Happy Face

He's only provided one assist all season...on the first day.

I know there's a Baker and Kelly thread in GC, but I implore you to listen to this weeks podcast. Go straight to the 45 minute mark if needs be. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...st?id=263452065 http://www.wippit.com/Danny_Baker It's the one from the 30th A work of absoloute genius.

A place to report any player sightings outside of St James' Park or training. I just saw Peter Beardsley buying a pink cake in M&S, the big puff. He refused to sample a biscuit a young lass was offering tasters of too. Can anyone beat that?

Viduka was poor today, but whenever he did use his strength to win the ball the referee was a twat about it. With more leniance his game could have looked a lot better.

Responding to an opinion makes you a sanctimonious c*** but posting your opinion fastest means you're right? It's all about debate mate. If someone said, "Well, actually I thought so-and-so had a good game, because.." that would be a debate. Saying "Oooh, don't be nasty, we can't win them all" when you dare say someone wasn't up to scratch today isn't a debate. As a performance, it wasn't bad, it was just... ...stale. Toothless. I'm not looking for a debate on how people should debate the game. I don't see how an opinion is sanctomonious when we've all seen the same game. No-one has more insight of it than anyone else. it's all opinion. There are certain people on the board that won't stand for any negative criticism. Happy clappers. But Owen was shit and shouldn't get near an England squad should he?

Responding to an opinion makes you a sanctimonious c*** but posting your opinion fastest means you're right? It's all about debate mate. If someone said, "Well, actually I thought so-and-so had a good game, because.." that would be a debate. Saying "Oooh, don't be nasty, we can't win them all" when you dare say someone wasn't up to scratch today isn't a debate. As a performance, it wasn't bad, it was just... ...stale. Toothless. I'm not looking for a debate on how people should debate the game. I don't see how an opinion is sanctomonious when we've all seen the same game. No-one has more insight of it than anyone else. it's all opinion.

Are you kidding? Butt was one of the few players that looked like he thought about what he did today. As I said previously I thought Butt spent most of the time winning his own poor passes back. Fair enough. At least he made up for any mistakes he made though. Watching Owen show no interest in winning a ball 5 yards from him was more annoying to me though.

Responding to an opinion makes you a sanctimonious cunt but posting your opinion fastest means you're right? It's all about debate mate.

Are you kidding? Butt was one of the few players that looked like he thought about what he did today.

Nah, thought he was shocking. Disinterested, still he has a game for "his club" this week. Owen got one touch in 25 minutes as far as I recall. Maybe two. Viduka wasn't much better like. For all his inability to control a ball or pass it, Martins always looks a far more willing participant.

They don't want him and he's got 3 years on his contract. Unless another club comes in I don't see any need to be rushing it and going into seven figure sums. I'd offer a swap For Luque, and leave it on the table until someone else shows interest. His wages on the other hand, I'd go as high as the player wants because we need to attract him.

Shit off. What's scary is not the belief that we'd pay that, but that you'd believe it was good business.

Always loved Deco. He's dreamy

I wouldn't disagree with this. However, I really don't think we're in much of a position to hire a manager who has proven he can manage a 'big' club well - for all this talk of Sven club football has changed drastically since he was involved. The reason I'm quite pleased with the idea of Sam is that (I'd imagine similarly to most people) he's pretty much the best we could have hoped for, especially if he's installed as soon as it seems he will be. He's not ideal, but he has a lot of attributes and will hopefully take us in the right direction. If he can't at least get us going then fuck knows who could tbh. This was the same logic a LOT of people applied to Roeder's appointment. Hopefully it'll work out this time.

I've not read the whole thread so can't say if responses are amazing or not, but just because Sam was up for the England job it doesn't mean he's any good to Newcastle United. The better man got that job, and look how it's turning out. I don't understand the this paragraph. "Top 4"? he's not got them above 6th. he spent £12Million on Diouf and Anelka, not really average money. Bolton have conceded more Than us this year and have the worse goal difference in the top half Again, we've conceded less than Bolton this year without even four defenders at the back for most of the season. Going forward we have been poor, but we have had £30M of strikers (And Shola Ameobi) on the bench most of the season. Without Anelka's goals Bolton would have scored less than us too.

1. It'll cost us to sack Roeder. 2. It'll cost us to bring in Allardyce. 3. He won't bring his backroom staff with him (who must take a lot of credit for his success). 4. His highest ever finish is 6th (It's like for like). 5. It's what the fans want, which is what shepherd has always done...and has cost us dear. Gotta go...

Then you don't see what Roeder has, and will do, to us??? I envy you. I understand perfectly that Roeder is shite. But I think Allardyce is too. I did when he was touted as a replacement for the previous 2 managers and I still do. Most people agreed when we were looking for replacements the last couple of times, now everyone's getting desperate and want someone....anyone who might make a difference. I just don't think it's worth the money to replace shite with shite when the real problem is the man making the appointments. FFS os ONE of the problems. But to say that Allardyce is as bad as the worst manager in the league, bearing in mind where he has gottne Bolton, is wrong. Roeder is a fucking disgrace, and any current Premiership manager (pre-Fat Head Sam resigning) would inprove us. Why's he being tagged the worst manager in the league? Charlton weren't relegation fodder under Curbishley and Wigan finished top half last year. He's not much better like. We always knew he wasn't the appointment anyone wanted, but I think if he'd had Owen playing 25 or more games it would be worth 10 or so points to us at least. To what degree do you expect Allardyce to improve us. Managing a small team to perform above their ability is a different matter to getting a big team to play to theirs. He'd be coming without his backroom staff and at a huge cost. I just don't think he's the gold pot at the end of the rainbow everyone else seems to. We're not a big team. We're a poorish sqaud with a couple of good players. Roeder is a fucking terrble manager, and if you can't see that, thats your blindness. Did you even read my response? I agreed that Roeder isn't a good manager. My point is that Allardyce will not take us forward. He'll just take another season or two to maybe push for intertoto and give Shepherd the excuse of "I gave the fans what they wanted".

Then you don't see what Roeder has, and will do, to us??? I envy you. I understand perfectly that Roeder is shite. But I think Allardyce is too. I did when he was touted as a replacement for the previous 2 managers and I still do. Most people agreed when we were looking for replacements the last couple of times, now everyone's getting desperate and want someone....anyone who might make a difference. I just don't think it's worth the money to replace shite with shite when the real problem is the man making the appointments. FFS os ONE of the problems. But to say that Allardyce is as bad as the worst manager in the league, bearing in mind where he has gottne Bolton, is wrong. Roeder is a fucking disgrace, and any current Premiership manager (pre-Fat Head Sam resigning) would inprove us. Why's he being tagged the worst manager in the league? Charlton weren't relegation fodder under Curbishley and Wigan finished top half last year. He's not much better like. We always knew he wasn't the appointment anyone wanted, but I think if he'd had Owen playing 25 or more games it would be worth 10 or so points to us at least. To what degree do you expect Allardyce to improve us. Managing a small team to perform above their ability is a different matter to getting a big team to play to theirs. He'd be coming without his backroom staff and at a huge cost. I just don't think he's the gold pot at the end of the rainbow everyone else seems to.

Then you don't see what Roeder has, and will do, to us??? I envy you. I understand perfectly that Roeder is shite. But I think Allardyce is too. I did when he was touted as a replacement for the previous 2 managers and I still do. Most people agreed when we were looking for replacements the last couple of times, now everyone's getting desperate and want someone....anyone who might make a difference. I just don't think it's worth the money to replace shite with shite when the real problem is the man making the appointments.

I hate to come across as being swayed by the 'most influential toon site on the web' but I don't see Allardyce making much of a difference. I despair of the clamour for Shepherd to bring in another mediocre manager. He's quickly taking over Doug Ellis as the worst chairman ever. When Ellis took over for the second time at Villa, they had just won the league and European cup, he managed to get them relegated within 5 years and piled untold misery on the villa fans for the next 20 years. Villa are a bigger, more succesful club than Newcastle but that one man held all the power and his lack of ambition/insight held them back for decades. As long as Shepherd is allowed to keep replacing dross with shite we'll be in stasis at best, decline in probability. Who would have been happy with Allardyce after Robson? Or even after Souness? We're higher in the league than when Souness was sacked and have a close season to attract a potential new manager to place his stamp but all of a sudden the fans are happy with allardyce. It's indicative of lowering standards instigated by the chairman and accepted by the fans. Keep Roeder or replace him with Allardyce? I see them as much the same thing (though the latter will cost us a lot more) because I don't believe either will take us up to even a modest ambition of chasing the top four under Shepherds ownership. I totally see where .com are coming from.

So what does that say about out current position?

But Nappy, our best run of results came at the peak of the injury 'crisis'.

I can't see Roeder getting us into the top 6 tbh. The fact we're 16 points off last seasons total with just 9 to play for suggests he's taking us in the wrong direction. Especially considering the standard of the league as a whole has lowered.

I thought the position of this site was that Hitzfeld is the man for the job, and he's been available for years.

Luckily my brains and talent elevated me out of that gutter and I've gone up in the world. ...now I live just off the Woodbine :bigbro: