BBC Blog Network

User Profile

julianoflavenham

Listed below are comments made by julianoflavenham between Thursday, 3rd July 2008 and Tuesday, 7th April 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Shearer gets taste of reality 07:20am on 07 Apr 2009
As someone with a lot of time for the toon although not a supporter, I think the Geordies could do with considering a few realities in terms of players, finances and mangers.

The only players who seem prepared to sign for Newcastle are those who aren't good enough to play for the top four or have been rejected by them, many it appears in hindsight due to injury problems. The 'Toon' needs to recruit young, hungry and up and coming players rather than those whose best days are behind them (Michael Owen, Nicky Butt and Mark Viduka???).

Unfortunately the Premier League today is very different to that which Keegan in his first incarnation inhabited. The ability for any team to break into the top four relies on the ability and willingess of billionaire owners to finance the supporters desires. It appears Mike Ashley didn't undertake due proper diligence and had to clear up the financial crisis left behind by Freddie Shepherd's unrealistic expectations just as Roman Abromavich saved Chelsea, after Ken Bates profligacy. Things might have seemed better under Freddie Fletcher but the club was ultimately heading for financial disaster. However after spending GBP100 million Ashley wasn't able or prepared to continue funding at the required level so he then chose to look for cheaper quick fix solutions, firstly with the choice of Wise and Keegan, then when that imploded, Joe Kinnear and now Alan Shearer.

The fans need to understand that it will take a team like Newcastle at least 3 years to build the foundations where they can consistently challenge for Europe. The club needs a manager who has had extensive experience of building a club up from its foundations rather like David Moyes did at Preston and Everton and Alex Ferguson has done at Man United, and is able and willing to build Newcastle in the same way and then stick with them, as Bill Kenwright and the United board did. Overnight success is very rare and even when it occurs it rarely lasts, look at Roy Keane and Sunderland.

How many managers have Newcastle had since Moyes was appointed at Everton, let alone Ferguson at Manchester United? How can any club be consistently successful in the face of such instability? Its taken even Rafa Benitez five years to come close to winning a Premiership. If Big Sam had played a more alluring brand of football then he should have been stuck with but if after 3 years, Newcastle had turned into another Bolton, then I sympathise with those Geordies who wanted to be rid of him.

As for Ashley, I think he believes that relegation now is more likely than not. Appointing Shearer gives him cover until the end of season for him to restore what he sees as the club's financial health which requires a significant reduction in next season's wage bill by offloading a majority of the present squad, including several of the expensive signings that he inherited. If Shearer fails Ashley will be free to run the club as he sees fit, i.e. as a business. Dowie can then spearhead a strong promotion push (as he did with Crystal Palace) with a playing squad that doesn't cost much more than clubs such as those close to promotion this season. With the parachute payments continuing this will most importantly for him enable Newcastle to become profitable on a sustainable basis, even if crowds are down 10-20%.

If promotion was then achieved Ashley would seek to improve the squad to retain Premiership status but on a more financially sustainable basis which maintains the club's profit margins. Without relegation, many players won't leave, fans expectations won't change and it will be harder for Ashley to improve the club's financial position.
A Christmas gift for the navy 07:45am on 25 Nov 2008 Having worked in London and Glasgow before emigrating to Sydney. I can only agree with odysseus_nz and others. In the UK its common for people to work very productively between 8 and 6pm including lots of banter between work colleagues. Then regular after work drinks before commuting home. Some of the hardest workers I worked with in the UK were Aussies and Kiwis.

However my experience in Sydney is that there is far less banter and even less productivity. Most workers have strong families and mates from school and thus don't see the workplace as a place to socialize much.
Bonds to and commitment between work colleagues are therefore often weaker.

With Australia dominated by far fewer companies in each market than in the US or Europe, perhaps there is less pressure on Australian management to constantly deliver greater productivity, leading workers to be judged by hours worked rather than individual performance. This is also reflected in the lack of people skills that many Australian managers display.
Capello on familiar battleground 01:34am on 19 Nov 2008 There needs to be an examination of the international football season with defined rest breaks and explicit separate windows for international and club matches. In the British case there could be defined rest breaks in the months of July and January where no matches including exhibition matches would be played.

International matches could be played in 4 windows where no Premier league or Champions League matches would be played without the explicit permission of FIFA. In return FIFA would compensate clubs for any injuries occurred during these windows and would agree not to certify any international matches outside these window periods.

The 4 international windows could take place in the following format.
1) One match being played on a Wednesday in September.
2) Three matches being played on a
Saturday/Wednesday/Saturday basis in the first two weeks of both November and February (after the winter break).
3) Any other international matches (approx 3-4) that needed to be played could be then be played during the month of June outside the years when International Championships such as the Euros and World Cup take place.

Players would be expected to report for
international duty on the Sunday prior to the first match in each of the 4 windows. This would result in only 7 matches in five weeks of disruption for clubs in an August/September to May season.

It would also have the added benefit of forcing league bodies and their clubs to reconsider whether all their cup, league and other match commitments can be fitted in the windows outside the international windows and re-organise their annual seasons by purging extraneous match commitments.
Poland and Ukraine wait on Uefa report 02:16am on 26 Sep 2008 A 24 team competition will really devalue the tournament in terms of quality as well as the qualifying rounds.

UEFA should start with a 20 team competition with 4 groups of 5 teams. The top team in each group automatically qualifying for the Quarter Finals and the Runners Up then playing the 3rd place team from another group in a Wild Card Round. Leaving the Winners of the Wild Card Round to join the Group winners in the Quarter Finals.

This would increase the number of teams in the tournament without significantly increasing the number of dead rubber games whilst ensuring that from the knock out Rounds onwards the level of quality of football remains as high as what we saw at Euro 2008.
West Ham join Olympic Stadium mystery 02:03am on 25 Sep 2008 The solution is simple. Sell the Olympic Stadium to West Ham which Leyton Orient could be given a 50 year rental agreement to share on preferential terms. Let West Ham sell Upton Park for residential development to help pay to transform the stadium into a proper football stadium as happened in Manchester. That would leave Brisbane Road to be transformed into an 20,000 Athletics stadium supported by public money. Everyone becomes a winner?
Ashley leaves Newcastle in chaos 01:23am on 04 Sep 2008 I think blaming the media in this case is missing the point. Its clear that they were tipped off by people close to the board of what was going on. I love Kevin Keegan (KK) but its clear the board thought he had walked. However KK's people said he had been sacked. Ergo...board are liable for upto GBP8million. KK wants to go but after his business venture in Glasgow didn't go so well he can't afford the GBP1m it would cost to do so and if you could trouser up GBP3-8m on your way out in compensation, wouldn't anyone?

As for Ashley some one needs to tell him to improve his PR. He should have been open and frank about what his intentions are regarding the Club and why it is critical to the Clubs future that they need this a Director of Football set up and how it would work.
The reason it is needed is simple, without it every time you sack a manager, you end up with his replacement wanting to radically change the squad at his disposal which is an expensive and crazy way to run a business in the long term, as Newcastle have already proven. When you look at what Owen (who has regularly injured) and Milner are paid compared to what they could get for less on the Continent without a great loss of performance there is a serious business case for selling them.

Where Ashley went wrong was that he should have brought in a Director of Football first and he should have appointed the Coach. That way the lines of authority would have been clearer.

He should never have appointed KK in the first place with this system. The days of the Alex Ferguson's and Arsene Wenger's are ending. They were given time early on to restructure their clubs from top to bottom. That doesn't happen any more, first team results are everything. This is why Chairmen want Directors of Football to look after the club as a whole, not just the first team, in order to stop the sack the manager, replace the squad continuum which will push most clubs to bankruptcy or into the arms of billionaires of which there aren't that many if it continues.
Transfer window not working in the Football League? 10:36am on 28 Aug 2008 I think the transfer window is a good idea in that it does force coaches to work with the players they have but the January window should be abolished and the August 31st deadline should be extended by two months until October 31st.
In this way coaches would have a better chance of making more measured decisions and Chairman would be under less pressure to sack a manager who had a bad start to season one month prior to the January transfer window.
Capello and Barwick suffer as England struggle 02:50am on 22 Aug 2008 England 1957:

PS. What was ever wrong with 4-4-2?
C'mon which of the best teams at Euro'08 played with that rigid system? However the overwhelming problem with the England team are however systems or the coach. As has been well outlined here already it is the players are not good enough for top level international football. A good team of skillful players after all can play any system and several systems during different periods of a game.

The Premier League is a great spectacle...exciting and fast. International football is more like Serie A and La Ligua where skill and the ability to keep hold of the ball are the vital requirements. English players have great fitness and will keep running but unlike in the Premier League when they give they ball away at international level they don't get it back. English players simply lack the guile, skill and intelligence needed at this level.

This is a problem that goes back to coaching youngsters at a much younger age. So lets avoid all the other froth and admit until we concentrate on teaching youngsters the skills required to succeed at international level rather than in the Premiership our players will never be good enough to win a World Cup. Lets hope the new academy at Burton changes the culture soon enough that a good performance in 2018 is more than just hope above experience.
Crunch time for Platini 05:56am on 03 Jul 2008 I can understand the need to increase the number of teams in the Tournament considering the increasing UEFA membership but 24 is way to many.
If one is to avoid increasing the number of low quality games the number of teams should not exceed 20.

The Qualifying Rounds for Euro 2012 could then consist of 8 groups of 6 teams and one group of five. The Winner of each would qualify automatically with the Runner Ups with home advantage playing 3rd placed teams from another group in a one game play off. Giving 18 teams plus Poland and the Ukraine.

Similarly for the tournament itself there could be 4 Groups of 5 teams. In order to avoid more dead rubbers, only the top team would automatically qualify for the Quarter Finals. The other 4 Group Runners up would play 3rd placed teams from another group in a one game play off. From then on the tournament would remain as it does now.

Such a format would ensure smaller nations could still play qualifying games against larger ones and enlarge the tournament without decreasing the quality of football matches. Rather than just seeking to qualify, teams would have greater incentive to win all their matches and finish as high as they could, with the advantages of finishing top rather than coming 2nd or 3rd in their Groups.

A sensible compromise anyone?

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

julianoflavenham