manc-mag

Still working as a waiter and living in Fenham is he? I dunno, but if he is I bet everyone pays their bill: http://www.twitvid.com/ZIVCR Anyone having the fish would at any rate. "..fish? fish?...PAY PAY!!!"

Abu Qatada is my guess I heat up, I can't cool down You got me spinnin' Round and round... etc etc

Why, what's happened like?

The Fish does look a bit like a barrell tbf.

eh?

Not the remotest chance it was accidental.

We've not got a massive squad tbh, theres always a way back.

A foul followed by a kick in the stomach, the rat faced little prick.

Aye, it's hilarious. Cannot for one second imagine the frame of button bashing rage he must get people in for them to write to points of view. From what I've heard he's as PM/complaint happy as the next person. As I say, I don't really understand the complaints aspect of it, but I feel sorry for anyone having to deal with them. Either way, it doesn't alter the fact he's clearly not right in the head and has a vastly different sort of attachment to this place than the clear majority of forum members. Which is the only real salient point going in this thread.

It was a joke you bellsniff.

Aye, agreed. And even if every post he made was attributable to someone 'goading' him, it'd still be massively embarrassing as it's akin to saying he doesnt have the free will to ignore it. As it happens some posts may be in response to others, but at the end of the day he's so utterly obsessed about being 'right' (a grown man of nearly 60) he does much of it completely without reference to anyone else. Fair play to Ant tbf. Dunno what the craic has been with the complaints or owt but I know I'd get sick of having to deal with them in the first place, never mind deal with them, plead with him to stop and then get totally ignored to boot. He's just an arrogant old dick at the end of the day, it won't do him any harm. Surely it's the people that can't leave Leazes to it who have no control. "whaaaaa! booooo! Sulk! The old man is ignoring my argument and repeating his!" Leazes didn't respond to Cabayeaye's 7 year old thread digging, so he's more restrained than others. I feel for Ant, he should whack anyone who complains in the creche though. Yes, I'm sure you're right. It's everyone elses fault, not his. Ignore the fact he's a lunatic that can't be reasoned with, who makes up people's arguments for them, and who makes up entire opponents when people aren't arguing at all, it's more likely it's down to everyone else but him. He's been at this for literally years just in case it had escaped your notice.

Disagree with you again, and I find it baffling that you mention me ahead of the obvious members on here who do little else but argue with him, those that mock and reply to him at every opportunity, or those that have him ignored yet post about him as soon as someone quotes him. Not that bothered though (it's just a forum and I don't really have much of a problem with Leazes, he sometimes speaks a good deal of sense), so long as I don't start getting 'punished' because you're not paying attention to this forum. Just because you have to go to the lengths of ignoring his posts (I did it as a result of him basically being racist and sectarian within the space of five minutes, never mind the new v old board shite), doesn't mean you shouldnt be allowed to mention his name. He's not fucking Lord Voldermort. It shouldnt affect what you post about, just who you post to. If I've mentioned him it'll have been in posts to people I actually have some respect for on here and those who I find genuinely amusing. Which is the only reason I post on here or ever have to start with. So you can bag it with that shit you little snide.

Aye, agreed. And even if every post he made was attributable to someone 'goading' him, it'd still be massively embarrassing as it's akin to saying he doesnt have the free will to ignore it. As it happens some posts may be in response to others, but at the end of the day he's so utterly obsessed about being 'right' (a grown man of nearly 60) he does much of it completely without reference to anyone else. Fair play to Ant tbf. Dunno what the craic has been with the complaints or owt but I know I'd get sick of having to deal with them in the first place, never mind deal with them, plead with him to stop and then get totally ignored to boot. He's just an arrogant old dick at the end of the day, it won't do him any harm.

Put him on ignore. He'll carry on anyway but it gets on his tits when you dont respond directly to him. He'll argue with himself anyway and make up opponents so it's not going to go away, he enjoys/despises it too much, but theres no reason you need to stay directly embroiled in it. His times not that valuable to him evidently, so let him waste it how he sees fit.

Did Stevie go to Pypedoon ? great work.

60 year old bairn tbh. As everyone already knew without the book reviews.

so they key drivers of the game, among supporters that go to games, isn't to qualify for europe or better, win a trophy, play in Cup Finals [at least for clubs of NUFC's stature]. I realise that those who don't go to games - and probably have no intention of going to games - may have different priorities. But that is something else I've always said too. So for you in your considered opinion, you'd say that the main drivers of success are winning trophies, playing in cup finals and in Europe? Just want to be really clear on that before we go any further. You see they are metrics of success, they are how success is defined, not how you get there. You expect people to listen to you when coming out with this sort of tripe? Just before you come back with stuff about backing managers, the evidence for alternative approaches is right before your eyes in the table this season with 2 clubs who have not joined the financial space race sitting in the top 5. The bottom line is that there is an alternative model and it is working. The absolute verbatim truth.

A great thread just gets better and better. Surely to be used in evidence one day.

For me, I personally see it this way: Mackems spent big and this got them a better quality of player (by and large). They paid a premium however as they are an horrendously unattractive club, so often they have to spend a hell of a lot more for not very much better in terms of playing personnel. Not their fault and that's still fine as long as they are better players, but it does mean you need to be acutely aware you're likely to attract players who are pre-disposed to attitude problems/tell you to go and fuck yourself when everything isnt quite so rosey and the their signing on fee has been spent. When their agent has spent his too, it's even worse. Bruce is an alcoholic and a whinging cunt to boot when things arent going his way. Quinn was having it out with his shit fans on top of all that. To a player who is only there for the money, they will despair pretty much instantaneously and you can pretty much kiss goodbye to any hopes of them pulling you out of the mire. So O'Neil comes in and spends nowt and the same band (or a cheaper band, seeing as you make the point many have been sold off without replacement) start racking up wins left right and centre because he's got them refocused and given them someone to respect. Now O'Neil's problem will be how fast he then wants to take this forward because (as you rightly point out, he's in the new manager 'bounce' period). I say this because O'Neil is even more of a whining cunt than Bruce and I suspect he will want money relatively quickly. Now for me, if O'Neil left well alone on the transfers, his new manager bounce alone could see continued progress for another season with practically nowt spent. If he starts wanting to piss money up the wall like he did at Villa though, doing too much too soon, (against the reality that you're not going to be able to outspend certain clubs whatever money you get), that's when he'll lose the main virtue he brings, which is purely and simply just basic hard work. If big transfers arent the quick fix/next step up, O'Neil will lose the plot and start blaming everyone around him but himself and at that stage all his players will remember theyre at Sunderland again and get massively depressed and not give a fuck. And the biggest signings will be at the head of that movement.

This is really important this for me as it happens. It's a totally valid point and shows just how much (outside of the 'established' CL boys) you can go up and down in this league within very short periods. For me the Mackems did well because they were spending big and that was generally bringing in a slightly better class of player, (principally up front). However their manager turned out to ultimately be a pile of wank that lost the plot, players decided the club was really a bit daft or otherwise not to their liking and hence that same team sank like a stone again, with some departures along the way. Now O'Neill has got that same side playing CL form football having hardly spent a penny. So it's neither proof that spending big is the answer or is a bad thing, it shows that the same players can send you up the league if they're feeling motivated or send you back down again if they think they're being run by a dickend/bunch of dickends they have no respect for. Bruce's spending allowed him to paper over the cracks of being an essentially drunken bellend with inadequate coping mechanisms in the face of adversity. That in itself is both an argument for getting the best players you can afford, but also keeping them motivated once theyre with you, and if you fail to do the latter, you've only got half the equation. Leazes makes too much of the former and essentially dismisses the latter because he doesnt think it matters what standards of professionalism you demand once you've got expensive players in. Despite his misquotes, my point (has always been) is that it's massively naive for someone who's been watching football for as long as he has and studying the top sides for as long as he has to fail to notice how important this element is. We've tried it previously mainly with the throwing money about approach, while our top brass have either been i) in brothels/slagging fans off/calling Alec Ferguson names, or ii) pissing about in the Bigg Market/downing pints in the away end (delete as appropriate). That for me is a mistake and the wrong example to set. Leazes says this doesnt matter at all as long as you always commit to spend one pence more than your closest rival. Well not only do I reckon that is completely wrong, more to the point it's pointless saying it any more anyway as we are not going to spend as much as the top teams. So where else do you start from? For me, you start with getting players focused back on the basics. With a work ethic, with a basic desire to play for the shirt, with a respect for the club and those paying their wages and you try and get that imprinted in the DNA of the club, because that is without doubt what all of the successful clubs have. What's more, that much is free to do - it costs nowt, it's about attitudes and it's one of the few things that's still a level playing field for everyone in football. Then on that foundation, you try and add slowly with quality-bringing players in that you do extensive research on and who you feel are right mentally to progress the level of football without compromising the level of professionalism. At the end of the day, as SJH says, go for broke is out the window so why even bother banging on about it anymore? Adapt and survive basically and at least try and learn from previous lessons. If you don't do that then that is the very essence of naive.

It comes with age and bitter experience. How old are you son? I was rubbing my eyes trying to figure out why those two sentences were in the same post.

Was it under Robson before we won 3-1 at Arsenal? Robert played them off the park if it's the game I'm thinking of. I think that might have been the one that 'broke the spell'. I just thought that was shambolic though: alright, say Liverpool or Manchester or whatever is a 'jinx', but don't say London is a jinx. London's got 5 Prem clubs this season, other years more. That's not a jinx, that's just fucking horrible away football where you're not safely tucked up at SJP and you just go out and shit yourself.