Unbelievable

Not saying Steve McLaren is a better manager MJ, but yo can't organise a football association in the same way you can a football club. Louis van Gaal tried it in Holland and failed massively on the pitch. The FA directors mustn't have been too impressed by his plans of bringing in Blue sky consultants and player profiling. They just want the best 11 English players out on the pitch because a) they sell the shirts and b) they probably think they can get the best results regardless of how they work together..

This time last year Parker would have our player of the season and everybody wanted Butt out of the club though.. Who knows what the situation may be like this time next season..?

If you have such a problem with footballers and managers making a lot of money I'm surprised you're still interested in the sport. There's more to motivation than high earnings you know?

Does it really matter what the manager can do when they can't even do it despite 5,000+ loyal, travelling fans behind the goal spurring them on? Seemingly so, otherwise we wouldn't be where we are now?

He's also a massive, massive gamble. For former top players who make shit managers, look no further than Van Basten or indeed Klinsman. For the world cup, especially in your home country, players will be pretty much self-motivated. Motivating Newcastle for an away match against Wigan is an altogether different cattle of fish..

It is very easy to admire with hindsight Arsenal's appointment of Wenger, but what would your reaction be right now if Newcastle appointed someone who had won the French league and then spent a few years rattling around in Japan? How does any club outside the top four - no, actually, three of the top four - have the hallmark of a title challenger? Clubs with pretensions to challenge for the title at any point soon don't find themselves in the bottom half of the table, or rattling around in the mid reaches. There might be better managers than SA around but that's not what it is about. It is about great managers who are *willing* to come to a mid table Premiership club, one with great potential yes, but mid table nonetheless. He might not be the most glamourous name around, he might not have managed Atletico Bumchaff to 12 Spanish League titles, but he's almost certainly the best man currently available and willing to take the job. Top post Absolutely!

Yes on both counts as far as I am concerned. I don't like him as a person, nor as a manager. He managed to make England play like Germany at their worst..

satisfied - 8th and progress happy - 6th (Uefa) or top 10 and League cup extatic - CL or top 10 and FA Cup

Did you know that the only albino gorilla that supposedly ever lived was in the Barcelona zoo at the time Koeman was there as a player, and Koeman's nickname was this Gorilla's name, (Floquet de Neu, or snowflake) because of him being blond and built like a gorilla?

GM, is your avatar meant to suggest Ronald Koeman as our next manager?

You seem to have overlooked the fact that our stock has dramatically fallen over the last couple of seasons.. In the meantime, Sam Allardyce's stock has been rising all the time due to him proving to be able to be European place challengers season after season with a club of much, much smaller potential than ourselves. We will be clamouring onto Allardyce hoping he can also do it at a bigger stage, and if he can I am certain we will be challenging the top 4 spots in a few seasons time. If you think the likes of Scolari and Hiddink would even give us a second glance you're living in the past. Now as for Sven, don't get me started, he would be a substanceless big name signing if ever there was one. Completely the wrong type of character for our club at its current stage, no matter how good his CV is. For once we seem to be looking at what we've been doing wrong all these years and setting out to correcting it, starting by bringing in somebody with first hand experience of completely changing a club around inside and out and bringing it to another level professionally. If this plan succeeds, we may then be an interesting club for the higher level of manager that could really make us a title challenging side (unless we plan to just hand the club over to Shearer on a sliver platter of course, which is highly likely)..

Rubbish

Can´t see Speed coming back here before his playing career finishes. He´s a player-coach there isn´t he?

in a way the point of the thread Right. So Shevchenko might have been absolute garbage for Milan then, because no-one is allowed to have an opinion unless... what? They have a season ticket at the San Siro? no,because we all could see milan often enough,we can see brca,real,ajax,psv, often enough.....outside of that type of thing we are struggling. Who is WE though?

in a way the point of the thread Right. So Shevchenko might have been absolute garbage for Milan then, because no-one is allowed to have an opinion unless... what? They have a season ticket at the San Siro? And only then if all ST holders in the San Siro share that opinion, otherwise it´s not valid..

It can be done. They bought the more than useless Andy van der Meijde on the back of one goal against them and a tape of rare highlights..

yeah, all those people have seen Luque in spain enough to see what a great world class player he is, my mistake. Some of them have, others may not have.. What is your point, other than you haven´t seen enough Spanish football to have a balanced opinion yet you can´t stop ridiculing people who actually may have? My point is that almost certainly these soft c***s have seen a few games and assumed he was great. Probably decided to watch the showreel and pretend they were experts. What with you seeming to have an opinion about everything and nothing it doesn´t look like you´ve got very strict self imposed guidelines as to how many times you must have seen a player, a team, a country or a manager play or manage for an entire match (in the flesh?) before voicing it..

yeah, all those people have seen Luque in spain enough to see what a great world class player he is, my mistake. Some of them have, others may not have.. What is your point, other than you haven´t seen enough Spanish football to have a balanced opinion yet you can´t stop ridiculing people who actually may have?

If your so concerned about that, why not ask them how they know this player you have never heard about is any good? Have they seen him with their own eyes many times? Regarding your continuous goes at people rating Luque based on his performances in Spain, I would only like point out that people who might have seen the likes of Shawn Wright Philips and Damien Duff just seasons ago would have presumed they would be very useful players for effectively a midtable team such as us. It´s not because a player is not up to it at this moment, he has therefore always been crap by definition..

f****** exactly. But hey, I suppose if you've been here three days you'll have seen loads of it. I am always here. I live in the rafters. Seeing as you claim there's loads of this going on, I'm sure you won't have any trouble pointing out a few examples..? http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=39821.0 Bloody hell. A couple of Scandinavians talking about a couple of Scandinavian players, is that what you are having a go at his forum and its posters for? Maybe this is news to you, but there is actually football being played and watched by people outside of the UK. Being from Holland I could tell you ten or so Dutch players I would one day like to see at SJP, just because I know the league much better than you might. Just because YOU don´t know these players doesn´t necessarily mean others can´t.. I am slating everyone on here and want their blood. I watch football 24/7 through a techo-feed through my ear into my brain. Bed time surely?

f****** exactly. But hey, I suppose if you've been here three days you'll have seen loads of it. I am always here. I live in the rafters. Seeing as you claim there's loads of this going on, I'm sure you won't have any trouble pointing out a few examples..? http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=39821.0 Bloody hell. A couple of Scandinavians talking about a couple of Scandinavian players, is that what you are having a go at his forum and its posters for? Maybe this is news to you, but there is actually football being played and watched by people outside of the UK. Being from Holland I could tell you ten or so Dutch players I would one day like to see at SJP, just because I know the league much better than you might. Just because YOU don´t know these players doesn´t necessarily mean others can´t..

f****** exactly. But hey, I suppose if you've been here three days you'll have seen loads of it. I am always here. I live in the rafters. Seeing as you claim there's loads of this going on, I'm sure you won't have any trouble pointing out a few examples..?

I think the poll result is very telling..

reportedly..