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nope,  a well-run football club would have had Shearer out to pasture about eighteen months before we did

 

:lol: The fuck is this shit? I raked in money from people like you back then.

 

"Oh, he's finished."

 

"Money where your mouth is, mate."

 

Ended up fine for me. :lol: Lots of angrily screwed up tenners pelted at me, but a tenner's a tenner. They spend very nicely.

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03/04 Shearer was great.

 

04/05 he was clearly starting to lose it, as well as suffering from another lengthy injury as well as the general Souness malaise.

 

05/06 he was basically finished, but still got 10 in the league which isn't a bad return for a 35-year-old!

 

 

The biggest Shearer-related issue isn't the fact we kept him, it's the fact we tried to replace him with Kluivert and then Owen, who were both absolute failures. Shearer didn't have to be a problem and tbh I don't believe you could ever call him that.

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Yorkie, PK under Sir Bob still would have been brilliant.

 

We lost our way when we got rid of Sir Bob for Souny game over there.

 

That was undoubtedly the turning point. That was the most pivotal moment in our post-entertainer history. If that move had gone right, Ashley might not even be here. Still an utterly staggering decision.

 

Kluivert was a crock and barely interested. I doubt his career was going any other way then what it did.

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Bobby going that was the problem, but the timing, manner and replacement. I mean he died within 5 years of leaving, he was never going to be here that much longer and do think the time was coming, but to sack him in august after undermining him and replacing him with Souness. If I was going to put that down to a moment, it would be Belgrade or even Hasselbaink's handball equalizer at the beginning of the sacking season.

 

I really feel like we're cursed when I look back to Dalglish. He turned out so s***, but he'd won the league at Liverpool and Blackburn, and even won the League Cup with Liverpool in his mediocre recent spell. Only with us could he not win anything and perform terribly.

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The problem with Shearer was that he'd made it clear that if he wasn't going to be a first-team regular, he'd rather move on. Sir Bob knew, after the season we finished 3rd, that it was time to blood Shearer's successor. You don't wait until you have a problem - you read the early warning signs and act accordingly.

 

The crucial point came in that meeting between Shepherd and Sir Bob at the start of the season, which is detailed in Sir Bob's autobio. Liverpool had got wind of the rift, and put in a bid for Shearer. Shepherd rejected it, and didn't tell his manager. Sir Bob found out, and met up with Shepherd, saying that if Shearer was sold, he'd be able to buy his replacement - Mpenza was the one he had in mind. Shepherd rejected the idea, because he said the supporters wouldn't stand for losing Shearer, though I suspect as well he was nurturing the dream that Shearer would take over from Sir Bob seamlessly in time. With hindsight, it's doubtful whether Shearer ever seriously had that in mind, though he was clever enough to keep the idea going, and use it to exercise some influence behind the scenes.

 

So we ended up with a captain and main striker in decline, a team in decline, and a manager who'd been undermined. Sir Bob has no support from the Board, his captain and the fans, and pays the price a year later. However, we find it very difficult to recruit a new manager because the candidates see what's happened to Sir Bob, and don't fancy being in the hotseat whilst the Chairman and supporters' blue-eyed boy is hovering in the background. We end up with Souness.

 

That was the big opportunity wasted, because Sir Bob could have handed a great legacy on to his successor.

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Ah was it really at the beginning of 03/04 when the Liverpool bid for Shearer came in? If so, it wasn't the worst thing for us to reject it; he scored 28 goals that year and Mpenza went on to do nothing, including a forgettable stint with City in the Premier League. We'd have been well behind the club that hypothetically signed him, instead of fighting them for 4th up until the last few games of the season.

 

I think anything to do with Shearer barely belongs in this thread tbh. His decline and departure could've been handled better, but placing the whole situation alongside turning points like Partizan and Souness is fairly nonsensical imo.

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There was one season where Shearer scored something liek 5 goals from open play and 8 penalties or something.

 

I have 100% faith that if we kept Sir Bobby for another couple of years, he would've delivered a good top 4/6 side. I'm certain.

 

Talk of replacing Bobby with Houllier is hilariously stupid.

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Ah was it really at the beginning of 03/04 when the Liverpool bid for Shearer came in? If so, it wasn't the worst thing for us to reject it; he scored 28 goals that year and Mpenza went on to do nothing, including a forgettable stint with City in the Premier League. We'd have been well behind the club that hypothetically signed him, instead of fighting them for 4th up until the last few games of the season.

 

I think anything to do with Shearer barely belongs in this thread tbh. His decline and departure could've been handled better, but placing the whole situation alongside turning points like Partizan and Souness is fairly nonsensical imo.

 

Looking at the stats, Mpenza got 21 from 28 for Standard Liege in 03-04, which suggests he wasn't done for at that point. We'll never know, because players can perform very differently depending on the environment, but I imagine Sir Bob saw Mpenza and Bellamy as a very pacey combination that would cause defenders a lot of problems. On the same lines as Yorke and Cole.

 

But the important point is that it's the manager's judgement that should count in that situation - not the supporters, not the Chairman, not the player. Over the time he was here, Shearer became too powerful, and you have to say that the chief culprit was the Chairman, who needed to back his manager.

 

Contrast that with Sir John Hall, when Keegan wanted to sell Cole. He had grave doubts, but bowed to the judgement of the professional.

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There was one season where Shearer scored something liek 5 goals from open play and 8 penalties or something.

 

I have 100% faith that if we kept Sir Bobby for another couple of years, he would've delivered a good top 4/6 side. I'm certain.

 

Talk of replacing Bobby with Houllier is hilariously stupid.

Why get so wound up over a hypothetical situation? And because it is a hypothetical situation, why is replacing Sir Bobby with Houllier "hilariously stupid" ? The words "pot" and "kettle" spring to mind.

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There was one season where Shearer scored something liek 5 goals from open play and 8 penalties or something.

 

I have 100% faith that if we kept Sir Bobby for another couple of years, he would've delivered a good top 4/6 side. I'm certain.

 

Talk of replacing Bobby with Houllier is hilariously stupid.

 

The only post in here that mentions replacing Bobby Robson with Houllier is mine, which to be honest wasn't exactly serious.  Unless you believe in soothsaying amphibians.

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Bellamy injury  is a good shout

 

imagine if Woodgate had stayed healthy too! :sad:

 

Aye, that was always pretty tragic. He should have been grouped alongside Robert and Bellamy in the 'signings that changed us', but he was such a crock.

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Solano crashing the bar at San Siro has always stuck with me for some reason.

 

Keegan created the platform that Bobby's side went from. Keegan made what the club could be, he created the sleeping giant people still speak of (well maybe not anymore). I think Bobby's side proved that this club was just waiting to get back to what Keegan created, that it did not die with Keegan. The decisions made from Souness and onwards (there were remains of Bobby's team and some sort of foundation even when Roeder got the job) and Ashley has halted and eradicated most of that platform. We can't be activated in the same way anymore as the ship has sailed. 2004 is the most damning year for me.

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Guest TCD23

The signing of Luque is a big point to me for some reason. Expensive player with a good reputation, comes in plays okay but is injured straight away and spends the rest of his contract as a drain on resources. I can't help but think that he embodied even more than Owen than mindset that spending on players could have negative effects and the myth we could be the next Portsmouth. Without that I doubt Ashley would have gotten away with it for as long as he has.

 

Two other ones are sacking Hughton and sacking Bobby. Bobby is obvious but Hughton laid down the groundwork that Pardew has rebuilt his career on but was a better bloke in general and in my opinion a superior manager. That three pronged attack of Barton, Nolan and Carrol felt like a revolution and slaughtering the Mackems and even beating Arsenal and that feeling we would have a go no matter who the opposition was. Haven't felt that excited for nearly four years now.

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It's the Dalglish appointment, the Shearer injury, Ferdinand sale and Ginola sale in 1 timeline.

 

The other is the Souness appointment.

 

The final one is SJH not selling to Ashley.

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It's the Dalglish appointment, the Shearer injury, Ferdinand sale and Ginola sale in 1 timeline.

 

At the time, yes, but not many years later we were flying with SBR at the helm and could have won the league. So I wouldn't say it was a turning point.

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Nah, plus a fair few of that side was thanks to Dalglish. (Given, Hughes given his break by him, Dabizas, Solano, Speed...could even say Dyer was bought with the Hamann money). And like you say it was only 3 years later we were challenging for the title again.

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SJH on the phone to Keegan, Keegan says 'Nah thanks'.

 

We're now extremely grateful to be where we are now and absolutely mortified that Alan Pardew left for Crystal Palace :lol:.

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Guest firetotheworks

My dad not allowing me to support Spurs as a child was the big turning point imo.

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