Parky

City really don't look that far away from being a top 4 side at the moment. Unless I'm gannin crackers, Man City are a top 4 side. You know what I mean.

Agreed. I still don't understand why we only bought defensive players in the summer. I've been saying this since August. But the it will be alright SA is rebuilding it will take 60 million years hold sway on this board.

A top four side will utterly destroy us away from home if we play like this.

How grammatically shoddy. Exactly it though, hopefully things will improve once Barton gets back. But a playmaker to go alongside Barton and Butt/Geremi would have to be high on our list of priorities. Trying to ape the thread title you see...........

The excuses will be along the lines of personnel not available. Why didn't we start Enrique ? I find the whole Zoggy at left back thing bewildering now.

Would have buying at least one creative player been a good idea?

Get Butt off and get Ricky on push Zoggy up.

Great tackle by Smith!!!!!

Wouldn't get too excited they're very resiliant.

Bought Elano for my fpl team this morning and forgot to put him in the side...No doubt hatrick in the offing..........

I'd be happy with a point right now.

I think a club the size of ours can only afford to give time to a manager who has some kind of pedigree. Allardyce clearly qualifies there because he's done a brilliant job with Bolton. I was against giving Souness and Roeder too much time because there was no evidence of their managerial quality, nothing you could point at and say "see, we should keep the faith in this guy because he's delivered before". Keeping either of them for too long might have done a lot more damage. I'll give Allardyce far more benefit of the doubt than I ever gave those two because his record shows that he deserves time. Their record shows they didn't. I whine about him sometimes, but right here right now is his destiny. blueyes.gif

Aye. ...and the first stat for the prosecution is the goals stat comparison...Clearly def are way more organised now and Chelsea play a completely different kind of football. Wouldn't even win a pub argument.... Not that I read all of it of course. Mourinho imo is one of the greatest managers of all time and in years to come history will bear this out.

7 GAMES MAN, 7 GAMES. Btw I have said time and time again our football hasn't been the best and that our performances have been poor so there is no blind eye or straw clutching from me. Just realism that a new team can't turn it on from the off and most certainly not after a few games. What are you dribbling on about, he bought flair players at Bolton and some very high profile ones too yet you claim he won't do the same for us? And the reason Bolton can't fill their stadium is because they are a shitty small town club with shitty fans in the same way Blackburn, Boro, Wigan and even Reading can't fill theirs either, not because the football is shite or even because ticket prices are sky high. Allardyce changed his way of thinking every season at Bolton fwiw, hence them improving every season. Again to suggest he won't at Newcastle is reactionary shite. Buying Anelka, which you conveniently ignore, was a bold and progressive move on Big Sam's behalf. Did you see some of their football last season? Bolton 2-0 Liverpool Newcastle 1-2 Bolton (they tore us to pieces in the second half) Bolton 3-1 Arsenal Bolton 4-0 West Ham Bolton 3-2 Portsmouth Arsenal 1-1 Bolton Wigan 1-3 Bolton Chelsea 2-2 Bolton Impressive wins and performances that suggest they were more than a long ball team full of grafters. teams don't pick up them kind of wins or feature in those kind of high scoring games if all they can do is huff and puff. I can remember the 2-2 draw with Chelsea towards the end of the season and they were a long ball team who looked to get everyone behind the ball and tried to take advantage from dead ball situations, ugly stuff. The same could be said about their games with Arsenal where he admitted at the talk in that he gets his team to go out and "kick the shit out of them", how is this good football? Aye, and i bet Bolton were gutted with them results, gutted. Unfortunately Yorkie you've missed the point, I'm not trying to say their results were poor even though I could pull some shockers out from last season too that HTT has conveniently left out, the point he was making was that they're not a huff and puff team which they clearly were, but being a team like that doesn't mean you're not capable of winning big games. The core of Htt's arguments in nearly every thread imo is let's start winning games first and slowly bring in the good football later (right now I'm happy to win game as well). That's fine to some extent but in the real world it doesn't really work like that. A system is something that evolves - if from the youth system up style and movement isn't a pre-requisite and ingrained over a period of a few seasons ( you can't just click it on and off or do it in spells. SA likes winning percentage football and making sides hard to beat...That is what we'll get more or less. Although I will say there were spells in the WH game we (Zoggy mainly) has some incredible movement and interchanging, but you see he grew up in another system.

This isn't Inter Milan or Lazio you know. This is just a dressed up pub side and anyone who can kick a ball is welcome.

I have no doubts he will see out the 3 years and then manage England.

Beautifully poetic, Parks. PS - don't forget that 50 notes. He's good, but he's not that good. Phoned my mate in Leicster this morn. [Possible place for wink/]

Your scenario is really just a technicality though. Unless I''ve missed something St James Holdings now owns all of the share capital of Newcastle United, and Ashley owns all of (or if not the significant majority of) the capital of SJH. Therefore the only person Ashley has to answer to in terms of the accounts of Newcastle United is Ashley himself. Hence, whever the money was put into the club as share capital (highly unlikey imo) or just effectively gave the club the cash is irrelevent unless there is a structured repayment (again I doubt this to be the case in the short term at least). Ashley (for all his good work so far) is unlikely to die as the owner of Newcastle United, therefore he will be looking to ge this money back (including the debt repayment) at that point. He can (theroetically) make more return on his cash by leaving it in the club (more funds = better transfers = more prize money) than he would in a bank. Sorry if thats a bit muddled, just grabbing 5 mins here at work so can't proof think this through! No that's not muddled. Think you are right about St James Holdings and can't disagree with the rest of what you say. My point was more aimed at whether the loan has been wiped or not and the difference between capital and loan finance. The Abramovich example is an extreme one but I think its interesting that he has not shown the commitment to convert so much of his funding into capital. Makes Chelsea Limited's balance sheet look extremely sick as well! What does that mean in laymans terms?

He will help us climb the mountain but we might need someone else to get to the peak.

Bases.Covered.All.

Djorkaef? Bad example mate. i put a caveat after his inclusion, and when he joined bolton he was 34 and knew how to handle himself. even then he is the one exception. I dunno, you have Stelios down as a flair player he is, especially by Big Sam's standards, even tho he is also strong, disciplined, experienced and a hard worker. this is what he said about him when he signed: "I have been tracking his career for quite some time and I am confident that he will add a new dimension to our squad. His main attribute remains his ability to make late runs into the penalty area and his flair to shoot accurately from range. He is an attacking midfielder who knows how to score goals." general point i was trying to make anyway, even sam's flair players fit his stereotype. i don't expect him to go and buy Aaron Lennon or Ashley Young, or a similar young flair player who doesn't offer much by way of physicality, discipline or defending. not neccessarily a bad thing, but makes it harder to find the players we need. Fair analysis. This for me is one of SA weaknesses. Although I understand it is part of his greater agenda.