Hughesy

He just doesn't have a clue to score goals. Obviously the wider problems run far, far deeper and we've discussed them to death - but putting all of our eggs in this basket is one of the main reasons we're at the bottom. Just has absolutely no striker's instinct whatsoever. Yep - although I'm not sure if it's a confidence or instinct issue.

Actually thought he did relatively well tonight against Huth and Morgan. No idea why he passed that cross to De Jong.

Ok - correction - no-one else on the team was at more fault than him and he gets a fair bit more than 50% of the blame.

Gave away a needless free kick and then completely fucked up the header against vardy, which lead to the goal. He's crap.

He was pretty much 100% responsible for the 1st goal.

I'm not sure he'd get much joy out of Huth and Morgan, but wouldn't agree that he always gets bullied by centre halves. It seems to very much depend on 1) the quality of service we give him and 2) his state of mind. For example, I'd say he bullied the supposed best English central defender this season in Smalling and played well against WBA and West Ham (both of whom had pretty physical centre halves). Definitely needs more consistency in this aspect of his game though.

Could really do with getting something out of the game tonight - I think a point would make such a difference going into the Sunderland match.

I so excited about this. Can't actually concentrate on work. Just keep smiling to myself. Feels odd to be happy about NUFC.

OMG.

Can't actually believe this might happen. Just... wow. Having a proper manager. Just amazing.

If he was actually one of the 80 candidates interested in coming to us when Pardew left and we passed up the opportunity to get him in... well, I have no words.

Agreed - I had been thinking that the only way to actually get a proper manager was to be on the verge of disaster. Only thing that would shock them into action.

Don't get why people are giving McClaren crap over not walking - why should he walk? It isn't a question of dignity or morals. I wouldn't walk in his position.

Yeah - he usually seemed to be correct this summer from memory.

Didn't know where else to put it - has anyone here got any connections to any ex-England international footballers or retired Premiership footballers who people might actually know? Been tasked with trying to help organise a corporate event in London to coincide with the England vs Wales game at the Euros and we want to try and get a relatively well known footballer along to mingle/chat/talk about the game for 3 hours or so. Already tried going through one of those places that arranges this kind of thing, but their rates are ridiculous - getting Ray Wilkins along will cost you 7.5k for example. So I thought cutting out the middleman might be the best way forward. Is it worth trying to contact them on twitter? Other than that, I'm out of ideas...

Does this apply to Championship tickets as well? Might be more relevant for us.

Man U and Chelsea, no. Perhaps Spurs if Poch is knicked. Everton too perhaps. No chance he'd go to Everton with his Liverpool history. True. Still think Valencia is his next move. Yeah - that's far more likely. I suppose he could always come to us until the end of the season and then take over at Valencia for next season.

Man U and Chelsea, no. Perhaps Spurs if Poch is knicked. Everton too perhaps. No chance he'd go to Everton with his Liverpool history. Where do people think Poch is going to like? Out of interest I thought there were very vague rumours about Chelsea and/or Man Utd potentially being interested. But nothing concrete I don't think.

Man U and Chelsea, no. Perhaps Spurs if Poch is knicked. Everton too perhaps. No chance he'd go to Everton with his Liverpool history.

There's no way his stock has fallen so far that he couldn't walk into 3/4ths of the clubs in the league if he really wanted. "Hi. Fire your guy. Hire me." "Okay" You can rule out Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Spurs (unless they lost Poch and even then I don't think they'd go for him), Arsenal and Chelsea. That's 7 gone already. Can't see West Ham getting rid of Bilic or Soton getting rid of Koeman (unless he goes to Holland). You aren't left with that many attractive options outside of that.

One slight advantage regarding Benitez is that if he really wants to manage in England again, there aren't that many options open to him.

Maybe already posted but this is where I got it from - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/12186807/Resigned-Steve-McClaren-given-a-temporary-stay-of-execution-by-Newcastle-United.html

Probably old news - but Edwards reckons he'll be sacked tomorrow.

That book on football management by Michael Calvin contained some worrying parallels between the McClaren mumbo jumbo and the Rodgers mumbo jumbo to be honest, but I'd still rather have Rodgers. At least it allows us to have another manager with a name that people will keep spelling incorrectly.

Seems to me that Rodgers was very much a victim of his own success in many ways. Not saying he would be my first choice, but coming second in 13-14 was a huge overachievement which he then suffered for when the team's performance dipped.