acrossthepond

based on what evidence though? one not completely awful transfer window and the fact we're leading an absolutely terrible league? Based on the voices in his head on current evidence. CT, you say you "feel confident." Can you describe what gives you this feeling of confidence? You aren't worried at all that Hughton is obviously not going to cut it in the Premier League and so therefore his "plans on the go" will not be sufficient to make sure we don't go straight back down? See reply to Andrew. Successful entrepeneurs can be gamblers and can fuck up, but they usually learn pretty quickly. I think he has now decided to be hands on with regard to decision making and the mistakes of previous seasons wont be repeated. There is no evidence of this, only an opinion based on working with some very successful retail people. With regard to Hughton, none of us know whether he will cut it or not. He is very highly thought of as a coach and has done very well this season, particularly bearing all the off field distractions etc etc. He has handled the press well and let the results do the talking. The circus club and usual stories have not got off the ground under him. He also imo makes very good substitutions. Apart from a handful of quality managers, the rest of the possibles are a big big gamble as we know only too well.... Strachan at boro, Bruce at Sunderland...Each a short time ago would have been considered a much better choice than Hughton. Honestly, I am really starting to think next year could be quite promising. I don't understand how Ashley being more hands-on is supposed to help - surely we'd be better off if he just employed someone who actually knows what they're doing and stood off the day-to-day (or month-to-month) running of the club? This is the bloke who thought giving Dennis Wise authority over a football club instead of Kevin Keegan was a good idea...what benefit will we gain from him being more involved with decision-making rather than less? No argument with your first sentence. He is highly thought of (as a coach) and has done well this season, although a bag of rocks would probably have got us where we are so far. He has handled the press well and has let the results do the talking. The problem is that the results have so far been overwhelmingly positive - which I think will not be the case next season. My point is that he hasn't cracked under pressure because there has been none, whereas in the Premier League he looked out of his depth - isn't that why Mike and Dekka decided to bring in Shearer in the first place, to steady the ship? Who was the captain when that ship was being steadied? Well, it was Clipboard Chris and his buddy Calderwood, who weren't up to the task and neither will they be in the PL next season when we have an even weaker squad. Substitutions, well, I'd say there have been some excellent ones and there have been some questionable ones. Nobody's expecting Hughton to be perfect. By their nature, however, substitutions mean that you have some quality options on the bench to make use of. I doubt that will be the case, if we continue as we are, in the PL. Certainly the likes of Pancrate and R. Taylor will not have the impact in the PL as they have had in this league. Your point about quality managers, well, that's just the "devil you know" argument that got us Roeder instead of the class managers who were available at the time and got us Hughton instead of the decent managers who were available at the time. I think people like Curbishley and Dowie would've been much better choices than Chris Hughton at the start of this season and I think he could've been kept on as a coach and continued to do an excellent job. Unfortunately now that he's been promoted no doubt he won't be happy with going back into the backroom staff if we ever do appoint a proper manager, so that's another asset of the club mismanaged by Ashley.

based on what evidence though? one not completely awful transfer window and the fact we're leading an absolutely terrible league? Based on the voices in his head on current evidence. CT, you say you "feel confident." Can you describe what gives you this feeling of confidence? You aren't worried at all that Hughton is obviously not going to cut it in the Premier League and so therefore his "plans on the go" will not be sufficient to make sure we don't go straight back down?

I dont understand this... Gutierrez will do fine Barton has ALOT of PL experience but also ALOT to prove. Smith ALOT of PL experience. Guthrie has a good amount of PL experience. Raylor good amount of PL experience. None of the above are fantastic footballers but should do a job in the PL. Im not saying that its good enough, it does need improving but its not as bad as some make out. New owner in and a cheeky 10mil bid for Rodwell and play him instead of Smith. Jonas and Guthrie will do fine for our ambitions next year. R. Taylor is a Championship player, I'm not sure Barton will even play 5 more games for NUFC (and he's worthless anyway), and the less said about Smith, the better. "A lot" is two words, by the way. As for CT's post, need I remind you under whose watch all of the players you rate as not good enough for the PL were brought in? For all you talk about Ashley running our club as a business, "lean and mean," you appear to be conceding that he's lumbered the club with dross. Parker, Milner, N'Zogbia et al may have been on mega wages, but at least they were Premier League quality. Now we've got no money (thanks to being relegated owing to Fat Mike's terrible decisions and the shit players brought in by the shit staff he employed) and no good - even decent - players. I know which situation I'd prefer. This transfer window brought us one potential PL player in Routledge and one player who might provide passable cover in the PL (Simpson). It also brought in someone who isn't even good enough for this level, let alone the PL. There were plenty of signs of planning for the short term, as evidenced by good loan deals so far this season, but there are little to no signs of planning for regaining our status as a Premier League club.

For me he can stay as long as he keeps a lid on his blatant racism. I never called for him to be banned or anything of the sort. I just think it's a bit pathetic how he's now trying to pretend that the entire board doesn't know who he is.

Stevie, just post as yourself man if you're going to post at alll. I've no idea why you stopped posting in the first place tbh but I admit have enjoyed the break... 'Pardon?'

Didnt he score a couple of neat volleys and a couple of placed finishes? He's not as bad as some people make out imho. He has still got alot to work on imo. Beginning with not thinking he's God's gift to NUFC. Oh, and cutting his hair ffs.

Aye, the half-time entertainment's over now. Back to the game, right?

Pardon? You're really terrible at this mate. Anyway, Alex had you rumbled within 3 posts, I'm just realising it now. How'd you know I was talking to you? I didn't quote your post or anything. 2bias posted before me...how do you know I wasn't addressing him? Who is Stevie, anyway?

You're not blatantly Stevie are you?

Got this (for PC) yesterday and am hooked already. It runs a bit slow on my laptop but it's the business and no mistake. I've heard it's properly long as well, not like these 12-hour-wonder 'top' games they seem to be spewing out these days.

Decent window for the Championship. How'd we end up in the Championship in the first place? Oh yes, it was the catastrophic failings of Mike and Dekka (and Dennis and all the rest of your chums.) I don't understand how you or anyone else can see past the fact that we went down because of Mike Ashley and his cronies. We would still be a Premier League club if not for them. End of. The outlook is not rosier. We are a league lower and instead of looking to advance in the league we were already in - that would be a rosier outlook - we are looking just to get back into that league. It only looks better because of how much lower we have sunk, all on account of Ashley. Don't you understand that "letting him rebuild our club" is what has led us to this point in the first place? It's like you have completely forgotten the agony of relegation and just how shit we were over the past season, the indignities of forcing out KK and replacing him with Kinnear, all of it. And now you talk about "rebuilding." Don't you understand that we only need to be "rebuilt" because his epic mismanagement has already destroyed us? Don't you understand that we aren't going forward under Ashley, we're only going back to where we were before him? And in a worse situation, I might add, since we will be even less equipped to compete in the PL in 2010-11 than we were in 2008-09. We're talking two steps backward for one step forward here. Didn't work out for the Soviets and I really don't think it's going to work out for us. But I look forward to reading what bollocks you'll be spewing this time next season when we are 6 points adrift and heading back down the drain - "oh but Mike's put us on a much better, more sound financial basis." A sounder financial basis for what? Surviving more relegations brought on by his own failures?

Class how Parky titles these threads. Throws the lure, you click just to find out what it is...and then are confronted with an OP of pseudo-scientific babble/Mayan end of the world/conspiracy theories. Don't ever change Parky man

I also agree that in the long term our top priority should be to finish top six and play in the Europa League. It's a nice dream to make top four but I doubt it will ever happen again unless something very fundamental changes in the EPL and in football in general. Obviously, that won't be happening for a while and we face a period of substantial rebuilding ahead of us, and if Ashley is in charge of that period - and for all CT's insistence that he wasn't responsible for bringing in Smith and his ilk on their high wages because he didn't sign their contracts, he has told us that he will be responsible for buying and selling players in one statement of his or another (Happy Face will know) - then we are probably going to face a struggle to survive year after year. Let's look at Fulham. They haven't spent mega money - I think we can all agree on that - and have been transformed over time from Second/Third division also-rans to PL strugglers and finally to European competitors and a high-midtable side, and they have accomplished that not by going for trophy signings (sorry Leazes) but by signing solid PL performers and by maintaining stability in the club, hiring a decent manager and giving him authority over his team, both in selection and transfers. Look at players like Aaron Hughes, who we once derided as not good enough for us and who's an absolute rock for Fulham. Players like Hughes, Abdoulaye Faye, Matty Taylor, James McFadden (or even, dare I say it, Damien Duff) who have been PL players for some time and have proven themselves at that level without costing mega money would be the kind of players we should try to target to help keep us up and to build on something for the future. Shite players like Best who are under 25 and could provide a sell-on value are not the kind of players who will keep us up, even if we are paying fees for them, and even if we do stay up for the first season on that sort of a transfer scheme, the long-term prospects for the club are extremely bleak under Ashley, and he is the only one who can be held responsible for that.

It'd be - shocker of shockers, this - a regular black and white striped shirt! Just like all of us want! That's too easy. It's got to have swoops and swishes and cape designs and all the rest of that shite.

As long as his age stays 25 on FM I'm happy.

He's not Muslim, hence not a terrorist. /thread. (I'm probably on some sort of watchlist for posting that now.)

I can see what LM is saying but it's harsh on Routledge who clearly will help us get out of this division, which has to be the top priority, and who might have a part to play in the PL (as a squad player.) I'd welcome anyone who can pass a ball who we don't have to pay for and Koumas fits the bill.

No way in hell he would be selected for England for this WC, which is what he appears to be hinting at. Definitely having a laugh there. Let's be fair to him though - you've taken his quote out of context. He says, "My objective when I left Newcastle was to play for a medium-sized club, before bouncing back in a big team." 'Bouncing back' implies that he considered us a 'big team.' Really, did anyone doubt he was going to leave Wigan and start shooting his mouth off about moving to Chelsea or Arsenal again? It was only a matter of time.

I did? Fuck it, I'm 'aving that! Bobby Zamora style I must've meant TicTacWoe. Sorry for that piscine mix-up TTW.

Some theorizing on Soccernet about who might be sold. Last time the league allowed a player to be sold outside the transfer window was Hull in 97 when they sold Roy Carroll to Wigan so they could stay in business, but Carroll wasn't allowed to play or even be registered until the next season. He wasn't even allowed to play for the reserve team. So with Belhadj going to South Africa, he won't want to be in football limbo until next season. Then as Fish mentioned already, KP Boateng already played for Tottenham this season in the Carling Cup, so he's out too.

I disagree completely! He is our captain and if anyone in the side has the right to speak up about our tactis it is him...and rightly so! As a CM he see's play from the heart of it and he would be the first to admit he has been shit recently but that in part, a major part has been down to Hughtons tactics. Im all for the lad speaking up and telling Hughton his tactics are fuckin wank....if of course he actually did! Why should he have the right to speak up about tactics? He's fucking gash. Just because he's the captain, does that mean he knows anything about management or selection? He's always been that way though, running off his mouth like he's been here a hundred years and was born in a manger in North Shields and is a local heeeeero like. That alleged strangulation of Beye is a great example. Here's a shit central midfielder whose primary attribute is shouting and the collection of yellow cards accusing someone of lacking the fight and not caring about the club. Well, I don't know about you but I don't think Beye's commitment was questionable while he was with us, he always looked up for it and he was actually good unlike Smith, and he cared about the club as shown by his reaction to the red against Man City. If he wanted to leave after we got relegated, I don't think there's many that could blame him, and if there are I don't think Alan Smith is one of them. He needs to prove on the pitch that he has the right to talk first and although he made a good show of it in most of the first half of the season, he's become complacent lately and maybe being dropped is just what he needs.

Sounds like Jonas, Guthrie and Routledge have all been the business tonight and Coventry's goal was a bit of a scuffed fluke. Hopefully we should finish them off now. Seems like selecting Guthrie has so far been vindicated.

We should've used the 4-0 thread as the match thread. Carroll and Lovenkrands up front hopefully but knowing Hughton he'll play this worthless clogger Best and we'll be treated to 90 minutes of dirge.

Oh come on, I was hoping for some proper rage there. All I got was some obvious baiting and a few repetitions of 'tedious.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...utd/8520263.stm More proof if any was needed that boardroom interference with buying and selling players is bad. I'd have Curbishley in this league or in the PL.