simple question
i think you should still have bruce in the poll, out of those van gael, you never know we could win our next 6 games, get 57 points and finish 7th or so (unlikely but possible).
I just think there is something amiss with o`neill, what exactly has he done, got leicester the the coca cola cup final (even steve mclaren got to the uafa final, and there is another name for you, if it wasnt for his england debacle, no one would be shying away from him, he did learn from one of the best after all saf).
Toon 1-0 down, not sure i want that or not atm though, bloody hate football some days lol
I think you should still have bruce in the poll, out of those Van Gael, you never know we could win our next 6 games, get 57 points and finish 7th or so (unlikely but possible).
I just think there is something amiss with O`Neill, what exactly has he done, got leicester the the coca cola cup final (even steve mclaren got to the uafa final, and there is another name for you, if it wasnt for his England Debacle, no one would be shying away from him, he did learn from one of the best after all SAF).
toon 1-0 down, not sure i want that or not atm though, bloody hate football some days lol
Have you heard the phrase about changing horses in midstream , you fall off, so wait until the season finishes
If we happy just to survive in this division (and that's what we seem to be destined for yet again), we should have given the job to Allardyce in the first place. None of this "next level, shopping at Harrods" Steve Bruce nonsense. Just battling away in lower mid-table. No relegation fears. Uncompromising football. Modest expectations. If the days of big spending are over (from our financial results they might be) and we accept we'll never be a top 6 club, Sam's the man. In short, I'd rather we be a mid table club under Allardyce than a mid table club under Bruce, if that makes sense. With Allardyce we know what we're going to get. With Bruce, things can go from one extreme (3-0 away to Chelsea and excellent football) to the other (winless runs lasting months and dreadful performances) very quickly, and I certainly don't like that.
Surely all this is theoretical, I mean, we're saying who we'd want, but deep down we all know that Bruce is pretty much guaranteed another season if we stay up, nothing is going to change now anyway. But hey, that'll never stop us talking about it.
And just to clarify my (lone haha) Allardyce vote, I have doubts as to how willing the club is to spend vast sums on transfers in future. Bearing that in mind, I wonder if the likes of O'Neill and Van Gaal would take the job if they weren't guaranteed large sums to spend, which they'd certainly be offered elsewhere, especially in the case of the latter. I'd love managers of their caliber at our club, but hand on heart, considering how budget conscious our club is becoming (not a bad thing really), I don't think they're realistic possibilities.
The basis of my Allardyce vote is that there's a chance he can re-create what he did at Bolton. And, if we decide to, we can build from there and go for the caliber of managers we're mentioning. It seems, to me at least, that there's a step between where we are now and the position where we can take our pick from the likes of Moyes, Jol, Van Gaal and O'Neill, and I think Allardyce is the man to guarantee Premier League status year in year out and make us a solid club. A few years under Allardyce, shrewd spending, drama - free and unspectacular but respectable league placings, THEN we can plot our next move.
After all, wasn't Steve Bruce brought in partly due to his reputation as a shrewd wheeler dealer? I'd think so. If there's anything we've learnt over the past two seasons, it's that Bruce isn't the man to deliver cup runs, trips to Wembley and European football. So why was he given the job? Maybe just to wheel and deal and trim the squad with a low net spend. Might as well get Allardyce then, better manager than Bruce anyway.
But the thing is, we've GOT the base to work up from. Yes, we might need a proper LB and a couple of more creative midfielders, but if players like Muntari and Sess play to their full potential, that we've seen before, we've got a good team already. There's no point in bringing in a new manager for a few signings, and also I find Big Sam a bit of a prick![]()