afar

LOL I remember that "would you take 17th place now" thread. The point I was trying to m,ake when I started that thread was that we needed to readjust our expectations, all the signs were there that we were headed down a familar route of self distruction. Unfortunately, it took those in charge way to long (and some never did) to realise that we had a fight on our hands. September may have seemed very early for a thread of that nature but those who had been through this before like me and some older members, recognised the danger signs. I was laughed at and mocked, as were others that had the same concerns, but at the end of the day, I don't think anyone including me took any pleasure in being proved right, that relegation should never have been allowed to happen. Regarding the Mackems, I would love to see them drop like a stone, but unfortunately I would be hugely surprised if they did, they'll scrape together enough points, they are too good to go down, as were we last year, the difference I think is that there are more crappy teams down there this year to keep them safe.

At the time of Fat sam's appointment, we needed results, he was someone that delivered, I thought he had done an excellent job at Bolton, and actually he's doing a great job at Blackburn, on limited resources. I thought he was the right man at the time, and also thought he would change his style of play with access to larger funds. Unfortunately I was wrong, I do think though that despite what a lot of people think he would have kept us mid table in that year, I know the fixture list had been kind to him early season and the tough patch was coming along, but he's proved to get unexpected results against top teams in the past. I also think he would have worked better with Wise than KK did. I'm by no means a big supporter of Fat Sam, but I do recognise that he has been getting results on shoestring budgets and that impresses me. His style of play was never suited to NUFC, but I thought he would change that. I guess another reason for me to be a little more forgiving than the rest on Fat Sam is because I remember only to well the days of Ozzie at nufc. For thopse not around during that period , we actually played some really great football, Ozzie made KK look conservative ! They knocked the ball around great back then but the results were dreadful. Despite that I was still very sad to see Ozzie sacked, he was such a nice guy too. Anyway he was the polar opposite to Fat Sam, great football, crap results against Crap football, good results. I had obviously been wrong to not realise that Ozzie should go, so I was prepared to think FS was going to prove a good choice. The two games against Derby, of course made me doubt my support stance, and I do think in the end those two games got him sacked. For Souness, he had no track record, he was good in a crappy league at Rangers, truely awful with Liverpool, failed on numerous occassions on the continent. Did an OK job at Southampton, admittedly did well initially at Blackburn getting them promoted and winning the League cup but his already unspectactular career was on the slide and was on the verge of the sackwhen we poached him. He had an awful reputation for man management and there were so manay better candidates out there.

For me on the managers since KK1: Dalglish: I was all for this one, thought it was a great appointment, and it certainly looked that way when we had a great end to that first season, finishing 2nd and a CL spot. I still think he wasn't given the time he should have, and was awfully unlucky with injuries. Everyone points at the Sir Les sale as a way to show how bad he was, but we were offered 6 Million for a player close to 30, which at the time was silly money and in the end Les played so few games for spuds, he probably goes down as one of their worst value for money buys. The injury to Shearer at Everton really shanged things, JD Tommason was brought in to play alongside Shearer and I truely believe that would have been a great partnership for us had Shearer not gotten injured. Dalglish also brought in some great players for the club, Speed, Solano, Hamman and Given, yes he bought some crap too, but on the whole had Shearer not been injured that pre season, I think things could have turned out much differently. Guillet: I was all for this appointment, thought he did a great job at Chelsea and was a little shocked when they let him go. Unlike Dalglish though, Guillet was not unlucky, he was just terrible at man management, he made a couple of good signings, Dyer and Ferguson, but on the whole they were poor. Robson: Once again I was pleased with the appointment. And of course he was a terrific manager for us, bought well and sold well. Got the team playing right and brought the best out of the players. I did feel towards the end of the season when we finished 5th, that he had lost things and should step down, I was happy when he was sacked as I thought he should have gone in the summer, I have to admit. On hindsight that was a terrible move. Souness: I don't think there were too many fans who had a clue, that thought this was a good appointment. I couldn't believe it, what on earth were the club thinking, at the time NUFC manager was a top job and they were giving it to a man on the edge of being sacked by a team at the bottom of the league. Clearly they went for a discplinarian because they thought Robson was too soft. Mind you initially I doubted my stance on Souness, he started off really well with some good results, however it wasn't long before things turned pear shaped. Delighted when they sacked him, thought it was a little too late. But Roeder did a great job for the rest of that season to get us into europe again. Roeder: I had appreciated his efforts picking up the mess of Souness but I was certain he was not the right appointment. There were stupid nufc fans calling for him to be appointed and the board took the easy option. A little foresight would have told them that Roeder had none of the qualities you need in a top manager and that the previous season's recovery had a lot to do with the anything but Souness feeling around the club. I thought this appointment was as bad as the previous one, and unfortunately I was proved right. Fat Sam: I was really happy with this appointment. I thought at last the club have gone for someone with a proven record, someone on the up. I had dismissed the calls of Bolton fans who complained about the style on the grounds that I just wanted to see us win again and that a lot of his style of play had a lot to do with the finances he operated on at Bolton. I thought his first press conference as toon boss was very impressive, then his first game away at Bolton, was a great start. I did think that summer we should have got MON in but was more than happy with Fat Sam. I'm still not sure whether if given more time he could have got things right, but no denying that the football was awful and some of the results were terrible. I was shocked at the sacking but have to admit not too upset. KK part 2: I was delighted with this appointment, thought he was the right man, at the right time. I still think he could have been, if Ashley hadn't been such a lunatic. The appointment of Wise was a huge mistake obviously, it was a time bomb waiting to happen. We needed someone to look at the youth and build it up, this was clearly not KK's strong suit, he was all about the here and now. Wise does have an eye for a player and brought in some great propects but clearly his role and standing in the game were going to clash with KK at some point. JFK: Thought it was a stupid move but at the same time we needed to be saved from the gormeless Hughton, and at first he did a pretty decent job, pulled us up the table and even got Shola playing well (not an easy task). But his health situation and the undenialable fact that the man was a complete lunatic meant that this couldn't be sustained. Shearer: Hughton was doing another truely awful caretaker job again, and I was delighted to see Shearer given his chance. Thought he was on a no lose situation, thought it was ideal. The start was poor but we had a tough fbunch of fixtures, when we bit the smoggies, thought we were on our way to safety. And perhaps if it weren't for Howard fucking Webb and Damien Duff perhaps we would have stayed up but on the whole a little disappointed with Shearer's results, I had expected better. Hughton: Not surprised at the appointment, but not happy either. He had proved he couldn't manage in the big league, but the team was winning, top of the league. It was a easy appointment for the owner and a cheap one, he got his yes man in. I don't think anyone should be fooled by what Hughton has down this season. This league we are in is truely awful, there is zero quality and our squad is more than capable of winning it with ease. His big test will come next year whether we go up or stay up. Going up, I'm sure he'll be found out, once again. Staying put, he'll lose half his team and it's going to be a much bigger test for him and the club. He'll also be under a lot more pressure than he has been this year. Sorry for the long post, I got a bit carried away, I don't expected anyone to read it.

On the evidence of today's game, Sunderland are far from safe, they have two things going in their favour; Their are a number of equally woeful teams at the bottom withless points than them and Darren Bent in a world cup year. Hopefully a few of the teams below them start to pick up some points, can't really see it happen though

I doubt it, apart from that chance really early on, they've done absolutely nothing going forward, if anyone is going to nick it, more likely the dirty mackems will.

Neither Stoke nor the dirty mackems have any players we would fear, even in our current position. The lack of quality in the game is really quite embarrasing for the premier league.

That is one of the worst halves of football I've witnessed in my life, terrible from both excitement and qulaity points of view.

It is.

Sky picked the much more exciting Bury V Rochdale Hmmm then who are showing the game in the UK ? ESPN ? All we get in Canada is Setanta's coverage, which has Tyler commentating.

It's is a absolutely terrible match, wonder what Sky thought of when they picked this match up ? From the look of Kilgallon, so far, don't think we missed out on much.

Yep should have scored that

Bloody hell, how many empty seats there at the stadium of shite ?

Like it would seem most of us, know absolutely nothing about the lad, lets hope he works out, good luck to him. As someone above says, that's probably it then for the window, on the whole pretty pleased, we've addressed much of what we needed, noiw if only Hughton could pick the right bloody teams.

Speak for yourself, but I totally expected us to be in this position. I knew this division was full of crap and we had a squad of players that should be expected to win it. The one thing I have been surprised about is despite not really playing up to our potential we've still managed to win as many games as we have.

Unfortunately we are stuck with Hughton for the foreseable future, whether we go up or stay put, he's not going anywhere I'm afraid and he's certainly not going to stand down, so it's a bit of a pointless debate. IF we get promoted he'll be sacked with 10 games most likely.

Fair play to him, nice way to make ex players feel welcome, what a fucking arsehole the guy who spat was hope Chopra broke his nose.

Well we still need a striker, so I hope they are still looking for someone, wouldn't be surprised if we make one last bid for beckford.

I'm not going to get into this "we are smaller the fucking Wigan" debate but this situation kind of reminds me of the Rob Lee purchase, there he turned down premiership Boro to come to 1st Division Newcastle, hopefully Moses has the same foresight and who knows could go on to have a career as good as Rob's. I doubt he will though, oh well good luck to him then, enjoy getting your arse handed to you in front of 5,000 regulars every week.

Gap cut to 6 points from WBA, missed a huge opportunity today, really bad team selection, smacks of not wanting to upset the senior pros and way too cautious.

By the sounds of this performance he and the rest of Cardiff's team are gonna murder us.

53% possesion to Liecester - how does that happen when they are down to 10 men ??

Hughton will make the following changes at 0:0 with 10 mins to go. Jonas on for Routledge, Ranger for Carrol, Hall for R Taylor. Mark my words.

So, I take it, it's not been a great game so far A win today would be huge, lets hope hugton's not blind enough to stick to the same line up here, it looked a bad one on paper, unfortunately they seem have done nothing to disprove that.

6am it is shown says my Aunty over there, then again maybe your in a different time zone. My autny lives in Hamilton, where abouts do you live? Yeah she's probably east coast who are two ahead of us here on mountain time.

Shit just looked at the TV schedules for Setanta here in Canada, the game's not being shown until 4am tomorrow morning on tape delay !!!