mtb_wm Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Both. We're extremely lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itdoesntmatterwhatthissay Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think this is a great poll. I said equally, no stability without Randy, no genius without Marty. We were dealt Bullys special prize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc89 Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Both. I am starting to have doubts about MON tho but when this usually happens he comes good. I just hope we can push on in the summer and next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 At the moment I'd say Lerner has performed in excess of what I hoped for from him, with O'Neill meeting expectations, no more and no less, and showing disturbing signs of being on a severe downhill slope. sorry riss i dont mean to keep picking your quotes out but you bring up some interesting debates. i can't agree with that statement simply because i would say a severe downhill slope was when dol was here after his second and 3rd season we slided so badly and we are no where near that position. ok we have imploded lately and its ashame we have messed up for CL but i dont think we are in that bad a position as you describe. the future is still looking good for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 'taken' I was about to post that too. It's getting on my nerves Mine too. These awful uses of the Queen's English I can skim over when they are just within a post. When they're in the thread title, it irks a little more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 'taken' I was about to post that too. It's getting on my nerves Mine too. These awful uses of the Queen's English I can skim over when they are just within a post. When they're in the thread title, it irks a little more. Agreed. I gone bonkers when I seen that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Randy. We are a club who should be capable of competing in that top 5,6,7. Investment to bring us back to those levels was key. Any manager stuck with disproportionate levels of funding was going to struggle. With investment in training facilities and players plus the lack of serious competition barring Everton in the past two seasons due to spurs newcastle etc, being a joke, finishing top 6 twice is minimum acceptable really. If we didn't finish 6th - you'd have to ask how and why and who beat us? Spurs who started with 2 pts from 8 games? Would be awful if they'd have overtaken us. Fulham West Ham, Wigan - with their budgets? . Man City could have made a challenge but their manager has proven himself remarkably incompetent. Newcastle were their usual hilarious selves. He has steered us into this place without too great a challenge in my view. Last season we edged out Blackburn by a mere one point. I do not mean to disrespect Martin - he clearly has ability. He is a great motivator, and until the past couple of months has generally seen us well motivated - he has done his job and he has met his targets. Has he exceeded them? No trophies - not to be expected - but thus no exceeding in that quarter. Cup runs - awful in the league cup, draw screws us over in the FA Cup agian - not his fault on that score... and Europe... well what can I say. In fairness, it is our first season juggling the extra demands and this must be taken into account. However many players brought in - it still requires experience and practice - but much of that practice has been given to our fringe players. Prioritising is natural and understandable... writing off games is unacceptable. IThe top 4 can - in part because their fans have seen success, have seen cup wins and have seen titles and can thus accept that occasionally some cups have to go by the wayside. WE HAVE NOT WON A CUP IN 13 YEARS ( anyone rebutting this with the intertoto, whilst being technically correct is also a facetious idiot ) and thus, given our squads capabilities until then, it hurt to see us write off this chance. It may have been a gamble - but since then we haven't won any game at all. The league then - first season - given some investment, and by virtue of not being miserable, his skills as a motivator - whilst including a 20 game winless streak lets not forget - saw us claim mid table comfort. Expectations met - aided by a brilliant January with the arrival of fan favourites Carew and Ashley Young. 2nd season - wonderful, football, plenty of goals, and excitement as we made a genuine push for europe, faltering in march ( again ) but still responding at the end to finish a creditable 6th. It was our target and we met it. Exceeded? Well, it depends here on your aims for that year. With the summer investment, pushing on from 11th and aiming to be in the mix was I'm sure uppermost in most if not all of our minds. Top 5 would have been a harsh expectation, but I tihnk 6th was reasonable - it was still upper limits mind, so I'll be generous and say he did a touch better than expected. 3rd season - expectations ( realistically ) to establish ourselves as a top 6 side and possibly make a challenge for greater things, but really top 5 would be great. We are on course to meet that. However, one could also argue that expectations developed as the season unfolded. Sometimes opportunities arise and must be taken advantage off - or at least to put yourself in the optimum position to TRY and take advantage. With other rivals failing and suffering with injury - there was a real possibility we could gatecrash the top 4. I think many of us, see the subsequent collapse as pretty rotten, and from a personal perspective, avoidable. The degree to which we have collapsed is shameful, brought on in part, by inflexibility with respect to tactics, and for too long arsing about with square pegs in round holes. January needed more investment than just one forward ( although he has done a decent job, in spite of some abusive fans claims ). If we put ourselves for the sake of argument as finishing 5th with more or less the same points tally as last year, it's again on target. He has done his job on the whole well, making mistakes in the process. On the evidence thus far, it is up to debate as to whether he will advance us further. At any rate though he certainly deserves the opportunity to rectify them for another season or two. Sorry, far longer than anticipated and I must dash now to catch my bus, but on this basis Randy is certainly the more key figure here. ttfn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassong Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think Martin O'Neil because even though he has spent quite alot of money on players that aren't that good he has got them playing well as a team and imo if you didn't have him as manager you wouldn't have done aswel as you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAndLoyal Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think Martin O'Neil because even though he has spent quite alot of money on players that aren't that good he has got them playing well as a team and imo if you didn't have him as manager you wouldn't have done aswel as you have. I can't WAIT 'till we relegate you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Both equal. If I was forced to pick I'd go with Randy. Just. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassong Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think Martin O'Neil because even though he has spent quite alot of money on players that aren't that good he has got them playing well as a team and imo if you didn't have him as manager you wouldn't have done aswel as you have. I can't WAIT 'till we relegate you I can't see us getting anything off you, maybe a draw at most. However aslong as we win our 3 home games i think we will be ok. Also by next week we should have all of our players back and aslong as shearer picks the right team i'm confident we can stay up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think Martin O'Neil because even though he has spent quite alot of money on players that aren't that good he has got them playing well as a team and imo if you didn't have him as manager you wouldn't have done aswel as you have. I can't WAIT 'till we relegate you I can't see us getting anything off you, maybe a draw at most. However aslong as we win our 3 home games i think we will be ok. Also by next week we should have all of our players back and aslong as shearer picks the right team i'm confident we can stay up. Interesting comparison to a mate of mine who's a toon fan. I asked him why he thought they were going down, his reply was "where are we gonna get points from in our last few games? I can't see it, just can't see us staying up" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassong Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I think Martin O'Neil because even though he has spent quite alot of money on players that aren't that good he has got them playing well as a team and imo if you didn't have him as manager you wouldn't have done aswel as you have. I can't WAIT 'till we relegate you I can't see us getting anything off you, maybe a draw at most. However aslong as we win our 3 home games i think we will be ok. Also by next week we should have all of our players back and aslong as shearer picks the right team i'm confident we can stay up. Interesting comparison to a mate of mine who's a toon fan. I asked him why he thought they were going down, his reply was "where are we gonna get points from in our last few games? I can't see it, just can't see us staying up" Well we would normally be thinking portsmouth, boro and fulham at home are easy wins and i think that is what gives me the hope. However considering we've only won 4 at home all season and could only get 4 points off hull, stoke and west brom at homeis rather off putting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 There are no easy wins for Newcastle at the moment. On topic, I went for both. There is no guarantee that another manager would have been as/more successful than MON. He deserves alot of credit for where we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Portsmouth and Boro are two games you should really be winning, then an away point against us and a home points against Fulham for me will keep you up. 8 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 anyway what's the difference between shearer and newcastle? Shearer will be on match of the day next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejoker Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 MON - He steadied the ship for 2 years spending very little and finished 6th. MON only had serious cash to blow last summer - and now we're 5th, that's progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassong Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 anyway what's the difference between shearer and newcastle? Shearer will be on match of the day next year :oops: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cahyvilla Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 nice to see a more posotive thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystally! Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Both, but i'd have to lean more towards Randy, now that money is a bigger issue than ever in the Premier League. Yes under Deadly we mixed it up near the top, but his lack of investment in the squad would no longer get us moving. And I think under Randy another manager could be equally as effective if given time to build a squad. Don't ask me who, and I'm happy with MON, but I think under Doug MON would not have done as well, simply because of the cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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