Newcastle: Does the manager know what he's doing?
Posted by Roland Deschain in Glenn Roeder, Newcastle | 21 September 2006
The great management debate - fair enough, the last defeat was Anfield and, yes, they're a bigger and better club than us. But I'm a Geordie and have no interest in sitting there expecting defeat on a visit to the Bridge, Old Trafford or Ashburton Grove. I want to see invention, imagination, talent and ability on a pitch in black and white. I want to see leadership, planning, long term goals. I don't see it and I haven't seen it in ten years. They say one swallow doesn't make a summer - was Kevin Keegan and Sir John Hall nothing more than just our swallow?
Unfortunately, we have a problem with the current incumbent. Simply put, Glenn doesn't really know too much about what he is doing and that he is exactly the same man who took West Ham, Watford and Gillingham down - his little stint last season, aided by the non-Souey factor and Bolton & West Hams inexplicable capitulation in the league, was very much a false dawn - something a lot of us knew, deep down - and as such all we are seeing now are the true colours of Glenn Roeder and the abject failures, for the 27th time, of Sir Frederick Shepherd.
I believe his random transfer forays, with no real purpose or direction, are already costing us dear - trophy players only perform in trophy sides, as they are never willing to dig in and push up a notch when things are going wrong. We currently have at least 2 of these players on our books and will continue to suffer until the management changes. We're worse off right now than a year ago, and Roeder is adding to it by sounding like a Souness-wannabe. Blaming the ref yesterday? For what? That kind of comment smacks of desperation and it took the manager all of 3 games to start defending his "small squad", when he SHOULD have some balls and condemn his employers for leaving him short, or take the blame rather than this ridiculous, pathetic search for solidarity behind the walls of a geordie nation.
The tactics leave a lot to be desired. It's 4-4-2, it's as old as the hills. It's "get crosses in, get it down the wings". It's "full backs push on, big man little man up front, boot it for knock downs". In short, it's tired and it doesn't work. We have to play it, because it's all Roeder really knows. Whilst it may have "saved" us last year - anything was better than Souey's Spaghetti tactics - it was clear it wasn't going to carry much weight this year. Roeder is guilty of what most of us are - he got carried away with what happened in 4 months. He KNEW he wasn't good enough in Feb. He knew as much in March, and even April. But come May, suddenly he was good enough to be manager of this club? 3 months? Was that ever enough? Only to an idiot like Shepherd, but lets leave the fat numpty out of this article. One swallow doesn't make a summer, they say - yet it did in the world of Newcastle United. As we can now clearly see, by a worse start than last seasons mess under Souness and with an EVEN SMALLER squad, the winter is still on us, it's bleak and seemingly endless. We're stuck under the cloud of Freddy Shepherd, with his trophies coming in the form of Albert Luque, or Obafemi Martins, not the shiny silver things that come with planning, talent and lead to sustained success.
We're running out of patience, are we not? There is no geordie wall to protect him, as Shepherd has kept us all on the outside. If Roeders smart, he'll come out of that tower wearing a black & white flag of surrender and join OUR side of the fight. No good will come of sitting in a tower with Shepherd - but the man has no bollocks and just like the 5 before him, he'll find out the hard way that working for Shepherd is all PR, all spaff and no action. Trophy players for a trophyless club - the only thing Shepherd knows. And until the Geordie nation stops buying the trash he is selling us, week in, week out, this will not change. It won't go away under optimistic feeling. It won't go away given "time". It won't go away until Newcastle is managed by capable people who want to succeed
Comments
Spot on
Well put. I believe Roeder is a very mediocre manager who would be found out sooner rather than later. The only reason he got some results last season was because anything would have been an improvement on Souness.
How do you get anybody to listen to your rubbish let alone publish it on their website?!
How many times do we need to keep changing managers? LOL.
I think we'd be better off sacking the board personally.
i must concur, however there are a few things which werent mentioned .....and thats the amount of our money fatfred is milking from our club ........and thats all hes interested in, not the stature of the club ..but the revenue he can whittle away before someone comes to our rescue ,where are the multi millionaires / we should be a massive attraction for any prospective club buyer (sellout crouds every week umpteen million fans worldwide and a plot of land smack bang in the middle of newcastle (with a bigger plot of land just north where another 75,000 seater stadium could be built) we need rid of the whole board fat fred the halls and every one of the leeches milking the funds from our great club.
Leaving aside your judgement of Roeder's potential (I think it is far too early to judge and he hasn't had the same backing in the transfer market as previous managers. You certainly go to great lengths to avoid admitting we had the 3rd best form of any team under his stewardship last season) I take great exception to your lack of effort in checking your facts. Specifically
" As we can now clearly see, by a worse start than last seasons mess under Souness"
How is 6 points (and it should be 9) from 5 games better than 2 points from 5 games exactly?
It took us 5 league games to score a goal last year and drew with West Ham at home during that time.
In terms of points to games this is actually our 6th best PL start in 14 attempts.
Try and leave the fickle knee jerking to Freddy until we have a better idea of what will happen this season.
You are clueless.
Roland - For goodness sake don't give up your day job. What a complete load of rubbish.
I must say that I agree with alot of what was said being a loyal toon supporter for a very long time i have seen my fair share of managers come and go. With the exception of two all of them have been crap - we expect alot and so we should but when we have the chairman that we do we cannot expect to be a major footballing force we need the board out and then we might see some changes for the better. As far as Mr Roeder goes I thought last season "great" things are looking up yet this season i think to myself is this the same man who NUFC employed with his long ball games which we are not suited too us we are looking at trouble and hopefully this will be realised before it is far far too late. We do not want to be the fourth team relegated on Mr Roeders list!!!
Wise up man, you muppets. The truly big clubs in this country - Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal - have got where they are today because of DECADES of success. Newcastle was a mess until Sir John Hall took over do you really think just 15 years of being a proper football club is enough to make us on a par with them?!
Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal attarct and produce the quality of players they do because they've been successful for decades. It's about more than just spending power. I'm a Newcastle supporter but I understand that it's going to take time for us to be up there challenging again. Slagging off the chairman and the manager is just an idiots way out. Stupid people think that all it takes to sound intelligent is just to criticise people. People with a bit more intelligence than that actually THINK about things instead of just blaming everybody! The truth is it's going to take time and money not a change of manager or chairman to get us back up the league.
It is the lack of long term planning that has existed at our club for decades which has caused, and will continue to cause a lack of sustained success. Boards of Directors back to early years of the last century have never planned for long term success. The Seymour McKeag and Westwood dynasties take as much of the blame as the current board. We do need to see a takeover by someone with real business understanding.
And its not just about money to buy players, its about scouting, academies, proper marketing and media activities.
Roland is right to question Roeder's ability and suitability for the job, but it was Shepherd who appointed him.
But I would ask one question. Why did we buy a winger to supply crosses, when the new "star" striker
is obviously one who needs the ball played to his feet. That is also leaving unasked the questionss about the defence.
Amy, sack the board was the underlying point of the article!
This club badly needs a takeover, and some long term vision, which extends beyond a season to season stumble, with the hope Big Al can save us.
Trophy Players? So you're not brave enought to mention who these trophy players are, what kind of no-balls gutless statement are you trying to make then? Fat Freddie undoubtably has his bad points but he has always come up with the money! The only real mistake he made was putting Souness in charge and sacking Sir Bobby but it was muppet fan pressure that led to Bobby being sacked in the first place. No respect!
Keegan, Dalgleish, Gullit and Robson have all failed to get us one single trophy, personally I struggle to think of any managers who have a higher profile than that and as for Kenny one of our fans actually thought fit to storm on the pitch and throw their shirt at him so he must have been pretty bad eh! I mean he didn't do very well at Liverpool did he:)?
Give Roeder a chance. He wouldn't have been my first choice that was Martin O'Neill but he wasn't prepared to stand in Shearer's shadow. If things are still bad come January then fair enough get on his case but right now we need to back our manager.
Ok, my hands are up - it is NOT a worse start than a year ago. However, it IS a worse start than 2 years ago, which is what I meant - comparing to Souness' abysmal 14th finish. After todays mediocre showing vs. Everton, we're not exactly leaping ahead of the stats of a year ago, are we? A trip to Old Trafford threatens more of the usual 6-2 type drubbings and you'll excuse me if Saha captains my fantasy league side.....no, it's not sacrilege, guys - it's honesty.
To answer another post, the trophy players would be Michael Owen, Albert Luque, Damian Duff and Obafemi Martins. All have proven ability in good sides - all have the potential to be a waste of money in a black & white shirt. Yes, yes - it's early days. But for those unfortunate enough to have known me since the early days of Souness, it was never "Soun" enough to chop the daft Scottish fool, was it?? There was no hindsight - I said it on day one, just as I said it on day 493.
Again, the blame must shift to Shepherd - Roeder is his choice. He was clearly a bad one, as we turned our nose up at Martin O'Neill and now sit, like the fools we are, wondering "what if" as Villa climb the table with a promise of £45bn to spend in January. There should never have been a "what if" and there would never have been if Shepherd was truly here for the good of this club. Hitzfeld, Hiddink, O'Neill - all viable managers, all rebuffed by the fat fool who though Glenn was the man. His management record, whilst not as good as first written, is appalling. 7th at West Ham means you can manage one of the biggest clubs in England?? By the same logic, I could arguably run for Prime Minister.....
Either way, I appreciate the feedback and all I am doing is highlighting something every single one of us already knows - Roeder is a mediocre manager who ticked the only box that mattered to Shepherd:
"Who will gladly be the puppet with my hand up their arse?"
