Did we dodge a bullet? Well the fact that Remy’s mind was swayed by a wad of extra notes would suggest so. Likewise would the rumours that he just fancied staying in bed a bit longer rather than meeting with NUFC officials but ultimately time will tell.
Personally I’m over it. Move on to the next one, and quickly. However there is one thing that came out of Remy’s move to QPR that has made me wonder about our transfer policy and the continued success of it. Is it possible that we’ve been outdone by our own shrewdness in the transfer market? Are we now at a point where things need to be done differently to avoid the same situation happening again?
Now not for one minute am I suggesting we should have suddenly matched what QPR offered Loic Remy to try and get him to sign on with us. It would be stupidity to lay out that much in wages and make a player who has barely hit top form in a few seasons and is untested in the Premier League one of our highest earners right from the word go. However I refer you to words from Harry Redknapp when he revealed that the deal was all but done between QPR and Remy.
“Newcastle United wanted him and Graham Carr doesn’t make too many mistakes. Graham’s got good judgement.”
And there, for me anyway, is part of the problem. We have a Chief Scout who seems to be widely respected within the game who has done a cracking job in alerting us to some quality players over the past few seasons. It’s pretty clear his niche or preference is in the French market as that is where we seem to look for most of our business and it’s worked when you look at some of the players we’ve managed to pick up that would have cost a lot more with a little less knowledge. I’m talking players like Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Papiss Cisse as examples.
It’s not impossible that the work he has put in for United has not gone unnoticed elsewhere. As Redknapp says, Carr doesn’t get much wrong when it comes to rating players so is it not possible that as soon as other clubs become aware of our interest they suddenly crank up their own relatively safe in the knowledge that if we’re interested then it’s probably worth them being interested also?
Of course this is where we hit the buffers with our transfer policy and the steadfast refusal to deviate from a strict wage structure that has been put in place. We find a player, put the legwork in, scout them, watch them and then, when the time is right, we bid for them and usually get along the line of signing them before another club pops up that will offer more money or perhaps more incentive, such as Champions League football or something like that meaning that ultimately we lose out.
For our transfer policy to work there needs to be secrecy, but the problem is that the secrecy has been blown by our success. Clubs are basically not scouting players, they are scouting our scouts and taking action on it. I’ve mentioned Remy in this article but he isn’t the best example as it’s well documented that Harry Redknapp wanted him at Tottenham, but is it not possible that our actions alerted QPR to the availability of the player?
We need to get back to how it was a few seasons ago. Suddenly the press have a pretty good grasp of our targets and actually get more right than they have done for a while, but these leaks need to stop if we are to see more Ben Arfa’s and Cabaye’s turn up at St James’ Park.
And they need to stop soon!
Is this another example of what you’re talking about toonsy? We make a bid and then another team steps in with a better bid. Since we won’t go above our pre-set limit on a player we will lose this one as well won’t we? How will this plan work for us in the long run, or the short run for that matter?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Remy says, “The finance didn’t come into it, because Newcastle offered me a very good contract as well. It’s in no way a decision based on financial reasons. It was not based on money in any way.” That ties in with what Pards is saying.
“I think Harry is someone who can get me to improve as a footballer both technically and tactically. He can help me progress.” That ties in with Pardew being useless, and the suggestion that Pardew would not have him playing down the middle.
Pardew probably explained that he would expect him to play on the wing and track back to full back at times! What is that about? Who wants to see Cisse, Ba, or Shola defending at full back? Only Pardew! That’s why we’re in the mess, we’re in. It’s why players are leaving and players aren’t coming. 🙄
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Will we ever again decide to outbid another team for a player we really want? If not what kind of squad will we end up with? A group made up of a list of Carr’s third, fourth and fifth choicers? How good would such a team be? Let’s hope we don’t find out.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Georgio@67 😆
Geordie Deb(Quote)
To those grumbling about us not entering a bidding war with WHU for Haidara?! – how much do you actually know about him? – is he worth £3.5m or more?
B&B – Redknapp himself stated that Remy didn’t even have the decency to meet him when he was in Marseille the other week – if he thought that much of him, why the hell would he show him such disrespect. Also, it was Tony Fernades who spoke with Remy and arranged £80k p/w before playing Fifa 12 with him – Redknapp was never part of it!. I’m not quite as ready to believe the word of a player who declined to meet the man who’ll change his footballing life for the better, or chose to lie in rather than meet with the club who had the decency to make him a very good finacial offer.
Further to that mate, if you look back at the signings of Cabaye, Cisse and Santon – they all credited Pardew as one of the main reasons they came to NUFC.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well said Sharpy
3hourswasted(Quote)
I’m not interested in us entering a bidding war for Haidara Sharpy but I am interested in improving the team’s chances for avoiding relegation mate. At what point are we going to actually bring someone in at CB or forward? The end of transfer windows hasn’t exactly been a good time for us for a while now so why are we sitting doing nothing again? Big deals may be underway now of course. I certainly hope so. Perhaps Pardew should take note of Adkin’s sacking as well. I don’t think Adkins had an 8 year contract but he did have his team above us. Can’t tell you how frustrated I am with this window. The impression I get of our managament is a rabbit frozen in the headlights. Often that ends badly for the rabbit.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Good comments about the Remy deal @79 Sharpy by the way. It just shows how low agents, players and even owners have sunk. The air of desperation is terrible now. Of course we tried the same stunt with Bryan Ruiz a while back didn’t we? Or was that all bollocks from Llambias? The man says so little of value mixed in with his drunken tirades its hard to get any meaning out of it. Just can’t see us really getting anywhere with Llambias in there to **** things up.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Sharpy – I didn’t hear that Redknapp had said that. I though he had a long standing interest in him and had met him previously. If true, that’s on a par with some of Pardew’s classics. You go after a player, slag him off for not meeting you, and then pay him a fortune to sign in what is a massive gamble. It gets their relationship off to a good start.
“if you look back at the signings of Cabaye, Cisse and Santon – they all credited Pardew as one of the main reasons they came to NUFC”. Not financial reasons there then? I forgot that Pardew is so well respected in management with his wealth of managerial achievements that he is well known on the continent and players consider it a major factor when making a decision.
Do you think Pardew could get Remy to improve technically and tactically? I know which manager I’d rather play for.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
We are in a real bind now. To what level of spending are we committed? Is it a level which will keep us in the bottom 10 indefinitely as it appears now? If our salary cap remains around 40-50K a week can we be competitive in the Prem? What maximum will we have for salaries next season if we stay in the Prem considering the new TV contract starts then? Will we bring in a few youngsters in the summer and sell our best assets in Krul, Ben Arfa, Cabaye etc., reap huge rewards as with Carroll and then hope to cling to 16th or 17th place as a strategy? That will certainly start to fill Ashley’s pockets again but as a measure of our football ambition how should it sit with supporters? I think we will have our answers by the end of the summer but it’s a long time to wait.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I can’t really understand the Ashley football business model. It seems clear we want to spend at about the level of Wigan but we want to succeed at the level of Spurs or at least Everton. Have we put in place the management team to achieve this? I would say this season offers some evidence that this isn’t the case. Do we have an owner committed to finding the best manager and managing director he can get to improve the club? I would say the evidence indicates not sadly. So where are we headed with our current setup. Pretty much where we are now unfortunately for the supporters.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 – yeah mate, I’m equally frustrated but we have to try and keep a balance to that. We need players in and quick, but Pardew has said that today. Realistically tho, paying £3.5m plus for Haidara who give me the impression we’d started to panic buy – and that’s not a good path to head down.
B&B – I’m sure money would have also played its part mate, I’m not that naive, but players seem to speak highly of Pardew and have a good respect for him. Just look at how Benny spoke of Pardew in his PSG interview
Sharpy17(Quote)
I can see what your saying but remy wasnt part of the Carr scouting..
Harry has been sniffing him out for ages and the fact hes a big player, I think every manager would of knew of his availability.
But we hire Carr to spot players then we let other clubs make better offers for them.
I said this the other day when referring to Carr being redundant here now.
mark(Quote)
“Our game plan that we had last year and the way we played might need to change to just make sure that we continue being a stable Premier League side.
“For us, it’s now about getting the right complement of players and making sure we’re strong and put some excitement on that football pitch between now and the end of the year, because in the first half of the season I don’t think it’s been good enough.”
This suggests we’re still using the same game plan as last year, but that might need to change. It might not need to change. The game plan up to now, the one we might need to change or might not need to change, wasn’t about getting the right complement of players and making sure we were strong and exciting. But the game plan that we might or might not need to change to is about that.
I don’t need any help on the last bit “in the first half of the season I don’t think its been good enough”. However, if anyone’s got some suggestions for the rest …
By the way, if you’re not sure Alan, it definitely hasn’t been good enough.
“Qu’est ce que c’est?” It would be a real pity if these pearlers got lost in translation to Remy.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
People are reading too much into the Carr comments. Redmnapp has been watching Remy for yonks. I think he was just highlighting that if Carr has been circling atiund this player, he is obviously agood buy. Nothing more than that really.
I also think we ought to be spreading our scouting net further afid than France. Isnit because MA wont give us the budget to afford more good scouts? Carr cant be everywhere at once. It takes time to build up an extensive knowledge of a particular nation’s prospects and the longer that same scout looks elsewhere, the less they know about their country of expertise.
Shamrock(Quote)
G2 – where has this suggestion of a £40-50k salary cap come from mate?
As for Ashley’s business model, Everton haven’t spent a fortune over the last 5+ yrs, they have just been able to pick up the right player, at the right price, at the right time mate.
For me, our mistake was not taking advantage of the free transfer market in the summer. There were players available then at a very low price that could have made a huge difference IMO.
But, if you look at our squad on the official site, we have the numbers. Hopefully this season will make the board realise that whilst we have numbers, we just don’t have the quality and that needs addressing certainly in the summer, with as many as 7 getting moved on and replaced.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy – I’m not suggesting you’re naive. Money is no doubt the main factor. However, very few, if any, players say that. They look for other secondary reasons, the closer to the truth the better. Certainly, those secondary reasons have more than a hint of truth to me.
How did Benny compliment Pardew? If he was put on the spot in an interview, he wouldn’t slag him off. Did he speak of his tactical skill and how much he’s improved his game with his words of advice?
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Inread the full translation of the recent Benny interview and found no evidence of ringing endorsements about Pardew. He spoke highly of the club feeling like home, the fans giving him love etc etc but when asked didectly about Pardew’s influence he aimply akipled over the question. Either he misheard the question or chose not to answer, but there was no acknowledgement of Pardew being a good man manager or tactician. I posted the link in the last article to the full translated interview.
Shamrock(Quote)
*he simply skipped* over the question. Bloody phones no good for typing. 👿
Shamrock(Quote)
On Adkins’ sacking – what a bloody disgrace 😯 The bloke has done a sterling job. I feel sorry for him and sorry for the fans. Disgraceful.
Shamrock(Quote)
“Either he misheard the question or chose not to answer, but there was no acknowledgement of Pardew being a good man manager or tactician.”
Thats coz he’s not.. he plays hoofball..
mark(Quote)
I agree.
Shamrock(Quote)
B&B – I wasn’t suggesting you we’re calling me naive as such mate. I think most, if not all tell afew porkies in football, but look at the earlier post re the Saint fans on Adkins sacking, even they had warm comments for Pardew.
Re Benny, he wasn’t put on the spot mate. I think he was asked something like ‘would you ever like to play in France again?’ and he replied saying he was commited to a relegation battle with NUFC and owed Pardew a lot and that he and the players were all ready to fight for him – or words to that effect. But in short, he didn’t even have to mention Pardew in the answer to the question he was asked.
I’m not trying to convince you to like or rate the bloke if you don’t mate. I’m just pointing out that some do rate him, and rate him quite highly to be fair.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Man what a shocker with this Adkins sacking. I may be wrong, but I think the lad brought them up with back to back promotions. They absolutely BATTERED us recently, and put in a great come back midweek against Chelsea…and this is his reward !?. The same old story of an exotic foreigner maybe going to come in and turn around the fortunes of a club. Give me a break. It sounds as if Southampton have a really obnoxious and delusional owner who hasn’t a clue about football.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Even if we stay up, the same old **** will start in the summer, with our best players being speculated about and perhaps being tempted away. The two players I see really in the danger zone for Ashley’s sweaty mitts are Krul and Hatem Ben Arfa, with Santon not far behind.
In the mean time Padrew has to make this all work somehow ?
Perhaps the straw that broke the camels back really was the disappointing way we went about handling the Europa League ? We bust a gut to get there, then treat the tournament with disdain. I wonder what the senior pros make of all this, cos at the end of the day wasn’t Jonas spouting a few weeks ago that this is what players strive for. Then the bloke doesn’t get a game … 😕 Bizarre really.
Munich Mag(Quote)
The legendary Pep (renamed “Sepp”, Bavarian for Joseph) Guardiola will be joining FC Bayern at the end of the season. What an absoluet coup for the Bundesliga. Immense ! 🙂 Cannot wait 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
I’d argue Bayern is a much more attractive prospect than Chelsea or Man City. Especially with the strength of the teams around them proving solid competition…
You would have to be mad to pick Chelsea over Bayern imo.
Shamrock(Quote)
MM @ 99 I said many times that the players that knocked their **** in to get us into the Europa lge would be pissed that they couldn’t actually get playing in it because we had to field 2nd string and kids because we had to try to keep our best players for the prem because we hadn’t enough strength in depth, a few told me I was talking **** that it was only the Europa 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Sharpy – The Saints fans gave Pardew a warm welcome, but he was only there just over a year. They have seen him go on to take us to fifth.
You say some do rate him. I’m just not sure there’s much, if any, evidence of that. The Benny interview doesn’t say much. Which players, past or present, have praised his managerial skill? I’m not saying there aren’t any, but I can’t recall any.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Shamrock, FC Bayern are absolutely steeped in football tradition, Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer at the helm, Ulli Hoeness, Karl Heinz Rummenigge directors and Paul Breitner in the scouting network. They are financially in a fantastic position, and can buy players at will. I think they have an edge over the PSG’s Johnny -come-latelys, and that’s just great. The Bundesliga is growing in stature imo.
I’m not sure if they have what it takes to win the Champs League this year, but they’ll be there or there abouts.
Actually as you point out, Chelsea have no tradition as such, they just got really lucky in picking up a gazillionaire owner who believes in his project and finances it accordingly.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Big D, for all “Spin Pardew” talks a really good job, as you say, the players who bust a gut last season must be looking around at how we are flapping in the league, in the cup, in the Europa League, in the transfer market and wondering wtf is going on here ? I think Pardew got REALLY lucky with a couple of signings, Tiote, Cabaye and Ba but has failed miserably to build on it. For all I really dislike Llambias, I genuinely think that Pardew needs some help on the footballing side, maybe a director who knows his way around the league to back him up a bit. We seem to have too few football people at the club.
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM I would say we need a lot more backroom staff coach’s etc as for a biggish prem team we don’t have many, I do believe if we got a football man instead of Lambastad I think that would also be a cracking move but can’t see it happen.
Big Dave(Quote)
B&B – we could to and fro all night and get nowhere fast mate, as I say, I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I just wish the board had of backed him in the summer so there were no excuses and we could judge him on merit.
Personally I think he had the team playing some really good football, this season has been shocking. I know there’s been injuries as well but every team suffers injuries, but he was let down by the board in the summer. Had we got him his players and we were still playing bad I’d be calling for his head if we were in the same boat. But with his own players, who knows?!
Sharpy17(Quote)
Big D, someone posted on here a while back listing the specialist coaching staff at a club like Arsenal, specialist goalie coach etc etc. That’s the way a professional side go about things, and although we cannot compete with these clubs, I have a feeling we are a little thin on the ground. I get the feeling that the people associated with the club maybe don’t have the wherewithall to make that step up ? At the end of the day we are just a wee club in the north 😆
I wonder if Allardyce has his huge crew of nutritionists etc etc with him at West Ham ?
ffs who CAN we compete with with our plastic billionaire at the helm 👿
Munich Mag(Quote)
Got about 5 inches of snow down here in shields,what chance we might get a few days to sort ourselves out with a postponed game? Hows the weather up in the Toon?
gg63(Quote)
Sharpy @ 107 I agree 100%, I do have questions over Pards ability etc etc but on this season so far I think there has been too many negative factors that have went against him and the team
Big Dave(Quote)
So now West Ham have hijacked our bid on Hadiera 🙄 😳 😆 It’s like a bad joke now , Can’t even snare a young prospect let alone a quality player ,oh hum .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Weather has been horrific here today ,heading up north now , postponed game a big possibility I reckon lads. 😕
KIMTOON(Quote)
Was it the boro who cancelled a match because of snow when they had a **** load of injured players ,wasn’t the ref a boro fan if I remember right.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim,
We all know that Ashley’s opening bid is his last 😉
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
MM yeah BSA has his full backroom squad I was watching an interview on one of the footie programmes with him, so if the hammers can afford it 😯 it’s not as if the extra backroom staff cost a fortune in footie terms, I would hazard a guess that there combined wages wouldn’t even pay a senior player
Big Dave(Quote)
Sharpy17, agree 100% we should have struck from a position of strength in the summer and recruited a couple of good players to keep the momentum going. That is my worry now, we are so gash we just cannot get any momentum going, and that is critical if we are going to avoid relegation. At the end of the day the players are paid astronomical sums to perform, but of they are not being stretched, physically and mentally, then you end up in a blip, and that is where we are now.
Must say I tend to disagree with you regarding the good football. I don’t think we have ever played good football under Padrew, and the great wins were more a victory of strength of will of the group, topped off with the brilliance of Ba, Cisse and HBA and Cabaye. We have never ever played samba football as such in my opinion.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Wish someone would hijack Ashley Kim and hypnotise the useless **** into being a decent owner with some vision,coz im not seeing a great deal of that from him
gg63(Quote)
Kim,
Are you at SJP tomorrow ❓
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
If the game is called off tomorow will it be such a bad thing ? I’d probably prefer to get the game out of the way and the three points in the bag NOW so we can go to Villa on a high…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Kimtoon hoy Ashley in that hole in your back garden that Pardew dug 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
Fancy a 1-1 draw tomorrow.
Can’t see us scoring 2 and certain that we will concede 😥
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
Sorry, went off to work off some frustration Sharpy @90. There has been no official statement that claims we have a wage cap of 40-50K a week but everything I read suggests we don’t go above 50K a week for incoming players. Certainly we didn’t offer above 50K a week to Remy. I’m not saying we should have but I still ask how do we improve the side if we can be constantly outbid by other teams, and not top 6 teams either? I just don’t see it happening. We can’t just rely on bringing in youngsters when we’re so close to relegation yet other than Remy that’s all I see being mentioned. We need to see something very solid done in this window or I fear the worst. Surely Ashley understands by now he is losing any good will he had built up from last season? I guess not based on his actions so far.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
TGS I might go for a shitty 1-0 win 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
MM – it depends on what you class as good football. Granted we were nee Barca but we put in some good performances, got some good wins and had a run where we were very consistent. For me that’s good football, and to be fair, most pundits acknowledged that – Pards won manager of the season for gods sakes!. That must count for something.
As for Pep. Munich have done brilliant there like mate, and I believe he’s gone there for football reasons. I’m sure he’d have been paid a lot more at Chelsea or Man City.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think for Pardew he has been very clear now to Ashley. Bring in 2 quality players or face relegation. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. So I guess not only are we not close to fighting for a top 6 place Pardew has finally realized we are in a relegation fight. Better late than never I guess but really what difference will it make? Ashley will do what Ashley wants and nobody knows what that is.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Here’s a hypothetical for everyone. Say Carr has found a brilliant 25 year old CB for us to bid on. The club decides he is worth 5M pounds so its starting offer through Llambias is 4M pounds. We offer a wage of 30K a week and the player in question currently earns 20K a week in another league. We make our first bid which is rejected but the player’s agent spills the beans to the press. We come back and make our final offer of 5M pounds. The club accepts the bid but West Ham or QPR or whoever you want to choose now steps in with a 6M pound bid and a better wage offer of 40K a week. We won’t budge so the player naturally chooses the other team. Does this sound familiar? So we don’t get the CB, the player and his agent get a better deal and we’re stuffed. In fact we don’t bring in a CB, Colo leaves and we get relegated. Thank god we didn’t pay that extra 2M or so and offer him a competitive wage.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
hey everyone!
Been on isaf training exercise the last freggin 14 days so have no clue as to whats happend. Have we been seriously linked with anyone other than Remy who apparantly chose QPR??? Also how did we fare against Norwich?
AlanPardewProject(Quote)
GG63@117 😆 I wish mate.
Tony@118 No mate I live in Bristol ,Only live game Ihave seen funnily enough was us away to reading . 😉 It’s not far for me to go from Bristol ,went with my Brother as he got comp tickets from his brewery rep. We bloody struggled for the point that day in all , but believe it or not the stand out player that day was Jonas ,he ran his bloody heart out.
KIMTOON(Quote)
MM@120 , I’m gonna chuck the whole fecking team in there if we don’t start performing soon. 👿
KIMTOON(Quote)
AlanPardew @127 everything is great. We got outbid for Remy by QPR, we’re being outbid by West Ham for Haidara, Colo wants us to release him so he can go home to Argie, Pardew thinks we need two senior players to avoid relegation and the game against Norwich was a **** poor 0-0 draw. How was your training exercise? Oh by the way the club still employs the beloved Dekka.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 – if the EPL is one of – if not the richest league in the world, and the average players wage is in the region of £25k, then I think £40-50k p/w is an excellent starter mate – I bet Remy wasn’t getting that at OM. But what also does is allow us room to negotiate an improved contract to £75-80k if there heads are turned, or they are playing well.
Fair play it didn’t work with Ba, and it won’t everytime – similar to Arsenal, but were never gonna win them all.
£40k is a good starter but of course it will rule some players out, and it will also mean that some clubs will offer more than us – and again, were never gonna win them all.
But that’s why we have Graham Carr, and when he and Pardew identify a player the board need to move fast and get the deal done.
What frustrates me mate is why do we seem to only be negotiating with one player at a time?!
We know we need a CB and a CF and were dealing with Remy for CF but what was stopping us dealing with a CB at the same time?- and Remy seemed to only take off after we got Debuchy in, not at the same time!. No wonder it takes forever to get 2-3 players in.
Sharpy17(Quote)
G2 – re ya post about the 25yr old CB – now that point I can’t argue with. Nail on the head mate, it’s bloody stupid and is something we’ve been guilty of in the past.
Sharpy17(Quote)
That would make sense in a sane world Sharpy mate. But we have a world with Harry’s and Big Sam’s in it and we still need players. Eventually it’s very likely we will have to outbid someone or go through the window with no incoming senior players. That is the reality no matter what Ash/Llam believe. If they think it isn’t reality or it isn’t fair I suggest they get into a different business like casinos or bargain bin shops for example.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
How bad is the weather in the Toon. Travelling down from Scotland tomorrow. Is it gonna be a wasted journey so to speak (that’s for the wifes benefit)
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
waheyy sounds fantastic! Ahh man at least the excercise got my mind off Newcastle, and by the way it was effin cold! we had like -10 degrees during the day and -20 in the morning and at night.
Hmm Why does Colo want to go to Argie??
AlanPardewProject(Quote)
Funny ,it was after our loan bid for Carroll that West Ham went in for him , maybe Toonsy is right and other clubs are going to try and hijack any deals we attempt 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
i dont think we’ll win tomorrow at all. This match will be called off. 🙄
Lying really deep now and sky is full of it..
mark(Quote)
Mark ,it could be a blessing if it is.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Mark @137 “Sky is full of it” very true and they charge an arm and a leg to watch as well. 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
Colo’s having difficulties with his wife AlanPardew@135. Either he’s cheating on her or she’s cheating on him depending on which rumours you believe. It’s thought she has already gone back to Argie. Some Argie team who Colo’s father works for want us to give him to them for free since he’s going home anyway. Does that make sense now? See aren’t you glad you’re back home and didn’t miss much?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Sharpy – I don’t know why you think I think you’re trying to convince me of anything. You’re just giving your view.
You point to Pardew’s squad as the problem so you say you can’t judge him on merit. You can judge him on merit IMO. He said he was pleased with the squad and anything else would be the icing on the cake. He said it. Nobody put words in his gob. He might be a yes man, but he doesn’t have to say that sort of thing. It is his job to tell the club whether or not we are prepared for the season ahead. He was either lying, letting his gob runaway (again) or making a terrible managerial judgment. If he was saying that to the Board, it would be music to their ears. I don’t believe he was lying; he’s not afraid to put pressure on the Board as he’s showing now.
If you blame Ashley for not providing a squad to survive, I would ask you, ignoring sentiment, and looking at it objectively, going into the season, whose squad would you have taken? Put another way, where would our squad have ranked out of 20? Were you expecting a relegation battle with the squad Ashley provided? When people were saying we needed a couple of quality players, I took them to mean to do at least as well this year as last. Besides, he had money to spend and he bought another midfielder instead of a CB. Who does he say sanctions the signings? When Llambias offered him Anita, why didn’t he say “no” I need a CB not a midfielder? Forget him. Concentrate all your efforts on getting me a CB.
I wasn’t expecting him to do better than last year. I recognised that this was going to be a season of consolidation. I said I’d be happy with midtable, indeed anything provided we didn’t get relegated. However, he and his team have been bloody awful and he has no answers. He has shown himself to be tactically inept. He has personally fallen out with some of our purples and publicly slated the others suggesting they’re not up to standard. Well, it was he who had a first hand view of all these lads in training, not me or you, and he thought they could do a job at the start of the season and when he put them on the pitch. He has now had a re-assessment and wants to ship some of them out, on loan at least. Squad players are no good on loan to some other club. We look like a relegation side at this moment, and I’ve seen a few over the years.
I’m not expecting us to be challenging for a top four place for many years. We have to build slowly and steadily. Others seem to think we should be there or thereabouts as a matter of course, and anything less is failure. I’m not setting Pardew such a target. I just want us to finish midtable, always would have been happy with it, but I am seriously worried now.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
@KIMTOON
😆
mark(Quote)
Geordietwo – Alright so its personal issues. Well it doesnt help that the club is in turmoil either then. Yeah only have to endure it for two more months and then its off to afghanistan and hopefully when I come home, we have not been relegated and are looking to sign Ronaldo or someone 😆
AlanPardewProject(Quote)
You make a very persuasive argument there B&B @141. I would have to agree with you. Pardew has a big part in this disaster but the 2 clever lads are busy doing nothing behind the scenes as well. All in all very worrying.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Take good care when you go AlanPardew. Keep in touch with us and we will heap on some more misery no doubt! We never lack for bad news as followers of the beloved Newcastle. 😆
GeordieTwo(Quote)
will do! 😎 hehe no doubt it will get worse before it gets better. Ahh well, life of a Newcastle fan 😆
AlanPardewProject(Quote)
Geordie Two – The daft lads are naive about football. Their biggest mistake was appointing Pardew; giving him an eight year contract was naive in the extreme. It will make the national and international TV news headlines when they sack him soon, and this club is going to be humiliated. The daft lads won’t be embarrassed because they’ve got neck for anything. I would like to pin more on them than that because I don’t like them, but I find it difficult to argue with their philosophy of running a tight ship and not being held to ransome. I do believe them when they say it’s difficult to do deals because they are extremely complicated, especially where scurrilous, greedy agents are heavily involved.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Pardew wont be sacked B&B.
Even if he takes us down, he will be given time to rebuild us.
The regime trust him and desire the long term stability at the club.
Regardless of the consequences.
APP – stay alert, stay alive. Keep your head down and the humour up.
Best of luck
Have a good tour fella.
RESPECT
😛
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
B&B – Personally mate, I think we needed about 4-5 players in the summer. 2/3 defenders, a CF and 1/2 midfielders and that was on top of what we brought in. So to be honest I expected us to struggle with the extra demand of Europe and injuries, although I didn’t expect us to be hit as hard.
Our squad last season punched above their weight IMO and in reality we probably only have a hand full of players in the squad that could keep us in the top 6 every season – ones now left, one wants to leave and the rest have either been injured or out of form.
As for Pardew saying he was happy, yeah mate, I think that was lip service for the press to be honest. Rightly or wrongly but he wasn’t likely to slag the board off for not spending or critise the players he had no choice but to go forward with, and to be honest, I doubt any other manager would have said different.
Sharpy17(Quote)