KaKa

We need good young players with talent man. Ideally these types should be featuring for us off the bench under a real manager i.e. one who isn't placing our better players on said bench instead.

Don't you get bored of this depressing persona KaKa?

It comes in waves ... I do try to stay positive.

It's Roger Kint's fault for starting with the cynical view in the first place. I never even would have had such a horrid thought myself.

Lennon in the middle

 

All the lad can do is kick and run, I'd be like a lost puppy in the woods in the middle.

Nah! Lennon isn't a kick and chase guy man. That's Theo.

Lennon's close control dribbling is decent man. Very harsh.

Pretty sure in his earlier days he played off the front man at times too, unless I'm imagining that.

Feel Lennon gets a really bad rap a lot of times. From what I recall it's just his crossing that really lets him down.

Just making sure they do it after Hull so fans cant cancel their ST direct debits. Support the team, fund the regime

Oh man ... that makes sense. So when is the renewal date then?

Basically pushing the rumours of a top man so people renew, and then lumbering us with some oaf right after.

Never even thought of it like that. Makes way too much sense.

Forever. Bad. Is. Everything.

Seen Aaron Lennon linked with Hull. Guy is still just 27 years old. What happened?

I see what Sterling does playing through the middle, and I wonder if Lennon can do similar things, albeit not to that standard perhaps.

Always thought Lennon, though not perfect, was always a huge nuisance to defences.

Allardyce looking to sign Darren Fletcher ...

I mean, if that doesn't make you spit in disgust I don't know what will.

Why on earth would he sign Darren Fletcher. To play where, and to do what exactly? Such a standard bollocks signing, the way he brought us Smith and Geremi. What a jerk.

Fletcher I presume would only move in order to start, and so who on earth does he replace? The guy gets rid of someone like Zarate, but then looks to sign Darren Fletcher. Gah! Amazing!

Can't believe we still don't have a manager man 

Seriously, what is actually wrong with these folks? Urgh ...

They dare not appoint Carver till the end of the season after this long wait. It would be completely unacceptable from them.

I think we would have got Garde by now if he didn't want to wait till the summer. How fucking irritating is that!

I hate this wait till the summer shit. I mean, what the fuck difference does it really make. Use the remainder of the season to assess and then the summer you can really start building.

Shit is pissing me off man. Hope we can get someone willing to come in now. Don't like these wait till summer punks man. Man up for fuck sake.

How can you not feel embarrassed telling a club to wait for you until the summer, while they do what?! Especially if you aren't even working at the minute. Motherfucker grab your lunch pail and go and work.

I remember Willian doing some exciting things when he was at Shaktar. Then this creep shows up at Chelsea.

Kaiz welling up with pride?

 

Norwegian football has needed a shining star for like... a decade now, so it's nice that we might end up having one. Yet the way the media over here is jizzing EVERYWHERE because of this is making me annoyed beyond belief.

 

He's sincerely really f***ing talented though. Outplayed the entire f***ing league before he turned 16, and the best player by far in all his national apps so far. I genuinely think he might be on the fringes of the Real Madrid first team sooner rather than later.

I need to watch him play. What's his preferred or best position?

Oscar is never Brazilian man! How can a Brazilian playing off the striker be so bland. A modern day tragedy. Breaks my heart.

Miss those smiling Brazilians that would just humiliate every foe with absurd displays of flair filled trickery. God someone please bring them back.

Why do we have to wait for the summer, while Pardew's Palace shit upon us from a higher league position? Why? Pray tell, why?

They're all doing my head in, I've got. Bets on tuchel,  de boer and galtier and they all gonna be f***ed cos or carver getting x amount of games

http://media.giphy.com/media/N25nrRX4rsnkY/giphy.gif

I do think McClaren is decent manager (or headcoach!), incidentally.

 

Decent, safe, won't rock the boat and comparitively cheap aye.

Will keep Carver and his dummies too.

Lee Ryder @lee_ryder

Tim Sherwood on #nufc job (Talksport): "This one, for me, is not something I will be interested in"

 

LOL who does he think he is!

The guy is just so embarrassing. Those clips of him throwing his coat around last season man. Just an absolute idiot.

He's already turned his nose up at West Brom and Palace, so I don't know what the hell job he thinks he will get. He's a moron.

No one wants the guy here anyway.

Waiting until the summer for McClaren? I like McClaren, but that's just not good enough I'm afraid.

Not sure on Laudrup at all, but at least the football should be a damn sight better.

 

This sounds familiar

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21647601

The Swans are eighth after their 1-0 win over Newcastle, a result that took them past Laudrup's pre-season target of 40 points, with 10 games remaining.

 

The Dane believes the top seven places will be sewn up by more established clubs, but that eighth is achievable.

 

"Eighth would be incredible, for me it would be like winning the league. It would be fantastic," he said.

 

"I think the first seven spots are already there, Manchester [united], Manchester [City], Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton.

 

"Coming eighth is like winning the league because the other seven are above us." 

He's so going to get hired isn't he 

I think ultimately the club would prefer someone that is willing to have the three stooges as part of their staff. It's clear they hate handing out money.

He's going to go to Liverpool. Gerrard's replacement. I would like to see him return to central midfield, as he was excellent there for Villa.

I think people who praise Graham Carr (rightly) for his great finds and are optimistic about having a head coach with little say in the transfer department, but who can get the best out of any Carr approved transfer target Charnley manages to ‘get over the line’ are hopelessly naïve. Yes, there is no denying that we have managed to bring in some very good players at reasonable fees in recent years (we have also brought in some duds but that’s beside the main point I’m trying to make). Such a setup could work in theory if Carr’s (proven) scouting ability added to Chanrley’s (as yet largely unproven) dealmaking ability is used for the benefit of the manager, i.e. to compose a good squad of players that compliments each other well. Over the Ashley years we have always had some good, “top six” players at any stage, but we have also had glaring weaknesses, and I mean Championship level players at best in the first team, let alone the squad. On the pitch, this will always hold us back from reaching the potential level of our best players, hence why they want away as soon as they have proven they can cut it in the Premier League, and we start all over again, only the next “great deal” we do may be in a completely different position, or with complete disregard to our “philosophy” of play (ha, I know we have none, which is part of the problem.

 

Graham Carr is a brilliant spotter of talent, and he apparently has a wide array of contacts throughout football who enable him to sniff out the best deals for individual players. We are however forever hindered by the fact that our transfer dealings focus on getting the best possible deal each and every time. We would rather buy another left back when we already have three if we believe there is money to be made, than bring in a centre back we are desperate for. Centre forwards cost serious money, so we will take punts on cheap ones until we hit the jackpot and move them on for huge profit as soon as someone offers a healthy return on our investment.

 

This is no way for a head coach to come in and be successful. Yes, a head coach should primarily be involved with coaching the first team and getting the best out of the players at his disposal. But he should also give direction to the transfer team (i.e. Carr and Charnley) of what he needs. So for example “if we are potentially selling Sissoko this transfer window, I want to change the setup slightly from counter attack (his major strength) towards possession football, so go and get me an attacking midfield player who can create and score goals”. Or “Steven Taylor has broken down for the rest of the season (again) and we plan to not extend his expiring contract, go and get me a commanding centre back who would make good foil for Coloccini”.  Or even: “I think we are light in the striker department, and my style of play requires somebody to hold the ball up as well as somebody with good finishing. I know this guy from my previous job. His name is XYZ. I think he could do a job for us. Can you have a look at him and get him in, or someone of his ilk?”. What I am trying to say is that the manager (head coach) may not get final say on who the club ultimately bring in, but he SHOULD be the person who sets the requirements for the transfer team to work towards, which is obviously not the case at our club, nor is it what is planned reading through the lines of Charnley’s statement.

 

It’s all good and well saying we need a head coach who can make players better and who doesn’t require heavy involvement in player incomings and outgoings, but this is such a simplistic approach. Players generally improve because they can play with confidence in a team that does well. This requires a manager with tactical awareness who is provided with the correct tools to execute these tactics. I can’t see any high profile, promising head coach, should they even be interested in the first place lasting long here if his reputation is damaged by the evident lack of ambition from the people at the top.

 

Great post Unbelievable. One thing Charnley talked about yesterday is the need to work together and for the head coach to identify his needs to Carr to source the player and Charnley to negotiate and finalise the signing. So the process should work like this, HC says I need a CB with good height, technically sound and has a bit of pace, Carr identifies a number of candidates, with approximate costs, the three of them get together and draw up a priority list based on available budget, best fit for the club and likely price. Then charnley goes to work on getting the player in start from the top of the priority list.

 

As you say they've been guilty way too many times in the past of getting that priority list right, with a focus way too much on price rather than ability  and/or trying to get the player for under the likely selling price. They need to learn from those mistakes.

 

Not just that. They have been guilty time after time of not bringing in players for the positions where we were weak. Charnely speaks of trust in the relationship, and how they may have to wait for the next transfer window for a certain addition because there will be a better deal to be had. That could in theory be defended, but we have seen time and time again they will happily go three, four windows without cover in a position (right back), or without a first team player of the required ability (centre back, centre forward). I see no reason why that would change with a statement that only hammers home more firmly that the head coach has very little say in the makeup of his squad.

 

When you look at our strategy it actually makes in virtually impossible for a manager/head coach to succeed.

In all of that time waiting for good quality purples (the 3-4 windows as you say) we're selling other players who are at their peak value contractually or due to outstanding form.

 

Given we're only interested in ££££££££££'s it makes you wonder what the point of NUFC is sportingly.

 

Perhaps the press () should ask that very question of Charnley. 'What exactly is the point of NUFC as a sporting institution?'

But Pardew finished fifth though? 

£61 million for a player you raised up. That's got to make your balls ache incessantly man.