Baggio 0 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 When it comes to foreign signings, Sam Allardyce has a rule, one he always tried to stick with during his time at Bolton. For the first 10 games or so, don't put the new lad in; don't expose him to the crash-bang-wallop nature of the Premier League. Dip him in by all means as a substitute - a few minutes here, a few minutes there. If the timing is right, a Carling Cup outing might be OK as well, just to give the new arrival a feel for his surroundings. But whatever you do, don't ask a foreign import to do a job from the start since, more often than not, the challenge proves too much. There are exceptions, of course. Some players pick up the pace in their first game, not many though. The sheer ferocity of England's top flight can't usually be mastered overnight. Ideally, it needs to be administered in dribs and drabs. Unfortunately, Allardyce hasn't had that luxury with Newcastle United this season. Straight away, he's had to pick all those signings plucked from abroad; sometimes all at once, hence the chaotic scenes witnessed more than once at St James' Park. And if the Portsmouth game was bad the other week, when three goals in the first 11 minutes prompted the swift withdrawal of the hapless Claudio Cacapa, Saturday's shenanigans reached new levels of incompetence. Between them, Habib Beye, David Rozehnal and Jose Enrique managed to gift Liverpool a barrel-load of chances on an afternoon their manager must have been secretly dreading. Under pressure after that Portsmouth hammering, Allardyce could have well done without this awkward situation. In Rozehnal he only had one fit centre-half available so had to ask this luckless trio to form a three-man rearguard - with calamitous consequences as it turned out. Yes, the home side might have kept the score down to three but Fernando Torres, no exaggeration, could have nabbed five for himself but for slack finishing and Shay Given's sharp instincts. A sorry sight indeed. The Senegalese, the Czech and the Spaniard were caught in the headlights, toiling together, so magnifying the sense of pandemonium. Mind you, it was never meant to be like this. After taking the job this summer, Allardyce had earmarked proven Premier League defenders as the best way to turn things around on Tyneside, to change the ingrained culture of poor defending that had held the club back. The manager had therefore targeted players like Sylvain Distin, Tal Ben-Haim, a stopper he knew well from their time together at Bolton, and Manchester United's Mikael Silvestre, only to see them go elsewhere or, in Silvestre's case, not move at all. His attention, therefore, quickly turned abroad from where the aforementioned names were eventually signed. In fairness, things are bound to get better when these players acclimatise. That's if their confidence hasn't been battered enough already to make a proper recovery. Only Allardyce will know on that score. Never has his 10-match rule looked such a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 0 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Where's that barrel of shite come from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusoda Kid 1 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Where's that barrel of shite come from? Big Sam himself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How's it shite? I don't know about any 10 game rule or owt, but we've not started 2 players who were acquanted before the start of the season at the back. I can see why they still haven't gelled. Allardyce made a rash decision in getting rid of 5 defenders on his first day at the club, players he hadn't even looked at for himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusoda Kid 1 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How's it shite? I don't know about any 10 game rule or owt, but we've not started 2 players who were acquanted before the start of the season at the back. I can see why they still haven't gelled. Allardyce made a rash decision in getting rid of 5 defenders on his first day at the club, players he hadn't even looked at for himself. But they needed to go, no doubt about that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay 10 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How's it shite? I don't know about any 10 game rule or owt, but we've not started 2 players who were acquanted before the start of the season at the back. I can see why they still haven't gelled. Allardyce made a rash decision in getting rid of 5 defenders on his first day at the club, players he hadn't even looked at for himself. But they needed to go, no doubt about that Aye people would be screaming for Bramble to get dropped and questioning the decision of Big Sam to give him a new contract.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How's it shite? I don't know about any 10 game rule or owt, but we've not started 2 players who were acquanted before the start of the season at the back. I can see why they still haven't gelled. Allardyce made a rash decision in getting rid of 5 defenders on his first day at the club, players he hadn't even looked at for himself. But they needed to go, no doubt about that Perhaps in the long run they weren't good enough for where we want to be. But the defence did a fine job last season. For all of his talk of doing a slow re-building job at the club, Allardyce really rushed that one imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 0 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How is it shite? Well for a start Enrique barely got on the pitch for the first two months of the season. Added to the fact that it's pointing the finger of blame at the three men who played at the back while totally failing to notice the lack of any sort of midfield support. Why aren't they having a go at any other players? Maybe because when Liverpool were busy picking us off at the back, the rest of the side were trotting back over the halfway line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 How is it shite? Well for a start Enrique barely got on the pitch for the first two months of the season. Added to the fact that it's pointing the finger of blame at the three men who played at the back while totally failing to notice the lack of any sort of midfield support. Why aren't they having a go at any other players? Maybe because when Liverpool were busy picking us off at the back, the rest of the side were trotting back over the halfway line. But at least 75% of the back line have been new foreign players in every game we've played. I think it's having a go at Allardyce (if anyone) more than any players in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 HF, which of the defenders who left in the summer should have been retained / offered a new contract in your opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 HF, which of the defenders who left in the summer should have been retained / offered a new contract in your opinion? Bramble and Moore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 HF, which of the defenders who left in the summer should have been retained / offered a new contract in your opinion? Bramble and Moore. Fair enough. I don't agree for a second that either deserved one like. Moore in particular was injury-prone, about the slowest defender in the league and wanted to leave anyway. Maybe Bramble could have been offered a year. Very debatable whether 1) He have took that and 2) whether it would have been a good idea. There's no way any more than a year would have been on offer though. ARS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 HF, which of the defenders who left in the summer should have been retained / offered a new contract in your opinion? Bramble and Moore. Fair enough. I don't agree for a second that either deserved one like. Moore in particular was injury-prone, about the slowest defender in the league and wanted to leave anyway. Maybe Bramble could have been offered a year. Very debatable whether 1) He have took that and 2) whether it would have been a good idea. There's no way any more than a year would have been on offer though. ARS. TBF my view is probably tainted by a large degree of hindsight. I mean, if Ramage, Carr and Babayaro were fit we'd still have a bedrock of players at the back who'd played together before. However I'd prefer any of those three to have been off our books, rather than the two I mentioned. It's just the way the cookie crumbled with contracts running out I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gejon 2 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Yep Bramble and Moore would have sorted us out at the back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Aye. I dread to think what the combined wages of Babayaro and Carr are. I think they're both out of contract in the summer though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusoda Kid 1 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 HF, which of the defenders who left in the summer should have been retained / offered a new contract in your opinion? Bramble and Moore. Fair enough. I don't agree for a second that either deserved one like. Moore in particular was injury-prone, about the slowest defender in the league and wanted to leave anyway. Maybe Bramble could have been offered a year. Very debatable whether 1) He have took that and 2) whether it would have been a good idea. There's no way any more than a year would have been on offer though. ARS. TBF my view is probably tainted by a large degree of hindsight. I mean, if Ramage, Carr and Babayaro were fit we'd still have a bedrock of players at the back who'd played together before. However I'd prefer any of those three to have been off our books, rather than the two I mentioned. It's just the way the cookie crumbled with contracts running out I guess. Can't really claim to have played tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia 0 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Moore had already decided he wanted to go back to Australia IIRC. As for Bramble his Newcastle career lasted three or four years too long, giving him a reprieve would've just been stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fop 1 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Thing that must be making a difference too is I doubt the backroom staff is up to Bolton levels yet. That in itself must be a process of at least a season or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish Mag 3 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Aye. I dread to think what the combined wages of Babayaro and Carr are. I think they're both out of contract in the summer though. Wishful thinking. We are stuck with Babayaro until 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo 175 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 This "don't play your new signings for 10 matches" theory/excuse kind of falls flat on its face when you think of Man City this season doesn't it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Aye. I dread to think what the combined wages of Babayaro and Carr are. I think they're both out of contract in the summer though. Wishful thinking. We are stuck with Babayaro until 2009 Who's finished in 2008 with Carr then? Damage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia 0 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 This "don't play your new signings for 10 matches" theory/excuse kind of falls flat on its face when you think of Man City this season doesn't it ! For everyone who quotes Citeh as an example of how things should be at this club i'm going to kill a kitten. They're quite simply a one off and could've so easily ended up in our position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish Mag 3 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Aye. I dread to think what the combined wages of Babayaro and Carr are. I think they're both out of contract in the summer though. Wishful thinking. We are stuck with Babayaro until 2009 Who's finished in 2008 with Carr then? Damage? Aye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo 175 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 This "don't play your new signings for 10 matches" theory/excuse kind of falls flat on its face when you think of Man City this season doesn't it ! For everyone who quotes Citeh as an example of how things should be at this club i'm going to kill a kitten. They're quite simply a one off and could've so easily ended up in our position. Best you get your arse down the pet shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico martin 95 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 This "don't play your new signings for 10 matches" theory/excuse kind of falls flat on its face when you think of Man City this season doesn't it ! For everyone who quotes Citeh as an example of how things should be at this club i'm going to kill a kitten. They're quite simply a one off and could've so easily ended up in our position. coulda woulda shoulda things is they didnt, either because they've got a better manager or are a better run club. Either way there's no reason why we shouldnt compare our fortunes to there's this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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