Isegrim

If you've got a secretary and you've only done 15 lines then she must have done even less work than you! German efficiency? 23008[/snapback] The secretary is a buffer to keep us free of annoying students. Though the idea is that this should allow me to listen to webradio without any disturbance.

How much work has everybody done today? I managed to write a staggering 15 lines (forum not included). I also wanted to kill our secretary when she knocked at the door at 10am ... when I had just turned on 5live.

Can you merge all the other Owen threads into this one please? 22922[/snapback] Or move it to the general Owen forum?

Any need for this one being stickied? The top of the site is already plastered with stickies...

Bitter Bitter C**ts, who still don't want to believe that a classy player does sign neither for their beloved cockney clubs nor for Liverpool or ManUre...

Well, at least they would sign someone with a brain in this case...

Apparently Woodgate is on his way to sign for Liverpool. That's what I heard from a Real fan. Don't know about the credibility, but just wantto pass you this information.

Owen signs for Newcastle. Renton is sort of happy. Hell freazes over.

Great news. So now let's go for a manager that can get the best out of him.

We'll probably see footage of Owen's wife in the press office with the tea lady pointing with a gun at her head at Fat Fred saying that they will give Owen a deadline until 5.30 pm to sign the contract.

I don't think Hitzfeld has a special philosophy. His only philosophy is success. Whatever he is doing is very sane and logical (being a former maths teacher). At Dortmund he played with a sweeper or 3-5-2. He transformed Mathias Sammer from an attacking midfielder in a "libero" who was orchestrating the whole team from the back. At Bayern he played 4-4-2 and very often 4-3-3. At Dortmund he rarely changed the team at Bayern he "rotated" with every player getting rested regularly. He always had players who were very important in the hirarch, Sammer at Dortmund, Effenberg at Bayern. At Dortmund he often played very young players, at Bayern the fact that he didn't care about the youth set up did sort of cost him the job. I can't say a lot about the training as I have never seen it. But a very important person was his assistant Michael Henke (who is now manager of Kaiserslautern so wouldn't come with him). His trainging regime was only openly questioned two times: Once at Dortmund when they had a series of cruciate ligament damages and at the end of his Bayern spell when players were considered unfit. Magath's (a disciplinarian) first job was apparently to "teach them running". But in previous season's the players were fit, but I have never heard about Hitzfeld being a fitness fanatic. He has the full respect of all his players and I can't remember one having a bad word to say about him. He has the ability to handle difficult characters like Effenberg and especially Basler (who is worse than Bellamy, Dyer and Robert together). And sorry, but I will rubbish it again. What do you think would have happened to Hitzfeld after he turned down Germany because of being tired and then taking over a relatively unknown club in England whose state I always have to explain to people. His only option would have been giving back his German passport and promising never to enter the country again. When being linked with Newcastle he also appeared in a big TV-interview and again said that he won't take a job in the next year. He would have turned out to be the biggest liar if the Newcastle story had made it to Germany - which it never did. Even taking for granted that the approach did happen (but why should a manager of the state of Hitzfeld approach a club and not the other way round???) I can't answer this question. I don't know how stubborn or offended he would be. He is a logical person I said but also he stuck with his decision and turned down all offers for a year (including Real Madrid). I wouldn't do cartwheels ... just because I had a knee operation. But I would open a bottle of the fine red wine labeled "Laughing Magpie" I store to celebrate special toon related events.

SSN said talks lasted 5-6 hours 21771[/snapback] Probably the actual talks lasted 5 seconds ("No, I won't join Newcastle.") and they started playing cards and eating pies afterwards... 21776[/snapback] or tuning into the Horse Racing at The Toon or Chepstow 21781[/snapback] Hmm, that might also be the reason why they invited Shearer. Probably Owen's flight was scheduled for the evening and they were just polite and accompanied him. Waiting at Newcastle airport can be f***ing boring...

SSN said talks lasted 5-6 hours 21771[/snapback] Probably the actual talks lasted 5 seconds ("No, I won't join Newcastle.") and they started playing cards and eating pies afterwards...

I don't think Hitzfeld can guarantee a trophy because the gap to the top teams is too big. But he had big budgets as well at Dortmund and at Bayern. At Dortmund he got back a couple of German players from Italy (Kohler, Reuter, Sammer, Möller, Riedle). In hindsight there are loads of questions about the financial sanity (especially wages), but the criticism is only faced at the board not the manager. And even if they were close to bancrupt, I know hardly any Dortmund fan who says the feeling of winning the first championship for 32 years and the night in Munich 1997 weren't worth it. At Munich he was allowed to buy the likes of Ballack, Ze Roberto, Deisler, Makaay. The fees might not be as high as those paid in the Premierleague but I think nearly every Bayern player would find easily a place in one of the top English sides. What Hitzfeld has is the winning mentality and the absolutely focus to achieve success. I would give him the Newcastle job every day and I do think he would seriously consider the job because as I said it is very similar to what he had to do with Dortmund. If I were in the position of Fat Fred I would approach him now. That might underterminate the position of Souness. But alas, he is walking on the edge anyway. If Hitzfeld said anything close to "yes" I would sack Souness immidiately.

Though I have to say that Hitzfeld is a fantastic manager but hardly one who will revamp the whole system of the club. What Hitzfeld can, is getting the best out of his players and use them in a succesful way. When he left Dortmund he left them in a bit of a mess, because he didn't lay any foundations for his successor. Bayern didn't have this problem because the club has a very, very professional outset anyway.

I don't know if those are comparable. Wenger already had a big reputation before he went to Arsenal. He was seriously considered by Bayern in 1994 or 95 IIRC. Gross had a bit of success in the Swiss league. But I totally agree with HTT. The aim of the club should be hiring top personal, not only when it comes to players but also when it comes to the managment job. The whole system should come under scrutiny and it needs someone who is bringing professionalism to the squad on all levels - be it nutrition or tactics.

21619[/snapback] By the way do we witness the attempt to enter the Guinness book for most posts in one day?

Don't know, but Horseface's free header, Given's clearance in the one-on-one against Ronaldo, Ronaldo's free way after Bowyer carelessly gave away the ball but blasting wide looked much more troubling than Newcastle's "attempts" to be honest.

Of course not because our coaching is frankly bollocks. 21250[/snapback] I think the primary reasonsibility for improving as a player lies with the player himself. Unfortunately, most players at NUFC do not seem to feel this urge. You may be right about the coaching staff, but I would have you note that not many clubs are actually that good at making talented players world class players. In England Arsenal spring to mind, but in general I believe it is more to do with the individual player's desire than coaching methods or personnel. My point about Kuijt was certainly not a disqualification of NUFC's coaching staff. After all, even Ronaldinho would look mediocre after three years of sitting on the bench. You would have to acknowledge that sometimes players develop better and faster as regular players in a league regarded as not a top league, than as squad players in top teams in top leagues? Edit: BTW the news in the Dutch media this afternoon is that Kuijt has told the chairman and technical director of Feyenoord that he has decided that he is staying with Feyenoord for the remainder of this season. He says if a top club comes in for him, they are to tell them that they are welcome to come back at the end of the season. As a Feyenoord supporter I am very happy about this news, but as a Newcastle supporter it means another name can be taken off the list of viable prospects.. 21508[/snapback] Nothing does help a player more than playing competitive matches. That is a bit of a problem with the reserve leagues. They do give match practise but can't be compared to competitive matches even at a lower level. Bernard did benefit from his loan spell at Darlington, so did Taylor at Wycombe. In fact I do think that if youngsters are not getting first team football they should get loaned out far more often.

That would be an absolute tragedy. I bet if our club won the quadruple, we'd actually LOSE support. We've all become so accustomed to moaning that we wouldn't know how to continue as fans. 21470[/snapback] I think we all could still do our best Alex Ferguson impression. IIRC he stormed of the pitch after having won the Scottish Cup with Aberdeen saying something like "I am not going to celebrate because we were rubbish, we weren't worthy winners and don't deserve credit at all for this rubbish performance." (I just remember the word "rubbish" was mentioned a dozen times or so).

Really? That's logical wizardry! Faye just doesn't have the tools to compete at the level we're trying to reach. 21408[/snapback] The "Championship"?

Owen arrives at Newcastle airport. Michael Owen: "Hallo Mr. Shepherd, Hallo Mr. Souness. I just wanted to tell you personally that I am not going to join Newcastle. I'll rather stay at Real to play Championsleague. So where is my taxi to Liverpool?" Walks out of the front door, jumps into a waiting taxi and is off...

I don't think managers do get put off by the sackings of predecessors. They all know how the business works. You don't get the results and you are out. If Newcastle started sacking manager's for not changing their underpants it might become a problem. But sacking a manager for being unsuccessful is normal. Manager's are only scared off if they don't think they can handle the task. Hitzfeld turned down the Kiev offer where he was only interested in a role as director of football. But he didn't rule out a managing job and said recently that he has loads of offers and is just waiting for the right one. I do think the Newcastle offer would be very attractive to him as it would be similar to the Dortmund one. I just hope that Fat Fred isn't just sitting on his arse and at least approaching managers via third parties. If one of the big ones signals interest that Fat Fred deserves to get stuffed to death with pies for not sacking the incompetent imbecile.

So that' was why he was sent to the Bayern team doc who is an expert in hamstring injuries? I said before the game that playing both would be a big risk. Maybe throwing in one of them could be excused, but both was stupid with wasting two subs in the first half as well. The amount of hamstring injuries at Newcastle isn't giving our physios fitness coaches a good reference anyway...