Colos Short and Curlies

We held Arsenal to 1 (or possibly 2) under Bobby but got battered and only poor finishing prevented a rout. Particulary in the Palmero game the Defence looked like it was solid and wouldn't concede. It should be that which determines progress, not simply a scoreline

Prove themselves where though Lower league management/coaching is a hell of a lot different to Premiership managing/coaching. Souness for example would be great as a lower league manager as he woulc rule by fear and get a response that way. Premiership 'stars' don't react as well to that style of management. Similarly I doubt that Rafa or Jose would be as succesful lower down the Ladder. Also look at Le Guen, should managing Rangers be more difficult than Lyon? I'd suggest not but his techniques don't seem to be working too well up North

Parker and Bobby Lee in the middle Would have won us the league

yes i suppose but also he has been a complete idiot and taken advantage of his status. i dont think he's a bad person he is just always drawn into things as we have seen with his troubles like when he was reported for indecent exposure and when he was linked along with titus to the infamous rape case. unfortunately he is a footballer who does not think as a professional 24 hours a day and he has been caught out due to this i do think his skill is unbelievable and his speed is quality and he has been very unfortunate with injury and last season when he returned he looked a fantastic player giving 110% so lets hope he can return this time and do it for the team and help us get out of this horrible run we find ourselves in. Quickly proven that he was out with Beckham's sister and had no part in the highjinx that night fair enough but he was a bit of an idiot early in his career what was he doing out with beckhams sister anyway shes distgusting! Yeah cos Kieron is Beckhams dopleganger

yes i suppose but also he has been a complete idiot and taken advantage of his status. i dont think he's a bad person he is just always drawn into things as we have seen with his troubles like when he was reported for indecent exposure and when he was linked along with titus to the infamous rape case. unfortunately he is a footballer who does not think as a professional 24 hours a day and he has been caught out due to this i do think his skill is unbelievable and his speed is quality and he has been very unfortunate with injury and last season when he returned he looked a fantastic player giving 110% so lets hope he can return this time and do it for the team and help us get out of this horrible run we find ourselves in. Quickly proven that he was out with Beckham's sister and had no part in the highjinx that night

Good post. I'd say, before backing a manager to the hilt, they need the intelligence to find the right one who's worth backing – and then back them the way Manure have backed Ferguson, or the Arse have let Wenger have it all his own way. It's not just about flashing a bit of transfer cash and going "Hey look, I'm backing the manager here!". (Particularly ridiculous as most of our managers get shown the door about five weeks after this happens.) The closest the current board has come to the right kind of appointment – out of five attempts – was Bobby Robson. Did they back him? Well, up to a point. He had the lowest average annual transfer spend of any Fat Fred appointment. If you read his Mail on Sunday column last week you'll find him "open-mouthed" with envy at the training facilities his mate Ferguson has at his command. "I looked down from the window in his office on several training pitches, all with undersoil heating. I counted 22 fitness bikes in the gym where the first-team squad can warm up together before training. By the pool, I spotted an underwater treadmill to aid the recovery of injured players. Alex said they had five full-time physios as well as academy coaches, fitness coaches and a club doctor... It became clear that Alex has built a dynasty at United not only by developing great players and building great teams, but also by having the foresight of how the club should be run for future generations of players." The people running our club, our "big club" with its huge resources, manifestly lack that kind of foresight. Though of course Bobby Robson was never going to be the right man to establish a dynasty and take the club into the future. He was simply too bloody old! I agree with the first bit, it was a good post by grass although I don't agree with it all. Re the bit in bold. What criteria do you recommend the Board use to determine who this right man is they should then back in the same way Arsenal's Board backed Wenger and before him Rioch, the same Board having appointed those 2 managers? interesting, because one thing strikes me, consistently in these type of debates, and that is the people who constantly criticise the club for "not appointing the right man", NEVER tell us what their criteria is for guaranteed success...on one hand they want someone who is "proven", then they say it is no guarantee, or want someone who is not as proven as some of the ones we have had. What mass hypocrisy. They also ignore the fact that Arsenal and manu made poor appointments themselves before they got the right one, despite it being pointed out to them. And they also only name the same 3 or 4 clubs, unable to realise that all the other top clubs are all looking for the same "right man"....as stated, it will be very interesting to see what manu and Arsenal do when Messrs Ferguson and Wenger move on, whats the odds on them both getting the "right man" at the first attempt. Remember this is the real world we are talking about here. Its not as if Newcastle United haven't had long serving managers, because in the last 14 years, we have had 2 that did 5 years each. Does anyone think we should have stuck with Dalglish and Gullit and the "long term plan" despite the team losing games and playing poorly ? I don't think there is a guaranteed success formula for managers, as we have seen first hand what works for one man at one club won't necessarly work elsewhere. The boards (apparent) policy of looking at the previous managers fatal flaw and appointing someone with the direct opposite characteristic does however show that they don't look at the whole picture (i.e. what was good with the previous manager and what needs improved on, not right lads KK was too attacking, lets get Kenny in, oh bugger he's a bit boring lets bring in Sexy Ruud etc). What a GOOD board should be able to do however is see when a manager is not being a success in his job and look for ways to remedy this. With Bobby we needed an authority in the changing room who would not undermine the boss but could step up in 2 to 3 years time - Jose would have been ideal if he had fancied the job ahead of Chelsea. What was need with Souness was a tactical coach and a top drawer scout - not £50m to spend in two weeks. What we don't know (and will never know under the current set up) is how much of the reactionary decision making is down to the Halls and how much is down to Shepherd. For all we know Doug/Sir John may be the ones who want to stay British whilst Fred wanted a Sven or Hitzfeld. Maybe the Halls want to keep Shearers seat warm and Fred wanted O'Neill and his band of Merry men. What I see with Roeder is a lack of conviction and belief in himself and his team. Bringing in a Keegan-esq man to motivate is what is needed now, but of course the answer is £20m in January.

reckon it could be beneficial if Dyer was called up. Likey to be a more competitive training week than back at Toon, unlikely to get much match time and gives him a huge carrot to play well. Could set him up nicely for the Emirates on Sat

I got kicked in the head playing in goal, fractured an eye socket and was told the blow missed my actual eye by a matter of millimeters. Shit me up a bit, its a very delicate part of the body and so easy to damage

geat post apart from this bit. If you mean Bobby knew about it, his interview on Sky Sports suggested he knew nothing of the Woodgate bid or the Rooney bid until after both had been lodged/accepted (depending on the bid). He looked a man bemused by the whole circus

If we're looking at teams possibly out of Europe and we are looking at the midfield (assuming Emre and Milner are off) the I'd love to see Appiah here from Fener.

Thinking about it though, it would be just like us to actually beat Arsenal on Saturday then lose our next 3-4 games on the bounce. They are beatable, we just have to go there with self belief, something I don't think Roeder can instill in the players

Bollox! Given - Harper - Pav Ramage - Bramble - Huntington - Bernard Butt - Dyer - Milner Martins

Only way to beat them is to attack with pace and harry like whippets Given Taylor Ramage Moore Babayaro A defending back 4, they need to be focussed and on their toes. Tempted with Bramble purely for his pace, ut that leaves Ramage at left back which would be suicide Butt Parker Dyer/Milner Zog Luque/Dyer Martins

Good point, I had forgotten about the Everton new stadium thing. However, aren't Liverpool hugely in debt and also having to find the new stadium money (obv, a much better brand than Everton, though)? Villa Park's oldest stand (where we put away fans) was built in 77 and is getting rebuilt soon, the rest of the ground has been rebuilt since the late 80s, early 90s anyway (including the butchery of the beautiful old Trinity Road stand, one of Doug's worst crimes). What is frightening is just how wealthy "rich" investors in football need to be these days. Are any of the people mentioned at the top of this thread actually rich enough? A few are, Wylie, Sting, Knopfler could probably buy the, a consortium is more likely however. One point is though that if the club was bought as a labour of love it self generates a large proportion of the required cash, its not like an Everotn where money needs to be pughed in on a regular basis (although it would be nice!)

They wern't slow mos, thats Carr at full pelt

I use to work at Sage and sure Graham Wylie is a Man Utd fan. Wylie is definitely a Toon boy. Last summer he made a statement saying he wants to remain a fan and had no plans to buy into the club.

Which is what sets SJH apart from FS. Watch the official history DVD, the section on when KK wanted to sell Cole. SJH's words 'In business you have to trust your MD'.

Re: The traingin ground comparison with Man U: I'm sure I can remember back in the KK days high profile jaunts by management and board to the likes of Juve, Milan, Barca, PSV etc to pick up a master blusprint for a world class training ground development. I also did a geography coursework on the development of the new training site (looking at the environmental impact, but also getting access to the plans and speaking to a few developers) and the finished product is pretty close to this initial blueprint. So what happened? Did we just look at the fancy doorknobs and carpetes at these places which we visited or was something major just lost in translation?

Everything about her screams Mackem beotch. Actualy, it isn't HMM, just spoken to an ITK in the legal field. Heather has filed her claim, 50% of Pauls fortune. Experts are already speculating that she doesn't have a leg to stand on

Ive got it Heather Mills is going to plough her settlement into the Toon

Jimmy Nail Robson Green Alan Robson

I'd agree with the sentiment behind that reply, but to use Goma (£3.5m) and Cort (£2m) as examples of 'not even fringe players' but then include Ambrose in the list of players bought is not really fair. Read it again mate. I'm not using Cort and Goma as 'fringe' players. Apologies if taken out of context, I've highlighted where I took it from, reading it again I still took it the same way! As I said though, agree with the sentiment of the post

Hoping what he says is true, then at least Zoggy wont be leaving in Jan

My Dad worked on the design for the green quadrant of the Metro Centre and SJH was repeatedly warned about the subsidence on the site and refused to pay the increased cost to remedy it before buiding commenced.

I'd agree with the sentiment behind that reply, but to use Goma (£3.5m) and Cort (£2m) as examples of 'not even fringe players' but then include Ambrose in the list of players bought is not really fair.