KaKa

He's on a free I think. I read recently he's done well and should be getting more interest, but the age concerns have popped up again, slowing things down.

32 minutes ago, ilikenewcastle said:

By the time Allardyce got the job in 2016, Redknapp's reputation was in the toilet after managing QPR. You could argue he should have got the job instead of Hodgson in 2012, but I think the case for Hodgson over Redknapp was strong too.

Yeah, it's quite unfortunate really. Think he'd have had them playing some really exciting football.

Completely forgot about Hodgson man, yikes. Hodgson, Allardyce and Southgate. Man, that is a depressing trio, from an enjoyable spectacle point of view.

7 minutes ago, McCormick said:

I think I’d prefer Aguerd, honestly but both have their strengths. I’d be really happy if this went through. Sick of the Botman saga.

I haven't really seen too much of Rennes and never really paid a lot of attention to their defenders, but all the write ups on the guy are really good, and just watching his clips he does look a fantastic athlete. Just seems to be a bit more of an under the radar player.

I imagine we have started by targeting the highest profile players to see if any would be interested and then starting to work our way down to alternative options that are still talented, but not quite as high profile, and so more straightforward to do deals for.

7 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

The players they've let go over the years is mad - Coman, Diaby, Nkunku. All Paris-born too.

 

Imagine having the greatest catchment area in the world football for talent, presenting a readymade base and identity, and instead buying all foreign superstars. Drab.

It's so incredibly stupid man  

21 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

 

As predicted.

 

I only started watching Ligue 1 this season, but Aguerd does look good. He reads the game well and is comfortable on the ball, he's also absolutely rapid. Hard to believe he isn't West Ham bound though.

 

Just watching his highlights and he looks an incredible athlete. Wow.

If this goes through instead of Botman, there'll be no 'slow' jokes that's for sure  

1 minute ago, McCormick said:

Left footed as well, so it would appear (if true, and it’s a big if) like we’re telling Lille and possibly Botman to kick rocks.

Yeah, he might well have been one of the back up options the whole time.

He's left footed and appears to be very comfortable on the ball and really good at distributing it too, which sounds right up Howe's street.

1 hour ago, ManDoon said:

Redknapp bankrupted Portsmouth practically with insane contracts. Also people who aren’t into dodgy deals don’t usually react like this:

 

 

First if heard of him bankrupting Portsmouth. If he's spent too much or giving too many contracts that weren't sustainable, surely that's a failure of the football executives above him. You can't just be giving a manager whatever they ask for. The bit about the reaction in the interview is silly as you can't bas it off of that at all.

It's clear a lot of people don't think he should have the job, which is fair enough. Just think it is laughable that someone like Allardyce was given it ahead of him, only for the guy to be doing some dodgy stuff straight away, before even having managed a game.

19 minutes ago, McCormick said:

Really good player and someone I’d hoped we’d be looking at. Too late now though you’d imagine.

Yeah, looks like he is very highly rated. Hard to know if we've always been in the picture though, without it being reported. Be interesting to see how it plays out.

16 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Love a hijack, no idea what his game is like at all though 

https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2022/feature-nayef-aguerd-rennes-rough-diamond-is-now-one-of-ligue-1s-best-defenders/

I think because we are going for some really promising players that other clubs are interested in, we might ultimately have to accept that we are not going to be able to get deals done early.

Think clubs are going to continue to press to get bigger fees from us until as late as possible, while encouraging interest from other clubs.

Ultimately, to get the best calibre of player we can, think we're going to have to wait it out, but we'll ultimately get some good deals done.

Sick of the pair of them tbh. 

1 minute ago, HTT II said:

I don’t or didn’t mind Redknapp, as a manager anyway. Always played decent attractive attacking football. But as a person, he doesn’t fit the New England type character, they got stung after Big Sam. 

It's crazy Allardyce got it ahead of him in the first place. And I doubt Redknapp would have done something as crass as what fat Sam did when in that position.

I genuinely don't remember, did Redknapp actually ever get caught legitimately doing anything dodgy?

25 minutes ago, Fantail Breeze said:

 

This  

 

Started reading… 

Got to the ‘Arry section… 

From a football perspective why does Redknapp get so little respect though?

Allardyce and then Southgate have just got the job in back to back appointments and neither have achieved anything close to what Redknapp has, all while Redknapp has played infinitely better football.

Redknapp went into Spurs when they were in the bottom three and in a couple of seasons had them in the Champions League.

Put some respect on that man's name. My God.

Why are England incapable of getting in a manager that can get the team using the ball better?

The team is stacked full of players that are brilliant technically now. I think it's unacceptable that the team plays the way they do, even when they got to the final and semi final recently.

In my opinion, looking at the opponents they had in those last two tournaments, and the level of talent they had in the team, I genuinely think Harry Redknapp would have won at least one of those tournaments with England.

Say what you want about Redknapp, but his teams are always really good going forward, and he fills forward thinking players with tons of confidence, and gives them the freedom to do what they are best at, and Redknapp has also always been able to get results for the most part. His teams don't really tend to be rubbish defensively.

Don't understand why Redknapp never got a crack at it.

44 minutes ago, toon25 said:

Please no. He's absolutely shit.

Agreed. He is so poor, and not comfortable playing out from the back.

Just now, Keegans Export said:

tbf it is the "Sven Botman" thread, would this particular conversation not be better had in the "Saudi ownership" thread instead?

Yes, this is true. Noted. No more Saudi talk from me on here.

2 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

If you didn't see it then I'm pleased for you, because I wish I'd never seen it either.

 

Attacking Amnesty International and Hatice Cengiz, constantly bringing up everywhere and everything that's done the terrible things Saudi Arabia has, pointing to the other things Saudi Arabia invests in, that the UK sells them weapons so why should we care, claiming people didn't care about it before they bought us, claiming it was all an anti-NUFC agenda, that it's racist, or just outright that they don't care. Ringing any bells?

 

Not saying all of them don't have fair arguments attached to them, but getting into the realms of saying things like  'well they bomb such and such, why are you picking on me?' is getting into the realms of inadvertantly putting forward the philosophical argument of 'if everyone's guilty no one's guilty' when really you're just trying to defend supporting your football club, which no one should have to do. 

 

Re the bit in bold, I didn't say that it is that, I said they end up crossing the line and doing that like in the examples above.

 

I've said it many times, but under Ashley the excuse was 'support the team not the regime' and the truth is that we didn't have a say in any of it. We can quite easily leave it at that, but there are some that will defend and deflect for the owners and it's self-evident that there are those in our fanbase (and Man City's) who do that, so not absolute nonsense at all. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, fair enough then. I agree getting into some of those arguments is pointless and doesn't come across well, but it is borne out of frustration and being on put on the defensive and so I do somewhat understand why it happens.

I think it is completely ridiculous that these ownership issues are thrown in the faces of the fans tbh. Most aren't clued up enough to have to defend themselves on these things, and so it's going to always lead to a lot of very clumsy things being said when they get riled up.

Once the Premier League determined the ownership was separate from the Saudi state and passed the thing through, what on Earth can be done then. All these folks then coming in saying 'Well, no actually, you are directly aligned with the Saudi state and every evil thing they do', is just an impossible situation.

17 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

The rationale for defending and deflecting doesn't change the fact that they're doing it. It is happening yes - all you have to do is read the threads on here when it was looking like happening in 2020, or just on Twitter in general.

 

No one's out there saying to themselves "I'm going to defend the things the Saudis have done" like, who would? They're out there defending our relationship with our owners and in doing so often cross the line into inadvertantly defending and deflecting from the things the Saudis have done.

 

Because of our fans' emotional link to the club, when people come along and legitimately criticise the owners and our relationship with them, fans take it to heart (because of our emotional attachment to the club) and in trying to defend something they love, end up defending and deflecting for the Saudis.

I'm not moralising or owt, it seems like a pretty clear cut case of people defending their emotional attachment and looking after their own material interests, but I think it's weird that people also try and pretend it's not happening. 

Defending Saudi practices, would be saying that there is nothing wrong with it. Not seen that happening.

I'm sorry you cannot say defending the relationship with the owners of the club, is inadvertently defending and deflecting the abhorrent practices being carried out by the ruling Saudi regime. Not having that.

The main reason people get annoyed by the criticising of the club, fans and ownership is because the fucking Premier League allows these sorts of people to buy the club, which is the main issue here. The Premier League deemed the buyers to be separate from the Saudi state, but then as soon as the deal goes through, everyone piles in and has a go at the fans of the club that had no power or say in the whole transaction in the first place. In that situation it's no surprise the fans then feel the need to defend themselves and the ownership.

The whole thing is an absolute nonsense. 

22 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Intended or not, at a very base level our owners now have an army of Newcastle fans willing to defend or deflect from the things the Saudis do, a few dupes in the fan base and in the media who think this 'brings them to the table', and a fair few people who deny sportswashing exists.

 

Whether something is a success or failure and the form that something takes doesn't make any difference to whether something exists or not. Sportswashing does exist and putting it bluntly it's ignorant to suggest otherwise

Not seen anyone defending what the Saudi's do because they bought the club. Is that actually happening?

At most they are just letting other fans get under their skin and so are firing back about the hypocrisy of it all in annoyance, and then being petty by carrying the flag or dressing up in their attire, which is ridiculous, but in no way means they care about and now support the Saudis or their practices.

If we are talking about people genuinely now looking more favourably on these countries because of a football club, that just is not happening, no one cares enough to do such a thing. I think it is preposterous.

16 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

i dont know much about the sport washing thing, but what do they earn on this? The Qatar WC has been a car crash on every level. And when they buy a club what do they achieve? They will have a fanbase who "defends" them. Some millions worldwide? Then you have the rest of the millions/billions hating everything they do. All newspaper/TV/media will be negative against the ownership. There is nobody who will be going around for years and tell the word..do you rememeber how wonderful the Qatar WC was? Do you remember when PSG was so good in Ligue 1? That was magic!

 

So can anyone enlighten me on this big business called sports washing?

 

Sorry as this is the Botman thread.. 

I don't understand it either man ... even with Man City and PSG I barely even attach them to the countries involved when just watching the games, never mind actually looking at those countries in any kind of better light because of a bloody football team. It's a shocking strategy if that's what they're supposedly going for.

2 minutes ago, sushimonster85 said:

To be fair to City, if you discount those early days when they went a bit mental (comparatively), they have been pretty shrewd in recent times. Before Grelish their transfer record was the £68m they spend on De Bruyne back in 2015. Grelish aside, they have always tended to operate in the £50-£70m range for players, and usually for players on the up, rather than at the top ready to start declining. It's PSG that pull the truly mental shit. 

Yeah, I agree. And I think we are just going to follow that blueprint of getting players with big time potential a bit earlier on, but do it from the outset, and we will have a lot of success with it.

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I think they just mean the building will be gradual and the decisions will be thoughtful. It doesn't mean they're not prepared to spend a shit-ton of money when needed.

 

I don't know much about PSG's story, but I think Man City is a good comparison. They have been smart and they have a great organisation, but it doesn't mean they don't use their finances to outmuscle people. When they needed to spend £150m+ on fullbacks to get the right one, they went out and did it. 

I hear you, but I'm not so certain. Lets see how it goes.

I think they are going to put excellent people in place, and we are going to have success in a way that is not going to require a 'shit-ton' of money being thrown around.

2 minutes ago, Awaymag said:

 

Im all washed and lathered with NUFC.....love this sports washing me.   Beats being shat on for 14 years, was that sports dumping?

The sports washing thing is fascinating to me.

Firstly, why anyone thinks those folks care further about how they are perceived I have no idea. Everywhere they go the leaders of countries already roll out the red carpet for them!

Secondly, as far as I can see, all these supposed sports washing projects only get them more grief and if anything, just spotlight the issues in their countries. Is there any single example of a successful sports washing endeavour?!

1 minute ago, morpeth mag said:

I agree, I think we will be way bigger in time.

I think a lot of people will be very disappointed tbh.

They keep telling us it's going to be more of a gradual and sustainable build, and any success is going to be based on sound decisions, but people aren't believing it. I think they're going to go about things exactly like they've said.

Don't think we are ever going to see huge amounts of money being thrown around the way the other two have gone about things.

55 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

 

What? Are you talking about in general or just for England? He's certainly not like that for Chelsea.

 

James is England's best right back by an absolute country mile.

As I just stated in another post, playing in the Chelsea team makes things a lot more straightforward for him, as he can get in behind more often on the overlap, and the players around him are able to find him and play him in, and he then does a great job delivering in the final third in those situations.

For England though, where the build up play is no where near as good to create those overloads for him, and then put him in position to produce a final ball or have a pop at goal, it really reduces his effectiveness a great deal IMO.