Jimbo

a. One of the manager´s main roles is to motivate the team, if he can`t do that then he is failing in his job. b. Allardyce brought in a lot of the players who have got us in this mess, if he can´t motivate them then he`s either made a mistake in signing them or they really disagree with his approach. a. "It's easy to blame Allardyce, and cite the manager's job as including motivating the players, but" b. That's the thing. Why is it that a lot of the players who come here seem to lack hunger/motivation? I suppose I should add that the mystery here is that Allardyce clearly had the ability to motivate his Bolton side, so he's not a poor motivator. To that end, you have to look to the players for answers. Thats the whole problem in my opinion, if the secret of successful management was that easy to pin-point the world would be full of brilliant managers.

Apocalypto. Nothing can compete with seeing it for the first time in terms of raw adrenaline and excitement, but even so I never tire of watching this film, I just wish I'd seen it on the big screen when I saw it for the first time.

Enough to make you weep.

Amy Winehouse.

Didier Deschamps has admitted he would like to coach in the Premier League. The Frenchman has been out of work since stepping down as Juventus manager at the end of last season. He is now looking to return to management and concedes he would be most excited to receive a job offer from England. "If you want to have the most freedom to act, the best country seems to be England, where the coach can decide more on signings," Deschamps told L'Equipe. "Spain is attractive too but Italy would be difficult as I am labelled 'Juventus'. "It would also give me enormous pride to coach the France national team. It would be a beautiful way to come full circle after experiencing that level as a player and captain." Chelsea Deschamps was heavily linked with the Chelsea job following Jose Mourinho's departure and he admits he has been contacted by his former club in the past. Deschamps has also revealed that he was approached by a couple of French clubs in the summer. He said: "Chelsea and Valencia? I know some people at those two clubs, and there were approaches. "There was contact with Lyon but the timing was not good after my departure from Juventus. "I also met Lens chairman Gervais Martel."

Terrible news. RIP

Would sacking Barton be a worth-while option ? No other team would buy him off us in a million years so its unlikely we'd get any of his fee back again, plus we'd be paying his wages while he's banged up

Don't think so, I saw conclusive evidence that Zoggy should not be playing left-back. He was causing all kinds of problems for Chelsea'when he was leaving his position and running at them and he needs to be in a position where he can do that all the time and not leave us exposed at the full-back position. There second goal was obviouly offside and we deserved a point at the very least. Quoted for truth

A spirited performance, but 4-4-2 could have won that for us in my opinion.

Paying the price for not putting two up front when we went behind in my opinion, negative tactics yet again.

Fucking Fuck, yards offside

6 lol

5-4 ! lol

Fuck

Smith upfront with Martins today by the sounds of it.

Time is earned in my opinion.

I don't want him either, but I find it strange that finishing 5th with Bolton is an argument for some for keeping Allardyce, yet Jol finishing 5th with Spurs isn't good enough to appoint him.

Spot on! Saying that tho,he probably suits this club down to the ground - unprofessional To be fair, If Ashley wanted to run the club he'd be doing instead of Mort.

Will he? He couldn't manage that as captain of the club playing under Souness, who he supposedly liked and rated. Thats my fear too, although NONE of us know what he was like in the dressing room. Shearer always struck me as a shite captain in terms of rousing the players on the pitch.

Didn't Carter get bumped off in the end? might just happen to Sam. "you're a big man, but you're out of shape"

Muse - Unintended

Here is an idea for a dark football drama. See what you think. There is this local guy — let's call him Freddy Shepherd — who sacks a legend for finishing fourth, third and fifth in the Premier League — let's call him Sir Bobby Robson — and replaces him with the bloke from the stagnating Blackburn Rovers (Graeme Souness) before appointing an obvious nightwatchman (Glenn Roeder) and then hiring a set-piece specialist whose direct style is diametrically opposed to the club's artistic leaning. This new manager, Big Sam, can be like Michael Caine in Get Carter: here to 'sort it out' in a roughtough kind of way. Now we introduce a sports retailing tycoon who has chosen our venerable institution (hereafter Newcastle United) from the smorgasbord of Premier League investment opportunities. Starting out as a self-declared recluse, Mike Ashley is soon sending bottles of champagne to all his new Geordie friends in dockside nightclubs. On Boxing Day, with the team falling off the pier at Wigan, Ashley is to be found in a replica shirt among the 5,000- strong Toon Army. The front-of-house troubleshooter, meanwhile, could be called, say, Chris Mort, a name that would stretch quite nicely to Mortician. To add further tragicomic bite, we could have the side sponsored by Northern Rock, whose financial ineptitude has forced the Treasury to offer guarantees of £57billion — almost as much as the Whitehall education budget — thus leaving each British taxpayer with a liability of £1,800. Which reminds me that should Ashley elect to sack Big Sam Allardyce and his legion of expert backroom staff, who number 20 according to the Newcastle Journal, the queue for compensation would look like one of those lines of panic-gripped investors outside every Northern Rock branch. I was about to say that not even Joseph Anthony Barton would be tempted to kick this great beacon of civic hope when they were so low in spirit, but of course he already has. Barton was yesterday remanded in custody after being charged, along with two others, with assault and affray in Liverpool centre around 5.30am on Thursday, when he was meant to be nursing an ankle injury in preparation for today's daunting visit to Chelsea. According to yesterday's Liverpool Echo, one of the alleged victims briefly lost consciousness in the incident. Explaining his decision to omit Barton from the team who lost to Wigan, Allardyce had explained the previous day that "another knock might put him out for a while". Or another night out in Liverpool. Barton, remember, has already pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting his former Manchester City colleague Ousmane Dabo on the training ground and will be tried in the New Year. Newcastle are in such a state that you just want to put your arm round them and buy them a cup of tea. Not all of it is self-inflicted. Their best player, Michael Owen, has endured savage luck with injuries. But then there is no escaping the truth that Shepherd's last big appointment has gambled on wrong'uns (Barton) and big club rejects (Alan Smith, Geremi), not to mention the glacial Mark Viduka, of whom one reporter wrote at Wigan's JJB Stadium: "How any manager of a struggling side can stomach Viduka's immobility remains one of life's mysteries." Allardyce has become so disorientated by the maelstrom of bad results and sterile performances that he has disassociated himself from his own players, saying: "I'm not happy to have my future in their hands." A parlour game in football is spotting the point of no return for men in Allardyce's position. With that renunciation of his own expensive summer buys, plenty of private bets were placed on him ending up in the elephant's graveyard of men who travelled to Tyneside to make a difference but left wearing a thousand-yard stare. Newcastle have not won in 14 Premier League visits to Stamford Bridge and face Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal in January. The African Nations Cup will claim four of their front-line players. At least Owen may be back on the bench today. And the glaring doubts about Alan Shearer's lack of coaching experience could be overcome if the right structure was in place to support him. The manager's job may yet be Shearer's great reward for turning down Manchester United to return to his roots for no reward, in silverware, at least. Otherwise their best bet would be Martin O'Neill. Then again, why should he plunge himself into such terminal instability? What we are seeing are the last convulsions of the Shepherd-Hall family era: a good manager transplanted to the wrong club, with no regard for logic or tradition. Empty populism has run amok. They have the fans, they have the stadium and they certainly have the love. But the big decisions have been coming from people with agendas that conflict with what's right for the team and the club. You look at Mike Ashley impersonating a fan at Wigan and want him to vacate his seat in the crowd, put his normal gear on and start thinking double-quick in case he needs to orchestrate a proper influx of people who understand his new toy and the tough world they're in. Otherwise, 'loved by outsiders, destroyed from within' will be Newcastle's epitaph.

Trying to get the sack ?

This is one thing I will defend Allardyce on, I presume you're talking about N'Zogbia here. Charles has been played at left back for the majority of the season because Enrique has either been injured or deemed unready for the premiership. I recall Beye was left to kick his heels until deemed capable at this level and is now one of our better performers. I genuinely believe Jose Enrique will become a feature of our side for quite some time. I'm pleased Sam Allardyce hasn't thrown a young lad into the Premiership without letting him grow accustomed. I'd wager he'd have played more if we had been playing better and that would have seen Charles pushed further forward and Milner to the right. There are many things that seem to be wrong with Allardyces tactics, but I'm not a Premiership manager so I'd like to think there is rhyme behind his reasons. Instead we've been hamstrung by having our most productive leftwinger lingering at left back, FANTASTIC !!!! Oh and by the way if he's saving Jose Enrique, why did he pick the lad to play so many of the early matches ?

Tell me this post was a joke please. every other manager was staying well clear of Barton in the summer errrr no. One manager was dumb enough.