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as i have said before at least SA doesnt appear to be an "all eggs in one basket" sort of manager like the previous two loosing someone on a free is always a blow seen as he knew the lad and he was only 25 but there you go we lost out go back to him next year buy him for a million when he has spent a season on the bench

I would say more fool us if i didnt think the way the prices of english players are going we got him for a descent price. Guess SA didnt fancy missing out on another signing on the basis of 300k another one in the bag and lets move on.

You have been sucked in by bullshit by managers who signed a player in Jan & it just didnt work out. I reckon the same players were still shit after a pre-season with the same club. its more of the fact we still aint used to a split set transfer period, I guess alot of people think that a window such as january is too short alot of buys are "panic ones" and you never get the best players then as its a short ammount of time to get a new player in. I also think its harder for a new player to gell when they come in jan due to the team playing together for so long and having some of the summer together also. Always expections to this but I wish they brought back the old buy them all season approach.

I think it is more down to heightened expectations sinse the new manager comes in, old chairman is almost a figure head and the dead wood is off, and thats why some people are already making demands. I dont think anyone is being daft wanting this, but reality will soon hit home IF we go on a bad run of injuries start mounting up or one or two new signings do shite. Thats why I feel top 10 is enough we need to see some movement on all fronts from training to coaches to everything else not just on the pitch results. I feel it may also be down to how we play as well as the result, SA will be judged on how they play as a team do they offer fight and a never say die attitude or follow roedent and never recover after leaking a goal.

was just about to ask you who the fuck is jim an why have i not heard of him before.

So was Sir Bobby, who finished 11th in his first season, and with a better squad than the one Allardyce inherited, certainly a team with a better core of key players. There should be no targets of the kind. Just because we have a good manager and a new super rich owner doesn't mean the problems will just go away in the blink of an eye, certainly not in a 9 month timeframe anyway. we possibly were in more shits creek when sir bob took over than we are now but cause of all the take overs I feel that after the top 4 the league is far more competitive than it once was so in balance I feel your right. I think that there is nothing wrong with fans having a view to where we should finish but we also should realise we are not involved in all the factors how much funding we get how much other teams develop how many players we get in and will SA get his back room set up i could go on and on as there are so many things standing in our way on paper right now I say we are top 6, knowing the league and the fact the game isnt played on baby I would say a top 10 finish is good enough for me to give SA a second season

The would we have finished where we did with Allardyce in charge question? If so, no I reckon we would have done better. Doesn't change the fact that this will be his first season here, we are in a complete mess and there are teams in the league who are probably a lot better prepared to take at least the top 6 places. I mean even the smoggies are aiming top six while the top 4 seem unbreakable everyone aims to the next best thing, top 6 uefa or intertoto. Looking at last seasons results we saw villa, blackburn, spuds, everton, bolton all being our main competition for places I can see that being exactly the same next season seen as they all have money to spend and will all want to improve.

my answer above pointed out we should have been top 9/10 if everything was the same at the club (including injuries) except the manager.

Look, a lot went wrong over the past couple of seasons. Can't be that bad again. Can't be. Surely. But even if everything goes wrong again, I mean EVERYTHING.... we are better off now. Allardyce is a better manager than Roeder/Souness. He will do better. I'm positive. And the competition we're talking about here (Not the top four)... Spurs, Villa, Everton, West Ham, Blackburn. They'd kill to have talent like Owen, Martins, Barton, Duff, Milner, Dyer, Emre, Taylor, and Given. We have a lot of talented players. It is time for those players to deliver. Im agreeing totally with SA on this one fans want us up there FFS we deserve to be up there I believe even in the good seasons we have been agonisingly close alot more close than some of our new found competitors. We will Im sure finish top 7 what Im fighting for is the acceptance that for whatever reason if we do not that we dont call for mass changes once more or moving the manager. With a better manager last season we were top 9/10 the "lesser" teams we performed so badly against home form was average and away form was as poor as usual. Just gettting rid of bramble will give us 7-10 points more a season and allowe fans to stop holding their breath so much.

I hope your joking. Why? We're way behind the top 4, we're behind Spurs & Everton but with 3 signings in the areas we're very weak, we can bridge that gap. We're in the group with Bolton, Blackburn, Villa, etc. at the minute. Allardyce alone imo will add 10 points to our tally (no way would we have lost some of those sh*te home games last season with him in charge), so as we stand, I'm considering us as a 50-55 points a season team. With more signings, that should become 60-65. But if you think if he doesnt finish at least 7th he's failed then your an idiot. After everything that has gone on at this club, and after the past two seasons we have just had, a bit of stability and signs of improvement will be a great start. You cant go from a rotten club playing terrible football to finishing in the top 6-7 within 1 close season. Be realistic man! It was only a year ago a season combined with Souness & Roeder's management took us to 7th. Last year, Roeder was shocking. I'll ask you this, would we have finished where we did last season had Allardyce been in charge? Your question is totally irrelavant. We finsihed 7th under Roeder after Souness was bootedand the whole club got a temporary lift. There was no pressure on Roeder at the time to get results which also helped. You honestly think we started playing amazing football when Souness left and Roeder took over? No we didnt, there was a slight improvement and thats it. We got some good results and some lucky ones. Since SBR left the football has been nothing short of horrible for 90% of the games. Boring, Boring football, with the occasional canny game thrown in. This club is on the up, but at theminute, as it stands, there still a shit load of work to be done, and its people like you are a cancer to the club, who after 1 season, Sam doesnt finifh in top 7 and you say he has failed. How can this club ever be a success when people are already talking about failure? sort of off topic but the club has been let down badly season after season so much promise sometimes massive investment and all for nothing, not that I'm not proud of the club and what we have done but even with massive changes until we start consistantly winning games and finishing top 6 then people are going to start voiceing concerns its a fans right.

In place of ? I really fear for arsenal no take over as yet and wenger not seeming interested in signing a contract extension I can see them dropping back.

I hope your joking. Why? We're way behind the top 4, we're behind Spurs & Everton but with 3 signings in the areas we're very weak, we can bridge that gap. We're in the group with Bolton, Blackburn, Villa, etc. at the minute. Allardyce alone imo will add 10 points to our tally (no way would we have lost some of those sh*te home games last season with him in charge), so as we stand, I'm considering us as a 50-55 points a season team. With more signings, that should become 60-65. what he said. Not that we'll be great. We don't have to be. Beyond the top four, no one is. I can see your point and by no means do i want to stop the good vibes but thinking that way also means thinking that teams around us will also not try to improve. I can see us going up the table how competitive we are when it comes to places all comes down to the players we bring in, how fit the squad stays and how long our cup runs I suppose it is not just as simple as we get better so our table does.

TBH i said top 10 when we started the SA thread and where I felt was a fair place for a first season, while now with the possibility of a bigger budget then your expectations get raised thats the nature of the game. I actually think there is a big difference between everton and spuds spuds being the better of the two. I totally hope for a top 7 finish but by no means if i see signs of constant improvement on and off the pitch then I will be happy.

still recon we need to see what the budget is and who comes and goes then we make a fair judgement of finishing, I still recon we should be aiming to get into the intertoto or eufa so 7 before the take over I said top 10 but I now hope with fresh investment and getting rid of some of the shite then I hope for better. Still nice to see he see's the bigger picture beyong just one season, its like what we have done in the past really buying a trophy signing on the basis of one season or hype and then not thinking about a "bigger picture".

belief they have what it takes to break into the first team? hope that the manager rotates them with another player so they play a fair ammount of games? chance of playing on the "big stage" winning things being on a bumper "champions" type wage lots of reasons really

I mean if he does go to chelsea it must be one of the factors he didnt come to us 1. better wages 2. world class stars to play beside 3. chance of champ league footy and medals. and what we need to remember is 1. we dont know if SA and TBH got on 2. we dont know if SA was to blame for not getting him to extend his stay with Bolton 3. obvious things like we aint in europe right now and we didnt seem to want to match chelseas wage offer.

I remember quotes of 8-10 million being pushed around midway through last season, but yes your right 5-6 even 7 at a push if you tie him down to a long term deal would be good business, we will wait and see even if this is true I no doubt expect challengers for that sort of cash, could be a success of bomb always the risk when buying a young "Unproven" from the lower leagues.

now if you think back to the old management i woud have been shitting myself as I would defiently be expecting a panic buy as we had our eggs all in one basket. Now with SA I feel really calm even if we miss a "real" target due to the fact SA actually does have a list unlike the pretend one roedent always cracked on about. Agreed. A few months after he missed out on Distin before he came here on loan, he signed N'Gotty for £500k...and he gave Bolton 4 good years. we should try and keep the attitude of no player missed is a "Massive loss" the top sides all want very few players and they all move on if they are unsuccessful without feeling it is the end of the world. An this is what Im starting to feel about the toon, we want players if we dont land them it was not meant to be and we will look elsewhere.

its true RVN was a class act also and didnt leave for a bomb, but I really think he isnt that old the knocking factor on his value is the poor injury record he has had the last two seasons we have had him. I would hope we would get more than 9 for him if he is meant to go but as ive always said this summer seems filled with "buyable" strikers and with a bigger budget we could in theory go for another big money one. Really do feel disappointed if he went but no massive loss to the side due to the manager in place and the likelyhood of fresh money comming in

now if you think back to the old management i woud have been shitting myself as I would defiently be expecting a panic buy as we had our eggs all in one basket. Now with SA I feel really calm even if we miss a "real" target due to the fact SA actually does have a list unlike the pretend one roedent always cracked on about.

if bent went for 18 we should be wanting at least 12 he isnt that old and still more of a regular in england side than bent i.

everyone has an opinion of lil owen but I dont remember it was that long ago he came out to say he wanted to play for the club and make up for the fact he has missed so much footie, followed by fresh speculation and he doesnt want to comment. While I admit the longer it goes on the more we all think "its so easy to say your loyal to the club/contract why doesnt he" Now I want him to stay if he goes I have confidence that SA will find someone to fill the gap, though we wont be able to say we have one of the best forwards of this generation, which is really what he is minus the injuries he is pure world class.

to someone looking at newcastle in a similar light if we were to sell milner tommorow and he was our player of the season people may say "who gives a shit the team finished below the likes of reading dont sign the fucker" I mean he may not be what we are looking for but we have lost alot of defends and if the club still plan to loan out the kids we need bodies in and he isnt going to cost the earth.

I guess it is just not heard of here for a while to get a player in and not pay an arm and a leg for him unless there is something the matter with them

well if we do take it as confirmed I was just wondering to myself by august what the squad will be like etc.