The Fantastic Four

[Christmas Tree 4858]

More and more we are hearing about the legendary dressing room meeting where these four players "took control" and conducted the infamous "your either with us or against us" speech.

 

At the time we had just been thrashed and were managerless.

 

I also get the feeling they held talks with Mike Ashley and were instrumental in getting Hughton appointed and thus creating the much needed stability for this season.

 

Had they not took control, we may have done a boro, a Leeds, who knows!!

 

Point is, in these days of greedy, couldn't give a shit footballers, these four might have just saved our club and should possibly get the keys to the city. (only harper would drop them).

 

Seriously, a debt of gratitude is owed by us all to the Fantastic Four.

[ewerk 31237]

 

I think your cover is now officially blown.

[Monkeys Fist 43224]

 

I think your cover is now officially blown.

Aye. Any more naked streaks across the pitch booked in Derek?

[2bias 3]

This thread is a joke right.....

[Christmas Tree 4858]

You ungrateful fuckers!!!!!! Seriously

 

All the talk of greedy footballers not giving a fuck and here's four lads who it seems took control and stabalised the ship.

 

 

I couldn't be anymore serious! Perhaps one of you could express a counter point of view?

 

And it's fuck all to do with Ashley or Llambias.... If anything it sounds more like they laid out there demands and got them!!

 

Jeez some people!

[Isegrim 9910]

Is it April 1st again?

[JaMoUsE 0]

just so happens theyre the 4 highest paid players that nobody else would probably give the same wages too and they had the greatest incentive to make things work at newcastle

[Monkeys Fist 43224]

You ungrateful fuckers!!!!!! Seriously

 

All the talk of greedy footballers not giving a fuck and here's four lads who it seems took control and stabalised the ship.

 

 

I couldn't be anymore serious! Perhaps one of you could express a counter point of view?

 

And it's fuck all to do with Ashley or Llambias.... If anything it sounds more like they laid out there demands and got them!!

 

Jeez some people!

Ungrateful?

Unreasonable,shirley Derek?

[OTF 7579]

You could make a case for Harper based on loyalty, on Smith based on tenacity in the first half of the season and on Nolan based on his important goals, but with Butt you've got nothing. At a pinch you could say his best contribution was filling the bench because it meant he wasn't on the pitch.

 

This thread has the strench of a wum.

[Rob W 0]

Butt???? For Gods sake -

 

Smith - works hard and int eh first half of the season his "take no prisoners" style certainly made a difference but he's well past his sell by date

 

Harper is probably player of the season for me - we sold the best keeper in England and really haven't noticed the change

[Christmas Tree 4858]

You could make a case for Harper based on loyalty, on Smith based on tenacity in the first half of the season and on Nolan based on his important goals, but with Butt you've got nothing. At a pinch you could say his best contribution was filling the bench because it meant he wasn't on the pitch.

 

This thread has the strench of a wum.

 

you misunderstand, I'm not talking about their football credentials I'm talking about the leadership they showed at the famous 6-1 meeting when the four got together and decided to manage the dressing room.

 

It also sounds as if their comittee went to see Ashley and demanded Hughton be paid permanent manager.

 

It shows they cared about the situation and wanted to do something about it. Hence the fantastic team spirit that has been there ever since.

 

It would have been quite easy for them to sit back, collect their wages and not give a fuck.

 

This I believe will be THE story of our season and only now are details starting to drift into the media.

 

Band of Brothers save the Toon.

[Monkeys Fist 43224]

Wum wummity wum

wum wum.

Happy Easter

[Guest alex]

Any gardening advice now it's spring, Wolfgang?

[OTF 7579]

I hope you come to realise how naive and gullible you're being. If Butt had any real concern for the clubs welfare he would have paid back his wages from last season and pissed off this season. Smith should be on wages at most 1/3 of what he is currently getting.

[TheMoog 0]

CT man, your threads are getting worse by the day

[Guest alex]

CT man, your threads are getting worse by the day

He's like a pre-makeover Barry Venison.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

Wum wummity wum

wum wum.

Happy Easter

 

once again no counter argument

 

It looks like your taking the Alex guide to increasing post count without ever saying anything.

 

I thought you had so much more!!!!!

 

Come on, just this once, explain what's wummery about a thread on one of the most written about stories of the weekend!

 

Dare ya

[Christmas Tree 4858]

CT man, your threads are getting worse by the day

 

 

Well drag yourself out of that armchair and create some threads

[Christmas Tree 4858]

I hope you come to realise how naive and gullible you're being. If Butt had any real concern for the clubs welfare he would have paid back his wages from last season and pissed off this season. Smith should be on wages at most 1/3 of what he is currently getting.

 

 

 

Your totally missing the point tbh

[Asprilla 96]

He's got a point tbf.

 

He's clearly not saying they've been our best players and they also could have collected their wages whatever so that argument's moot.

 

 

They took responsibility where nobody else had done and there's no doubt it's had a positive effect on our club.

 

 

Those who are against, out of interest, who DO you credit for our superiority this year? ....and before someone says the Championship is full of shit teams, how come we didn't manage to brush them aside whenever we'd get them in a cup? We were shitting ourselves when we got relegated. Something clearly changed and part of that HAS to be the team spirit which I think is CT's point.

[OTF 7579]

Team spirit is piss easy when you're more or less playing vastly inferior teams each week and as a result you're winning most of your matches.

 

The leadership of same players next season (minus Butt who surely won't be here) will disappear in a flash if the going gets tough. If they had that within the team last season then the team would not have been relegated.

 

I can appreciate any positive effect that they may have had at various times throughout the season, but on the whole this thread is a joke. Butt and Smith had nought choice but to stay and play if thy wanted to collect their inflated wages. If they're going to have to be here anyway it's in their best interests to have an enjoyable atmosphere at the club. To think that they were Doug it for anything more than their own damaged sense of pride is naive.

[Guest alex]

It's perfectly acceptable to counter any suggestion Butt has been great in the dressing room or whatever with the argument he's been fucking terrible on the pitch, given that's what he's actually paid to do.

[OTF 7579]

It's perfectly acceptable to counter any suggestion Butt has been great in the dressing room or whatever with the argument he's been fucking terrible on the pitch, given that's what he's actually paid to do.

 

Amen.

[Asprilla 96]

Missing the point by a mile but never mind.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

For those who haven't read some of these stories, here is a clip from the Telegraph.

 

I was not only surprised it was quite this way, but a little surprised that it's coming out. One may feel this undermine what Hughtons achieved a bit ( I don't).

 

So without this committee in place, things may have been a lot worse.

 

 

 

 

 

Hughton's ego-free modus operandi has empowered his charges through a committee, including the former Bolton player, as well as Nicky Butt, Steve Harper and Alan Smith.

"We've had a committee and if Chris has got something he wants to share with the lads he'll come to the four most experienced players," Nolan, 27, added.

"It works having a third party. I'm here for them to have a little moan or whatever or I'd take their problem to Colin [Calderwood] or Chris.

"We have a management that is so happy with the system. They allow us to manage the dressing room but if Chris comes in and says 'no that's not right, this is what we do', then that's it. It's finished, no matter what we say. When Chris wants something he gets it.

"He is a great manager, a great fella. Make no mistake, they manage, we just play."