Time for action is now

[Isegrim 8868]

I don't think Hitzfeld can guarantee a trophy because the gap to the top teams is too big.

 

But he had big budgets as well at Dortmund and at Bayern. At Dortmund he got back a couple of German players from Italy (Kohler, Reuter, Sammer, Möller, Riedle). In hindsight there are loads of questions about the financial sanity (especially wages), but the criticism is only faced at the board not the manager. And even if they were close to bancrupt, I know hardly any Dortmund fan who says the feeling of winning the first championship for 32 years and the night in Munich 1997 weren't worth it.

 

At Munich he was allowed to buy the likes of Ballack, Ze Roberto, Deisler, Makaay. The fees might not be as high as those paid in the Premierleague but I think nearly every Bayern player would find easily a place in one of the top English sides.

 

What Hitzfeld has is the winning mentality and the absolutely focus to achieve success. I would give him the Newcastle job every day and I do think he would seriously consider the job because as I said it is very similar to what he had to do with Dortmund. If I were in the position of Fat Fred I would approach him now. That might underterminate the position of Souness. But alas, he is walking on the edge anyway. If Hitzfeld said anything close to "yes" I would sack Souness immidiately.

[Howaythetoon 0]

I don't think Hitzfeld can guarantee a trophy because the gap to the top teams is too big.

 

But he had big budgets as well at Dortmund and at Bayern. At Dortmund he got back a couple of German players from Italy (Kohler, Reuter, Sammer, Möller, Riedle). In hindsight there are loads of questions about the financial sanity (especially wages), but the criticism is only faced at the board not the manager. And even if they were close to bancrupt, I know hardly any Dortmund fan who says the feeling of winning the first championship  for 32 years and the night in Munich 1997 weren't worth it.

 

At Munich he was allowed to buy the likes of Ballack, Ze Roberto, Deisler, Makaay. The fees might not be as high as those paid in the Premierleague but I think nearly every Bayern player would find easily a place in one of the top English sides.

 

What Hitzfeld has is the winning mentality and the absolutely focus to achieve success. I would give him the Newcastle job every day and I do think he would seriously consider the job because as I said it is very similar to what he had to do with Dortmund. If I were in the position of Fat Fred I would approach him now. That might underterminate the position of Souness. But alas, he is walking on the edge anyway. If Hitzfeld said anything close to "yes" I would sack Souness immidiately.

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Cheers Isegrim for that, you've just confirmed my belief that Hitzfeld is the kind of man we need or should be looking at.

 

What in your opinion would he change at Newcastle, could you give me an insight into his methods, training, footballing philosophy etc.

 

I know you have rubbished this in the past and I don't blame you but he did make enquiries about the NUFC job last August, or at least people claiming to be his representitives did but the club said they were only considering British candidates.

 

Is Hitzfeld the type to take that as a clear snub and therefore if we did for example come calling, he'd tell us where to go? That would be a fear of mine.

 

My hope, which I know is daft and very unlikely given the idiots at the club, is that if Souness does get the sack, someone at the club will say 'Hey remember that German guy who expressed an interest before we appointed Graeme, how about him, he's free'.

 

I'd do cartwheels if we appointed Hitzfeld who for me is like Fergie but with a much better brain for tactics.

[Isegrim 8868]

Cheers Isegrim for that, you've just confirmed my belief that Hitzfeld is the kind of man we need or should be looking at.

 

What in your opinion would he change at Newcastle, could you give me an insight into his methods, training, footballing philosophy etc.

 

I don't think Hitzfeld has a special philosophy. His only philosophy is success. Whatever he is doing is very sane and logical (being a former maths teacher).

 

At Dortmund he played with a sweeper or 3-5-2. He transformed Mathias Sammer from an attacking midfielder in a "libero" who was orchestrating the whole team from the back. At Bayern he played 4-4-2 and very often 4-3-3. At Dortmund he rarely changed the team at Bayern he "rotated" with every player getting rested regularly. He always had players who were very important in the hirarch, Sammer at Dortmund, Effenberg at Bayern. At Dortmund he often played very young players, at Bayern the fact that he didn't care about the youth set up did sort of cost him the job.

I can't say a lot about the training as I have never seen it. But a very important person was his assistant Michael Henke (who is now manager of Kaiserslautern so wouldn't come with him). His trainging regime was only openly questioned two times: Once at Dortmund when they had a series of cruciate ligament damages and at the end of his Bayern spell when players were considered unfit. Magath's (a disciplinarian) first job was apparently to "teach them running". But in previous season's the players were fit, but I have never heard about Hitzfeld being a fitness fanatic.

He has the full respect of all his players and I can't remember one having a bad word to say about him. He has the ability to handle difficult characters like Effenberg and especially Basler (who is worse than Bellamy, Dyer and Robert together).

 

I know you have rubbished this in the past and I don't blame you but he did make enquiries about the NUFC job last August, or at least people claiming to be his representitives did but the club said they were only considering British candidates.

 

And sorry, but I will rubbish it again. What do you think would have happened to Hitzfeld after he turned down Germany because of being tired and then taking over a relatively unknown club in England whose state I always have to explain to people. His only option would have been giving back his German passport and promising never to enter the country again.

When being linked with Newcastle he also appeared in a big TV-interview and again said that he won't take a job in the next year. He would have turned out to be the biggest liar if the Newcastle story had made it to Germany - which it never did.

 

Is Hitzfeld the type to take that as a clear snub and therefore if we did for example come calling, he'd tell us where to go? That would be a fear of mine.

Even taking for granted that the approach did happen (but why should a manager of the state of Hitzfeld approach a club and not the other way round???) I can't answer this question. I don't know how stubborn or offended he would be. He is a logical person I said but also he stuck with his decision and turned down all offers for a year (including Real Madrid).

 

My hope, which I know is daft and very unlikely given the idiots at the club, is that if Souness does get the sack, someone at the club will say 'Hey remember that German guy who expressed an interest before we appointed Graeme, how about him, he's free'.

 

I'd do cartwheels if we appointed Hitzfeld who for me is like Fergie but with a much better brain for tactics.

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I wouldn't do cartwheels ... just because I had a knee operation. But I would open a bottle of the fine red wine labeled "Laughing Magpie" I store to celebrate special toon related events.

[Howaythetoon 0]

Excellent stuff Isegrim, I can understand your stance on the Hitzfeld to Toon speculation. Maybe it was something that just interested him, maybe he's the type who looks at many situations which don't really mean much. I.e. just because he's looking, doesn't mean he wants it.

 

Interesting stuff nonetheless. No-one can deny the man obviously has something special about him because his track record is second to none and no manager, regardless of who they are, are 100% perfect in every way.

 

What does concern me is that his one-time assistant, is now in a current job. I always think the role of the assistant or assistant coach is undervalued at clubs. I think O'Neill without his coaching team wouldn't be half the manager he is and that goes for a lot of managers but I guess with the likes of Hitzfeld they have enough about them to build different teams around them to the same levels of success as Fergie seems to have done with first Kidd, and then McClaren and now his current assistant who's name escapes me for some strange reason.

 

(Eeh, what's his name... never mind)

 

Do you think Hitzfeld would like to manage in the Premiership one day Isegrim?

 

If we sack Souness, I'll champion Hitzfeld's cause.

 

Not that it did me any good last time.

[Guest Sima]

Quieroz?

[Howaythetoon 0]

Quieroz?

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Aye that's him.

[Papa Lazaru 0]

What does concern me is that his one-time assistant, is now in a current job. I always think the role of the assistant or assistant coach is undervalued at clubs. I think O'Neill without his coaching team wouldn't be half the manager he is and that goes for a lot of managers but I guess with the likes of Hitzfeld they have enough about them to build different teams around them to the same levels of success as Fergie seems to have done with first Kidd, and then McClaren and now his current assistant who's name escapes me for some strange reason.

 

 

I've said that for ages. Fergie is a top manager, he is not (and he knows it) a top class coach. So he always makes sure he has one and you can guarentee the times when they have failed to win anythign are when he has got rid of the coach (or they chose to leave) and things pick up when he gets the new one in.

 

Whereas at NUFC we seem to think any old fucker can be a coach and that having any talent or skill at the job is irrellivent compared to knowing the manager.

[Guest Sima]

Terry McDermott is the most puzzling thing about Newcastle at the minute.

 

What is his job? What does he do?

[LuckyStar 0]

Anyone know if Souness was in the Owen talks this afternoon? If not, I can smell another juicy conspiracy...

 

"Join us, we'll get rid of Souey and bring in Houllier, Roy Evans, whoever you want..."

[Seggie 0]

Ok I aint a Geordie and I aint here to gloat but Im looking at Souey as a Blackburn fan and what he did for us and what Fat Freddy did for us by ensureing we didn't have to pay him off because he was within weeks of the sack at our club.

 

When Souey first arrived at Ewood we were very dubious and even more dubious when for the last couple of games of our first season in Div 1 he wasn't even at the games in fact nothing improved from the god awful football we were playing that season(in one game We played Crewe and had 40shots on Goal, we scored 0 and lost 1-0).

 

The second season came and we were flying good young players like Duff, Dunn, Jansen the squad was improved by quality signings such as Brad Friedel and prover 1st Division players like Alan Mahon, Marcus Bent. We were on a roll and it was great as we got back into the Premiership.

 

Then things changed we saw Souey's abillity to splash the cash on Unproven crap from inferior Leagues over the next couple of Seasons the First of Which was Grabbi from Serie B whom we paid 7m for but this season we saw him bring in Andy Cole and a few others and we stayed up and won the League cup.

 

we pushed on in the Season after and made signings such as Yorke and Gresko and finnished 6th then everything went wrong.

 

There had been squabbles during that season Souey Sold Dunn, Duff etc and replaced them with players Like Amourouso and the Enigma that is Brett Emmerton he continued to fight with Yorke and Cole and he then bought another great player from the Pub League(SPL) in Barry Ferguson for £7m who got injured and a season later cried off home to the inferiour League.

 

The self destruct button had been pressed, we stayed up then out went Yorke, Cole he took the Armband off Shagger Flitcroft and gave in to his mate Ferguson(Who later pissed off) brought in players like Paul Dickov, Micky Gray and Javier De Pedro(Apparently he could pass the ball like Beckham,He was a fat Bastard who played 45mins of League football against West Brom never ro be seen again), and Morten Gamst Pederson(Granted this was one of Soueys better dealings). Then He fucked off to you lot!!!

 

Now my point to all this is hes done this at your place in under a year there, he uses outdated coaching methods and has crap coaches(We didn't like Saunders much either) he has managed to piss off your better players and replaced them with Pub/championship players he has signed some decent players in Parker and Emre. But its always going to come down to his poor man management skills and his inability to play players in the right position and I can't believe you have only 1 striker in a sadly ageing legend that is Mr Shearer which again was down to Souey's poor organisational skills and poor man managment.

 

If I was to suggest a top British manager to Fat Freddy I'd go with Sam Allardyce granted Bolton don't play pretty football and with cash in hand and having some of the quality you guys have he'd win trophys for you.

 

Sorry for the length its just that the man pisses me off with his Lady Luck and These things even themselves out over the season comments.

[LeazesMag 0]

He has the full respect of all his players and I can't remember one having a bad word to say about him. He has the ability to handle difficult characters like Effenberg and especially Basler (who is worse than Bellamy, Dyer and Robert together).

 

This comment, along with his track record, reflects exactly the type of manager a club like us needs to get in. It's what it's all about and seperates the men from the boys.

[LeazesMag 0]

Good post Seggie, thanks for the insight. You can see some of us think like you and some don't.

 

I don't think Souness will last long though, possibly only Owen can save him, but although I would be obviously happy with that I would be worried about the financial road he has taken us down. Considering we would have spent 48m quid and still have to replace Shearer.

 

I think after reading and getting involved in the debate about Hitzfeld, I would rather miss out on Owen, and get Hitzfeld for the better long term good of the club.

[Papa Lazaru 0]

He has the full respect of all his players and I can't remember one having a bad word to say about him. He has the ability to handle difficult characters like Effenberg and especially Basler (who is worse than Bellamy, Dyer and Robert together).

 

This comment, along with his track record, reflects exactly the type of manager a club like us needs to get in. It's what it's all about and seperates the men from the boys.

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Correct, all around europe there have been and will continue to be players and peopel who are far harder than Bellamy and Robert to handle. Some managers are up to the task, manage them well, get the best out of them on the pitch where it counts and don't act like a combination of a 6 year old child and a wannabe hardman.

[Guest Sima]

Good post Seggie, thanks for the insight. You can see some of us think like you and some don't.

 

I don't think Souness will last long though, possibly only Owen can save him, but although I would be obviously happy with that I would be worried about the financial road he has taken us down. Considering we would have spent 48m quid and still have to replace Shearer.

 

I think after reading and getting involved in the debate about Hitzfeld, I would rather miss out on Owen, and get Hitzfeld for the better long term good of the club.

22018[/snapback]

 

 

Definitely. I dare say Hitzfeld would have his mind on other strikers. For all of our words, you know it's going to be Bruce, O'Leary, Moyes or Shearer

[Howaythetoon 0]

Hitzfeld, I would rather miss out on Owen, and get Hitzfeld for the better long term good of the club.

22018[/snapback]

 

Me too. I think a manager like Hitzfeld would instantly unite the fans and give us a clear indication that we are serious about winning top honours. As a result we would be very patient I feel because we can trust a manager like Hitzfeld because of his track record. Furthermore such an appointment would take away the pressure from the team and indeed the board. All they would have to do is back their man 100% and we would rally behind the whole club.

 

But we all know that Shepherd and Co. wouldn't look to a manager like Hitzfeld which is so-so frustrating because he is the type of manager who would transform the club, the type we should be aiming for and going by Isegrim's comments who I respect as being an honest and somewhat unbiased poster who's knowledge of the German game is first-class, that Hitzfeld would consider the Toon job.

 

So what are we waiting for?

 

He is the type of manager we need and should go for should Souness get the sack which I believe he will do if results do not pick up drastically in the coming matches.

 

The club should go for a top manager with everything they have and be prepared to pay top dollar and give such a man every resource he will need to turn the club into a contender.

 

However if the best we can do is O'Leary or Bruce I say stick with Souness because although better, they are not the right managers nor never will be and for the marginal difference they would make, I don't see the point because a few years down the line, they too will leave with tears streaming down their face, that and a huge payoff.

 

If we sack, we MUST go for the RIGHT man this time and leave no stone unturned or spare no expenses. Even if it meant waiting until the end of the season and bringing in a caretaker manager.