CB Fry

Just have to wait for the league to activate the "catch-22" minus ten points. Oh, and the additional fifteen points they are going to take off us because Alpine said they would because he said the league are no good lying liars who deduct points just for a laugh.

Sorry mate - reading it again I can see it . Bedtime for me then.

To be fair the Football League haven't "moved" any "goalposts" since this entire process started. That's just in the heads of Tony Lynam and a few paranoid delusional conspiracy theorists on a web forum.

That's my guess. It's a little project for junior. No you can't have one of those big Premier clubs. It's Southampton or nothing. Now, put your Nintendo DSi down and eat one more piece of broccoli before you get down from the table.

If they care enough to bother to buy us, you'd think they'd care enough to want their own manager in. Surely they can't put that effort in to buy us just to dish up more of the same?

I thought it was all the league's fault? Or was that last week. Sorry, I can't keep up, I'm not nearly as intelligent as some people on this forum. Not nearly.

We're in endgame on the takeover - neither league nor creditors will let this go on until the first game of the season. And its not about buying our way up the league - we're only in League one, we don't need a multi million pound squad you know. We just need a competent manager, and Wotte isn't that. You've written a few lengthy posts on this thread and still the only compelling reason you have given for keeping Wotte is this paralysing fear of "not being stable", like changing a manager is a shortcut to destruction. You haven't actually said why Wotte is the best person for the job or any boring details like that. But anyway... Everton sacked Walter Smith and went into chaos disaster and doom under his replacement. Arsenal sacked Bruce Rioch and never ever recovered from the spiralling crisis with the fans never forgiving their trigger happy board. Portsmouth took the suicidal decision not to stick with Graham Rix, a decision that has haunted them for many seasons since. Remember. Never, ever change manager. Ever.

If you honestly think he honestly thinks he'll get first team football at WHU then apologies but you are the idiot. Kelvin knows well enough what he'll be going to at WHU. And anyway, Green is hardly a stranger to the treatment table is he? For all we know his choices may well have been uproot everything to go to, say, Sheff United or Preston or Cardiff, or keep his current home and go to West Ham for Prem wages. Whatever he does its his choice and none of our business really. Good luck to him.

Why on earth do we have to wait an entire season for a "decent fresh start". Why can't we have a "decent fresh start" next week? Come next April we could be eight points of the play offs and people will still think "if we win the next couple we could be in there", which is fair enough. It's called belief, and it happens every year. But you are writing off the whole of next season before we've even played our pre season game at home. 128 points to go for but you've chucked the season in the bin. We can get in the play offs next season. But I don't think we can with Wotte.

Correct. The only reasons people are giving seem to be a) "stood by us" in difficult times. b) "stability" is the greatest gift a football club could ever be given and the next managerial appointment is definitely going to be worse than the current incumbent. Neither reason stand up to any scrunity whatsoever, and neither stand up to the cold hard fact that Mark Wotte is a proven failure everywhere he's been, has no relevent experience of the division we now find ourselves. And he played a massive part in our relegation in the first place. Boot him out and fresh start with a new broom.

Err - I love the way you have just made up a load of opinions on my behalf and then had a go at me for them No "pinning of all our problems on Wotte" from me, son. Where did I even sugges that? And No "changing the manager will solve the problems of the last five years" either. Where did I even suggest that? People writing off the whole season because we are in a bit of turmoil now is laughable. Roy Keane took over Sunderland in September at the foot of the table and still got promoted. Since when were league placings decided in the first week of July? If next season is a write-off anyway in your opinion, why don't we just give a new manager the whole write-off season to bed in and get settled in, giving him a whole season of oh-so-precious stability to build on. You accuse me of thinking changing things will magically solve things but you have an equal delusion that giving anyone "stability" somehow guarantees success - doesn't matter how bad they are, give them five years and they'll turn into Sir Alex. It's garbage. Every successful manager in Prem-era UK football have delivered at their club within one year, or they haven't succeeded there. From Moyes to Wenger, from Redknapp to Jewell, from Jol to Curbishley, from Darren Ferguson to Martinez, from Paul Ince to Gordon Strachan, from Tony Mowbray to Phil Brown, from Alan Irvine to Billy Davies. With the single exception of Sir Alex twenty-five odd years ago. And still people go on about "go on, let him be rubbish for three seasons, stability's the main thing". Get over it, it's nonsense. Wotte out.

Very true (if not really on topic). And funnily enough it's also true the other way round when it comes to journalism and sport. We are now drowned by the half thought-through, tossed out banalities from ex pros in all sports. But it is often the journalists, analysts and experts that may never have played the game to any significant level that can provide the real insight. I'd rather listen to someone like Mike Ingham on Five live, or read David Lacey or Hugh McIllvenny giving his considered view on football than a thousand and one Tony Cascarinos, Micky Quinns and Ian Wrights who change their view with whatever the story happens to be that day and just talk air head guff off the top of their heads. Of course there are exceptional individuals that can do both - Richie Benaud, or John McEnroe - but they're pretty rare. The person in a job is not the best person to do it just because they happen to be the person doing it.

This is perfectly fine journalism for the newspaper in Blackburn or wherever they got the story from. Good story, good quotes, good local angle. It's lazy of the Echo to make such a hash of rewriting it. I'll say it again. People in Shirley, Millbrook, Bitterne, Midanbury and elsewhere do not care about the three schools this man went to in Heaton, Lancashire some thirty odd years ago. The "journalist" in question is not "doing his job better than those who chose to criticise them" he's just doing his job very quickly on very low pay, which is why you get this laziness. Local journalists are paid barest of minimum wage and are short staffed to the bone. This time of year it could even be a student working for free during the summer.

Err - Martinez played in the lower leagues for many seasons. Di Matteo proves that inexperienced managers can deliver, but we all know that. Doesn't make Wotte a good manager. He isn't and needs to go immediately.

Remind me what Wotte has done to "earn his chance". Must have been a different manager completely involved in the worst season we have suffered for thirty years or is my memory playing tricks? Wotte didn't walk out on us because this is the best job he is going to get in football anywhere in the world. Let's not kid ourselves that he is britains most loyal servant. Wotte out, tomorrow. "Stability" under Wotte is the last thing we need.

No sh*t sherlock. Thanks for that . I'm not complaining about the reprint of the quotes, my point is the lift of the entire article with it's ultra-local copy including the schools this bloke went to in Heaton. Would your opinion of him be different if a) he had been to a different school in Heaton? or b) you didn't have any idea what school he went to in Heaton? Echo readers do not care about "this information", cheers. Take some time to rewrite it, please, lazy Echo journos, especially as this is your biggest story of the year.

Incredibly lazy by the Echo to recycle something that is clearly from the (I guess) Gannett/Newsquest owned Bradford paper - the references to the schools this bloke went to is a bit of a giveaway, as is the "by Echo reporter" byline. This normally means a PA rehash, which is okay sometimes. But being this is one of the biggest stories in the city of the year, the Echo should be taking more time and care on it than this. Frizinghall Middle School you say? Get him on board then....

Actually, no it can't.

The fact that it's written by the Newcastle correspondant should give you a clue. It's not a story for us, its a story to scare Toon fans. If this journo is in Shepard's pocket as others have said then it is probably connected with his plans to buy the club and a bit of spin to put a bit of peril into the deal to speed it up. Although if I was a NUFC fan I wouldn't want Shearer anyway. Job's too big for him. That said, I think he'd get us out of L1 as long as he had a decent assistant.

I think its being incredibly pessimistic. Portsmouth are very likely to be relegated from the Premier League in the next three years, regardless of their rich owners. If Newcastle, with the fifth biggest wage bill in the league can go down, then I think Pompey are more than capable of having a nightmare season. And in those three years we will be back in the CCC. So that's three years having us in the same division, meaning we could finish above them in the fourth year. Perfectly possible, so us being above PFC in five years is fairly realistic. And I've got no rose coloured specs on.

Micky Adams is not going to leave a manager's job at Port Vale to be assistant to Wotte. Personally, I would be gutted if the first thing the new people did (whoever they are) was to confirm Wotte's appointment for the rest of the season. He's got to go, immediately. Don't let the last few weeks cloud your judgement, don't sh*g him just because he's been really supportive when you had a "tough time". Come October he'll still be the same ugly wierdo from the pub but now he's a clingy as fu** weirdo who you now can't shake off because he "thinks he loves you".

We knew what you were going to say.

You do know you could get a TV ad on an episode of Coronation Street every week for a year for about £15m. Or, if you really wanted to sell fridges to football fans, in the ad breaks in every single CL game shown on ITV. There are more efficient ways of building a national brand than buying a third tier football club. Not saying they won't buy us, but that wouldn't be the reason. It could be (Very) Extravagent Local PR and/or corporate entertaining for key docks contacts (including the council) maybe, but still, it'd be cheaper just to give them a backhander. God knows why they want us (if they do) but by god love em for it.

I'd say in the world of business generally, that kind of thing is pretty common. Can't see Lowe buying us though, although christ knows anything's possible now. At least these people aren't the only option.