NJS

There are too many bad signs imo. Selections, style, tactics, responses to the way games go, result expectations - eg draw at Derby would have been good. I agree with everybody who has said another change is ludicrous but using that as a reason not to get out of what will become a desperate situation when we are hammered by Blackburn an Arsenal is a worse alternative. Giving time is a good idea but going back to when we were pretty terrible under Bobby the one thing people had was genuine hope that the bloke would change it. There were the odd signs - a bit of football here, a dogged effort there, an occasional sparkling post-match interview - usually honest as fuck. I'd summarise my current feeling as a complete lack of that hope.

That's why its piss poor management which should have conseqences. If they don't want the mess they should be sacked or not promoted. If they think they are "too important" for security they should be chucked out of their buildings instantly. The "good" thing about this is that it might wake a few idiots up - though I'm doubtful.

Does that still stand with everybody having usb memory sticks now? No local drive access, no access to USB ports, no floppy and no CD/DVD is a good starting point. In fact with the price of flash rom, I'd expect business PCs within a couple of years have no HDs and run windows from memory - the HDs on our production PCs now do nothing but host/run the O/S.

I've said before that any so called professional outfit that is infected with a virus should have its IT manager sacked on the spot. Rule 2 in Neil's guide to IT professionalism - no non-home PC should have a CD/DVD writer. Ever. It really is basics.

It might be the case that it was a dodgy attack but..... As I've said before, two blokes fighting shouldn't necessarily be a legal matter. Also in those circumstances "guilt" shouldn't be decided by who comes out the worst - its more important who started it, who threw the first punch and whether the retaliation was "instant" or a cowardly sucker punch after it had calmed down.

At least when they go out today it might make him realise that he only has one thing left to concentrate on for the rest of this season - NUFC. Shola is horrible prospect but don't forget Smith.

Delusional. One of the things that convinced me that Robson had lost the plot was utter bollocks like this.

No and thats my worry - it will be much easier for him to play the "give me time" card if people see a bit of football every now and then. He has the players now compared with Bolton - if his "plan" consists of playing the same way without injecting any kind of resilience (as witnessed so far) then I will upgrade my stance from "worried" to "get rid". The result against Sunderland is one we would normally take - the performance was unacceptable. When we start to lose badly against the good teams will you just shrug and say "I expected that"? Why was the performance unacceptable? First half we were terrible, we missed Butt who's been our best midfielder and was made for games like this. But we came out with far more edge in the second half and didn't lose having gone behind which is unheard of. I don't expect us to lose badly to the good teams, I expect us to make a good fist of it, our best results have come against teams in the top half. But I won't suggest he should be sacked if we do lose them. Especially if we're still higher than we finished last season, we've done better than we did against the same teams last season, and are above the Mackems. He picked a team to stop Sunderland playing - a tactic which failed miserably and only their piss-poor finishing stopped us from getting hammered. I also expected more from him than a team that starts playing when they are a goal down - though we could still easily have lost but for poor finishing again. I do expect us to give a good game to the good teams at home - Pompey was a bad day I'm willing to forget - but if his attitude is to go to Derby, Reading and Sunderland in such a negative manner then away trips to the better teams will be disasters.

No and thats my worry - it will be much easier for him to play the "give me time" card if people see a bit of football every now and then. He has the players now compared with Bolton - if his "plan" consists of playing the same way without injecting any kind of resilience (as witnessed so far) then I will upgrade my stance from "worried" to "get rid". The result against Sunderland is one we would normally take - the performance was unacceptable. When we start to lose badly against the good teams will you just shrug and say "I expected that"?

Sven is a better manager than Allardyce. I don't see the relevance of that though. Its surely about degrees though. Theres nothing wrong with what Gemmill says about trying things and it taking time in theory but the fact that other managers have the same issues and are doing said tinkering with better results in terms of results and style then I think its worth stating that I expect better from someone who is supposed to be that good. I would add that I see "giving him time" as two streams - yes he should be judged over a seasons or more work but so many day to day mistakes should be eligible for judgement just as much.

The point on Ramos is stupid but I notice you avoid the Sven one. I also made the point yesterday about Keane's team being just as much strangers. They may have 8 less points than us but have actually played good teams.

hallelujah I was reminded at times of a couple of the games against the Monkey's Heed's teams when we were outfought.

I'd take Mourinho over Allardyce too, but we're Newcastle United and neither would be interested. I think Allardyce was the best we could have got with Shepherd in charge - I just think Ashley's wealth MIGHT mean we could now do better. I know its a cliche but I'm also not sure if Sam is suited to spending big which is what Asley might also have in mind.

If Russia fail next week and Hiddink said he fancied a return to club football and there was a chance we could get him how many would give a second's thought to going for it? Not me. I voted not sure btw.

He was much better 2nd half like. That isn't saying a lot though. Oh yeah - first half was wank - I'm just desperate to take any positives.

I slightly disagree on Barton - I thought in the last quarter of the game he started to look a bit like a footballer - I'm hoping that was a sign of things to come.

Taylor's youth won't stop people realising he's as error prone as Bramble was forever.

I think I've said before that a "write-off" sounds okay until you have to watch it - or spend 10 minutes shitting yourself when you're 1-0 down to the Mackems. I work with a Blackburn fan who gets to a few games - he insists they play really good football - thats ones difference.

I agree but considering the next few games I can see the pressure growing. This "best start for years" has been achieved with fixtures against 1 possibly 2 half decent teams at most (Pompey/Man C) I think on the whole, the matches we have won are matches we should have won, and the matches we have lost you can argue are matches we should have got something from, not overly impressed at all so far. I have to say I was slightly "fooled" by the competence of the pre-season - probably as a reaction to the difference to Roeder/Souness but now the original doubts I had about style are starting to bang on the doors in my mind. I think he needs a good transfer window to get anything worthwhile out of this season.

That was because Barton and Emre actually got the ball and started to play - we needed more than 5/10 mins of that.

I agree but considering the next few games I can see the pressure growing. This "best start for years" has been achieved with fixtures against 1 possibly 2 half decent teams at most (Pompey/Man C)

Considering the first half a draw is the best we can hope for. Also Keane has as many new players as us with a similar lack of chance to gel - maybe they aren't as good but at least he gets them to play football. Maybe by April we'll have a manager who can pick the right team, send them out with a plan, get them playing with passion, and playing football. I don't care whether thats Allardyce or not.

Yes I was there - Steve Hardwick sort of fumbled a cross between his legs and poisonous little shite with a dodgy tache scored. We had half the Roker end - about 8000 - this was before it was reduced - it was a pretty big end then.

why? Because it ruins his theory that "purebloods" from the city area don't fraternise with the enamy.

I'm willing to give him time but for his part he has to stop coming out with statements which REALLY piss me off like saying draws at Derby and Reading would have been good results. Statements like that try my patience.