A Roeder Reaction

A lot of black and whites thought that Glenn Roeder left with an air of dignity, praising the club he cared for and admitting he was grateful to have been given the chance to fulfil a dream. However I can safely say that, having listened to some of his catfight comments in the past and obvious desire to get his opinions across, it was blatantly obvious there would be a reaction to the Allardyce appointment. That came in spectacular fashion this morning in the Mirror as he warned our new boss to beware the Ides of Alan:

"It's a sad excuse for Sam to ask the fans to be patient while he builds the team for the next five years. I think the supporters of Newcastle United will be angry at being asked to be patient. All they have ever done is show patience. The current squad finished last season well enough to be playing in Europe this season. Without so many injuries, we would have qualified again for Europe.

Big Sam says he's aiming for a top-six finish in five years, but they should be finishing in the top six next season without any problems. He's already been able to strengthen the squad in a way that wasn't available to me, so I'm not sure quite what else he needs to get them into the top six.

The world and his wife could see that Newcastle needed to strengthen its defence last season, now Sam has got those funds to do that and he should be grateful for them.

Instead, he's making his excuses before a ball has even been kicked. The truth is that he hasn't got any excuses for not finishing in the top six. He's made criticisms of panic buys at the club but I'll stand by my record on that. Obafemi Martins was an outstanding success, Antoine Sibierski was the best free transfer of the season and the fans will see the best of Damien Duff when he recovers from injury.

Saying it's a five-year job would be too much for most Newcastle fans. He doesn't have the right to ask them to be patient.

The other problem Sam has is that he and every other new manager will live under the shadow of Alan Shearer, who is the fans' favourite son and rightly so. Shearer will not wait for ever to manage the club. He was supportive of me last year and he could see that a rebuilding job had to be done. There will come a time when he will want to manage the club, and in those circumstances Sam can ask for five years - but I don't think he'll get that long.

He is trying to buy himself some time before a ball has even been kicked. Sam should just be grateful for what he has got. The players he has got and the ones he has added should guarantee the club European football straightaway.'

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