Keegan was right, hasn't been proven much wrong so far. Look at the top extreme of Sir Alex. Tactical genius? Not sure. But he got players sweating blood every time they crossed the line and also followed that other Keegan mantra (well, tbf he probably invented it) of only buying players who improved the team, and let those they were replacing + youth be backup. The final genius was always playing players in their best position. Let squad members fill out gaps, but at least keep 70-80% of your squad in the right place. How many would fail with Giggs, Keane, Scholes, Beckham as the midfield?! We sell Cabaye and bring in...Colback? Haidara for Enrique or Santon? We plug gaps with worse, we don't buy to improve, we buy to fill spaces and often do so with both eyes fixed on the future/sell on value. Nobody can 'succeed' in this environment, but then we add an archaic dinosaur like McClaren and the temperamental ego's we bought have nobody to run through fire for. It's the NUFC juxtaposition - we have the need for a dynamic, strong manager where players are concerned, but need a weak, grateful lowlife where the "board" is concerned. The board get their way, so the playing side suffers. None of it is rocket science, it's a four-piece jigsaw puzzle we can all put together.
“Manu Riviere is back in training – he is like a new signing for us, buzzing around the training field, so that’s a plus.” McClaren is a madman and needs to be cleansed from this club right ****ing now.
It is 90% players for me. Ashley and lambias are far visionaries. Lambias was better than Charnley though from what I can see. Achieved far more with pardew than Charnley has with mcclaren operating under much tougher circumstances - none are really palatable. Just on the pure basics of having large budgets to buy better players, which as I say is 90% of the battle for me, then Pardew did a fine job. Pardew lost his job because he did see eye to eye with cortese - many don't. Of course there are other rumours but none that are proven. Not exactly visionary - if you are looking for English managers with a good track record he'd be near the top of the list. Perhaps if Pardew was given money he wouldn't be as successful - maybe he's a horse for a particular course. We will never know but the freedom given to him at palace is certainly working out well. I doubted his ability to recreate last season but he has done exactly that. They are playing some good stuff too - exciting wing play. That works somewhere else too... Honestly I don't think it is massively complicated. Buy good players. Get a core of good British players. Surround it with carefully selected quality foreign players. Play a style which gets the fans excited. Create that feel good atmosphere. Buy quality young players with energy to surround a blue chip brigade of top pros. Try to get a youth system which functions (Pardew tried hard to get that investment here knowing the value from being at clubs like palace, West Ham, Southampton). Honestly Robson told us the answer, then showed us it in action, but the morons in charge just ignore it.
I'd take SM and us in a lower division over Pards and his violent assaults on players and officials live on TV. Just saying....
This was the major downside of Pardew - he let himself down behaviour wise. But I counter it with his pimping photos in linekers - legend
He did mate. The same patter... just a different face..... Willo is going which at least is an upside...
Whole thing's an obvious embarrassment, but the man at the top doesn't care. It's not a football club, it's a failed business model.
How is it a failed business model? NUFC is the advertising department of Sports Direct and which is in the unique position of making a profit. I would say that as a business model it's working superbly. As a football club to support it's the complete opposite.
Fair enough, understand your point completely. I'd argue that the recent "investments" in Thauvin, Mitrovic and Cabella have had a negative impact and as a result as a standalone business model it now requires significant investment over and above its' ability to make money, to avoid the ultimate pitfall of relegation. To be a successful business model it would need to survive, comfortably, in the top flight with relatively little outside investment. To agree with your sentiment, it IS a marvellously profitable advertising vehicle with a phenomenal reach to its prospective sponsors. I made a comment about the PL moving the same way as Champions League and moderating its' sponsors. The league itself moves away from "lead" sponsorship (becoming The Premier League, as opposed to Barclays' PL) next season but to remain attractive it will follow the CL, NFL and NBA who have "clean" branding, but a LOT of regulation about what can be broadcast internally. Am I right in thinking even TV advertisers pay a chunk to the NFL on top of the money paid by the broadcaster themselves?! That's where we're headed; will Ashley pay the PL for SD advertising? I can't see it, it will be VERY expensive and I personally think that's why he eluded to 2016 being the time he might sell up. We need to watch what the PL do with advertising rights.
We can't keep doing a Sunderland here and swapping managers every 5 minutes. We all knew it was a big task for Steve and it is proving to be exactly that.
We're 3rd bottom in the league. This time last year we were 10th in the league and looking comfortable, while Crystal Palace were 3rd bottom and looking doomed. We need to find out what their secret was and try and emulate it if we're going to get better. Can't think off the top of my head what they did though....
I am going to bump this thread because nothing has changed.... and again we lose... again its 1-0... again we dont score.... and again... the club say nothing... AND AGAIN MCLAREN SEEMS TOTALLY INEPT! We have to... I mean have to HAMMER HIM next home game. Our record under his guidance has been simply the worst under any regime.... I know its not the end of the world losing 1-0 to watford away from home,...... but how many more games can we lose and we just say.. " well we played well" This is simply unacceptable............HE IS A COMPLETE LOSER......... CHECK HIS STATS! NUFC - PLAYED 23, W 5, D 5, L 13
oh and to put it in perspective, his wins are..... Northampton......Norwich.... Bournmouth (how we won this i dont know)..... Then.... Liveprool - how we won i dont know and... Spurs.........WTF how did we win... We have not ever played a game where we won and deserved it apart from Norwich..... This season has been dreadful.....
