New dawn fades

[Scottish Mag 3]

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

So then, Allardyce gone, Redknapp knocks us back, no sorry, we didn't offer him the job after all, and we get the biggest humping of our lives at Old Trafford.

 

Just an average week in the lives of the gentlefolk of Tyneside eh? Fucking hell!

 

I can't work out the Allardyce sacking or the "mutual consent" stuff we're meant to swallow. I can't work it out unless the people doing the manouvering behind the scenes i.e. some ex-Spurs hot-shot, Kelmsley haven't fucked up badly.

 

Allardyce, talking about transfers last Wednesday, gave no indication he was ready to agree to any mutual consent stuff and the trigger that seem to be pulled on him was some kind of communication with third parties Redknapp was ready to come to NUFC. That information seems to have been duff and now we're stuck in a situation where the manager has gone and Plan A has gone up the spout. Clearly the people at the top of the club need to have a good look at how they have handled this situation because they have screwed up badly with the first major bit of club business they have had to undertake.

 

We're sorry Allardyce hasn't worked out at NUFC. We want a man who will come in and address every level of the club's playing operations. We want the Academy to improve so it is actually producing players to put us on a level playing field with other clubs of our stature, instead of the shambles it is reported to us to be and which is evidenced by the lack of high quality recruits for the first team in recent years. We want training facilities, which are the envy of the Premiership, we want a sports science approach which is innovative, progressive and which will address the appallingly high number of games our senior players have missed in recent years with an amount of muscle related injuries. We want a scouting strategy and network of contacts which will ensure the club will be protected from wasting millions on the likes of Marcelino, Goma, Boumsong, Luque, Viana, Maric, Babayaro, Bramble and possibly Enrique, Rozenhal and Cacapa. We want quality coaching at every level of the club. We want professionalism, we want planning and speaking for this radge little fanzine, we were prepared to wait to see that be built.

 

Just because Allardyce has done one / been sacked / got an attack of the vapours - doesn't change that one iota. The club needs to be professional. It needs to leave the pop star signings behind, the fur coat and no knickers approach of the Shepherd-Hall years and start behaving like a professional sporting institution which has access to millions of our money, TV dosh and hopefully a bit of wedge from our new owner.

 

Was Allardyce really so wrong for Newcastle United? Well, that seems to be the received wisdom but I'd contend that despite all the patter about the Bolton style not to the tastes of Tyneside had Sam Allardyce been in a position to have brought in experienced Premiership defenders of the type of Faye, who has looked sound enough when he's played, then the ridiculous goals we've given away via Cacapa and Rozenhal and Taylor and a terrible decision at Chelsea might have meant we had perhaps another 5 or 6 points and no-one would have been unhappy about that. He wasn't really backed in the transfer market last summer and had to generate his own money via sales by and large. Not that we particularly had a problem with any of his sales - well, apart from Solano.

 

That said, Allardyce wasn't working as well as any of us would have liked. I don't think the situation warranted him being sacked but there were problems. Joey Barton needs to look inside himself and accept he has badly let down a man who offered him a way top redemption when in honesty he was all but a pariah in football. Being banged up in Liverpool nick over the Christmas can't have helped Allardyce's authority at the club. Enrique? He doesn't look fit, he doesn't look switched on and he looks off the pace. £6m and some of us are thinking of his countrymen Marcelino and Luque. Starting another season without a recognised left-back just depressed me when we've seen the potential down the right of Habib Beye who looks a different class to anything we've had down there for a while. That has involved N'Zogbia going to left back but Charlie can't tackle big dinners let alone in the Premiership. I’ll take my cue from Arsene Wenger who reckons foreign players need a minimum, of 6 months to settle into England but he’s looking a bit gormless at the moment.

 

Then there's Alan Smith. £6m. I've stuck up for Smith previously because despite it being difficult for him he's played where and when selected in the side but he's another who, when playing as a defensive midfielder, just can't tackle and he's looks dreadful. He's a centre-forward - I thought he did well against Everton up top leading the line - but he looked shite playing in defensive midfield positions and in wide positions. Getting sent off at Man Utd arguing over the 6th goal was just plain unprofessional and we’re entitled to ask he can bring us anything other than clenched fists, facial grimaces and piss poor tackling.

 

The players need to take responsibility. After the Derby (h) and Wigan (a) games I listened to Allardyce and Pearson very closely and could only conclude they were telling us they couldn’t motivate the team. That certainly looked like they were going through the motions at best. They looked an unhappy bunch of players. It’s easy to blame the manager for the mindset of his team but remember several of these players have performed badly under Souness, Roeder and Allardyce.

 

In terms of style, Allardyce appears to have made the same mistake as Dalglish, in that he attempted to graft a mentality and style to players who had a wholly different view on their strengths as players. Martins for example has gone backwards this season and has looked clueless playing on a right-ish kind of position. Viduka and Owen have looked isolated and when we’re attacking I’ve often asked why we have so few players committing to get in the box etc?

 

Whatever, it didn’t work. But if a few more players had played with just a modicum of competence then we’d have been in a different place all round.

 

Redknapp then? I know he’s knocked us back but he wasn’t getting pulses racing in any event and the feeling I detect is not that we’ve missed out on bringing a top manager to the club but the strategy the club had for a succession has been torn up for arse paper and as I write this after the car crash of our humiliation at Old Trafford, we look all over the place. In the news fall out from the Redknapp KO I was intrigued by the Pompey manager mentioning he’d not met Ashley. Now, far be it from me, a raggy-arsed gobshite on a 2-bob fanzine tell a billionaire how to run his business (i.e. NUFC) but if I were on the point of offering a manager a job on the kind of dosh talked about, I think I’d want to meet him beforehand, look him in the eye, shake his hand and check out the cut of his jib. Likewise, if I were Redknapp, I think I’d be insulted Ashley couldn’t meet me and answer directly the questions I had for him regarding a whole range of issues, expectations, transfer budgets etc. That said, I strongly believe Redknapp knocked us back not for loyalty to Pompey (fucking hell man, he did one to Southampton, man) or for any football reasons. It was because their lass didn’t fancy uprooting to the NE. Nothing else. What next?

 

Shearer? Shearer-Keegan? Shearer-Dalglish? Shearer-Houllier? Not for me. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, it’s just far too much of a risk. He’s not run a bath let alone a football club of our size and budget. Shearer needs to get out there and get his hands dirty. Get his arse off the MoTD pundits’ chair and get down and dirty like Paul Ince, Tony Adams, Roy Keane and Mark Hughes before he thinks about taking over at NUFC. Shearer was often compared to Jackie Milburn for his playing exploits in a B&W shirt with some justification – well, sorry to say it, like but history demonstrates that Milburn couldn’t hack it as a coach as he discovered at Ipswich.

 

I have a completely open mind as to what the club does next but it will have to have a plan for where it wants to take the club. If asked for a preference it would be to appoint Mark Hughes. He’s managed at international level with Wales and did well without much of a resource. He has transformed Blackburn Rovers when he was appointed to clear up the mess left by Graeme Souness. The club is still basically reeling from Souness’ grotesque mismanagement and the Chairmanship of Shepherd. Both blame each other. Both are to blame. If any one in the tf bunker thought Souness’ shrill plea to “look at me” as a possible return to the club had any truth in it, then we’d be circling SJP in an armoured car, guns loaded, with snipers on a GS assassination bonus scheme all around Barrack Road. Please, in the name of Holy Mary and all the orphans, NO! In an idea world, Arsene Wenger would take a quick walk from the Emirates to Kings Cross and be up the road in a couple of hours. Its not going to happen is it? And neither is Jose – his teams play dull, cheating football anyway and he’s always the main attraction – great press conferences might tickle the hacks but we couldn’t give a fuck about that – it’s just the football for us, like!

 

Hughes is a young manager. He’s energetic and thorough. He’s tough and he spent his playing career around big clubs. He knows how to win. I’d like to see Hughes get the gig and hopefully he’d grow with the club. He demonstrated early in his Rovers management his teams had to learn to fight but now with that quality instilled they have been playing some decent football. He’s a quiet lad, hard, thoughtful and a bullshit free zone. There is talk his ambition is to get to Man Utd – well, him and just about any other manager worth his salt and it would be a nice position for us to be in if we were worried our club was so successful, the mob from Old Trafford wanted our manager wouldn’t it? Give the job to a man who has put his neck on the line, proven his worth and has a whole load of potential. Hughes, for me, but the “Toon Army” (sic) will have to realise it won’t be Brazil 70 from the off. We’re well off the pace and that remains to be the case whoever comes in.

 

Shearer though? He worries me. Clearly, NUFC is his club, in his bones but that’s no qualification. We all loved him for his playing career but we owe him nothing. I’ve picked up on a bit of resignation amongst some match going Mags of my acquaintance who speak his name in grim resignation and the sentiment of “might as well give him the fucking job, let him fail and get the monkey off our back”. It’s a feeling he has been casting an unwanted shadow across the club and has the potential to become a negative influence on whoever comes into NUFC. For me, its simple, if he wants to be a manager, finish his badges, fuck off to a club in the Championship or lower, do the business and at some point in the future, if he’s good enough, get back to Gallowgate and we’ll see what happens. Don’t be relying on the status of a regional icon to get the job because by that measure we might as well let the Angel of the North take first team training.

 

*

 

The media have been at it again. The whoppas with lap tops, who spent the last few months heaping loads of pressure on Allardyce and creating an intolerable environment for him are now in full on revisionist mode – it’s the Geordies who are to blame, high expectations and how can the club possibly succeed with the constant change in managers. The brass neck of some of them has to be seen to be believed! What many of them have failed to spot however is Ashley and Mort have yet to appoint a manager and Allardyce’s name can go to the bottom of a list of his failures. Its not just the press however. Alex Ferguson complained about the top class managers who have failed at NUFC because they weren’t given enough time. Sorry, who, like? Dalglish and Gullit are now completely out of the game after ballsing up in jobs after NUFC. Ferguson is a key member of the LMA, which actually objected to the appointment of Roeder because he didn’t the qualifications to do the job. Sir Bobby Robson is now in his mid-70s and it was more the manner and timing of his dismissal which was all wrong rather than the fact the end had come. Which leaves us with Souness and Allardyce. Souness has failed time and time again. He was a mad appointment and he was a disaster for NUFC. In every possible way. A useless, useless cunt who is in complete denial about his culpability at NUFC. If he is right about Shepherd buying the players and over ruling him, then he should have resigned. It was Souness who bought Amady Faye, Jean Alain Boumsong and Celestine Babayaro. All complete shite. Joke footballers and enough to keep him out of football (hopefully) for a long, long time to come. He fucked Liverpool and he fucked Newcastle United. Walter Smith did the real job at Rangers while he ponced about looking at his reflection doing that hard man act. You are kidding no-one cunt chops!

 

If Ferguson or the press wants to explain to me how Souness would have got anything right at the club, then I’ll show my big white spotty arse in Fenwick’s window. Did Allardyce get enough time? Of course he didn’t but with hindsight he was always on borrowed time when Shepherd was lashed up Barrack Road by the takeover.

 

We’re now hearing Ashley is going to take a more hands on role in running the club and his days of sitting in the away end are more or less at an end. The press will be over the moon because they hated him mixing with the “great unwashed” (New of the World) when they were shy of quotes from him. What this means is undecided but meeting prospective managers might be a good idea.

 

*

 

We’re off the fence – appoint Mark Hughes, give him money, give him time and we, the fretful nervous wrecks who apparently are to blame for us being shite after all, better just give him a chance. It will never happen.

 

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

[@yourservice 67]

Allardyce, talking about transfers last Wednesday, gave no indication he was ready to agree to any mutual consent stuff and the trigger that seem to be pulled on him was some kind of communication with third parties Redknapp was ready to come to NUFC. That information seems to have been duff and now we're stuck in a situation where the manager has gone and Plan A has gone up the spout. Clearly the people at the top of the club need to have a good look at how they have handled this situation because they have screwed up badly with the first major bit of club business they have had to undertake.

 

Spot on tbh, and a few on here say they have not put a foot wrong?

[Jimbo 175]

Nail on the head.

[Snake 0]

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

Which leaves us with Souness and Allardyce. Souness has failed time and time again. He was a mad appointment and he was a disaster for NUFC. In every possible way. A useless, useless cunt who is in complete denial about his culpability at NUFC. If he is right about Shepherd buying the players and over ruling him, then he should have resigned. It was Souness who bought Amady Faye, Jean Alain Boumsong and Celestine Babayaro. All complete shite. Joke footballers and enough to keep him out of football (hopefully) for a long, long time to come. He fucked Liverpool and he fucked Newcastle United. Walter Smith did the real job at Rangers while he ponced about looking at his reflection doing that hard man act. You are kidding no-one cunt chops!

 

 

 

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

[RlCO 0]

Agreed with it all, except I'm not so sure about Hughes. He has as much going for him as Allardyce did in my opinion. Had it been a straight choice between Hughes and Allardyce, I think it would have split opinions 50/50.

[Dr Gloom 21923]

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

Which leaves us with Souness and Allardyce. Souness has failed time and time again. He was a mad appointment and he was a disaster for NUFC. In every possible way. A useless, useless cunt who is in complete denial about his culpability at NUFC. If he is right about Shepherd buying the players and over ruling him, then he should have resigned. It was Souness who bought Amady Faye, Jean Alain Boumsong and Celestine Babayaro. All complete shite. Joke footballers and enough to keep him out of football (hopefully) for a long, long time to come. He fucked Liverpool and he fucked Newcastle United. Walter Smith did the real job at Rangers while he ponced about looking at his reflection doing that hard man act. You are kidding no-one cunt chops!

 

 

 

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

 

throw in a scottish fuckpig and it could be leazesmag.

[Happy Face 29]

Allardyce, talking about transfers last Wednesday, gave no indication he was ready to agree to any mutual consent stuff and the trigger that seem to be pulled on him was some kind of communication with third parties Redknapp was ready to come to NUFC. That information seems to have been duff and now we're stuck in a situation where the manager has gone and Plan A has gone up the spout. Clearly the people at the top of the club need to have a good look at how they have handled this situation because they have screwed up badly with the first major bit of club business they have had to undertake.

 

Spot on tbh, and a few on here say they have not put a foot wrong?

 

 

I've said they've got stuff wrong, but just because this is the first high profile bit of business they've done, doesn't mean it's the first major bit of business.

 

There were web pages dedicated to the financial mis-management of the place, so they should get credit for sorting that mess out within a matter of months. A major bit of business that puts the club on a vastly improved footing at the roots.

[Big TRon 0]

Allardyce, talking about transfers last Wednesday, gave no indication he was ready to agree to any mutual consent stuff and the trigger that seem to be pulled on him was some kind of communication with third parties Redknapp was ready to come to NUFC. That information seems to have been duff and now we're stuck in a situation where the manager has gone and Plan A has gone up the spout. Clearly the people at the top of the club need to have a good look at how they have handled this situation because they have screwed up badly with the first major bit of club business they have had to undertake.

 

Spot on tbh, and a few on here say they have not put a foot wrong?

 

 

I've said they've got stuff wrong, but just because this is the first high profile bit of business they've done, doesn't mean it's the first major bit of business.

 

There were web pages dedicated to the financial mis-management of the place, so they should get credit for sorting that mess out within a matter of months. A major bit of business that puts the club on a vastly improved footing at the roots.

 

Well said.

 

Thought that was a really good article as well, agreed with most of it, although I think it was right to sack Allardyce.

[@yourservice 67]

I agree on the debt front they have done wonders, who wouldn't? but they've jumped the gun on this one at a critical time of the season, unless they had someone ready with the pen on the line then they should have waited,now it's backfired big style if it goe's wrong in the next appointment then it will never go away.

[Chaser 1207]

Very good article, well written if not a bit childish in places, however the sentiment is definitely there. Souness has talked about some of things being down to Shepherd however fails to account for his other poor, rather suspect transfer dealings and was responsible for dismantling and undoing all the good work that was made by Robson.

 

I am still one of those who is disappointed that it hasnt worked out for Allardyce as I thought that his attention to detail would have worked long term for the club, however, the alarm bells were ringing once he lost confidence in his players. At the same time, they had also lost all confidence in him and it was showing on the pitch. With him gone, it appears that the regime which is in place in management at the moment is no better and part of that problem.

[Craig 6682]

As ever, an 'said as it is' article from True Faith and absolutely 100% spot on...

 

Don't think I've ever disagreed with articles they write. They seem to get all of the fans frustrations collectively and concisely covered.

[Guest Patrokles]

Another post-punk Manchester band headline. FFS.

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3894]

As ever, an 'said as it is' article from True Faith and absolutely 100% spot on...

 

Don't think I've ever disagreed with articles they write. They seem to get all of the fans frustrations collectively and concisely covered.

 

Did you read it? He thinks Barton is just misguided and cant blame Smith. he also does not think that Allardyce was that bad and got no money and had to generate his own. Solano and Dyer requested to leave and everyone wanted rid of Parker. Allardyce is 100% responsible for picking the team. As for motivation I would be demotivated if I saw Smith the cock get picked for every gme no matter how shite he plays and then getting made captain. There is so much wrong with that article.

[LeazesMag 0]

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

Which leaves us with Souness and Allardyce. Souness has failed time and time again. He was a mad appointment and he was a disaster for NUFC. In every possible way. A useless, useless cunt who is in complete denial about his culpability at NUFC. If he is right about Shepherd buying the players and over ruling him, then he should have resigned. It was Souness who bought Amady Faye, Jean Alain Boumsong and Celestine Babayaro. All complete shite. Joke footballers and enough to keep him out of football (hopefully) for a long, long time to come. He fucked Liverpool and he fucked Newcastle United. Walter Smith did the real job at Rangers while he ponced about looking at his reflection doing that hard man act. You are kidding no-one cunt chops!

 

 

 

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

 

throw in a scottish fuckpig and it could be leazesmag.

 

its not me. I don't often agree with these sort of articles on TF, but I do agree entirely with all of that paragraph. I have said the bold bit myself in the past.

 

What I still find slightly ironic is all those people who said that Shepherd was the only chairman who made shit decisions [despite the proof showing otherwise] who don't seem to be able to bring themselves to admit it yet ....... nor admit the fact they did rather better than most, proven by the clubs results and european qualifications. Maybe they just like moaning.

 

Ho hum.

 

Interesting times indeed.

 

Keegan rules.

Edited January 15, 2008 by LeazesMag

[Ken 119]

Excellent piece tbh. My sentiments exactly.

 

Not trying to be a pedant here, but he could have gone on about the fact FS liked playing DoF as well. Bringing in Luque and Owen.

Could also have mentioned Allardyce signing up Geremi when in fact Jose Mourinho told Bobby Robson that he had lost his legs and played like a 40 year old and that he would never play for Chelsea in important games under him again. Bobby told someone inside the club not to bring him in to Newcastle, but Allardyce did...and made him captain also.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this yesterday...but in a cynical way.

[Bombadil 0]

Excellent piece tbh. My sentiments exactly.

 

Not trying to be a pedant here, but he could have gone on about the fact FS liked playing DoF as well. Bringing in Luque and Owen.

Could also have mentioned Allardyce signing up Geremi when in fact Jose Mourinho told Bobby Robson that he had lost his legs and played like a 40 year old and that he would never play for Chelsea in important games under him again. Bobby told someone inside the club not to bring him in to Newcastle, but Allardyce did...and made him captain also.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this yesterday...but in a cynical way.

 

Where's that from?

[Ken 119]

Excellent piece tbh. My sentiments exactly.

 

Not trying to be a pedant here, but he could have gone on about the fact FS liked playing DoF as well. Bringing in Luque and Owen.

Could also have mentioned Allardyce signing up Geremi when in fact Jose Mourinho told Bobby Robson that he had lost his legs and played like a 40 year old and that he would never play for Chelsea in important games under him again. Bobby told someone inside the club not to bring him in to Newcastle, but Allardyce did...and made him captain also.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this yesterday...but in a cynical way.

 

Where's that from?

 

Shields Gazette.

Miles Starforth

 

SIR Bobby Robson says he tried to warn Newcastle United off signing Geremi.

Robson claims Jose Mourinho - then manager of Geremi's club Chelsea - told him the 29-year-old Cameroon international's best days were behind him last summer.

 

He says he informed his old club - only for Sam Allardyce to sign Geremi AND make him captain.

 

But after a disappointing start to his Newcastle career, Allardyce stripped Geremi of the captaincy last month and handed the armband to Alan Smith.

 

Sir Bobby, writing in his Mail on Sunday column, said: "Jose Mourinho told me last season that Geremi's legs had effectively gone.

 

"'Mister, he plays like a 40-year-old. He can not run any more. He will not play for me in important matches again,' was Jose's typically forthright response.

 

"Naturally, I was alarmed to read that Newcastle wanted to sign Geremi.

 

"I passed on my information to someone at the club (before Mike Ashley took over), but Geremi still ended up signing. In fact, Sam made him captain."

[Bombadil 0]

[khay 10]

To be fair to Sam I'm sure he thought he could get him fit again. Not sure about making him captain though.

[LeazesMag 0]

Excellent piece tbh. My sentiments exactly.

 

Not trying to be a pedant here, but he could have gone on about the fact FS liked playing DoF as well. Bringing in Luque and Owen.

Could also have mentioned Allardyce signing up Geremi when in fact Jose Mourinho told Bobby Robson that he had lost his legs and played like a 40 year old and that he would never play for Chelsea in important games under him again. Bobby told someone inside the club not to bring him in to Newcastle, but Allardyce did ...and made him captain also.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this yesterday...but in a cynical way.

 

You advocate allowing an ex manager to select transfer targets ahead of your current manager do you ?

 

Or who are you blaming for this exactly ? What a load of cack. Scraping the barrel or what.

[Ken 119]

Excellent piece tbh. My sentiments exactly.

 

Not trying to be a pedant here, but he could have gone on about the fact FS liked playing DoF as well. Bringing in Luque and Owen.

Could also have mentioned Allardyce signing up Geremi when in fact Jose Mourinho told Bobby Robson that he had lost his legs and played like a 40 year old and that he would never play for Chelsea in important games under him again. Bobby told someone inside the club not to bring him in to Newcastle, but Allardyce did ...and made him captain also.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this yesterday...but in a cynical way.

 

You advocate allowing an ex manager to select transfer targets ahead of your current manager do you ?

Not at all mate. The manager in charge should have first and last right of refusal by all means.

 

But if you had a horse stable and were alerted to an awesome young thoroughbred with the parenting of former champions but a stablemate of it tells you his hind legs are fucked and won't mature properly, do you go out and buy it regardless and take a punt?

You'd obviously have reservations about it and I personally would not buy it.

 

Jose Mourinho saw Geremi in training for years and knew that he'd never replicate what he did earlier in his career. Sam Allardyce may have received the information...or maybe he didn't, but he took a punt in an attempt to revitalise what was a reserves career with his sports science approach and because he was on the cheap with great experience. So far that punt has not worked out though as he looks like he plays in slow motion. You win some and you lose some in the transfer market.

Edited January 16, 2008 by Ken