fredbob

Did you see him get his man of the match award yesterday? Doesn't speak a word of English! I think that's one of the biggest reasons Geremi got it, he speaks French, English, Spanish and Turkish, so he can communicate with everyone in the team. I thought he was already a popular guy around nufc. Surely in todays modern multicultural teams, language barrier isnt too much of an issue on the pitch? I do see your point though!

How can anyone criticize another person method of implenting success without the anyhting being completed? Anyone who criticizes Mort at this period of time is opening themselves for ridicule, 5 months. Shepards regime, as much as i would like it to be buried as history, cant be ignored as its still a heated topic, some people think that he was partly responsible for dragging the club out of dark times. And they are undoubtedly correct, however others, and this is my view thik that under Shepards stewardship wasted the golden oppurtunity to make a real success out of this club, some people point that making us the 5th most qualified team for europe in premiership is his claim for success, but the more ambitious of us think that we could of been a dominant team and therefore look back at his stewardship with great rue.

I take it you haven't read Morts comments about spendign in January [/astonished] You must be someone else who can't accept bare facts laid out in front of you, when they don't suit your opinions ? Basically, if the club don't act to fill glaring hole in the team, and say they won't act, what conclusion do you draw ? We haven't been s*** for years either BTW. I thought you were one of the better posters, until you said that. yeah, i've seen his comments, it made sense to me, i'm giving him a clean slate so i'll wait until the end of the season to make my judgement on how their first season in charge went, given the circumstances bare facts? we're specualting over what the club MIGHT do in january, there are no facts yet, and facts change my opinions, so, eh, what? i'm not sure if its a break down in communication but as far as i'm aware by saying years that can class as 2 years at the least, and i feel pretty assured that we've been s*** for at least two years, i dont really mind what you think of me well, I suppose if you've followed the club for 5 or 6 years, then the last 2 years could seem a long time. And if you've only supported the club since 1992, then the last few years have been comparitively not too good. But if you've supported the club longer than that, they have been a long way short of s***, and for that, you'll have to take my word for it. no i wont, there are many other sources of information, i dont have to take your word for anything, you've never said anything thats changed my views, as i'm sure i've never said anything thats changed yours, might aswell just pack it in Aye, and other sources of information will confirm that we have been a damn sight worse in previous decades than in the last couple of years. oh you're joining in are you? i wasnt beamed into the planet 2 years ago, i have a decent understanding of our history, i still think we've been s*** for the last few years, i was simply saying i dont have to take his word for it because he tends to get a bit preachy if you dont nip it in the bud Where was the, "na na ni na na....." I'm sure it would fit in well after your hissy bit in bold. If you have any understanding of the history of the club you'll know that as poor as the last few seasons have been there have been far, far worse in the memory of MANY supporters who still go to matches today. Anyone who is remotely successful in there life, are never happy with what they achieve. What you're saying there is that many people are grateful becasue of what they had to see. Well, im saying that in 92 we were in a position to estabilish ourselves as a dominant force in the premiership, we were on a level playin field with everyone, infact come 95(?) we were in a position to estabilish ourselves as THE dominant team in the premiership, but becasue oft he ineptitude of the board, failed, we fell so far behind it seems like an impossible task to do but we did. So by the modern view, what has been achieved isnt good enough, we didnt take the oppurtunity we were given therefore we wasted a golden oppurtunity, there cant be any excuse for that. No matter how bad it was. You're quite clearly one of these "it'll do" people.

I take it you haven't read Morts comments about spendign in January [/astonished] You must be someone else who can't accept bare facts laid out in front of you, when they don't suit your opinions ? Basically, if the club don't act to fill glaring hole in the team, and say they won't act, what conclusion do you draw ? We haven't been s*** for years either BTW. I thought you were one of the better posters, until you said that. yeah, i've seen his comments, it made sense to me, i'm giving him a clean slate so i'll wait until the end of the season to make my judgement on how their first season in charge went, given the circumstances bare facts? we're specualting over what the club MIGHT do in january, there are no facts yet, and facts change my opinions, so, eh, what? i'm not sure if its a break down in communication but as far as i'm aware by saying years that can class as 2 years at the least, and i feel pretty assured that we've been s*** for at least two years, i dont really mind what you think of me well, I suppose if you've followed the club for 5 or 6 years, then the last 2 years could seem a long time. And if you've only supported the club since 1992, then the last few years have been comparitively not too good. But if you've supported the club longer than that, they have been a long way short of s***, and for that, you'll have to take my word for it. no i wont, there are many other sources of information, i dont have to take your word for anything, you've never said anything thats changed my views, as i'm sure i've never said anything thats changed yours, might aswell just pack it in Aye, and other sources of information will confirm that we have been a damn sight worse in previous decades than in the last couple of years. oh you're joining in are you? i wasnt beamed into the planet 2 years ago, i have a decent understanding of our history, i still think we've been s*** for the last few years, i was simply saying i dont have to take his word for it because he tends to get a bit preachy if you dont nip it in the bud Where was the, "na na ni na na....." I'm sure it would fit in well after your hissy bit in bold. If you have any understanding of the history of the club you'll know that as poor as the last few seasons have been there have been far, far worse in the memory of MANY supporters who still go to matches today. i dont like the beatles, i've never disputed that there's been harder times, ever, irrelevant Exactly, noone is doubting the past of this club, but again, why is that relevant to the modern times, world history is littered with darker times, but you cant go through life justifying present life in context to how bad it was. This concept applies to all forms of life, there will always be worse times, be a a countries history, or a governemnt, but people dont go through life, comparing the modern fallacies of these governments and countries with the ones that occured in the past. Can you imagine a Black person complaining about the Governemnts treatment of the New Orleans disaster and being rebutted by being told "you should be glad, it was worse worse in the past for you folk" Thats basically the crux of your argument. "vYou should of been here during the McKeag days..." What you have described above is not even close to what people are on about. Having made your misinterpretation you won't be able to grasp what is really being said and no amount of posts trying to explain is going to make any difference to you. You do not understand what is being posted. So goodnight. Yeh, i guess i gotta agree with ya there, i have no idea what your on about, i know that we struggled immensly in the past, but i still dont know how thats enitrely relevant with the cureent regimes, i dont know where the direct link is, Can i just ask then, what is the link between the past decades and how should it effect the present regime in the present climate of football? I mean, i think the modern history of nufc started at 92 when we were in a position to estabilish ourselves as a dominant force. We'd concequered the difficult period, that was definitevely the past from that point onwards. We were in an amazing situation but we blew it. While it might sound condensending, i promise you i'm not but could you explain your point of view regardign the past so i can understand. As you might of guessed im not from that generation but would like to learn.

If you read what he is typing, you would realise he is not really arsed about Jan or summer, he is more bothered signing players that are better than the current players. Which once we take out some of the crap in your posts is exactly the same thing your saying. OH MY GOD, well if you read any of my f****** posts you'll realises im talking about the Jan period, do you know why? Becasuse its directively related to Morts quotes. I>E THIS WHOLE THREAD. You have to be an amazing spin doctor to be able to attribue those quotes to anything other than this immediate transfer window. AND for the 20th time, i ve openly agreed with NE5 and others that we should adress the weaknesses in our squad, ie the signing of Woodgate etc, but i dont think we should be filling the squad at this time. Seriously, some people are so stupid, ive tried to include as much generic detail, addressing as many issues as i can but it seems many people struggle at the first f****** step. In the post I quoted you definitely mention the summer. Who is being a spin doctor? Me? NE5? You? I know you keep agreeing with NE5 on points, that is why I find it strange you asked your 'hypothetical' question. Did I touch nerve hinny? For your own sanity dont reply to this post, because I reckon you may turn out like How old are you? I mentioned summer as part of a hypothetical situation, the aim was to try and look at the summer period in context to the jan period. If you were to ask the fans out there the same situation im sure most of them would opt for the summer. but why? Thats what i was trying to get at. Theres a reason why people prefer the summer, and im sure its the saem for the clubs. Thats all im saying. i dont think ive ever spoken to anyone so stupid that they cant see that. Nevermind eh! I've been able to see ne5 points about generally strengthening the squad, obviously in order for the club to progress we need to invest to strengthen goes without saying. Of course, generally speaking his views are correct, im not arguing contrare to that but the bits that i disagree with are the ones which are directly relevant to Morts quotes. Says that we should sign all the time, which i disagree with, hence the points about Jan window period, whcih i will reiterate again, is releavant to Morts quotes. do you see where the difference in our arguments lie? ....probably not I don;t think most supporters would say the summer - not that it makes any difference anyway. Why would you not want a player who will improve the team in asap ? I don't see why you should not always be looking to improve your team, thats what football is all about. We have half the season left, we could qualify for europe with a couple of good players for the right positions, so why do you want to write it off and why would you support the board if they took the same stance. As I've said, I find such an attitude from them to be very worrying. In fact, to coin a word you used yourself, its a s*** approach. And, you WERE losing your cool, as HTL pointed out. Which makes you look very childish, not him for pointing it out. - Well then we're gonna have to agree to disagree there. If £40m was available to spend in only one of the transfer periods, im sure people would rather go for the summer period. The reasons that they'd give are exactly the same reasons that i am giving to support my view that too much money shouldnt be spent in Jan. This might be a difficult concept for you, but i actuall agree with you on this point and have stated throughout my posts this view, but i guess your in selective reading mode so must of missed it. I just think theres 2 types of transfers, transfers which imporve the team, and transfers which improve the squad. Again, without sounding patronizing, do you know the diffrerence? Becasue i have already said that we should be using the period to adress the weakness of the team and not the squad. As a club we are continuosly looking for quick fixes, before the season, we were happy to finish in a top 10 position. By your logic arent you selling yourself short, really showing a bit of a lack of ambition. Why dont we just try and improve the squad to title challenges, we can afford it. By your way we should be doing that, which bit of compromise in your brain has acknowledged that that isnt a possiblity, it needs to be a slower process but why??

I take it you haven't read Morts comments about spendign in January [/astonished] You must be someone else who can't accept bare facts laid out in front of you, when they don't suit your opinions ? Basically, if the club don't act to fill glaring hole in the team, and say they won't act, what conclusion do you draw ? We haven't been s*** for years either BTW. I thought you were one of the better posters, until you said that. yeah, i've seen his comments, it made sense to me, i'm giving him a clean slate so i'll wait until the end of the season to make my judgement on how their first season in charge went, given the circumstances bare facts? we're specualting over what the club MIGHT do in january, there are no facts yet, and facts change my opinions, so, eh, what? i'm not sure if its a break down in communication but as far as i'm aware by saying years that can class as 2 years at the least, and i feel pretty assured that we've been s*** for at least two years, i dont really mind what you think of me well, I suppose if you've followed the club for 5 or 6 years, then the last 2 years could seem a long time. And if you've only supported the club since 1992, then the last few years have been comparitively not too good. But if you've supported the club longer than that, they have been a long way short of s***, and for that, you'll have to take my word for it. no i wont, there are many other sources of information, i dont have to take your word for anything, you've never said anything thats changed my views, as i'm sure i've never said anything thats changed yours, might aswell just pack it in Aye, and other sources of information will confirm that we have been a damn sight worse in previous decades than in the last couple of years. oh you're joining in are you? i wasnt beamed into the planet 2 years ago, i have a decent understanding of our history, i still think we've been s*** for the last few years, i was simply saying i dont have to take his word for it because he tends to get a bit preachy if you dont nip it in the bud Where was the, "na na ni na na....." I'm sure it would fit in well after your hissy bit in bold. If you have any understanding of the history of the club you'll know that as poor as the last few seasons have been there have been far, far worse in the memory of MANY supporters who still go to matches today. i dont like the beatles, i've never disputed that there's been harder times, ever, irrelevant Exactly, noone is doubting the past of this club, but again, why is that relevant to the modern times, world history is littered with darker times, but you cant go through life justifying present life in context to how bad it was. This concept applies to all forms of life, there will always be worse times, be a a countries history, or a governemnt, but people dont go through life, comparing the modern fallacies of these governments and countries with the ones that occured in the past. Can you imagine a Black person complaining about the Governemnts treatment of the New Orleans disaster and being rebutted by being told "you should be glad, it was worse worse in the past for you folk" Thats basically the crux of your argument. "vYou should of been here during the McKeag days..."

If you read what he is typing, you would realise he is not really arsed about Jan or summer, he is more bothered signing players that are better than the current players. Which once we take out some of the crap in your posts is exactly the same thing your saying. OH MY GOD, well if you read any of my f****** posts you'll realises im talking about the Jan period, do you know why? Becasuse its directly related to Morts quotes. I>E THIS WHOLE THREAD. You have to be an amazing spin doctor to be able to attribue those quotes to anything other than this immediate transfer window. AND for the 20th time, i ve openly agreed with NE5 and others that we should adress the weaknesses in our squad, ie the signing of Woodgate etc, but i dont think we should be filling the squad at this time. Seriously, some people are so stupid, ive tried to include as much generic detail, addressing as many issues as i can but it seems many people struggle at the first f****** step. Directively? What the hell is that? And what's with the gobbing off and bad language? It seems you're losing your cool, sunshine. I suggest you go and have a can of pop, or something. Grow up mate, and respond to the post. Not much point. From what I'm reading you're on automatic misinterpretation of everything put in front of you..... Go take a walk and come back later. Well said mate, really stepped up there didnt you "sunshine"! Talk about irony. Im talking about morts quotes relevant to the coming jan period, the rest aren,t yet im the one whose misinterpreting everything. Please,nforgive me for coming into a thread about Mort and his views about the coming trasfer period, are daring to talk about the relevant article. i.e Mort and the Janurary trasfer period.

If you read what he is typing, you would realise he is not really arsed about Jan or summer, he is more bothered signing players that are better than the current players. Which once we take out some of the crap in your posts is exactly the same thing your saying. OH MY GOD, well if you read any of my f****** posts you'll realises im talking about the Jan period, do you know why? Becasuse its directively related to Morts quotes. I>E THIS WHOLE THREAD. You have to be an amazing spin doctor to be able to attribue those quotes to anything other than this immediate transfer window. AND for the 20th time, i ve openly agreed with NE5 and others that we should adress the weaknesses in our squad, ie the signing of Woodgate etc, but i dont think we should be filling the squad at this time. Seriously, some people are so stupid, ive tried to include as much generic detail, addressing as many issues as i can but it seems many people struggle at the first f****** step. In the post I quoted you definitely mention the summer. Who is being a spin doctor? Me? NE5? You? I know you keep agreeing with NE5 on points, that is why I find it strange you asked your 'hypothetical' question. Did I touch nerve hinny? For your own sanity dont reply to this post, because I reckon you may turn out like How old are you? I mentioned summer as part of a hypothetical situation, the aim was to try and look at the summer period in context to the jan period. If you were to ask the fans out there the same situation im sure most of them would opt for the summer. but why? Thats what i was trying to get at. Theres a reason why people prefer the summer, and im sure its the saem for the clubs. Thats all im saying. i dont think ive ever spoken to anyone so stupid that they cant see that. Nevermind eh! I've been able to see ne5 points about generally strengthening the squad, obviously in order for the club to progress we need to invest to strengthen goes without saying. Of course, generally speaking his views are correct, im not arguing contrare to that but the bits that i disagree with are the ones which are directly relevant to Morts quotes. Says that we should sign all the time, which i disagree with, hence the points about Jan window period, whcih i will reiterate again, is releavant to Morts quotes. What has NE5 or you argued that can be attributed to anything that Mort has said. Where has he said that we wont be aigning any players in Jan? Ive seen him say that signing defenders wont be the answer, ive seen him say we will be looking to invest primarily in youth, and ive also heard him say that as of yet, no targets have been outlined becasue SA has pitched anything to him. do you see where the difference in our arguments lie? ....probably not

If you read what he is typing, you would realise he is not really arsed about Jan or summer, he is more bothered signing players that are better than the current players. Which once we take out some of the crap in your posts is exactly the same thing your saying. OH MY GOD, well if you read any of my f****** posts you'll realises im talking about the Jan period, do you know why? Becasuse its directly related to Morts quotes. I>E THIS WHOLE THREAD. You have to be an amazing spin doctor to be able to attribue those quotes to anything other than this immediate transfer window. AND for the 20th time, i ve openly agreed with NE5 and others that we should adress the weaknesses in our squad, ie the signing of Woodgate etc, but i dont think we should be filling the squad at this time. Seriously, some people are so stupid, ive tried to include as much generic detail, addressing as many issues as i can but it seems many people struggle at the first f****** step. Directively? What the hell is that? And what's with the gobbing off and bad language? It seems you're losing your cool, sunshine. I suggest you go and have a can of pop, or something. Grow up mate, and respond to the post.

If you read what he is typing, you would realise he is not really arsed about Jan or summer, he is more bothered signing players that are better than the current players. Which once we take out some of the crap in your posts is exactly the same thing your saying. OH MY GOD, well if you read any of my f****** posts you'll realises im talking about the advantages and disadvantages of fully utilzing the Jan period, do you know why? Becasuse its directively related to Morts quotes. I.E THE POINT OF THIS WHOLE THREAD. I never intended to talk about the old regime and if you look you'll see the old board was mentioned not by me, but by......guess? You have to be an amazing spin doctor to be able to attribue those quotes to anything other than this immediate transfer window but that is exactly what has happened. People are intimating that he's showing no ambtion etc....what a load of bollocks. AND for the 20th time, i ve openly agreed with NE5 and others that we should adress the weaknesses in our squad, ie the signing of Woodgate etc, but i dont think we should be filling the squad at this time. Seriously, some people are so stupid, ive tried to include as much generic detail, addressing as many issues as i can but it seems many people struggle at the first f****** step.

What about Cacapa? Seems to tick all the boxes in my book.

We also bought Woodgate in the January, I hope nobody is saying we shouldn't buy a player of that calibre just because its the "wrong time" - a completely absurd view if ever you saw one. Mate, you're an idiot, I've never known anyone as selective as you. Can you point out anyone in this thread who says we shouldnt sign players of high calibre if available and essential. It's all about context mate, and the context that most people were trying to imply was that generally speaking, using the January period to try and build a squad isnt the most practical thing to try and do, both business wise, and importantly footballing wise. Not a single person in this thread has said we shouldnt sign any players in the Jan period but that seems to be the context your asserting in your posts. Without sounding patronizing, do you know the difference between squad strengthening and squad building? If you see the difference that i do, then you would understand that squad building(i.e adding depth and quality throughout the squad) in January is a bad idea for a number of reasons, whereas squad strengthening (i.e, addressignt the weaknesses of the team) is what is required. Thats the point im trying to argue anyway. there's only one idiot here mate. It doesn't matter a toss when you buy players if they are quality. Re-read your stupid comments. As for "building a team". It may escape your notice that we have a few pretty good seasons in the last 15 years, with a pretty decent team. You should at all times buy the best quality players you can. Any other suggestion is just plain daft. Well this is the crux of my argument, that in actual fact, there are many reasons not to go out and buy as many players you can as soon as you can, they are reasons which dont apply to the summer season and definitively show the disadvantages of the January period. One of the biggest reasons its quite clearly the lack of talent that is actually out there, come Januray, alot of the players that we require to progress are playing for biggers clubs, in bigger club competitions. How do we as a club with nothing but decent finances have to offer. Do you suggest we go for the Chelsea route and through silly moeny at players as well as there clubs? Where is the precedent of success for that approach in our history? This leads to my second point, the inflated price of players, average players at that, it makes no sense to try and sign alot of players who will cost the club more money than they are worth. I mean, the odd player whose worth £2m more than he's actually worth may not sound much, but if we were to sign 3-4 such players thats an excess of £6-8m. Wheres the justification of that? Thats £8m excess gone out the clubs finance just becasue of the time we've spent the money. Can you yet see the relevance of what we're trying to say? By all means, if there is a player who is available come januray who we desperately need, i.e a DM or even an AM, then go get him, by all means "strengthen" the squad, but dont go trying to build a squad in january, beasue invariably we'll end up onverspending. This is what i was trying to say in my post. Look mate, its when you say stuff like this that makes you look like an idiot, the first line, i mean what relevance does that have, im well aware of us having a good squad in the past, what relevance does that have to my post? As for the second line, i've made my points clear, i want this club to suceed, ive always wanted an element of intelligence about the way the club is run, and finally we have someone who has a bit a brains about them. I dont want to see mone spunked up the wall just to appease inflated ambitions expectations of a few narrow minded people who cant see the big picture. If you ignore the points ive made above fine, but please answer me this? If we had £40 million to spend, and it had to spend it in one of the transfer periods, either January or the Summer, which period would you we rather spent the money in? It completely hypothetical i understand. I just want your views to see where you stand. Just to reiterate, i do believel we should sign essential players, but i dont think we should be signing players just for the sake of it.

I've never really entirely understood this concept that signing supposed creative players will definitively make us creative, i always thought that the way you played made chances. I mean, if we signed Elano, i still dont think that we'd turn into a creative team, becaseu we dont really have the output for his vision, i.e players who are gonna get into dangerous positions.

When we play 433 I would imagine Sam will always have at least 2 strikers/forward in the front 3. I cant see Owen being played in a 4-3-3 system. I think SA will go 4-4-2 and have 2 wide players. Has anyone read SA article in Zoo magazine?? He says something about not actually playing a 433 and so cant understnad the criticism of the system wen its not always being played. Also says that he's aware that the squad at full strength is best suited to 442.

Ive only counted one bad game from cacapa and that was that nightmare 15mins, how come no one is rating him near the top of their rankings. Faye hasnt had a bad game so i can see why he at the top but not Beye, he's only shown what he's capable of recently.

How do you figure that one out? Because my opinion on the matter differs from the norm? Yeah, grats on that one. Why should I (or any of us) care about this anyways? The blokes getting shipped out and thats that. Nothing we say or do here on this board is going to change any of that ffs. Stop trying to be heroes. That's a lame argument - you shouldn't care about stuff you can't do anything about? I'm just saying don't try and s*** on other people's opinons and call them all sorts of names under the sun because they have an opinion. So what if someone was of the opinion that your girlfriend was a slut?? His boyfriend would be pissed.

Ashley isn't the bestest chairman in the whole world, he isn't even chairman. You're desperate to see us fail. Isnt spending £25m on a manager they dint appoint quite ambitious? Isnt signing 9 players of a good quality quite ambitious? Isnt clearing the debt run up by the last regime so the club can progress more efficiently ambitious? Why is it that sepnding money on players in your world is the only sign of true ambition? Why isnt the club actviely looking to improve the youth system by signing potential stars for the future ambitious? What has the chairman actually specifically said that implies he's not looking to improve the squad? Therefore insinuating that theres no ambition. Would just like to point out as well that Mort has been in the club for 5 months and so far (excluding the purchase of the club) £100m has been spent by him, is that a lack of ambition? You seem to think that Shepards method of running the club was the only blueprint for success inthe premiership (i.e throwing money at people)? But didnt his method leave us in a precarious position? £80m in debt? Wheres the justification for all this praise? Are you related to Freddy Shepard? And by any chance are you a journalist or a politician? (that was aimed at NE5 bytheway, think i misquoted)

At the end of the 2003-4 season we should have told him thanks, but time to move on. Liverpool brought in Benitez, Chelsea got Mourinho, Spurs brought Jol into the club...we hung on to Robson and the fault of Shepherd was that he hung on too long before getting rid of him. Liverpool, brought in Benitez after securing alot of cups, Chelsea could buy anyone they wanted, and Jol was reletively unknown so not exactly a manager you could say was gonna be an improvement on what you already had (although they did actually appoint Santini, which was quite ambitious) the difference for Totenhamm is that ehy didnt sack there manager for non football reasons, (i.e a legendary manager in the game). What justification was there to sack him after the 03-04, everyone seems to think that it was a dead certainty that we were going down the drain despite the fact that this guy was probably the most experineced manger in the entire Europe. Why did we hang on too long? We had only one relatively poor season, and still finished 5th. I've still not heard a single genuine footballing reason for his sacking. "Cracks started to show" is not a footballing reason for all you mystic megs out there who predicted the future just like the great Dougie "the Dickhead" Hall. How anyone can sit there and tell me that we were destined for failire after fininshing 5th with one of the most capable managers ever to grace the game is beyond me. What the hell do you base this on after one poorish season? Victim of his age, i cant tell you how much i hate that fact, but the genreal consensu was he was old and therefore incapable. "He must be losing it at this age" I bet he had more energy and footballing intellegence in his little finger than 75% of premiershiop managers.

We also bought Woodgate in the January, I hope nobody is saying we shouldn't buy a player of that calibre just because its the "wrong time" - a completely absurd view if ever you saw one. Mate, you're an idiot, I've never known anyone as selective as you. Can you point out anyone in this thread who says we shouldnt sign players of high calibre if available and essential. It's all about context mate, and the context that most people were trying to imply was that generally speaking, using the January period to try and build a squad isnt the most practical thing to try and do, both business wise, and importantly footballing wise. Not a single person in this thread has said we shouldnt sign any players in the Jan period but that seems to be the context your asserting in your posts. Without sounding patronizing, do you know the difference between squad strengthening and squad building? If you see the difference that i do, then you would understand that squad building(i.e adding depth and quality throughout the squad) in January is a bad idea for a number of reasons, whereas squad strengthening (i.e, addressignt the weaknesses of the team) is what is required. Thats the point im trying to argue anyway.

The general consensus of those who believe that SBR was right to be sacked is that the cracks started to appear we were going down the wrong track so he needed to be 'got rid of' as soon as possible. Is that correct? For those who thought that it was the right dcision to sack him.....who do you think would of come to a club that sacks there legendary manager for fininshing 5th after 4 years of insipid football? All this without any trophies or titles for god knows how many years to justify the sacking? Who were you hoping to get?

Dennis Bergkamp was signed by Bruce Rioch. See here if you don't believe me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Bergkamp) Mort and Co are intelligent, well educated guys and they understand the club's situation more than any of us on here (they would have inherited all sorts of issues from Shepherds running of the club behind the scenes I'm sure). It's up to Mort and Co to deliver on our potential and I'd like to think they realise that means implementing long term, sustainable plans and not the sticky plaster mentality of the past regimes. That doesn't mean less emphasis on the short term, but it will mean chucking resource at those planning for and working towards the long term. I get the impression that some people are waiting with baited breath for him or Ashley to f*** up in order to use it as some sort of justification of the previous regime and their handling of club affairs? He's not put a foot wrong in my opinion and long may it continue. Continuity and stability may be buzzwords but they're exactly what we need and in Sam and Mort I'm confident that in the medium term we'll be a much better club for it. I, for one, thank him for his work so far. Great post bytheway, pretty much everyhting ive tried to say in one post! Crikey, my english is shit and i'm english!

Looks photoshopped to me. Am i the only one who thinks that?

You obviously weren't watching us play, then. We were not on the right track, we had been on the right track but had left it 18 months earlier, which is when Robson should have been nicely moved to one side. He was sacked too late. We werent playing to the high standard we'd become climatized to for the previous 2 seasons, convieniently forgetting the 3-4 season of insipid perfomrnace we'd had with the previous regimes. Which is fine, but EVERY single manager out there has had poor seasons, where it has looked like they were going down the wrong track every one, Fergie, Houllier, Wenger....i could name loads thoroughout the entire of Europe as well. But none were sacked after there supposed first poor season. If the football was so poor, how the hell did we finish 5th? Thats a good season in my book. He was a victim of his own age if you ask me. The bottom line is that irrespective of the performances, SBR had, for those 3-4 seasons, got us into a situation where we had the means to reestabilish ourselves as a big club in Enlgand. And instead of sticking with him until there were footballing reasons to get rid, i.e poor finishing position, we sack him for 1 and his first season of lower standard football. The real litmus test is would you sack Allardyce under the exact same circumstances? i mean, if he built us up for the next 2 season, then fininshed 4, 3, then 5th playuing good football, would you sack Allardyce? The situations are similar from when they took over, except for the estabilishment of the top 4.

I dont understand why people thought that this was the correct decision to sack him. Was it the supposed lack of discipline in the dressing room? Is a sacking for supposedly losing the dressing room justifiable? I understand that missing out on CL for 2 seasons was hertbreaking but we had a great run in the UEFA cup. We were finally back on the right track. Why would anyone change a winning side on the basis of a supposed "lost dressing room". To this day I still can't see any justification for the sacking or any logic in it for that manner. Ipersonally believe that SBR would of stepped down in his own time and would of helped in gettin a new manager as well.

Sam wants to sign players all year round. Before the transfer window came in players used to join clubs as late as March & none of the integration bollocks was mentioned. True but times have changed, I cant remeber any manager in the past worrying about intergrating players, trying to find them a place to stay, bank accounts, Mosques etc, but times have changed so much that these little touches have become vitally important. If we were to go into the specifics of the intergrtion im talking about, i mean how about the effect of having 5-6 players being signed in one month on the team, more specifically the players whose position are under threat. How do they react? you'd like them to step up a gear but thats not always the case, and the perfomrnace of the team will suffer. If you are able to sign the same players over a period of 6 months, do you think that the effect will still be the same? I dont. Steve Bruce while at Birmingham signed a load of players & ended up staying because of it. West Ham spent big last Jan & stayed up. I can find a stack of other clubs. There is never a wrong time to sign player that will improve your team. You have been sucked in managerial bullshit. There are always exceptions to every rule. I'd be an idiot to think otherwise, but you havent really given great examples. I mean, you are using examples which are completely different circumstances to ours, these were definitive relegations candidates, of course they had to spend, the players that were bourhgt were deemed essential. I've already said that nufc would be right to purchase an essential player. Both teams needed to rebuild the squad. Now look at the bigger teams, the teams looking to progress, did they utilise the jan period as prolifically as the teams you;ve mentioned. Nope. Why? becasue they see they major flaws inthe Jan period. What are you telling me that i dont already know? you are arguing a competely different point to what i'm arguing the quote below is something ive said about 15times now. Im trying to argue using the January period as a period of squad rebuilding and spending a lot of money is a bad idea both business wise and footballing wise. Hardly managerial bullshit, i mean, your looking at the first 11 on the pitch, i'm looking at the entire club down to tea lady.