ohmelads

Sticking two big men up front means relying on R.Taylor and Lovenkrands getting down the flanks and putting crosses in and they are both playing out of position there. If your gameplan is launching long balls to Carroll and Ranger to hold it up then we're playing long ball and I suspect that's playing into Blackpool's hands. A little and large partnership of Carroll/Ranger alongside Lovenkrands would pose a greater threat to the Blackpool back line IMO, a simple combination of power and pace up front that has served so many clubs. In the absence of much alternative, it's the route I'd go down. We'd have a pretty static midfield and would have to rely on passing through the midfield but I reckon we have the players to do that against Blackpool, it's up front where we need to hurt them and Carroll alongside Ranger doesn't look very dangerous to me.

The worry for me is that Hughton will decide to pack the midfield to accommodate Nicky Butt. Against Blackpool we should be going for the win. We've got Plymouth at home on the weekend while Boro play West Brom. One of them has to drop points there, so if we can win both games it gives us a big chance to steal a lead at the top of the table. A draw would be a disappointment in my eyes - of course it would. We are playing to win the league here, there are a lot of poor teams in the Championship and this doesn't only benefit us - it benefits our rivals. We've won an amazing 5 out of 6 and yet we're only 3 points from the playoff places, because teams like Boro and West Brom are picking teams off as well. A draw here would be two points dropped, no doubt about it. I have no problem with Nicky Butt coming in. I think some people are going way over the top here. We have a smaller squad than last season and 8 more games to play. This will lead to fatigue and injuries. It's far from ideal but it's what Ashley has left us with, and after the January sales who knows what what we'll look like. Rotating the squad is going to be essential this season. Lovenkrands is a tough one. We're lacking width badly and he can provide that, but I think I'd rather have his movement up front and try and pass it through their midfield. If we're on top of the game then our full backs can provide added width, and if we're not then his pace and movement along with hold up play from Ranger/Carroll might help the ball 'stick' up front and give us an outlet.

Well said. It's all about the team. Ease the lad in, our squad is so small there'll be times he gets thrown in the deep end this year. We've got 41 games to play which means games every 3 days for large parts of the season. While we have the luxury of easing him in, do it. Cardiff away is hardly the place to throw him into the first team is it.

This is a big worry. If we look like getting promoted he'll hang onto the club until the season's end and wait for its value to go up. Should that happen I don't see him selling up straight away to the first bidder, he'll be out to get the best deal for himself and that could drag on all summer. The simple truth is the club won't move forward until we can draw a line under this Ashley saga and that won't happen while he's still "controlling" the club. I fully expect him to leave us in a right mess sometime next August, be it in the Championship or Premiership. If that turns out to be the case then all we can do is hope the new owner has the funds to quickly build a makeshift Premier League squad and move on from there.

Well said. Bit surprised by some of the comments on here. I don't think people appreciate how much just a few injuries will hurt us, or how limited our young backup players may be. I think we'll look very ordinary even in this division if you take a few of our better players out, and if anything happens to our only two centre backs, teams will target that as a weak area immediately. And up front, do we have a reliable goalscorer? Jury's still out on that one. Ameobi started brightly and then got crocked, as has happened to him a number of times in his career. The others are youngsters and Lovenkrands, while quick and lively, doesn't offer any guarantees. A lot will depend on how the fans and more importantly the players react to a defeat or two on the bounce. That'll be the true test of Hughton as a manager as well, to lift the players and keep us consistent, and to grind out results when we're decimated with injuries (as, let's not forget, happens to us every bloody year). Not to mention the January window and the likelihood of more departures. Does anybody seriously believe we'll not have a weaker squad in February than we do now? If Ashley wouldn't sign players in the summer then he won't in the winter either, you can take that almost as a given. More sales and no more signings and we could be limping towards the end of the season. It's vital we bag as many early points as we can. We're not sh*tting on teams nor are we utterly outclassing them. We've had to grind out a couple of results already and it won't always go our way. Our start has been good but I think a bit of perspective is needed, otherwise it's gonna be a shock to the system when we lose a couple of games on the bounce due to poor performances/tactics, bad luck or meeting in-form sides. One of the main reasons this league is considered tough to get out of is that there are only 2 guaranteed promotion places out of 24 teams, meaning you have to win nearly every week to make sure you're up there.

The only logical explanation is that he saw our bright start to the season and thought "fuck this we might bounce back up with no investment and i'll sell up then. we've hit rock bottom anyway so I'll see how it goes and if things go downhill i'll put it back on the market nearer January when I have more idea". I honestly reckon he had no intention to sell in the final weeks and would question what intention he ever had to sell the club at a realistic price. He has past form of taking chances, we got relegated after he gambled on trying to balance the books. Of course it doesn't make any sense why someone would sell 25M pounds worth of players and still keep the asking price the same, pricing himself out of a sale and totally neglecting his own asset in the process.

The priority is promotion, not giving Nile Ranger games. Ranger and Carroll are very inexperienced. There will be weeks when Lovenkrands is needed out wide (we only have one natural winger!), and while Shola has started well, he's more than capable of a barren spell. Another option like Harewood would be very welcome in my eyes, we can't go far wrong on a 3 month loan. Another option would be to bring in a winger so Lovenkrands is free to play up front. How about Arsenal, they must have some youngsters who need games? I do believe we'll be an attractive prospect for loan players, a chance to blood them in front of Premier League-sized crowds, we've got a small squad meaning the chance of regular games, and it's a chance for them to experience the pressure of expectation every week joining one of the league's biggest clubs. For managers like Ferguson and Wenger we represent a perfect place to loan their youngsters this season. The club may be run like a circus but we tick plenty other boxes.

Ashley is only likely to appoint a yes man who just feels privileged to have the job at all and has no power over him. He got his fingers burnt with Keegan. Ashley won't want any big name who asks too many questions, nor will he want to fork out much money as we know all too well. The idea of giving Hughton the reigns on the back of 5 games is ridiculous though. Our first team on paper right now is among the strongest, if not the strongest in the league. The challenge for any manager will be when our paper thin squad picks up injuries and heads start to drop and Hughton hasn't proven himself whatsoever yet. It's Glenn Roeder all over again, backing a manager on a handful of games is just as bad if not worse than handing the job to Shearer if you ask me. Unlike Hughton, Shearer clearly wanted to become a manager and has the backing of the fans and seemingly the players which would make him a lot less sackable by Ashley, hence greater stability. But that's precisely the reason I think Ashley won't give him the job. Ultimately Keane wasn't the answer for the mackems but he got them promoted and kept them up there. A lot of the people who say appointing Shearer is mad were probably the same people who thought Keane was an inspired move.

I'd rather go for loan signings in all honesty because generally they are young and hungry players looking to secure a permanent move. We have plenty of experience in the squad, what we need is bodies and let's face it there's very few in our own youth system who you'd want to see in the first team. Go get other team's youth players from Man Utd and the likes and give them a shot. More signings like Danny Simpson are a better answer than signing 30-odd year old crocks. Having said that, if the loan signings we need aren't available then we have no choice but to look at these players. I reckon there's one or two in that list who could be very useful but the key question is who.

It's still an absolute joke of an article, mind. Aye it is, the sort of tongue-in-cheek humour a ten year old would come up with. He really thought this was worth padding out to make into an article?

stick with ashley and we'll lose the whole of the january window as he haggles over the sale of the club and plays a game of brinkmanship with potential buyers, during which time he will undoubtedly sell yet more players. we have to get him out at all costs and try and rebuild the mess in January. at least if a new owner comes in now they will have the whole of January to do transfer business and then our threadbare squad only has to survive until then. that would be making the best of a very precarious situation. if ashley stays then the whole summer has been wasted and the winter window will be too as he tries yet again to find a buyer. the club is in limbo and the sooner we are out of this state of limbo the sooner we can rebuild.

Martins

Loads of clubs have been treat like this, what makes our case any different. I can't think of any precedent for the way our club has been run over the last 18 months. Think back to everything that's gone on and it's quite incredible, as everybody has already said you couldn't make it up. You would think someone would know when to cut his losses. Why is he still here? What is he waiting for? The club is becoming worth less by the day and he's holding out for more money? It makes no sense at all.

Exactly. Don't really see what the big deal is myself.

Utter speculation. Is he really suggesting this has dragged on for weeks and weeks simply because they're 'combing through the books'? The papers know nowt, and anything Llambias and Harris say has to be taken with a pinch of salt because right now it's salesman talk.

Well we know he doesn't care at all for the club and will get the best deal for himself. So I'm not surprised to see him drawing this out. If it goes on into August I can see a mass boycott, as it may be the only means of forcing him out in a hurry. We'll be left with no alternative if this goes on much longer, the club is in freefall.

Same. He's managed to show he doesn't know anything in the first line of his article. It's complete second-rate journalism, much like the long-winded article in the first post, which plays on stereotypes, is filled with hate and neglects to mention blatant facts like the fact noone would take the job after Kinnear. If people choose to read this stuff then that's their problem. Peope who believe this stuff hate us anyway and will enjoy reading this kind of journalism. They're not looking for facts, they don't want objective reporting, they want narrow-minded hatred and will lap this stuff up. The writers know this. I wouldn't worry what these pillocks have to say. There was a time in the 90s when we were "everybody's second team", with many in the media waxing lyrical about us. That's the press for you, they set them up and knock them down. They're just rabble rousers man, ignore them.

For what it's worth I reckon he'll get fewer games and far fewer goals than he did at Real Madrid. They'll be signing another forward this season (they've lost Ronaldo and Tevez), which will probably put Owen 4th in the pecking order. Ferguson's not sentimental, you need to be in very good form to stay in the Man Utd team. The wage cut won't affect him though, as being at Man Utd will keep his profile high for sponsorship deals etc. I'll readily admit I feel a bit bitter about this one, but it's not like we have much else to talk about right now. There's no activity going on at our own club. Things have to start moving for us sooner or later and then we can move on from this whole saga. I still feel relieved to be shot of him because he's been undermining our club for years.

Real Madrid have pretty much always been the top destination for a player on the market. There's no shame in coming second in the pecking order to Real Madrid. I still think they have something up their sleeve. Owen is on a free let's not forget, and there's nearly two months of the transfer window left, so it's not like this is what they're left with.

Owen bled the club dry because in return for a monster salary and huge patience from the fans he showed no respect to the club whatsoever during every single transfer window, while major doubt was cast over his future time and time again. He never committed himself to the club once in 4 years, and yet never had the balls to publically ask out because he knew he was sitting on a comfy deal if noone came in for him. And this despite the loyalty and faith shown in him by the club and its fans, the ridiculous patience offered to him, and even the captain's armband. Have you ever seen a player so idolised treat his club with such disinterest? His passion for the club was non-existent and as one last laugh at the club he actually denied he was injury prone by listing a catalogue of injuries he had. He was an embarrassment to the club and it's entirely his own fault that he fell out of the England squad. Man Utd fans are rightly questioning Ferguson over this one.

Smart move imo. He has prob about £100million to spend on players this summer, may aswell get Owen for free too. Absolutely - I have had the best laugh in weeks looking at all the posts who derided Owen as a player, now furiously huffing & puffing in trying to justify their stance, now that Fergie looks like signing him. Because nobody in their right mind would be able to portray Fergie as a bad manager, there are now comments about his ego etc..Please... Anything rather than admit that Owen was playing in a crap team, getting no service and, as any intelligent person would be, totally pissed off with the comedy show that was Newcastle United.... Owen will be an asset to Man U if used sparingly, as Fergie doubtless intends to do - he will be getting 100 times better service and support than he did at NUFC and this move will benefit both parties - I am not in the SLIGHTEST bit surprised that this has happened because Fergie, despite his arrogance at times, is still a shrewd and clever manager. A shrewd and clever manager who has made, and will make, mistakes. If he buys Owen I'll consider it another mistake, though you could argue that on a free transfer it's a mistake Man Utd can afford. If he's s*** they'll just drop him. It's not like they won't be signing other forwards this summer, they've got 80 million sitting in the bank. Does anyone really believe he'll be a regular first XI starter for Man Utd next season? They may have missed out on Benzema but come on. IF he does end up there you could see him used as a rotation player and nothing more - another O'Shea type to beef up his options. I guess it may also have something to do with the number of English players required for Europe these days.

We don't have any choice but to borrow. If you balance the books, sell all of your players and replace them with cheap Championship substitutes chances are you will stay in the second tier. And when that happens, fans stop turning up because they see a club without any ambition, languishing in the Championship. And when fans stop turning up, revenues plummet, and pretty soon you find yourself balancing the books all over again, and sliding down the league. After two years the parachute payments disappear and it's a long way back then. Anybody who thinks we can get out of this trouble without resorting to a bank loan isn't being realistic. There are no sugar daddy's ready to buy us, they'd have bought us ages ago and met the asking price with ease. Freddy is as good as it's going to get, and longer the club fannies around the deeper we sink. We're neck deep in it at the minute. I'd have thought this is obvious, but an alarming number of people seem happy to wait around even longer. The only realistic way out of this viscious cycle is money coming in from outside the club. Whether that's from a rich man's pocket or Freddy loaning from the bank, we'll be f*cked without it. We are well capable of getting back up within a year, provided there's a bit of investment. Look at the teams the mackems have come up with, dross all over the pitch.

If Chopra can bag 20-odd goals with Cardiff then I reckon Carroll is capable of scoring a good few. Wouldn't really want to be relying on him as our goal-getter though. We'll definitely need someone with pace alongside him otherwise we're gonna look really static up front. With Martins and Lovenkrands most likely gone it means a pacy striker is a big priority.

The way the Premier League is operating at the moment is totally unsustainable. The fact is there are only four places worth going for if you're a mega billionaire. Man City might break the stranglehold on those places, but then who drops out? And what happens to them? Will they too be taken over by a rich Arab? The fact is these people are going to lose interest when they see year after year of glorious midtable finishes. And if they are succeeding, then other billionaires aren't. I only believe the league can sustain a couple of teams like this, else it won't be long before these big spenders lose interest and walk away, taking their money with them. And when that happens, the house of cards comes falling down. It'd be interesting to run the same poll in 5 or 10 years time and see what people say.

You would hope that with Shearer in charge Fat Freddy wouldn't be able to walk all over the manager like he has done with the previous lot. Shearer I hope would be a slightly different kettle of fish to the previous managers who worked under Freddy. Of them lot only Robson enjoyed any popularity. He too was ultimately treated very poorly by Shepherd but at least got a good 5 years and was moved on perhaps too late if anything, when age had finally caught up with him. Souness and Roeder were amazed to get the job when they did and were easy yes men for Shepherd. I'd like to think Shearer would have more say than they did, but you can't underestimate Shepherd's meddling.