Missed Sticks

What about the 5 years before Souness ? Don't they count ? Why did it take the club so long to attract Bobby Robson as a manager of his home town club ? As other clubs have appointed Roeder, and Souness, and in fact the new Icelandic people have appointed Curbishley and are rumoured to want Souness, thanks for admitting that there are plenty of clueless potential board replacements out there. And we haven't even mentioned Mandaric, Romanov, Al Fayed, Ridsdale, Bates, Murray, along with chairman of unambitious clubs like Everton, man City, Wolves, Southampton, Charlton.....to name some. Now - who, having eliminated this group of people, would you say is guaranteed to be better, because if you can't do it, why bother harping on about it all the time ? Like a copy and paste job. I thought he was under contract at Barcelona and had decided to honour it. Our board has made good and bad decisions. A recent bad one was to dismiss Robson with no idea of who to appoint after. Anyone who thinks this was a good idea has no right to complain about the appointment of Souness. Supporters of Shepherd (like myself) who have a pair of bollocks between their legs should just admit that this was a monumental fuck up that set the club back a long way. Recent good decisions include sacking Souness (far too late imo) and letting Roeder restructure the club from the bottom up. It needs doing. not since 1963 he wasn't. The point being that he was only interested in managing Newcastle when they were worth managing, to put a perspective on it. Supporters of the football club have admitted appointing Souness was a monumental cock up. Supporters of the football club with good judgement said so at the time, quite loudly, and often in fact. It was people like Gemma, Craig and others who said we should give him time, give him money, and allow him to sell our best players and predicted that we would be better off as a result. Your last line is beyond any dispute at all, although you must remember that Bobby Robson also showed "planning", ie bringing in young players who were thought had potential and would improve, only it didn't work out the way we hoped, but this seems to have been forgotten by people who for some strange reason are now blaming Shepherd/the board instead of Robson for bad judgment in some cases. I posted a while back that if the board had had a replacement for Robson, and were let down big style when he changed his mind having shook hands and gave his word, what would you say to that ? I'm not so sure that changing Robson previous to when he went was a good idea, and not many people said so at the time either, most people were happy with the players he brought in that summer, which were Butt, Carr, Kluivert and Milner. I would say the Board did their best, were let down badly and then had to make do. I haven't heard anything to that affect, don't know if you have. Anyway, as for the present. I'm happy enough with what i hear about Roeder's work on the club's structure. I don't think he's been great for the 1st team though which is what he'll ultimately be judged on. Not sure of his tactics, selections, motivational skills nor his match preparation, what's your opinion on the latter? Do you think he could do better with selections/preparation? Do you think he can fire up the players? I'm not sure he delivers on this part.

Last time i saw him he was abysmal. I take it you've seen it more recently than i have, where's he been playing?

What about the 5 years before Souness ? Don't they count ? Why did it take the club so long to attract Bobby Robson as a manager of his home town club ? As other clubs have appointed Roeder, and Souness, and in fact the new Icelandic people have appointed Curbishley and are rumoured to want Souness, thanks for admitting that there are plenty of clueless potential board replacements out there. And we haven't even mentioned Mandaric, Romanov, Al Fayed, Ridsdale, Bates, Murray, along with chairman of unambitious clubs like Everton, man City, Wolves, Southampton, Charlton.....to name some. Now - who, having eliminated this group of people, would you say is guaranteed to be better, because if you can't do it, why bother harping on about it all the time ? Like a copy and paste job. I thought he was under contract at Barcelona and had decided to honour it. Our board has made good and bad decisions. A recent bad one was to dismiss Robson with no idea of who to appoint after. Anyone who thinks this was a good idea has no right to complain about the appointment of Souness. Supporters of Shepherd (like myself) who have a pair of bollocks between their legs should just admit that this was a monumental fuck up that set the club back a long way. Recent good decisions include sacking Souness (far too late imo) and letting Roeder restructure the club from the bottom up. It needs doing.

Duff was closed down by some Belgian part-timers in midweek. I'm pretty sure Wigan were never going to struggle. What a piss-poor signing he's turned out to be. If the rumours of the £7m offer in January were true, why the fuck didn't we sell him? If you get tight to him he seems totally unable to get past one let alone two. Don't you think that if the LB made the occasional overlap it would have given him some space though? Seems a daft way to play 4-4-2, especially with Parker and Butt in the middle if you're not going to have your fullbacks pushing on. Anyone who says that if we'd scored the penalty it would have been different is missing the point tbh

Just watched MOTD2. They highlighted that Duff and Solano were easy to close down and that cut our options from the flanks. That was so obviously going to happen given that our fullbacks of Taylor and Huntington. Piss poor tactics tbh.

Knew he'd do that. I think our wide play will suffer. Wingers need fullbacks to support them. Duff and Solano aren't good enough to carry all the wide threat on their own. There'll be plenty of long ball from us, over the top for Martins or looking for a flick on from Sibs.

I've got a sneaky feeling Roeder will put a back 4 out of: Taylor................Gooch.................Bramble..............Huntington Not saying this is my choice, just can imagine GR being worried about the high ball. Can't say i'm convinced we'll come out with the right attitude to win this game tbh. We don't seem to have that kind of determination to put a team under consistent pressure. Dunno if we'll have the legs for a high tempo match either. We'll need to do both imo.

Other primates use sticks covered in saliva to catch grubs and insects. Big deal tbh.

Duff's been shite since we signed him. Anyone know why? Nope, you got any ideas?

That's shocking if true What about the rumours that Shearer sat in on Allardyce's interview. Was that true or urban myth? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. What reason would the chairman have to sell Gary Speed having been at the club and did well for the club for a number of years ? If it was over a contract and terms issue, then that is the one area which is a chairmans/boards prerogative. However, Baggio and others on here complain when the club spends money on players then also complain when they don't. You have to remember that this is from Bobby Robson. The same Bobby Robson who tried to tell us selling a 7m player who had been injury prone for 2m approx was "not a loss". The same Bobby Robson who had by the vast majority of fans view, was clearly beginning to show signs of his age catching up with him in many areas. The same Bobby Robson, who even in good health when he was England manager, used to walk into a broom cupboard at Wembley thinking it was the door to the dressing room [this is in a biography about him]. He is bound to defend himself, having been sacked, removed from office, whatever you want to call it, he is also bound to feel bitter. Who wouldn't ? Who knows the truth. At the end of the day, these "debates" are about the board, not really Bobby Robson. And this current board have done a good job for the club, they have backed their managers and shown ambition, but too many people think they will be easy to replace with better directors, in spite of being reminded to look around at other clubs who have changed boards and directors for the worse, along with the fact that only 4 clubs have qualified more for europe than we have over the past decade, ought to tell anyone with a bit of common sense that there is not that much scope available to go higher, nor will they necessarily be prepared to back their managers in the transfer market like the current directors, although of course it would be nice. I can accept that's only Bobby Robson's version, Leazes, which is why I said 'if true'. But if it is true, I still think it's shocking. I accept it's the chairman's prerogative if it's a contract issue but still think it should be common courtesy to tell your manager what you're doing. Agreed. I think the Board deserve more credit than they receive by some of NUFC supporters but i think a few bad decisions have been made and going behind the managers back with Speed, Bowyer and Woodgate count amongst them. Leazes, you should feel free to say that these were bad decisions (going behind the Managers back, not the actual selling of them per se) without it meaning you've withdrawn your support for the board. Freddie didn't follow correct protocol there and it should be acknowledged, doesn't mean i'll call for his head!

Biggest disappointment was Duff imo. Only came into it when the part timers were feeling cramp and our superior fitness made a difference. 1st half their RB had him in his pocket tbh.

Can't wait to have Zoggy back tbh. Duff's not worth the cost of the shirt atm.

Do you think he's reliable enough to build a defence around?

Bellamy was a very good player for Newcastle but i don't see the point of this thread tbh. I'm one of the few who think Freddie gets a rough ride from the supporters but everyone makes mistakes. Freddie's decision that Souness was more valuable to the club than Bellamy was a very big one and had nothing to do with the opinions on a message board. Souness had amply proved himself incompetent so the decision was irrational. The Pro Freddie group would retain more dignity by simply laying the blame where it deserves to be rather than making implied criticism to mere supporters on a forum.

Cookies tbh

Boris - Amplifier Worship.

1) I've just shaved; it was a hassle. 2) I miss Spitting Image. 3) Cleaned the flat tonight. 4) I've got nothing for breakfast tomorrow. 5) I like small ones, not racks and i'm going to get my hands on a small but juicy pair tomorrow night!

My tuppence: Harper - Decent Solano - Passing wasn't up to his standards Taylor - Good Bramble - V. Good! Baba - OK/Good Milner - Cack Dyer - OK/Good (disciplined) Butt - Decent Duff - Cack apart from 1 dribble & dive Sibs - Good Martins - Cack (didn't run the channels, team play was poor)

Take a couple of lessons if you can afford them and keep on practicing the exercises. Or buy a cheap book/dvd and do those exercises.

1) I'm eating 3 crumpets for breakfast, 3! 2) My tea mug was hand painted in Viet Nam. 3) Still reflecting on Saturday when i went to Ikea for 4 hours and managed to not buy anything. A truly courageous and difficult act. 4) I'm wondering how the insides of cupboards i never open still manage to get dusty 5) I'll have to go to the gym today (see point 1).

Aww come on, man. Tune it to open G and serenade her with 'Wild Horses' or summit Nah man is wild horses in open g like? I just knew you were gonna f**king ask me that, like! Don't think Keef can play in anything else tbh. I'm told it was a Mick Taylor tune originally that Mick & Keef 'appropriated' in that special way they did with the other band members (rumour has it). Short answer: Dunno, can't remember. Do 'Tumblin' Dice' instead haha I was playing in Liverpool on Saturday night like, me and my mate paul borrowed this buskers guitar and played for like an hour in the street, got a kiss off some bird whilst in the middle of sunny afternoon, wrecked like Sounds great Haven't been busking in years, won't even consider it until mid June either. F**king freezing, man!

Aww come on, man. Tune it to open G and serenade her with 'Wild Horses' or summit Nah man is wild horses in open g like? I just knew you were gonna f**king ask me that, like! Don't think Keef can play in anything else tbh. I'm told it was a Mick Taylor tune originally that Mick & Keef 'appropriated' in that special way they did with the other band members (rumour has it). Short answer: Dunno, can't remember. Do 'Tumblin' Dice' instead

Aww come on, man. Tune it to open G and serenade her with 'Wild Horses' or summit

Too late for the list i know, but some songs i reckon are lovely anyway: Citysick by Pooka Lover, You Should Have Come Over by Jeff Buckley Oceano by Caetano Veloso Summer Soft by Stevie Wonder Autumn Leaves By Eva Cassidy Penetration By The Stooges Guaranteed knicker droppers every one of 'em