fredbob

So do you think its purely coincidnce that this initative will effect mainly our leagues and leave most the other major leagues in Europe unaffected? I dont, Blatter and Platini have made it clear in the past that they dont like our league. Even the reduction of CL places is aimed mainly at us and not for the benefit of the competition although its painted that way. Why should we compromise the strength of our league? Although im not exactly estactic about the monopoly the top4 have on the league, they have all got there (bar Chelsea) on their mertis and only there merits, rememeber Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal all started on an even keel with many of the maojor clubs in Europe, the lieks of Arsenal and Liverpool mauybe even behind.

I disagree somewhat with your assessment of SBR final moments at the club, i just think theres a hell of a lot of supposition in what you are saying (i.e the cracks appeared he was old and losing the dressing room, we were bound to fail) and a fair bit of discrimination of his age, i think if he was 20 years younges and was having the same problems but similar success then i cant help but think the crowd would of stuck by the manager more than they did, instead his age was used as a stick to beat him with, despite the fact his record stood at steering us to 4,3 and 5th all in his late 60's. I agree that there may of been an air of stubborness from the man, it seemed clear that he felt he had unfinished business with the club and felt he hadnt taken them as far as he could, and in my opinion, he could of taken us further, he had an incredibly poor season by his standards yet still finihsed 5th, this was after a season where he wasnt backed so after the high of getting a 3rd position finihs the season before to dropping to 5th the following season with the dterimental loss of a CL place he was unceremoniuously shown the door after all he had done. I dont know of another man who i would of trusted to turn it around, he was constantly undermined under his tenureship and had key players like Speed sold without his knowledge, something which effected the team somewhat in hindsight. Maybe theres an argument to say that his stubborness would of meant that he would of held on longer than would of been healthy for the club, but i dont think for one second it was fair, or even clever to sack him after the poorseason he had, there was no footballing reason to sack SBR, losing out on CL for 2 years was a major blow but we had an impressive run in the UEFA cup the season before having failed to qualify for the group stages and had also qualified again for the UEFA cup again, where maybe we would of started as favourites for the entire competition. It was a ridiculous sacking without the benefit of hindisght and a sacking in ridiculous circumstances. Something that i think this club paid for massively, some say that the apoointment of Souness was what damaged us the most, but i think those people need to ask themselves if there was a manager out there, better than SBR who would of taken the job after the manner of his sacking. Even the fact that he wasnt backed after his 3rd place finish, would of been a major sticking point in many managers eyes. He should of been given at least one more year to prove that the club wasnt about implode, every top manager has a poor season, Fergie has, Wenger has, Benitez has as well, Moyes has, every single one, and yet they are given the benefit why wasnt SBR given the same benfit....because of his age, ridiculous.

Id be more interested in seeing more home national managers to be honest, that would be more of a far reaching initative which may yield some results, well in my opinion anyway. I dont understand why Fifa and UEFA have such a vendetta against the PL. Would i be being arrogant if i said that the big 4 is only so because Newcastle fell back massively after SBR? That to me seems to be the point where the big 4 got the monolpoly on the prem.

Sad thing with thier current profile, chances are they will be able to get an even better manager in, his advisors wont be looking on these shores like Shepherd so thats where the similarities between us and Man C end after SBR, so the only option really is a world class manager. The only issue i can see with the next appointment will be the funding - surely Frank wont go back on his word about no investment this summer if a new managr is in charge.

Hold on, im sure all i said was i wouldnt be overwhlemed if we were looking to sign a player to replace one of our strongest performers in the team because they maybe wouldnt make a good partnership. But well said big man, you really made me look stupid there... But you've even said yourself you've never seen Dunne play so perhaps you should before judging if he'd make a good partner for someone or not. Hence why i asked whether he was a Terry type defender or a Ferdinand type defender, maybe i was wrong to say "it wouldnt work cos you never no" but i always known it to be comon lknowledge that the best combination of defenders are the ones that compliments and neutralise each others weaknesses, ie the different type of defenders, if they have the same attributes then surely they'll have the same weaknesses..... Makes sense in my head. I think that'd very true with striking partners and CM partners, but not so much with CB pairings. As long as the both understand each other and communicate well any two types of defenders can hit it off, its just a bonus if you have two which complement each other like that, imo of course. Fair enough.

Hold on, im sure all i said was i wouldnt be overwhlemed if we were looking to sign a player to replace one of our strongest performers in the team because they maybe wouldnt make a good partnership. But well said big man, you really made me look stupid there... But you've even said yourself you've never seen Dunne play so perhaps you should before judging if he'd make a good partner for someone or not. Hence why i asked whether he was a Terry type defender or a Ferdinand type defender, maybe i was wrong to say "it wouldnt work cos you never no" but i always known it to be comon lknowledge that the best combination of defenders are the ones that compliments and neutralise each others weaknesses, ie the different type of defenders, if they have the same attributes then surely they'll have the same weaknesses..... Makes sense in my head.

Just to reiterate i dont think the story is racist...

Hold on, im sure all i said was i wouldnt be overwhlemed if we were looking to sign a player to replace one of our strongest performers in the team because they maybe wouldnt make a good partnership. But well said big man, you really made me look stupid there...

Sorry but thats a load of s*** So its purley coincidence that the best partnerships in teams or footballing centre halves with wall centre halves, DM and AM and Big man Little man combinations....? You're right, it does sound like shit.

i'd rather play him with faye and sit taylor on his arse next to given tbh Cant play 2 defenders of the same style together it just doesnt work, like all partnerships througout centre of the team. so we should play a good one and a s**** one instead? aye, that'll work No, we shouldnt play 2 defnders of the same style, i thought that would be clear from my above quote, here i'll put it in bold for you... can you explain what the alternative is then? playing dunne and taylor? i'll stress again, we should play our 2 best central defenders, same style or not. if we were to sign dunne, taylor wouldnt be one of our two best defenders. Address the real weakness in the defence and look to sign the type of defender we need, address your weaknesses before you address your position of strength, like i say i wont be too overwhelmed if this comes off. Whats the point of playing your 2 best defenders together if they are unable to play together, it'd be like lampard and Gerrard for england....same concept different position. you miss the point. we are hardly overwhelmed with defensive talent at nufc incase you hadn't noticed, and we're not realy in a position to be picky about dropping a far superior defender (which faye is to taylor imo), for the sake that he is similar to richard dunne, who is also far superior defensively to mr taylor. and, to be honest, i relay dont think they are all that similar, they are both big, thats about it, but dunne doesnt get caught out by many one on one and has a turn of pace, he also commands the back four/leads from the back. can't say i've seen faye do any of these things? You need to get the balance right, hence the already estabilished and prven combination of having a footballing defender and a wall defender. All i was saying was that i dont think that combination would work because they are too similar. Hence why id be underwhelmed because id rather get the footballing defender in. One of them will be forced to not play his natural game and go into a role he's not comfortable with, that wouldnt make sense to me.

Do you not think that if something racist is said then maybe it should be pointed out? Or would that be getting in the way of a good story..... was it racist ? Open to interpretation i suppose. Personally in my opinion if race has no relevance to the context of a story or argument and it is mentioned then it shows that that person doesnt treat the person as equal. Im not saying that its a racist comment or the story is racist but if you see colour as a relevant factor to any anecdote irrespective of the connotations of the anecdote then in my opinion you dont see them as equals. Its just my view on attitude to racism, ive heard the whole "im not racist cos i dont hate them" and "i cant be racist because im firends with 'em" explanation so many times. If you cant consider someone as equal then you have racist views in my opinion.

i'd rather play him with faye and sit taylor on his arse next to given tbh Cant play 2 defenders of the same style together it just doesnt work, like all partnerships througout centre of the team. so we should play a good one and a s**** one instead? aye, that'll work No, we shouldnt play 2 defnders of the same style, i thought that would be clear from my above quote, here i'll put it in bold for you... can you explain what the alternative is then? playing dunne and taylor? i'll stress again, we should play our 2 best central defenders, same style or not. if we were to sign dunne, taylor wouldnt be one of our two best defenders. Address the real weakness in the defence and look to sign the type of defender we need, address your weaknesses before you address your position of strength, like i say i wont be too overwhelmed if this comes off. Whats the point of playing your 2 best defenders together if they are unable to play together, it'd be like lampard and Gerrard for england....same concept different position.

He's far better than Faye. So we are looking to replace our best centre half then? And what? Dunne is a player Keegan rates and has managed before, he's been excellent over the past 2 years so if Keegan wants to bring him here even at the expense of Faye then I'm fully behind it, Faye has played well for us over most of the season but he isn't the leader we need that can bring some organisation to the back four, Dunne is so get him in I say. Nothing, i was just under the impression we were looking to address our weaknesses in the first team...like i say i wont be too overwhelmed with it because i think its clear that we need a footballing defender.

i'd rather play him with faye and sit taylor on his arse next to given tbh Cant play 2 defenders of the same style together it just doesnt work, like all partnerships througout centre of the team. so we should play a good one and a s**** one instead? aye, that'll work No, we shouldnt play 2 defnders of the same style, i thought that would be clear from my above quote, here i'll put it in bold for you...

He's far better than Faye. So we are looking to replace our best centre half then?

i'd rather play him with faye and sit taylor on his arse next to given tbh Cant play 2 defenders of the same style together it just doesnt work, like all partnerships througout centre of the team.

So competition for Faye then? Cant say id be too overwhelmed in that case, was hoping for a footballing defender, its what we're aching for.

is he a Ferdinand type defender or a Terry type defender, i actually havent seen that much of him this season.

Aye, it would of been a gamble but no more than any other foreign player, not matter how big there reputation was. I'd rather pay daft money in terms of wages and try and get Diego. I reckon if we offered sill £100kpw to him he might bite. maybe Juhnino will put in a good word for the North East to him....

Do you not think that if something racist is said then maybe it should be pointed out? Or would that be getting in the way of a good story.....

Aye, it would of been a gamble but no more than any other foreign player, not matter how big there reputation was.

Yes. Cant see why he'd mention it then. Doesnt seem like the sort of thing that you obligatorliy mention during transfer specualtion if it had no relevance to a particular potential signing. Suggest there is someone on the list with a bad reputation, no other reason for mentioning specifically mentioning it if they're all model pros on the list... The article is from January. So its not relevant article then?

Puts you firmly on a level playing field when debating with him if you really can't see it for what it is Innocent question.... but what is it?

Yes. Cant see why he'd mention it then. Doesnt seem like the sort of thing that you obligatorliy mention during transfer specualtion if it had no relevance to a particular potential signing. Suggest there is someone on the list with a bad reputation, no other reason for mentioning specifically mentioning it if they're all model pros on the list...

Agreed, good cover for Enrique. You mean Ashley Cole!! As for that Keegan article about problem players, there cant be too many high profile players who have that reputation, who do you think might be aimed at? Am i reading too much into it? that articles seems relevant to our future transfers-as well as the specific mention of South American players....albeit that would maybe contradict my theory....