Big Sam is Gone

In a move that is slightly surprising (but not really given it's Newcastle), their manager Sam Allardyce left the club yesterday by "mutual consent" (meaning he got fired, but took the payoff to go quietly).

Performances and results haven't really been the best since he took over the job, but given this was meant to be the long term appointment we needed to stabilize the ship, the fact that he only got 8 months in the job is a little disconcerting. I guess the main factor may have been that the Chairman hadn't appointed him - he was brought in just before the takeover.

Anyway, we enter the usual manager merry-go-round again, and wait to see who will take on the most unstable job in the Premiership. The Great One might be good (although some of his signings for Chelsea seemed a little on the dodgy side), but the fact that Harry Redknapp is being mentioned is a little worrying. Shearer as usual has distanced himself from speculation he's taking over (in both words and distance, supposedly talking to people back in Newcastle from the comfort of a beach resort in Barbados). You'd hope that Mike Ashley had someone already lined up (or at least a candidate or two in mind), but only the coming days or weeks will tell us that.