

Abacus
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Everything posted by Abacus
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So Mr Fonzerelli, in words of no more than one syllable can you tell us why you want the job? "For the third time, Mr Charnley. I just work in the canteen and am bringing you your sandwich." Oh no Amanda! I done it again!
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One of the things about Martinez is the wallopings his PL sides have taken, shipping goals, in particular at Wigan. It's a decent defence that will keep us up and he's shown no real ability so far to organise one. Taking Wigan down and sending Everton into a spiral don't inspire confidence. At Swansea, he did get a L1 side promoted to the championship, but is that really what we're happy with? Bruce got clubs promoted from the championship to the PL 4 times after all. I think international football is a completely different thing, but he's not achieved much at Belgium despite having had a once in a lifetime collection of players. Then again, look at Coleman to Sunderland - seemed like a coup for them at the time given his time at Wales, but he quickly reverted to his poor club form once back in club football. I'd be seriously underwhelmed and wondering; 1. Is he the interim manager to avoid relegation, if that's the aim? 2. If he is supposed to be the long term answer, just what exactly about his credentials would earn him that opportunity?
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The world's cameras seem to be on us now, and our profile across the Middle East to name but one whole region, means that sponsorships will have far greater value to start with. You could make arguments all day long about this kind of thing and if challenged could drag it through the courts anyway, I'd guess. To be honest, if the proposal is that any sponsorship deal needs to be with x% of the highest in the league, I'm alright with that. At least it puts us on a more level playing field - so if it's fair, OK. But I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of Liverpool and Man U for instance attempt to argue that they are higher profile and should automatically have a higher sponsorship banding, in a similar way to trying to pull up the drawing re the ESL and always get their Champions League money. At that point, other clubs with ambitions might start to object too. I see a new billionaire has started investing in West Ham as just one example. I can't imagine he'd be delighted that his investment is instantly worth less because there is an inbuilt disadvantage to ever growing his club's worth.
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But anyway, I can't see any way to make this work or for it to be policed, even if it was in any way legal to start with.
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Mike Ashley should be investigated for his open market valuation of Joelinton. And Steve Bruce, come to think of it.
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Well, I do agree re the difference between the treatment of us and a so-called big 6 team. Though I think 14 other teams would probably feel a similar way about that disparity. And yes there are also lazy stereotypes about our fans in the press and also amongst some other fans too. But then again, the whole tone of that article, as I read it, was that we were somehow uniquely victimised and all the recent noise was just an extension of that. I myself have stereotypes about Sunderland fans, Everton fans, Man U fans, Arsenal fans, Villa fans, Leeds fans...I could go on. I've often seen these lazily expressed in the press too. They probably feel the same way as we do when they hear it themselves. It obviously doesn't help that our own recent head coach played up those stereotypes either for personal gain. But leaving that aside, I don't buy that the recent protests would have been unique to Newcastle, and that other clubs wouldn't have received similar protests had they been taken over by the same consortium. For example, I've heard very little about the usual 'deluded Geordies' stuff - it's all about money distorting sport, sportwashing etc etc. I'll be quite honest, if it had been Leeds in our position, say, I'd probably be saying very similar things and it would be largely out of jealousy.
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Yes. And it's a good job he only worked for them for 26 years before they rapidly spotted how bad he was.
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We may have campaigned for the takeover, but there's no evidence it made a blind bit of difference. Perhaps if we'd actively campaigned against it, they may have withdrawn, I suppose. Though, I think those 'campaigns' amounted to a vote in an online survey, and a few people writing to their MPs, who then got routinely ignored for 2 years. Watching the league collectively go into meltdown over it has been hilarious, however. And I'm in the same camp of having hoped for it to go through and having no regrets whatever that it has now - just being excited instead. My issue with the article was the idea that we've always been uniquely singled out and victimised as a fanbase and as a club even before this. That's complete nonsense, and I don't want others to speak on my behalf saying that kind of thing either. This reaction to the Saudi led takeover is not some continuation of a nationwide grudge against Newcastle. There are different concerns here, both sporting and otherwise. Whilst I think a lot of those concerns are hypocritical or misjudged, I certainly don't think it's all part of some long running paranoid anti-Newcastle agenda.
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It's also quite refreshing that we're not just appointing someone Ashley has met in a pub. I'm as impatient as the next man to find out who it is, mind.
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I'm veering back to wanting Ragnick as manager short term, then stepping up as a DOF to set an overall vision. Because I think we need to decide on a style of play, and then bring in managers who can deliver that style. At the moment, they'd have a fairly blank slate since we're a formless mess, so I'm open to whatever that is. But I guess if you look at Man United as an example of what not to do, they've appointed managers in a fairly scattergun way recently, each with very different ideas about how they should play, and therefore buying players to fit. Which, after two or three different managers gives you a real problem in terms of how your squad fits together. It doesn't help that they've also gone for a few statement signings, seemingly as much for name as any football logic. Hope we manage to avoid this pitfall too.
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I don't care if ten Hag will be the next Man U manager or not. Not least because they've proven they have no idea how to appoint a manager, so they are completely irrelevant. I'd take him at Newcastle straight away, and let the Mancs squabble over Lampard or Bruce.
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I can't read enough about Newcastle right now, particularly from people that care about the club. But actually my interest in football in general has come back too. So, it might not work, but it's surely worth a shot.
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That's a fair point. You could argue though, that a bit like Ferguson, he left behind a really unbalanced squad. Ferguson won the title with the sheer force of his personality, but then left a mess where he hadn't strengthened in key areas and almost the whole squad needed refreshing by the time he was done. Likewise with Wenger, except he managed them into decline. Fine, he didn't have the resources Ferguson had, but he also did not strengthen in the right areas even when he had the funds to do so. Certainly, every Arsenal fan I knew wanted him gone long before the end and he was given more than enough time, to my mind. Great manager in his day, they played some of the best football you've seen, for a period, but think his time is past.
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It would be a big no from me for Wenger. Watching him unravel at Arsenal suggests his time has long passed - maybe as a DOF, but even then I'm not convinced. Take his 2 yearly World Cup plans for one thing, as to his football ideas. He achieved great things, but that was on a defensive bedrock that was already built for him, and which we don't get to start with. Give him a Viera and a Petit in midfield, then yes, but those kind of players don't come around every day and for the last 5-10 years of his time at Arsenal, the only thing you could hear from the Emirates was the sound of their fans complaining.
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Ten Hag > Emery > Rodgers > Benitez > Fonseca > Favre > Howe > Gerrard > Martinez/Lampard.
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He's certainly not the long term answer, but I'm already much happier now with him in as a caretaker. It's good to hear someone give actual reasons for their team selection even though I didn't agree with the line up, particularly in defence. You'd hope the new permanent manager brings in their own coaching team, but hopefully Jones can help bridge the gap as he does at least know the players and can point out where we need strengthening from day 1. Although, if he starts Shelvey next week after his ban, I'll take it all back and want him fired into the moon.
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He's on the bench, though.
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A capable operator indeed. Let me put you on hold while I find the right department Mr Messy. Oh no, Amanda! I cut them off again!
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Seems like every man and Harry Redknapp's dog has an opinion on this.
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True, but the whole point is that it's sort of a fiction anyway because there's no way of demonstrating how much naming a stadium is actually worth, still less the order of the words. They can pretend it's worth X amount, buy whatever players they want and we still get to have it as St James' Park.
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I think you just call it "St James Park with XXX" I'd be fine with that.
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I'm in 5 out of 10 flip of a coin territory. Firstly, we're already 3 points adrift with a squad with a few obvious weaknesses and there's a huge rebuilding job here. Also, I do think most other teams will be gunning for us now. On the other hand, with Bruce finally gone and talk of various competent managers instead, we should be doing better than we are. It's a lower mid table squad, but I'd honestly take 17th right now if offered it. And hopefully, we act early in January to plug those gaps, before a proper rebuild in the summer.
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The level of personal abuse has been less than the norm, though. Chants of 'we want Brucey out' are hardly personal abuse. The Twitter stuff, fine, I don't know what that is. But 'stupid, inept cabbage head' I don't see what part of that isn't even just factual. More than that, for someone who bragged about not being able to use a computer, not paying attention to social media, having a thick skin, and loving the abuse 'in a sick way', he's remarkably precious. And can have presumably only been told about it by his own son, who does use social media.
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I think it'd be great for Brucey and the Steves to get another job on the back of this, completely mismanage everything yet again, and set another set of fans raging. I would actively look forward to watching his press conferences and laughing my head off, knowing we've wiped him off our shoe for good. Please don't retire, Brucey!
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I thought the statement was fair enough and politely worded. You don't get the sense they were offended at all, but are responding to and seeking to head off wider criticism. Pretty sure it was just a day 1 celebration thing anyway and you wouldn't have seen much or any dressing up at the next game regardless. Maybe the odd daft stag party every now and again.