fredbob

Ahh, SBR...those were the days..

Its a strange one this, to be fair, everything thats been said so far is true, he IS a world class striker i find it strange that peple are really questioning his abilty and his reputation. I think its been proven throughout the course of his career. However i have to agree with people who say he wont fit in a SA team. He needs the ball at his feet, its so frustrating seeing balls knocked up to him. It's the immovable object aganst the unstoppable force and something has to give. Its a strange paradox because as long as Owen isnt scoring, that will be a measure of how successful SA will be percieved and how nice his football is, i know it sounds silly, but i honestly think that the possiblity of Mort or Ashley, letting Owen go is unthinkable and wont happen....

So, so far, 90% of the people think that Allardyce has been about average so far? Fickle and ungrateful football fans, who'd of thought? I mean, im not saying he's done anything spectaclar but rating him 6 or less seems pretty harsh to me. Anyone who's rated him lower than 6 is an idiot in my opinion.

Surpirsed Sam is being rated so low, i mean, Sam has brought an invaluable air of stability to the club, has cut the deadwood, has kept people fit so far (fingers crossed), has brought in genereally good players who have all shown so far that thy are defineltely capable of something, and lets be honest the fact that he's actually given us enough hope to think that we can achieve something this season to the extent that we arent happy that we're actually still in a position to achieve something. Its pretty harsh to say that whats he's achieved so far in 5 months is just an average 6.

Good, question, ti's a difficult one, i mean, obviously we;d be winning it becauese on the field we'd be playing the best. but somehow buying the title doesnt sit right with me, ill always be a romantic at heart and part of the joy of supporting newcastle united is the extreme highs which are supplemented with the extreme lows and its all in the pursuit of glory, having been through what we've been through the last 15 years (years since i started supporting) i think it would be tragic to have this pursuit ended by a quick fix. Nufc symbolizes everything about the Geordie culture, and Geordie culture is all about graft and hard work, not quick fixes. My heart says no, my head says yes.... Id rather wait 10 years to win the title with good investement and business sense, then win the title in 3 with stupid investment.

Nah, no need for him i dont think, he doesnt exactly offer anything different to what we've got already except maybe premiership experience. Has been gash for Chelsea so far. I think we have a lot to work with in our defence. Personally i'd like to see more decent protection of our defence, Butt has been too erratic for my liking. He's been a key player for us so far. So i'd like to see the money go on a defensive midfielder.

A bit of a contreversial selection i know, but its sort of inspired by Man U's formation which is effectively a 424, granted they have better wingers, id like to see a 433: Harper Beye, Roz, Faye, Enrique Geremi, Barton, Emre Milner, Vid, Zog Even as i wriite this its not sitting well with me, but having seen the lack of penetration we have, and the lack of forward runs from our midfield, i think it'd be nice to see Zog and Milner in more advance roles, trying to get behind the full back, even more contreversial would be to play Smith instead of Milner, i say this because i think Smith would offer more in the box when hes in his more advanced positions. I think if this formations is implented properly it could work becasue it does offer naturally alot going forward (with Emre or Barton joining the attack) yet is equally useful in defending when the 2 wings revert back to help defend. If we were to go even more attacking, then its a case of putting Martins on for either Smith, Milner or Zog, i think he's fit in nicely in any of the 3 forward positons.

Yeh, I'd like to see more movement in our midfield, but i dont think its gonna happen, SA likes playng percentage football, h's beengoing on about keepin shape and discipline and that to me means that he doesnt want people drifitng wants to make sure people are always in a posiition to defend which i think is such a negative attitude. If i had the choice id like to see Zog and Milner playing more advanced roles with Butt and Barton breaking down any counter attacks, in fact id crave to see one of our midfielders move into an attacking posiiton. Full stop. To be honet, if it meant that we had to drop owen so that we can use a 433, where the 2 wide players are getting beyond the full backs id like to see it happen.

Christ, are we really questioning the abilities of our best striker? Form is temporary, class is permanent (not that i think Owens performances have been down to form) i personnaly thinks its down to how the teams is playing, Owen like all of our strikers need service and it just isnt coming. Full stop.

How the hell can you possibly enforce a performnace related pay structure....have you actually thought about this? How would it acutally work, how could you make it fair? Like i say, its a nice theory but is impossible. There are so many uncotrollable variables...people need to scrap entertaining thoughts of performance realted pay...it just doesnt work. Now as for your first "point" i did say 150k should of been enforced years ago. Put a little context into this concept, as it stands there is no limit to how much a player can earn, there is no perspective on how valuable a player actually is. If say 10 years ago when the highest earners were earinign say 30-40k a week, how many players do you think would of objected to having a salry cap of say 120k for the next 10 years, i dont think that there would of been many, now think about this, you have a more competve market, sure he bigger clubs are still able to pay the cap, but how many would be willing, and with the context of 150k being paid to the best players, how many players do you think would be able to demand 115k (Owen) knowing that a club would only be obliged to pay 120k to the max, they'd definitely have to be able to back it up. Now the money in football is gettting astronomical, and with so much money in the game, it is obvioulsly that wages need to increase. So thinking about how i said that 10 years ago a wage cap of 120k should of been enforced, that was approximately 80k increase in wages for those 10 years, if that same amount was enforced in another 10 years that would make someones maximum possible earning be 200k. As it stands, we're looking a our first 200k player in a few years. Do you see the context yet? Sure the money is riduclously high, but its all about context to the future. Its the best way in my opinion.

is the correct answer. Could only happen with the backing of the Union boss and members though, with a view to looking after the game and lesser players overall. Would be interesting to see how many members of the PFA who play in the lower leagues would vote in such a scheme, for the good of the game of course. Its an impossible theory, its easy sayin a player should get paid on how well he performs, or how many appearencens he makes but hae you actually thought to applying this theory to reality. It wouldnt make it to the game because its absoltely impossible to control. There are so many uncontrollable variables. Personally, i think that a salary cap should have been enforced years ago, id have put the salary cap at something such as £150k, which is standard for a top player nowadays but years ago was an extorionate amount. Another idea would be to introduce a standard wage cap increase every x amount of years. For example the maximum wage for the next five years could be 170k, after those years the maximum wage could increase 30k, so on and so on. Its an idea which would put perspective on the value of a player, ensuring we arent overpaying the average footballer in accordance with the cap.

It will recharge and give importance back to main domestic cup competitions and help spread the money around a bit. It's getting to be that the big 4 are getting so rich from the CL that it is in danger of becoming/or will become a mini-league hoovering up all the money. The fa cup is the biggest and best domestic cup competition in the world, for pure interantional coverage it is rated higher than the Copa Liberatods (sp?), why would you sacrifice the quality of one of the best if not the best club competition in order to raise the value of domestic competitions? Wheres the incentive for UEFA to do so? Its a complete regression for the standards of football. Spreading money round is a fair point morally and theoretically but it isnt practical, if the Top 4 teams qualify for the CL then they deservethe windfall of income that that competion provides, by giving the place to a cup winner you undermine the achievements of a team, who've slogged it out for 38 games, its a matter of who deserves it most, and someone winning 8 games definetly doesnt deserve it over 38 games. Another point is how lucrative do you think the CL will stay if the likes of Arsenal are replaced in the cup competition by teams such as Cork City or TNS?

Not sre who i side with, it clear that G14 are gotting too powerful and i am completely against any club or clubs becoming more powerful than the governing body, however i disagree with the Cup winners being rewarded with a champions leagues place, for me the Champions League is the best club cupo competition in the world, the qulaity of football in that league is superb, and by adding the smaller nations champions to the competition (which t be fair they deserve) they are goona do nothing but dilute the quality of football we see. I personally have no interest in seeing Barcelona slap CSKA Bollockchops all over the park. In the past years some of the FA cup finalists have been dire and have no right to be thinking about CL, imiagine Millwall in the CL group stages, thats a ridiculous risk to take for the CL. Its footballing suicide if you ask me, the CL is a perfect cup competition if you ask me. Leave it to the top 4 footballing clubs in there respective leagues, not the top 3 and a wild card.

I find it so strange that any manager can set out a teams game plan to be try and nick it 1-0. It just doesnt make sense to me, surely it's be easier to set out a game plan to win 2-0. Which means playing attacking football. Why would you want to put yourself under self induced pressure to not conceded when it'd be easier to play with less pressure with the knowledge of having a 2 goal league. I know it sounds screamingly obvious but i dont understand how any managers thought process could be to stifle creative football in order to strangle out a game.

I dont get it, surely the more they are paid the more they are taxed, meaning inadvertently the UK as a whole are making money off these Russian Billionaires. Why would you complain about that..seems to me like hes trying to earn a few extra votes off the hard done by working class.

I wouldnt mind him here as a stop gap but i'd much rather have a bit of youth in there, i honestly think that having a proper holding midfielder could be the key to this team. But there isnt a club in the world who isnt looking for a proper defensive midfielder.

you make a very good first point but there is no way he is as good as nesta. Ya see, Nesta is the only defender in the world who is comparable to Ferdinand in my opinion (or rather vice versa), they are very very similar, Nesta over the course of his career has been better than Ferdinand, that i agree with, but currently, i dont think that they are on the same playing field as individuals, i personally beleive that Nesta on his day in 2007 wouldnt be as good as Ferdinand would be on his day 2007. Personal opinion.

The things is, is while i agree with part of what Platini says i have to side with Wenger, Platini is obviuosly looking at the future of the game, but i think he misses one vital point and that is while the likes of millwall maybe able to have the natural talent, do they have the capabilities of nurturing that talent to there full potential, and to be honest i dont think so, i honestly dont believe for one minute that we'd be hearing about a young spanish midfielder playing in the centre of midfield for Barcelone at the age of 20(?) if it had not been for the likes of Wenger. Same can be said about alot of players, theres no ethical right answer to this because as the likes of Rooney and Torres and Cesc have shown, world class talent can be recognised at any age and so it would be unfair to cap the age at which they can leave a club because it would be hindering with there development. To be honest thinking aobut it i think its a pretty absurd statement to make, Wenger has created a handful of world class talent and if anything added to the game. Viera, Henry, Cesc, Toure, Petit(?), Anelka...the list goes on.

rozenhal did start off as a defensive midfielder. ask yourself why he got dropped back Am not questioning the reasons why he's not playing DM, am just sayin he seems to have the natural attributes to play as a defensive midfielder, couldnt possibly comment on why he doesnt play DM any more because up until mid summer av never heard of him, but all i can say is that if i had the option to play Kolo Toure as a DM, id be more than happy.

Ferdinand, no question, close to being the perfect defender, one of the true marks of being a great defender is rarely having to over commit yourself or having to make last ditch tackles, and ferdinand doesnt really do either. On his day easily the best defender in the world......maybe

Ramos for england

heeeeeee-larious

Its stupid isnt it, people just dont learn, SBR wasnt an instant success but he was afforded time because in his first 2 seasons there were good signs, in 5 months it fair to say that SA has implemented more improvement than SBR did in his first couple of seasons. Are the same people who want SA out of the job the same who wanted SBR out after his first season?? A bit a common sense and patients wouldnt go a miss.

When Butt plays weel, we play well, its what ive noticed for a couple of seasons now, i think it'd be interesting to see another player play his posisiton, somone who reads the game well but is more athletic, i think Roz would be an interesting option, he seems like a natural DM. Faye is another option id like to see but that would mean breaking up the Faye Cacapa patership, which i happen to ink is effective.

Precisely