Freddy's £12m Signing..

[Smitheh 0]

From the Sunday Telegraph:

 

Sam Allardyce has been offered a £3m-per-annum, four-year contract to take charge of Newcastle United and become the Premiership's third best paid manager behind Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson.

 

Newcastle could have appointed the former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier, now at Lyon, and even the ex-England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson for less. However, Freddy Shepherd, the St James' Park chairman, declined to take calls from their representatives last week, despite Houllier topping polls of Geordie fans asked to name their preferred choice as Glenn Roeder's successor. It is understood that Alan Shearer was sounded out but he is happy working for the BBC and travelling the world as an ambassador for the club.

 

With the board expected to ratify the former Bolton manager's £12 m deal at a specially convened meeting tomorrow, Allardyce - who had originally hoped to succeed Stuart Pearce at Manchester City - is poised to be formally appointed on Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

By then he could be fielding telephone calls from the Quest team run by Lord Stevens and in the final throes of completing their long-running investigation into corruption in football. Quest are apparently keen to question Allardyce for a third time, in this instance about the transfers of Israeli duo Tal Ben Haim and Idan Tal to Bolton, but with the Stevens inquiry due to make its final report to the Premier League this week and issue a public statement by the end of the month they are fast running out of time.

 

Newcastle are believed to have been reassured that Allardyce - who loomed large in a BBC Panorama special on abuse of the transfer system last year - has not been in receipt of illegal 'bungs'.

 

Quite apart from paying Allardyce roughly three times the salary afforded to Roeder, who resigned last Sunday, and around seven times the £400,000 Sheffield United's Neil Warnock has earned this season, Shepherd will almost certainly need to negotiate a compensation package with Bolton. Allardyce had two years remaining of his contract at the Reebok when he walked out a fortnight ago but a compromise may be reached if the new manager agrees not to poach key members of his former Bolton staff.

 

Bolton employ an unprecedented 21-strong, backroom team including sports scientists, psychologists and IT experts and have newly offered Mike Forde, their highly regarded performance director, an improved contract. Forde was regarded by many as Allardyce's key lieutenant and the in-coming Newcastle manager would seemingly like nothing better than to have him by his side on Tyneside.

 

Nevertheless Bolton are braced to lose Gary Speed, their newly-appointed player coach and a former Newcastle midfielder, to a similar role at St James' Park where the coaching staff could also be augmented by Neil McDonald, currently the Carlisle United manager. Allardyce apparently convinced an initially sceptical Shepherd of the need to employ so many assistants by comparing the number of potential playing hours Newcastle players have lost to injury this season with those forfeited by Bolton personnel.

 

While Roeder's squad spent a collective total of approximately 400 hours sidelined, Allardyce's men were indisposed for just 70. However, another statistic 'Big Sam' presumably did not mention over lunch with Shepherd at Claridges in London on Friday is that in his last 16 games in charge of the Wanderers they took just 16 points; in contrast, the unfortunate Roeder's Newcastle collected 17 points from his final 16 matches.

 

The worst of Newcastle's injuries was sustained on England duty by Michael Owen last summer and arguably cost Roeder - who last Sunday asked Shepherd to give him until Christmas to prove himself before realising resignation was his only option - the chance to implement the major re-structuring of the squad he was planning for this summer.

 

Allardyce, though, could be forced to cope without Owen, who seems increasingly likely to be sold after the revelation that his contract includes a release clause stating that the striker can leave for £9 million.

 

Perhaps partly in anticipation of this, a Newcastle delegation last week held a meeting in Monte Carlo with Mike Morris, a Monaco-based agent who has worked closely with Allardyce on transfers, to discuss potential new signings.

[maggiespaws 0]

I really can't believe we are offering to pay him this much.

 

By all means, offer him a significant amount as a total package based on targets (cups, position etc) but 12m/4yrs as a basic?

 

He refuses to field calls from Houllier who has proven himself in both foreign and domestic leagues and from Sven! Earlier in the week we we talking about Sven as being an expensive manager but I dont think any of us expected this.

 

I'm not totally sold on Sam but imo he has it all to prove with a package like that.

 

I really despair with NUFC. Why is it the Scousers can get Rafa for less or Arsenal get Whinger yet we feel we have to spunk a load of cash on someon who's won nowt?

 

FS seems to feel that throwing money at this club will sort it out. We aren't that flush.

 

I hope this pays off. We need top 6 next season.

[Super_Steve_Howey 0]

Shhh....

[maggiespaws 0]

Shhh what?

[Super_Steve_Howey 0]

Shhh what?

 

Shhh you can't talk about Allardyce on here. Doesn't go down well

[Gejon 2]

It isn't more than Rafa or Wenger though is it? Its £2m a year less than Sven was on at England and didn't Houllier rule out coming here?

[ewerk 30610]

Do we never fucking learn?

 

Should Sam bomb here it's going to cost a complete fortune to sack him.

[maggiespaws 0]

It isn't more than Rafa or Wenger though is it? Its £2m a year less than Sven was on at England and didn't Houllier rule out coming here?

 

If the article is right and Sam becomes the 3rd highest paid manager behind Fergie and Jose; then it is more than Rafa and Wenger

 

As for Houllier ruling himself out - depends what article you read. Just cos Sven was on 5m for England doesn't mean we'd give him that. After all, it's not like other clubs are falling over themselves to get him.

 

The point I was trying to make was that this seemed like we've paid over the odds (a typical NUFC trait) for someone who hasn't won anything yet; when there are others in the league winning far more and being paid less.

[Gemmill 44872]

Bet Allardyce nearly choked on his foie gras when Freddy offered him £3m per year at Claridges. It's Peter Ridsdale/Seth Johnson all over again.

[Scottish Mag 3]

I don't see the big problem. The manager is the most important member of a football club.

 

If wasters like Emre, Duff and Dyer are getting paid in the region of that amount why should a manager not?

[Gemmill 44872]

I don't see the big problem. The manager is the most important member of a football club.

 

If wasters like Emre, Duff and Dyer are getting paid in the region of that amount why should a manager not?

 

I agree about the manager being the most important part of the club, I just suspect we have started the negotiations insanely high.

[Super_Steve_Howey 0]

That's just his declared salary aswell

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

Bet Allardyce nearly choked on his foie gras when Freddy offered him £3m per year at Claridges. It's Peter Ridsdale/Seth Johnson all over again.

I bet Freddie ordered Turkey Twizzlers, chips and beans.

[Missed Sticks 0]

is that gross or net (tax & bungs)?

[Gemmill 44872]

Bet Allardyce nearly choked on his foie gras when Freddy offered him £3m per year at Claridges. It's Peter Ridsdale/Seth Johnson all over again.

I bet Freddie ordered Turkey Twizzlers, chips and beans.

 

"Not got nee red sauce like? Aye and some vinegar an'all"

[Fop 1]

I don't see the big problem. The manager is the most important member of a football club.

 

If wasters like Emre, Duff and Dyer are getting paid in the region of that amount why should a manager not?

 

 

It's the usual Newcastle yoyo though.

 

Robson was paid £2.50 a year (when arguably he should have been in the top three paid managers in the league at that time)..... and Allardyce should be paid reasonably well, but it does seem a little high, especially if you're also talking about increasing the backroom staff significantly too.

 

If he's successful then it will be cheap, but if he's not it could cost more than pure cash.

 

 

 

I dunno I kinda think Newcastle "negotiations" consist of:

 

"so how much do we have to pay you to come to us?"

 

It certainly would explain stuff like Owen's £9m release clause and such.

[Super_Steve_Howey 0]

I think the fois gras and twizzlers would have been the other way round....

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

I think the fois gras and twizzlers would have been the other way round....

Sam ordered Cow pie ala Desperate Dan.

[Asprilla 96]

 

Robson was paid £2.50 a year

 

 

That is very good value.

[ewerk 30610]

I don't see the big problem. The manager is the most important member of a football club.

 

If wasters like Emre, Duff and Dyer are getting paid in the region of that amount why should a manager not?

 

I agree in general that managers should be played well compared to the players but the difference is that when a manager turns out shite he has to be paid off whereas a player can be transferred (unless that player is Albert Luque).

 

Clearly paying Sam £60k pw isn't the going rate for a manager with his CV.

[Fop 1]

 

Robson was paid £2.50 a year

 

 

That is very good value.

 

Robson didn't think so.

 

Although I think FFS thought he should do it for free.

[Ken 119]

Shhh what?

 

Shhh you can't talk about Allardyce on here. Doesn't go down well

Talk about him by all means, but don't give us your conspiracy theorist speil...

[Ken 119]

I really can't believe we are offering to pay him this much.

 

By all means, offer him a significant amount as a total package based on targets (cups, position etc) but 12m/4yrs as a basic?

 

He refuses to field calls from Houllier who has proven himself in both foreign and domestic leagues and from Sven! Earlier in the week we we talking about Sven as being an expensive manager but I dont think any of us expected this.

 

I'm not totally sold on Sam but imo he has it all to prove with a package like that.

 

I really despair with NUFC. Why is it the Scousers can get Rafa for less or Arsenal get Whinger yet we feel we have to spunk a load of cash on someon who's won nowt?

 

FS seems to feel that throwing money at this club will sort it out. We aren't that flush.

 

I hope this pays off. We need top 6 next season.

I'll put in on record that I prefer Big Sam than the other two. Take a look at Houllier's transfer market record when he was at Liverpool. Bloody atrocious. Cisse, Sinama-Pongole and add another 6 or 7 French players to that list totalling about 20m. Waste of money. He's doing well in the French League, because he knows the French system back to front and he's managing the strongest French team at Lyon. If he came to Newcastle I'd have absolutely no confidence in him when it came to bringing players in.

 

As for Sven, he was on a ridiculously high salary when he managed England. His aim was toi build for the World Cup last year, and he did absolutely nothing. Some of his selections were mind boggling. How the hell do you pick a 17 year old (Wallcott) with no Premiership experience over one (Defoe) with a proven record playing at the highest level?

Why did he rely on a player who was unfit and played no games leading up to the WC (Owen) to score you goals?

Why keep faith in a player who broke his foot (Rooney) and wasn't going to be fit enough to do any good anyway?

All the decent teams in the WC started slowly and progressively got better as the tournament went on. England didn't. If anything we got worse.

As for his days at Lazio, yes he won the Scudetto, but he had money to spend. Lazio had to top the spending list in Italy at the time to achieve what they did.

 

I think Newcastle and Sam are a perfect match. The 4 year contract he's about to sign suggests that the club will not be able to fork out the money that has been made available to previous managers. Hasn't Fred released something like 300m to 5 managers???

Most of it bloody wasted. We are in debt to a tune of something like 80m. Haven't studied the facts and figures but it'll probably take 4 years to clear the debt we have.

In saying that, 15-20m will probably be available to Sam every year. 15-20m is a huge amount considering how much Sam was able to spend at Bolton. That's a goldmine for him and he'll spend it wisely. Aty least with Sam he won't buy another Luque for 10m ffs.

 

Sam and his backroom staff also have a proven record when it comes to injuries. Bolton have the best record when it comes to keeping players on the field. Newcastle have the worst by a country mile. Again, a perfect match between Sam and the club. No more getting crock players like Babayaro (who was always injured at Chelsea before we were stupid enough to bring him to the club ffs). If the current training regime and recuperation methods have flaws in it (which it must have) then Sam and his backroom staff will pick up on and fix.

 

Considering where the club is right now, Sam is the perfect manager. I just want to see the club heading in the right direction, like everyone else and I'm sure he's the man to do it. In a perfect world we'd all like to see changes in the boardroom or at least a change in the chairman, but this won't ever happen. Not for a long while anyway. Freddy wants the Hall family to sell up there shares so he can buy them and take full control so we know Fred's at the club for the long haul. What can be fixed though is the coaching methods and the players who are too comfortable at the club. It's the next best thing possible.

[Asprilla 96]

Spot on.

[JawD 99]

Aye, pretty much agree with that Ken. Sam isnt getting my running around the house cheering, and Im not dilusional enough to think we're suddently going to win the league. However, as mentioned, in our current plight I reckon can can get more out o fthe players we have and I thin he can successfully identify players to come in and improve the team as opposed to plug gaps. We've often been baffled by our injuries, coaching set up, scouting network, tactics and so on and I do think Sam can improve us greatly in these areas.

 

We aint a top club, we aint going to necessarily attract the big hitters with where we are right now. Another reason why Sam at this moment in time fits the fold.

 

I doubt any of us wanted Sven, not really. I want someone who reacts and is emotive, not someone who seems to sleep in the dugout. Id also agree about Houllier. While Id have taken him over Sven, his did have a very poor transfer record. But, he did win things while he was here. He also kept Liverpool "up there" while we slid away. But, due to recent transfer failings I dont think we could take that risk, even if he did want to come.