Mattoon

Any manager worth his salt wouldn't take over until Xmas, that way if they're propping up the league you can't be expected to do anything and reputation stays intact. Take over now and you'll be expected to climb out of it, but with that bunch of mercinaries and has beens you'd be lucky.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34178412 Sports Direct site 'called ambulances dozens of times' 5 October 2015 From the sectionDerby Image copyrightPAImage captionSports Direct is one of Europe's largest sports retailers Ambulances were called out to the headquarters of one of Europe's largest sports retailers 76 times in two years, a BBC investigation found. Many of the calls, for workers at Sports Direct's complex at Shirebrook, in Derbyshire, were for "life-threatening" illnesses. Former workers said some staff were "too scared" to take sick leave because they feared losing their jobs. Sports Direct said it aimed to provide safe working conditions for all. 'Working under fear' A total of 76 ambulances or paramedic cars were dispatched to the distribution centre's post code between January 2013 and December 2014, with 36 cases classed as "life-threatening", including chest pains, breathing problems, convulsions and strokes. A further seven calls for ambulances were made but cancelled. The figures, which came from a Freedom of Information request made by the BBC's Inside Out team to East Midlands Ambulance Service, also revealed the service received three calls about women having pregnancy difficulties, including one who gave birth in toilets at the site. The details have since been passed to the Health and Safety Executive which has said it will examine the data. Of the 999 calls, six were about car accidents on a road or car park next to the centre, one was for a dog bite and at least two were for a store on the site. Image captionThe list of calls includes 36 cases classed as "life-threatening" It is not clear exactly how many of these calls were for the thousands of agency workers on site. One of the cases involved 52-year-old Guntars Zarins, who suffered a stroke in the warehouse canteen. His daughter Liga Zarina-Shaw said Mr Zarins had gone to work with flu symptoms because he was too frightened to take time off. Image captionLiga Zarina-Shaw says her father was too scared to take "one day sick" The family does not blame Sports Direct or the agency which employed him for his stroke but Ms Zarina-Shaw said her father was worried about his job. "He [was] even scared to take one day sick," she said. Image captionGuntars Zarins has been left paralysed following his stroke "Now I know why, because what is happening there is not normal," she added. Mr Zarins was paralysed down his right side but has since had another stroke and has returned to hospital. Ms Zarina-Shaw said workers were worried about a "six strikes" policy used by an agency that supplies staff to Sports Direct. A document produced by one of the agencies states: "Any person who exceeds six strikes within a rolling six-month period will have their assignment at Sports Direct ended." Recruitment agency's six-strike policy Workers can receive a strike for a range of "offences" including: Period of reported sicknessExcessive chattingExcessive or long toilet breaksUsing a mobile phone in the warehouse The document adds agencies can end an assignment "at any time without reason, notice or liability". Unite said it had been told that last year there were about 3,000 agency workers at the Shirebrook headquarters of Sports Direct, which was founded by billionaire Mike Ashley. Sports Direct has also reported accidents in its warehouse have doubled in the past financial year. The firm put the rise in accidents down to on-site building work, which has resulted in "increased footfall and decreased workspace". Image copyrightPAImage captionSports Direct was founded by the billionaire Mike Ashley According to council figures, there were 38 accidents reported across 2013 and 2014, including a fractured neck, when somebody was struck by a moving object, a crushed hand from moving machinery and back and head injuries. At the firm's annual meeting, Keith Hellawell, the chairman, told shareholders he was satisfied the company complied with health and safety regulations and any concerns were investigated immediately. The firm has previously been criticised as"Dickensian" in its employment practices. Image copyrightAlex Britton/PA WiresImage captionUnions say working conditions at the site seem "Dickensian" In a statement, Sports Direct said: "Sports Direct aims to provide working conditions in compliance with applicable employment and health and safety legislation and seeks to provide safe working conditions for all staff working in our warehouse." Adding: "We have a good working relationship with our local environmental health officer and we work together to maintain and improve the safety of our working conditions." The firm added that there were only 24 calls directly to its warehouse during the period covered by the Freedom of Information request. The BBC was also told it was incorrect to suggest workers went to work poorly because of the strike system and that agency staff should not fear losing their jobs if they called in sick. Inside Out is broadcast on BBC One East Midlands at 19:30 on Monday 5 October and nationwide for 30 days thereafter on the iPlayer.

Plus I think the whole "Ashley is our saviour" financial revisionism and fear of becoming the next Leeds along with TV interviews talking of a brighter future and learning from mistakes every 2 - 3 years has got a lot fooled. A statement of intent keeps the sheep happy for another year or two. Sacking McClaren is the short term fix, getting in an established leader of a club is intent, not another has-been coach. He'll keep lying, applying what appears to be fixes with hopes of a new dawn and people will keep lapping it up. I admit I for one had a glimmer of hope after Pardew left and was even willing to give it time under McClaren against my better judgement, but it's clear that it's all about keeping the gravy train a-rolling and the sheep sedated. It'll be a long time until our fans turn en mass and even then I can see he'll still have staunch supporters.

The problem being the dampening of expectations, the sheep now firmly believe we reside in our expected/belonged place. The media lambast anyone who expects more and have painted us as having unrealistic expectations leaving a lot of us scared to speak up for fear of fitting into their stereotype. Ashley has done a bang up job of slapping us down and keeping us there.

The problem is all the damage he did in striking fear into our players and picking them for being shite has left a nasty stench and the fact that the downward spiral has continued and he left mid-freefall makes it look from the outside that we were doing better under him. Truth being we would be in this predicament no matter who we had.

I'd fucking love it if they get Pardew!

I concur we'd have grabbed a raggy win somewhere or put out a dog turd display at home for a few more draws. That doesn't mean I'd rather we were still in that position. I'm glad we are where we are, I would have taken us improving under McClaren and playing better football but I'll also accept being worse but not in a groundhog day of perpetuating loathing of everything at the club. Strangely even though worse in a twisted way it feels better because the man that made me hate football is gone and the fat fucker is closer to selling up.

You're probably right to be fair, we never had a contingency plan for Pardew when he was dragging us through the bowls of disgusting football so I doubt we have any idea now. I don't think it matters now who comes in the damage was done way before McClaren and won't be sorted any time soon.

At least he's trying to do something in a game where Pardew would have rolled over for the mancs to tickle his belly. Great first half performance, the problem being we still look fragile as fook, as soon as one goal goes in we crumble instead of remaining calm and trying to play like we had up to that point. Fwiw I voted sack him, he's way out of his depth but even if we get relegated with McClaren I'd still prefer it to treading water lower-mid table with Pardew. Fuck it all to death until Ashley goes, light the touch paper and watch the fucker burn.

The way he skinned, what was it 6 players? And rifled in across the 'keeper was insane! It's all over youtube already.

Where's all the Hatem haters these days? The one thing over everything they've done that cuts the most is paying this guy to leave, travesty! We had a truly awesome player in our team that just needed to be needed. A bit of confidence back and he's flying, tbf he's best off away from our shower of shite but selfishly we should have kept him.

It seems like every time we see the green shoots of recovery some shite team mows it down with a ride-on.

A tumultuous effort out there today, we just ran out of steam towards the end. Chelsea didn't deserve anything from that but we remain unbeaten at home by Jose which will piss him off! Fancy we could do the same to City next week. We just need to be able to turn the screw like that against the lower teams. Let's hope this is a turning point and not another Manyoo game.

I see Guy Mowbray has been channeling Carver "if Jose Mourinho's winless league record at St. James' Park continues, I really will believe the 'spirit of Sir Bobby' is guiding his old club against his protégé."

Bad influence, fat, useless, doesn't track back, oh and more prolific than the whole of NUFC. Good job we binned him when we got chance huh?

I'll just requote this here: Good read that. Depressing like. Although I agree with the sentiment and the "bright lights" of London argument (see Remy) I also believe that another London factor has caused our demise, Ashley. Neville touched on it briefly by talking about the disconnect between owner, manager and fans, but I believe with an ambitious Owner in the mould of Hall when he first took over would see us still fighting near the top. The main trouble is the money and never has it been truer than today that you speculate to accumulate and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. There's so much money sloshing round at the top that makes it nay on impossible to challenge without finding the perfect chemistry between manager and players at a lower budget. With Ashley in charge and his two-bit football-retarded MD we have absolutely no chance of stumbling across the perfect formula. Our mighty messiah will turn us into that which "he saved us from" the next Leeds or even Hull, we should be so lucky to be as good as Wednesday. With Hall and Keegan we had vision and ambition and yes maybe some delusions of grandeur but we gave it a shot, we defied all the odds and we stood toe to toe with the best the country had to offer, that's why we could entice the players away from London. Who wants to play for "let's aim for 8th but top 10 would be awesome"? Who wants to play for the mighty McClaren? London didn't take it away from us Ashley did.

Good read that. Depressing like. Although I agree with the sentiment and the "bright lights" of London argument (see Remy) I also believe that another London factor has caused our demise, Ashley. Neville touched on it briefly by talking about the disconnect between owner, manager and fans, but I believe with an ambitious Owner in the mould of Hall when he first took over would see us still fighting near the top. The main trouble is the money and never has it been truer than today that you speculate to accumulate and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. There's so much money sloshing round at the top that makes it nay on impossible to challenge without finding the perfect chemistry between manager and players at a lower budget. With Ashley in charge and his two-bit football-retarded MD we have absolutely no chance of stumbling across the perfect formula. Our mighty messiah will turn us into that which "he saved us from" the next Leeds or even Hull, we should be so lucky to be as good as Wednesday. With Hall and Keegan we had vision and ambition and yes maybe some delusions of grandeur but we gave it a shot, we defied all the odds and we stood toe to toe with the best the country had to offer, that's why we could entice the players away from London. Who wants to play for "let's aim for 8th but top 10 would be awesome"? Who wants to play for the mighty McClaren? London didn't take it away from us Ashley did.

Working tonight so keeping up on here, sounds riveting, lol

This shits too heavy for 10pm on a Sunday night

This, it's such a pet peeve, McClaren, it's McClaren, how hard is it to remember??

I was thinking Fabricio Coloccini (cunt)

My boss is a PNE supporter, just messaged him to let him know he's dodged a bullet there!

I don't see people advocating Pardew; I do see people saying Pardew, as a manager, not a man, might just have offered more. That's quite staggering but it may well be true. I wasn't meaning here, there's an almost unanimous hatred for Pardew here, I was talking about social media in general and certain blog sites I've had this misfortune to read recently.

Worse thing about this current malaise is the Pardewites coming out the closet again, we never should have got rid, look at what he's doing at Palace, all you mongs forcing him out etc... As much as I don't rate Schteve, he really needs to get a serious run on soon and Pardew to return to type so we can finally get that monkey off our back and put to bed this myth that Pardew is some kind of mastermind.