Mick

The club was roughly £3 million is debt when Sir John took over, we were close to going out of business. Sir John was on holiday and Douglas rang him to get him to stump up some cash, which he eventually did. We are not as close to going out of business now but we are going in the right direction for that to happen.

I didn't say that I knew he would be injured at the World Cup, I said he had a history of hamstring problems, did you miss what I said or do you disagree that he's had hamstring problems since early in his career?

You are missing the point, we signed a player for £17 million and he's hardly played for us, it doesn't matter how good he is when fit, if he's not playing then he's a waste of resources. Owen has a history of injuries, the fact that it wasn't a repeat of his usual dodgy hamstrings makes no difference, dodgy hamstring or knee injury results in the same outcome. Woodgate was the best defender I've ever seen play for us, we did well to sell him as he hardly played, the same goes for Owen.

You're asking that question to the wrong person, he didn't appoint him or give him around £50 million to spend.

I wouldn't go as far as that although it did make our chances a lot slimmer, no wonder Roeder is struggling.

It was two years earlier that the coaches windows were put out, we hardly had any supporters at the games, less that 500 I would guess, that's when they bricked us all game. We also beat them that day, Varadi scored three which pissed them off.

Was it the supporters coaches opposite the main stand that had the windows put out?

Beardsley scored when I went, we won 2-0 with Keegan getting the other, it was probably the same game. How did you get down?

I've been, I spent the full game with my back against the wall at the back of our end while Welsh tossers spent 90 minutes throwing rocks off peoples heads from a bastard tree camp. When an old bloke complained to the police he was told to stand at the back to avoid them. We came out of the ground to find the buses had windows put out and they were parked in a field opposite the main entrance, we were bricked as we walked to the train station. We were ambushed half way to the station, we stood our ground and the cowards ran away and started throwing bricks again from a distance. Yellow bastards.

You could never claim Shepherd was stupid, he could see right through it.

Just comapre these two: Glenn Roeder: Teams managed 1992-1993 Gillingham (player-manager) 1993-1996 Watford 2001-2003 West Ham United 2006- Newcastle United Ottmar Hitzfeld: Career as Coach Period Club Titles 1983-84 FC Zug 1984-88 FC Aarau 1988 - Swiss Cup 1988-91 Grasshopper Club Zürich 1989 - Swiss Cup 1990 - Swiss Cup 1990 - Championship 1991 - Championship 1991-97 Borussia Dortmund 1995 - Championship 1996 - Championship 1997 - UEFA Champions League 1998-04 FC Bayern Munich 1999 - Championship 2000 - German Cup 2000 - Championship 2001 - Championship 2001 - UEFA Champions League 2001 - Intercontinental Cup 2003 - German Cup 2003 - Championship 1997 - "World Coach of the Year" 2001 - "World Coach of the Year" Is that enough to a normal people to see and to decide which one of these two are better and so its for the best for the club :uglystupid2: Very simplistic, tbh. You can bring up any statistics you want, doesnt mean he would have ever, or wanted to manage us. I know that but at least Shepherd should have tried to bring him here especially when all the fans wanted him and he was clearly the fans number one choice for a manager And you know how Shepherd always like to say "WE ALWAYS LISTEN TO OUR FANS" If that was the case he should have tried to bring Hitzfeld here.But he never did Glenn Roeder was the fans choice, remember the e-mails and text messages to Shepherd? Hands up those who have Shepherds mobile number to be able text him.

It's a good job we haven't gone backwards and have had shite boards in the past. So we HAVEN'T gone backwards under FFS ?????????? He's already said that decision was the only one HE made (a bit of a giveaway there) the fans didnt agree with concerning management appointments. A large dose of sarcasm, get a grip man.

I hope but doubt he is, it looks like desperation to defend Shepherd at any cost.

Get your head out of the sand for a change, I could and did predict what would happen under Souness, you predicted it and so did Steve so why should the person who appointed him not have been able to do the same? I'm certain beyond all doubt that the person or people who brought Souness to our club should have been able to see what we could see as being so obvious; you now excuse them for not being able to do this. The board employed and backed a manager who was totally shocking, it was so predictable to some but not those who mattered. I find it amazing that somebody who predicted the outcome makes excuses for those who brought him to the club. I can’t believe the U turn that’s being made in this thread. The way you went on about Souness coming here and being here is poles apart from this stance that you now take.

I'd agree with that, no point in bringing him back too early if we're playing for nothing.

It's a good job we haven't gone backwards and have had shite boards in the past.

Good luck with the last one, it would be like a years wages for little effort.

I see your brief period away from here hasn;t improved your ability to see the real world, shame for a long term supporter who has witnessed a real shite board. By brief period away, do you mean when the forum was down? Anyway, I'm witnissing a shite board now, the fact that we've had shite boards in the past doesn't make this one any better, it still means they're shite.

Where did he say we "have a divine right to be one of the top clubs in the country?" Also, how long have we had "this board?" Shepherd and the invisible man are the only two that have been on the board for a while and he has nothing to do with the running of the club, he's never here, don't try to credit "this board" with past success. You use "this board" as a smoke screen for Shepherd, Shepherd came out a week ago and complained that HE'S been unable to run the club since the takeover talks started, does this not imply that HE runs the club, therefore when mistakes are made they are HIS mistakes.

The bits where you have a go at Shepherd, obviously.

Agreed, I couldn't stand him. How can anybody other than a keeper miss games with a bid finger?

We tried to sell Milner to finance transfers, we've had our lowest home league gates since the extension was build and we've turned a small profit into a massive loss.

The bulk of the debt at the time of those signings was long-term and was being paid for by the thing it was used to build, level 7. We've since spent £15 million with a bit coming back in but our gates are falling so we will have less money coming in, we're far less likely to be given the go-ahead by the banks to spend money we haven't got. In August we had season ticket money rolling in and two domestic cup competitions to bring in extra cash, we also had the possibility of European football. We're out of both domestic cups so will take no more cash from those competitions, we only have small European gates and a relatively small amount coming in per home league game via away supporters and the few tickets that go on general sale, hardly enough to finance major signings. My guess is that we've got nothing to spend.

That's not a bad point at all actually. Everyone has a go at Souness for wasting money, but look at some of the sh*te Robson splashed out on (Cort 7m, Bassedas 3.5m, Bramble 6m, Viana 8.5m). It's a good point when you look at nothing else, look at the fact that Sir Bobby spent less than £6million per year net to improve the team, and that includes those mentioned above, Souness spent just under £31million per year net to take us from 5th to 14th.

And, the people behind the deal would know this how? They could have checked his injury record, it wasn't actually hidden. Nobody could predict the injuries he's had but most could have looked at his injury record and guessed that he'd miss quite a few games, usually because of his hamstrings going.