Howaythelads

mackems.gif I think this thread should now be closed and made a sticky after that classic piece of tripe above. were i to play devils advocate and ask what gave it its tripe like qualities, what would your response be? My response would be that if you can't see the obvious for yourself it isn't worth my time explaining. I imagine by now you've read posts from others of the same belief as myself. Ask one of them, they may have more patience with your type than I have. Cheers mate, its a forum, i ask you very nicely to explain your reasoning and you come back with that, you just make yourself look like a dick to be honest, you've got this good cop bad cop split personality in your posting where you try and come across as the voice of reason but with posts like this you reveal yourself to be an extremely arrogant, small minded fool i've been nothing but civil towards you and you continue to say things like you dont have patience with my 'type' and that i'm not capable of discussion, yet with your constant sniping and ignoring direct questions it seems that you're the one incapable of debate i've had enough, get f***** Whey aye.....

It's a matter of priority. We needed more creativity in forward areas far more than we needed new players at the back in the quantity we've since seen arrive. We ended the season with: Bramble (contract expired) Moore (contract expired) Onyewu (loan expired) Bernard (health expired) Leaving us with: Ramage Huntington Babayaro Edgar Taylor Are you seriously suggesting we didn't need to buy defenders in the Summer? No. As I think you know. What I'm on about is the notion by many that all of the problems in the team were at the back, when in fact for a long time now the main problem has been our lack of ability to control football matches, to use the ball properly and to get the opposition on the back foot. Our ability to hurt them in turn influences the opposition game plan from the start. If they know we're shit going forward they're going to throw a lot at us, this of course makes even good defenders look poor. Agreed. I just baulk at the suggestion that only you and few select others know this, and everyone else is stupid. Read my posts earlier, I know full well that we are shite at holding onto the ball etc, and that we perhaps should have bought some better forward players in the Summer. Doesn't change the fact that we still needed defenders. I know you're not keen on Allardyce but I hope if the board plan to stand by him that he targets some of the aforementioned ball-players this time. Didn't say you're stupid or anyone else is stupid. I think you know that too because you know what I'm talking about. There are people who banged on and on and on and on about all the problems being at the back, players like Parker and Emre being so highly rated and all that. It was said then that if they were used correctly all would be well with the addition of better defenders. It was never going to be true.

My bag is class, tbh. Clutch style or traditional strap? :parky:

It's a matter of priority. We needed more creativity in forward areas far more than we needed new players at the back in the quantity we've since seen arrive. We ended the season with: Bramble (contract expired) Moore (contract expired) Onyewu (loan expired) Bernard (health expired) Leaving us with: Ramage Huntington Babayaro Edgar Taylor Are you seriously suggesting we didn't need to buy defenders in the Summer? No. As I think you know. What I'm on about is the notion by many that all of the problems in the team were at the back, when in fact for a long time now the main problem has been our lack of ability to control football matches, to use the ball properly and to get the opposition on the back foot. Our ability to hurt them in turn influences the opposition game plan from the start. If they know we're shit going forward they're going to throw a lot at us, this of course makes even good defenders look poor.

My bag is class, tbh.

Not a huge amount but am going off the principle that if Ashley can afford to pay off debt (that is perfectly acceptable for Arse/Man U/Liverpool/Chelsea to carry in far bigger proportions) then he can afford £20m to give Allardyce a couple of decent attacking players. Do you think Sven would be doing better with our current lot? Or Moyes? I think the squad is a bit s*** and most teams above us have one or two key players that make them tick that we dont. Long term its hard to say about Allardyce but i think people have poor judgement about our players if they think we have a Muntari, an Elano or an Arteta. We dont and these players are the ones sticking the points on the board for those teams. Anyone who thinks our players are good enough to challenge the top 6 needs their head looked at. These are same lads who think Milner is decent btw. Spot on! We could easily see the team as a whole gel together with a couple of cracking signings! I don't think our defence is half as bad as the media make out! It's the midfield giving the ball away with sloppy passes then falling on there arses trying to gain back possession, and this just heaps more pressure on the back line! Aye, same as last season and which was pointed out by some last season before loads of new defenders were signed...with no improvement. You might need to go through your taking the pressure of the def mantra again HTL. It's not just me though, is it mate? There are a half a dozen or so people who seem able to see outside the box, many others being sucked in by the latest bleat of who is the worst signing of the moment, even though it's less important as when I'll next scratch my bag.

It's a matter of priority. We needed more creativity in forward areas far more than we needed new players at the back in the quantity we've since seen arrive.

Not a huge amount but am going off the principle that if Ashley can afford to pay off debt (that is perfectly acceptable for Arse/Man U/Liverpool/Chelsea to carry in far bigger proportions) then he can afford £20m to give Allardyce a couple of decent attacking players. Do you think Sven would be doing better with our current lot? Or Moyes? I think the squad is a bit s*** and most teams above us have one or two key players that make them tick that we dont. Long term its hard to say about Allardyce but i think people have poor judgement about our players if they think we have a Muntari, an Elano or an Arteta. We dont and these players are the ones sticking the points on the board for those teams. Anyone who thinks our players are good enough to challenge the top 6 needs their head looked at. These are same lads who think Milner is decent btw. Spot on! We could easily see the team as a whole gel together with a couple of cracking signings! I don't think our defence is half as bad as the media make out! It's the midfield giving the ball away with sloppy passes then falling on there arses trying to gain back possession, and this just heaps more pressure on the back line! Aye, same as last season and which was pointed out by some last season before loads of new defenders were signed...with no improvement.

Not a huge amount but am going off the principle that if Ashley can afford to pay off debt (that is perfectly acceptable for Arse/Man U/Liverpool/Chelsea to carry in far bigger proportions) then he can afford £20m to give Allardyce a couple of decent attacking players. Do you think Sven would be doing better with our current lot? Or Moyes? I think the squad is a bit shit and most teams above us have one or two key players that make them tick that we dont. Long term its hard to say about Allardyce but i think people have poor judgement about our players if they think we have a Muntari, an Elano or an Arteta. We dont and these players are the ones sticking the points on the board for those teams. Anyone who thinks our players are good enough to challenge the top 6 needs their head looked at. These are same lads who think Milner is decent btw. Good post, Chez.

Wrong again. What a surprise. So you're telling me what my views are? Errr no. You are.

Wrong again. What a surprise.

mackems.gif I think this thread should now be closed and made a sticky after that classic piece of tripe above. were i to play devils advocate and ask what gave it its tripe like qualities, what would your response be? My response would be that if you can't see the obvious for yourself it isn't worth my time explaining. I imagine by now you've read posts from others of the same belief as myself. Ask one of them, they may have more patience with your type than I have. Cheers

I guess I'm just stupid but I don't understand what the "demtrimental effects of raising the already sky high expectations" are. I understand my sky high expectations which are currently "avoiding relegation" may be raised to "getting over 40 points" by the almost criminal act of buying players in January but I'm not sure how that is detrimental to the club. Please enlighten me further oh knowledgeable one. PS Are you Chris Mort? If "avoiding relegation" is your definition of sky high expectation, then does that mean that you are pretty happy with things so far? If not, then why? People dont seem to except that the past 4 years were part of our history, i seem to get the impression that people regard the past 4 years as something of a blip. I dont, i see it as the current state of our club, i get the impression that people see us as a team who should be challenging for European places, something which has actually been quite sporadic throught our recent history. It depends how you view the club at the moment alot of the fans seem to think we could be finishing in the top 6, especially after the signings we've made. The signings havent turned out too well at the moment and people are using the expectation that a top 6 finish was a possibility as a valid reason for lambasting the position that we find ourselves in. Sam looks to be on the verge and its purely down to the fact that people expect us to be in a better position than we are at the mo, but why? Becasue of the expectations that had arisen from the Keegan era, and more recently the SBR era, in fact its the expectations of the Keegan era which ended up getting SBR sacked. How can we sustain any level of success without any stability. I dont understand how people dont see how attempting to break into the top4 (our eventual goal) should be a slow process. Hope you have been "enlightened" oh ignorant one. Yes I think I get it. Allardyce shouldn't have been given any transfer funds in the Summer to attempt to improve on the squad which finished 7th under Souness and Roeder as this raised fans expectations to a dangerous level where people foolishly expected to see signs of results and/or performances where we at least look like we might reach those dizzying heights once again, which is of course really bad for the club. Buying any more players in January in an attempt to improve the team would take us up to critical levels of expectation which would be even worse for the club. As a club we should aim to hang around in the mid to lower table positions for a number of seasons until fans expectations have reached a safe level so that hopefully we can be content with mid to lower table finishes each year, just being happy to stay in the league. This will reduce the pressure on the manager and board which as history has shown is the route to success. Of course, should we at some point in the future finish in a UEFA cup place as is the privilege of clubs which keep their managers for long enough, then we'll have to make sure we drop out of the competition as early as possible and sell off a few of our better players to avoid expectations rising to dangerous levels once again. Is that right? I only want to have the best interests of the club at heart. Yes, that's exactly it summed up very nicely.

with Faye in for Emre

mackems.gif I think this thread should now be closed and made a sticky after that classic piece of tripe above.

Maybe. I know this is the "way of it" in football but it's daft really. The idiot is well out of his depth and should go regardless of what happens in the next match.

Your expectations are just to avoid relegation? You're in for a treat this year IMO. If there aren't some significant changes this month I think we'll be lucky to scrape 45 points, so we won't be far off relegation. I commented after the game last night that I don't know where we've gotten 26 points from. I do literally btw but you know what I mean. Yeah, we've been very, very lucky to get some of those points.

3 or 4 more defeats will suck us into the bottom zone and then confidence dips even more and performances become even worse. You're probably right, but it's not clear cut that we'll be ok. Don't take it for granted is all I'm saying.

Your expectations are just to avoid relegation? You're in for a treat this year IMO. If there aren't some significant changes this month I think we'll be lucky to scrape 45 points, so we won't be far off relegation.

Stoke are a top side, a big place, a big club and should be in the Premier League. We have to treat them with respect and prepare for it properly. The most important thing is we make things difficult for them and keep it tight. We probably can't win the match but we can certainly play for a 0-0, get them back to our place and finish them off after extra time and pens.

Is this a serious question or are you playing dumb again? My question is a serious one, by the way. Answer the question by all means. Nah. Playing dumb is daft and I really can't be bothered with the toontastic type of stuff you like so much. All I asked you to do was answer what I asked if you wanted. Why did you even bother with the last two responses? You gan on like a big bairn sometimes. And if anyone doesn't understand what irony is... I thought you didn't dodge questions btw. I don't btw.

He's an idiot.

Idiot - The most important thing is we make things difficult for {insert any opposition here}. If we keep it tight and don't concede we will at least get a 0-0, but we might just nick it 1-0. Given Faye Taylor Beye Rozenhal Cacapa Enrique Carr Butt Edgar Geremi Me - Let's get out there, be positive and win this football match. Given Beye Rozenhal Cacapa Carr Duff Faye Emre Zog Smith Owen

Is this a serious question or are you playing dumb again? My question is a serious one, by the way. Answer the question by all means. Nah. Playing dumb is daft and I really can't be bothered with the toontastic type of stuff you like so much. All I asked you to do was answer what I asked if you wanted. Why did you even bother with the last two responses? You gan on like a big bairn sometimes. And if anyone doesn't understand what irony is...

Is this a serious question or are you playing dumb again? My question is a serious one, by the way. Answer the question by all means. Nah. Playing dumb is daft and I really can't be bothered with the toontastic type of stuff you like so much.