Allardyce retrospective. (If you're looking for a long read).

[Parky]

so given the option, would people jump on a time machine, go back to January, and convince Ashley to give Allardyce until the end of the season?

 

 

Basically it's a given that you don't sack a manager in the Jan window.

[Guest BooBoo]

It's a canny read but the content of the concluding paragraph is stuff most people on the board would've thought anyway.

 

Thats my thought at well. Very well written but it gives birth to an obvious conclusion but that's been mooted a million times on here and elsewhere.

[quayside]

so given the option, would people jump on a time machine, go back to January, and convince Ashley to give Allardyce until the end of the season?

 

 

Basically it's a given that you don't sack a manager in the Jan window.

 

Particularly if you haven't got someone who is obviously better lined up - and even more so when you haven't got anyone at all lined up.

 

 

[dustynrg]

Difficult one - if Ashley had sacked him as soon as he came in he would have been even more lambasted in the gutter press than he is now (his most heinous crime being he stands with the fans on the terraces - how disgraceful is that).

 

He had to go before the end of the season, we would have all died of boredom and anger by May. Also Mort indicated the players' morale was at an all time low by the time he was sacked, so they had no choice.

[LooneyToonArmy]

NOTW  mind

 

Allardyce in plea to Toon chiefs

Don't sack Keegan

 

By CLIFF HAYES

 

SAM ALLARDYCE has warned Newcastle chief Mike Ashley NOT to sack under-fire boss Kevin Keegan and accused the millionaire owner of being too impatient.

 

Allardyce was sacked in January after just 24 games in charge with the Toon 11th in the Premier League.

 

Sven in for Owen

 

McLeish wants revenge on Keegan

 

But his replacement Keegan is now under threat himself after failing to win any of his eight games in charge and confessing he may not be able save the club from relegation.

Bitterness

 

Newcastle have slumped to just three points off the drop zone and face a must-win clash at fellow strugglers Birmingham tomorrow.

 

Bookies have made Keegan hot favourite to be the next top flight manager to get the boot.

 

But Allardyce declared: "Newcastle are destined to be a great club somewhere down the line. But the longer it goes on without success, the harder it is to achieve it and they can't do it by changing managers all the time.

 

"I've no real bitterness over my departure any more. I've moved on. We were finding a way of playing, having changed everything behind the scenes.

 

"The players were still learning to blend. It was a question of patience.It is like building the Empire State Building in a month. It can't be done."

 

The 53-year-old former Bolton manager took unfashionable Wanderers to League finishes of eighth, sixth, eighth and seventh on a successful diet of meticulous preparation, scientific approach and ProZone computer statistics.

 

But in his seventh short months on Tyneside, he was unable to persuade the Toon players to buy into his methods.

 

In an interview in The Times he added: "Perhaps I couldn't sell that to the players because they'd never been shown it before.

 

"All that was said before I arrived was: ‘Go out and play.' But today's game is not like that.

Whispers

 

"The level of preparation is so detailed that you can't just say: ‘Off you go, off the cuff.' I was challenging them to adapt and maybe that was a problem I think I gave the players too much too soon.

 

"Too direct? If those players had the ability to look at their ProZone stats instead of me shouting at them, they would have learned more about their game than they've ever done.

 

"They would have learnt something about themselves. I don't know whether any of that played a part in losing my job.

 

"If other people listen to the Chinese whispers or the tittle-tattle, no manager would ever get the chance to build or be successful.

 

"Maybe I should have gone: ‘Sod year two, sod year three, I'll just worry about tomorrow.

 

"But I'm not like that. I try to build something that has sustainability, not a flash in the pan. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses but how can you judge from seven months?"

 

In contrast, Keegan has been in charge for just 60 days. His eight games have brought no wins, just two draws and six defeats and he has seen his team score just three goals and leak 20.

 

But Keegan is planning to survive the axe and is already lining up an audacious £24million triple summer raid in Scotland for Celtic winger Aiden McGeady, top scorer Scott McDonald and Rangers defender Carlos Cuellar.

Winger

 

Keegan has personally checked out 21-year-old McGeady who, although born in Scotland, has already won 17 caps for the Republic of Ireland thanks to an Irish grandfather.

 

McGeady is the current Scottish Premier League player of the month and the left winger is the most highly-valued of the three players, at £11m.

 

Keegan seemed ready to make a bid in January until the club decided to put a block on transfers until the summer.

 

Keegan has also been impressed by McDonald, a £700,000 buy from Motherwell but who would now cost £6m after 25 goals in 36 games for Celtic.

 

[2sheds]

We all agreed on Fat Sams appointment that a 3,4 or 5 year plan needed to be set in place.

Speak for yourself.