Agreed. Where were Newcastle in the table when they sacked Allardyce - 11th or thereabouts ? And where did they end the season under Keegan and how long is he likely to last at St James's next season ?

Allardyce was badly advised going to Newcastle but the likelihood he would have made them into a top six club within 2 seasons. Whether that would have been good enough for the imbeciles who run that club is doubtful though.

You're wrong about Ince. I don't want him anywhere near my club.

I am going to have to bite here. Yes, Allardyce was sacked in 11th place, and we finished 12th.

What that doesn't consider however was that game by game the team had overall picked up worse results than the corresponding fixtures the previous season (for instance we won away at Blackburn the previous season, but lost under Allardyce), and that previous season we had finished 5 points clear of relegation. Immediately after Allardyce was sacked, we had to play 7 games against the top 7 broken up by just one game in the FA Cup and one game against Bolton. We were already in a bad run and we deserved to lose as opposed to being unlucky. Morale was low, and their was a player mutiny started by less rotten players.

Keegan can't work miracles, and that horrific run continued, but he never lost to any team outside the top 7 (and you may or may not agree that you guys would have been lucky with a draw, let alone a win at SJP). However, once the tricky games were over, Keegan brought back confidence by getting the players to play football and attack the opposition. Allardyce would have shut up shop just like he tried to play for a goalless draw at Derby and lost. That would have done nothing for the players, and we could have quite easily got relegated.

Besides, a leopard doesn't change his spots. He turned his appearance on ITV on Saturday into the Sam Allardyce propaganda where he basically spouted out the same kind of nosense that had us all fooled when he was appointed manager.

However, he showed his colours when he announced 'Spain can't defend, so they need to sit back in the second half.' Allardyce would say that in his half time team talks, players would follow his instructions and sit back, and we'd suffer an embarassing defeat without posing a goal threat.

He is a big fraud.

I posted this in another thread, but I feel it needs repeating as many from the outside seem to think that Allardyce's failure at Newcastle was Newcastle's fault. It was 100% Allardyce's fault:

Hello, Newcastle fan here, thought I'd fill you in on why Allardyce's tenure here was such a disaster:

1) Derby County's Premier League record: W1 D8 GS20 Pts11

Derby's record vs Sam Allardyce's Newcastle: W1 D1 GS 3 Pts4

2) Sam Allardyce's legendary training methods:

3) Newcastle players wanting to hurt each other in training: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...stle-broke.html

4) Alan Smith - Played 33 games, 0 goals, 78 fouls (4th in the Premier League this season, most of which were pointless and many led to goals conceded)

5) After results such as 3-1 win over Spurs and 3-2 win over Everton, Allardyce announces the team isn't defending enough and reverts to a Boltonesque strategy having initially promised to play a system based around Newcastle's strengths. We go a run of poor results against lesser teams, with the defensive outlook resulting in being completely dominated in terms of possession and territory.

6) Selling our most creative player (Solano) without signing a replacement.

7) Selling one of our most dangerous players (Dyer) and replacing him with Smith

8) Was given a choice of Smith or Elano and chose Smith

9) Criticises the board for missing out on some of his main targets. Who was this main target? One Kevin Nolan.

10) Signing a young defender for £6m and not playing him.

11) Playing a left winger who can't defend at left back.

12) Playing our only right winger on the left

13) Playing a various number of uncomfortable players on the right.

14) Joey Barton. Not a bad player, but with history so you have to look after him properly. Not Allardyce though who had to (Please don't use that word again) with Barton's head on Boxing Day. the aftermath is legendary.

15) Fines for dribbling and shooting.

16) Unmotivated and uninspired players.

17) Chopping and changing the team.

18) Blaming his captain by stripping the captaincy, even though our best run of games came when he played.

19) Allardyce is renowned for his famous fitness conditioning. Our players all looked knackered at 45 minutes.

20) Lost a lot of the Bolton coaches, and it would seem that he is pretty useless without them.

21) Blaming the players.

22) Falling out with an unnamed senior player (believed to be Owen, Given or Harper) and accusing them of undermining him in the media.

23) Signing aged centre backs who despite being good players were completely unsuited to the Premier League.

24) 352 suicide versus Liverpool

25) Aggressive style of play that cost us a place in the Fair Play League

26) Players becoming more negative after half time team talks.

27) Only four players regularly performed at an acceptable level under Allardyce: Harper, Milner, Beye, Viduka.

28) The following players only looked good once he had gone: Steven Taylor, Abdoulaye Faye, Jose Enrique, Nicky Butt, Geremi, Oba Martins, Joey Barton, Michael Owen.

To be honest, I wouldn't wish him on any club. He was worse than Souness.