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Cool, I'd like to see South Korea do well again, enjoyed their exploits in 2002. We've got a great group of young players and hopefully they'll mature before 2010 to save us from an utter embarrassment. God we're s*** today. Seeing us trying to play carpet football makes you yearn for some good 'ol Big Sam style long ball. EDIT: Jisung Park scored almost the moment I hit post

They'll be second in the group until about twenty minutes later. It's not going to happen really. There's a fairly large gulf between us, Iran and everyone else in the group.

Midnight England time Wouldn't mind that. Never gonna happen though. Also, the spine of their team is now composed of children of immigrants to Japan who only nominally hold North Korean citizenship, so it wouldn't be the same kind of story it was in 1966.

Whenever we're on the ball, the Iranian fans keep standing up in their seats periodically chanting something in Arabic. I'm not sure I want to know what it means.

I'm not one of those funny people who think that putting some technology in automatically "kills the soul of football", but where in SJP would they possibly fit one of those?

Think it might be worth keeping Owen just for how much his name value improve's the club's worth as a brand. That's probably why the management team is willing to shell out the $$$ on him as well despite being utter tight-arses otherwise. I mean, even my girlfriend knows who Michael Owen is, that's got to count for something.

You don't go back to managing top-flight football for at least 3~4 months after you've had a bypass surgery. If Ashley is sane(), there will be an appointment. Houllier and Souness did didnt they? Houllier had five months off. Souness was insane.

You don't go back to managing top-flight football for at least 3~4 months after you've had a bypass surgery. If Ashley is sane(), there will be an appointment.

South Korea v. Iran, 0-0 at halftime. (crickets chirp) EDIT: FUCK those totalitarian dickheads and they're fucking jammy free kicks.

Because no manager worth his salt wants to work under the system Ashley has in place, we're stuck with him and he's stuck with the club. If Llambias is to be believed(), Dennis Wise is apparently glorified head scout and chief negotiator. Don't see why anyone would have a problem with that. Even given the scenario where he's lying through his teeth and the "evil dwarf" actually has control of anything, pretty much every manager who's ever managed in Italy of Spain has worked under that structure. The structure won't be an issue when finding a new manager. The fact that we're in deep s*** with no money to spend might be. Wenger, Robson and Ferguson have all come out and said they wouldn't work under a system like the one it appears we have in place (if they've got the wrong end of the stick or not we don't really know, because when the club breaks its stony silence about what the system actually is it talks in contradictory riddles). I don't think there's much doubt that this 'system' has seriously narrowed our options at a time when we're not exactly going to be beating managers off with a shitty stick anyway. They were all commenting on what the media and fans were speculating that the system was (ie. Wise pulling all the strings.) Regardless, there are enough options out there system or no system.

No Phil Brown please. The man's insane. He's like a younger, mackem version of Joe Kinnear.

Because no manager worth his salt wants to work under the system Ashley has in place, we're stuck with him and he's stuck with the club. If Llambias is to be believed(), Dennis Wise is apparently glorified head scout and chief negotiator. Don't see why anyone would have a problem with that. Even given the scenario where he's lying through his teeth and the "evil dwarf" actually has control of anything, pretty much every manager who's ever managed in Italy of Spain has worked under that structure. The structure won't be an issue when finding a new manager. The fact that we're in deep shit with no money to spend might be.

Might as well kick this one back up to the first page considering that it's suddenly become pertinent. Right now I just might take anything that doesn't involve Houghton being interim for the rest of the season with JFK coming back with a new contract in the summer.

We might as well make a hail mary punt for the likes of Sven or Scolari. No chance but asking can't hurt. Terim or Deschamps would bring some much-needed class here but I have no idea how realistic they are. Bruce or Curbishley are obvious choices if we're going for the safe option. Martinez, Bothroyd, or even Ketsbaia if we're into rolling the dice. My personal bet? Shearer. Because everything at this club must be absolutely fucking mental. It's the law you know.

Surely no matter how thick the board are they can realize that appointing Poyet would be a PR disaster of monumental proportions. Why can't they just (gasp) get someone who's actually qualified for the job? Shocking, I know.

Agree with Baggio in this case but... Man, isn't having Llambias as your avatar a bit much?

Wish they'd just put something out with specific questions and answers like the chronicle did yesterday. We really don't need all the editorializing.

erm i read that as Llamblias saying he was told keep his head down, due to the keegan thing

One other rather cringeworthy thing I gleaned from repeated reading. So Llambias is basically saying that he and Ashley agreed that Mort's constant communication with the media was a bad thing and made a conscious effort to reduce communication when he was brought on board? Bloody geniuses aren't they?

This - but the Medics might force the issue and then we will need a replacement. I find it 100% plausible that the board will come out with some sort of statement saying that "the job will be waiting for Joe when he gets fit" and give Houghton the reins until the end of the season. Then proceed to give him a brand new four year contract on his hospital bed. That's how much confidence I have in the sanity of our regime.

Damn. I wish Joe the best of luck and hopefully a speedy recovery. I may have wanted him sacked, but I would never wish any sort of physical harm upon anyone. My support goes out to him and his family. As for what now looks to be a managerial vacancy for us, hopefully the club won't fuck around and will get a new manager in as soon as possible, while compensating Kinnear for his service and efforts so far.

The other parts of the interview look like they'll be significantly more interesting. That one about friends

The "challenge for everything in five years" statement is probably the most overtly ridiculous part of that article. That's really not going happen even if we somehow hit the jackpot with every and every one of our teenagers from Scandinavia/Eastern Europe. I would have much preferred something along the lines of "we'll have NUFC financially stable in ~ years" or "we'll be able to maintain a sustainable amount of transfer spending through the clubs income alone by ~ years"

very true, and while we still have a good local support at SJP, there creeping in here, and some of our away trips to London id say are 20% out of town support. God help us if we ever get good again. If you're of the attitude that no one should be allowed to set foot in SJP unless their mother had them ten feet from the Gallowgate wearing a replica shirt and singing the Blaydon Races screaming "OOOOOOOOH ME LADS" at the top of her lungs then you're going to be rather severely disappointed in the coming years I'm afraid.

You're entirely missing the point. "Glory"hunters. Where is the glory in choosing to support Newcastle? or Everton? Or Villa? or lots of teams. When i see people walking around where I live wearing Chelsea tops, I really do want to vomit out a significant part of my lower intestine. These are the people I'm talking about. Their parents need to take a very long, hard look at themselves. Think you might be getting a pretty large infusion soon enough imo Fully expect to see my first Villa top back home sometime this calendar year.