Leazes?

[luckypierre 0]

Only believes rumours that support his arguments.

 

The best example being the one where Souness throttled Bellamy at the training ground. Leazes believes that as if he saw it with his own eyes.

 

but his opinions are based on facts.... therefore thats not a rumour

Edited November 6, 2006 by luckypierre

[Gemmill 44254]

Only believes rumours that support his arguments.

 

The best example being the one where Souness throttled Bellamy at the training ground. Leazes believes that as if he saw it with his own eyes.

 

but his opinions are based on facts.... therefore thats not a rumour

 

I like Leazes comment today: "If you base your opinions on facts, you can never be wrong."

[Shearergol 0]

Didn't Leazes say that Martins was a good signing? And Duff?

 

Always right though.

[Fop 1]

Didn't Leazes say that Martins was a good signing? And Duff?

 

Always right though.

 

If fairness both still might be, IF they are played in the right position, aren't injured and the rest of the team is setup to favour their style of play.

 

On the other hand both still may well prove to be hugely expensive wastes of space as well.

[Gemmill 44254]

I can't believe how bad Duff has been. Shambles.

[Renton 21225]

I can't believe how bad Duff has been. Shambles.

 

Was he playing on Saturday?

[Gemmill 44254]

I can't believe how bad Duff has been. Shambles.

 

Was he playing on Saturday?

 

That's the worst I've seen him tbh.

[Guest alex]

I can't believe how bad Duff has been. Shambles.

 

Was he playing on Saturday?

No, he was in the team though. In fairness, he's played wide all his life and Roeder now has him playing through the middle.

[Shearergol 0]

I can't believe how bad Duff has been. Shambles.

 

Was he playing on Saturday?

No, he was in the team though. In fairness, he's played wide all his life and Roeder now has him playing through the middle.

 

Plenty of people on here told us he can play up front though, when a few of us questioned the signing.

[nufc4ever 0]

Leazes said we needed Duff, as he can play up front. He's always right.

[Optimistic Nut 104]

Only believes rumours that support his arguments.

 

The best example being the one where Souness throttled Bellamy at the training ground. Leazes believes that as if he saw it with his own eyes.

 

 

"Och, ye wee...."

[Baggio 0]

I posted these few bits from Sir Bobby's book to find out his opinion on them...

 

Bolton did manage to poach Gary Speed from us, however, and therein lies another tale of how disjointed the manager-chairman relationship had become. On our tour to the Far East, John Carver suddenly informed me, 'We've had an offer for Gary Speed from Bolton.' I knew nothing about it, so I went in search of the chairman for clarification. On no account did I want Gary Speed to leave. First I caught up with the player himself.

'Gary, what's all this about you wanting to go to Bolton Wanderers? I know nothing about it. The chairman hasn't mentioned it to me. When John Carver told me an hour ago I was aghast. What do you want to go to Bolton for?'

'The club are going to let me go,' Gary said. 'If you don't know anything about it, you'd better see the chairman.'

'As far as I'm concerned, you're not going to Bolton Wanderers,' I told him 'You're staying here'

That Saturday night, the day of our game, I tried the chairman's room, reception, the restaurant and the bar. Eventually, I was told he was out. I was so angry I sat in the foyer, waiting, for half an hour. Finally, the chairman's figure appeared in the doorway and I confronted him there and then. Under cross examination he denied all knowledge of Gary's impending move. It was heading into the realms of farce. The next step, naturally, was to go back to Gary. I spoke to him on our flight from Hong Kong.

'The chairman says he knows nothing about this Bolton thing,' I said and left it there. We arrived back in Newcastle on the Monday morning and, early that afternoon, the chairman called me. 'Gary Speed's in here with me, he wants to see you. He wants to say goodbye,' he said.

'What?' I exclaimed.

The deal had been completed that morning. Fifty years in the game have taught me that you cannot construct a transfer in four hours. The idea that a player of Gary Speed's calibre can be sold in four hours is absurd and yet I was being told throughout the weekend that the club knew nothing of Bolton's interest in one of our most valued players.

'Gary, this is not my doing,' I told him. 'I want to keep you.' Having let Hugo Viana go back to Portugal, to play more football, we had lost two left footed midfielders. I needed to plug that hole and so, when my indignation had subsided, I gave the chairman four names - Nicky Butt, Michael Carrick, Mark Van Bommel and Sean Davis.

'Why don't you bring Carrick in, he's talented, and he's a Geordie,' I suggested but the chairman was reluctant to pay West Ham £3 million for Carrick's services. His view was that he could acquire him for £500,000 in the January transfer window. Freddy Shepherd honestly believed that Carrick would not move to any Premier league club but Newcastle. He was in the last year of his contract at Upton Park - hence Freddy's belief that West Ham would have to unload him for a reduced fee in January.

I told him 'Look, chairman, if another club comes in and pays West Ham the money they're looking for, they will not turn that money down.' Michael Carrick signed for Tottenham Hotspur that summer.

 

Also...

 

The sands were shifting beneath my feet. Towards the end of that season, Charlie Woods came into my office.

'Bobby, you won't believe this, but David Pleat has been on and wants to know whats up with Lee Bowyer,' he said. David was the director of football at Spurs.

'David Pleat's been on the phone asking what?' I replied, incredulously.

Charlie ploughed on with the story. 'David was asking whether Lee is injured or something. He said. "The reason I'm asking is that he's been offered to me."

'The kid's worth £4 million,' I erupted. 'Who's offered him to Spurs?'

Charlie had the answer - 'The chairman'

Freddie Shepherd had apparently rung David Giess, Bowyer's agent, saying 'Get him out of this club. I want him out. I'm not paying his salary,' and so on and so on. He hadn't come to me for my opinion or asked, 'Are you happy with Bowyer?' I realised Bowyer wasn't playing very well and so did the chairman, but his response was to take the law into his own hands.

 

His reply?

 

Bobby was losing his marbles

[Renton 21225]

NE5 is on N-O accusing True Faith of doing a "cut and paste" job for their latest article.

 

As he later says in the same post, you couldn't make it up.

[LeazesMag 0]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

[Guest alex]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

Should have gone in the summer or stuck with him another season I reckon. Thought that at the time too, especially when Souness got the nod. So, disastrous timing down to, if you like, a lack of "planning".

Edited November 7, 2006 by alex

[LeazesMag 0]

I don't think it is obvious at all that the board is picking players to buy. I don't believe rumours in Newcastle. There has been millions of rumours over the years. I remember when we were going to buy Socrates, and I remember when it was rumoured we were going to buy a whole host of players, none of which had any foundation. The comment that a board who backs their managers is vastly preferable to one that doesn't, stands. I don't understand why you think otherwise. And I will also say, I hope people who don't understand this, don't find out the hard way, because if we do then it will mean that we will all suffer.

Sorry Leaze but it can't be denied, Freddy is doing as he chooses when it comes to players.

Those various passages that were in SBR's updated book, I don't have them but I don't doubt you have read it with your passion for the club, where he talks of not knowing about Woodgate's sale and the Bowyer being offered up to any club behind his back are proof.

 

You might be right (I don't buy into this argument that you can't be wrong) we may end up with a worse chairman but if you look at the recent atrocious chairman for other clubs, clubs that have all suffered relegation or have been on the brink of relegation/bankruptcy, they have all been someone who meddles in team affairs and are constantly in the press.

Sound like someone we know?

 

why didn't he say these things he says in his book when he was at the club ? Why not ? Maybe it would have cost him his job, but he's a Newcastle supporter, rich, doesn't need the job, and would be putting the club first ? Would you not ? I bloody would.

 

He should know that leaving it until later will be interpreted as being bitter - I'm not saying that is true, it might be, but I am saying that he SHOULD have said it earlier. He could have also quit on a matter of principle, like Keegan did - both at the time of the flotation and after the Swindon game under SJH, and other managers did, like Cox and Lee. If they can do it, why not Robson ?

[LeazesMag 0]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

Should have gone in the summer or stuck with him another season I reckon. Thought that at the time too, especially when Souness got the nod. So, disastrous timing down to, if you like, a lack of "planning".

 

no it isn't, its hindsight.

[Guest alex]

TBH

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Going round in circlestastic!

[LeazesMag 0]

Didn't Leazes say that Martins was a good signing? And Duff?

 

Always right though.

 

martins ? Def not, I am one of the first to say he might be another expensive waste. Duff has proved he is a good premiership player. I am interested as to why you are blaming the board for those 2 though, again.

Not to mention the fact that everyone was happy enough when we bought Duff. Hindsight rules supreme it would appear. If only everybody including club directors had hindsight like you

[Guest alex]

I blame Roeder mesel. I blame Shepherd for Roeder though. You backed Roeder's appointment too iirc Leazes. Anyway, I'm gutted at the state the club is in and I know you are too. I reckon you secretly blame Shepherd for a lot of the current predicament too but won't admit it.

Edit: And people were happy when we bought Duff because (seen as it was a while before the transfer window closed) people assumed we would also get some of the players we badly needed too, i.e. a centre-half, a target man etc. The only thing people like that were guilty of having faith that Roeder and Shepherd weren't going to be stupid enough to spunk away money at the expense of players we actually did need.

Edited November 7, 2006 by alex

[Fop 1]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

Should have gone in the summer or stuck with him another season I reckon. Thought that at the time too, especially when Souness got the nod. So, disastrous timing down to, if you like, a lack of "planning".

 

no it isn't, its hindsight.

 

 

It might be hindsight IF Fat Fred hadn't spent most of Robson last 6 months of his reign largely undermining him behind the scenes.

 

He should have gone before or stuck with him, not a pointless panic dismissal - and either way he shouldn't have behaved as he did to undermine him (it was just madness).

 

Had Bobby Robson stayed that season out, I wouldn't guarantee we'd still be champions league contenders, but I would guarantee we wouldn't be relegation contenders as we are now.

 

At the end of the day Fat Fred has no one to blame but himself in that context.

[Renton 21225]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

Should have gone in the summer or stuck with him another season I reckon. Thought that at the time too, especially when Souness got the nod. So, disastrous timing down to, if you like, a lack of "planning".

 

no it isn't, its hindsight.

 

If you think it requires hindsight not to sack one of the most respected managers in the game 4 matches into the season with no replacement lined up then that says something about your own mental faculties Leazes.

 

And how come neither of us required hindsight to know Souness would be a disastrous appointment? Of course, some of us had the hindsight to realise that Roeder would be a poor appointment, but you're not in this particular club.

[Toonpack 9165]

Didn't Leazes say that Martins was a good signing? And Duff?

 

Always right though.

 

martins ? Def not, I am one of the first to say he might be another expensive waste. Duff has proved he is a good premiership player. I am interested as to why you are blaming the board for those 2 though, again.

Not to mention the fact that everyone was happy enough when we bought Duff. Hindsight rules supreme it would appear. If only everybody including club directors had hindsight like you

 

Of course everyone was happy, he is a proven quality player at what was at the time thought to be a bargain price.

 

What we fans did not know at the time was that £5 million for Duff was only a bargain if it was from spare cash. As we were soon to find out, we didn’t have any cash left for more pressing needs within the team, and it was £5 mill we could ill afford.

 

The only people who were aware of the real financial position (the Chairman/Directors) should have had the foresight to see that, it is only we fans who can see in hindsight the folly of the buy.

 

The Directors get no free pass on “in hindsight we were wrong” because "in hindsight they were incompetent" it is their job to have foresight

[Shearergol 0]

So we're shit because of the Souness appointment? Has anyone seen the results in Robson's last 25 games as manager?

 

Aye, do you now mean he was right to sack Robson and not stick to the plan ?

 

Have I ever said any different?

 

The timing was shocking, but the decision was right.

 

By the way, I wasn't happy with either the Duff or Martins signings especially. I questioned the fact that we'd signed a left winger who we didn't need instead of strikers/defenders/right winger who we did.