Shadow Puppets

Yet.

Jones is part of that tried and tested dog shit ?

I’d prefer that too, but I’m not going to throw my toys out of the pram if he’s still there. Can see plenty of reasons from a business point of view why they might not want to cut and run without replacements in place.

Who knows? Purely playing devils advocate, I can’t imagine it being a good idea to be down to the barebones in the coaching department for weeks.

No doubt, and I’d prefer him not to be there too. But I also think it would be a risk of sorts for the new owners to remove the manager and his coaches with no official plan on who may be coming in. What if we’re left with Jones and a skeleton coaching staff for weeks?

Genuinely not convinced removing Bruce would have any impact on Sunday’s result. Graeme Jones is running the tactics anyway.

Yeah, but they’re professional people. I personally think that they’ll want to put a full new management / coaching team in place to take over, rather than sacking someone without any plan on who replaces him.

I understand your frustration but I don’t really understand the difference in whether he goes today or goes in a week’s time if/when they have a manager lined up. Either way, he’s going.

Missed all of this. (Completely lost interest in the trust) What’s the backstory with Alex?

I still maintain that some people are throwing their toys out of the pram over nothing… a) he may still go before Sunday. b) for all we know it needs to be a board decision (with all board members) and may require signing off in Saudi. c) it may not be as simple as literally sacking Bruce…if we do that his coaches go too, and if they go do we have enough to see us through Sunday. d) maybe they don’t have faith in Jones to be caretaker / or he doesn’t want to be. e) maybe they think it’ll be better to have a clean change to new manager / coaches, rather than the interim step. f) maybe they’re interviewing people for the job as we speak. g) remember how McClaren left. They’ve only owned the club 5 days. It’s unheard of for major decisions like managerial changes to be made in that time, so if he does go before Sunday (and I think he probably still will), it’ll be pretty quick all things considered. But it’s good to see everyone’s patience is lasting ?

You don’t think that was a massive one-off?

You guys are acting like we have any sway whatsoever to attract a top manager at this point in time. What we need is an improvement on Bruce (which Lampard and Gerrard are) as the first step, but no big name manager would touch us until our infrastructure is improved. I’d happily take Lampard or Gerrard for a couple of years.

Isn’t sacking Bruce actually a lot more complex than simply walking in and firing him day one? If we did that I’d assume his back room guys would go with him…how many coaches would that actually leave us with? Maybe they want to line more stuff up before decimating our whole coaching setup?

No…he says he doesn’t think we’ll be hiring a sporting director for 4 months. (Gives no explanation why)

Yeah, I really can’t see us going for a top tier manager yet. It will (and probably should be) a promising up and coming manager.

I don’t think anyone’s suggesting they stick with Graeme Jones are they?…just that he will be caretaker for a few games while they find their man.

From where?

Fair enough…didn’t know that.

I understand your point, but is there actually any evidence against Ronaldo or just an accusation?

Yeah…I really rate him and his style of football ?

Realistic targets mid season… Rodgers (my pick) Conte (can’t see it) Howe (good shout but perhaps a little underwhelming) Jose (may be on the decline but I’d love it)

Yeah, something is about to happen. Keith Downie has moved from St James’ to Jesmond Dene House.

I know, I had to rewind it ?