew, it's gone beyond "absolutely clear"). Otherwise we're just wasting valuable time and missing opportunities to hire up and coming talented managers with progressive ideas.

Allardiced. Will be interesting to hear what his excuses will be.

We need a picture of Fat Sam's face for that second goal.

Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle Newcastle 2 - 1 Blackburn Brighton 1 - 0 Newcastle Brighton 2 - 0 Newcastle Newcastle 1 - 2 Cardiff Seriously depressing list. Almost makes you think the prick is doing it on purpose. There are still 11 players on the pitch who could try to win even if Pardew said to them they should lose it.... Why do we need football managers in this game again? Whose bright idea was it? Think of the savings in $$ if we just didn't have one! 11 players on the pitch and a captain to boot -- it's just like cricket. Lets go even further. These are professional athletes paid to practice football every day. Why even have a coaching team? Why hold training sessions? They should be able to organize training themselves.

What an idiotic challenge. Absolutely deserved red card, that's a fucking leg breaker.

Amilfitano thinks he's Garrincha.

Did they really play decent football? I can't remember that bit. I remember trying to bully sides in europe and being humped, as much by the referees as the opposition. That's when Sams reputation went down the shitter for me. It proved he was totally clueless. To some extent, yeah they did. Anelka was probably a major factor in that, as once he started to play well they started to keep the ball on the deck more and play around him, and they had decent footballers in Djouf, that bald Greek fella, Speed, and a few others who I can't remember. Only saw a handful of their games mind.

To be fair, iirc this thread was made around the time his Bolton side had finished 7th when they had just started to play decent football (to the casual observer), which was an impressive feat for them.

We certainly had the rub of the green to get into that position and things weren't looking good at all on 40 minutes, but as I said earlier on you can only beat what's in front of you and we did that with aplomb, so good stuff. I'm watching MOTD and Shearer and Savage are both saying we were lucky to get all the decisions we did yesterday, not sure what their N-O usernames are but they're as manic-depressive Pardew-haters as anyone else on here going by the logic you're applying. Well if 'try too hard to be impartial' Shearer and 'wind up merchant' Savage said it how can anyone argue? I'd prefer to go on what I saw, neither of the sendings off were harsh and we could have had a few more decisions go our way but Atkinson basically felt sorry for them knowing there was no way back. Neither of the sendings off were harsh, but that doesn't change the fact that we were lucky to be playing Stoke on the day Whelan decided he wanted a bath after 40 minutes. You don't have to be a recipient of dodgy decisions to enjoy good fortune. When is anyone not lucky? That time Cabaye catches it just right, Krul dives at just the right time, the linesman gets the difficult decision spot on, the opposition players get sent off for stupid tackles etc.. How you've got the stones to call my post desperate and then follow up with s**** like this, I'll never know. Good footballing technique and officiating is the same as an opposition player talking himself into getting sent off and us benefitting massively from it? Cracking stuff. Just give it up man. A team winning because the opposition gets someone rightly sent off being deemed as luck. Aye, right I'm the one full of s**** you will find a hell of a lot more people agreeing with you on RTG fella, we are always lucky according to them. You're completely ignoring the context though (it's almost as if the score is the only thing that matters?). That Whelan sending off wasn't your normal run of the mill red card, and you know it. He actively got himself a red when it could have been avoided and it was a massive turning point in the game, a game which we were second best in up until that point. We were lucky it happened. I don't know how many different ways I/others can put across that point of view. You're not an idiot, I've read your posts for years so I know that. Just seems like you totally overreacted to my initial post and you haven't got the balls to admit it. Balls to admit what? We clearly have different interpretations to what luck is, to me it isn't the fact they made poor decisions. That is how most football games are won or lost. Luck is a freak course of action like the Sunderland beach ball thing I mentioned previously. You've said we were unlucky not to win against Southampton, which freak event do you put that down to then? http://i.imgur.com/tCp90.gif

Absolutely desperate now for Suarez to score nothing and assist nothing.

Captained Lukaku.

Smashing.

Hatem

Even against 9 men Santon refuses to cross with his left peg.

Gouff

50 pence piece head. Absolutely no idea where the ball will go.

2 harsh yellow cards. 1 very debateable red card - a penalty and yellow would have been fair. Stoke down to 9 men. Ref completely ignores a blatant handball that would have put 9 men Stoke counter attacking from our missed penalty clean through on goal. Remy then scores a deflected goal (3rd deflected goal in the month) where the bounce from the deflection beats the keeper. Luckiest manager alive

Pretty shit imo. We're not getting enough players forward, we're passing it around alright from the back to the deep central midfielders then lumping it forward aimlessly/shooting wildly once we're close to the final 3rd. Sissoko having a mare isn't helping. Stoke looked the better side and more dangerous. Ultimately we're set up like a Pardew side, i.e. we're effectively trying to counter attack the opposition at home.

Class

This ref

2 of the harshest yellows

We're passing it nicely from the back four to midfield. It's from midfield to forward where we're rushing things needlessly. A bit of patience and more buildup/men forward would be great.

Sissoko getting cocky.