Park Life

Is it the same Lalas of world cup fame?

I think Martins and Owen would actually. They are both decent (or better) in the air from the type of ball Beckham puts in. And, assuming he does come here on loan, I doubt those two will be starting together much next season (in a front two anyway). Haven't the Americans already said no to the loan deal?

Barton is a momentously clever move by Sam. Getting a player with a cloud over him at a silly price. One good season with us and he'll be worth £10m.

They'll sign Owen just as Gerra leaves for Real.

West Ham nailed on innit.

Looking forward to all the mix and match Big Sam signings....Proper mystery tour but rarely money down the drain which is something we sorely need.

...and that clown in the bottom left looks like he's taking a humungous dump.

And the 22% owned by the institutions will ditch their shares for the prices being bandied about by the papers, the fans will sell theirs if for no other reason than to see the back of Shepherd, giving Ashley 71%. is that enough to force Shepherd to sell? I forget whether it's 70 or 75%. Just over 50% will be enough to ditch him as chairman. I beleive he will start to lose interest after that.

He's holding back the whole of N.O. right now. Leazes/Ne5 last stand.

He clearly won't stop till he has full overall control, nothing else makes any business sense. FTR- With that kind of investment he must have a strategy in place and the only one that will see him making money is growing the club based on success. VERY GOOD DAY FOR US.

Another? Was he that good this season. I think it was an ok to quite good season if you factor in stuff like the quality of our football, his first season in a new league/country and his age. But I think that he'll never be that good because his touch and movement is so poor, and I really mean poor. I don't want to slag him off too much as, like I said, I think he did ok and his attitude/workrate on the pitch really impressed me. 11 Premieship goals is just ok though. He's done ok. But his overall game is too weak, especially his 'bobble' first touch.

Is Fortune not a left back? would think he's a better option than Baba I'd take Fortune.

How is it overachieving? By what standard do you judge, when he's had 8 years to run his own personal fiefdom? I guess if Sammy Lee doesn't get 5th now he'll be slated as absolute shite. What about the bloke at Gretna? Has he overachieved? You achieve the potential in your circumnstances. I'll judge Sam on how he does with a year with these players as compared to every other manager that has been given the same affordance. Alternatively, we could take a back step and actually look to see who is out there who really could improve this club over 5 years, not just take the bloke we know wants the job because he turned it down 3 years ago. Any comparison of NUFC to Bolton is way off base. Different players, different chairman, completely different club, different exectations, hell the only thing in common is the Premiership, nothing else at all is the same. You have to ask yourself would Liverpool/Arsenal ever take a chance with Sam? If not why not? His only top flight record is Bolton. Some people think that's a good thing, I don't. Alternatively, If you want untried at the top, why choose Allardyce? Why not anyone else? Why not a completely unexpected and dynamic appointment, like Wenger to Arsenal, Houllier to Liverpool etc etc. And frankly, most of this is down to Fred, so delusions of anything coming good now and attacking any hint of questioning is also foolish. You've still not said what his bad points are though. Come to think of it, he doesn't have many, apart from the glaringly obvious that people seem to think is water under the bridge, even though it isn't even resolved yet My anger at his appointment is the pure bull being spouted about justifying his appointment: 'over-achieved at Bolton' - flawed argument, see above 'best for our circumstances' - he would have been here 3 years ago, don't even pretend Fred has gone for Sam because of circumstances, he is his number one idea of a top flight manager 'backroom staff' - this is basically spin and soundbites, Sam is certainly not the only manager who knows this stuff 'will stand up to Fred' - basically, when it comes down to it, no, he won't. No manager ever has. Ifyou want this, you get a director of football Combined with the fact that yet again, no effort at all has been made to get the right manager, we have taken the easy choice once again. I can't understand why you think he hasn't overachieved with Bolton. Is your criteria for overachivement? Do you have to take Wimbledon from non league to the premiership? The simple fact is that before his arrival Bolton were a first division club with no expectations other than having the odd challenge for promotion and if they did get up battle bravely against relegation. But he did more than this, he took them up, kept them up, established them as a premiership club (similar to Curbishly at Charlton) and then give them a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe and even an outside chance of snatching a Champions League spot. For me and it appears most others, that is what we would consider overachivement. This whole point you have about the fat man wanting him three years ago is irrelevant when you are arguing about why people now are saying he is the best we could get currently. Three years ago I agree few people would have wanted him (although I'm sure almost everyone would have took him over Souness) but we are not in the same position we were then. At that time we had finished 4th, 3rd and 5th in three seasons, qualifying for the 2nd group phase of the champions league and getting to a Uefa cup semi final. At that time we were an attractive proposition. Now we have had three god awful seasons, we are not in europe and we don't have the same amount of transfer funds as we did. We can't expect Europes elite to come kicking our door in so most of us have shifted our expectations of who we can appoint. I agree with your point that any manager should be able to bring in decent backroom staff but the simple fact is that none of our last five or six managers have done this and Allardyce has a succesfull record of it. If he did pick Gary Speed to bring as a coach I would be quite confident that he would be up to the job beacuse Allardyce's previous picks Brown, Lee, McDonald all appear to have been good at the jobs with all three going on to manage their own teams. As for standing up to the fat man, none of us know whether this will ever happen but I don't have any real expectations for it. But I do believe that Allardyce would have set out certain ground rules before he accepted the job that Shepherd must have aquiesced to. This may be a false assumption but we will never know. I also agree that Shepherd is unlikely to have undertaken a thorough europe wide search for our new manager, I think this is something most would concede. But that just makes me all the happier that we got SA in. No one expects fatty to carefully consider his options so we can just be grateful we didn't end up with an appointment like the last two! Absolutely spot on, exactly how I feel. "That's the way...aha aha...I like it...aha aha..."

My god is this still going on? Can't people accept small blessings and be happy for one day?!

He's come at just the right time. Yes. Next Anelka.

Ditto.

Oi that's my line.

The good news just doesn't stop coming !

Good sign.

When did we last have a manager who wasn't interfered with / undermined by Fred, or was allowed to change the entire playing staff before his results were judged? It just will not happen. If Sam can't get the majority of the current players working, he's fooked in my opinion. It will require a big change on Fat Fred's part that's for sure! I think we all know though that the fat bastard reacts to the fans, so if anyone has the resposibility to sit back and not panic (providing we see signs of improvement) then its the fans as this will be transmitted to the chairman. With Villa and O'Neil they hardly set the world alight this year, but people have said their fans could clearly see signs of change, knew that behind the scenes things were being worked on and that he has made them hard to beat, they just lacked the creativity. So the fans haven't been stupid and have backed the manager in what he's doing. If toon fans do the same i think Allardyce can completely overhaul our club for the better in the mid to long term and we will feel the benefits of that for years to come whatever he does. But also i think he'll do enough short term to keep Fat Fred from off his back as well. I'm quietly confident! Aye. He would have already got the assurances from FS or Sam isn't the type to sign. We are on the brink of destiny!

I expected a bigger backlash tbh.

Biggun though.

I remember when he signed and his former manager said and I kid you not, "He is the kind of man who will put his hand in the fire for you". Must have been wetting his pants as he said that.

Nigerian fa said he was what 28?

Quoted for its truth and logic. Might I pose a question here. When was the last time we got in a new manager bang on in line to when the off-season started??? My memory aint what it used to be Love the way fatty went through that whole charade at Claridges, like he hadn't spoken to him weeks ago.