It can't be easy for Glenn Roeder at the moment. His team are playing like they want him to lose his job and Sam Allardyce is linked with his position in a different newspaper, radio and television show every day.
As for Sven-Goran Eriksson, well he’s bored apparently and would consider a top job in the Premiership, so you have to assume he’d want to sit in the St James’s Park hotseat if Roeder does get the chop from Freddie Shepherd.
It is a messy and confusing business, although it is clear Roeder is not sitting securely at the moment. When Newcastle were knocked out of the Uefa Cup back in March, Shepherd was quick to insist his manager was safe, but is that still the case?
I don’t like to bore you with statistics, I prefer to do that with my thoughts and opinions, but the old stats book does not make good reading for Roeder.
The 1-0 defeat away to Reading on Monday evening was their sixteenth in the league this season, equalling their biggest tally since their promotion to the Premiership in 1993. They have amassed 42 points, two fewer than in 2004-05 and 1997-98, their worst previous totals, and their past nine Premiership matches have brought just one victory, six points and three goals. Erm, no matter how you twist it, that really isn’t very good is it.
They have failed to score in eight out of their last 11 games and have not played well since the 4-2 first leg win over Alkmaar at the start of March. I supposed you could argue the goal-less draws against Chelsea and Arsenal were good, but I’m not the biggest fan of goal-less home draws. If that’s the limit of your ambition - whoever the opposition are - football really is in trouble.
The players look unmotivated and unorganised. Morale is low and relations between players, manager and supporters increasingly strained. In short, it is a miserable situation compounded by the joy which has greeted Sunderland’s rapid improvements under Roy Keane.
The question is, has Roeder gone as far as he can and needs to be replaced or does he deserve to be given the benefit of doubt after a season of injuries? Would Allardyce of Eriksson be a better choice?
With a transfer budget of millions at stake, with major rebuilding work needed on the defence and with the futures of the likes of Kieron Dyer and Michael Owen to sort out this summer, it is a hugely important question for Newcastle and a hugely important decision for Shepherd.
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