Is that due to our loads of relegations and constant yoyo club label - what having only been in the premier league for the last 9 seasons - and having a manager who has never been relegated from it? I see your logic!
Allardyce wasn;t really manager though was he - never given the purse strings to be able to sign his players - he has been in one transfer window at SAFC and improved us massively with 3 signings! How come he couldn;t do that for Newcastle? Was it just that he wasn't allowed or that he just wasn;t good enough? Strange that he's good enough for a team where he's given opportunity and the other team got relegated after sacking him?
Also, I think we'll have a lot more fun than you next season. Wouldn't swap places with you. Wouldn't swap places with some alternate NUFC that had stayed up under McLaren, Nigel Pearson, etc.
Allardyce is a manager who is very good at keeping teams in the lower half of the Prem. That is what he has done for you, which is a very good thing.. That is what he will do for you. You can decide whether you regard that as a good thing. Allardcye was doing that for us. We didn't regard it as a good thing. We sacked him and things improved. We then sacked Keegan and were relegated.
Yep he was actually. Common misconception because Ashley sacked him (one of the few things he has got right) Had complete control and was given the budget to do it too. He started under the previous regime not Ashley. He had a 20m plus budget work with too. Jun 2007 Mark Viduka FWD Unattached Free Jun 2007 Joey Barton MID Manchester City £5.8M Jun 2007 David Rozehnal DEF Paris St.Germain £2.9M & £200K Jul 2007 Geremi DEF Chelsea Free Aug 2007 Alan Smith FWD Manchester United tbc Aug 2007 Cacapa DEF Free agent Free Aug 2007 Jose Enrique DEF Villarreal £6m Aug 2007 Abdoulaye Faye DEF Bolton £2m Aug 2007 Habib Beye DEF Marseille £2m Aug 2007 Wesley Baheng FWD Le Havre Trial Dec 2007 Lance Davids MID Djurgardens Trial Dec 2007 Tamas Kadar DEF Zalaegerszeg Trial Jan 2008 Ben Tozer DEF Swindon Town £tbc So nothing strange at all. He was rank awful. I think the main problem was his percentage/long football. The majority of our fans as long as I can remember just have never liked that. I remember good atmospheres under even Ardilles even though the results were an abject failure and he had to go because he at least was trying play football. Keegan got it. Robson got it immediately with his "carpet football" comment. Many fans will see that ethos as a bit romantic etc but to be honest I wouldn't change it for the world. Its about entertainment for me. Obviously you want to win but that will probably come with it anyway. He was just an awful fit for the club. As I say we were heading down under him, and it was no surprise when it happened. Signing lazy has beens like Viduka, Cacapa, Geremi was a big part of the issue. He wasted massive money in wages on those guys. Its horses for courses though, things have gone well at Sunderland this season. But then they did for Di Canio, Advocaat, Poyet too. It will be whether he can avoid the same fate next season. I think he probably will, it just won't be pretty.
Why is it daft? We already have been in the Premiership under Fat Sam; it was the most depressing and dull time to be a Newcastle fan in living memory - the worst football I've ever seen us play, team in freefall, crap players hoofing long balls endlessly. Even the how we played in the 3 relegations I've seen in my lifetime were nowhere near as bad as the slop we were churning out under Fat Sam. If we'd just stayed up and we had Fatty Bung Man, I'd be dreading the next season and what he was going to do to our team. This is of course different for you, as you're used to only just staying up, so you accept any old crap football if you manage to not go down. The thought of having Rafa, even if it is in the Championship, is one that instils hope and belief of things to come, and means we are going to retain a good core to the squad and ditch the deadwood. If a year ago you had offered me just staying up with Fat Sam, or getting relegated but keeping Rafa, I'd have gone for the later in a heartbeat.
Nah Nolan and Raylor were Kinnear signings strangely! Used the Given money and Insommnia as a makeweight I seem to remember.
The PL is great, one if not the best league in the world, anything can happen as leicester showed. But from experience and numerous previous examples, having Fat Sham as your boss ensures one thing, survival and perhaps mid table mediocrity. I dont want either of those if it means borning football, been there done it. I genuinely believe with Rafa's experience of being at massive clubs he can build something for the future, he isnt afraid of using youngsters and developing players and with a talent pool as big as the north east we can all agree we need to be bringing through alot more north east british talent!
No relegation is excellent. Rafa Benitez is a world-class manager and will sort the squad out, regardless of which division we're in. Newcastle United have missed out on a great deal of money because of this second relegation in 7 years and there is nothing remotely excellent about it. The club is on a sound financial footing so not a massive amount of harm done just yet. If NUFC want to continue to be competitive in the Premier League, then we MUST get back up at the first attempt. It will be a very tough season as we will be viewed as the big scalp (along with Villa) so expect some dodgy home results. Sam Allardyce
Villa Are DOOOOMED!!! Google their owner Tony Xia (or whatever his name is) you wont find anything, no rich list, no estimated worth, nothing about what he owns and why? Because he isnt rich, he owns one investment company in China that didnt make any money last year. Villa will wish they had Randy Leaner back by the end of the year, this Xia guy is a nutter, and I'm not praising Mike Ashley here, but when you see the likes of Cecilino, The Cardiff guy, Oysten and nutters like this, you have to say, it could be a hell of a lot worse!
Those signings probably went a long way towards Ashley tightening the purse strings and bringing in his "model" with Carr and rules such as no over 25s, etc. Cheers Sam!
**** me. Seeing Fat Sam's list of misfits there sends a shiver down my spine. Barton is the only one to float my boat there.....
