Renton

I feel for Ameobi, its not his fault he's not a football player any more than its my fault I'm not. However, he obviously is not the heir apparent for Shearer, and I don't think Owen is really the primary striker type either. I think to be successful we're going to have to fork out a lot more money come next summer, but I'm not sure we can afford it.

And he was signed by the 'tosser' 38935[/snapback] Completely disrespectful to call Shearer a tosser tbh. 38944[/snapback] Aye because it would kill you to give Souness any credit 38949[/snapback] Would Owen have come here if it wasn't for Shearer? Would he fuck! Souness can take the credit for all the lemons.

The reason Owen has never scored 20 league goals in a season is becaise he spends a lot of time out injured. His goals to game ratio is superb. Unfortunately, his injuries are unlikely to stop here. Still, I think he is a brilliant player, I keep pinching myself that he is here. Souness is one lucky bastard!

And he was signed by the 'tosser' 38935[/snapback] Completely disrespectful to call Shearer a tosser tbh.

It's almost like you wanted Bellamy to murder us to prove Souness wrong 38865[/snapback] Not at all, I was just making an observation. I'm not sure why Hughes didn't go 4-4-2 against us, was Dickov injured or something (really can't remember). However, if they had put up that performance against ManU against us, they would probably have won by a large margin and Souness might be out of a job. Do you disagree? It's a funny old game as they say.

Bobby Robson has stated several times that Bellamy was the worst player he's had to deal with (or something along those lines - and he didn't mean ability wise) 38858[/snapback] I thought that was Robert. Anyway, I think in his autobiography he states Romario was the most difficult player he had to deal with - but he was worth it for the good of the team etc. etc.

Souness should be grateful Hughes didn't utilise Bellamy properly against us last Sunday. It would have been a blood bath, but instead he completely fucked up his tactics (makes a change from Souness!). AF, have you any evidence that Bellamy was a disruptive influence in the dressing room, independent from what Souness or his cronies have said? Funny how both Dyer and Bowyer are still here, isn't it?

Or a wider-fitting hoover attachment. That was one of our funnier ones when I was in A&E 38343[/snapback] There was this brand of hoover that was made once which had spinning blades set back about 6 inches or so from the end of the tube. Now, iirc, the average male member is about 6 and 1/2 inches, and it led to a major epidemic of mutilated men going to A&E having had the the last 1/2 inch of their glans penis (i.e. bell end) cut off. . Not to mention very substantial blood loss. This is a true story btw, I have seen the articles myself published in very respectable medical journals. It's before electronic copies, so I can't link it, but trust me, it's true.

Well can we just agree he has an old fashioned view of man-management, which may or may not be a bad thing. I'm happy to judge him on results tbh. 38192[/snapback] Then do so... Last game we scored three and conceeded none on a ground where we've never won before in the Premiership with an injury-hit squad and playing the last quarter of the game with only 10 men. How do you judge Souness' management performance then?? 38209[/snapback] Craig, when I say results, I don't mean one game, which could have been a fluke (and indeed if you saw the game, you could hardly disagree it wasn't). I mean over a sustained period of time. We have now had a year of Souness and notched up a mere 10 premiership wins. I'm sorry but that is shit. Things may improve with Owen et al, but I don't think they will by nearly enough. Unfortunately I have no choice but to wait and see. If at the end of all this, I am right and Souness has proved to be the poor manager he has been at all his other clubs, then that is a depressing thought. Two years of my football supporting life, all our lives, wasted, because the men in charge thought like you and were proved wrong.

Well can we just agree he has an old fashioned view of man-management, which may or may not be a bad thing. I'm happy to judge him on results tbh.

Nice weather in New England though. The only place in the states I could see myself living, although I've never been to Seattle, admittedly.

How do you know it's not true? But you are being evasive of the main point, the evidence suggests he could start a fight in an empty room! Even his playing career and his health problems bear testament to his personality. He's from Edinburgh and is like a mate of my nomme de plume - Begbie!

The last statement is of course ludicrous. If you were talking about how many people get cancer from smoking, you wouldn't turn it on its head and say its OK, because most people don't get cancer from smoking. That would be bad journalism! I think Craig you are being deliberately evasive. Souness is a very confrontational manager, probably the most confrontational in the history of the premiership. Not many players leave his management saying good things about him, but many say bad things about him, even if he didn't personally fall out with him (e.g. Henning-Berg). Now you might not think this is a bad thing, you might think it is an irrelevance, which is fine, just say so. I personally believe it is a bad thing, because he can never go on a sustained run with resentment in his dressing room due to his bad man-management. The facts bear this out in his tendency to have poor league finishes (although this is of course complicated by his poor coaching and tactical ability).

It was the latter, but it was actually set as a quiz question! Anyway, without going into the specifics, would you agree that Souness has fallen out with more players than any other manager in the premiership? Yes or no? 38108[/snapback] As many as Gullit?? 38111[/snapback] Yes or no? Gullit is probably the second worst manager for falling out with playing staff. You weren't upset when he was booted out, were you?

The whole of football is based on subjective opinions and conjecture! However, if we want to use facts to prove Souness is a shit manager (i.e. results and statistics), then that is easy as well!

It was the latter, but it was actually set as a quiz question! Anyway, without going into the specifics, would you agree that Souness has fallen out with more players than any other manager in the premiership? Yes or no?

Can you name them?? 38083[/snapback] No, I can't, and I stated so in my post if you bothered to read it - this was just a fact stated by someone on the radio. However, it seems reasonable to me, and even if the numbers quoted are not quite right, I am sure no manager has fallen out with as many players as Souness - not even close. Can you name someone who has?

Why affect us worse than other clubs though. Like I said, I think it is multifactorial: Souness and the coaches The training ground Players lifestyles off the pitch Too many crocks who are intrinsically more likely to get ham strung A lack of commitment for some players to get fit and stay fit

I discovered it was none other than a sulphuric acid release the other day. Deeeelish! 37994[/snapback] How on earth did you end up going from San Francisco, one of the world's most famous and desirable cities, to Middlesbrough, of you don't mind me asking? I can only imagine it's the money! 38001[/snapback] The money was actually better in San Francisco. I just didn't want to stay in America forever and ended up changing jobs to one in Smogsville when I came back home. I'll not be working here too much longer though, if things go to plan..... 38010[/snapback] Well good luck in your plan. My wife used to have to face the daily commute to Smogsville everyday - the A19 and the tunnel. Absolutely horrible journey, and look where you end up! Thankfully, she escaped and now works in Newcastle.

I discovered it was none other than a sulphuric acid release the other day. Deeeelish! 37994[/snapback] How on earth did you end up going from San Francisco, one of the world's most famous and desirable cities, to Middlesbrough, of you don't mind me asking? I can only imagine it's the money!

I once got a flight from a really small American airline back from Cancun called "Sun Country". They had been sent in to replace our knackered British Caledonian flight (26 hours delay ). I think they claimed to be the second biggest airline in Minnesota or something, which was hardly reassuring. Anyway, being a nervous flyer I wasn't impressed when they told us "This is the first time any of us, or this plane, has flown across the Atlantic before, so it's an adventure for all of us, yee haaa*". It couldn't even make it one go - it had to refuel in Bangor, Maine. Got us back in the end though, thankfully. * Yee haa put in for dramatic purposes.

Another thread synopsis, brought to us by emperor_k. 37979[/snapback] Agreed, there is nothing to benefit from risking players not fully fit. I just hope we can make the best of what we've got.

But bear in mind that citeh are a far better team than Blackburn, and we are presently probably worse at home than away for some reason. Maybe the win last week will kick start us, but I saw nothing from the performance to suggest it.

If we play anywhere near as badly as we did against Blackburn we will lose for sure. Then it's quite a wait for our next home game against the mackems. What does winning and being there feel like again?

Yep, tripped over a paper aeroplane, the way I heard it. 37907[/snapback] Thrown by Gemmill, I might add