NUFC Forum

the sight of Emre celebrating with souey after scoring and then parker hugging souness straight after the final whistle shows the team spirit we have, it goes to show that souness being the gaffer was the main reason for these two joining the toon, and i would go as far as to say the same with mickey owen.

Yes i would have to agree , team spirt looks very good , seems nobby and emre are getting on well , which bodes well.

Now that Robert Bellamy etc etc have gone should be no more dressing room problems



hopefully  bluebiggrin.gif

that is the main positive that has come out of souness, we seem to have a tremendous spirit in the dressing room, there is no more sniping, no more shite in the press etc etc.

im no souness fan, but he has to be praised the way he has sorted out our dresing room, we are a much healthier club in that respect

Just a bit worse off in others, that's all.

I think Souness would be one of the best Assistant Managers going.

Whether he can keep everyone happy and get results on the pitch is a different question though.

Something i have noticed is that when we score all the players celebrate together as under SBR they celebrated in little clicks!

I noticed that aswell. but did u see Shearer grab shola? He must have been saying something like prove us fans wrong! show u can score goals. Great day great game. Footbal boring?? Not as a toon fan!!!

Agree.

Happy to see all this bluecool.gif


Toon Mania!

Yea i must agree we do look healthier is that aspect, It was funny seein Emre jump on Souness. The players seem to like and respect Souness, If only he was'nt a better tactician and not so Negative

What was up with Ramage's celebration after the first goal? He ran to the other players slapping his head like a mad man.

god knows i saw that last night it made me chuckle!  bluelaugh.gif

Football365's Weekend Winners & Losers:

Graeme Souness
A Tyne-Wear derby victory guarantees any Newcastle manager under pressure a stay of execution, but there were two other points to Sunday's victory that should quieten the critics.

The first was Emre capping a fine display by scoring the winner with a long-range free-kick. As well as on results, a manager can be judged by the impact and quality of the players he has signed.  Emre is a class act who would not have signed for Toon if anyone but Souness had been manager. The same probably applies to Michael Owen.

The second is the sight of Emre celebrating his winner with Souness and Scott Parker celebrating the win with his manager.

The Scot may have lost a significant number of the fans but he hasn't lost the dressing room.


Ooops - just noticed this in the Team Spirit thread.  bluebigrazz.gif

thats a good little article,to say it came from football365  blueyes.gif

Ramage was celebrating like that because he was amazed Shola had scored with his napper.

He is not a prolific header of the ball; which is to say he has a head like a dice.

Ramage was being Ironic and it looked brilliant! bluebiggrin.gif

That was all you had to say.

He has really improved team spirit, he got rid of the wasters and prats. He said that every morning coming to work he knows he has a honest bunch of lads who are together and behind him and then he said whether he's here or not they will do very for this football club. I'd love him to do well here but it would be hard for him, I think all the players he goes after are really good. Emre is a legend already, a fans favourite not to mention Solano.

Agreed completly i believe souness is an honest enough bloke and hope he can get us on a good run now.

Yeah I hope so, but the real problem is that when we drop a point everyone including the media is on his back. IMO Sheperd should decide now whether he stays for this season or if he goes then sack him now! Too much uncertatainity.

I noticed Souness didn't have anything to say about lady luck yesterday.

Lady luck had nothing to do with the mackems hitting the woodwork.

Lady luck had nothing to do with a good shout for a penalty.

Lady luck had nothing to do with Parker getting a yellow when Carr could have got two meaning we'd be down to 10 men.

lady luck also has nothing to do with the fact that they will never hit two goals like that again in their lives.


we won, thry didnt, lets enjy it eh

I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't lost my voice.  I tried to take the piss out of the mackems at work and they just ended up laughing at me, that can't be fair.

He hasn't lost the dressing room, it's where it always was, it's the trainning ground he has lost.  bluebiggrin.gif

showed tremendous fight and spirit on the pitch when the going has been getting tough though ?
ie against Wigan, Portsmouth, Fulham, Bolton, West Ham .....

i think in those games we showed a lack of quality as oppose to a lack of desire, theres a diffference

a lack of quality, against teams who have spent a fraction of what our current manager has spent in 12 months....what's he been doing with all that money ?

It wasn't just a lack of quality, we had better quality than the opposition, we had a lack of organisation and planning.

one thing I did notice on Sunday, we had been doing some training ground work on corners and freekicks. We are usually shite at corners, hardly ever score directly from them, but they had a plan, the whole walking out thing and then planned runs. In emre we had a man capable of putting the ball where it was supposed to be and that how Shola found space.

That is all down to hard work on the training pitch, from a manager who some say has no tactics or planning!!

He's not the greatest manager but and under him we will always be inconsistant, but there are elements that are positive signs. The set peice moves is one. We also defended them extrondinarily well! Again we are usual crap on defending set pieces, but we looked strong. Again down to work on the training pitch.

I think they worked hard in training this week and got the reward, thats why the lads went for souness and thanked him!!

Howay the TOON!!!

The set piece had Nobby written all over it. That kind of thing always happens when he is involved. His fake and adjustment of the ball - that is the kind of stuff he does. He is very tricky off of the ball.

Not sure if he deserves any creidt for the corner but somehow he was able to get two makems marking him for the corner (!?) which is strange considering he can't head the ball and is not very tall. Probably a mistake by the makems but funny anyway.

So it's taken 12 months to learn how to attack a corner, excellent.

Let's wait and see if this was a one off before going on about what we've learned.  Maybe he has eventually done something on the training pitch, I'll wait a few more games before getting too carried away.

A derby game is the type of game to lift players, let's see how a run of the mill game goes.

Good post Mick, I basically agree, Souness is still the same man he was 2 days ago he hasnt changed, I'll admit we did look better going forward, It was the first time this season where i really thought we could score, We actually looked a threat. The corner was well worked, Well worked!!! Credit to them they won but could'nt last 90 mins, I'll over look that for now because we had a few players clearly not match fit for plausable reasons.

Shola's still the same too.

From an inside source, (tomato) i've been told:

He is very popular with the players, and none of them want him to go.

He not just respected as a manager, but they get on with him as a person as well.

Always laughing and joking, but taking the training serious, so they all enjoy it.

Your logic there is completely flawed.  Had Carr gotten the yellow card instead of Parker then he would have been more cautious in his tackling later in the game.  Even if he hadn't the referee may not have booked him for that tackle if he was already booked.  Giving a yellow card and giving a second yellow are usually two different cases for referees.

The thing about Shola is that he is so inconsistent. One minute he is skining players and the next he can't get the ball out of his feet. I always thought that he was a great player to bring on to tire the oppo as a sub but i thought he played exactly the same as he normally does. Causing problems and running away from defenders the big difference between sunday and normally is that he took his chances. A fine line between a good player and a rubbish one is goals!

I agree Teasy, Parker faded after that because he knew any rash tackles would of meant he was sent off, Carr's tackle when he did get his Yellow looked intent so i doubt he would of made that tackle, But it doesnt matter now, We won

Sorry the logic isn't flawed, how many players get sent off for two yellows?

Maybe the things you say might have or might not have happened.  All I do know is that Parker got Carr's first yellow, Carr got his own second.

Terry McDermott ?

every training ground should be like that,its normal!

Terry McDermott  blueyes.gif  bluelaugh.gif

that corner wasn't ''worked'', or at least not ameobi's part.anybody who saw it could see that ameobi had no movement,he just stood still and breen left him for a free header, as such he didnt run at and attack the header, he just jumped statically and forced is neck through the header to gain power.

Course it was planned, he hung back... everyone else runs forward.... and who is unmarked 7 yards out??

To be fair Shearer hung back and it was probs aimed for him

"We are usually shite at corners, hardly ever score directly from them, "


well we havent had solano or emre in the team much to take them.    Nzogbia is utterly inconsistent..

both emre and nobby should help stabilise us......

SOme form from the strikers would be useful too !!

Ive given up on the defense LOL

about time you realised Souness is shite, and 3 hard won points against relegation certainties does not make a season or a manager.

"about time you realised Souness is shite"


no thnx.  I have my own opinion on that one.


Hes not shite manager, hes just not good enough to take nufc where we want it to be.  eg top 4.

that corner was a carefully planned move, 5 players by the goal line, all walk at the same time away from the line, then as a group they split, four players going to the corners of a predetermined square, the fifth staying in the middle.

7 times out of ten the defenders will not stick to their man in a mess like that, they'll see a flurry of movement and stick with which ever player is closest. this inevitably leads to one man being double teamed, leaving another player pretty much unmarked, if he's in the right place to receive the ball then he's fine, if not then he's able to move towards the middle of the predetermined square, where the ball will surely be fired towards...

of course it relies on indecision at the back and a good delivery, but I'd wager this is not the last time we see a similar move.

Also the sight of 4-5 players by the goal line slowly moving out, then breaking rapidly to other positions within the box.

I'd suggest having someone like Parker or whichever midfielder isn't involved with the corner to break late into the box as the big guns leave the goal line and split, he should arrive unmarked...

i agree, i've played enough of this sport in my life to know what a set peice looks like...i've done a similar play over and over in which ive taken the corner and been in the mess....

Yes he is, our results and poor football over 12 months prove this point.

He IS shite - 1 point per game, pretty much, proves that.

Oh, and he's not capable of getting us into the top 6, never mind the top 4.

If he can get Blackburn into the top 6, why not us?

Once. Do you know where they were the following season?

If you are happy being 6th for one year, at that being the peak of our league achievements, then well done - Shepherd, Souness, and his band of mates have desensitised you so much that you are prepared to accept any old shite.

Darth Toon's was a fair question, which you have not, in fact, answered.

Just playing Devil's advocate really - I'm no big fan of Souness, but I do think sometimes his detractors have a tendency to exaggerate his failings.

He's just not good enough. When he first came, i was pleased. In my head, he'd get rid of the players who were a blight on our club, then get sacked by his first christmas. As it was, he let his ego take over, stitched up our most effective striker, failed to get rid of the biggest waste of speace at the club, and and brought in some ****ing ridiculous players.

YES, he's brought some good 'uns in as well, but i cannot think of ONE reason why we should be paying fees and/or wages for Moore, Babayaro, and Faye, when they are at best jsut as bad as others at the club, in some cases worse.

I will be very disappointed if he is still here by next summer.

I think the only way he will survive beyond this season is if he delivers at least a top 6 finish and a European place, which should be comfortably achievable with our squad in what is generally (Chelsea aside) a fairly poor Premiership.

yeah  shite managers can attract the likes of emre,parker,owen and luque all the time can't they?

So it would seem, yes. Its funny, cos when you call into question his shite signings, we get told that its Shepherd who does the transfers. But when his defenders want to hide behind something, suddenly its HIM who brings the good players in.

From things I heard, the Parker and Owen things were a lot to do with Shearer.

Do you seriously, honestly, think he's not a shite manager (and will therefore have us in the top 6 well before the end of the season)??

Mick, NE5 and Northern Monkey you all continue you to slate Souness and claim to have this great knowledge of NUFC but if you look back when SBR took over 99-00 we finished 11th and 00-01 we finished 11th as someone on here stated before. Was you at the time getting anxiety attacks about SBR wanting him out before he got us in the top 5 so many times. The club site state that the reason SBR finished 11th twice was 1 - Rebuilding and 2 - Too many injuries. So tell me why can`t you afford Souness the same amount of time?  At least this time round we have better players and a composed Dressing room.  It wasn`t until SBR got his team settled and fairly injury free that we finished better.

They can, if they're living off the back of their past reputation as a great player.

So you seriously want to wait and not judge him at all, until "his team" plays together? Bearing in mind this may never happen until January?

Yes or no answer will suffice.

All this is offtopic, every thread gets turned into an "i hate souness" thread.

All the points that are being made, have all ready been made several times before, often on the same day. It's the same thing every single day.

I'm not a Souness supporter, but its getting a bit repetitive, i think i could recite the failings of Mr Souness in my sleep.

Change the record, its boring now.

Some quotes from Nolberto this morning. Skysports.



"This is a big club, with big expectations. Of course, there is pressure on the manager, but with all the squad available to him, things will be different.

"That was a win for the manager. He deserves it. He is a great man and he has been under pressure all the time.

"Our ambition is still to finish in the top four."

Footballer in bland statements of support shock!!

I notice that the idea of the "his team" thing gets ignored when it doesn't fit with peoples ways of thinking.

I just posted it because it was on topic, unlike most drivel.

Sorry was reading another thread there Northern. Erm... I`m usually quite a decisive person but when it comes to Souness and our club I have never been so indecisive. I`m just happy to support the club i suppose. I don`t think blaming injuries is a real excuse and i was disgusted with our performance at Wigan as i posted last  week but i seem to be coming round to the idea of not worrying if he has this season as well to prove if he can cut it or not. It does seem to be an inconsistancy thing with him, we had a blinding 10 game run with him last season then an equally blinding shit run of form. This season so far has been shite but i think we might just turn the corner with our latest win.
Sorry couldn`t give a yes no there.

At this point during Robsons time he had spent nothing (thats right NOTHING on transfers. what he spent he recovered through sales (16 million)) and if you remember there was a belief we were on the up, that he had saved us from the brink in a number of ways and improved on the previous seasons position. A season after that he had spent 9 million in total and was set to take to us to fourth in the table.

I understand there would always be more patience for Bobby because of his record (pretty sensible if you ask me), but how you are using Robsons first seasons to defend Souness is beyond me. bluedead.gif

fair point, but i believe we are talking about team spirit and souness not having lost the dressing room here

I always beleived during Robsons time here that he had and has the ability to get average players playing above there normal form and Souness doesn`t have that ability. Different managers and people in gerneral all have different strengths and weaknesses.  League positions aside i think we have a better team under Souness. As for the point about money how can you bring that into play...so Souness has spent more but he hasn`t had that amount of money all playing together, not even half.  One major factor is that SBR had a Shearer in better condition and that would help any manger no matter how good they are or not.

What about Dyer?

The Shearer of 99-2000 would guarantee us top 5 now, he scored 30 goals in Sir Bobby's first season in charge.

football.gif

The Shearer when Robson arrived was on his way out. He admitted Robson saved his Newcastle career.


Sadly Souness couldn't do that for Kluivert.

The thing is though, even when by his standards when he was just going through the motions under Gullit, Shearer still looked about 10 times more interested than Kluivert has done in the last couple of seasons. I think Kluivert is a class act but I don't think he's too bothered about playing footie any more.

Shearer was still scoring goals, just his outside the box game had went to pot because his back was always to goal. He was as deadly as ever inside the box though and was top scorer in Gullit's last full season in the job.

I just think Shearer needed some TLC from a manager probably for the first time in his career. He was getting a lot of flack back then, remember he was also England Captain and we had just lost two consecutive FA Cup Finals. The dream had turned sour for him.

I remember Sir Bobby saying he gave Shearer a big hug and the two had many a long chat about things.

Shame it all turned rather sour for the pair. I wouldn't say Sir Bobby saved Shearer but he understood him more than anyone and went on to build a team around Shearer so he could continue to score the number of goals he had done.

Maybe to the detriment of others, certainly the central midfield areas. Once Bobby took over the goals from that area dropped significantly as the aim was to use the flanks and get the ball up to Shearer as quickly as possible.

And during Sir Bobby's last full season the strains of playing that way began to show as both team and Shearer started to wane.

As an outsider , maybe I should stay away from this very delicate issue since I am a newcomer here and the reason for that is that is because I am a loyal Emre fan however, after having read all those threads about whether he'd get fired ' over and over again , I just thought I'd send this out.

The whole 'fire him' thing  makes me feel like those who keep coming back w/ fire him' threads might have some personal issues  w/ the manager really. could be his hairstyle or the way he acts I dunno.regardless of where NUFC stands in the standing table or even after a well deserved win, I see that  those bashers do not seem to hesitate whatsoever to jump on 'fire him' bandwagon. 
Correct me if I am mistaken but no team that i can think of in the premier league besides NUFC  has had to deal with this too many injury problems in the very beginning of the season. The guy has NOT been able to put his ideal squad on the pitch due to unfortunate injuries.

Makes me wonder what  Mourinho would do if he faced to lose four or five of his key players like Lampard  Drogba and/or John Terry to injuries or Wegner of Arsenal w/o henry and few others. would  those call for mourinho' head . as well?     

That being said, let's play patient and give the guy some space and see what he 'd do once he got the full squad in hand - imho once we have  the injury-free squad,  NUFC is gonna win several back to back games and get itself into the top five in the table at ease cos we have heck of players anybody would like to have them played for their teams.

IN SOUNESS WE TRUST

Cheers

I think the results on the pitch are the problem fans have with Souness. Since he arrived they haven't been great. Apart from Sunday, obviously.

And those bashers will not let him be until he proves that he is a manager worthy of our club.
I agree that injuries have hampered the squad and now they are all coming back to fitness they will win games, but for me there would have to be something massively wrong if they didn't. The greater test of a manager is to shine when things are not all going your way and Souness simply has not even come close to doing so. Now that more players are fit will Souness start to bring direction and tactics to the table?

Don't get me wrong I hope he does turn things around, but he has a lot of ground to make up.
The past year has shown all too clearly that he has little clue how to bring the best out of players or the squad at his disposal, so it will take more than a few wins to convince me that he deserves his job.



/and yes other clubs have had similar injury problems (maybe not so many long term ones?). When we drew Portsmouth they had more first teamers injured, Fulam had similar numbers out when we played them, as did Sunderland. etc.

really good post,I have to agree with you.

are you Turkish? Fact is we've never played good football under Souness, not entertaining OR SUCCESSFUL football, and we never will play football that is testament to the players' abilities with him in charge.

I agree with the first bit (it's obvious we haven't played consistently well for some time, before Robson was sacked even) but the bit in bold is your opinion. For the record you might be right, but my opinion is that we should give GS a little more time to actually prove you and the rest of us right or wrong. Teams change managers too quickly these days and it has implications on many different elements of the club.

the fickleness of fans does contribute to the current instability of the football clubs. The pressure if massive for a manager, if he doesn't bring rapid success his head is on the chopping block.

However, even the most fickle of fan will give a manager time if it's clear that the product on the pitch is improving. We all know that this season hasn't been kind to GS in terms of injuries, but the tactics are still poor, the back line is woefully inept!

There have been some excellent signings under Souness' tenureship, but I'm not  entirely sure how involved he was in the Owen, Parker or Luque captures. Emre is clearly his player and is proud to play for a man he obviously likes. I'm not saying he wasn't involved, but I'm not willing to give him entire credit.

At the end of the day Souness is a poor tactician and has someone said elsewhere, he would make a superb Assistant Manager. I just don't think he's cut out for this level.

Yes, I am Turkish .... was born and raised in Istanbul..  anyway, getting back to your post,  may have never played good football or maybe did but never to your satisfactory however  that doesn't necessarly mean we aint gonna play better fotball. my point is  whatever happened happened  wish could go back and change things around to have a better future for that matter

All I am saying is with the new squad and key players are hopefully  coming out of injuries , I think  he does deserve some fair support/criticism to put things together. 

It's amazing how Souness wins one match against a Mackem side who are likely to be relegated with less points than they were last time and gets a hug off Emre and suddenly people start depicting him as the Mother Theresa of football.

The team spirit does seem canny and the form book goes out the window (cliched but true IMO) for a derby game. I'm not a big fan of Souness btw.

Just for the record i havn`t started depicting him any different to usual. The Wigan game was the only time i nearly joined the haters. Separate to that case i have always been 50/50 sitting on the fence.  I just feel that given this season he could do the business. As i`ve also said before thats not to say if someone of Jose Mourinho`s standard came along asking for job that i wouldn`t want them instead.

"emrefan_istanbul" - Have just sent you a pm.

Well, one never knows.... I'd have to agree with you if only you'd explain to me how in the world then Everton walked away with a draw vs the runaway train....not to mention they scored only their 2nd goal of the season against the league leaders.

Being a better team on paper doesn't necessarily give you 3 points before...  game still has to be played.

Classy comment.Emrefan.

Agreed.

Lowest ever league finish with team that finished 5th the season before.
Grabbed player by the throat (assault).
Had a public slagging match with Bellamy, Souness threw the first stone.
Put himself before the club when dropping Robert for the UEFA quater final.
Two players fighting on the pitch, Souness sticks up for Bowyer calling him a proper player.
Never takes responsibility for anything, lady luck etc.
Can't get best out of his players.
Spent £50 million on a paper thin squad and ends up with a paper thin squad.
Paid £8 million to his beloved Rangers for Boumsong, gets thanked for it by Rangers chairman, his mate.

That's 9 reasons and I've only spent a few minutes thinking about it.

Sorry but that blinding 10 game run was mainly crap football.

Shearer was down and out until Bobby came, if Shearer was a bonus to Sir Bobby then that's because of the management style of the great man, something else Souness doesn't have.

The Wigan game was no worse than Fulham at home, that game will take a lot of getting over for me, it was shocking.

How anyone can compare Bobby's 11th placed finishes to Souness' 14th place and keep a straight face while doing so, I can't comprehend.

It's a bit like saying Souness has done a better job than Keegan did at first because Keegan nearly got us relegated in his first season.

I agree completely - but I have to say that a few people on here have fonder memories of the last 12 months of Robson's reign than I do. In my opinion we were deeper in the shit when Robson left than some care to admit. Robson's record at the end was pretty poor and the football dire to watch. People keep talking about 4th, 3rd and 5th finishes but we were going backwards after Xmas that last season.

I really didn't want to do this as I hate excuses, injuries.

We tried to get Lua Lua back from loan and we had to bring Caldwell back from Leeds, that didn't help towards the end of the season.

It went badly for Bobby, no doubt about that, but 5th to 14th is a totally unacceptable drop, even allowing for Woody's departure.

A couple of those late away goals that we seemed to concede every week stopped and we would have had the CL spot.

The truth. I cannot stand people repeating the same dribble about Souness being a trouble causer and his results are crap and all that. I agree with alot of it but it just sounds like a broken record.
I want NUFC to do well, as simple as that. I couldn't give a monkeys if the manger was saddam hussein as long as the team is doing well. Fingers crossed we will starts doing well now we have got our first teamers back.
The fact is ouness isn't that bad or did these people just happen to look away when emre was huggin the gaffa after his goal.

I am going to one thing and that is wait and see. If we don't start perform now then he has to go. People please do the same as me and just get behind the fecking team.

P.S none of this what would you prefer us to lose and souness gone or us to win. Anyone who wants us to lose is a prat!

Did you just repeat yourself again! I thought i told you it is boring. 
bluelaugh.gif

A bit like the football we usually play then is it?

Oh I agree...Bobby had injuries to contend with too. However, I think something else was wrong. Performances had been far more stale in his last year and the team just wasn't working as one anymore. There seemed to be factions breaking out within the club and the spirit that was there during the fourth and third place finishes had certainly started to erode.

I just don't like it when people say Souness has taken the club so far backwards from where Bobby left it. In reality I don't think he has. He hasn't taken it forwards, which he should have by now, but I am prepared to give him the rest of this season to do so. Until then, I'm not going to get on his back.

I can't see how you can say we haven't gone backwards, we have, it's obvious and plain to see. 

League position doesn't lie, we are where we are because we're not as good as we were.  I'm not trying to say everything was rosy under Sir Bobby, I will say it wasn't as bad as it is now and would have been a lot better with an investment of £50 million.

If things don't work, and I can't see much sign of it happening, we've lost another year.

bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif :BangHead:

Souness&Team&Supporters.:Focus TOGETHER . pls.

Keep banging, you might knock some sense in to it yet.

:icon_salut:  :icon_thumleft:

Well said!

I hate to do this but i`m going to. Bobby Robson is a legend always will be and is brilliant but he left Souness with the following :-

Andy O brien  - Getting worse day by day minus 100% confidence
Titus Bramble - No confidence
Robert - Thinking he was better than he actually was
Bellamy - The same as above on top of his motor mouth slagging certain team mates off
Ameobi - The same as he is now, but not with the confidence to claim he was going to score 20 goals
Nicky Butt - A different one to the one that played at ManUre
Shearer - Lost his form through age
Dyer - Bling King Dickhead dictating to the team where he wanted to play
Milner - Filling in on the RW
N`Zogbia - lacking strength and stamina
Kluivert - Money grabbing fat bastard
Jenas - stopped passing forwards 3yrs previous
Bernard - gone...no LB

Also a bad start to the season.

I just think that anybody would have a hard time changing the above quicker than he has. I would say most of the above is now solved or in the process. 
Just to state that i was gutted when SBR was replaced with GS but now i can see why.

Personally i think people Slating Souness is very justified!!! We cant forget the facts, No doubt the win agaisnt the Scum has helped Souness keep his job, A win against West Brom and Birmingham will help Souness no end.

if I [or you] had said beforehand it was only to be expected, we'd probably have been accused of
making unfair pre-judgements

Or something like that

the fall in the league is bad enough, but I'm still amazed at how many people appear to forget about  the 50m quid

The key bit in bold. I also think that sometimes you have to go back to go forwards. I'm not particularly happy with how things are going at the moment, but not pissed off/concerned enough not to give the bloke a bit longer.

On the 50 million spent, I am not disputing the figure. I believe it's true, but can someone break it down for me?

Can I just add what the £50m quid has got to do with it? If we're going to be pedantic, we can say that is given us a run of just 1 defeat in 7, and has lifted us 8 places in the league and now 7 points off 2nd spot.

Boumsong - £8m
Babayaro - £1m
Faye - £2m
Emre - £3.8m
Parker - £6.5m
Luque - £9.5m
Owen - £17m
Solano - £1.5m

£49.3m

for 50m quid mate, he should be in the top 4 guaranteed. Without even going near the "best SQUAD of players I've ever managed".

The same SQUAD of players who now are "such a small squad we can't cover for [probably self inflicted] injuries".

One in a LONG line of hypocritical statements ........

At the end of the day, I could care less if Souness is best mates with all the players and if they all sleep in a huge bed together and snuggle warmly. I want to see a consistent winning team (which we used to have prior to his arrival). I don't see where the justification for Souness has come from just because Emre and Lee Clark say he's an alright bloke. The players used to like Dogleash as well.

Sounds like Souness has been learning from Shepherd on how to deliever hypocritical comments!!

It was true Souness liked the squad he had inherited (plenty of qoutes to back it up) but because he could not deliver Sir Bobby 4th 3ed and 5th with it he knew he had to buy himself sometime by saying he needed HIS PLAYERS to be properly judged... (thats simply not good enough Souy)

Couldn't agree more. It would be interesting to know how many players who have left the club have been sold didn't like the manager very much.

After all, it is a high turnover of players. Especially when he came in he rated them so highly.

Aaron Hughes is one, and an ex player of his at Blackburn thinks he is top class tosser, first hand information. FACT.

Minus the money he has brought in from selling players

Hughes  £1m
O'Brien  £2m
JJ          £7M

= £39.3M

Plus other than Boum I don't see any big money buys who are going to flop like many of SBR's and other managers signings over the last 10 years, the list would take ages to draw up but we all know who they are.

And replacing Shearer was always going to cost whichever manager we had in big money.

Is the "FACT" that

• an ex-player thinks he is a tosser, or


• he is a tosser, or


• the information is first hand?

Just to clarify

The word "fact" is used somewhat loosely around these parts.

Usually it means "opinion". In this case it means "bollocks".

the jan signings were more or less paid for by the woody cash, and the sales of jenas bellamy hughes obrien robert etc totaled about 25m quid. net spending is 25m, half of what is claimed.

Irony, brilliant.

One of whom was not replaced until 6 months too late, one of which was replaced by a poorer player, another who was never replaced......the list goes on. And out of the players he's bought, we paid double the real value for Boumsong, Babayaro is poor, Faye is a disgrace, Moore (a free, but we DO pay his wages) is a no-mark, and Luque we cannot judge. The rest we know are good (except Emre, who we haven't seen enough of to be certain, but he looks damned good - although he wouldn't be the first EPL player to look good at first).

For the money he has spent, we should not be worrying about being able to get into the top 6. And THAT is a fact.

No, that's not irony.

Try this:

https://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Class.

And again, a point totally missed. Never mind.

I don't.

As someone else pointed out, you have to remove sales from that too. In my opinion, (as I believe Boumsong will come good, although we probably did pay a couple of million too much for him) only the money on Faye has been wasted. Babayaro isn't a favourite of mine either, but 1 million for a squad player isn't the end of the world.

Every manager signs a duff one now and again. 38.3 million of the above have had between six and ten games at the club (and haven't even managed that due to fitness). They will not gel immediately. I can't see how anyone can throw the 50 million argument at Souness yet...maybe after Xmas yes, but not yet. It's just unfair and unrealistic.

When I read the title I thought he needed a new map of the ground...........

a Blackburn player, who incidentally had no problem with Souness like Cole, Yorke, Dunn, Todd, thinks he is a complete wanker. And confirmed the day he left Blackburn it was a better club.

And THAT is first hand information that I have.

Simple fact. We dived to 14th under Souness. The WUM likes Souness.

Another fact. Arsprilla scored 2 premiership goals in season 1997-98, and the WUM thinks he's a "legend". 

Odd eh ?

2 facts. Neither are opinions.

i would call tino more of a cult hero than a legend, personally

The £50 million would have made Bobby's team better, that's what it's got to do with it.

Wigan and Man U were within the last 7 so that's two defeats, go back 8 and its' 3, go back 10 and it's 4, in that time we've won 3, yes, just 3.

We are still closer to third bottom than third top.

wasn't me, it was Ozzie the mackem. Personally, I'd call him a lazy arsed clown, waste of space and an abject failure. I tend not to have much time for players who don't perform very well for the toon ....

Not fit to lace Craig Bellamys boots .. I mean how can you take the piss out of the club more than playing as if you don't give a shit for the club or the supporters ?

your entitled to your opinion, i just remember the barca game, one of my fondest memories as a toon fan, and for that, i will always remeber him fondly.

i also have a love for bellamy, he was electric for blackburn last night and i would still like him to be here.

i feel its his own doing that he isnt, idiocy for going on t.v and giving THAT interview, thats another debate though, and one that has been on here a million times