Isegrim

In front of the family enclosure?

Anyone else wondering why .com are really quiet about the record. No article. Nothing. I remember them making much more fuzz about Shearer's records in the past...

Nah, there was to much distraction on the field this time...

A clincher for any woman surely? 89451[/snapback] Catmag should spread the word under the nurses...

What's about flight fares? And I might come a bit late if this is no problem...

It depends on the manager who comes in and the players who go out. If we get a decent manager and keep hold of important members of the current squad (especially Michael Owen) then a challenge for a top six spot has to be the ambition. You can fail if the performances are all right, but I don't want a season like this to be happen again.

Fair enough. Daft question then. I was trying to find out the criteria people are looking for in a manager, nobody seems to know, instead just throwing names into the ring. Seems people still don't really know. I also expect a bunch of posts touting Roeder for the job if we win the FA Cup and he becomes a 'legend'. Hence my reference to the FA Cup. I think he'll do a decent job, certainly better than the retard who has pissed away £50m of the club's cash, but I'm hoping FS appoints a top class, proven manager. If that's not possible then he needs to look at someone young but who is showing potential to become a top manager, the only one I can think of is Pearce, maybe Paul Jewell. Early days for Pearce though. Anybody is a gamble though. 89407[/snapback] Ok, I misread your first post and admit I only was skipping through. Here is what a new manager needs for me: - he has to really want the job (and not just seeing it as a challenge because he failed at his last one) - he has to have an idea about what he wants to achieve and how he is going to achieve it. - he has to have ideas about the strengths of the squad and the weaknesses and adjust his gameplans and tactics as they fit - he has to work on the player's fitness and minimize self-made injuries - he has to have the right eye for players, either new signings or players coming from the own youth set-up - he has to have good motivation skills as the confidence of players is one of the most important aspects in football. - he has to be able to manage difficult characters, because bad persons can be great footballers. - for game tactics itself: he has to want to dominate games and try to have a go at other teams, i.e. not playing to not loose games, but to play to win games. There are probably more points my ideal manager has to fulfil, but these are the most important. There probably is no manager who fits every condition but he has to fulfil the majority and not (like the last one) nearly none. I am not sure about Pearce yet, but admit he does a good job so far. But there are the likes of Hiddink and Hitzfeld who I think would be fantastic choices. Allardyce has a lot of positive aspects as well, so has Martin O'Neill. I just don't want Bruce because he is a Geordie or other uninspiring managers of the same calibre (like the one from Middlesbore)...

Well, working at the back four + 'keeper isn't easy in 5-a-side games...

Torygraph.

Toon army love taste of chopped Souey By Matthew Norman (Filed: 05/02/2006) A few weeks ago, contemplating the imminent union of Graeme Souness and a redundancy cheque, I mentioned briefly meeting him and asking if he saw himself as the man to resuscitate Spurs. "Son," he said, "the club I couldn'ae turn round has yet to be built." The question that occurs today is not why this winsome self-belief proved misplaced, but whether anyone alive could do for Newcastle United what he could not. Is it possible that the club are beyond redemption, and if so why? Newcastle United, their supporters love to remind us, are a "sleeping giant", and as such begin to make Rip Van Winkle look a chronic insomniac. Yet after 37 trophy-free seasons, many spent outside the top division, Newcastle's colossal fan base sustains a state of heightened expectation. For them, as for other weird religious cults, salvation is always imminent. So preposterous is this faith that you wonder whether secretly these fans share with compulsive gamblers a craving not for success, but defeat. We know them to be exhibitionist sadomasochists from all their bare-chested posing for the midwinter cameras, and they seem to relish perpetual disappointment as much as hypothermia. To hear foot soldiers in the Toon army interviewed the day Souey departed was to hear the authentic voice of rapturous self-pity. They loved it, to borrow from their least unsuccessful manager in memory, really loved it, knowing full well that spectacular failure is the only realistic method by which a habitual mediocrity can excite interest. Provoking continual gossip about managerial sackings with exaggerated intolerance is the way to attract national attention, and so warm the shirtless on icy nights. No wonder, then, that they drive a manager out most seasons. They need a permanent state of melodramatic crisis to create the facade of relevance, much as the Tories did in the barren years between Major and Cameron. Souness was hired only because no one whom the board wanted would touch the position, and now Glenn Roeder and Alan Shearer cannot wait to rule themselves out. These are ambitious people, yet they knock each other over to escape supposedly one of the great jobs in domestic football because their instincts tell them that Newcastle cannot be turned around, and that whoever takes the job will fall into the chasm between the fanciful expectations of the supporters and the prosaic reality of life as a medium-ranking Premiership non-entity. Only an idiot or a madman, or a combination of the two, would want to follow Messrs Souness, Robson, Gullit, Dalglish, Keegan and the other lustrous names who have failed at St James' Park. My tenner's on Roy Keane.

"We only sell proper Burgers and next week my mate Hansen is coming and will dish out humble pie."

http://www.nufc.com/2005-06html/shearer-goals-intro.html

Sven... 89268[/snapback] Excactly my thought. But the likes of Hiddink and Hitzfeld are only available after the WC as well, so I hope we can read other options into it as well.

I think they involve special courses lasting for something like two years. Part of it are classes in summer and then distance lectures and placements. I might be wrong, but I think there are special conditions to get granted exception if you have started to work on your Pro licence.

Nobb(od)y knows...

Beginner's luck.

I am not sure if someone should get judged by one game, especially considering the circumstances. Roeder had an easy job yesterday. The problems under the tosser were obvious and could get adressed easily - like telling Nobby to stay wide. Other factors were that Portsmouth aren't the world greatest team and that the crowd seemed to be really upbeat now that the tosser has gone. But I don't want to say that Roeder would be a bad idea (especially as I made the suggestion to put him in charge for several months). But I do think he will still have more difficult games where he has to prove himself, the next is the Villa away tie. And last but not least he has ruled himself out. And maybe it's not too bad to have a capable person in charge of the academy. That might save Newcastle a lot of money in future. Even his critics at West Ham said that he is an excellent youth coach.

The thing is, even when the team is defending bad as a unit most goals are down to ridiculous individual errors. Defenders of other teams also make loads of individual errors, but they are rarely as "funny" as the lapses of Titus & Co.

Agree there's nothing sinister if that's what happened. Still shocking that he didn't stay to support his colleagues, though. 89152[/snapback] Sure. But I rather have a player who is frustrated not to be in the team than someone who is gladly picking up his wages by sitting on the bench or in the stands. And I rather have this kind of stories about players not happy, but winning games than a tosser maintaining everybody is totally happy.

From football365.com: Roeder got his first taste of how events off the pitch at St James' Park can be as big news as what happens on it when it emerged that #9.5million signing Albert Luque had left the stadium before kick-off after discovering he was not in the 16. However, he insisted nothing should be read into the situation. ``I had a chat with Albert before the game, which has to be a private chat,'' he said. ``He's a very professional person and asked if he could return home, and I haven't got a problem with that. ``There's nothing sinister in that either. Trust me, there is nothing sinister in that whatsoever.''

Great, that's good for my nerves...

Mainly confidence imo - if we can hang on then we could build on it. 89087[/snapback] Sure, but it is not good for my nevers ... and for those of Boumsong, Bramble & Co. I'd rather see us putting them under pressure as in the first half.

Damn, lost the momentum.

Keep it up. This feels like listening to a football match for the first time for ages!

Why? Better than a half-fit Ameobi, surely 89053[/snapback] With more or less three midfield players on the bench it's seems very odd. Though, Luque can't really complain looking back at his recent performances and this being a 6-pointer.