Apparently, the Sunday Mirror carries a story that the Toon are considering sacking Marcia. The 'FromTheTerrace' web-site says the following about this story:

Picking up the paper and reading it this was the one story that really made my day. According to the paper Freddie Shepherd has got that sick of the Spanish misfit that he is in talks with top labour lawyers finding loopholes to get him sacked.

This is news that all of us have wanted to here for a long, long time. I know that I personally have been resigned to watching him sit out the rest of his contract and raking in the pesetas/euros/pounds whilst better players on less wages have been held back because he is taking up valuable club resources.

Its been 11 months since his last appearance in the fateful game at the Valley. We lost 2-0 to Charlton and the Spaniard was about as much use as an inflatable darts board. The Mirror did the maths on Marcelino and worked out that he has cost us a staggering £713,000 for each Premiership game he has played in. In all other comps he has managed just 5 more games and ranks not only as the clubs worst ever signing but also the Premier Leagues'.

I challenge anyone to find a player who has his record of no-shows. He has missed a meagre 101 games so far in a 3 and a half year period here!

Sacking him would save us approximately £1.5 million in wages which would be a nice little bonus to the transfer kitty.

Shepherd's argument is based on Marcelino's 'constant absenteeism' and will probably sue him for breach of contract. Marcelino somehow though has the backing of the PFA who say they will support him. Of course if that was us in the situation at work we'd be out the door without touching the ground. In terms of the real world it would be like us turning up for 60 days of work out of a year with excuses like headaches to blame for the rest. Marcelino has had every chance to do the right thing but ever since Bilbao he has cowered away.

Hopefully Freddie Shepherd will go ahead and lay down a successful test case for all those skiving mercenaries.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

Answers

What a coincidence, I've just posted about the very same thing on another thread!

Good idea but I can see it getting nowhere if the PFA get involved.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

This would be ace if it came off although I suspect that normal employment law would give Marcelino significant protection and there would no doubt be Marcelino dragging us through the mud, too.

"They are soooooo unprofessional - in the summer, we were training on the beach at Tynemouth" type of thing.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

Has he even turned up enough to know how or where we train??

Of course, you're right, he'll probably be protected by all manner of labour laws. Nevermind common sense that the guy hasn't done what he signed on to do, that doesn't matter a bit, does it. *grumble*

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002