fredbob

my feeling is that they're pretty intimidated by our potential, if ashley and mort get things right we could be an absolute juggernaut of a club Why would a journo be threatened by the possibilty of nufc reaching its potential? The only thing that i can think of is that nufc in recent years has been a cash cow for the number of negative incedent and has got a lot of interest from the media about it, maybe they're trying to flog a dead horse, its kinda a soap opera up here. But that doesnt really explain they're motivation to actively disrupt us. I cant think of a single club bar Chelsea that has had so much negative stuff written about them, in fact id go as far as saying no team has had more negative press in the entire history of the prem than nufc. Is that a bit OTT?

I dont get it, aside from this supposed 'north' 'south' divide we have, why do journos have such a vendetta against us? Am i wrong calling it a vendetta? its really unsteadying stuff to have so much negative and disruptive stuff written about us?

Tell me about it, i always loved seeing him pound them from 50yards out, i think he was the only player ive ever seen who i genuinely believed would score from every frreekick he got. I would much rather have Robert taking my free kicks than Beckham. It was great seeing the opposition set up a 3 man wall 35yards out from goal when he was lining up!! Great times

Played really well recently, i prefer him on the left, like the way he can beat a man without pace, and actually does try to beat a man, looks very dangerous when he on the edge of the box but completely flacid when he's a abit further out, the lack of pace really shows when he's too far out. Is currently our best player and is playing the best but by by no means does he have the ability or talent to be the best player in our team, theres a lot fo misfiring talented players in our squad. Deserves the credit he's gettin but i dont think he's a player we can build on.

Ronaldo was unplayable, truly a gret player who should be catergorized with the greatest, I'm torn between choosing Ronaldihno and Zidane. Ronaldihno on form is probably the best player i have ever seen full stop, Zidane was consistently brilliant and has given some of the greatest perfomrances ever, but when you see some of the things that Ronaldihno pulls off in a game you cant help but think your witnessing something special. To be fair to him, he's gettin a lot of flak lately but even when he's not on form his stats are still brilliant. Mind you Zidane has done it consistently at all levels....dammit i dunno As for the third, im completely stumped.....maldini? Cantona? Giggs? Henry? Figo? C.Ronaldo? Desailly? Nesta? Cannavaro? Ferdinand??? I dunno

Just watched that vid, brought a tear to my eye, cant believe how good he actually was and how good we were. Some amazing goals he scored for us, in fact i bet he scored more spectacular goals for us than any other nufc player in recent history, those 2 against tottenham were of the highest order, its a shame he went because its sort of marked the beginning of the end for us. i wish we brought some real exciting flair back into the side, as it stands we only have Zog. i know am admitting the cardinal sin of all football beliefs but i would honestly prefer an exillarating 4-3 win than an efficient 1-0 win. That sounds stupidly obvious but footballing wise its a terrible 'ambition'

To be honest im not sure we need him, if we play 433, then we dont need the link man we need the 2 grafting forwards who get back to defend, and i think we have some superb combinations, if we were to play with 2 upfront, to be honest i dont think SA will go for a striker this jan or even summer providing nothing changes, im praying he'll stick to trying to boost up the midfiled, which isnt looking very dynamic.

The thing is, is that Taylor and Roz started brillliantly together, really complemented each other well but the partnership got brokn up when Taylor made a mistake, Allardyce sort of condemend him in the media 'constructively' and Roz hasnt looked the same since. I actually thought that Roz and Tayl have looked the best partnership so far, Faye andCacapa individually are very good but as a partner i dont think they've gelled as well as Roz and Tayl did. Does anyone have the partnership stats, i can imiagine that Roz and Tayl have conceeded far less then Cacapa Faye.

Would just like to know, what are peoples reasons for wanting shearer? I dont understand why people would want him? Could any one of the pro shearer group explain why you'd want him at here? And for what reasons you have come to this judgement?

i'm hoping that people dont actually believe what is written in these papers and in actual fact use the article as an incentive to show a united front againt the doom mongers down south. it was really good seeing the team being supported when the performance was quite decent, its what nufc is about and its someting that has been missing for a few years now. Hopefully support against blackbrn replicates itself throughout this season through thick and thin. Also i hope the guy who's shouting abuse at SA from the crowds on the SSN stories and all the national media backpages really takes a good hard look at himself and thinks how much of a prick he's made of himself. what a toss pot

id have to go for the old firm,it epitomises everything that is good, and bad about a derby. There aint a another derby in britiain which genuinely has so much on it, both competivtely and regrettablly religious. Its also the only derby which has 2 genuinely big teams with absolute equal aspirations. Cant say that about any other single derby in britian.

If SA was to get sacked it would be an embarressment for this club, for one season i would like nothing more than us in the news for good reasons or no reason at all. Another sacking is not the answer, and i dont think that the board would get all the blame if it were the case, the fans that boo non stop need to take a look at themselves. I genuinely belive that the fans are the most important and influential people at this club, and it would be us not SA perfomance as a manger that would force Morts hand. End of. I cant believe people are after his blood after so little time, surely there isnt a single person who can thoroughly justify his sacking after just 15 game

Nah, Mort's openly said that he's gonna back his manager until its unteneable, i dont think he'd go back on his opinion so soon, it'd be a disaster for the PR of the club, nevermind the dressing room falling apart, imagine going to a club where so much is changing so fast and one man being instrumental to all those changes both on and off the field leaves. How damaging would that be to the players who have all signed for him under his visisions. Disaster.

man, what i would do to see the football we played back then again, i think id sell my girlfriend.

Am i the only one who thinks that the FA may still go for an english manager? Just had a look at who they have spoken to [Hodgson, Toshack, Platini and Beckenbaur] and i cant help but think that most of them would say go for an english manager, especially Platini, not only that but they're looking to speak to others in the game such as SBR, G.Taylor, Hoddle, etc and looking down the list i'd say 90% of them would advocate an englishmen....i just dont think that that many respectable opinions will be ignored by the FA.

Who exactly is being played out of position? In my book it is Zog and Smith. Now Zog's posisitoning makes no sense to me whatsoever, a blind person can tell ya that he's not the right personto play there, which leds us onto Enriques role into the side....is it a case of him not being good enough, fit enough, or just not intergrated and adapted to the english way of football and life, either way zog is being hindered by his lack of involvement. Maybe its because Zog gives the ball away a stupid amount of time. Putting him in defence may teach him to give the ball away a little less, making him a more effective winger. I remember seeing JCole scoring from 20 yards out and mourihno shouting him over and literally giving him a bollocking seconds after him scoring. Now the point i am trying to make, is that the top managers dont really look into too much detail the good things you do, because its wasted time they already know you can do it good, they have to look at the bad things hie does, cos its these things that effect the team most, and in coles situation, he was gettin a bolocking for losing the ball to often, and in my opiion its the saem for Zog. While he goeson his run, a good percentage of the time he'll cut inside and lose the ball, now it might (or might not) be a case of SA giving him more responsibilty and forcing him to learn the hard way that giving the ball away isnt an option. As for smith, there is some merit in why he isnt being played in his correct position, and i think it has much to do with the Acrifican nations cup, we know that Smith is naturally a forward, but is resonably adept at plaing in midfield, one of the best managers in the world seems to think so and so does SA, when the likes of Geremi goes, Smith can fit into that slot, of right midfielder or central midfielder. Barton isnt exactly 100% fit at the moment, he also would be able to replace Martins and also Butt, it would be silly to not play smith then stick him in the deep end come january where he wont perform, the same can be said if he's playing up front come january then moved into midfield once the squad becomes thin. So the best thing to do is to compromise and play in him midfield. The thing about football management is that nearly evdery decison that i football manager makes can be justified with one way or another.

I think the problem lies in the type of players that england are producing, the english game is a physically dominant game and technical attributions arent encouraged at a grassroot level, how many times do you hear "get stuck into them nice and early, show em what its about" at a junior level football match. Well its this coaching method in my opinion whcih is dominant in the english league, in another country, footballers are taught techinically and so the coaching and management is just as techinal. The managers at present will of been brought up on football the way it was played 20 odd years ago, and technical coaching was non existent then, its taken the likes of SA so many years to catch up with the like of mourhino and wenger in terms of scientific coaching, in essecnce, europe has had a 10-15 year headstart on management techniques and english managers are only just starting to catch up.

maybe SA is hopin he'll be a better ore consistent version of Butt, our defence has been offered very little protection from the midfield and he might be the person we need. I personally have been thinking we needed a better defensive midfielder. Ive thought that the protection offered to our defence has been pretty abominable.

I know that this isnt by any means anything to shoutabout and will come under a hell of a lot of scrutiny but isnt it worth mentionaing that we're due for approximately 54 points which isnt to be sniffed at, i mean obviously its a load of bollocks looking at i that way but 54 points would be a decent finish, i think that would of got us to 9th positions last season. I'd be happy for that in his first season, proving we dont have any relegations problems i will stick by SA. According to my incredibly scientific calculations he's on course to better roeder, and for his first season withall the good changes he's made, id be happy with that.

Its a difficult one, i mean shearer hasnt got any experience at all, its one of the biggest jobs in the world, and would make or break his entire career, i think the passion that he has would transend into the team well, i dont think the FA will offer him the job though, its one of the biggest job in the world and if the FA get it wrong again then they are fucked. They wont gamble, this job has got Capello written all over it. I mean i'd personally like to see a managers whose philosphy is to attack, and has a good record of implementing that into his team, i genuinely believe that the quality we have in this team should and maybe would steamroller over 90% of the national teams out there. Playing restrictive football with the quality of players we have is madness in my opinion.

I would have thought 13 games was enough for a manager to get some basics right. When you say this are you implying that his decisions are completely born out of incompetence? I mean when you say basics i assume you mean playingthe right players in the right positions etc? I know i'm sounding like i'm clutching at straws but isn't there a distinct possiblity that as he's seen them train for the past 6 months he might actually have a method to his madness. Dont get me wrong, im literally on the fence with Sa, i dint want him at the club in the first place however im willing to give him a season, the reason being that he can have no excuse for failure in his second season, whereas this season should have been a right off from the start, the club hasnt had so many changes in one go for many years, i defy any manager to have to change anything round so quickly so easily. In my opinion we reallly need to be looking at ourselve as a mediocre team, i personally dont place my opinion any higher then Fulham, people need to relise that in the past 4 horrific years we've dropped down the pecking order hugely. I dont think Fulham fans feel any divine right to be outplaying liverpool and portsmouth week in week out. Where we should be and where we actually are as a team are completely comletely different things, unfortunately alot of our fans seem to judge our team against our potential and not with the reality.

Av never understood this playing for a draw scenario, surely its easier to lose a game that we are drawing in that it is to lose a game we are winning. why make it difficult for yourself? It's basically sayin that its easier to defend goals than it is to score them, which may well be partly true but on the flip side automatically gives the initiative for the toher side to try and test the theory which means a bombardent.

I think indirectly comparing him to Sounes is a bit naive to be honest, he's ten time the manager Souness was, Sounesas didnt have a single posisitve effect on the squad or even the club as a general, whereas SA has, especially for the club. I do understand when people say that he should go, i was dead against him being appointed because i always believed he would be a manager who could possibly take us to the top 6 and that would be it, there was no way in my eyes that sa would get us into the top4, and that would invariably lead us down the saem route of unreasonable expectations. Whats the point of appointing someone who can only lead you so far? People are using the jan transfer window as a counteracting weight for their arguments for not keeping SA "we shouldnt let him blow millions in the Jan transfer window", well i say the chances of us being able to do that anyway are pretty slim, no one does well in the transfer market in january, its an appaling time to have a transfer window.

I don't think we should have to wait a couple of seasons, if he's not looking like doing anything come May then he should go. Surely it's naive to expect any manager to turn a club in our state, thats been left to rot for so long in a season. What happens if the next manager comes in and can't turn it round in a season do we sack him, then the next and the next? Perhaps the problem is this vicious circle that starts with the fans being far too impatient. It's about time people woke up and realized it isn't our divine right to be finishing a European position and began to accept we may need to endure a couple more seasons of mediocrity before we turn it around... I agree with a lot of things that are being said here, but this quote probably sums up howi feel, we seem to have given our sense of divine right to european qualifications when we havent in fact deserved Euro qualification for 4 years now, in the SBR era whenwe were a good team. Your only as good as ya last season and as it stands although newcastle seems to have a decent squad, the foundations of this club are rotten to the core and its gonna take alot of time and patience for someone to repair the damage that has been caused by the last regime of managers and chairmen. looking from a distance nufc seems to have someting inherently broken....no matter how good a house looks from the outside, its useles if the foundations are made of sand and this is exactly the case. I dont think its exactly unfair to refer to ourselves as a midtable side, we're no more, and if anything less. 4 years is a lot of time to change a club, and in those 4years alot has been changed. long gone are the days when we had any right to complain about losing to portsmouth, or succumbing to liverpool. We're actually more mediocre than we think we are, and need to be looking at ourselves as a team on par with Middelsboough or Fulham but with ten times the ambitions, the amount of pressure that is put on the manager is riduculous in retrospect to our position as a team, but justified with our ambition. If anyone told me that SA or anyone could fix the roots of nufcs problems in under a season i'd of laughed in their face. Anyone who thinks that they would needs to take a look at themselves. I always had this season as a right off, i actually would wait till the beinginng of next season to judge him. p.s i was actually against the appointment of SA

yeh i think he might do well for england, he's a pro, and his passion and commitment to england would transend to the players alot more than it would to the newcastle set up a la Pearce. I dont really understand why he's been touted the the job though, this is a person who got a worse managerial recored than Mclaren, in the sense that its non existent. I also dont understand this nostalgia and romantic affliction which seems to make people seriously consider him for the nufc job. If you want a romantic affliction with the nufc past, then have one with the ways we played football under keegan and SBR. I'd much rather that those days occured than we place the future of this club in the hands of another person who hasnt achieved anything of managerial note. I mean even if he did achieve something at the lower leagues id still want it to be a consistently substantial achievement for me to want to consider him. If he does and proves to be a top notch manager, then by all means i would be happy to consider him.