James

Regardless of the agreeable reasons for Rafa not signing a new contract, any sensible well run club would have contingency for a worrying dip in form, in this case money unspent in case an early pay off is needed, and transfer budgets set aside until January. Looking at it from a PR perspective as I’m sure Ashley will be speaking to Bishop, the best moment to give Rafa the boot is within the next three weeks. Personally I think Allardyce or another KBA associated shithouse manager being in place for Palace on 22nd September is now a very real possibility

Yep. The next manager will be chosen by Keith Bishop. It could be Allardyce. It could even be another one of his associates like Souness. It will be a train wreck and the opportunity to unite unanimously against Ashley will be gone.

He's not helping himself playing centre backs at left back with Sterry on the other side. Good luck trying to play football with them bringing the ball out. We've got some fucking horrendous footballers in those positions. Who the fuck else was he supposed to play at full-back? Yedlin and Dummett absolutely cannot be risked, as evidenced by the backup brigade on show tonight (and at Cardiff). Aye, I suppose we need to keep them fresh so we can wheel them out for the hammering against City on Saturday. I think I'd rather have won today tbh. Resting players for a game we are gonna get beat in anyway and for the big relegation battle and we aren't even out of August. No aim other than to exist in the pl and then we get 11 years of wank and knocked out on purpose runt he cups. That's rafas hat trick now oxford and forest twice. Shite Remember the slaughtering Pardew and the rest of the shite used to get? Genuine question, do you think it is best for the club to get Rafa Out or get Ashley Out if you had to choose. Because if you say Ashley you are undermining your own point of view by focusing your ire on Rafa. Getting Ashley out needs to be the utmost priority. We can worry about Rafa if still underperforming under new ownership (in the unlikely event that we even get that far)

It’s the same old story whoever the manager is, if the board/club owners do not back the manager then the players will eventually stop playing.

Two seasons with Robson and I think he would have been a much better player. While he’s done pretty well I think he wasted his early years at us and Villa.

Him and Cahill haven’t retired outright they have made clear they are available for selection in the event of say Kane and Rashford missing a qualifier due to injury. The door is open

Anyone remember when we played for a point against hapless Derby Coonty?

Well regardless of no ban we have Forest and Chelsea next. Play fairly well and Murphy or Atsu will be entitled to command his place in the team for the coming weeks and Kenedy will have to fight for his spot back.

I’ve calmed down a bit now but this was without a doubt one of the all time bad performances in the Premier League. A game statistically that bad is extremely rare so you can see why this was justified.

This club has lost all self respect if Kenedy and Hayden are allowed to ever play again

Only Hayden has rescued him from putting in one of the worst performances in living memory. I’d get him drug and alcohol tested tbh.

What happened to his thumb?

Out of position really we really should have had Sterry in the bench

At least we are, Manquillo aside, not looking too troubled in defence. Manquillo and Kenedy should both be sent off, idiots. Not making one successful pass in the first half is criminal and Kenedy needs to be told to sort it out. Injury to Manquillo may be a blessing if it forces us to change things a bit

We should be beating these, This is a genuine championship side

Same. I'm 99% sure it's because of that weird video that came out when he signed though Perhaps after a full pre-season with Rafa he is going to be amazing and score 25 goals and then Rafa goes to Sky and says:’that’s why you sign players in Jane not August’

In that era between 1994 and 1997 the best players were distributed wider and more fairly across clubs but we rose to being one of the worlds top ten clubs. Of course Lee was bloody brilliant but we had other players too who were better than anything we’ve had post Ashley like Warren Barton, David Batty, Keith Gillespie

This is Sterry’s big chance would be great if he could grasp it

I think people get that but there are just so so so many midfielders and strikers that had more talent than HBA he should be nowhere near a best XI. That’s not saying he wasn’t a good player on his day but we’ve been starved of good players for so long that he is overrated to the extreme.

Can't remember much about Beardsley or Lee but Solano and Robert are two of my all time favourite NUFC players. They were great and entertaining players in the SBR years but their careers were nothing special outside of that little spell and in the end the SBR team won nothing either. Meanwhile HBA has won a countless number of trophies playing for the three biggest teams in France and had a great and entertaining spell here (when allowed). World must be a wondrous place for you if people putting HBA ahead Nobby or Robert in their all time NUFC XI amazes you. Can I please point out that Cacapa won more French league titles Did I put Cacapa in my all time XI? No but you were using French league titles as a barometer for saying that HBA was superior to Nobby and Robert so I was just pointing out that on that measure you can’t leave Cacapa out of your XI

Can't remember much about Beardsley or Lee but Solano and Robert are two of my all time favourite NUFC players. They were great and entertaining players in the SBR years but their careers were nothing special outside of that little spell and in the end the SBR team won nothing either. Meanwhile HBA has won a countless number of trophies playing for the three biggest teams in France and had a great and entertaining spell here (when allowed). World must be a wondrous place for you if people putting HBA ahead Nobby or Robert in their all time NUFC XI amazes you. Can I please point out that Cacapa won more French league titles

Have people forgotten how HBA disappeared in France for a couple of weeks and it turned out that he’d quit football and joined a cult only to be talked out of it? A player like that doesn’t deserve our time of day.

Shearer was the most naturally gifted player we ever had.

I do think there’s a good player there he just doesn’t have the confidence but perhaps getting a few more bodies alongside him rather than leaving him isolated up front will help.

Solano was way more talented than Ben Arfa a wand of a right foot and one of the best passers and crossers we ever had. Such an intelligent player too.