Paully

"We recognise supporters' strong desire to win a trophy, an ambition which the club now shares as Mike Ashley made clear in his comments on the last day of the season. Steve is excited by this and he has our full support in trying to achieve this goal"

Knew they'd mention targeting the cups!

Biggest cunts around those lot! Only we could make a complete embarrassment and receive lots of justified abuse when appointing a new head coach!

What a stupid cunt this bloke is man http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/17579377 Alan Pardew likens Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa to Lionel Messi Newcastle manager Alan Pardew likened Hatem Ben Arfa to Barcelona star Lionel Messi after another fine display in Sunday's 2-0 victory over Liverpool. The French forward had a hand in both Papiss Cisse goals against the Reds. "With the ball at his feet, he's magic," Pardew told BBC Sport. "As magic as [Luis] Suarez or Messi at times. "We had to work with him to understand exactly what he's about. He has got a special talent, we know he's special."

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-can-expect-character-attitude-9424258 Steve McClaren Character, attitude, commitment. Character, attitude, commitment. Character, attitude... There were Saturdays covering Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough for the Sunday Sun when I actually contemplated copying his post-match quotes and pasting them into the following week’s paper. Win, lose or bore. Character, attitude, commitment. New to management then after forging his reputation as a coach, whether those words came from McClaren’s head, heart or a Pro-Licence manual, they were instant whitewash over the performance just viewed, papered over the dearth of dash and derring-do in his football, repressed on an altar of pragmatism, and came to sum up his five-year spell at the Riverside. The first major trophy in the club’s history. Ergo, their most successful manager ever. Boring, boring Boro. Teesside, still split. It had all begun in a much breezier mood. Presented at the forefront of a backroom staff comprising Bill Beswick – “not a shrink,” the sports psychologist told me, “a stretch” – there was openness and optimism. Later over lunch once, he was engaging, less guarded than he had, by then, become. Told us 6/10 for every defender, every game, made him happy. That was the platform, and the problem. Gareth Southgate was a great, first, marquee signing. Set an example, set standards. Solid and dependable. No frills. So the football followed. McClaren’s first game in management was a 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal, the first of four straight losses culminating in a 4-1 Riverside reverse at the hands of Newcastle United. By then, McClaren had switched from 4-3-3 to 5-3-2 and eventually, patchily, results started to come together. It would almost always remain, in terms of tactics, performance and form, just as inconsistent. Occasional wins against the big boys, including something even of an Indian sign over Manchester United. Then less impressive displays and results against lesser lights. In the former, rigid, well-rehearsed training ground game-plans came off. Often by a single goal. Worthy, laudable. Rarely terrifically exciting. In the latter, slow-starting Boro struggled to seize the early initiative, to be proactive, against clubs on a more familiar footing. So though they reached the FA Cup semi-final, a 12th-place finish told just as much of the tale. Equally tellingly, two 11th places followed (as did a good record over Sunderland, which might help)... But the latter, 2003/04, brought the Carling Cup and made McClaren the first English boss to win major domestic silverware since 1996. It took them into Europe where, the following season, Boro beat Lazio and reached the last 16 of the UEFA Cup. Finished seventh, too, which restored them to Europe’s secondary competition. This was the Boro of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Mark Viduka, Bolo Zenden and a young Stewart Downing, making the football a touch – just a touch – more entertaining. So it was that in 2006, McClaren’s last at the club, they rode a rollercoaster – via stoppage-time wins, inspired by all-out attack-minded substitutions, over FC Basle and Steaua Bucharest – to the UEFA Cup final. That they lost, therein, convincingly to Sevilla is airbrushed by some. The journey was the thing. The Carling Cup the greatest day. McClaren, their greatest manager. Others remember that during that same season Boro slumped back to 14th, beaten 7-0 at Arsenal and 4-0 at home by Aston Villa, when a supporter threw his season ticket at the manager. That was McClaren, dividing opinion. Successful on paper, dull on the pitch. That was, also, a long, long time ago. Stints of varying success with England, FC Twente, VfL Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest and Derby County have followed. He will have learned, retained core principles and changed others. So it is difficult to know what to expect. My money’s on character, attitude...

Press conference tomorrow according to my out of date bottle of HP!

Makes you wonder if McClaren is all done and dusted?! We all know Ashley likes a gamble now and again!

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-uniteds-most-memorable-managers-9410727 Keegan Kevin Keegan was an outrageous gamble that spectacularly hit the button. He may have been England skipper with a frizzy perm who finished his distinguished playing career by leading Newcastle to promotion but Keegan had never managed a fish and chip shop never mind a top football club. He had lived out of the country in Marbella since retirement many years before whiling his days away playing golf and lazing in the sun. KK had lost touch with the current football scene back home. His contacts were severely limited, his knowledge and capability to mould a bunch of players into a fighting force unknown. Yet United, in the depths of despair, turned not to the safest of targets but a little fella with a trigger temperament and a controversial as well as charismatic personality. Sure, Keegan’s impact would be immediate given the way he had wowed Geordies during his two years as a player but once the honeymoon was over then what? I’ll tell you what – the birth of the Entertainers and a glory charge from the cusp of the old Third Division to Premier League runners-up. The rise was so swift, so sudden, as to give you a nose bleed. However it was a great coming together of minds and spirit. Sir John Hall, backed by go-getters like his son Douglas and Freddie Fletcher, fitted perfectly with Keegan’s flamboyance which fitted like a glove with the dreams of success starved Geordies. It was the right time, right place, and right people. Keegan was like riding a bucking bronco – exciting, dangerous, unpredictable, glorious, heart stopping. He was a handful all right, but it was worth taking the risk as long as you were prepared for the occasional fall as well as growing success. Keegan may have been the greatest self-promoter I have ever met, the most willing to integrate with the fans, and a tub-thumper par excellence but he could also spit out the dummy. I saw it at firsthand on many occasions. Terry McDermott spent more time on the motorway bringing back a departing Kevin than he did putting out the cones on the training pitch! Like so many others I had my ups and downs with a temperamental centre stage star. I was close enough to him to regularly share a stage during a series of talk-ins yet when a player he tried to stop the sales of a book I’d written about him which he had originally given permission for me to do. I always thought he worried over my ability to gain the ear of Sir John having worked with Hall’s Magpie Group for two years. However when he did hold court every word was like a drop of water on a parched tongue and in any case results were so spectacular I could forgive him anything. The strength of Keegan was that he was in complete control of player purchases which is why when he fleetingly returned under Mike Ashley and it wasn’t a coming together of like minds he was off quicker than Usain Bolt chasing a rabbit. Having been told who to sign by Dennis Wise a shocked KK ran all the way to see a solicitor and see Ashley in a Premier League court. No one of course could argue with the players Keegan brought in during the early nineties...Peter Beardsley, David Ginola, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Philippe Albert, Rob Lee, Tino Asprilla and Alan Shearer were entertainers as well as winners, though it must be said that Hall willingly put up the money to purchase them. United’s record transfer fee was smashed time and again until a world record £15m was paid to bring Shearer home. The success, you see, not only required a leader with the vision of Keegan but an owner who would fully back him. Again as with Joe Harvey more than two decades before this United manager was never a coach. If it had been up to him he would have played five-a-side all day long. What KK cleverly did, though, was open United’s training ground at Durham to the punters with Derek Fazackerly and others organising the sessions. More than 3,000 would turn up just to watch Newcastle train. That bond with the fans is so, so different to what we have today. The punters believed and trusted him. He was able to sell United’s record goalscorer Andy Cole to Manchester United and stand on the steps of St James’ Park asking worried Toon followers to believe in him. Can you imagine Alan Pardew doing that? Or Ashley? Trust him they did and they were rewarded by the signings of Ferdinand and Shearer! FAMOUS QUOTES “It’s not like it said in the brochure” – when first walking out on managing United. “I’d love it, love it” – losing control on telly when asked about beating Fergie to the title as Newcastle sacrificed a 12 point lead. “What’s his job? He’s my goffer” – surprising everyone by bringing a non coach Terry McDermott onto his backroom staff.

:-( Looking lean! http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/09/5be5bc68f05cc3be2fda146b064b1eb9.jpg

Gannin' along the Scotswood Roooooooaaaaaaaaaaad!

Snap! Had Ronaldo and Messi in the semis so I was £340 up! Messi again tonight!

Ronniegill! This fucking club! Michael Laudrup wanted to talk, and so did Frank de Boer. For a couple of days last week, Patrick Vieira was open to the idea of discussing Newcastle United’s head coach vacancy as a way of fast-tracking his own managerial development – before the interest fizzled out with both parties adamant that the other one had been the instigators. There had been others, too. With Remi Garde it went as far as the interview process while Christophe Galtier and Jocelyn Gourvennec, two of France’s brightest young managerial talents, would have been amenable. Yet Newcastle took a head count of these candidates – one of two of whom might have had a seriously transformative impact on the club – and went, instead, for Steve McClaren.

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July 29th York vs NUFC Doncaster vs Sunderland Good luck East coast trains!

Transfer window shutting at 6pm from now on - poor SSN and especially Jim White!

Great short term appointment for me - I can see him bringing in Cocu to take over in a year too

Great news for us as it totally frees up McClaren He's a very good coach him - the daft named bastard!

Without doubt they'll mention his cup record too to emphasise how we are now going to target them!

Palace and Villa battling it out over him FFS! Bring him back!

Staying on! Absolute joke of a club! http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-return-old-blueprint-steve-9379760

Palace fans think that Pardew is God and that he plays vibrant attacking football!

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/lee-clark-lifts-lid-blackpools-5803823 The renegade striker who complained of toothache in December and was never seen again all season. The goalkeeper who played in an autographed shirt because the kitman had been sacked and no new jersey could be found. The players suffering from cramp before half-time because they’d had no pre-season. The dedicated professionals literally begging to leave to revive their careers. The owner who had the statue of a club legend taken down and placed in a shed. The supporters who became so enraged they invaded the pitch and forced an abandonment. And the former England captain so upset by the chaos at his beloved club that the hurt in his eyes convinced the manager to resign. Clark, who resigned two weeks ago, is a rare modern footballing man - a lifelong Newcastle United fan, with genuine concern for the way supporters feel increasingly disconnected from their clubs. He said: “I’ll probably always side with supporters because I’m one of them. Players, managers and owners come and go but fans stay, it’s passed down from grandparents and great-grandparents. “Nowadays players are often in a bubble, they don’t know the man in the street, they don’t understand how football affects supporters’ lives. Knowing all that is why Blackpool hurt so much. “I’ve always tried to have a relationship with supporters but I got labelled as a good friend of the Blackpool chairman, who was backing what he was doing, when I wasn’t. "I didn’t fall out with him, in fact he asked me to stay, but I’d wanted to do a job for the supporters.” Clark took the job in late October with Blackpool rock-bottom and after relegation was sealed, the festering resentment towards chairman Karl Oyston reached toxic levels when a supporters’ pitch protest forced the abandonment of the home game against Huddersfield. Clark admitted: “I think 99.9 per cent of people thought I shouldn’t take the job – but managers need an ego and I thought I could be the miracle worker. “I did the due diligence, but I soon realised all those people warning me off were being proved right. I’d done due diligence but nothing prepares you for the reality.” The striker in question was former Newcastle bad-lad Nile Ranger. Clark explained: “Nile is an extremely talented footballer, with many issues away from football – in December, I told him he wouldn’t be in the squad against Birmingham, he said he was injured and didn’t train that day, then he had toothache and we didn’t see him again. “Nile was getting paid, then fined every day he didn’t turn up. My advice was for the club not to take up the option of another season for him but they have done.” Former Huddersfield and Birmingham boss Clark said: “In my first game, I had players with fatigue - one going down with cramp before half-time; they’d had no pre-season. “They brought in a bucket-load of players at the last minute. It looked like they’d recruited players who thought ‘This our last choice, so we’ll sign for Blackpool’. “In January, I had disenchanted players - good pros - begging me to leave to further their careers. “There was always a negative story. The kitman left and the keeper, Joe Lewis, had to play in a signed jersey because we couldn’t find another. Even the pitch was an embarrassment. “The atmosphere between the fans and chairman was so intense and it only became worse. “They had intelligence that the supporters were planning a protest around the Stan Mortensen statue, then it was gone. Before the Huddersfield game, we knew a bigger than normal protest was planned. “I’d had regular sitdowns with Jimmy Armfield, talking about the club’s great old days but I saw him while the referee and match commander were trying to decide whether we would go back on the pitch and could see the hurt in Jimmy’s eyes. "That really hit me hard. That probably made my decision to leave. “To achieve anything, all a club’s main stakeholders need to pull in the same direction. Hopefully that can happen at Blackpool – somehow I don’t think it will.” He said: “A lot of people have told me there are similarities between Newcastle and Blackpool, but Mike Ashley presides over one of the best run clubs in the Premier League, judged on sound businesses principles alone - though in football that isn’t always possible. “That football club dictates people’s lives in Newcastle, they will spend their last penny to go to the match. People say their expectations are too high, delusions of grandeur, but they just want a team that mirrors their passion. “When I played under Kevin Keegan, he totally understood that. From what Mike Ashley said before the West Ham game, he accepts having exciting players and playing the Geordie way goes with the territory. “It would be my dream to manage the club. People ask John Carver how he could take the job with the owner not spending, but if you’re a Geordie and you turn down being Newcastle manager, you’ll regret it for life. “Having a relegation on my CV hurts but it hasn’t knocked my confidence. In hindsight, I regret taking the Blackpool job – but it will help in the future.”

1-1!

Hamburg are on the verge of being relegated for the first time ever (BT Sport)