oldtype

The American sports model is the way to go. Only sustainable way to run a competitive league when there's so much money in sports

I think Keegan is the perfect example of the importance of fit. He was exactly the right man at the right time for NUFC. But despite the fact that his tactical abilities should probably earn him a spot in the "genius" category, he never lived up to his potential because he wasn't the right fit for basically every job he took subsequently.

Yes, but even among the group of relative no-marks, there are still some managers you would accept or tolerate if you see a certain kind of intention to play good football, honesty, dignity, and a genuine concern for the club's well being. Hughton wasn't the best manager in the world, and probably never will be. But the case against him was never made so strongly, and with such vitriol. Sure, some could see his failings, but he is a good man, and conducted himself really well in general. His teams had passion and fight in them, and clearly played for him. I would have been content - not happy, but content - to see us beat the mackems regularly, win most of our home games, and show some fight in the games we lose, under Hughton. The bloke we have in charge now has none of Hughton's personal qualities to go along with his own total ineptness at managing a football team. Pardew's ego is his biggest failing imo and he's a lot less tolerable than a man like Hughton. Yeah I think we agree here, the idea is that within that's group it's more about personality than tactical skills. Fit is also very important. No matter how good of a manager you are if the players can't stand you and you can't work with your staff it's not going to end well.

I'm one of the people who believes that manger's don't have a big impact on a team. There's a tiny group of geniuses in the Alex Ferguson/Bobby Robson bracket who will change your fortunes single-handedly. There's also a small group of complete idiots who should find alternative employment. (It looks like we've got one of these unfortunately.) Beyond that it's just choosing from a pile of candidates who are pretty much as good as each other, and finding the one who's the right fit for your club personality-wise.

Probably be trading stories about how deluded and ungrateful the Geordies are.

Can we destroy Pardew at Mordor?

It's all subjective. People in Somalia would wonder how any of us could ever be unhappy what with our three square meals and not getting shot at every day.

Not without massive fan pressure. Right now there's very little to concern him in terms of his safety and money ranks a lot higher with him than self respect, obviously. You'd think he'd have more than enough money to provide for his family for the rest of his life at this point, and he could probably make a fair bit doing broadcasting work as well. At some point the job is just no longer worth the stress and he looks like he's inching closer if not already there.

He looks at the end of his rope. I honestly think he might walk.

I'm pretty sure everybody gets the same feed

We're going to score goals and ruin everything now, right?

That's no way to treat our next manager

In some ways this is the most fun I've had on a matchday in such a long time

We score goals?

I have to admit at this point my only interest is morbid curiosity about how long Pardew can extend the losing streak.

I'd like to think that Pardew will be sacked at the end of the season and this situation will still be salvageable. I'd like to think that.

Meh, too good to be true.

Can the first unwanted record be "2nd longest serving Premier League manager?"

We would've been over the moon with Moyes a year ago and one unfortunate year where he turned out to be a bad fit at Manchester United shouldn't change that.

Wouldn't put it past the club to tell him to deliberately play badly to knock down his purchase price. I suppose the more plausible explanation is that he hasn't been playing regularly for a long time and needs some match practice to get it going. Of course, it doesn't help that he's playing for the shittest team in the universe under a manager who turns everything he touches into dog poo.

I'm not a Geordie, so it's Mum or Mother thank you very much It's just just Geordies. Welsh, Irish, most of Scotland and most of Lancashire say Mam... Meh. It's mom.

I just remembered that it was reported after his first game (the win over Liverpool) that his team talk was essentially "I know I don't have your respect so don't do it for me." I also think he said something during the post-match interview about having the previous manager's squad and the previous manager's tactics. It's hard to believe that that was the same person as the delusional egomaniac we have now. Looking back, I think I'm getting a feel for what sort of personality Pardew is. He starts out at places with a good attitude, thinking "it'll be different this time." Knuckles down, works hard, doesn't make it about him and keeps the players onside. Then once he starts overachieving and things look good his ego kicks in again. He begins to fiddle with the tactics and starts antagonizing the players. Eventually results go sour (because he's shit at fiddling with tactics), he starts blaming everyone but himself, the players turn on him, and everything goes to hell. Poor bastard just can't escape his own massive ego, can't stop himself from fucking it up every time. Hopefully the end is near and he can go fuck up elsewhere now.

I don't think the atmosphere at the club has ever been this toxic while I've been supporting, and that's saying something given what we've been through over the years.

He'll probably just promote Carver to spite us.

Shepherd was better at selling us an illusion of competing but in the end it was just an illusion. And by the end of his tenure that illusion was dissipating at an alarming rate. There's a reason most of us were celebrating when Ashley bought him out and were overwhelmingly in support of him all the way over to the fiasco with Keegan.