Mick

I'm not bothered about England but they appear to have got something right for a change, it will be interesting times ahead seeing how the players perform under a very good manager.

johnnyphd, The debt wasn't near £100 million it was more than £100 million.

I'd take "his maximum limit" at this moment in time. And his "maximum limit" was the season before his last when he finished 3rd, he finished 3rd then 5th and was then sacked for starting the season the way he had for the previous 2.

Sir Bobby shouldn't have been sacked, he should have been backed. If he'd been backed financially as well as Allardyce has so far then I'm sure he would have done a lot better. Remember, we were 13th the season before he arrived and he took us to European qualification so the money he brought into the club was massive. Sir Bobby spent something like £6 million net per year, Allardyce has been given £10 million so far in 6 months, and Bobby had a net spend of £1 million in his first year. It took Bobby until his second anniversary to get to a net spend of just over £12 million which turned out to be his average net spend. It just goes to show what you can do when you've got a very good manager, you don't have to splash the cash as if it's going to go out of fashion. Sacking Sir Bobby was so short sighted that it defies belief, he was undermined, hung out to dry then sacked only to be replaced by Souness who was seen as a better manager than Robson.

I would agree with that, especially as it was Sir Bobby moaning about having to train down the beach in winter because all of the fields being frozen, he had to fight hard but he got it in the end. I think that fight will help us make a case for naming it after him more than naming a stand after him, not that I'd have a problem with the stand.

How about answering you, you didn't ask a question. I'm not moving any goal posts, I'm pointing out that spending doesn't always work and you seem to think that spending is the way to judge how we're doing as a club. League position doesn't seem to be something that you're too worried about as a measure of success but spending is, you also want to see that Allardyce knows the game and is on the right lines. Did you not think he knew the game before you went on about why we should get him here? I agree that judgements on players should be up to the manager, do you not think that is the case? I know it hasn't always been the case but we've covered that so no point going over it again. I wouldn't be bothered if we lost out on any player because somebody was prepared to pay more than us if the other team was paying more than the player was worth, I guess Liverpool fans feel that way about Michael Owen coming were. I'm not bothered about balancing the books too much if we get value for money.

I want to see signs that Allardyce knows the game and is on the right lines, and the chairman and owner are understanding what it takes to match those top teams that win the trophies. At the moment, I see neither. What would be more of a sign of an improvement, a higher league finish or almost £20 million spent on a Spanish winger and a defender from Rangers?

Where would we have to finish at the end of this season for you to look back on it and be able to think that we've done quite well?

I've got sympathy for anybody who gets stabbed for supporting any team.

I'm not sure a tournament would be something we could arrange so we'd be giving the club a potential massive headache, the academy is something that the club can do without involving anybody outside of the club so it's quite easy to do while being a very good gesture. Think of all of the work we'd have to do without even knowing if we'd be able to achieve our objectives with a tournament. This would be a massive task, even for a club with all of the resources they have.

We could do one thing that would be down to the club with us pestering them and we could also pick the highest one that would be down to us as I would like to do something which was down to us but I didn't vote for it.

They can now. Excellent, I think the possibility of changing it later is a good idea as somebody might come up with a really good case for something which hasn't been thought of yet.

Spot on, yet again.

Our club is being rebuilt, like it or not but in reality it had to be. Mort is starting off from a low position, he took over as chairman of a club that had no money, the pot of cash that he has to work with was a negative, we were massively in the red and that has been sorted thanks to Ashley who has invested £75 million, £75 million doesn't wipe out the debt, it leaves us with a level of debt which can be managed unlike the £100 million plus that we had in the summer. I don't want to be relying on a rich benefactor dipping into his pockets to buy the next player, I want the chairman to have a pot of cash that he can use without having to go begging. I don't know how the TV money is paid and when but I know most, if not all is paid at the end of the season and is based on league position. I'm sure the top club gets £50 million with the bottom club getting £30 million. Mort will not spend future income like we've done in the past, he'll spend what the club can afford and that is exactly the right thing to do if we want to have a long term future. Last July/August we had a very thin squad after releasing so many players who had either been on loan or were not good enough so we had to pad the squad and virtually change the whole defence. We brought in 9 players that we needed and because of that we've had a first team that has changed far too often, the manager hasn't helped but he's done what he's thought right. We've got 9 new players who need to learn to work with each other and bringing in more new faces is only going to make things worse. If we spend our cash, however much that is, we'll bring in players who are not expected to play too often so they will not add to the problem which was created when we brought in so many new faces, that decision looks sound to me. I hate writing off a season but all I want now from this one is to improve on last season and to be able to see signs of progress, signs that next season will be better than this one. If we can do this year on year then we can't really complain too much. I wouldn't say no to a bit more creativity in midfield in January but will not be slashing my wrists if it doesn't happen. So far Mort has done everything right, so much for him not knowing how to run a football club. He's come in and made decisions based on his past experience and his experience hasn't let him down yet. He's bound to make mistakes, we all do, and at least we can be sure that if he does make a mistake it will be an honest one while he's trying to do his best for the club and the fans.

Good post.

I've altered the poll, I've allowed people to change what they vote for as somebody could come up with a better reason for doing something and it may change how people would have voted if they'd seen it earlier. Actually, I'm not sure that you can change your vote so get it right first time. The thread title could do with changing to say that the poll has changed.

This was the result of the original question. Question: Would you be interested in doing something to honour Sir Bobby? I'll help organise 9 (9.5%) I'll donate 41 (43.2%) I'll do both of the above 28 (29.5%) I'll not bother thanks 17 (17.9%) Total Voters: 95

I'll change the poll tomorrow(edit, sometime today), the academy is a cracking idea considering how he had to fight so hard to get it, cracking idea but still not from us so maybe this should have two parts if we go that way.

I really think the best we could do would be to maybe get some cash together and buy something from the fans and hope he'd be able to come to St James' to pick it up and be given a really good reception.

If we can get 100 votes and it looks like it is now then I'll change the poll to see what we should go for if people agree with that.

It does have a nice ring to it, I also like the charity idea as it would mean we were doing something to get it done, it wouldn't just be from the club. Maybe the club could say that they'll do it if we raise £xxxx.

I think I put the brakes on while you were posting but good point.

How many stands has Wembley got without names? We could do something like ask the club and the FA if we can raise a certain amount for charity in Sir Bobby's name would they name a stand after him.

We could do with as many people as possible knowing about this, if people use other forums then they could try to do something on those forums. It would be good if one person co-ordinated on each forum rather than forcing people to come here who may not want to for whatever reason. That would also help to make it appear that it was everybody doing something, which they would be anyway. It would also be good it we came up with a list of who to contact then spread it out so people don't get hassled by too many people, we've got to get this right.

You could help with the organisation, I've already contacted one person for help, I'm not naming who just yet but if this person comes through then we're off to a great start. This has to be fully inclusive, not just Newcastle-Online.