another road to nowhere season.....

[afternoonfix 0]

normally i'm upbeat , optimistic in relation to the toon , but i just cannot see anything really for

this season , we'll have a win some lose some premeirship, a lousy run in the carling cup and perhaps a

run in the fa that'll get us going but break our hearts in the end , uefa ...will just maybe

[Guest Patrokles]

Although I don't really expect us to win anything this season, I'm not necessarily approaching it with a feeling of dread. All I want to see is some signs of improvement, mainly in our style of football, from the previous incumbent, and reasons to be cheerful for the future. If we can sort the defence out in January, and buy the striker to play alongside Martins that we're looking for, then I expect us to start to cohere in good enough time for a solid end to the season and hopefully the prospect of kicking on from there.

 

The main reason people will be disappointed this season- if they are- will be unrealistic expectations. Usually this is coupled with pessimism, which is an odd and unfulfilling combination.

[rikko 20]

If we can finish about 7th again this season and improve the squad i'll be happy for the season, set our selves up to make a good push for next season.

[GafferTape 0]

Missed out a trick by not going for the "Another Roed to nowhere season" headline tbh.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

I have to say, the standard of football is still a million times better than the shit Souness was serving up. I have two main footballing worries;

 

1) Lack of depth in the squad.

2) Lack of goals.

[afternoonfix 0]

Missed out a trick by not going for the "Another Roed to nowhere season" headline tbh.

 

 

nice one ... aye we should start at the back next time round , everytime we are facing a counter attack

its like no... fingers crossed ..miss it etc.. cos we are so dodgy [as usual] in that dept....

Edited September 26, 2006 by afternoonfix

[nufc4ever 0]

If we improve and show promise i'll be happy. If we're as inconsistant all season as we've started it, then it won't be much fun.

 

I reckon we'll finish somewhere around 7th again.

[The Mighty Hog 508]

Missed out a trick by not going for the "Another Roed to nowhere season" headline tbh.

 

 

nice one ... aye we should start at the back next time round , everytime we are facing a counter attack

its like no... fingers crossed ..miss it etc.. cos we are so dodgy [as usual] in that dept....

 

 

We'll have to. With Bramble and Moore out of contract next summer (Moore saying he wants to go back to Oz) The only defenders with first team experience we'll have are Taylor, Ramage, Carr, Babayaro, Bernard and whoever (if anyone) comes in in January.

Edited September 26, 2006 by The Mighty Hog

[Craig 6682]

I have to say, the standard of football is still a million times better than the shit Souness was serving up. I have two main footballing worries;

 

1) Lack of depth in the squad.

2) Lack of goals.

 

Shouldn't worry about that one too much Davey-boy, with the state of our defence, I'm pretty certain you'll see plenty of Shay or Steve picking the ball out of the net!

[Asprilla 96]

 

 

 

The main reason people will be disappointed this season- if they are- will be unrealistic expectations. Usually this is coupled with pessimism, which is an odd and unfulfilling combination.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

I have to say, the standard of football is still a million times better than the shit Souness was serving up. I have two main footballing worries;

 

1) Lack of depth in the squad.

2) Lack of goals.

 

Shouldn't worry about that one too much Davey-boy, with the state of our defence, I'm pretty certain you'll see plenty of Shay or Steve picking the ball out of the net!

 

I asked for that one. OK you pedantic twat, I'd like to see more goals at the oppositions end.

[Gemmill 44495]

The main reason people will be disappointed this season- if they are- will be unrealistic expectations. Usually this is coupled with pessimism, which is an odd and unfulfilling combination.

 

I'm already massively disappointed and it has nothing to do with unrealistic expectations. Unless it was unrealistic for me to expect the club to actually buy some players in the areas that we needed them during the 3 month transfer window.

 

I'm also disappointed in the fact that we have 3 members of coaching staff at the club, two of which are Lee Clark and Terry McDermott. Again, I don't think it was unrealistic of me to expect us to establish a proper coaching set up during the summer.

 

As a result of the above, my expectations for the season have been lowered dramatically, but I still reserve the right to be disappointed when we lose games that we should be winning where this is directly attributable to a failure to act during the summer.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

You just get the feeling, every season, that this club has the potential to be up there, but it's a potential that the board never capitalise on.

[Gemmill 44495]

The way I look at it, I feel like other clubs see the season ahead coming and strive to put things in place so that they're prepared for a 38 game Premiership campaign, and whatever else may come in the form of cup runs etc. They plan meticulously, and the manager and the Chairman work hard during the summer to make sure that, as far as possible, they have all the bases covered and in the absence of things going very wrong they've given themselves as good a chance as they can of having a good season.

 

At Newcastle, on the other hand, I think Shepherd views the close season as 3 months where he can take it easy. I think he sees his job as a bit like a school teacher's, with a nice long summer holiday where he comes in for the last week or so to do his transfer business before the season starts.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

I still truly believe that the club is run day to day rather than with a long term vision, and my suspicions are raised every summer.

[GafferTape 0]

I still truly believe that the club is run day to day rather than with a long term vision, and my suspicions are raised every summer.

 

That's possibly the most OBVIOUS THING ABOUT ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. EVER.

[David Kelly 1224]

I have to say I don't think my expectations for the season were unrealistic.

We finished 7th last year and got into European competition.

Above us last year were Spurs and Blackburn.

My expectations were to move improve on the awfull football played under Souness, to start running the club like other big clubs do (i.e. with a plan and with a propper coaching set up), and to finish at least one place higher than last term getting into the wafa cup proper and making some headway on the gap between us and the top four team (I did not expect this gap to be closed and I never go into a season expecting to win anything).

For a club with our resources I do not see why this should be anything other than a sensible outlook for us.

 

But as Gemmil and SLP have already pointed out our club is basically run on a day to day basis and nothing is planned for (if it were we would have had a striker in place before we played in the intertwobob and Shola would have been able to have an opperation they were talking about last summer) and as such we now find ourselves in a position where our squad is woefully short in numbers and ability at the back and up front we having to play a bloke who can't train alongside one who's having to adapt to moving from a different country having had no pre season with us with only player Citeh felt they didn't need and kid who can't play in Europe for cover.

Add to that the fact that we have only one proper coach at the club (ie our manager).

 

So far I see a team that is only marginally better than it was when Souness was in charge of it and probably worse than the one that finished the season (in terms of play if not personel). We have no pattern to our play, no idea how to defend and as far as I can see no idea who our strongest eleven are.

 

We have some good players in midfield and I suspect we have a couple of strikers who can score a few goals for us (if they can stay fit) so doubt we will struggle in terms of relegation but I can no longer go into any game (home or away) confident of a good performance and a strong win and I feel that we are now firmly stuck within the masses of the premiership also rans such as Citeh, Boro, Fulham ect and can see us very shortly having to bridge a gap to teams like Spurs, Everton and Blackburn who appear to have less resources but are at least forward thinking in their attempts to utilise them.

[Craig 6682]

I have to say, the standard of football is still a million times better than the shit Souness was serving up. I have two main footballing worries;

 

1) Lack of depth in the squad.

2) Lack of goals.

 

Shouldn't worry about that one too much Davey-boy, with the state of our defence, I'm pretty certain you'll see plenty of Shay or Steve picking the ball out of the net!

 

I asked for that one. OK you pedantic twat, I'd like to see more goals at the oppositions end.

 

 

You'll be wanting blood out of a stone next! Jesus wept!

[Guest Patrokles]

People talk about West Ham, Spurs, Boro, etc. having overtaken us due to their summer planning and wise purchases, spending, getting players in early... but- look at the league table.

[Renton 21393]

People talk about West Ham, Spurs, Boro, etc. having overtaken us due to their summer planning and wise purchases, spending, getting players in early... but- look at the league table.

 

Well, we've got 7 points from 6 games, and will almost certainly have 7 points from 7 games after the weekend. I got that from the league table. And this despite us supposedly having an easy start.

 

I've said it before countless times to the extent it's boring me stupid, but we will never achieve anything with Roeder as our manager, the thought of him being our manager even 3 years ago would have seemed like la la land.

 

Now I am often accused as being pessimistic by people like you, but unfortunately I hve been proven right about the state of our club time and time again. I think we are a few injuries from a full scale crisis, and talk of a top half finish are pretty unrealistic. I'm not trying to be negative, and I don't have unrealistic expectations, in fact now I don't have any expectations at all, I'm just saying it as I see it.

 

By the way, can I just add that your optimism is very misplaced imo and bordering on extreme naivity. For instance, your faith in your first post of this thread that we can "sort" our defence out in January, something that we have failed to do for 10 years with the added complication we have no money it seems. Plus the fact that it is always much harder to negotiate transfers during the season, and Roeder has so far showed himself to be incapable of it in the close season.

[Guest Patrokles]

People talk about West Ham, Spurs, Boro, etc. having overtaken us due to their summer planning and wise purchases, spending, getting players in early... but- look at the league table.

 

Well, we've got 7 points from 6 games, and will almost certainly have 7 points from 7 games after the weekend. I got that from the league table. And this despite us supposedly having an easy start.

 

I've said it before countless times to the extent it's boring me stupid, but we will never achieve anything with Roeder as our manager, the thought of him being our manager even 3 years ago would have seemed like la la land.

 

Now I am often accused as being pessimistic by people like you, but unfortunately I hve been proven right about the state of our club time and time again. I think we are a few injuries from a full scale crisis, and talk of a top half finish are pretty unrealistic. I'm not trying to be negative, and I don't have unrealistic expectations, in fact now I don't have any expectations at all, I'm just saying it as I see it.

 

By the way, can I just add that your optimism is very misplaced imo and bordering on extreme naivity. For instance, your faith in your first post of this thread that we can "sort" our defence out in January, something that we have failed to do for 10 years with the added complication we have no money it seems. Plus the fact that it is always much harder to negotiate transfers during the season, and Roeder has so far showed himself to be incapable of it in the close season.

 

To be honest, being tarred with the optimist brush is wearing somewhat thin. If you'd like to go back and properly read my first post in this thread, you'll notice a conditional in front of the part about the defence. There's a world of difference between OMFG WELL SORT DA DEF IN JAN LOL OMG!!! and 'IF we can sort out the defence...'

 

What you obviously didn't get from the league table is that the clubs everyone admired so much at the close of the window have had worse starts than us, which just goes to show.

[Dr Gloom 21847]

i'll be happy if we stay up tbh

 

if anything, the squad is worse now than it was last season. duff and martins could turn out to be good buys but they have been bought at the expense of building a squad.

 

like renton said, a couple of injuries in the wrong areas and we're going to struggle big time. we've already shown that we struggle against average sides this season.

 

i hate to be pessimistic but we fucked up our dealings in the transfer window to such an extent that i'll be happy as long as we stay up. a cup run could be a distraction we don't need.

[Renton 21393]

People talk about West Ham, Spurs, Boro, etc. having overtaken us due to their summer planning and wise purchases, spending, getting players in early... but- look at the league table.

 

Well, we've got 7 points from 6 games, and will almost certainly have 7 points from 7 games after the weekend. I got that from the league table. And this despite us supposedly having an easy start.

 

I've said it before countless times to the extent it's boring me stupid, but we will never achieve anything with Roeder as our manager, the thought of him being our manager even 3 years ago would have seemed like la la land.

 

Now I am often accused as being pessimistic by people like you, but unfortunately I hve been proven right about the state of our club time and time again. I think we are a few injuries from a full scale crisis, and talk of a top half finish are pretty unrealistic. I'm not trying to be negative, and I don't have unrealistic expectations, in fact now I don't have any expectations at all, I'm just saying it as I see it.

 

By the way, can I just add that your optimism is very misplaced imo and bordering on extreme naivity. For instance, your faith in your first post of this thread that we can "sort" our defence out in January, something that we have failed to do for 10 years with the added complication we have no money it seems. Plus the fact that it is always much harder to negotiate transfers during the season, and Roeder has so far showed himself to be incapable of it in the close season.

 

To be honest, being tarred with the optimist brush is wearing somewhat thin. If you'd like to go back and properly read my first post in this thread, you'll notice a conditional in front of the part about the defence. There's a world of difference between OMFG WELL SORT DA DEF IN JAN LOL OMG!!! and 'IF we can sort out the defence...'

 

What you obviously didn't get from the league table is that the clubs everyone admired so much at the close of the window have had worse starts than us, which just goes to show.

 

 

Why mention it if you don't consider it as a possibility? I don't think it's remotely a possibility. What are these defenders and strikers you have in mind?

 

What you fail to get from the table is teams like Fulham above us. There's a good chance they will be our competitors in the months that come rather than West Ham and Spurs - who have the managers and players to turn themselves around, unlike us.

[Asprilla 96]

 

Now I am often accused as being pessimistic by people like you, but unfortunately I hve been proven right about the state of our club time and time again.

 

Oh Soothsayer

 

So you don't think Roeder did well getting us into Europe eh?

 

I bet you didn't forsee that did you? He HAD to be given a chance, otherwise his spectre would loom over the next manager...

 

I am far more worried about Shepherd's meddling than Roeder's perceived incompetence.

 

[Renton 21393]

 

Now I am often accused as being pessimistic by people like you, but unfortunately I hve been proven right about the state of our club time and time again.

 

Oh Soothsayer

 

So you don't think Roeder did well getting us into Europe eh?

 

I bet you didn't forsee that did you? He HAD to be given a chance, otherwise his spectre would loom over the next manager...

 

I am far more worried about Shepherd's meddling than Roeder's perceived incompetence.

 

 

 

I was suggesting we got Roeder in as caretaker after the Wigan disaster last year. As CARETAKER though, where I expected him to excel, not as a pemanent manager, which is an entirely different matter.

 

Why on Earth does he have to be given a chance based on a dozen or so matches? When employing someone, should you not take into account his full CV, which is pretty atrocious, to be fair? Imo we should have moved heaven and earth to get a proven manager in, because without a good manager, there is no prospect of success. There's no room for sentimentality here ffs - Roeder was the cheap and easy option, and it's going to cost us - it already has.

 

I don't claim to be an oracle, I am just stating what I regard as common sense. If I am wrong, then good. But we'll see though.