Dr Spectrum

[Wonderwall]

Was asked to stick this here by Wonderwall...:

I'm an administrator of newcastle-online.org; a few years ago we had a semi-regular poster called Dr Spectrum who was a Manchester City fan. He was a good poster - very insightful, full of interesting information; certainly a great representation of your supporters. A quick google search revealed that he posted on here as well:

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=784

We've had a few nostalgic discussions lately and grew curious as to what happened to him because he just suddenly stopped posting on our forum, and more interestingly he stopped posting on your forum very shortly after he stopped posting on ours.

Any idea what happened to him? A few of the lads on ours speculated that he may have passed away (an awful thought but I guess in the world of the internet you'd never know) so I thought I'd ask here to see if we could get any confirmation that he's fine and well :)

Andy, check out his profile on the member list and click the email option and drop him a line. He may still use the account? although the email he signed up with was a dr spectrum type account and it seems he may not use this any more.

[Andy NUFC]

Regardless of Dr Speculum's whereabouts let's have a conversation here.

Fantastic season for the barcodes. Solid through the middle with some excellent buys. Pardew manager of the year. Where to next? You shifted the genius that is Joey Barton just in time. Can you hold on to the strike force and the midfielders who are so coveted? Can you purchase reinforcements again in the same ilk? What has your club done so well to strike it rich in the transfer market? Graft and personnel doing the research and due diligence for years or sheer luck? How much is Pardew to blame for those purchases? What's a good target for next season?

Please Discuss. Also get your fat bastard titays out and let's have a look if you've got them. 50/50 chance you're one of *those* fans we see on tv week after week.

Also who'd have thought mike Ashley didn't completely fuck this up? Pretty good news for football IMHO.

Welcome.

Thanks. In truth last season came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, not least ourselves. I think it's safe to say most of us were concerned after the sale of Barton and Nolan - the former had a great season for us in 2010/11 despite his occasional idiocy in the press and I don't think there'll ever be any hard feelings towards him up here, although since he's went to QPR I think it's obvious that he's become a bit of a parody of himself... And Nolan of course was a massive player for us (in more ways than one!) with the goals he provided, so when both of those left (along with Carroll the previous window) the main concern was where goals were going to come from.

The replacements we brought in were top notch though - our transfer dealings in general have been excellent since the arrival of Graeme Carr, and while we've often maligned Mike Ashley's miserly nature it has to be said that he and Llambias are now doing a solid job of controlling the finances and getting the best possible deals for players, both incoming and outgoing. By all accounts the research and effort that's spent on scouting - and in particular on finding release clauses - is more extensive than pretty much any other club in the country. I wouldn't put this down to Pardew though; I think in Pardew what you have is a manager who's generally happy to trust the judgement of his scouts and then devote his time to the playing side of things. It's safe to say that when Pardew arrived there was almost unanimous disagreement with the appointment (country-wide, not just from our own supporters) but the job he's done on the pitch has been phenomenal. He's extremely good at getting the best out of players - someone like Hatem Ben Arfa would be a perfect example of that. Laurent Blanc is struggling with his temperament in the France squad, yet Pardew has had no such issues and they have a bit of a father/son thing going on. In every respect, against all expectations, Pardew has probably turned out to be the best match for the club since Sir Bobby Robson.

As for holding onto the likes of Ben Arfa/Cabaye/Cisse/Ba/Tiote, we're under no illusions that it'll be tough. I'd like to think the French players are likely to stay - Ben Arfa seems to feel he owes us for sticking by him through his injury and Cabaye just seems to love it up here. Money talks, of course, but barring an unrefusable offer I think both of them will be around next season. Cisse will probably be here until at least January, again barring a ridiculously big money offer... As for Ba and Tiote... Well, they're probably the two I'd consider most likely to leave out of our "big name" players. Tiote has been linked away from us for as long as I can remember; I think the only reason nobody has come in for him is his disciplinary record; he's a bit of a gamble for a player who we'd probably be looking for no less than £15-20m for. He's a very decent footballer though, although I'm not quite sure he's good enough for the absolute "top" teams like yourselves or your dirty bastard neighbours. Demba Ba I'd say is almost certain to leave - him out, Luuk De Jong in is the rumour. I think that would work out well for us as I'm not entirely convinced about Ba and Cisse playing together.

Next season I'd be hoping for top 8 again and a decent EL run. I think we're good enough for top 6 on paper but the main issue is squad depth; it cost us a bit last year and will probably be even more detrimental this year taking the europa league into account. The one down-side to our transfer policy is that Llambias and Ashley seem to think you can get by with 14-15 first team quality players, which obviously isn't really the case. Hopefully Pardew can drum that into them over the summer.

And finally, I don't have the bitch tits to flash I'm afraid. I'm from Durham so I'm not quite the full-blooded, topless, chest-flashing Geordie that the television cameras manage to pick out every single week ;)

[MARKMAKAVELI]

Quality post that mate. Be nice to have this kind of thing every week from an opposing fan.

[sheikh it all about]

Shame about the tits but you made up for it with your reference to our dirty bastard neighbours.

Interesting post. I'm sure most City fans will wish you and NUFC well. Good club, good manager, good fans and - last season - quality of football to match. No reason why you can't do top 7 or 8 again.

[dazby]

Thanks Andy. I'm sure we'd all love to have you drop in a few times during the season. We get the odd fan from a few clubs and they are always a breath of fresh air.

Where do you rate Krul? For some reason I still don't think he's top notch. I can't put my finger on why despite his great season. Perhaps it's a lack of physical presence.

[Andy NUFC]

Thanks Andy. I'm sure we'd all love to have you drop in a few times during the season. We get the odd fan from a few clubs and they are always a breath of fresh air.

Where do you rate Krul? For some reason I still don't think he's top notch. I can't put my finger on why despite his great season. Perhaps it's a lack of physical presence.

He's still young so a bit inconsistent when it comes to claiming crosses etc., but generally he's sound in that department. He's a very good shot-stopper, probably one of the best in the league. My main issue with him would be his distribution - kicking and throwing both leave a lot be desired, especially when we're under pressure. I think, however, he feels the need to kick it long quite often because of a lack of confidence in the right hand side of our defence. Simpson and Williamson are not footballers at all and passing it short to them is usually suicide. Teams tend to stop the short pass to Coloccini and Santon, who are excellent on the ball, and force it towards the other side where we tend to resemble a pub team.

In terms of transfers this summer I'd say overhauling that right hand side of the defence is the main priority and we've been heavily linked with Debuchy from Lille and Douglas from Twente so the club seem to have identified that as well. I think if we can sort that out it will improve Krul's game to no end.

[CTID Hants]

Thanks Andy. I'm sure we'd all love to have you drop in a few times during the season. We get the odd fan from a few clubs and they are always a breath of fresh air.

Where do you rate Krul? For some reason I still don't think he's top notch. I can't put my finger on why despite his great season. Perhaps it's a lack of physical presence.

He's still young so a bit inconsistent when it comes to claiming crosses etc., but generally he's sound in that department. He's a very good shot-stopper, probably one of the best in the league. My main issue with him would be his distribution - kicking and throwing both leave a lot be desired, especially when we're under pressure. I think, however, he feels the need to kick it long quite often.

You could quite easily of been talking about Kasper Schmeichel there ;-) Krul, given time will come good imo

[Ted Hughes]

Nice 1 Andy.

I would love to see Newcastle go one better than this season & claim a Champion's Lg spot but of course everyone is strengthening so it won't be easy. You never know though.

Do you think that your fans have put a bit less pressure on the team last season, perhaps with lower expectations, & that a calmer & more realistic attitude may have helped ? If so, do you think it will be the same this season or will people get giddy ?

I know we suffered for years from unrealistic expectations & I think it was a big factor to our continued lack of success; always expecting to run before we could walk. I could see a parallell with that in Newcastle fans but I get the impression everyone is a lot more realistic these days & imo that can only be a good thing; allowing the club to build gradually toward the top (unless some nice geezer gives you half a billion of course, then go for it!).

[Andy NUFC]

Nice 1 Andy.

I would love to see Newcastle go one better than this season & claim a Champion's Lg spot but of course everyone is strengthening so it won't be easy. You never know though.

Do you think that your fans have put a bit less pressure on the team last season, perhaps with lower expectations, & that a calmer & more realistic attitude may have helped ? If so, do you think it will be the same this season or will people get giddy ?

I know we suffered for years from unrealistic expectations & I think it was a big factor to our continued lack of success; always expecting to run before we could walk. I could see a parallell with that in Newcastle fans but I get the impression everyone is a lot more realistic these days & imo that can only be a good thing; allowing the club to build gradually toward the top (unless some nice geezer gives you half a billion of course, then go for it!).

To be honest, I think the "delusional geordie" tag is a slight misrepresentation of our fans that has come from Sky consistently shoving the television cameras on the most block-headed people they can find outside of SJP. In reality I think most people have expected the worst ever since Graeme Souness dismantled Sir Bobby's team - the relegation in 2009 was something that had been bubbling under the surface for years. There are some idiots who still think we're "ganna win tha leeeg and tha cuppps hew" every year of course, but honestly I don't think they're any more common than at any other middle-of-the-range premier league club.

I reckon most of our level-headed fans will know that last season was a bit of a fluke - not so much in our performances or anything, but just in that the league was probably weaker than it had been for a long time - so the expectations from most people up here this year are probably limited to another europa league push. It'll take something special and a big stroke of luck (or investment) to finish 5th again; I think our first team is good enough but as I said in an earlier post, injuries and the African Cup of Nations will take their toll.

We'll have done pretty well if we're somewhere in the top 8, have had a decent EL and domestic cup run, and finish ahead of our ever-growing flock of deserters at Liverpool again ;)

[DoomMerchant]

Thanks Andy...i think keeping Cisse is more critical than Ba. Astute observation that they will struggle together...because...they did!

Arfa is a tidy little player. Do Geordies want to snap Dejong's leg or do they see it as City fans do, which is that it was a shitty accident that happens sometimes when you actual play tackle football?

Stick around here and talk to us...we're fucking bored. There are only so many times we can watch Aguero win us the league and jizz in our pants all summer. Alright, that last part was a joke...we could do that day long.

cheers

[Patrick]

Patrick Vierra was the Pele of Tackle Football - fact

[littlebig]

Quality stuff from Andy. Always good to hear well balanced views of opposing fans.

Any word on this Dr Spectrum fella?

[Andy NUFC]

Thanks Andy...i think keeping Cisse is more critical than Ba. Astute observation that they will struggle together...because...they did!

Arfa is a tidy little player. Do Geordies want to snap Dejong's leg or do they see it as City fans do, which is that it was a shitty accident that happens sometimes when you actual play tackle football?

I'll be honest, I think most people hold hard feelings towards De Jong, myself included. It's true that accidents happen and I don't think he intended it, but Ben Arfa back then had just signed from Marseille and his first few appearances were outstanding - he was great for us in 2011/12 but nowhere near what he was when he first signed, his debut against Everton was one of the most exciting performances I've ever seen from a player... So I think the hard feelings come from the frustration of De Jong so quickly [but inadvertently?] ruining "what might have been".

I think Ben Arfa will come into his own next year though. He was finally getting "it" back towards the end of the season.

[Tokyo Blue]

Any news of Dr. Spectrum?

[Andy NUFC]

Not yet, I've tried e-mailing him but alas there's been nothing so far.

[Slim]

Not yet, I've tried e-mailing him but alas there's been nothing so far.

Julie Wren and Dr Spectrum are truly competing for the title of New Jimmy Hoffa.