The Prophet

I agree. His distribution needs sorting but he's been no where near as bad as some like to make out.

We don't necessarily need to play two forwards up front we do however need a system where people get forward and assist Carroll, neither Barton or Nolan have done it consistently this season. Playing someone up front with him is the most obvious solution but whether we have anyone capable at this level remains to be seen.

In a way I admire your attitude and ambition but at the same time I can't help but feel you've lost touch with the reality that faces the club in the modern game. There's no denying we have potential and one I'd love nothing more to see that come to fruition but I can't help but feel your over simplifying the issue. I don't think fans are suffering from an 'identity crisis' but finally realism coupled with lowerd expectation are finally starting to hit home. I agree, after the top seven/eight clubs in the country there is little to choose from but to attempt to break into that top bracket you need cash. With Ashley's unwillingness to retain any form of debt it is unlikely we will ever make massive waves in the transfer market hence it will be diffciult to break into that pack of teams and 'think big'. I think at this moment in time such an arguement is void anyway because we are a long way from being a regular top seven/eight club, we simply don't have the players. It will take time to put together a quality squad. Taking this into account our primary aim for this season should be to aim for mid-table. I've always held the theory aim for the sky, if you fall a little short you've still done pretty well. If we aim to avoid relegation we'll probably go down. Having seen our start to the season I'm pretty confident we can do this and this is down to Hughton. The football has been alright, we've created chances and we look a damn sight better than some of the sides you'd expect to be down there come may. He's starting to put together a decent side with the additions of Tiote and Ben Arfa. People are starting to question his position because of the way we set up at home. Time will tell but I wouldn't at all be suprised if he changed things at Wigan because his flexability and willingness to learn from past errors has been one of his positive attributes which has served us well in the past. We have to acknowledge he has made mistakes and one day his position may become untenable but as it stands I feel confident he can lay a decent foundation for a quality manager to come in and move us on. Taking that into account I'm in no great rush to change things. I can't see an 'experienced manager' coming in and dropping Nolan nor can I see an experienced manager changing much and hence doing a better job than Hughton currently is. It's going to be a stop start season, picking up points here and there. There's going to be major disappoinments but thats all part and parcel of being a newly promoted club, get used to it no matter who's in charge.

Also just to elaboarate on my last point we will need a proven manager at some point in the future but it's far from a necessity at this stage.

See my post above about the nature of the criticism on this thread about Hughton, I posted at 7:42pm. The criticism of Hughton is warrented in term of his poor use of substitutions in my eyes. Doesn't mean I want the bloke sacked, a few quality of Premeir League managers struggle with substitutions ala Moyes. One thing that has impressed me about Hughton is his willingness to learn from his mistakes, in the coming weeks we will see if he's going to rectify the current issues in his management and in the team, bencing Nolan at home being the issue most will point out most. Who says Hughes would have taken the job? There's still a lack of confidence and an element of unpredictability in the Ashley regime. I know I sure wouldn't go near it at this moment in time if I were an abitious manager. Do you really want to talk about the merits of our squad with regards to Hughton doing a good job? I don't know the exact figure but I would bet we had by far the most expensive squad to have ever been in the Championship, a squad with 2 current Argentinean internationals, three experienced central midfielders, £4 million-ish left back, England under 21 centre half, Ameobi/Lovenkrands who have a lot of experience of top level football/European football. It was less to do with the quality of the squad and more to do with the motivation, confidence and team spirit installed. Especially given the set of circumstances he did it in. I don’t think it was fantastic to win the Championship with our team, the Championship is a poor league. If Hughton did a fantastic job, how would describe what Holloway did at Blackpool? He did a bloody fantastic job. Attendance has got everything to do with it, it shows how much money is coming into the club, it shows how much potential is there if we have a good manager who knows how to build a team without the owner putting money in. It is also an attractive to a potential manager. You quote Derby who may be get 5-10,000 more fans than some premier league teams, we get more 25,000 more than some teams in the league, that what makes us a lot different. See the quotes above about the attractiveness of the club. The potantial is undoubtedly but then I could reel of a list of clubs in the Championship clubs that have 'potantial', again perspective is required. We're a long way from being one of the big boys. We need to first and foremost establish ourselves in the league and I'm willing to give Hughton a shot at that. There may come a time when he has to go but at the minute I'm fairly confident we'll pick up enough points with him at the helm. With regards to who I would propose, again see my post at 7:42pm. Not fantastic managers but managers who are realistic and could build a platform at Newcastle for some later to take on. All proven managers. The reason that the last part is relevant is that football is central to lot of people’s lives in Newcastle and as such the most important person at the club, i.e. the manager, should be someone who has managed at the top level, someone who has a proven track record. The club is far too important to too many people to have Hughton in charge. Look where 'proven' managers have got taken before.

Now I'm not eating time for a proper response:

Doubt there's a club in England where that's not happening tbh. Nature of the beast. The rest of your post is a load of nonsense, he got us promoted with 100+ points. Stuff about "club of our size" is just arrogance based on nothing. He earned the job unlike a lot of Premier League managers who get given them as soon as they've hung their boots up because of what their name is or who they played for. Fans of other clubs are not questioning their manager like people are in this thread. I'm also sick of all this earnt the job rubbish, are we the only club in England where people earn a job? It was the same with Roeder, there's nothing in Hughton's background to suggest he's suited to managing a club like Newcastle. For once can we not appoint a manager with a proven track record? Getting promotion means nothing to me, not with the squad he had. That's not with the benefit of hingsight either as I just didn't rate the Championship. Look at the managers who have got other clubs promoted last season and in the past, not many I rate. Maybe I am arrogant but I do believe a club with the 3rd highest attendance should have a manager better than Hughton, that's what I base my opinion on. Bit of an aside but a few weeks ago there was a programme about Newcastle on BBC 4, which looked at the city over the last 100 years and you could see on there how central football is to the city unlike a lot of other places. I've moved away from the Newcastle and that programme reinforced a lot of what I've felt for a long time, it really is a special place to play, manage and that we are abig club.

The problem is the formation. It's all well and good playing 4-5-1/4-4-1 away when it's on the other team to attacks and dominate you but it's far too predictable when we're at home. Nolan doesn't provide an adequate link between attack and midfield. The midfield as a whole don't support the forward and it's making us far too easy to defend against and pick off on the break.

Perch is much better than Taylor defensively.

I wouldn't, but I can see why people would... it fits into all the cliches about home record and beating the teams around you. We've shown we can compete with anyone, that's something Hughton can use. We could also easily have beaten Blackpool and drawn with Stoke on another day. We're in a decent position in the table, no need to panic at this point. There are warning signs with selection and subs, but Hughton still has time to correct them. We have NOT shown that we can 'compete with anyone'...we lost at SJP to two sides that most people would have bet on us beating at home. We were lucky to hit on a Villa side in the middle of a management change(remember NUFC at OT after Allardyce was fired ?) and I reckon they would 'do' us now... Everton have had a bad start and were without Tim Cahill when we played them. As for Hughton 'using' something, how about using his brain(and b---s)and dropping Nolan when he is not contributing to the side ? Will you still say we have proved we can compete with anyone if we lose at home to the Mackems ?

Barton had a good first half but was so poor in the second it was ridiculous. Every time he got the ball he either lost it or misplaced the pass. As a consequnce of that and the subing of Tiote we lost the midfield battle.

Nolan has to go like. Ben Arfa clearly needs to be playing in the middle.

I though Shola was alright when he came on, he obviosuly lacks quality but we already knew that. There again Carroll's second half performance would make Heskey look like Pele.

Didn't think his croassing was THAT bad today. Granted it could have been better.

Thought Williamson had his worst game for us today. Looked lost today, absolutely shocking from set pieces too.

We absolutely have to beat Wigan, they're dog shit.

Fail to beat Wigan and I'll start to worry.

That's a good point actually. Their midfield is gonna murder us. They bullied Chelsea in midfield, really dreading our midfield battle with them.

Like I say. I'd drop Nolan, see previous posts but today I felt he contributed a great deal more than Barton did over the ninety minutes.

The next Zico.

Got a green thumb has he?

2-0. City to grind out a barely deserved win.

On a side note our inability to defend set pieces is a worry. Knowing Stoke's main threat we should have been well drilled. Horrible bastards.

Some of his subs are absolutely baffling. Taking your most combative midfielder off when your under the cosh? Christ.