RupertCommunicator

I remember when we condemned them to relegation last year, their fans had the decency to have a banner congratulating us for winning the title.  Thoroughly decent fans, and I really hope they manage to beat the drop.  It would be a great shame if they went out of business.

There are very few sets of fans that I genuinely admire, but the Pilgrims are one of them.

The thing about this season is uncertainty.

 

We had runs of games that have given the impression that we were capable of pushing for Europe.  We have had runs of games were we have looked like relegation fodder. 

 

Who hasn't this season!  I don't think we'll ever see another season like it!

Right, before I become some sort of board antichrist, I want to clear a few things up:

1.  I'm not having a go at anyone, everyone is entitled to their opinion and if everyone was in staunch agreement, this board would be very boring indeed!

2.  What I have said is a generalisation, I'm not giving exact examples, as no too people will completely agree on all topics.

3.  What I said in the OP is aimed only at SOME people.  Clearly there are many people who have long termist views, as there are some who don't.  I was just getting a bit wound up at some of the panic negativity that was coming out in some threads.

4.  Nothing is black and white.  People tend to only take views that are either extreme right or extreme left of arc.  Sometimes we need to sit in the middle.  Certainly, I can see the thirst for immediate success, but I just want to temper this with a bit of common sense.

5.  Clearly some of this will seem like tired hyperbole/cliché, but only to those who are well informed enough to have trodden this path before.  Do not get a hump on if this applies to you, as clearly, not everyone has been around the block two dozen times.

And most importantly - it's only a chat forum FFS!  In real life you may see me down the pub before a match and we'd only be having the same debate over a pint or five, but we'd still be mates afterwards!  I'm not some Geordie hating knobhead, otherwise I wouldn't support the club and go to matches!

My only reservation is investing my hard earned £500 for ten years just to watch any player that has a modicum of talent depart the Club when either a serious offer comes in or they get tapped up with promises of even more filthy lucre elsewhere.

Yeah, buy you could buy 7-8 new first XI players for 35 million quid.

Not getting rid of them, but buying players to relegate them to backup has been suggested in their threads.  Also, have a look at some of the transfer and first XI threads.

Again, this is not Wikipedia, so I'm not going to spend my time referencing everything, find it your bloody selves! 

I'd say it's normal for fans to be impatient, for young players to be judged too early and for the owner to be asked to get out his cheque book as the only way forward.

 

I'd agree with Ian W, that our long period of failure and the so-near-but-so-far disappointments of the last few years have probably made our supporters worse than the average, especially when you consider how much the club means to the city.

 

The sort of signing we need to avoid is where we pay over the odds in fees and wages in order to secure a player who wouldn't normally sign for us (eg Owen) It places undue emphasis on the ability of one individual to transform a team. Unless you're going to pay over the odds to secure a number of players (eg Man City, Chelsea), it's not going to work. We can't afford that and the new financial rules ought to make that strategy impossible anyway.

I'd love it to be the case, but I'm not convinced the financial fair play rules are strong enough.  There's still a huge amount of flex for the Chelseas, Man Citys and Real Madrids, unfortunately.

Was there any part of that opening post that wasn't just a huge pile of attention seeking bollocks?

Not attention seeking, I'm just getting pissed off with much of what is said in this forum.  I'm not after an argument or anything, as everyone is entitled to their opinion and to debate it, but bloody hell man, have a read of some of the threads!

50,000+ crowds despite not winning the league in over 80 years = impatient.

 

Howay Dave, I know what you mean but you must know it's not as black and white as that.

 

People love NUFC obviously, and they can't imagine a life without going to the match. That doesn't mean that they don't think short term when they're considering the management of the club.

50,000+ crowds when people aren't advocating a boycott of the games because of a decision they don't like, or saying how they no longer support the club.

Are they like this on SMB for example?  I never go on there because WUMism isn't my thing, but are they all unable to see past "ZOMG we need to win our next game not to be relegated!!!!!11111" when they are top half of the league?

It's not Wikipedia!  I was only wondering if all clubs have knee jerk fans, or just us?

Is it just our fans, or do other clubs fans do it as well?

It seems that the majority (not everyone  ) of our fans are incapable of seeing past the next ten seconds.  £35 million quid in the bank and people are on about replacing 7-8 of our starting XI.  Someone scores a hat trick and they are the next Shearer.  Misplace a pass and you should have your contract cancelled.

The thing that rams home how kneejerk our fans are is the way they suggest replacing our young players.  Why on earth would you want to shove aside the likes of Danny Simpson and Tim Krul when it is clear that they will be very good PL players in the near future?!  Have they not forgotten why we went down in 2009?

We've had our fingers burnt and have stood on the precipice and fortunately we are now back on the rise with this group of lads who now have a good chance of reestablishing us as a top 7 club.  Why would we want to tear apart our team only to buy another generation of Owens, Duffs, Martins and Bassongs when that manifestly didn't work the last time and nearly financially crippled us?

We have the basis of a good squad, yes it's thin, but we need to build around our key players whilst nurturing our younger ones to step up to the first team over the years.  I'd rather we spent 35 million on Connor Wickhams and other promising risks than trying to 'guarantee survival' next season.  FFS!  We are safe now as long as we don't decimate our team again!

Look 5-6 years into the future and we can become the next Arsenal.  Only look as far as the next game and we will consistently knee jerk our way to nowhere.

I think he's still got much to learn.  Despite his backing off, he will improve in this area, and the other elements to his game are excellent.  He will be a top, top PL RB in a year or two, so we need to give him games in order to get him fully rounded.

To replace him with another RB would be a diabolical decision.  We'd have to pay a fortune to get someone better than him, we'd be lucky to get someone as loyal and we wouldn't get anyone with as much potential for the future.  There is no need to break apart the back four we've developed, we just need another back up player for our full backs.

If I was 120 years old, my opinion would probably be different, but since I'm only 27 I'm limited to either the 90's or 00's!

Although the first couple of years of the 90's were pretty rubbish, after Keegan tipped up and until he left, we had a brilliant team capable of beating anyone.  The last couple of years of the 90's were pretty average, so you could say that the 90's were mostly brilliant and occasionally crap.

The 00's started pretty badly, but again, SBR saved things only for us to bin him and fade away again.  Despite our European nights and challenging for silverware in fits and bursts, relegation and the FCB ended the decade on a very sour note.

Therefore, the 90's gets my vote for Albert, Ginola, Keegan, Shearer, Ferdinand, Asprilla, Lee, Watson, Beresford, Batty.......

Really miss the premier league on days like today.

 

Aye. With the weather being f***ing horrible I'm at a loss for something to do today.

I'm not, just took the bairn out sledging! 

We will not get relegated this season.  The rest of the season is about consolidation, and maybe pushing for a waffa place if we are very lucky.

NEXT season is the acid test.  Carroll was never going to stay, so we did right to take a hugely overinflated price when it was there.  Provided we buy some good players during the summer, we can finish 7th next year, and continue to build whilst more importantly, stay in the black.

Carroll needed to go.  35 million is a huge amount of money to turn down.

I think we should play to our strengths, which is our excellent defence and strong centre of midfield.

Therefore,

              Harper

Simpson  Willi  Colo  Enrique

is already a proven given.

We know that Simpson and Jose will get forward and support the wingers, so we can consider this bit of the team sorted.

We also know that Tiote and Barton need to be in the squad somewhere, since they are our two best players, the question is whether we use Barton on the right or in the centre and if we use Tiote as a DM or a CM.

Our main weakness is our wingers and our strikers, so we should use our strong core to supplement these areas.  One solution is:

          Tiote

Barton          Jonas

      Nolan  Barfa

            Best

This would give us 5 in midfield which would allow us to control games against almost anyone, especially with our four defenders behind us.

Points to note:

1.  Jonas is not being used here as a winger, but a LM.  He is good on the ball and can provide a lot of nuisance and ball winning value when not in possession.  He can advance the ball using Barfa as an outlet and he is still in front of Jose, who we know he works well with.

2.  Barfa and Nolan are AMs who we know are an attacking threat.  They will supplement the striker but still be able to reinforce midfield when necessary.  I imagine Nolan would probably play deeper than Barfa who would be more likely to adopt a free role.

3.  Barton is a RM, not a winger and will tuck in to support Tiote, who we know will do well deep in midfield.  Also, with Barton and Jonas tucking in, Tiote will have plenty of options to pass as well as through balls to Nolan/Barfa.

In summary, chin off the wingers and keep the ball on the deck.  We no longer will benefit from target man play and have never been good at lots of bombing wing play with good crosses.  If we need to cross in, Barton can provide set piece play with Willi providing the target.  Obviously, Best can interchange with whichever striker we have but he will will be used as an opportunistic striker profiting off the vast support he has behind him.

Yes, but when he was younger he wasn't mugging grannies, shoplifting, covering himself in tattoos and chasing chavs in nightclubs.

Still, you cover yourself in stupid tattoos and spend your time trawling dodgy nightclubs, you're always going to be a target for allegations like that.  Never seems to happen to Steve Harper does it?

Nolan is spot on there.  He knows that if we continue in the same vein we will be an established top seven club in three years time and only need to pick up a quality CM/RW and a striker before he is out of the 1st XI.  He's an undoubted leader of men, and I'd keep him in the squad as a backup player for his effect in the changing room.

He's got manager written all over him.

Who would you rather have Ben Arfa for 7 million or Wickham for 15 million? 

 

15 million is an obscene amount of money for him.  Like the poster said above you can easily scour the world and probably find 5 players with great potential for that kind of money.

 

How often do you think you can pick up Ben Arfa's and Tiotes? If it was that easy the transfer market would be far more sensible.

 

It is in most other countries. That's why we got HBA and Tiote in the last 12 months for a fraction of the fee it will cost to land Connor Whickham.

 

6m is the max amount we should gamble on him.  If it's higher than that, why not just buy an established international striker? 

 

Couldn't agree more!

Because a quality established international striker will cost £10M+, maybe only have seven good years left in him and will be a depreciating asset.

Why isn't Tiote on this list?  Fucking disgrace, man!

I'd definately pay £10M for him. Next Andy Carroll.

As I said after the whole fiasco, if any player wants to leave then get a move on with it.  If players don't want to be at this club then f*** them.

 

Jose to me has been tapped up with promise of bigger wages etc to his agent.

 

If you were in charge of Man Utd or City you would of said toodles to Rooney or Tevez in Jan?

 

SAF is the best around he fought to keep Cantona, he managed to keep Ronaldo for another year & he got Rooney to stay.

So what you're saying is that SAF is a legend because he's managed to keep hold of a shite player, and he is shite, by offering him an absolute fortune?

Tell you what, if the linesman wasn't completely myopic, Arsenal would be on a hiding to nothing here!

If Best played for manure he'd be hearalded as the best thing since sliced bread.  If rooney played for us, he'd be slagged off as a donkey (which he is).