steve_69

What that toilet roll of a newspaper fails to point out is that the likes of Portsmouth, West Ham, Liverpool, Man Utd, Hull etc. are in serious financial jeaopardy through spending beyond their means or just generally poor financial management. Football is changing and although we may struggle in the short term to reach the heady heights of European Qualification, we will at least rejoin the Premier Legaue in a better financial position than when we left it. We may be scraping the barrell in terms of signings but at least we're not looking over our shoulder at the possibility of administration like many other teams. It's about time these rags supported those clubs who are spending sensibly and congratulated them on being self-sufficient rather than suggesting they're second rate because they don't make senational big money signings. Following Newcastle at the time we were splashing the cash was f***ing brilliant but innevitably we shafted ourselves. That article just stinks of a sports journalist who's bored as f*** because we're not giving him anything to write about any more. Well how about earning your crust reporting about how well Everton, Fulham, Birmingham and Arsenal have done by adopting a pragmatic attitude and investing shrewdly you unimaginative jobsworth prick! Before any of you morons suggest this is a pro-Ashley post, it f***ing isn't alright.

For the record I don't rate Simpson either, he's a distinctly average player IMO. I wouldn't be averse to us reverting to 4-5-1 away from home as long as the personell are right. With Jonas and Routledge out wide we have more pace and attacking ability than before and, as long as we play the right striker (not Carroll) as the lone man up front then I think we could still pick up a lot of points. If we win our home games and draw our away games we'll still be on track to secure an automatic promotion spot.

Surely, after the Cardiff game, he's realised that we've got the beating of anyone in the league if we play a 4-4-2 with only one defensive central midfielder. The team has balance, pace, passing ability, and good delivery from both flanks. Time to throw the cautious approach away and play to our strengths. As I said before I wouldn't throw up if he reverts to a 4-5-1 because our new acquisitions look dangerous and I think we'd still win but it would be a step backwards IMO.

I don't really mind us playing 4-5-1 any more now that we have Routledge in the team. We look like a different proposition altoghether with him on the right. That said it would be pretty stupid to break up a team that put 5 past a promotion rival just last week.

He'll never play Guthrie in the middle. It'll be something like: ................................Harper Simpson......Williamson....Collocini......Hertz Van Rental Routledge......Butt...........Nolan..........Jonas ....................Carroll..........Best We could go all out attack in this game with Lovenkrands up fron with Best, and Guthrie in the centre................but he won't

Does Chris Sutton fall into this category? Looked like he was destined for big things but kind of fell by the way side. Another one is David Hirst. I know his career was blighted by injuries but his talent was definitely wasted.

Legend in the days of Champ Man! Absolutely! Sadly that appears to have been the highlight of his once promising career

David Bentley Kevin Hofland Harry Kewell Chris Kirkland Antonio Cassano

I think the biggest problem is that Fat Freddy flew by the seat of his pants. He didn't plan ahead, put contingencies in place and consider the consequences of his actions. His made snap decisions to sack people without considering who he could get in to replace them, which innevitably lead to us scraping the barrel. Middlesbrough recently sacked Gareth Southgate AFTER sounding out Gordon Strachan and establishing that he would be interested in taking up the reigns. That's they way it should be done.

Can't see him getting on very well with Strachan. He's the kind of player who needs a very long leash

Benni McCarthy said he left Blackburn because he wasn't able to play the kind of football he wanted to play. Not the first player to leave a club because of Allardyce. Although he went about it the wrong way by missing training and generally acting like an arse, I think there'd be a lot more respect in the game if more players exhibited this sort of honesty. I'd much rather a player said 'my game doesn't suit this type of play' or 'i'd prefer to be playing elsewhere because i'm not enjoying my football here.' Sadly most footballers don't have the intelligence or social skills to handle themselves with decorum and will. instead, throw hissy fits like young children.

Just out of interest, why? It seemed he was exactly the wrong man for a club with a recent history of good football and some success, I was amazed he was given the job - it felt like I didn't know the club at all anymore. God only knows. I suppose it was because he was in some way proven and seemed primed to step up to a bigger job at a bigger club. Although the majority of the football he has overseen has been total garbage there were flashes of good stuff at times when players like Jay Jay Okacha and Youri Djorkaeff were playing. I think I just believed the hype and was ready for someone who actually seemed to know what they were doing after witnessing the Roeder and Souness debacles. It became very clear very quickly what a one dimensional clueless fuckwit he really was.

To this day it's still one of the worst football football decisions i've ever seen. That one appointment set us back years and in my opinion was the catalyst for everything that has happened since. Imagine if we'd appointed Martin O Neill at that point. How different things could've been. That said, I was in favour of the Allardyce appointment at the time and that proved to be another unmitigated disaster

Expectations changed very quickly in this transfer window. The majority of people on this board said they would be pleased if we brought in a couple of loans, with no players leaving. Very few were thinking about a new striker before Hughton mentioned we were after one. As it is we've signed: A right back on a permanent deal A centre back on a permanent deal A right winger on a permanent deal A striker on a permanent deal A backup centre back on loan A backup left back on loan Is it any wonder people talk about us being unrealistic. Every f***er on here should be thrilled with the business we've done, without exception.

How often do you see Man Utd change their game plan for away games? Pretty much never. They play their football the same way whether they are at home or away and the success they've had doing this is unrivalled. Ferguson instills extraordinary mental strength into his players and I would imagine part of that involves talking about how home advantage means fuck all.

Wages of £50k per week + would be my guess

Defence strengthened Midfield strenthened Attack - we'll see but pace certainly seems to have been added, which is a plus. Would rather have had Beckford, Moses or Vaughan but hey. Geremi's wages will almost certainly cover those of all six new signings. Overall, well pleased!

I just wanted us to stop signing players who had had their best years at other clubs and had no potential resale value. I don't care if they are free or cash signings. Signing players with hunger and a desire to make a reputation for themselves is absolutely the right thing to do. We are undoubtedly operating on a shoestring transfer budget but at least we have a budget, it's more than most of us thought we would have. So far what we've done has been very impressive: Simpson looks steady Routledge looks decent Williamson looks solid Van Aarnolt looks class going forward Fitz Hall is experienced at this level and adds well needed cover The only possible negative could be Leon Best, particularly after the likes of Beckford and Moses being linked, but i'll reserve judgement until he's had a few games. Hat's off to Hughton and, dare I say it, Ashley and Llambias as well.

Fuck it, at least we tried. That's encouraging enough I never really thought we'd get him and now I just hope we have a backup plan. I'd be pleased to see James Vaughan come in

Right, i've had a fag now so I can be a bit more objective Hopefully this is our blip for the season. We're playing shit but we're still picking up points. Our full strength team will be a world away from that shower of shite but we need to start being more positive away from home. Looking forward to seeing this team at some point: ...........................Harper Simpson......Taylor......Colo.......Enrique Routledge...Smith.......Guthrie...Jonas .................Loven........Ameobi If Nicky But was a racehorse he'd be getting served up with onions to drooling frenchmen right now. Useless cunt! That's all for now!

Positives: Williamson looks class Routledge looks class Van Aarnolt looks decent going forward Negatives: shit Tactics shit Passing shit Movement Nolan Smith Butt Carroll Guthrie on the cunting left wing shit shooting shit crossing shit set pieces no desire shit heading R Taylor no urgency no spectacular defensive overhead kicks Probably loads of other stuff as well I'm off for a fag.

Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!!!!!

Top pro apparently.

This is so shit I could weep

I fucking hope he does