Forget Cora - Welcome To The Toon

Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder admits the club can be a bit of a soap opera as the media tried to pin him down to answer if he knew 'before the event' of the sacking of his assistant Kevin Bond.

The 50-year-old huffed and puffed, but finally came clean and said the decision was taken without his knowledge.

Roeder, who only took over at the helm during the summer, is quickly having to come to terms with what is a unique job. A job where the chairman at times defies belief and acts as though he has a head full of broken toys! And the manager had to worm his way out of the most difficult questions at the press conference. Obviously some questions he didn't know the answers to.

However, he is refusing to be deflected from his task.

Roeder: 'It is my life. I have not done anything else since I left school, I do not know anything else. I am doing the very best I can in my job, but I do not know any other job. Like anyone else's job, sometimes it is more difficult than at other times.'

Roeder declined to talk about yesterday's decision to dispense with Bond's services following allegations made against him - and which he denies - in last week's Panorama programme.

Roeder: 'The club made a statement yesterday and we cannot expand on that. There is nothing else to say at the moment at all.'

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