Bad Mongo

Perhaps that's why Wise is no longer on the board. It's fairly obvious that he wasn't behind last window's transfer dealings. Also, as a football person, he probably wanted his team to do well -- surely he wasn't the one who decided it was more important to make a profit on transfers. nolan and taylor? what point are you trying to make here? My reply follows from his two last sentences: "I still find it bewildering that Wise couldn't tell Ashley he had to spend serious money. Wise was the DoF after all." We don't know that Wise didn't ask for more money to be spent. I'm just saying he apparently didn't have any input on this winter's transfers. The sell-to-buy policy is certainly Ashley through and through.

He's like a harder working version of N'Zogbia, who creates a bit of excitement but usually runs into blind alleys, but unlike N'Zogbia he never crosses and never scores. Or a completely useless version of James Milner. At any rate, he's not as good as what we had.

Their three home games are Manure, Liverpool and Stoke. Our home games are Pompey, Fulham and Boro.. Don't bother comparing away games, neither side has a chance of getting much if anything from them, its the home games remaining that really matter. Stoke have won just one away game all season, against WBA, and have just four draws away from home. Hull are as likely to win that game as we are for any of our home games (looking at their head to head stats, draw seems most likely). We usually draw against Boro (last win at home: 2004), and guess which team in the Premiership has the most draws? Us. Newcastle against Middlesbrough is a game with draw written all over it; Fulham may be even more difficult. That leaves Portsmouth. 3 points. Anyone thinking we're likely to stay up is delusional.

Perhaps that's why Wise is no longer on the board. It's fairly obvious that he wasn't behind last window's transfer dealings. Also, as a football person, he probably wanted his team to do well -- surely he wasn't the one who decided it was more important to make a profit on transfers.

Have a word with yourself man. Sure, they have Manure the last day. That's most likely a loss, unless they've already won the league and field a bunch of youngsters. They have Liverpool at home. We've got Liverpool away. The main difference is that they're 4 points ahead of us, and we'll be lucky to get 4 points from the rest of our games.

The one minor thing that people forget, though, is that our own form is actually just as bad as Hull's. Yet the optimists expect them to get nothing from Villa, and us to grab a point. Them to lose to Stoke, and us to beat Middlesbrough. Us to beat Fulham, and them to get trounced by Bolton. Their run-in is nearly as easy as ours.

I think we do look better. At least now we're trying.

Duff still plays for Ireland, doesn't he? He'd probably want to stay in the Premiership. We won't get rid of Butt, Smith, Ameobi and Ryan Taylor, though. Hopefully, Llambias will have the decency to resign. Not doing so would be an insult.

It's the naively positive thread, not the naively optimistic thread. Enrique is injured, and will be injured again. We have no adequate cover for left back. That's the reason why we have to play 3 CBs and a formation that doesn't work. Personally, I have no faith in us avoiding relegation and keeping Enrique, so we'll need a new left back regardless.

Yes, let's take those home wins for granted.

Even though we have a theoretical possibility of staying up, I don't believe in it.

Let's just say we're heading for relegation.

Winning only "the" must win game will see us going down, most likely 19th.

We need more than just optimism to win all three home games. I mean: can we expect to win them all? No. It will be a fantastic achievement if we do. Then again, your optimism shows what kind of faith people have in Alan Shearer, and if that faith can be transmitted to the players, then we just might win.

i think someone should corral all the dreams that have been posted on this forum and put them into a dream depository so we can look back and check if there were any substance to their message. I remember someone back @ the old toontastic.linuxdriven.net recalling a dream he had with Michael Owen lifting a trofy (might have been the FA Cup) and thanking his manager, Alan Shearer, for resurrecting his career. I still believe in that dream. Not this season, though, obviously.

erm... you realise he said "He is blessed with something I never had" right? Hardly bigging himself up... He was, as he didn't mention his looks.

He wouldn't have kept him warming up from the start if he didn't intend to use him. But it's hard to say whether it worked or not; he certainly had an effect, as we started dominating, and I don't think we would if he played from the start, but we also were worse than usual in the first half.

What you're saying is that you base your opinion on nothing tangible. Which is correct. But that's not an aspect of opinion as such. My opinion is that Ashley made a mistake in not supporting Keegan. That opinion is well reasoned, since Keegan had harped on for a long time about not having sufficient backup in some positions (which both Shearer and Kinnear have confirmed). Milner was sold and not replaced. That's a fact. Which other manager would make that squad play good football? A squad with no creativity in midfield. Not one winger who can put in a credible cross. A squad without leaders and lacking severely in natural fitness. Unsuited for 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1. Of course Keegan's motivation would crumble under those circumstances. So would everyone else's, even if he was "desperate for the job".

The other teams have just as many points to pick up as we have, and seem to have the ability to do so now and then.

Very short sighted. We've no movement up front, everything in the middle is congested because we've nothing in wide areas. Abysmal attempt at a formation today. Agree with this, except I don't think we have an attempt at formation.

His half-time team talk now will be his first real test as a manager. Whatever his tactics have been so far, they haven't worked. We're really shit. Not good enough for promotion to Premier League next season.

Probably. Liverpool play without the drive Gerrard offers, but just neatly rape Blackburn anyway. With a bit more aggression, this would be really messy.

He was poor in Keegan's last game. Arsenal should have gotten a penalty from him, but had to do with the three other goals instead. He was poor against Coventry as well.

Jonas can't cross at all. Robert and Solano were expert crossers.

Still 9.