fredbob

Having said that, he was having a £25m asking price being bandied around him - no way in a million years has he justified that price tag, i think its fair to say that so far, he hasnt added to his value, if anything he's lost some.

At the end of the day - we want a happy balance of our targets showing enough glimpses of excellence to justify their signing but nothing too much which is gonna attract too much interest from other clubs - if we've done our scouting properly we'll already know who our priority signings are and we shouldnt be relying on an international tournament to confirm our interest. At the moment im happy for Gomis and Gomez to be underperforming, it can only bode well for us. I cant see a big club needing a spend money on a plyer who doesnt do it on the big stage when they can get the real deal at all levels.

What exactly happened here in his time at nufc for him to take responsiblity for? We were poor but there is absilutley nothing definitive to apologise for. Anyone would of thought that by judging from all these "correct opinions" that we were all geared up for a brilliant season and that Allardyce took us dramatically backwards. Lets put are head up our arses though and completely forget the 3 year hangover and the state of the club and dramatic changes that were made whilst he was here....

Me too. I don't really know what he's getting at. As Wullie says, most of the players he bought were made to work by Keegan. It's not like people started off saying we were right to sack him then were proved wrong. To be fair he had 22 games - obviously made some silly mistakes but id hardly say he was a failure. Bare in mind Keegan didnt nothing agsint opponents in the top half, hardly enough evidence to suggest that he was a guarantued failure - definitiely no evidence to suggest Keegan will be a guranateed success. Bit of a red herring, that. Keegan came in with moral and orginisation at rock bottom with a run of games against the best in the league. Bit of a big ask to expect him to turn things around to the point were we're getting results from the likes of Arsenal, Manure, Chelsea, Villa or Everton.. The teams we needed to get results from were the teams around us and we did that. Under that fat c*** we couldn't even beat Derby or Stoke. He made us into a f***ing awful team, a shambles, that's failure in my book.. Ok....no doubt it was an incredibly poor start, but the general consensus amongst the fans were that he may of suceeded eventually - even today i bet there'd be some people who would admit that he may of suceeded eventually, hardly the definition of failure. Same cant be said for someone like Souness- now thats the definition of failure. What are you going on about man?! There's no doubt in my mind that had Allardyce been our manager until the end of the season we would have been relegated. Now that's the definition of failure!!! Well theres no doubt in my mind he was gonna go on a 16 game winning streak and win the league. Now that's the definition of success.

Me too. I don't really know what he's getting at. As Wullie says, most of the players he bought were made to work by Keegan. It's not like people started off saying we were right to sack him then were proved wrong. To be fair he had 22 games - obviously made some silly mistakes but id hardly say he was a failure. Bare in mind Keegan didnt nothing agsint opponents in the top half, hardly enough evidence to suggest that he was a guarantued failure - definitiely no evidence to suggest Keegan will be a guranateed success. Bit of a red herring, that. Keegan came in with moral and orginisation at rock bottom with a run of games against the best in the league. Bit of a big ask to expect him to turn things around to the point were we're getting results from the likes of Arsenal, Manure, Chelsea, Villa or Everton.. The teams we needed to get results from were the teams around us and we did that. Under that fat c*** we couldn't even beat Derby or Stoke. He made us into a f***ing awful team, a shambles, that's failure in my book.. Ok....no doubt it was an incredibly poor start, but the general consensus amongst the fans were that he may of suceeded eventually - even today i bet there'd be some people who would admit that he may of suceeded eventually, hardly the definition of failure. Same cant be said for someone like Souness- now thats the definition of failure.

Me too. I don't really know what he's getting at. As Wullie says, most of the players he bought were made to work by Keegan. It's not like people started off saying we were right to sack him then were proved wrong. To be fair he had 22 games - obviously made some silly mistakes but id hardly say he was a failure. Bare in mind Keegan didnt nothing agsint opponents in the top half, hardly enough evidence to suggest that he was a guarantued failure - definitiely no evidence to suggest Keegan will be a guranateed success. Bit of a red herring, that.

So did we not get to the stage where we put our financial terms to Modric on the table - that article suggests we had a bid on the table buts thats about it. Didnt mort say we offered more than them and more money to Modric. Who's lying?

does anyone remeber when football used to be about football? I blame Abrhamovich.

Another player who will be overpaid for off the bakc of a good tournament, if he wasnt already on the radar then there isnt a single chance we will get him, the club wont overpay for a player who was available on the cheap but comands a big fee after the tournament.

Emres transfer came out of nowhere as well - in fact i cant really think of too many long drawn out pursuits last summer. In fact Modric himself didnt get a mention till it had been found off that Croat geezer.

Wasnt overly pleased with Allardyce - was content withhim knowing his previous record but i always thought that Sven would of been a better appointment as he was available and was a proven manager and definitely World Class in my opinion also one who definitely had the ability to get usinto the top4. Was unhappy with Sheperds single mindedness in his pursit for Allardyce and his obvious unwillingness to do a throrough search throughtout Europe.

Anyone else think the constant bumlicking of Ronaldo was unbearable? They should all spend a night with him and get it out their system, then discard him like you would with a whore. Sickening. EDIT: little too late!

Not sure about that - Gullit was a sound appointment, SBR was a sound appointment as was Allardyce. You;re being over criticial if you think that every manager should be a success and to be fair Gullit, SBR and Allardyce all had there merits - my only issue with Allardyce though was that i thought there were better candidates around and there was a stubborn singularity about his appointment which meant we didnt even consider other targets. Shepherds single biggest mistake which ruined his legacy for the club forever will be his treatment of SBR - its fair to say that we find ourselves in the position we are in now off the back of that decision, and cosidering the position we were in when SBR left thats no mean feat.

You dont rate him? Personally, i think he's superb defensively, his attacking attributes arent upto scratch - yet, but i think that can be instilled into him. Its already been mentioned but swapping our only LB (who in my opinion is good and im sure will get better) for a 4th (not counting Sm*th) doesnt make sense. If the board have the criteria that we think they do, i cant see them sanctioning this transfer if Keegan genuinely does have riise on his mind as replacement. Don't think he's been brilliant. Certainly no better than the likes of Nicky Shorey etc. Or no worse which is testament to Enrique considering this is his frst season in a faultering side, in a notoriously difficult foreign league, with little consistent playing time and all at the age of 21. Shorey is 27 and has had the benefit of playing in English football his entire life, so on that basis, you can see i rate Enrique very highly.

You dont rate him? Personally, i think he's superb defensively, his attacking attributes arent upto scratch - yet, but i think that can be instilled into him. Its already been mentioned but swapping our only LB (who in my opinion is good and im sure will get better) for a 4th (not counting Sm*th) doesnt make sense. If the board have the criteria that we think they do, i cant see them sanctioning this transfer if Keegan genuinely does have riise on his mind as replacement.

Would be pissed off if we sold Enrique - waited 5 years to get a decent LB, then when we finally get one, a pretty good one we end up selling him.

Have we actually been linked with many people going to Euro 2008? I can only think of a few, not that many at all.

Our defence was OK when we took the pressure off them and allowed them a chance to settle. Don't think it will be if we go back to 442 to be honest. There are numerous ways probably to deal with this that don't involve Shearer or Bellamy, but it is an issue that will need sorting. how does 443 mean our defense plays really well and 442 means that they fall into a disorginised rubble exactly? beye, faye, taylor and enrique is a good defence. not brilliant but solid, and as long as we can keep the ball next season they should perform alright. a lot of teams play 442 in this league and i'm sure they are not blaming that on any defensive frailties that they face. i'm equally sure that there is nothing in beye, feye, taylor and enrique which makes them very good at defending in a 433 formation but s**** in a 442 formation. In a 442 we only really have one defensive midlifeid who will try and protect the defnse and that was Butt, so not very well. When we switched to 433 we in essence had 3 CM doing defensive duties and doing them much better and narrower than a winger would do providing more protection for the defence. If we are looking to swith back to a 442 then DM is THE absolutely most important position to fill, in fact DM is the most imporatant position to fill anyway.

I cant remember the last itme we had a balanced team to be honest. I think the closest we came was when we had woodgate but he was always imjuered. We seem to struggle to get everyone sorted whther it be a poor ish defence, a nothing midfiled under Allardyce or no attack under Roeder.

So were you a member of the old board?

For years though we've not had a solid base to rely on. I'm not disputing that attacking from the front is effective, but I feel we achieved under Robson despite the defence, not thanks to it. With Enrique, Faye, Taylor, Beye and Harper in the defence I think we have as solid a look as we have for a long time; it's a complete defence, with no outstanding weak links. Got to thank Allardyce for three of those too. This summer we need to make sure we are as formidable going forward, and that means targetting and bringing in players who can create and score goals. 100% agree. It was literally the defense that needed sorting - it was such a strange situation - i could and will never understand why not a sinslge manager chose to really bulk up the defence and add real quality - we easily had one of the best attacking units in the prem. Really frustrating in hindsight.

I think we;ve proved somewhat in our recent history that at times its best to build from the front. ive always belived that the most imprtant thing in a game is to be able to put pressure on the opposition and keep them under pressure and we did it brilliantly well under keegan and SBR. It released pressure off the defenders and we had 2 excellent outlets for our defense when under pressure - the attack was multi dimesional, it could both chase long balls and turn defense inot attack in a flash or we could hold up the ball and keep possession in the final third waiting for the midfield to catch up and take pressure off the defenders that way. You look at our current forwards and in my opinion only Martins is exrtremely simlar to Bellamy- but we dont have our own Shearer who can hold up the ball, viduka isnt even close to sheaer when it comes to hold up play.

"Unrealisitc to expect them to make a good choice everytime" What rubbish - its entirely realisitc to expect them to make a good choice - its entirely unrealistic to expect the choice to turn out good though. You even say it yourself "theres nothing a good manager couldnt put right" so you acknowledge there were some problems (maybe disagree with the severity) and then say that the problems would of been sorted if a good manager was appointed, well doesnt what you say highlight the importance of hiring the right man? No one has an issue with Dalglsih, no one had an issue with Gullit, but people had an issue with the board after there appointments of Souness, Roeder and Allardyce (although not so much with allardyce), why do you think this is? Yet again - its right in front of your eyes.

There is a sell on clause of 10%, but that is totally independent of the 20% financial rights which mean that Barca part own dos Santos for the next two years and therefore have some say over the dealings for that playerin a manner which is not likely to be made public. Same with Modric. I'm sorry, but I don't buy that - 3rd party influence over transfers is not allowed under Premiership rules (as with the West Ham case), and I can't see even Spurs being stupid enough to sign a deal which breaks these rules after the West Ham affair. The bolded Barca statement reads to me as a 20% sell-on clause in his first 2 years, going down to a 10% clause after that. (Btw, that's also how the BBC sees it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/7440216.stm) I think your opinions on these two deals are both based on the hope that one of our main current Premiership rivals haven't done two good deals rather than whatever the underlying truth might be. See, im convinced that there was something in the Spurs Modric deal which made it more appelaing to the mamic brothers- the transfer just doesnt make sense otherwise and as it seems that spurs ARE actualy willing to include sell on clauses etc (despite what our spurs ITK posters say) it would sugest to me that James isnt too far from the truth although im not sure where he's plucked the 'forced acceptance' bit from. Im so curious to know what the actual deal was here, even if the truth is as mundane and unrealisitic as the Mamic brothers choosing the best career choice for Modric at the expense of more money for them...

Roughly what percentage of people do you think think that the old board 'as a whole were shit'?