Dr Gloom

i think houillier would be a better bet than the likes of hughes or redknapp but there are other foreign coaches who i think ashley should approach first. van gaal, hitzfeld and mourinho for example.

i'm not sure i'd fancy houlier being the one to identify players. he signed plenty of shocking players at liverpool. cisse, song, diao, le tallac etc

don't forget to close the door on your way out nige

I don't even think any of the above were considered let alone sounded out... Me either. They all have far better CVs than Redknapp. Smokescreen imo. Unfortunately I fear that is the truth of the matter. Have to cast the net as wide as possible now and not run rush into anything. There really is no need to rush. This season is a complete write-off so lets just see it out. ...and pray we don't get sucked into the relegation battle. there are a worrying number of teams on 20 points, just a couple of wins behind us. The 'only 6 points clear' bit really bothers me. The only thing that calms my nerves is the amount of sides below us. I.e. they can't all keep winning / picking up points as they have to play each other at some point. I am nervous about us though. there's usually one team that sinks like a stone and gets sucked into it and we're looking a rudderless ship at the moment. you look at the team on paper and there should be goals in it but i can't see where our next win is coming from at the moment. if we do wait until the summer to recruit the new manager, pearson is going to have to get them organised and playing asap

I don't even think any of the above were considered let alone sounded out... Me either. They all have far better CVs than Redknapp. Smokescreen imo. Unfortunately I fear that is the truth of the matter. Have to cast the net as wide as possible now and not run rush into anything. There really is no need to rush. This season is a complete write-off so lets just see it out. ...and pray we don't get sucked into the relegation battle. there are a worrying number of teams on 20 points, just a couple of wins behind us.

I read something which suggested that they spent an obscene amount for a German club but are only just ahead of second so it was considered "failure". They started brilliantly, playing decent football for a change, which was something they tried to focus on. But they lost their momentum quite quickly with a couple of goalless draws where they failed to convert a plentora of chances. They have only lost one game this season though. The biggest criticism was the draw against Bolton at home, where Hitzfeld took of his best players early because they had to play another games less than 48 hours later but was heavily attacked by Rummenigge ("football is not mathematics"). It seems that Hitzfeld then made his decision not to enter talks about a new contract. It really seems that he isn't really bothered about club football any more. As I've now said a couple of times people really should forget about him. He made clear that he either takes the Swiss job or none at all. shame but it's encouraging to think mort and ashley are at least sounding out names like hitzfeld and not just the usual suspects like hughes, mcclaren etc

Worrying when you consider what damaging effect Shepherd evidently had on the club. Amazing the stuff that's coming out now about him to be honest. Ashley appears to be doing things above board. That in itself will take the club further. i'm optimistic that a man worth almost £2bn will take us further than our cretinous former chairman. but the early signs aren't great are they? in fact, when you look at it, the manner in which the allardyce sacking has played out is shepherd-esque. there's the timing of the dismissal (slap bang in the middle of the transfer window), not having a replacement lined up, the courting of a second rate english manager and the resulting public rejection. the only thing missing as far as i can see is some moronic comments about the geordie nation...

indeed. the only issue i could see with him is that he's getting on a bit. his record is different class. i'm surprised the n-o boys haven't replaunched hitzfeldforthetoon.com

i'd take any of them ahead of hughes or the keegan/shearer dream team

i've got the first two series of weird weekends on dvd from years back....still watch them fairly frequently. love the one where goes to rap in the deep south and the one with survivalists.

louis is a legend

if they sacked him i think they'd get mourinho and benitez would go to real or barca. leaving us with a keegan/shearer dreamteam

early days yet but apart from clearing the club's debt, ashley has done nowt so far to convince me that he will take the club any further than shepherd did. so far he hasn't really spent the millions we all thought a billionaire owner would and he's got the first big decision he's had to make wrong imo. the timing of the sacking was odd, the fact that he didn't have someone lined up was poor and being publicly snubbed by redknapp was just embarrasing. he needs to get a good manager in, back him and give him time. and he could do with spending more time in the posh seats and less with his toon top in the away end if you ask me. if he is prepared to do all of that then i'd say we are in good hands simply because of how much the man is worth but i expected a more professional approach tbh

throw in a scottish fuckpig and it could be leazesmag.

blessing in disguise with smith. i'd play ----------------------given carr------taylor----------cacapa-------enrique milner---emre----------n'zogbia-------duff ----------viduka---------owen

would shearer be happy as keegan's number two though? i read somehwere that he is only interested in being manager, not someone's assistant. ...and i don't think keegan is up to it these days tbh. he looked like a broken man by the end of his city tenure.

this just gets better and better

oh lord

i'd prefer hughes to redknapp. still; it's hardly the most ambitious appointment. i hope these rumours about us looking abroad are true. van gaal would be class imo

redknapp is loving this like. he's probably got a massive pay rise out of it too.

sounds like we haven't even approached him which is a shame given he's out of work and he might be tempted if we paid him a king's ransom and promised to back him in the transfer market. he still probably wouldn't have fancied it but it would have been less embarrassing to be publicly knocked back by him than redknapp

the torygraph reckon we're looking we're looking at foreign coaches too so i'm not giving up all hope just yet. no offence to sparky - he's done decent jobs at rovers and wales - but i think a top foreign coach is the way to go. and if we can't get one of them i'd rather gamble on shearer than go for another bog-standard british coach.