Kaizero

The following book is apparently going to get released in English sometime over the next few months: The title is "Let the Right Ones in" and chronicles how Bodø/Glimt went from being bailed out by the city government to avoid insolvency and ceasing to exist - to completely re-structuring how to run the club, implement a club-specific footballing philosophy and to only hire staff that would continually develop and follow the new ethos of the club. Today, Bodø/Glimt is in a league of it's own in the Norwegian league, never plays dull football and has done so well in European competetions that Norway for the first time since the 00/01 season has two CL spots (for 25/56), which means that Norway is guaranteed a team in the CL starting that season. That team will be Bodø/Glimt, as it should be, given how they currently have a 10 point lead at the top of the table with nine games to go.

Whilst I know that as an NUFC supporter I'm supposed to hate the guy with intense passion due to that tackle, I'm also a Norwegian, which means I can't help defending the fact that OGS isn't a bad manager. He's perhaps not an elite manager capable of managing a massive club in a massive league, but the job he did completely restructuring Molde from the bottom up to take them to their first league title in their history and to perform well in Europe is just something that can't be denied was well done. Especially if you look at how Molde, whilst still one of the "big" teams in Norway, have started to fall apart, season by season, after he left them. Now, if Molde's decline comes as a result of OGS leaving them or Kjetil Knudsen re-inventing the way a football club is meant to be run up in Bodø is another discussion entirely

Norway is playing Austria in the Nations League today and Ralf Ragnick, now manager of Austria, was asked how he thought his words when he left Man United had aged: "This club doesn't need cosmetic surgery, it needs open heart surgery." to which he replied: "If you take a look the state that club is in today, even just compared to when I left it, would you say I was incorrect? No, you wouldn't. I was hired in an attempt by the club ownership to paper over the cracks, and I followed a more competent and knowledgeable football manager than the one they hired to follow me." Love me a bit of snark

To be fair, the fact a lot of professional athletes put on a ton of weight after they retire is actually something that makes a bit of sense. When they were full time professional athletes, their daily intake of calories will have been a fair bit higher than the average, which over the course of a full career you'd imagine would turn into both a habit and a way of life. Then, almost overnight, they're now no longer following the same daily schedule and diet they'd been following pretty much every day the past 15-20 years. Whilst I have no problem believing a person who've dedicated up to two decades of their life to their athletic craft would, in most cases, feel a newfound sense of freedom in their lives and therefore not have too many issues with having called it quits - I have a much harder time believing they can completely alter their lifestyle and diet overnight, meaning they'll most likely end up taking in a similar amount of calories that they did when they were a professional athlete. Don't have to be a math genius to understand that an equation where the calorie intake remain at a similar level as it's always been minus the training routine of a professional athlete eventually will equal the person starting to gain weight That said, I feel ex-footballers that'd been out of the public eye for a while after retiring proceeding to turn up again as a fat mess used to be much more prevalent a decade or so ago, which if I'm correct is a good thing for everyone involved. Seeing someone like Wayne Rooney having lost his way physically that bad after just a few years as a retired footballer in the 2020s actually annoys me, as even just 10-20 years ago nutritional science was a completely different ballgame than it is today - as well as how even mediocre footballers will have made more than enough money during their career to pay a private trainer and/or nutritionist to assist them during the transitionary period from full-time athlete to "normal" person.

7 caps away from becoming the all-time most capped player for the Faraoe Islands, he'll manage that as he's apparently "only" 33 years old (feels like a lifetime ago since he was on our books). Him and his 10 year younger brother, Andrias, are (if I'm not mistaken) the most recent addition to the fun fact statistic/pub quiz question for "brothers who've represented their national team together".

"The official announcement of Mauricio Pochettino is expected within the next 48 hours" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13821765/us-soccer-mauricio-pochettino-coach.html Meanwhile, in England: "England's new interim manager says he won't be singing national anthem before Republic of Ireland clash"

Love these, thanks for keeping up with making (and posting) them!

N-O's Halcyon Days

I'm in unfathomable horrid physical shape these days, but if I manage to find some not abhorrently priced plane tickets and/or hotel, I'll try to make it over and likely give the worst five minute on-field cameo to ever grace this cup

Didn't have to wait long "'Big up?': Steve McClaren learns Jamaican patois during training session - with less embarrassing results than his Dutch accent" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13820525/Steve-McClaren-BIZARRE-video-Jamaica-Reggae-Boyz-boss.html

Sidnote #2: Obafemi Martins has a 19 year old son named Kevin Martins that's currently on the books for Monza in the Serie A (though playing for their U19s). He goes by the nickname "King Kev"

Sidenote: I just looked up the 08-09 season Wiki and went down a Wikihole of looking up what happened to the players we had that season (and those we let go). Did anyone else know that James fucking Troisi signed for Juventus in 2012, four years after leaving us without a single appereance? Has to be said that he went on to make exactly zero appearances for Juventus as well, but still... what the fuck?

To be fair, Martins was here for three years and hardly did anything iconic during that time or went on to be remembered as an "iconic" ex-NUFC player, so him not actively referencing his time here or being "brought back" for anything in Newcastle doesn't feel weirder than us not bringing the likes of Sebastien Bassong or Xisco back for anything (or them not referencing their time at NUFC much in interviews).

I've had the thought a few times over the now 18(!) years I've been a member. One time I decided to "test myself" by logging out on all my devices to see if not being logged in and thus not being able to actively participate in discussion would make me spend less time on here, but it didn't. It just made me more and more frustrated that I "couldn't" comment on anything others posted In the end, the only thing that's enabled me to "take a break" from this place and stay away from it for a period of multiple months ended up being me suffering a complete mental breakdown that saw me essentially lose track of time and space, which in turn broke all of the "routines" I had developed in life, which included checking in on here (and other sites) multiple times per day. Wouldn't recommend doing that to anyone as a way to manage to stop coming on here, however

Whilst I understand the "need" or "urge" to have a break from this place (as well as the internet in general, or other specific sites that are time-vacuums), I'll never understand why people end up deleting their profiles. In the end, if they return one day, all they've achieved by doing so is lose all easy access to all of their own history on the site as their posts end up remaining anyway Since the Harvey Weinstein debacle and the rise of cancel culture that followed back in 2017, I've always felt that if the day were to come where I made it big-time in the entertainment industry - my post history on here will be what brings me down

I noticed a name in the Iceland starting eleven that I'd long since forgotten; Gylfi Sigurdsson. What happened to him post-noncing? Did he go to jail or did he get aquitted and end up not getting a deal with a club in any of the major European leagues due to the aforementioned noncing allegations, which led to him end up back on Iceland playing for Valur?

I once saw someone describing how the way he was throwing defenders off balance was "like watching Michael Jackson moonwalk, but during a football match"

I do, they’re a million times better than the pointless international friendlies that used to fill the fixtures in the International Calender that’s been taken over by the Nations League. For people from nations that aren’t a part of the «always qualify for all the tournaments regardless» crowd, the fact doing well in the Nations League can lead to qualifying for a proper International tournament is massive.

I think the perfect explanation as to why he did not lies in how he said he hated Ashley for not allowing him to push on. Also, whilst it seems a nice thing to say that his favorite club to have managed were us and that his favorite season as a manager was the season we finished fifth, lest we forget that we are the biggest club he's managed and the season we finished fifth he won the Manager of the Year award. Just his "good" memories of us are those related to what level of personal glory he achieved back then than anything else.

Brief follow-up/sidenote on this, to the cunt's credit he actually said some very interesting things (not prompted by any NUFC fan) whilst at the same time showcasing a classic narcissistic personality trait. Someone asked what his favorite club to manage had been, to which he responded "Newcastle, obviously" (the "obviously" might make it seem like a sarcastic remark, but in the context of the conversation it was not). When asked about his favorite season as a manager, his response was the season we placed 5th, which then spurred him on to a bit of an angry rant about how Mike Ashley was the "biggest fucking cunt he'd ever met" and that he'd "never forgive him for not allowing him* to push on after that season", going on to say the response he got from Ashley when pleading for a larger transfer budget was to "shut his fucking mouth and remember that what he was hired to do was avoid relegation, not win the fucking Premier League". Apparently the two never really had a conversation after that. * note how he phrased it as "allowing him" to push on after finishing fifth, not "the team" or any other collective phrasing. Guy was clearly enraged by not being allowed to chase further individual glory, not enraged that the owner of the club he managed was purposefully holding the club back. Other than that the subject of NUFC didn't really pop up again, bar brief mentions of Ryan Taylor and Mike Williamson being "great people" and that Steven Taylor was a mentally challenged human being (IQ-wise). Fairly certain I mentioned all this at the time in the Pardew thread so probably not any new information in the historical chronology of N-O.

Had a photo gig in Bodø when CSKA Sofia played them and went to a dinner where Pardew was at the table. My feelings towards him were identical to yours up to that moment, but I'm sad to say that during that dinner I lapped everything up. Like most narcissists he's got the gift of the gab. I mean, there'd be no reason for him not to be polite and nice at a dinner where tons of journos and football profiles were present - but all the way through the dinner the guy was so insanely relatable/likeable I left the dinner completely gaslit. Took me weeks to shake it to remember the guy's a complete and absolute cunt One thing I took away from that night was a new understanding of how the guy kept getting gig after gig - because, if for some reason I became the owner of a football club tomorrow and, for a laugh, invited Pardew to come interview for the manager gig... if he talked the talk like he did that night, regardless of knowing everything I know about him and hating his guts to no end - I'm fucking certain he'd have talked me into hiring the fucking bastard anyway. The guy fucking knows how to sell himself, that's for certain

I, for one, can't wait to see Bodø/Glimt tear Manchester United a new one at Old Trafford on November 28th.

Hope to see Hernes on the bench and us coasting to a victory so he'd get some minutes as well.