[Archived] Big Fat Sam

[tcj_jones]

Billy Castell, Tony Mowbray is an excellent shout. He has worked wonders at West Brom.

I think we have progressed past the point of relying on managers in a stagnant period in their career or young up and comers. We are not in a relegation battle and I don't want to risk us going two steps backward by appointing the likes of Newell, Hendry, Collins or Shearer.

What worries me though is that only up and coming managers who are desperate for their chance in the Premier League will accept a job where they are given absolutely no money to spend. I don't think it is a situation that Martin Jol - who could have his pick of a fair few top European clubs - would put up with.

In the "up and coming" category, the only names that intrigue me are Henning Berg, Mark Bowen and Eddie Niswieski.

[Fife Rover]

utter rubbish !

NUFC are only a massive club in the City of Newcastle, outside of that area they are a despised ramshackle of a football club. They may have 52000 fans on matchdays buit what else is there to do ? Go shopping, watch Hexham Town ?

I will quantify what Newcastle United are in one short sentence.

They are more entertaining than the muppet show !!!

But only just!! In fact every time I watch them play I think it IS the Muppet Show!!

[RevidgeBlue]

Current betting on Betfair - 'Arry still a shade of odds on at 1.9.

Hughes clear 2nd favourite at 6.8.

Jol clear 3rd favourite at 10.5.

Everyone else much longer odds.

[Fife Rover]

Now that is a relevant question and one I can't answer.

BFS??

[G Somerset Rover]

Never managed big name players, on big salaries with big egos - a recipe for disaster if you ask me

Every manager has to start somewhere though. Johnson has earnt his chance at the top level for the wonders that he has done and is doing in the lower leagues. Perhaps a smaller prem job such as Derby or Fulham would be more appropriate for an untested premiership manager, but I feel this is the kind of avenue that we'll have to go down should Hughes leave as so many managers these days are losing their jobs because of a dispute over financial backing-something that we don't have.

[USABlue]

If it is offered he will be gone. The fact that the Geordies have not been able to find success with any manager since Kev will, IMHO, act as a motivational challenge to Hughes. Add that to the current malaise that seems to exist with some of the players here, lack of funds and an inability to effect change in our recent poor run will serve as notice to Sparky that it is time for him to move on.

Has any other club had two successive managers poached by the same team? Time toput up the Who should be sparky's replacement poll I think.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Every manager has to start somewhere though. Johnson has earnt his chance at the top level for the wonders that he has done and is doing in the lower leagues. Perhaps a smaller prem job such as Derby or Fulham would be more appropriate for an untested premiership manager, but I feel this is the kind of avenue that we'll have to go down should Hughes leave as so many managers these days are losing their jobs because of a dispute over financial backing-something that we don't have.

He may deserve his chance, and I think he is doing a cracking job at Bristol. Yet the jump for someone who has not played or managed at the top level is insurmountable unless you are a Wenger type who seem to be a one in a million manager.

The premiership is full of big egos and players earning huge salaries to accompany their egos. Unless you have been around it as a recent player or manager in a top division , then you have to fear for the likes of Johnson in trying to take the step up.

Anyways he might even get the chance at Bristol, if they carry on with there excellent form

[RevidgeBlue]

Let's not have Hughes out of the door and start speculating as to his successor before anything actually happens.

I too have no doubt he would go IF he was asked but hopefully he might not be and nothing might come of it.

[Mr. E]

I would pretty much consider quiting football if Hughes were to leave us for Newcastle. It'd all be too much really.

[EwoodGlory]

My life would be a nightmare if it happened

[Fife Rover]

I'm just glad you're not choosing our next boss then!

I'd only take Newell from that list - and he'd need to keep his mouth shut!

Shearer would be off to Newcastle before long.

Hoddle - you're joking!

Grayson - not a bad call - but not what we should be aiming for

Hendry - he's been an appauling manager so far - as much as I love him

Bowen - Sammy Lee, Ray Harford etc etc - great coaches dont always make great managers.

If Hughes goes, it's odds on that Bowen and all the other entourage will go with him.

[1864roverite]

I am getting more concerned as each hour passes.

As it stands we have all seen the current betting on the potential successor to BFS and we see Mark Hughes lying as a clear second favourite.

We have seen Bill Kenwright come out and give his point of view.

We have heard Harry Redknapp on his view.

We have NOT heard anything from the Hallowed Halls of Ewood about ANYTHING, being the current speculation of Hughes link with NUFC, incoming or outgoing transfers.

In the past 24 hrs we have sold Savage and not a word on it from Ewood, which I would add is highly unusual. We have let Enckleman go to Cardiff, again silence. We have signed Frankie Fielding on a new contract and loaned him out, again NO word from Ewood.

The silence is really putting big doubts into supporters minds, and it begs the question, have Rovers already been approached by NUFC to let them speak to Hughes ?

Its all very worrying.....

[vyeo]

In a twist of fate, we might end up with Shearer then?

Seriously though, the lack of funding here must be driving Hughes mad. It is quite apparent that our board is not releasing anything, and that's probably what prompted the sale of Savage. Is it any wonder that the fee we got 1.5m is also the fee touted for Domovischy?

[Olveres]

In a twist of fate, we might end up with Shearer then?

Seriously though, the lack of funding here must be driving Hughes mad. It is quite apparent that our board is not releasing anything, and that's probably what prompted the sale of Savage. Is it any wonder that the fee we got 1.5m is also the fee touted for Domovischy?

A business reporting pre tax losses as opposed to profits needs to be prudent though. We have reported pre tax losses for at least the last two financial years.

[roversmum]

'Tis all reported on the Official Site, 1864, except any comment on the Newcastle situation.

[1864roverite]

What I mean Mum is official quotes from any staff.

[Billy Castell]

It is worth seeing how much money Jol had when he made AZ Alkmaar into a credible European team. As far as I know all the wealth and power belongs to PSV/Ajax and Feyenoord, whilst most other teams have the stature of a Stoke or Birmingham within the Dutch league. I guess 'up and coming' managers are all teams with no £ like us can hope for, as the likes of Johnson or Ince have got used to having no money. For example, Rijkaard would probably be awful as he has only managed Barcelona and is used to lobbing £12m+ here or there for players.

Whatever happens I fear the money is drying up, and we'll start to go into decline unless we either get some rich foreign owner who likes to spend, or the financial bubble bursts, and all the foreign billionaires suddenly run away.

[rebelmswar]

This is not good for the nerves, it would be nice for them to say anything. Even if it is all lies it would be comforting to hear something.

[tony gale's mic]

there isnt anything for them to reply to though! the only reason hughes' name has come up is because everyone imagines he's the sort of manager newcastle will be after. theres been no reports of any contacts between the clubs, and indeed harry redknapp has been the overwhelming favourite so there's no need for anyone, hughes or rovers, to comment just yet.

having said that:

Mark Hughes in the frame for Newcastle job

Jan 10 2008 by Alan Oliver, Evening Chronicle

MARK HUGHES has emerged as a rival to Harry Redknapp to replace Sam Allardyce as manager of Newcastle United.

Mark Hughes

And even though the job is regarded as a poisoned chalice in some quarters, the Chronicle can reveal that there are other managers in the Premier League interested in it.

But Alan Shearer will not be asked to be the next manager.

The sacking of Allardyce, first revealed on our Chroniclelive website at 5.30 last night, has seen hundreds of thousands of pounds of bets placed on the new man – the majority of it on Redknapp.

But Redknapp today insisted: "I really do not know anything about this.

"I have not spoken to anyone from Newcastle.

"When I saw that Sam had left, my immediate thoughts were that Alan Shearer was a certainty to take over.

"There’s nothing in my being linked with the job.

"I had an offer not so long ago to take over at what I consider a massive club, but I didn’t go.

"I am happy down on the south coast.

Meanwhile, the Chronicle can reveal that Shearer will not be approached on this occasion for the job and, despite some reports to the contrary, neither will Steve McClaren.

When the news of Allardyce’s sacking broke, Shearer was actually playing golf with Freddie Shepherd on the exclusive Sandy Lane course in Barbados.

I spoke to Shearer last night and he was his usual affable self, but he did not give the impression that he was about to take over as manager of his beloved United.

Shepherd, of course, was the man who brought Allardyce to St James’s Park, but when I contacted him today he refused to make any comment on the sacking.

McClaren was actually at the Emirates Stadium last night watching the Arsenal- Spurs Carling Cup tie and was spotted talking to Mike Ashley’s best pal and former White Hart Lane vice- chairman Paul Kemsley.

But I am told nothing should be read into this, and that while the former England boss has always loved the Newcastle United set-up he will not be given the chance to take control.

Hughes has done a great job at Blackburn, but he must be wondering if he has taken the homely but unfashionable Lancashire club as far as he can.

In fact, there were some boos for the former Manchester United, Chelsea and Wales striker after Rovers’ shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Coventry City last Saturday.

Ironically, the Hughes situation is a bit like that of Shearer at Newcastle in that he is always going to be linked with the manager’s job at Old Trafford.

All United would hint at today was that they are looking for an experienced manager who is currently with a club, and this would rule out the likes of Martin Jol, Jose Mourinho, Marcello Lippi and Ottmar Hitzfeld.

The sacking of Allardyce came just 10 days after chairman Chris Mort told me at Stamford Bridge that both he and Mike Ashley had faith in him.

But Stoke City changed all that.

My counterpart in the Midlands told me he was in the Stoke boardroom after Saturday’s game, and when Allardyce appeared on the television saying how well United had done, the Mike Ashley contingent simply shook their heads.

And he pulled the trigger on Allardyce yesterday.

Meanwhile, League Managers’ Association chairman Howard Wilkinson has hit out at the trend of sacking managers in the wake of Allardyce’s departure.

"It debases the position of manager," Wilkinson said.

"You have to start to ask, what’s the manager there to do?

He added: "It is actually a sign of the times in the sense that the position of manager now seems to be increasingly overvalued in terms of money and increasingly devalued in terms of the job they’re supposed to responsible be doing.

"It begs the question, given the number that have gone in the Premier League now this season, do you need a manager?

"Or when you appoint one, on what grounds do you appoint him?"

Wilkinson warned stability was the only way to ensure success.

"Statistics going back 20 years in our game and other countries show that changes of this nature made in the short-term have an effect for two to three months maximum," he said.

"Then the club, the team, reverts back to norm.

"What you’ve got to change in a club when you go in is the culture. At some clubs, that can be difficult because the changes you’ve got to bring about can be massive."

but it is just pretty much speculation and doesnt say any contact has been made.

[Nelsta]

The lack of transfer activity and silence in general at ewood is filling me with dread each and every hour.

[roversmum]

What I mean Mum is official quotes from any staff.

I don't mean the message board

Lee's Official reports here:

Frank Fielding signs and goes back on loan

Encks to Cardiff (goodness, that hair gets scarier)

Robbie to Derby

[brian_gallagher85]

This is not good for the nerves, it would be nice for them to say anything. Even if it is all lies it would be comforting to hear something.

Ok then, Mike Ashley has just sold his stake in NUFC and has bought Rovers and handed Mark Hughes a new 10 year deal and £50million to strengthen the squad.

Happy now?

[Roost]

My life would be a nightmare if it happened

Bloody 'ell I can only imagine!

At least you have the coolest bar in the UK to go and drown your sorrows - Popolo's

One Love - BRFC

[gumboots]

He already owns the shop doesn't he?

[tony gale's mic]

as ive said, there's no need for rovers or hughes to come out make any comment just yet. if a journalist asks him and hughes gives an iffy answer, then we should be worried. but no papers are reporting there's been any contact between the sides so there's nothing to come out and deny.