Sir Daz<IMG src="http:new.pinkun.comforumsimagesline.gif"><BR>Sir Daz

I saw an interesteing article today: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/31/premier-league-managers-november-norwich-sunderland-fulham-sack  Here are some highlights... "Of the past 15 Premier League teams to be relegated, seven were in the bottom three on this day of the season in question. In the past five seasons, the bottom three teams on 31 October have never all gone down, while the 2008-09 season stands alone as the only one in which all three – Wigan Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur – stayed up." "But while replacing your manager in November might seem a good idea in theory, recent trends suggest it tends not to work in practice. QPR sacked Mark Hughes last November and were relegated. Portsmouth sacked Paul Hart in November 2009 and were relegated. Derby County sacked Billy Davies in November 2007 and were relegated." "if you replace relegated Reading and Wigan Athletic with promoted Hull City and Cardiff City respectively, with eight points Norwich have already notched double their tally of points from their corresponding nine fixtures last season. It is a state of affairs that suggests Hughton''s situation, while serious, is far from dire."  

Well done for raising this Northluck C.  However i disagree with you in that you do not wish to cause a stink.  I think a stink needs to be caused. The john terry chant was discraceful but it was not an isolated incident. At the spurs game there were monkey noises chanted by a not insignificant number of "supporters". I know they were directed at bale but the monkey chant has always been associated with racism and was offensive to me and was likely to have been offensive to any black supporters and players who heard it. Unfortunately  despite a great 1st half of season and great away win when i think of NCFC today it is with shame and emabarasment.  

Nicely!   Cheers

Happy new year all Long shot but does anyone know where i can get ticket for tomorrow? OTBC    

Sanchez would be worse than boot-royd!

A legend who has been betrayed by Smith and that is unforgivable. She appointed him as a PR exercise to get her out of the hole that was roeder & grant despite the fact he had no experience or qualifcations to be a football manager.  Then at the end of last season when he had proved he wasnt a football manager by getting us relegated she offered him a permanent position. Talk about setting the guy up for a fall! With friends like that who needs enemies?

On the official website announcement it states gunny was appointed as manager in January 2008.  Maybe the board didn''t realise they had only just appointmed him. Nothing would surprise me anymore!

I hope boothroyd doesnt get the job - long ball merchant, had one good season, failed when tried to get Watford to play it on the ground. However as he seems to be the favourite i thought i''d get this campaign started in an attempt to beat our own record of sacking the manager after 1 league game as permanent boss.  Maybe we could sack him at half time in his first game or we could sack him at his own appointment press conference - why waste time giving him a game?  

Someone said he was good in the air. His attacking headers invariably sail harmlessly over the bar and his defensive headers more often than not go straight up in the air and put us under pressure when the eventually fall to earth. He is rubbish in the air and that is the thing he does best.

Looking back, our decline started at almost exactly the same time as Docherty joined. Uncanny coincidence maybe but I think we need a fresh start. The doc has been part of two relgation teams and therefore should go. I cant fault his commitment but ability wise he is poor.  He terrifies me everytime he goes near the ball or more likely near the man.  This is not a sign of a good player. And more importantly my friends who are spurs fans are still taking the p*ss out of me because him and that we have kept him.  I dont have any defence.    

By my calculations Roeder''s points per game record this season is better than Gunn''s.  We have dropped into the relegation zone since Gunn took over. From this evidence i think it is likely that Roeder would have kept us up.  Despite tonight''s result, it is still likely that Gunn will take us down. Another brilliant move by the board.

That is the most important goal that has been scored in my lifetime. Do the board know how close they are to destroying our club. Relying on Coventry to draw against barnlsey. It is pathetic.    

signed

Gunny was a legendary player but that doesnt mean he will be a legendary manager and results & performances during his tenure have been poor. I would argue worse than roeder''s. I love Gunny and the worst i accuse him of is  naivety (and he is not alone in that, see the board and many of the supporters), however he will not keep us up. So unless we want to accept relegation we need to change him now. 

We have to try something! At the moment we are going down without a fight and that is shameful.

Our only hope now is to appoint a specialist fire fighter with the experience of getting teams out of trouble and to spend our way out of trouble  on top of the champoinship quality loanees. Gunn''s signings have made no impact whatsoever but i don''t necesarily blame him for that, he was the wrong man at the wrong time and the board can add that to their ever lengthening list of mistakes.

I agree the board, the team and the management deserve to be relegated.  If a team cant avoid defeat to blackpool to stay in the division we deserve everything we get. The boards assertion that we will stay up looks embarrasing now as does pretty much everything else they do, including the loan signing of a reading reseve who has never played at this level in order to save our season. They should be ashamed. Hopefully the bizaare experiment of appointing a manager with no experience for the most important period in our history will now be ended. But who should we get next year, and who the hell would want to come?  

It''s not totally gunn''s fault he was appointed despite having no experience or qualifications as far as i know. From his comments about selling players it appears that he wasn''t aware  of the impending sale. I''d like to see how the board balance the books in league one, or perhaps they are starting to factor relagation into their dealings already. I think we need a win tonight to survive.

Very dissapointed, another clear pointer towards relegation. I hope it is part of the deal that he cant play against us at carrow road in what is a must win home game. The law of the former player could well put us down. Saying that i''m pretty convinced that we will be down by 9.30 tonight.

We cant afford to let croft go now. We are a poor team up to our necks in a relegation fight. To let one of our better performers go at this time would make our poor team weaker and be tantamount to throwing in the towel. Unfortunately this means i fully expect the board to let him go. 

No. I love Gunny but appointing a manager with no experience to try and keep us in the division is crazy. Anyway best of luck to him!

His style of play was rightly slated in the premiership for being over direct. He then tried to get the team playing football in the championship and failed woefully. He has a reputation for being a very good u18 coach here but did any of his u18 team ever make it into the 1st team? He would be be a terrible appointment. Unfoturnately the supposed shortlist looks very weak indeed. Also with our track record of hounding out managers i wouldn''t give him long before his direct style would start to be criticised by supporters.  

Boothroyd - rightly slated for his style of play at watford. Also if he was such a good u18 coach here, how many of his former charges made it into our first team? Dowie - ive been to selhurst and seen us get beat by his palace team too many times, i''m still too bitter. Holloway - Talks a lot of nonsense, would be an emabarrasment to the club.

Hello I think we should stick with him for the time being for the following reasons.. I think all managers deserve to be given a full season to show they can improve the team. If they cant improve the league position after a full season questions should be asked. Chopping and changing managers is rarely succesful and stable clubs often are succesful. Eg Man U, arsenal, charlton before they sacked curbishley v newcastle, man city etc. We will never progress if we have a new manager every season who has to start all over. He has bough some good players in, Bell is starting to look good as are clingan and hoolahan. Stefanovic looked class too. Our midfield is the best it has been for a few years. He has been hampered by injurys such as stevanovich & kennedy which has meant he has to play 3rd/4th choices at CB where a lot of our problems are. Also he has been hampered by suspensions although arguably team discipline is down to the manager. He has bought strikers in with premiership experience, leroy has done well and i''m not sure it is roeder''s fault that we tend to hoof it up to sibi''s head. He clearly is not that type of player. We are playing some good football, see wolves & s*****rs, although not often enough. we have been been unlucky in some games such as watford & reading away. Certainly some of the football is far better than seen under grant or the end of worthy or hamilton or even rioch. I also cant really acuse the team of lacking in effort in most of the games i have seen. He may not come across particularly well in the media. He may even be a complete ****, however i''m not sure that is so important . Fergie is a **** as is jose mourinho and even warnock. Give me roeder over warnock any day. The board will be well aware of the consequences of relegation, ie 10,000 less for every home game so will not hang on to him for the sake of it. He has good contacts in the premiership that will help sign players from there rather than the scottish div 1 like grant. Thats about it for the mo. OTBC    

I make that about 69% away draws. I''m no statistician but if it was luck i would expect it to be 50-50. Such an away bias appears significant to me.  Fergie has recently complained about premiership fixtures and will be sending a representitative to see how they are compiled. I suggest we do the same for the cups. To do well in the cups you need a bit of luck and a good draw just ask france or milwall. Maybe our poor cup record is not solely our own fault.