shurlock

Someone dressed as Bin Laden at Sunderland yesterday.

I know - hence the Like you I know he's full of **** Try not to post though. He's probably still counting the number of your posts that are directly and indirectly related to him.

Can registered users PM? Another bloody free lunch

What's good authority when words are cheap?

Happy to sign it. Good luck.

The situation is slightly different with chairmen imo - many have already been successful in other walks of life, so don't need, or aren't necessarily motivated by a bit more cash. By contrast, footballers have a short career, one shot at the big time and no guarantees after they retire. Would also say salaries for football chairmen/CEOs are alot more compressed than salaries for footballers. In other words, it matters less which club you're the chairman of because the grass isn't that much greener on the other side. The result is that pay isn't a very strong incentive. The same isn't true for footballer where moving from one club to another can mean a huge spike in wages/salary. This wasnt always the case. In MLT's day, the bigger clubs, while paying more than us, didn't pay that much more, making it easy for footballers to consider things other than money. MLT even admitted that was the one of the main reasons he didn't go to Spurs. Arguably the labour market for football chairmen/CEOs is more like this.

Yet those chairmen are also lifelong fans of their clubs. Along with their professional experience/skills, this makes for a potent mix. Not saying an outside chairman/CEO with little prior connection to the club can't be a success -see Cortese. But it might make it harder. Following your example to its logical conclusion, is there a saints fan out there with substantial business experience who could and would do the job. Doubt it.

Who said they had a great relationship? Nobody has even tried to speculate on the ins-and-outs of something as intensely private. Even for the mboard, some things are pretty much off limits. Stop making s.h.i.t up

Son-he-never-had rubs the daughter wrong way shocker....

I heard the family is worried about Cortese's erratic team selections.

The transfer committee is internal to the club and given Cortese has more or less unlimited decision-making power in the club, he can decide on the composition of the committee - and indeed whether or not to have one. So its somewhat different.

Agree - and the compromise could be anything from NC reporting more regularly to the Liebherrs (light touch) or the Liebherrs installing another person on the board (more heavy-handed). There's an endless spectrum of choices which leaves me confident that an agreement will be reached. Not sure if NC is in the better negotiating position - he has sunk 4 years of his life into the club and is professionally and emotionally committed to it. Now that he's got us to the premiership and established us, the fun is arguably just beginning for him. It makes it much harder for him to up sticks and move on - but its precisely this kind of dependence which makes him the best man for the job.

Yep, reckon that's it. The timing of the announcement which coincides impeccably with our safety and the certainty that we're planning for a new season in the prem, not champ speaks volumes in IMO. If true, hope Cortese isn't playing hardball by leaking things to the media. Its quite an antagonistic ploy and might not go down well with the Liebherrs. Likewise, don't think its a question of having no money to spend. Pretty sure some kind of budget/strategy which at one time was acceptable to all parties was agreed; but, perhaps, Cortese has now decided its not enough -and/or wants safeguards to ensure his autonomy.

True, though not many joined in to what was a poor atmosphere on the whole. Apart from Shaw, dont think any of our players got a song. People more interested in giving the latest manc chant a run-out.

Bit more than complicated than that. Who's the customer? Or are we talking stakeholders? The Cortese chant was ringing loud and clear up at Sunderland yesterday. Some would say they were the most passionate and committed 'customers'...

Go and paint some more bed sheets.

The timing of the story is a tad odd. The day after we virtually secure safety? Might suggest that it didn't just fall from heaven but was carefully leaked.

So what's the issue then? What's the source of disagreement between the parties?

Or the empty hospitality boxes and advertising hoarding? Or perhaps its payback for withdrawing the ST installment plan years ago? Or perhaps Cortese's radical plans to replace the ban on booking fees were a step too far.

Didn't someone (not a journo) say that the Liebherrs were upset with the way Cortese handled Adkin's firing?

But there were plenty of stories that were absolute BS - all the stories about selling the club when we were in L1 that led Cortese to talk about 'dark forces'. Those who focus on whether a story is positive or negative story are barking up the wrong tree. Ultimately, a story's veracity depends on the reputation of the journo/type of story. If a journo isn't willing be named on an article e.g. DM Sportsdeck or attribute statements to people or if the story is transfer-related where noise goes with the territory, its legitimate to have doubts. Whether a story is good or bad is neither here, nor there.

Agree- reckon its close to the truth. Editors and leader writers who put their names to things have to be doubly sure their stories hold water as the reputational damage of getting things wrong is much greater for the paper.

Can see where you're coming from but I'd say Cork is an unsung hero more generally. The press rarely spotlight his performances or ask MP about him - anyhow MP seldom praises players in interviews (apart from a short Jrod phase), so it's difficult to divine what he's really thinking. Cork was taken off today, like WBA, because we were chasing the game and he's become much more of a DM under MP than NA who had given Morgan license to get forward. If we bring in another CM, I think it says more about the importance of the midfield to MP's system, an area which is expected to attack and defend. It's probably the most physically demanding position in the team, so the more cover, the better. We're currently playing 3 CMs and JWP is our only option to rotate. If anything, the transfer rumours say more about JWP's readiness than any lack of faith in Cork.

Our defense isn't given the credit it deserves, though it has been aided and abetted by the discipline of our midfield. The improvement has been striking. We conceded 28 goals in the first 10 games. Since then, we've only conceded 31 goals, roughly 1.14 goals per game. That would put us in the top 5 or 6 defenses in the league. Still its an area that needs strengthening, not least because it would free our midfield to take a few more risks and play more expansively.

Compared to the speccy scouser in the ill-fitting M&S suit. Cortese's preference is for 'sexy' signings, so its hard to believe he didn't factor in MP's 'pulling power' when deciding to hire MP. Would say that MP's reputation is higher on the continent than it is here (where our recruitment efforts will be focused) -and he was sold not just as a nurturer of young talent but also as one of Europe's bright, upcoming managers (it also probably helps that he was former international). Clearly transfers are a collective effort undertaken by the transfer committee; but the manager is always a selling point, whoever does the pitching. Of course, going into the next transfer window, its not just the manager that has changed but also our league status. While we're not yet an established prem team, we're no longer a newly promoted team, an unknown proposition, as much of a risk for a player worried about playing long-term, top-flight football.