switters

Solskjaer worked for Manchester United as player and reserve team coach between 1996 and 2011. I suspect he knows the league pretty well!

2 things: - he ain't gonna get the Man Utd job unless he does a damn good job at Villa. This would be a Good Thing for us. - Ferguson is immortal. I suspect he drinks the blood of youth players who can't cut it at Man Utd. He could still be there for another 5 years or more, particularly if he wants to go out on a high - he won't want to leave while the club is in City's shadow.

Could be the perfect manager to build a team to suit Bent - strikes me he was quite a Bent-like striker in his day, so should know how to set up the attack to benefit him.

Don't know enough about him as manager to know if this is a good choice, but if it's true, I'm delighted Lerner has at least spread his net wider and got away from the obsession with PL experience as the be-all and end-all for a manager. I'd be hopeful that Solskjaer is someone who can inspire our academy players - surely he will have a far more modern approach than a dinosaur like McLeish.

Good manager, but I'd be extremely surprised if he went from that to a high-pressure PL job less than a year later. And after Houllier problems, there's no chance board would take a risk on manager who left previous job for health reasons.

They surely wouldn't do it twice would they? Hasn't McCarthy been relegated 3 times from the premier league? I'd usually ignore rubbish like this to be honest but with Faulkner heading the hunt you never know. He's the dozy **** who thought McLeish was a good idea so putting nothing past him. Read carefully. It doesn't say we contacted McCarthy. It says McCarthy "had a telephone conversation with Faulkner" - even if true, that could just be Mick phoning up to put his name forward, as I'm sure dozens of managers looking for a PL job have done over the last couple of days.

Do people not remember last summer? There was a new bookies favourite every day. Hughes, McClaren, Benitez, Martinez, etc, all had a go. McCarthy rumour is just a sign that we are into silly season. Just because the most ridiculous rumour last summer turned out to be the real one, doesn't mean it will be the same this time.

I think a rolling contract means he always has 1 year contract, hence we'd probably have to pay compensation for that year. But yes it would be cheaper than getting someone who has long-term contract (e.g. Brendan Rodgers, who signed 3.5 yr contract in Feb 2012). Martinez seemingly signed 3 yr contract last year, so would have 2 years left.

True. And I'm not convinced Hughton is good enough to take that kind of risk for anyway. Yes he's a promising coach, but frankly a relegated side should be getting in the playoffs. Blackpool have done better, yet there's little mention of Holloway.. And Hughton did get sacked by Newcastle, perhaps harshly, but perhaps there's a reason that a big club didn't have faith in him to rebuild their team?

Develop scouting networks in countries like France, Holland, Portugal, Germany, Belgium. Remove all scouts from Scotland Take a leaf from Newcastle in targeting equivalents to Tiote, Cabaye, Ben Arfa. Also look at the Championship & see if we can find some cheap, hungry talents there. The key is finding players who have talent & drive to succeed in PL. Not just resign ourselves to players who are already established and looking for a nice, comfortable 4-year contract in midtable obscurity. Ideally sell whoever we can find takers for from Hutton, Warnock, Collins & Dunne. 3 of them only have a year left, so sell them dirt cheap if necessary - it will free up wages. Make sensible decisions on how much the homegrown players will play, one or two of the younger ones might benefit from season-long loan (e.g. Gary Gardner, Nathan Baker, Samir Carruthers) while the team is being rebuilt. While plenty of them got some playing time last season, it wasn't necessarily that beneficial to their development when the team & club was so demoralised & poor. Next season is going to be tough again & it's hard to integrate youngsters into an undeveloped team. Big decision might be Darren Bent. This comes down to how much funding we have for transfers to improve key areas (central midfield, defence). If we don't have much funds to make signings, and someone came in with £20m for Bent I think it would be hard to refuse. His value will only go down & as he showed in the first half of last season, if we haven't got good enough supply-line, he is limited. Obviously it is preferable to keep him and build a team that can supply him, but this might be a financial decision.

No chance. The club statement yesterday showed they have learned from McLeish. 5 minutes research would show them that Bruce would be just as disastrous as McLeish.

Even if this is the case, it will be infinitely better than being a laughing stock for keeping McLeish and watching him sign Karl Henry and co.

Regarding the point about 'transitional season' - if McLeish stays he is, by his own account, planning big changes. So it's going to be another transition whoever is in charge. It's not like we've shown any sign this season that McLeish has made any progress with the squad which we can build on.

Lampard, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand & Johnson should not be anywhere near an England set up. All have been to major tournaments and failed to deliver. Not once, most have been to four or five tournaments! We need to take the German approach and start afresh. The old guard and the egos need to be shipped out. I would never have faith in Gerrard and Lampard to play together in a winning midfield when they have failed so many times in the past. A midfield that failed to even qualify for Euro 2008 is not going to win Euro 2012. Germany's starting afresh was much more long term. They built from the youth teams and continued the same system into the senior setup. England hasn't done that - we're perhaps just starting now with the new central setup in Burton. The long-term problem with England is lack of a coherent team plan. Just throwing out the old players and bringing in younger versions wouldn't really be changing anything in the philosophy of the team.

Absolutely shameless. Is he really trying to pretend he's actually over-achieved with the squad this season?! Sacking cannot come soon enough. Hopefully announced soon after meeting with Faulkner on Monday.

Yikes I missed that one at the time, but just found the video. Nicely sums up McLeish's level of ambition. He dreams of us hacking and long-throwing our way to the dizzy heights of 12th over the course of his reign.

So why do Lampard and Barry get blame for failure as 'golden generation' but not Gerrard & A.Cole? Though he is the same age, Barry was never really part of that generation, he came into England team later, under McClaren. While Gerrard is looking much more washed up than Lampard or Barry on club form. Lampard's helped his team to CL final, Barry may well win the title on Sunday - Gerrard is a declining power in a mid-table Liverpool side and has been injured for large parts of the last 2 years. Also: Chamberlain in the starting line-up? He's barely got into the Arsenal team. I could see the point of him in squad as potential impact player, but he's really not done anywhere near enough to be ahead of Lennon/Walcott.

We don't want to ruin the next generation by rushing them through with excessive expectations too soon. People like Lansbury and Cleverley simply not ready for this tournament. Cleverley's played about 6 games all season and you put him in the first team?! Not a good plan. Similarly Smalling-Jones is not a partnership Ferguson has chosen to play, so why would you put that in England team? A defence that inexperienced would be destroyed by France and co. I understand desire to see change, but it needs to be done sensibly. Take the youngsters who are established first teamers at club level and seem ready for step up (Welbeck, Smalling, Sturridge, Walker, etc.) but we can't throw out all the old regime. Particularly in central midfield, there really aren't many good options beyond the usual suspects of Parker, Barry, Lampard etc. (Cleverley, Wilshere, Rodwell, Huddlestone, Frimpong - all injured/been injured most of the season, and younger players like McEachran, Barkley, G.Gardner even, just aren't ready)

I understand what you're saying but they have played a significant part in a very successful season for Newcastle, it's not like they have been sat on the bench all year. They've played a part in it, but let's face it, it's the core team of Krul, Coloccini, Taylor (until injury), Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse who've got them where they are. Likes of Simpson and Guthrie are like O'Shea and Darren Gibson were for Man Utd - functional elements of the team when played, but completely replaceable. Hence Newcastle are willing to let Simpson's contract run out.

That team is a thing of such ugliness as I've never seen before. You've got a CM which is made up of 2 thugs who would be getting sent-off within half an hour by any international ref. Holt and Carroll would just get in each other's way and give away free-kicks every time they go for a header. Team would be wide open for attacks down either wing as Walcott/Lennon/Dyer are not wing-backs (Wigan play Beausejour and Boyce in these positions in their system, completely different players with much more defensive awareness). And also despite getting rid of the old guard elsewhere you still want to play Terry, who is the main problem element in the squad. If you wanted to play something that actually ressembles Wigan's 3-4-3 system, I'd go with something like: Hart Smalling-Ferdinand-Lescott Milner-Parker-Barry-A.Cole Young-Welbeck/Rooney-Walcott

Guthrie's alright & I'd take Simpson if it meant Hutton going, but it'll be pretty depressing if we're after multiple Newcastle cast-offs.

There's also the fact of Carroll being 23 and Holt 31. Holt deserves consideration based on his goalscoring form and it would be great for a journeyman to go all the way from League 2 to International tournament in just a few years, but he's not any kind of long-term solution. Would say similar for Zamora, who may well be Hodgson's preferred choice. Carroll has had a bad time since moving to Liverpool but it wasn't so long ago he was starring at Newcastle and he may have long term part to play for England, so it might be beneficial to take him to his first major tournament.

For me GK: Joe Hart GK: Ben Foster (would tell him to get out of retirement already, even if just for this tournament!) GK: Scott Carson/whoever DF: Kyle Walker DF: Ashley Cole DF: Leighton Baines DF: Joleon Lescott DF: Rio Ferdinand (leave Terry at home) DF: Gary Cahill DF: Chris Smalling (can cover CB & RB, to save a spot for extra midfielder) MD: Scott Parker MD: Frank Lampard (done much more than Gerrard the last 2 years) MD: Gareth Barry MD: Paul Scholes (a regressive choice but he is fit, on form & all the good young CM options like Wilshere, Cleverley, McEachran are injured/not ready) MD: Ashley Young MD: James Milner MD: Adam Johnson (don't think Ox is quite ready, Johnson good impact player) MD: Theo Walcott MD: Aaron Lennon FW: Wayne Rooney FW: Danny Welbeck (don't think Bent will be fit enough) FW: Daniel Sturridge FW: Andy Carroll (found form at right time) Hart Walker-Ferdinand-Lescott-Cole Parker-Scholes Lennon-Young-Walcott Welbeck Rooney in for Welbeck/Lennon/Walcott when available.

Er, no. We've score more than one goal 10 times in the league this season alone. I think the actual stat is about winning by 2 goals. We've only managed that 5 times, and 2 of them were Hereford and Bristol Rovers in the cup. Birmingham last season won by 2 goals on only six occasions and four of them were in the cup (mostly against lower league sides). The season Birmingham finished 9th they did not win a single game all season by more than one goal! Even in their promotion season from the Championship, he only managed 5 league wins by more than one goal. 38 - 3 38 - 2 38 - 0 46- 5 That makes 10 times he's managed to win by 2 goals in the past 160 league games, including a year in the Championship. Woeful.

I don't buy that last part. Expectations have been driven so low by the awfulness of the past 2 years that fans aren't going to be expecting any new manager to come in and perform miracles. We just want someone who's going to put out a team who'll play in a way we can actually get behind - one that will try to score goals and try to win. McLeish has given fans absolutely nothing to support. A new manager would rekindle hope and even if the season goes badly again, I can't imagine any fans saying 'if only we'd kept McLeish it would be better'. Lerner may calculate that he will get criticized if he changes manager and it starts badly, but he must surely see that he is going to get criticized a hell of a lot more if he retains the manager and it starts badly.