Someone in the pub yesterday said that Lolo was in one of the papers saying that Shearer will be our manager next season but that in his opinion, he was too young. I know we have discussed the Shearer for manager thing ad nauseum and all nailed our colours on the mast. However, if Shearer is our manager next season, I think I'll hang myself.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Answers

ps. I should add that this isn't a criticism of Shearer himself, just of the stupidity of throwing him into the deep end with a club like NUFC.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Dont be stupid.Hanging yoursef.Really. Try putting a hosepipe up your exhaust instead.Painless apparently. ;-)

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

I agree Dougal but we can't expect any proper planning from NUFC really, now can we?

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Hosepipe business really doesn't have the desired effect - it's a instant stinking headache and a slow death. Besides, the chances are some do-gooder will pull the pipe and rescue you in time for about 10 years attached to the machine that goes ping.

Cyanide is much more effective, and better for the environment

Alan Shearer does not convince me of his capabilities as a manager...yet. Maybe one day

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Didn't I just say it's too early for scary stories? Now stop it! ;-)

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

If I remember correctly, Robert didn't actually say AS would be our Manager next season - the translation I saw (dougal's?) simply said he ".....had heard that Shearer would be our next Manager..." but added that thought he was too young. Subtle difference.

In his defence (as per usual), I seriously doubt that even a totally inexperienced Alan Shearer would have c*cked up things so utterly as that which occurred yesterday.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

I don't think it was my translation, but it may have been. Clarky, nobody's criticising Shearer (as usual), just questioning the wisdom of him being our next manager with no managerial experience. Shearer had the option of doing something on the pitch yesterday and did pretty much nothing other than whinge when a ball wasn't thoughtfully placed on his forehead. Not his best ever game.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Yeh, he was sh*te dougal - pity, given the twinkling feet and dazzling stars all around him, that he should be the one to let us down.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

I agree, Clarky: no one really shone and only O'Brien comes out with any credit at all. However, Shearer is captain and rather than bawling at the only player to do anything creative all afternoon (Lua Lua), should have been urging the other players on.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Well dougal, from where I was sitting, Alan Shearer - unlike one or two others - worked his bollox off to make something happen, unsuccessfully as it turned out. He was also cajoling and encouraging his team mates during the entire game - it's just that some choose not to want to notice this.

As for Luax2, yet again I'm afraid I must take the contrarian view. I'll readily accept that the lad came on and displayed commitment and enthusiasm, and at least took people on and usually beat them - until it came to actually doing something constructive. His end-product was precisely zero - much like his team mates, but with more gusto.

The guy is little better than a circus act: he runs and runs and runs, he cannot pass, and has no clue what to do with the ball. He wasted one self-created opportunity by blazing over the bar when two colleagues were in good positions, and on several other occasions he failed to make the simple telling pass, prefering to taking on yet another defender and eventually screw it up.

I really admired his enthusiasm yesterday, which at least lifted the crowd, but imho it will be a long and rocky road to convert this guy into a PL footballer.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Gad please no. Get rid of the bloke now, sell him, dump him in the reserves. The bloke's past it, get rid of him, Speed, Barton and Lee and we can just start to get a half decent side together. Whenever he's in the side we play the same way - long ball aiming for him all the time.

I'd keep 2 people in the current side - Bellamy and Robert, the rest can f*ck off IMHO :)

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Clarky, you're right about Lua Lua, but he did give us the only entertainment of the day ;) I recently came to the conclusion that where you sit DOES affect what you think of a particular player because you get different perceptions of width and workrate etc. I once sat in Bill's seat which is marginally higher up than my seat and was terrified by how awful we looked (although we actually won the game in question). Last week I was so low down at Bolton that I could only mae out the defenders in the first half and the front lads in the second (so what Bobby can see from his position is an interesting question). Regarding Shearer, I thought his shoulders went down a bit and he did seem to spend a lot of time moaning but maybe you saw different things from me. In general, I'm trying hard to avoid criticising any of the players because I don't think there was a lack of effort.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001