Deano

Nothing special but a good away 1st half performance. Actually looked quality on the ball at times, most notably Coloccini who has been outstanding!

Get the fuck in!! Cheers ulstar mag ur a goodun!

Nolan out? .co.uk have him down as playing? Lineup is... ---Harper--- ---Simpson--Williamson--Coloccini--Van Aanholt--- ---Guthrie---Nolan---Smith---Gutierrez--- -----Carroll---Best----- Subs: Krul, Kadar, Hall, Raylor, Ranger, Pancrate and Donaldson 2-1 Carroll and Guthrie

Dodgy Lasagne before the last game of the season a couple of years back wasn't it? I think that was suspected but wasn't it put down to a viral gastroenteritis after they examined the food from the Hotel they stayed in and found nothing, didn't they? I recall the joke "The lab report from the hotel restaurant is back. They found sour grapes, hard cheese and tough shit".

The way i see it is if we are to be "debt free" then we need a new owner to come in and pay 100mil (presuming that will be the price) + about 150mil that Ashley has pumped into us for running costs and debts....and then the new owner must just write that off and not be bothered about it. Not going to happen imo. Unless of course that Anil Ambani or another money drenched middle eastern business man buys us.

Love it!

The best run club in the PL imho is Aston Villa...thing is with them they are pretty much at their full potential in terms of size. Everton are pretty well run and maybe have more scope for growth. Spurs *SPIT* seem to be ran well but like Villa are pretty much at full potential. The clubs are what we should be trying to base ourselves on in terms of what they have done...slow steady growth, growth that is solid, secure and can be sustained. The difference with us and them clubs is we are already a bigger club and quite possibly have alot more potential. We are the 2nd biggest club in the country in my opinion....yes Liverpool, Arsenal and Forest have more history but in terms of size, support and potential only ManUre are bigger. Which makes it all the more frustrating that we are where we are. How the mighty have fallen...but we will rise again!

Saphron does some amazing curries like...pricey though but worth it! Is there a TGI's in town? Bit of a contrast to saphron in everyway possible but iv always enjoyed myself whenever iv went to a TGI's.

Its absolute dog shite. I ordered it because iv completed Assassins Creed and apparently it was set around the same time as the game...the Templars story is an intreaguing one. At 34p i dont care if its shit But a few people said t was good...we'll see. Anyone know any good films about crusaders or warriors...stuff like 300 and Troy? Watched Apolocolypto again recently...fuckin awesome film!!

Well, I'm sorry, but I knew from the start he was was going to literally destroy our club. I wasn't the only one either for that matter. P.S. When I wrote stuff LM used to agree with, I was also one of his favourites poster too . P.P.S. All that dreamy stuff that LM wrote about Souness (after his initial OK start) never happened, he was stitched up. Fair enough but i think the majority of fans were hopeful when we brought Sounness in after being at Liverpool. But like i said earlier i maybe dont know as much as some on here in the sense iv only been watching football for 18 years where alot of you have been for alot more there would of known better what to expect from Souness? The point remains though...FS fucked up and tried to redeem himself by throwin coin at Sounness and it didnt work...simples. As for your remark about agreeing with LM you will find that on the whole i do not but i respect his opinions. Even though i may not sahre most of them they are better than some on here. As for LM saying what he did......well....i was suprised myself.

cringe. What? In fairness this board was better years ago and has lacked "good" debates for a while.

Just ordered Kingdon of Heaven off Amazon for 34p + P&P like. Ment to be a good film.

That Schmeichal, Cantona and Ronaldo were shit too!

Love you too mukka

you could however, appoint me. Edit. Its a matter of having bricks in place. A good manager with a shit board will move on. A good board, when they find a good manager, will have success. A good board doesn't appoint the likes of Souness and Roeder in their quest for a good manager. Liverpool appointed Souness. They also promoted Fagan, and Roy Evans, and a double act with Houillier Chelsea promoted Vialli. Arsenal appointed Rioch. Liverpool appointing Souness was completely different to us appointing him. He was young, fresh, and a legend of their glory years. Vialli won trophies with Chelsea. Houillier did with Liverpool. Fagan won a european cup. they also all took over clubs in the habit of winning trophies. The principle was that they were ALL a similar risk. Would you care to stop and think about how many clubs have appointed managers that have had the sack from other clubs or promoted someone from within ? It is when people like you make out we are the only ones to do this, which makes me smile. Because - at the end of the day, we were the 5th most qualified club for europe over the period of the Halls and Shepherd, and they saved a club from going bust and with one foot into the 3rd division into what that. Don't put words into my mouth. You seem to think it makes it okay if others did the same. Why don't you go to a Portsmouth forum and assure them that they've been ran by good chairmen because other clubs have also had financial difficulty in the past? why don't you ask them if, on the day they won the FA Cup, they should have been worrying about being taken over by someone who would fuck them up in a few years time. Fuck them up? There's nothing wrong with them though. What about all the other clubs that aren't in the premiership Portsmouth has been ran superbly They've averaged more F.A cups in the last 10 years than Shepherd! You're losing it now. What has happened at Pompey has no relevance whatsoever to Newcastle United. You may like painting a doomsday scenario, but we are twice the club Pompey are. ... So to win an f.a cup with half the club we are means that their chairman at the time must have been more competent than Shepherd? LM he has a point

They spent their budget on Woodgate, somebody either decided that the team was good enough to stay where it was and/or the players who WOULD improve were not available, or someone decided that no more money could be made available. I would never knock anybody for showing ambition in football. Never, that is what it is all about and why you are football supporters. 9mil is a seasons budget for a CL team...come on mate!? That team DID need improving. It was more likely the case that SJH and FFS wanted to TRY and get away with a season of spending less and more in their pockets. Like i said it backfired and they tried to redeem themselves with Souness who royally fucked up and would explain why FFS went over his head with some signings...trying to fix the problem he caused himself.

I think you're spot on tbh leazes I don't. I remember that summer. We felt like we were closing in on something special. A couple of big players and we're challengers. We signed Lee Bowyer. From there... downhill. We signed Woodgate in the January 2003 for 9m quid, instead of the summer when we may have had serious competition and the price would have gone up accordingly. Out of the budget, or forward planning, or whatever you want to call it. I hope you aren't going to criticise them for not spending money they didn't have during that summer, instead of trying to continue to build while exercising sensible financial constraints ? So you're saying it's sensible to not spend money we don't have after a season when we've just qualified for the Champions League, but acceptable to do so when not in the Champions League and Souness is our manager? Sigh. They back their chosen appointment. Understand ? Why would you appoint a manager then choose not to back him...errrmm....we have an owner now who does that very thing, unfortunately. In any walk of life, you appoint someone to a job and back him. Don't you ? Get it ? Probably not. So why didn't they get into debt and back Robson that summer instead of getting into debt and backing Souness? Is that a good decision? in the summer of 2003 ? They spend the budget in the January on Woodgate ie forward planning and all of that.... Did they have the money at that time, that they later gave to Souness ? You can't have it both ways ie slate them for not spending money they didn't have, then slate them for doing it In hindsight [great thing this] maybe the booing of Sir Bob for only finishing 5th by the mongs sums up a lot of the expectation [and lack of appreciation] at that time .... But they could have got into debt for Robson in the summer (buying a player in the prior January doesn't justify not strengthening in the summer) but instead chose to do so for Souness. Was this a good decision? Yes or no. Forget the personalities. Is it a good idea to go into debt and aim for the Champions League ? My opinion is that if you want to compete at the highest levels like this you have to be prepared to go into debt or lose some money. The personalities don't come into it, and I would not criticise them for trying it either in the event of it going wrong. Are you going to answer your own question, without the personalities, this is a principle here, because you either back your chosen appointment or you do not. Is it not more sensible to get into debt whilst in the Champions League in order to maintain Champions League status (and push for honours) instead of spending little, then subsequently finishing 5th, sacking the manager and throwing money at a new manager in order to try and claw back into the Champions League? Personalities is important when considering that the manager that we threw these large borrowed sums at was Souness. Of course personalities are important...No Fergie no ManU...No Wenger...No Arsenal. We had our chance with KK and BR and for all i agree FS and JH were ambitious and wanted the club to do well, at the same time they were also thinking about how much more they were going to pay themselves when in the CL. Your point about not spending more while in the CL is paramount...of course that should of been the case, spend more to maintain what we had. When we finished 5th FS realised he has fucked up and inturn threw borrowed money at Sounness hoping and praying that the gamble would pay off, which i agree with LM in saying that is what he should of done. Thing is FS and us fans didnt know Sounness was going to be an unmitigated disaster....FS gambled and lost and that is why we were in the state MA found us in. In hindsight if we hadnt got rid of SBR and gave him that money to spend or even just a different manager to Souness things coulda, woulda, shoulda been different. In a nutshell...FS and JH did have the clubs best interests at heart but not at the expence of their own. They realised there mistakes and tried to speculate to accumilate but unfortunatly for us it didnt pay off. Thats all history now though and is irrelevant to where we are now...all we can do is hope that the guy who takes us off FMA hands is the kinda chairman with moolah and nouse that we have long deserved and waited for.

all bow down to me You and many others with very good points. Iv not contributed even though i do have an opinion as i feel i may not know as much as some of you lot. Very good read though!

Im fuckin delighted!!

This has turned into one of the best threads on here in a LONG time!

I like that ALOT...I think what we get wont be too far away from that.

so let's see now 4-1 v coventry 3-0 v preston that was 2 piss easy home games wasnt it and yet the pessimistic tools on here gave me pelters for saying it - let's face it, there are too many clueless numpties on here - there are probably some who still think WBA and Forest will finish in the top 2 ffs How many points do you think are needed for promotion? 14 games left, 6 at home including Forest next month but more importantly 8 away, the trickiest of which look Boro and possibly an improving Reading, which is our game in hand on Forest.We've got 63 points and there are 18 points up for grabs at home....dare we hope for 14? which takes us to 77....how many do we need to pick up away from home?.... the 6 home games will yield 16 points - may have to settle for a draw amongst the remainder but will certainly end the season with unbeaten home record. away from home will yield a minimum of 16 points - 5 wins, 2 draws and a loss. 32 plus 62 = 94 and title. get your money on it now. credit where it's due. Can't see us winning 5 away games though. The promotion team of 1993, and 1984 too, is still better than this lot and would slaughter it. What's your forecast for next season, assuming we aren't sold. Far more important. With Hughton...Relegated With new manager and a few new players, lower midtable. New board, new manager and a few quality new players...comfortable midtable.

don't think Ashley signed any of them. Smith, Nolan, Guti, Collocini, all high earners and all signed under Fat Mikes watch. not by him. He just wrote the cheques. (which normally a chairman would get praise for) Don't pretend you don't understand what's being said, pedantic twat. Ashleys reign is pretty much indefensible. Grow up nobody is pretending anything. You can't blame Ashley for writing cheques period. It is not his fault managers and others tasked with spending that money made a fuck up of it. With regard to his reign, an unemotional analysis would be needed but that won't happen here and now. However his reign was decent in my eyes untill it went tits up. I like mort (as most did at the time), I liked the links they tried to develop in the community with regard to family sections, singing sections etc. I liked the three year deal, I liked that they tried to put some structure into a very unstructured club. I liked an owner who didn't want to spout shit all the time. I liked that he brought keegan back. Had that last decision being better (as much as I liked it), I think we would be in a lot better position today. Golden!

I assume because the club isnt self financing. Though how I'll never know. Because we are in the CCC and revenue is alot less than what it would be in PL. Yeah, but overheads are much lower, we get a support payments for dropping down and sold off a fair few players for decent cash? We had people pay for 3 seasons tickets giving good up front revenue, we've supposedly paid off / refinanced loans so we pay less interest and we still pull in 40k people per week. We've been on the TV more times than most teams this season also. See my point? When you put it like that mate i agree completely tbh. It then makes me ask why the fuck didnt we spend more in the window!? Oh yeah because he's a cunt. Well, tbf, the window wasnt that bad and short term I agree with sensible spending. Im more worried long term. Will Ashley have the same policy if we get promoted? Still the £15K cap? I fear his aim is to find young talent, hope to develop them and then sell for a good profit with a sell on clause just in case. All this while "surviving" in the Prem. Whoopdefuckingdo. Aiming for Europe I doubt we will be. Well i do think when we go up he will increase the wage max to about 40k which is about right imo. But being a selling club is worst case scenario...worryingly its quite likely while he is in charge.

32 Games gone, 14 to go, 6 at home and 8 away...we stand on 66 points but how many more do we need and where are they going to come from? Watford (A)...Win...3 Barnsley (H)...Win...3 Boro (A)...Draw...1 Scunthorpe (H)...Win...3 Bristol City (A)...Draw...1 Doncaster (A)...Lose...0 Forest (H)...Win...3 Peterborough (A)...Win...3 Sheff Utd (H)...Win...3 Blackpool (H)...Win...3 Reading (A)...Lose...0 Plymouth (A)...Win...3 Ipswich (H)...Win...3 QPR (A)...Win...3 18 Points at Home 14 Points Away 98 Points in total