Taylor Swift

How would Klinsmann be good? He's fucking overrated based on a decent WC with Germany. Was mauled by the German press before that. He's never managed a club as well which makes him possibly the biggest risk out there. FFS people, we have to get this right. This is the chance to right quite a lot of things at the club. We should be looking at managers with a track record in the Premiership or at least a record in the top leagues in Europe. Look at someone who's big enough to handle the over-inflated egos in our dressing room, someone who has the ability to attract top name players to our club and also someone who's team play disciplined football (whether boring or not, that's another matter).

must be taking the piss. Or he's just Vicky reincarnated.

Don't think he would want to leave Bayern to come to us A Houllier or Eriksson campaign would be delightful though.

Very honourable.

That'd be shocking, if true, considering how much he's said 'I know I can do this' bla bla bla.

They can announce it. Look, if we sack him now, we can announce it to the whole world and we wouldn't be breaking any laws. We just have to announce to the stock market as it opens again. There's nothing wrong with announcing it now!! There's nothing wron with signing players on a Saturday, nothing wrong with firing managers on the weekend/holiday/whatever!

You are aware of Ranieri's unimpressive CV non? He barely managed to outdo SBR and a bloke Liverpool sacked despite being bankrolled like no other before him You're ignoring when he beat Liverpool for 4th place spending basically nothing. And when he came 2nd in the year Arsenal dominated the league, he was sacked. I'm not saying he's Mourinho, but where have Chelsea ended up this year?

Wouldn't mind Ranieri actually. He's proven in the Premiership, and he has a comical almost Robson-esque feel to him. You just can't help but get behind him and his team. Plus, he's managed in three different leagues, which will obviously be advantageous in terms of contacts, scouting etc. I hope we at least take a look at him tbh.

Look up two posts above

Come on Freddy, finish your pies and do it!

Big Sam's alright. But honestly, he'll jump on the England job as soon as it's available, which could be soon meaning he wouldn't want to commit to us. Plus, he's unproven at the highest level (ie. at a big club). Why do we have to take a risk and appoint him? You say because there's no one else available? Wrong. Eriksson's available. We've also heard rumblings that Houllier isn't really happy at Lyon and wants another crack at the Premiership. Why would either of them want to manage us? Honestly, the foundations are there. The academy's set up. The players are decent, they just need good coaching (a strong point for both Eriksson and Houllier. Note - Liverpool's disciplined defense when Houllier was there and Eriksson's Lazio winning the Serie A). We can get them. The finance is set up as well. Just make the right appointment this time and we'll be back up there - I firmly believe this. We can attract them, and we should at least try. We've sacked Roeder at the right time, giving us ample opportunity to scour the world for the best managers. The summer transfer window isn't going to open in a month, meaning we could appoint a new manager between then and give him the whole window to work with.

Houllier or Eriksson. Let's hope Freddy can over his not wanting to hire a foreign manager syndrome and get one of these two in.

I remember the Gullit season being dreadful. But fuck me, can't believe we're going to end up with a possibly lower point total (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Fan apathy is already rife. Lets see how this affects the season ticket renewals.

You must believe HTL. He has inside information. That is how he knows about this.

Final of the Champions League. This is it baby!!!

Something that should have happened when Sir Bob left was he should have been moved up into the DoF role, sadly that didn't happen because of the way it all panned out. However, seeing as if SBR and Freddy have seemingly kissed and made-up, I'd be delighted if SBR returned as DoF now, and then Roeder leaves with Houllier coming in blueyes.gif One can dream. Honestly, I think SBR would be perfect for the DoF role. Not only is he keen on young talent (shown by his signings during his time here), but he also has contacts around the freaking world - from Portugal, Spain, obviously plentiful in England, now Ireland as well, and probably some in Brazil considering he was the one who bought (discovered?) Ronaldo. Edit - someone got there first with the SBR DoF thingy!

Friday's not a school night man!

Exactly. They are the most loyal, which is why they'll probably go anywhere but if the distance is too far, it'll deter some of them and hence, ruin the atmosphere in the game (much like the Boro v Pompey game earlier this season).

I'm actually 'for' this idea. The only problem I have is how much trouble would it be for away fans? They could theoretically make this work if they consider how much time it takes for away fans to get to the stadium, and back. It'll just be more football everyday, something I'm obviously for. Plus, if they do this, and keep the Monday games, then we'll have Premiership football on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, then two Champions League days followed by a day for the UEFA Cup and then we're back again.

If Owen and Ameobi was fit, and we got those 12 points that we 'would have', that'd only leave us with 54 atm, which well, is still disappointing considering the fact that we ended up with 58 last season.

Thuram would be useful just because he'd help the youngsters in the squad (Taylor, Ramage, Huntington and Edgar). That alone would be enough to justify his signing for me.

Thaksin manages to mess up other people's lives. Not surprsing, though it's not like I'm exactly gutted for Allardyce or anything

It's not really backing a manager if you pick and choose when and who to back, is it? Shepherd backed SBR at the start, and then undermined his position by announcing he would leave at the end of the season, then did NOT back him with Miguel. The fact that he later gave Souness £10m proves that he in fact did not back SBR, at least not always (for further examples, read Butt, Nicky and Bowyer, Lee). This also comes back to the picking and choosing of the times to back a manager btw. And you shouldn't boast about Shepherd backing Souness because in the end, Shepherd was the one who hired Souness so the buck stops with Shepherd. Period. I can feel this thread is about to head in the direction of so many other threads before it so I'm going to cease to respond to anything you post in this thread. If you wish to have the last word, be my guess.

How would Ferguson an important partner for Shearer? They barely played together, if you consider Shearer's whole career. You shouldn't forget that he started playing football professionally at 17 and ended at 35(?), he had a lot of partnerships with a lot of different players. I'm sure when he says Ferdinand was his best partner, he's not meaning to devalue the other partnerships that he had, even the one that won him the league title at Blackburn (with Sutton). Look mate, when Sutton himself says something like Henrik Larsson is the best player he's ever played with, he's not having a dig at his partnership with Shearer. This applies to when Shearer is saying his best partnership was with Les Ferdinand.

I've added to the post, but I think you would be better off if yo attempted to understand the concept that a manager wants a player, and the club has the money, so the club gets them, and the manager says to his chairman that in his professional opinion, this player is worth the 9m quid that is being asked. Of course, the chairman CAN say the club can't afford the player. But, when this has happened in the past ie Miguel possibly, the board was slated for not backing the manager. Then you complain - as you are - for not exercising financial restraints when they do spend the money. So. Which is it. Back him or not ? Or are you going to wait and see if the player succeeds, before blaming the board when it suits you ? IIRC, we didn't sign Wayne Bridge in the last summer transfer window because we couldn't afford the £3m at the time, a fact that was endorsed by us not spending in the winter transfer window. I didn't have a problem with that. We couldn't spend so we didn't spend, fine. I won't complain if the chairman says to the manager 'look, we can't spend this much because we don't have it' if it's the truth. It wasn't the truth with Miguel though, was it? Barely 5 months later, Shepherd splashed out £8m on Boumsong. So what was it about you saying Shepherd backs his manager? Should I not slate him for not backing SBR with Miguel, then sacking him 4 games into the season and then finally, to top it all off, hiring Souness and letting him spend a net of £11m at the first opportunity? Edit - Souness spent a net of £10.4m. Boumsong + Babayaro + Faye - Bernard = £10.4m PS. Fuck off with this kinda rubbish.. Don't pretend you know what I'm going to say or not say. Second Edit - Not only did Shepherd not back SBR, he then actually paid a fee (500k iirc) for Souness, plus all the hiring and salaries of his 'coaches' who had to tag along. All that comes to about £11m+. So, again, what was it about you saying Shepherd backs his managers? I agree, btw, that a good chairman will back a manager.