Roeder Won't Be Going Anywhere-He'll Stay With Us

He does look an inspired appointment just now, and I am delighted that we have got such a man-dare I say an English version of Arsene Wenger?-as our Manager (ie) a thinker, a man who relates to players, who knows a good player when he sees one and who can make an average player a good one...

...if he matches Wenger for success, and I am not making a comparison as far as that goes, well...

Anyway, more than one post today about him doing well here and perhaps being noticed and wooed away by bigger clubs.

Can't see that happening. It seems to me that he absolutely loves it here already. We took a punt on him when he hadn't been in work for ages and when we were linked with a host of other names (FFS, Martin Allen at one point and very strongly, how different is Allen from Roeder!?) he still came through and got the job.

He's known the stress and pressure of managing a big club-it got to him seriously and made him ill-he also appreciates what he's got, talking about an example of our fans applauding and backing a player still, when, in the same circumstances, the Newcastle fans would have "torn his head off".

I think he wants to put roots down with us and be our Manager for a very long time, I think one of the reasons the Board were impressed with him is that he had and has a long term strategy -they alluded to that when he was appointed-and I think he sees us as his last job in football, if he is successful, it may well be.

It is ridiculously early days yet, but the first signs are so very promising, not just regarding him, but the coaching team and how they are going about things and I really hope it works out. Play offs are a pipe dream this season, but we look to be building towards a mid-table finish, and, if all goes well, we can head into the Summer being very optimistic about things.

Posted By: Martin Peters, Dec 8, 22:33:06