LoveItIfWeBeatU

Completely agree. Allardyce should play Enrique in the reserves to help him adapt to the 'English game'.

If he truely wanted out he could just resign. There is nothing stopping him from doing that. However, if he wanted a huge cash pay off then he'd have to get sacked.

£6 Million for Alan Smith and £5.8 Million for Joey Barton. Will he be trusted with the money again?

Firstly I really couldn't care less if we go to Wigan and get beaten. Or Derby, Sunderland, Reading or indeed any other tinpot Premiership club that we've made to look good recently. Sh#t happens, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. You take it on the chin, you whinge and bitch about it a bit but you move on. That's football. What I DO care about is the performances. The insipid, turgid, dross we've been served up with is completely unacceptable. Going to places like these with the express intention of getting a well-fought 0-0 is disgusting. Did you see Man U going to Sunderland and playing for a 0-0 on boxing day? Did you sh#te. OK, we're not Man United and I'm not comparing our relative squad strengths, only our relative intentions. But West Ham stuck 5 past Derby recently when they went there with the right mindset - I can't recall an away game this year where we've managed 5 shots, never mind 5 goals. And home games have often been little better. We made these teams look good by sitting back and inviting them onto us. We offered nothing going forward as we were too busy being terrified about what these relegation-fodder teams might do to us. It didn't take long for them to realise this, so they felt safe attacking us knowing we had no will (Or ability due to the formation we went out with) to go down their end to put one past them. The results were, largely, predictable. So what can Sam do? Attack. Send out a team designed to rip the opposition apart. Show us that with you at the helm we're capable of making teams worry about what we're going to do rather than the other way round. If it fails, it fails. I honestly won't mind. But just send out a team to scare the opposition with the way we go about things and create a hatful of chances. And if by some miracle you can do this by playing 4-5-1 with N'Zogbia at left back, Milner on the left wing, Smith at defensive midfield, Martins god-knows where and Geremi as some kind of right-sided midfielder then I'll be the first to take my hat off to you and say "Well done". However it is my uneducated opinion that the aforesaid formation will produce nothing like that in a million years. So I'll go further and make some tactical suggestions that might help. Play 4-4-2, stick Enrique at left back, Milner on at right wing and N'Zogbia on at left wing, with Martins and either Viduka or Smith up front. Have Emre in the middle alongside Butt. Martins, Milner and N'Zogbia simply must play, and play in their correct positions, as irrespecive of anyone's thoughts about their respective abilities they're the only players we have in our squads who are actually capable of beating a man. But play that lineup, in that formation and with instructions to get at the opposition, beat their man and get the ball in the box and support the forwards and I assure you everyone will be a damned sight happier. But feel free to perservere with 5 men out of position in a 4-5-1 if you want, just don't go crying when it fails yet again to produce a single shot on target and you (Rightly, IMO) get your ass fired. Completely agree.

Ferguson's wrong. The worst thing Newcastle ever did was not managing to beat Man U to the title in 95/96. We aren't in any immediate danger of going down. We are mid-table so all the media and other managers wonder what we the fans are moaning about. The reason is because we are awful to watch. Losing to crap like Wigan and Derby. Scraping draws against Sunderland, Derby, Fulham, etc. I don't expect us to beat the top teams but I do expect us to play to win against the bottom teams. Allardyce would buy himself time if he'd send the team out to win. The square pegs in round holes team selection doesn't help him either. He doesn't seem to be able to motivate the players. When is the last time we started each half by flying out of the blocks? Spending £6 Million on the none goal scoring striker Alan Smith was a s*** idea as was the £5.8 Million on Barton by the looks of things. I'm happy with what Allardyce is supposedly doing behind the scenes at the club (Scouting network, Youth Development, Fitness, Medical, etc) but he needs to do 'ok' on the match days to buy the time in order to finish that job.

So far he isn't doing well at all on all the things I thought he'd bring with him from Bolton, namely: - Make losing to sides below us a rarity. Have the team beat top four sides occasionally. Make the team organised. Make the team good at set pieces. Things he could try: - Stop playing defensive, negative football, especially against crap teams. Play N'Zogbia on the left wing, Viduka up front with Martins (or Owen) and Milner on the right wing.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation. They weren't in a similar situation at all, as Sven inherited a good spine of players that takes time to develop, he just needed to wisely add to these players. My point is that had we got Sven I think we would be doing a lot better than we are now because of the attacking football he seems to like to play. Look what happened when Newcastle added Robert and Bellamy. A couple of players can make a big difference.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. Shit team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football

Look at Man City. As bad, if not worse than us last season. They have had a good season so far.

I know the type of manager we don't need and that's defensive minded managers. Newcastle fans want to be entertained. Unlike the media bollocks "we'd rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0" we would rather win 4-3 than grind out 1-0 wins. Don't tell me you can't win games with entertaining football. Look at Man U and Arsenal. Ferguson and Wenger's teams play attacking football. We aren't in their league but teams like Reading and Man City have a go at entertaining. In hindsight Sven would have been a good choice for us (although based on his England days you would never have guessed he would play attacking football). We need a motivator. Someone who can inspire the team to come flying out the blocks at the start of both halves of the game. I can't stand Allardyce's "we must worry about what the opposition can do" attitude. It should be let the opposition worry about us.

Just watched it. He never mentions Enrique. The scary thing he does say is that we don't have to go gung-ho against Wigan like we did against Derby!

Emre has looked our best centre midfielder during his cameo appearances from the bench. Hopefully Barton will get a lot better than he has shown us.

Will Allardyce ever play Owen on the right wing with Viduka and Smith (the striker who never scores because he never shoots) upfront? Will he bollocks. Martins is our top scorer so why does he get shunted to the right wing to accommodate Smith up front? Only in the last 15 minutes when Martins was up front with Viduka, Milner on the right and Duff on the left did we ever look threatening.

I hate that "Steve G" s****. You arse kissing twats! As some people think I'm paranoid we'll change the topic from "Commentators are biased against Newcastle" to "Commentators are biased arseholes spouting cliches and s****". Bash them!

I like it how a bunch of ex-players/drunks/failed managers can sit there and pass judgement on how Wenger, Ferguson, etc have gone wrong in a game.

That's the spirit, that's what I'm after!

I did say it was a rant. Rants aren't exactly level headed thought pieces. When teams like Arsenal are passing the ball around the commentators will do a role call of names of who the ball goes to. When other less 'glamour' teams do that they sit in silence. Seriously though, just wait until the Stoke v Newcastle game. Edit - Fanzone is even worse but you expect them to be biased. Apparently you used to be able to turn the commentators off on Sky but not anymore.

It's not paranoia if it's true. I'd like to have a rant about biased commentators. I find all the SKY, Setanta and BBC commentators are biased. Aren't they supposed to be neutral? Their voices go up an octave with excitement when one of the 'big four' are attacking. They love it when the 'big four' win. The silence from Andy Gray and Martin Tyler (it was at least one of them commentating) when Taylor scored for NUFC against Arsenal was embarrassing. They screamed at the top of their voices when Arsenal scored. There is always a disappointed tone in their voices when Newcastle score, win a corner, free kick, etc. There are always a million replays when we foul someone but none when we are fouled. If the opposition have a goal ruled out for offside the replay is straight on (even when the game has restarted). I find they always want whoever Newcastle are playing to win. Newcastle are always the 'baddies'. We are either spoiling the title race by taking points off one of the top four or we are the cruel team trying to beat the basement clubs. The only reason the BBC will have picked the Stoke Vs Newcastle game is they are hoping there is a cup shock. On Sunday the commentators will say some bollocks like "Derby need the points" like Newcastle don't! It's a shame you can't turn them off and still have the crowd atmosphere.

I find that with all the SKY, Setanta and BBC commentators. Their voice goes up an octave with excitement when one of the 'big four' are attacking. They love it when the 'big four' win. The silence from Andy Gray and Martin Tyler (it was at least one of them commentating) when Taylor scored for NUFC against Arsenal was embarrassing. They screamed at the top of their voices when Arsenal scored. There is always a disappointed tone in their voices when Newcastle score, win a corner, free kick, etc. There are always a million replays when we foul someone but none when we are fouled. I find they always want whoever Newcastle are playing to win. The only reason the BBC will have picked the Stoke V Newcastle game is they are hoping there is a cup shock. On Sunday they'll say some bollocks like "Derby need the points" like Newcastle don't! It's not paranoia if it's true.

Middlesbrough had their Christmas party in Newcastle last week.

Yes. That's how Alan gets all his stories these days. Read the stories and quotes off nufc.co.uk, copy them and then add the phrase "Allardyce told me" to the start or end of any quoted lines. Story for The Chronicle written.

Chronicle: - I (Alan Oliver) was told by Sam that Kadar is "not on his radar" at present. Reality: - Alan Oliver read the following story off nufc.co.uk and made it his own story for the Chronicle by adding "Sam told me" to the line: - While Sam added that 17-year-old Hungarian defender Tamas Kadar of Zalaegerszeg Torna Egylet is a player who is "not on his radar" at present.

But he thinks he does. That's the problem. Sky interview him to find out what NUFC fans are thinking. Embarrassing.

"and the wallpaper sticks to the wall" - Time Bandits The fact is that when one of the 'big four' have a rotten game and win they get plaudits (from the media if not the fans). We play a rotten game against a rotten Fulham and people complain that we win? We aren't really at the stage where we can be choosey about how we win. Read Oliver's match report: - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2007/12/17/fulham-0-newcastle-1-72703-20259847/ "in front of the same fans who Barton had branded vicious a couple of weeks ago." "With Oba Martins skulking in the dug-out after his substitution" He's a s*** stirring t***.