kingxlnc

Never understood the Nolan love he was a good honest professional and had good leadership skills. That’s it. Nowhere near an icon. Given is an icon. Or Lee. We didn’t really miss him as Cabaye was twice the player. Nolan doesn’t even seem as fond or bothered about Newcastle as someone like Joey Barton or Enrique or Jonas or most from that group of lads that Hughton managed.

Totally agree with that, as I mentioned I was the biggest Shearer fan growing up and still am. I just meant I relate more to/am inspired more by keegan now that I’m older. Both of course are absolute legends.

Yes Shearer did something like that when he first came in. Nothing wrong with enforcing stricter rules per se, especially if the team is lax or has problems on that side, but you're right it's quite entry level stuff. With world class player managers - what tends happens with them is that they initially do pretty well, because their stature is such that their very presence may get an extra 2-3% out of players. Souness, Gullit are good examples here. But when their name and star fades because the younger players don't know them as well - and the actual need to be a good manager comes in to play - they start to struggle and get found out for their limited ability. Even with Gerrard's strong start, it remains to be seen if this lasts long term. (It's said he doesn't do much of the coaching anyway, he's quite hands off in that regard, he's more of a figurehead manager). Zidane is another one who did well in his first stint but when things went wrong in second stint, he didn't really know what to do to fix things. Keegan himself was a world class player - and he didn't have all the tricks in his arsenal needed to be a top top coach - although he had stronger communication, influence and empathy skills than most other players do, which helped him in terms of man management. Yeah that Keegan quote about Ginola was to John Beresford the left back who was constantly exposed. He said 'look, I know you'll have to do some extra work but he could win us the league!' Keegan's honesty is legendary and it's obvious why people would run through brick walls for someone like that.

Shearer was an absolute world class player and great icon of the club. And with him being a pundit, he's a fairly good representative in the media, means the club gets spoken about more than it probably usually would in its current state. But in terms of being in touch with what the people want, he doesn't have a clue. He is a legend for on-the-pitch stuff, but off the pitch his opinion isn't anything overly special that you'd tune in or pay good money for. Whereas with Keegan or even SBR, they brought a different level of depth and you'd read and listen to everything they say as not only is it going to be warm and passionate, it's also going to be pretty spot on and insightful. More than anything it is their values and ethos that represent the club above all else. Shearer was a bloody good player, my hero growing up like many but I don't rate him as highly as the others in adulthood in terms of him 'getting it'. He doesn't inspire me as much as the others in terms of what he has to say or in his actions. For what it's worth - I also think he'd be a PFM type of manager so it's a good thing his management career didn't quite take off.

The irony of all this is that with the amount of signage Ashley had up, it was effectively the Sports Direct stadium in all but name. So I’d say there’s bigger fish to fry, that is prime advertising real estate that can bring in millions and give much needed wriggle room. Would Man City have fallen foul of FFP if they didn’t get that etihad upgrade?

Yeah, same here which is weird as I've never been bothered to do that for God knows how long. Keegan's for me were often full of great soundbites all reflecting the fact he truly knows and loves the area and people, and exuded pure passion and ambition. Made you dare to dream. SBR's were classy and full of wisdom and a bit of humour. Wise sage, with youthful energy, loving every minute of the experience. Made you warm and fuzzy. Benitez were just professional and full of tactical knowledge, you appreciated the depth of knowledge and experience he bought to the table, so you trusted his authority. Made you calm and have faith in him, even if not the club in general (esp in a difficult time). With Howe, they are measured, succinct, fairly warm but at an arm's length, super professional and articulate but the main thing I get from him is that he is someone who is high calibre and classy without going overboard. So whilst he is not as charismatic as say, Keegan (who is?!), he has a way about him that is highly influential and commands respect. What his are doing are actually restoring pride and slowly but surely healing the divide. This is good long term as it allows you to get back to supporting the team knowing you having a dynamic figurehead representing the club instead of cringing at yet further embarrassing anecdotes and lip-licking or downplaying expectations.

Honestly think Howe is potentially a Nagelsmann in the making. In Germany, he would have got a shot at one of the bigger clubs sooner, that's for sure. This is the equivalent of taking over a Schalke and restoring them to their glory years. I definitely think he has the potential to do it - as long as it's a semi-fair fight (and the other PL clubs don't change the goalposts).

With the next game it will really feel like the end of the Mike Ashley era and the start of the new one more than ever. Especially if the DoF comes in, Charnley is terminated and Sports Direct signage comes down in these next two weeks. The most apt Wor 'flag' that would be perfect to signal the new era, given the backers, is "Surely after hardship, comes ease." The Holy Qur'an 94:5 Would really echo the sentiments of the fans as we leave a painful wretched time in the past and head towards a bright new future (insha'allah)

That’s dumb. What if your starting centre back gets injured?

Can't help thinking Fonseca would be a Keegan-esque appointment in that what the club needs is a galvanising figure to inject that spark of life into this almost dead club, he has charisma, confidence and plays attacking football with a clear philosophy. I think too many are swayed by the relegation battle aspect and even Emery was prioritised for his pragmatic abilities to manage a defence. But being able to attack doesn't mean not being able to defend. It's not a binary thing. So Fonseca over Howe for me, especially because by all accounts he interviewed well too.

Infrastructure is so important. Conte on day one at Spurs said Im so impressed with the facilities here, I can't wait to.start work and it's made me even more determined to deliver world class results on the pitch to match the world class facilities they have off the pitch. When someone who's been at many of the top clubs says that you know they will bring their a game and want to actually work all hours obsessively to get to success.

The irony is the current version of Saudi are not all too friendly or approving of the Taliban or Afghanistan Seems even the European centre of learning can be wrong from time to time

A good way of tracking all this accounting for inflation is to look at the price of gold historically versus today. 234M in 2007 is equivalent to 387,359 gold oz. In 2021, 305M is equivalent to 241,337 gold oz. That means, it has lost 146,021 gold oz of value over that period. 1 oz is approx £1300 today. You do the math. That’s another £190M on top. The club should have gone for closer to 500m to be a like for like in terms of the club value at the time he bought it. Or, for arguments sake let’s forget the 100m in loans, and we go with the original £134m he paid, versus the £305m it sold for. Using the same calculation it shows that he made a profit of 19,516 oz, or £25M. He bought the club at an amazing time, the time the iPhone came out and the era of apps, streaming, broadband and immense demand for broadcasting rights, literally a license to print money, especially with fans as passionate as Newcastle’s . So after all that, his best case scenario is that he made £25 million profit on a PL club, 14years later at a time of immense riches, and that is also by luck of selling it to the richest owners where money is no object. So please, no one should ever think the guy is a good business man. Don’t get me started on his ethics and Sports Direct controversies…

He bought it without due dilligence, ended up having to put an extra £100m into the club to start with. HiS era coincided with the golden age of the Premier League in terms of investments and profile. Newcastle already had a decent profile, it wasn’t like he was buying Bournemouth or Huddersfield. NUFC could have been sold for a billion had he not mismanaged it to kingdom come. He lost the club over a decade worth of commercial revenue by having his toxic sports direct continually benefit from sponsorship for FREE. Damningly the commercial revenue of the club went DOWN during his time, I don’t even know how that was possible. It was ahead of Tottenham before he took over. He continued to antagonise the chief customers and make the same mistakes over and over. He didn’t put the right management and executive team in place to take care and grow his investment. He got relegated twice all with a club that had been constantly in Europe before he arrived. Nothing about anything he did screams good business man to me. People are short sighted and think oh but he ran the club at a profit. If you’re looking to exit, and get the maximum amount back from your investment you want to add as much value as possible, yet he chose to take value continually. Here’s the real numbers, he bought the club for £134m, put an extra £100m in to it in interest free loans. That’s 234m. 14 years later all you get is £300m for one of the UK’s most historic institutions? £70m is all he’s gained in terms of resale value? That’s probably all inflation anyway, in 2007 pricing and therefore he has probably lost money on everything.

There was an article on the Athletic about commercial revenue. In the comments, there were the usual ignorant comments so I put a quick point about where Newcastle were pre-Ashley. It’s amazing how the narrative is all centred around Ashley being a good business man etc. I just thought I’d share my comments and subsequent replies here too as there’s so much nonsense out there it gets annoying! my original comment: In 1999, based on commercial revenue until the end of the 1997-1998 season, Newcastle’s revenues were actually in the top 5 clubs in the world, second only to Manchester United in England. The Keegan era had really given the club such a strong foundation which they squandered big time. Ashley’s reign literally set them back decades, football moved on whilst NUFC was stuck in the dark ages, so much for Ashley being a top business man. The club and the region have so much potential, I wonder if they will ever get back to such heights again, but I’m glad they’ve now at least got the opportunity to. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/543805.stm

Towards the end of the book Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl he talks about many of those who came out of the concentration camps, actually had to relearn how to feel. They had become so subdued and had buried all feeling to survive in there, that upon being free again life’s pleasures like flowers and sunshine and warm food etc didn’t really mean anything in the early days, as they had become so disillusioned and disenfranchised it felt like this good stuff was not even reality. It obviously sounds strange to a non NUFC fan but all of this talk of proper structures, proper footballing directors, and attacking managers and commercial revenue and actually trying to win games let alone being able to buy and not just loan players, feels a little bit like that at the moment. This is obviously normality for most but Mike Ashley really did bludgeon and batter and bruise the very life out of this club, to a faint barely surviving pulse. For a club literally famous for their passion and purpose and for whom football is everything, what he did can actually be likened to torture and many still be feeling the effects of trauma for a while. That’s also why other fans and the media criticisms seem particularly harsh and hard to bear right now I guess, as having survived long enough to tell the tale, as victims the last thing we want is to be gaslit, to minimise the trauma suffered and told that the victims are actually the oppressors.

Towards the end of the book Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl he talks about many of those who came out of the concentration camps, actually had to relearn how to feel. They had become so subdued and had buried all feeling to survive in there, that upon being free again life’s pleasures like flowers and sunshine and warm food etc didn’t really mean anything in the early days, as they had become so disillusioned and disenfranchised it felt like this good stuff was not even reality. It obviously sounds strange to a non NUFC fan but all of this talk of proper structures, proper footballing directors, and attacking managers and commercial revenue and actually trying to win games let alone being able to buy and not just loan players, feels a little bit like that at the moment. This is obviously normality for most but Mike Ashley really did bludgeon and batter and bruise the very life out of this club, to a faint barely surviving pulse. For a club literally famous for their passion and purpose and for whom football is everything, what he did can actually be likened to torture and many still be feeling the effects of trauma for a while. That’s also why other fans and the media criticisms seem particularly harsh and hard to bear right now I guess, as having survived long enough to tell the tale, as victims the last thing we want is to be gaslit, to minimise the trauma suffered and told that the victims are actually the oppressors.

In the Athletic apparently an 'insider’ shared that was his nickname amongst some of the players says it all

Reading some of the exposes about him in the Athletic and general press recently, it really does seem it was the real life version of football manager where you tick the boxes to let your assistant manager do all the 'boring stuff' like training, etc and you go on holiday in the game to skip through to the odd game and the transfer window as fast as possible. The very definition of cruise control. Mike Ashley ran it like he didn't care, as did Lee Charnely. So to make up for that chronic lack of effort from above, you need to make up for that through your own effort and energy and intelligence. But it seems he embraced that culture himself, so instead of Rafa's double training sessions methodical work ethic, he managed it in a hands off way. No wonder the ship was sinking, it was completely rudderless. This is another reason why you can't really believe the whole its my boyhood club nonsense as if it really was, you'd be there all the time, soaking it in and doing your best to improve the situation, even if you are limited. You might be outclassed skills wise but you should never be outworked. Even that gains respect. His size and approach to fitness probably didn't help his energy and ability to handle things. Maybe he lost his own morale etc because of his hands being tied etc but when that happens the real dignity is doing what Gullit or Keegan did, holding your hands up and admit I can't carry on as it would be doing an injustice to the club and the fans etc. That's why what the club needs is either someone young hungry and energetic like Keegan first time around, eager to invest their best years, or someone highly highly professional, experienced and demanding who because of their high standards and very processes ensure they create the right culture. Bruce was neither, and this role really exposed him. Someone like Roy Hogdson only retired in the summer but was in his mid 70s, by all accounts he would outwork and out think Bruce on all accounts, let alone when you think about the likes of SBR.

I loved watching Kieron Dyer in his heyday and was unplayable on his day but we should have accepted that 25m bid or whatever it was from Man U. Defo did stick around too long.

This game for West Ham feels like our 4-0 loss game against Wigan back in April 2012. We were on a six match winning run and expected to continue that march towards the Champions League with Cisse perhaps in better form than Lingard is now. Think it'll shock them like it did us and they'll miss out on top 4.

Kluivert is definitely a good shout, I was so excited when we got him. He was fast losing interest in football in general but still had a touch of class which he showed in patches that season. Demba Ba for sure, only 18 months, and didn’t stop scoring wherever he went. Ben Arfa is the biggest tragedy even though he was signed up for four years, we saw less than two, taking into account injuries, Pardew and being released early. Other notable mentions: Hamann, Merino, Saha, Woodgate, Remy, Ginola, Emre, Ab.Faye, Domi, Distin As weird as it is, that strange spell of getting a random January loan striker, be it Facundo Feyrrera, Slimani, Luuk de Jong and Seydou Doumbia, all of them had decent track records but we didn’t really get to see much of them for it to materialise. Obviously Luuk we saw but he has done well elsewhere. For the others if they’d been given some actual game time perhaps they could have done something?

Surprised no one has said Joselu. Was a terrible toothless striker.

Other good shouts: Asprilla- Columbia Acuna- Chile Kluivert / Krul / Janmaat / Willems / Wijnaldum - Holland I agree with Ben Arfa but spoiled for choice from France. Potentially could go with Santon at left back - Italy Although you could maybe put Perez or Merino in, I’d go with Rafa to manage the team.

For me, Keegan leaving in 1997 is the biggest what-if moment in football, given what's happened since. A proper sliding doors moment. If he didn't leave then, or got replaced with Robson immediately, the way football looks today would have been completely different, to the extent where I feel NUFC would have continued to be a force, or at least still relevant instead the shell of a club you see today.