[Archived] Duff Completes Switch

[S15]

Newcastle's average attendance: Around 52000

Blackburns average attendance: Around 22000

Answers on a postcard, for the attention of John Williams.

I'm more interested in average of positions finished, points amassed and trophies won to be honest.

[des]

for 5 mill there have got a very good deal and a very good player

[78]

I'm more interested in average of positions finished, points amassed and trophies won to be honest.

My point is, we should appreciate how fortunate we are to even consider going for players like Bellamy, McCarthy etc. With that sort of pathetic gates, we shouldn't be able to compete with the likes of Villa, Charlton, Boro, let alone Newcastle.

Sometimes I think we've been spoilt with our success on the field and off it (which is easily overseen)

[S15]

Oh of course I 100% agree... My comment wasn't aimed at you in any way, just really a statement of we are ahead of Newcastle, and many other ''bigger'' clubs at the moment, and the only way we can stay there is by pushing ourselves to the absolute limit.

It's worked in the past, it's working at the moment and I'm damn sure it'll work in the future.

Edited July 24, 2006 by shillito15

[78]

Oh of course I 100% agree... My comment wasn't aimed at you in any way, just really a statement of we are ahead of Newcastle, and many other ''bigger'' clubs at the moment, and the only way we can stay there is by pushing ourselves to the absolute limit.

It's worked in the past, it's working at the moment and I'm damn sure it'll work in the future.

Agreed.

We made the mistake in 94/95, we cannot afford to stand still.

[roverich]

Tongue in cheek.

Well you should have bit down harder and stopped it spewing

[neekoy]

My heart told me to sign

"but my heart told me to come to Newcastle United"

I feel like throwing up

[philipl]

My feelings exactly neekoy.

As for the £5m fee, it is a sign that Newcastle are under such financial pressure that they have had to do a deal which almost certainly has massive contingent performance payments attached.

Two explanations of why Chelsea got rid here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...25/sfnche25.xml

The funny thing is that the reporter seems to have forgotten that Blackburn Rovers play in England.

Edited July 25, 2006 by philipl

[neekoy]

Apparently Duff has a £6m release clause in his contract to go to a club he deems he loves more the Newcastle (i.e whoever is paying his cheque)

On signing for the Toon ""It's a dream come true to sign for the club I supported as a boy and to actually play for Newcastle will be an enormous honour. I'm a very proud person at the moment. The fact that it was newcastle made it impossible for me to turn down the move. As I'm a fan, it doesn't matter what club I was at – I could never turn Newcastle down. You get the chance to play for Newcastle and it's a lifelong dream come true".

[Eddie]

Wait, did he actually say that or is that a bit of sarcasm?

[Paul]

I feel like throwing up

Me too. Heard it on the way home from work, I'd expected better of Damian as I thought he had a brain. Why do 99% of footballers talk total @#/?? Is it a measure of how they perceive the fans

[SouthAussieRover]

Me too. Heard it on the way home from work, I'd expected better of Damian as I thought he had a brain. Why do 99% of footballers talk total ######? Is it a measure of how they perceive the fans

Firstly the majority of footballers are as thick as pigshit in my humble opinion.

Secondly the link between the fans and the players went forever about 1992.

Edited July 25, 2006 by SouthAussieRover

[LeftWinger]

'We've got a great manager here, a great chairman, that's why I've come ... to play football, and win things as well.'

LMFAO "win things" - At least the lads not lost his sense of humour!

[rover6]

My heart told me to sign

"but my heart told me to come to Newcastle United"

I feel like throwing up

Don't be too harsh on the lad.

Footballers are mercenary - as if you weren't aware. Most of the Blackburn players would probably spout the same nonsense given the opportunity.

Edited July 25, 2006 by rover6

[AndyC]

I can't believe how many of you are still living in cloud cuckoo land. Why on earth, in this day and age do you expect any form of loyalty?

& Duff wasn't a rovers fan growing up as a lad was he. So why do you expect him to bleed blue and white?

In any case, it's far different being a fan than it is being a player. Fans only ever get one club and they are married to it for life. Players will generally move clubs 3 or 4 times in their career & most players love the encouragement from a croud. They are performers after all!

For all of Newcastles faults, you can't deny how amazing it would be to play in front of such a passionate crowd, week in week out.

I don't doubt that Duff loved playing at Rovers. It was the club that trained him and helped make him the player he is today. But I'm also sure that he loved it at chelsea. Playing with international stars everyday & living in a place full of life. What is so wrong about expressing his hopes that he will love playing for Newcastle too?

[pleasure]

My heart told me to sign

"but my heart told me to come to Newcastle United"

I feel like throwing up

stomach turning! but he's only trying to 'brown- nose' the toon army, so they will go easy on him when he's on the treatment table.

[Scotty]

Reasons Chelsea sold Duff

[thenodrog]

stomach turning! but he's only trying to 'brown- nose' the toon army, so they will go easy on him when he's on the treatment table.

It's all jingoistic twaddle! But the strange thing is that for some reason those gormless geordies have miniscule memory capacity and continue to soak all the shyte in without question.

.....I just wonder if Souness still wants his son to grow up supporting the magpies or is he in the process of converting the poor mixed up kid into a Villan?

[1864roverite]

Duff went to Newcastle simply out of bad advising and poor management. its as simple as that, how can a player who has just won a few Premiership medals and a few cups suddenyl give all that up and fo and play for a medicore yes MEDIOCRE team like Newcastle ?

Newcastle have a great manager ?

Newcastle have a great chairman ?

What planet is this young Irish lad on ?

These are not the words of the "Duffer" I spoke to when he was signing for Chelsea.

Just what ambition Newcastle have now that "god" has long gone remains to be seen. For me they are among the relegation favourites. They must have a massive backer financing them as they need to spend at least another $20m on strikers to have any chance of European glory or domestic honours.

I feel that he has been led down that garden path so lovingly tendered by fat freddy and his brothel haunting friends.

What a sad ending for a pure footballing prodigy or should that be fickle THICKHEAD

[LeftWinger]

For me they are among the relegation favourites.

Thats a bit much Warren - They've got an outstanding midfield now, excellent keeper, just look short upfront. If they get a good quality striker who stays injury free they should be comfortably top 8.

[philipl]

You forgot their impressive defense.

[LeftWinger]

You forgot their impressive defense.

If they get rid of Boumsong it wont be too bad

[Philly Rover ®]

The thing that I don't get from the Telegraph article philip and Scotty posted is that it claims that Mourinho was unlikely to choose Duff as one of the 25 players eligible for the Champions League. My question is: why? Their first team squad doesn't even have 25 players in it as listed on the website (Chelsea roster here), so it makes absolutely no sense to me.

[roverich]

The thing that I don't get from the Telegraph article philip and Scotty posted is that it claims that Mourinho was unlikely to choose Duff as one of the 25 players eligible for the Champions League. My question is: why? Their first team squad doesn't even have 25 players in it as listed on the website (Chelsea roster here), so it makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm guessing that the quoted first team squad does not consistent of enough "home grown" and "UK trained" players to meet the CL's requirements of the 25 man squad so he was leaving Duff (and maybe others) out so as to leave space to bring in some reserve/younger players who weree trained by Chelsea. I think every English CL club must have in it 4 players who were trained as youths by that club and a further four who were trained anywhere else in the UK.

EDIT: Better explained in the LET article that a couple people posted before and I have seen I got some of the numbers wrong.

Edited July 26, 2006 by roverich

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Newcastle have a great manager ?

Newcastle have a great chairman ?

What planet is this young Irish lad on ?

Glenn Roeder has an abysmal managerial record at his three previous clubs - Gillingham, Watford and West Ham. His one season as manager of Gillingham saw them finish second from bottom of the Football League. At Watford he was sacked after taking the side from 7th to the bottom of the First Division.

At West Ham he managed to get a talented Hammers team relegated that contained names like Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick, Paulo Di Canio, Freddy Kanoute and Trevor Sinclair.

Hardly the record of a "great manager".

But I was absolutely staggered to hear Damien Duff describe Freddy Shepherd as a "great chairman". Dear God. This is the discredited odious chairman who laughed at his own Geordie supporters for spending money on expensive merchandise, who called his female supporters "dogs" and mocked Alan Shearer while frequenting a brothel. He didn't even have the decency to resign for good from Newcastle after those disgraceful comments. Within a few months he was back at St James' Park as if nothing had happened.

Bobby Robson's autobiography is quite an interesting read. Sir Bobby was strongly critical of Shepherd's chairmanship. He said that Shepherd's only focus was on the first team and he neglected areas like the training ground and youth development. Due to its unkempt state, which Shepherd wasn't interested in improving, the club's training ground is notorious for causing injuries to first team players.

Sir Bobby said that while he was Newcastle manager he was deliberately denied information regarding the players' contracts. Robson was kept in the dark about this vital information. Sir Bobby said that he had a gentleman's agreement with the club that he would be able to retire with dignity at the end of his final season. But Shepherd broke this agreement to sack him just a few games into his last season.

Freddy hired Mr Souness instead and we all know what a shambles that turned out to be. In Sir Bobby's last three seasons they finished 5th, 3rd and 4th in the Premiership. In Souness's first season with Newcastle they finished 14th - their lowest position since being promoted to the Premiership in 1993.

Shepherd is the buffoon who said "only Chelsea are bigger than us in the Premier League" and "Newcastle are the eighth biggest club in the world". Freddy keeps telling the world what a "massive club" Newcastle are, but under his leadership they have won sod all. Indeed they haven't won anything since 1969.

A while back Shepherd said that he had "no sympathy" for smaller clubs who were struggling financially. "When we've got 52,000 fans at each home game, the last thing I'm worried about is clubs in the third division," he said. "I've got no sympathy for them."

I'm disappointed that Damien Duff has chosen to insult the intelligence of supporters all over the country by describing this loathsome creature as a "great chairman"....