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Pinpointing a moment.....

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We finished 5th in 08/09. That was the time to capitalise. Maybe we could have changed manager then? We certainly had the prowess to bring in better on and off the pitch. Opportunity completely lost.

Since Moyes left we've had 8 different men in the dugout. 8 in 10 years. The only thing keeping me going is that the new stadium will attract a proper owner/executive team with clout and money. Seeing Newcastle (Newcastle ffs!) on their way to being the new Man City makes me want to vomit. Even seeing Man City (Man City!) 15 years ago all of a sudden become relevant made me vomit. They had a new shiny stadium though and became attractive to investors. St James Park is a great stadium (freezing) (appreciate they've got the benefit of being a one city club) and that attracted investors. The future can still be bright even if we go down but the repercussions within the support if we do go down will take a very very long time to heal.

God I hate this rubbish.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
Kendall was desperate to go to Barcelona and even when they pulled out of the deal to recruit him, his mind was made up to go to Spain and it didn't take a giant to tempt him.
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To Barcelona, yes. But we lost him to Athletic. I don't for a minute believe we did everything we should have done to keep him.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
I doubt we could give him the package that Bilbao did. He wanted a new challenge.
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Maybe he did. I would have tested his resolve though and blown the financial side of his new deal out of the water. Then let's see what he wanted to do.

I just think it was all a little easy for our board at the time to blame Heysel. We're still doing it nearly 40 years later...
 

Drico said:
Maybe he did. I would have tested his resolve though and blown the financial side of his new deal out of the water. Then let's see what he wanted to do.

I just think it was all a little easy for our board at the time to blame Heysel. We're still doing it nearly 40 years later...
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He was desperate to manage abroad, it was an ambition of his- he probably felt it was ideal if he left on a high. I've never blamed Heysel for our situation, ever, personally.
 
I’d go back to Arsenal v Everton and the Nyarko shirt swap moment.

Can’t think of anything like that happening before. Think Walter Smith was the manager at the time.
 
The_Street_End said:
Replacing Moyes with Martinez. The core spine, dressing room spirit and solid defence went to crap.

Walsh and Koeman then well and truly buried us with one of the worst summer transfer windows of all time.

Brands being too weak regarding his role at the club and letting everyone in on the transfers squandered the chance to get a fix in place.

Everything else after that, including Fat Sam, Silva and Benitez was just an uphill battle - although still salvageable as seen by Carlo. It turned a decent opportunity for a manager to a poisoned chalice.
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The thing that gets me is that people cryarse about Carlo leaving - he was right, so so right. He saw a good potential project but was definitely left shaken by the instability of everything and inability of everyone at the higher ups; the miscommunication and everything else to go with it; so he just rightfully bailed, to Real Madrid no less.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
He was desperate to manage abroad, it was an ambition of his- he probably felt it was ideal if he left on a high. I've never blamed Heysel for our situation, ever, personally.
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Perhaps he was. He certainly said as much in his autobiography. But let's put it this way. As he also said in his book, Barcelona first contacted Liverpool about taking Kenny Dalglish as manager. Their Chairman of the time politely declined the request and pointed Barcelona across the park to Everton and their fine manager Mr Kendall...

Once more, this illustrates why they maintained their position at the top of the English game for another 5 years - and then returned again in the last decade - while we withered away and, effectively died as a force.

Howard might well have gone regardless. Maybe his ambition got the better of him (he never really made a huge success of managing abroad), but I don't think the club really did enough to keep him - or replace him if they couldn't keep him. Asking Colin Harvey to step up was, with the best will in the world, convenient and a little lazy.
 

Drico said:
Perhaps he was. He certainly said as much in his autobiography. But let's put it this way. As he also said in his book, Barcelona first contacted Liverpool about taking Kenny Dalglish as manager. Their Chairman of the time politely declined the request and pointed Barcelona across the park to Everton and their fine manager Mr Kendall...

Once more, this illustrates why they maintained their position at the top of the English game for another 5 years - and then returned again in the last decade - while we withered away and, effectively died as a force.
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What book? But the Barcelona thing is by the by anyway, he went to a lesser club because he was so keen to try it out abroad. Also, asking Harvey to step up is only considered wrong in hindsight- it seemed a good choice at the time (and it wasn't unusual back then to promote from within) and all the players wanted it.
 
Stevie Nicks Bootleg said:
He was desperate to manage abroad, it was an ambition of his- he probably felt it was ideal if he left on a high. I've never blamed Heysel for our situation, ever, personally.
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Seems like a totally bizarre move in hindsight, but I guess it's easy to forget how things were at the time. The European ban looks like a blip this far removed from it, but I recollect it feeling very heavy - like English football was in a malaise.
 
Lacina Traore’s hamstring pinging in 13/14. Seriously we were in a great position to make a run at the CL spot, we go out and get a decent striker to back up Lukaku and his hamstring goes in the first game. Imagine if he’d had a Jelavic or even Tosun type short term impact we might have made the top 4.

Ben pretty much downhill from there.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
Seems like a totally bizarre move in hindsight, but I guess it's easy to forget how things were at the time. The European ban looks like a blip this far removed from it, but I recollect it feeling very heavy - like English football was in decline.
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Agree, and it does years on but so does having a player manager, which still happened in the 1980s. Many trophy winning managers of the 80s had been promoted from within- Paisley, Fagan, Tony Barton, Keith Burkinshaw (off the top of my head, there'll be many more).

* Just realised you were talking about Kendall going, rather than promoting Harvey.
 

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