At least we've got someone there who knows what its like to lift a cup. He might try reminding the others how special it could be!
I'm still having my self-prescribed happy week, so I'm thinking he has sucked all of the poison out which is why we have anice new cuddley Mike who has sacked JC and SS and who will now invest millions in new players ~keeps dreaming~
Any negativity regarding today's news (and I include McClaren being on the board in that) is being far too petty. As a club we've appointed a very good and well respected coach, he's also on the board which means he'll have a say on transfers and how the youth teams are constructed etc. He has a chance to implement a footballing philosophy right the way through the club, it's up to him to prove he's up to the task now and I think he is to be fair. We've now gone full circle and said cups are a priority, which I accept should always be the case but they've also confirmed McClaren's contract is heavily incentivised when it comes to the cups. He'll have his own back room team and Steve Black has left QPR it's been announced so they're obviously letting him bring in his own people. We also have football people on the board now which has been needed for a while, I personally don't see today as anything other than a really positive day for the club.
Me too mate, might as well milk this mildly positive feeling for all its worth. If it does all go to **** at least I can look back on these moments like 'ah, that was a good old deluded time' in true NUFC fashion.
I agree, Ashley/Charnley had a chance to wipe the slate clean and state a new start for NUFC. What a cock up and I was listening to Talksport take the pee saying they couldn't believe McClaren had agreed to it. This was a chance for him to introduce himself to the fans but by banning the journo's he's going to be on the back foot from day one.
What I will add is that by being on the board he's more or less manager of this club. This is relatively exciting. No more inadequate staffing for starters which I always felt had as much of an impact as the awful players.
Also there are now three people with a genuine background in football (in different ways) to point out to Charnley when he is talking ****e.
Personally, I expect to be facing relegation next season under Schteve. I don't see him as a bad manager, just to be clear, but I don't see him as a big enough person to play out his position with integrity. He's just been sacked by Derby FFS, the kind of desperate Ashley can smell from a billion miles away, all whilst having his head up Albert's fake bare arse. It's obvious to exactly everyone why Viera was dismissed out of hand, and it's not because he has bugger all managerial experience, it's because he had the temerity to be principled. Principled and Ashley do not get on. This is a wounded football club, and unless some serious amount of acquisitions pound through the door in the next month or two, signing Mclaren does not go anywhere near addressing the hurt our fans have suffered during Ashley's tenure.
Think you are going to be wrong on this! I am not saying he will set the world on fire this season (thinking 12-15th but with relative comfort) and building up the youth system and a more attacking style of play.
After turning us down twice he wouldn't have been my choice. However, as a coach he is very highly regarded in the game and has done well on limited resources before. I am feeling more positive the more I think about this announcement. Time will tell, but I am hoping we see some decent acquisitions this summer.
But did he turn us down twice? 1st time - he had a job to do at Derby and wanted to see a project through 2nd time - we all saw what happened with Shearer and I am sure he did too - no sane person would have come in for 3 games!
I'm not saying I blame him for not coming. It was just that I would not have gone back a 3rd time and asked. Hopefully time will prove that I would have been mistaken to do that. Like I said, as a coach I have no complaints. As good as we could have hoped for and far better than some of the names that were getting mentioned.
I reckon it was a "I'll come at end of season" sort of chat on the second one and after the first time that would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. He is a top quality coach and did a very good job at Derby, has won trophies. He wasn't my 1st choice but then I never had one! I'm actually beginning to get excited!!!
I disagree with JPF on this one, I think we'll do quite well in our first season. I expect certain players to be transformed, I don't think his Dutch reputation (the one where he won stuff, not the Schteve-stuff) will harm our chances of keeping Janmaat who I now expect to be given the captaincy next season, with SDJ as his VC. I think we'll see a different Cabella as well, and with any luck our performance in the league table we always end up top of - the Physioroom.com-sponsored injuries list - will be markedly better. I am not overwhelmed by the appointment, far from it. But he's better than Carver and Pardew (possibly put together), plus there's no Joe Kinnear in sight. We have a proper football board and it's this move that excites me the most as arguably McClaren is more or less manager. He will oversee every aspect of the footballing side, Carr will do his scouting, Moncur will offer his side, probably also be the key fan communicator, and Charnley will make tea/sign cheques. No Ashley, no Kinnear, no Llambias, no Leach, no Bishop. It's difficult to get hugely excited and I urge anyone having a good evening to NOT read Luke Edwards' potted McClaren biography in the Telegraph. But once McClaren was sought after. He had some tough times, but what English boss ever did well abroad? I agree with the opinion that McClaren fcked up by picking the England job, but that's not his fault - it's Scolari's for turning it down. He seems progressive, liked, respected and we've not had those three things since Keegan was in charge. Even SBR for all that he's one of the best ever was an old-school type so arguably not "progressive". I'm not over-egging the Steve omelette here, but I'll end this little tete-a-tete with the following thought; given the state of things at NUFC, he has the balls enough to stand there and say "yep, I'll give it a shot". I daresay this is something a few of the names we've had mentioned didn't fancy.
At the end of the day, we will see. Gut feeling is we're no better than we were five days ago, the ultimate root cause being poor playing staff and a lack of investment. Steve has shown no stones giving us a go, he just got sacked from Derby, we're a desperate man's lucky(ish) break. He'll know the tight restrictions and he'll know the fans will turn on him as soon as look at him, but when you get sacked from a championship club, your career is hardly taking off and this opportunity is marginally better than being a dole skivvy til a semi-ambitious championship club offers you another chance. I agree with most, he's a decent coach, carries an ok rep etc. However, let's not hyperbolise winning the Dutch league, especially given his subsequent ****ness with Wolfsburg, his absolutely abysmal reign at Nottingham Forest, and subsequent failure at Twente when he went back. The most prominent achievement of his career was winning a cup with Boro, which happened early on, and wherever he has gone he seems to have signed loads of players, most of whom turned out to be ****.