[Archived] Congratulations To Newcastle United

[tony gale's mic]

Am I missing something ? We've managed to flop over the safety line this season by playing basically anti-football for the last eight weeks. We play the bottom of the league at home last match and are grateful to get another boring draw.

And then we think it's appropriate to take the p--s out of another team that got relegated.

Like I said I must be missing something, in pure football terms we were every bit as bad as the teams that went down.

Since Sam took over we're a good 12 points or so better than the bottom three teams. It's down to Ince's tenure that we were even that close, but previous to that we were top 10 for 3 seasons.

So no, we're considerably better. And it's a shame that you buy into this "anti-football" nonsense.

[jodrell]

Seen MOTD and they said that the Geordies have 15 players on 50,000 or over. They are going to have serious problems getting rid of them.All going well could be another Leeds.

[Kremmin]

Short and sweet.

Thanks Toogs ... you've been a pleasure to watch this decade.

And thanks Sam ... I don't think any of us would have believed we'd land seven points clear of the drop after that horror show at Wigan.

[Eddie]

Today wasn't about beating WBA. It was all about bidding farewell to a legend.

No, it's a premiership football game and there was essentially 1.5 million up for grabs. We should have won today against a very poor West Brom game, but we just weren't good enough. Allardyce has a lot of work to do.

[The Prof.]

Am I missing something ? We've managed to flop over the safety line this season by playing basically anti-football for the last eight weeks. We play the bottom of the league at home last match and are grateful to get another boring draw.

And then we think it's appropriate to take the p--s out of another team that got relegated.

Like I said I must be missing something, in pure football terms we were every bit as bad as the teams that went down.

I think I can honestly say YES, you completely missed the point.

Today there is a huge air of optimism about Rovers just because we don't do what you've just done and behave like rabid Newcastle fans. Today showed why we are literally a club in a different league than Newcastle. We held our nerve when we could have turned nasty. We could have gone on and on about the style of football we've played, we could have had demonstrations, hounded people out.

But no, we are the Rovers, we are united, we stuck together, encouraged players who were out of position and out of form, turned up in big numbers and stayed up, and had a huge end of season love in!

We know there's work to do, but we have faith, and we know it's already under way in the unassuming manner Rovers always go about their business. Quality, not size is what matters.

On Ashley- he put £250 MILLION quid into Newcastle. He is a classless lump but he didn't start the rot, the geordies need to look a bit closer to home for that. Starting with the equity to debt conversion done by the Halls, and Shepherd. Remember Ashley did appoint Allardyce and if he hadn't been hounded out, next year they should have been looking at Europe not Administration.

[Eddie]

We sort of hounded Ince out...

[The Prof.]

We sort of hounded Ince out...

We had 13 points Eddie with half the games gone- thats what did Ince. He got great support at the start.

[philipl]

We sort of hounded Ince out...

Thankfully and all to our credit that we did.

[ultrablue]

We sort of hounded Ince out...

Because he was going to get us relegated. That was the only sacking since Brian Kidd. We make mistakes, but we sort them fairly.

Newcastle however have hounded a young manager INTO a job that he had no chance of being successful at and that he is doomed to fail at further if they make him stay. I don't feel the slightest bit of sympathy.

[Eddie]

Yeah, but they do the same with their managers, that is all I'm saying. Some of them complained yesterday (although it appeared to be the minority), but they had just been relegated.

[tony gale's mic]

Yeah, but they do the same with their managers, that is all I'm saying. Some of them complained yesterday (although it appeared to be the minority), but they had just been relegated.

I don't understand how anyone can compare the two situations.

The previous three seasons to Ince we'd spent in the top 10, and when we "hounded him out" we were second bottom, 3 points from safety and had lost 8 games in a row.

The previous season to Allardyce Newcastle had finished 15th, 5 points from the drop zone and were a club in decline. He got them to 11th in the table, 8 points from the drop zone, and they hounded him out.

How you can say that they do the same with their managers as we did with Ince is beyond me.

[philipl]

Eddie is just on a wind up mission at present!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I think I can honestly say YES, you completely missed the point.

Today there is a huge air of optimism about Rovers just because we don't do what you've just done and behave like rabid Newcastle fans. Today showed why we are literally a club in a different league than Newcastle. We held our nerve when we could have turned nasty. We could have gone on and on about the style of football we've played, we could have had demonstrations, hounded people out.

But no, we are the Rovers, we are united, we stuck together, encouraged players who were out of position and out of form, turned up in big numbers and stayed up, and had a huge end of season love in!

We know there's work to do, but we have faith, and we know it's already under way in the unassuming manner Rovers always go about their business. Quality, not size is what matters.

On Ashley- he put £250 MILLION quid into Newcastle. He is a classless lump but he didn't start the rot, the geordies need to look a bit closer to home for that. Starting with the equity to debt conversion done by the Halls, and Shepherd. Remember Ashley did appoint Allardyce and if he hadn't been hounded out, next year they should have been looking at Europe not Administration.

Were you happy with the quality of football on offer this season ? - Yes or no will do fine.

[BRFC1995]

Seen MOTD and they said that the Geordies have 15 players on 50,000 or over. They are going to have serious problems getting rid of them.All going well could be another Leeds.

i heard that, i was trying to guess who they would be i guessed the likely ones and got up to about 8 players martins,viduka,owen,butt,duff,barton,colocinni,smith.............then that means that 7 real real poor players like nolan and taylor ang gerimi must be on mega money.

they are so screwed and its ridiculously funny

[tony gale's mic]

Were you happy with the quality of football on offer this season ? - Yes or no will do fine.

Would you rather we played attractive football and lost more games, or didnt play pretty and won more games?

If we start putting quality of football above results we'll end up going the way of Newcastle United.

There is no better feeling and nothing more enjoyable than seeing your team win. Those who put a huge value on us playing samba football with the resources we have are both unrealistic and are pandering to the media since us winning with Sam's brand of football is hardly going to win us friends with the neutrals. But screw them.

[philipl]

Tyrone, I'd say No - yesterday was unacceptable for instance but our sights have been raised dramatically higher compared with when the unspeakable was here at the start of the season.

We are back shooting for Europa League qualification and since December our points hall is very nearly good enough to grab 7th place and that has been without an awful lot of key players out injured. Sam has gained 13 points relative to the relegation places in just 20 games with an utterly makeshift side so it is hard to say exactly how he will set us up to play next season; chances are there will be at least 5 new faces, one of whom nicko is tantalising us with as a good'un up front who can be signed without letting Roque go.

I think this is why the optimism is buzzing around the place in addition to the lift the last three home crowds have given us.

[thenodrog]

There is a God up there - and he isn't a Geordie....

Despite all the mess on the pitch, I feel that Shay Given would probably have kept Newcastle up this season if he had stayed with the club beyond the January transfer window. The Irish keeper has been worth a number of points each season for Newcastle through the saves that he makes, but Mike Ashley in his lack of wisdom refused to put up a fight to keep Given and raised the white flag as soon as the Arabs at Man City raised a chequebook.

It was a stupid decision by Newcastle to sell Given - a rare class player that Newcastle United had. The club could have said to Given: "We're in a mess and in a massive relegation battle, but if you help to keep us up and stay with Newcastle until the summer then we could let you go at the end of the season".

But by refusing to put up a fight to keep Given and raising the white flag as soon as Man City came calling, it was a further nail in the coffin for Newcastle this season.

If you sell your best players it often leads to relegation. Fortunately Rovers managed to get away with it this season, after the inept clown Paul Ince was replaced as manager. I'm convinced that if Ince had stayed in charge at Ewood, we would have been relegated.

Please take note all those wise people who are saying that we should have sold RSC in Jan! The damage to the club psyche and squad confidence caused by selling your best player when threatened with relegation is immeasurable but certainly tangible.

[philipl]

Please take note all those wise people who are saying that we should have sold RSC in Jan! The damage to the club psyche and squad confidence caused by selling your best player when threatened with relegation is immeasurable but certainly tangible.

Very good point.

[thenodrog]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[tony gale's mic]

Please take note all those wise people who are saying that we should have sold RSC in Jan! The damage to the club psyche and squad confidence caused by selling your best player when threatened with relegation is immeasurable but certainly tangible.

Totally disagree with this. Shay Given was player who had been performing to high standards in the Newcastle side for many years and who had been fully committed to the cause, selling him further weakened an already poor side. It wasn't the damage to the club psyche and squad confidence that knocked them from this sale, it was the fact that the quality of the goalkeeping suffered and one can argue that Given would arguably have won at least two or three extra points since January to keep them in this division.

RSC in January was someone who had scored 3 goals in 17 games, who quite clearly wasn't committed to the cause and who had one good season his entire career. Selling him would not have weakened our 2008/09 side, we would not have lost anything from the side which was battling relegation and many of us quite rightly seriously doubted that he was suddenly pick up form in the second half of the season. Selling him and bringing in a player with even a fraction of that money who would score goals and want to play for us would've strengthened our side and wouldve done more for squad morale and won more points for us than having a wantaway star player, contributing nothing, who repeatedly discussed his wishes to leave the club to distant radio stations.

[thenodrog]

Totally disagree with this. ...................

................ Selling him and bringing in a player with even a fraction of that money who would score goals and want to play for us would've strengthened our side and wouldve done more for squad morale and won more points for us than having a wantaway star player, contributing nothing, who repeatedly discussed his wishes to leave the club to distant radio stations.

1. Well you are wrong to TGM.

2. Fact is that RSC was recovering from injury and no one had a crystal ball did they? How many times do some people need to be made aware before they can grasp the situation that nobody bid past the 18m mark for RSC until it was way too late to sign a replacement? If City had bought and paid for him in the 1st week of Jan I feel that you would have got your wish, as it is I'm fully convinced that City fully expected us to cave in. We didn't and the one thing we must all realise now is that Sam Allardyce would make a great poker player.

[Eddie]

Eddie is just on a wind up mission at present!

Not at all, merely pointing out that descending to the "we're better fans than you" level makes us very similar to the Newcastle fans themselves. Let's just support our club, enjoy the fact that such a "big" team has gone down, but generally not get into a slanging match. If you read this thread as a non-Rovers supporting you would think we were just like them.

To finish up my point as well, with the amount Allardyce spent and the players that he inherited, having them in 11th was still a poor league position. He should have been given more time as that simply wasn't enough for a manager and almost any side can have a poor 6 months, but they were playing terrible football, he made some terrible signings and I can understand why fans were against him.

Would you rather we played attractive football and lost more games, or didnt play pretty and won more games?

If we start putting quality of football above results we'll end up going the way of Newcastle United.

There is no better feeling and nothing more enjoyable than seeing your team win. Those who put a huge value on us playing samba football with the resources we have are both unrealistic and are pandering to the media since us winning with Sam's brand of football is hardly going to win us friends with the neutrals. But screw them.

You can play decent football and still pick up just as many points as we have, even as a smaller side (see Fulham and West Ham)

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Tyrone, I'd say No - yesterday was unacceptable for instance but our sights have been raised dramatically higher compared with when the unspeakable was here at the start of the season.

We are back shooting for Europa League qualification and since December our points hall is very nearly good enough to grab 7th place and that has been without an awful lot of key players out injured. Sam has gained 13 points relative to the relegation places in just 20 games with an utterly makeshift side so it is hard to say exactly how he will set us up to play next season; chances are there will be at least 5 new faces, one of whom nicko is tantalising us with as a good'un up front who can be signed without letting Roque go.

I think this is why the optimism is buzzing around the place in addition to the lift the last three home crowds have given us.

Thanks for the answer Phil. I know the rationale for how we played, when you're compelled to play your centre half up front it's going to lead one style of play. I'm not knocking Sam or the club for this, we basically had no choice. Nobody was more relieved than me when we got our noses over the line against Portsmouth

However I'm not fooling myself that what we played most of the time was in any way attractive football, it certainly wasn't football I'd care to pay to watch again, even at give away prices. Indeed Liverpool away was a real low point in my 50 years of watching the club

It's like the old saying " People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones ". We'd nothing to shout about at the end apart from survival itself, we got more points than the dead men but anybody who thinks we played better football is kidding themselves.

I was brought up as a player to be a " bad loser and a good winner ", there's some on this site need to take heed of the "good winner " bit - one day it may be our turn.

[Eddie]

Can we stop the half-season points expansion formula...it just isn't an accurate way of assessing things.

[Majiball]

On Ashley- he put £250 MILLION quid into Newcastle. He is a classless lump but he didn't start the rot, the geordies need to look a bit closer to home for that. Starting with the equity to debt conversion done by the Halls, and Shepherd. Remember Ashley didn't appoint Allardyce and if he hadn't been hounded out, next year they should have been looking at Europe not Administration.

Mike Ashley inheritted Sam, Shepherd appointted him.