Slugsy

If Ashley has made a reactive, adhoc decision and hasn't got a top class manager lined up then to be fair in footballing terms we are back in the times of Shepherd and at least he backed his managers. I may be panicking and listening too much to the press but I have a nagging feeling he is going to sign Redknapp or Hughes, which for me would be a massive mistake on the footballing side of things. I await nervously....

I agree, its a shocking way to do business. I can't fathom why they have done it this way, if they had planned it and had someone lined up they would have given him notice and not allowed him to do the press conference. It feels like they had a bust up very recently with Sam, thought about it and then went, right he's out. If its true then in footballing terms we are no better off than we were with Freddie - reactive, adhoc decisions. I hope I am wrong.

What Dave said- I'd rather have Shearer than the alternatives from GB being touted

I seriously despair and have no hope under this regime if we sack allardyce just to get redknapp in

If this action wasn't planned and the new manager hasn't been sorted out then we are screwed for this transfer window and quite frankly we are back in the same Shepherd type circus

UK manager? Realistic choices being hughes, redknapp or mclaren= severely underwhelmed and none better than what we had. Starting to feel like the circus is back in town, I hope Ashley has more sense and ambition

I very much doubt Defoe would want to come here even if we wanted him. I'm not 100% certain but he has certainly spent most of his career in London, if not all of it. He clearly likes the big city lifestyle and life up here would be very, very different. Maybe if we were a top 5/6 club going places but why would he want to come here when in all likelihood, there will be other clubs in and around London/up to the Midlands who are ahead of us at the moment and would pay him a very good wage and allow him to continue his way of life. Even in the event that we were the only club in the end that wanted him, could you imagine his attitude if he was forced to come up here? I'm not sure what the attraction would be for him to come to us, all he has to do is talk to Jenas to get well put off. That's also why I think the touted swap deal with Downing is laughable! Defoe in Middlesborough... :crazy2

Saw one of the goals from last night and Carr looked like he was about 10 yards off the pace - I didn't see the game but watching the goal wasn't pretty.

Smith is so bad, surely we can sub him for someone, even the water boy would be better!

Alan Smith is truly appalling!

Our inability to keep possession and pass the ball is incredible

What a ridiculous piece of journalism

Surely the issue is not whether Milner can play left wing but why he isn't playing right wing when we have no right wingers and have a superb talent in N'Zogbia for the left? Can anyone honestly say they believe we are playing our best and most potent formation with Zog at left back, Milner at left wing and either Smith or Martins on the right?

I would say Arsenal was the exception rather than the rule. My worry is more against the so called poorer teams, we may get the odd result i.e. Fulham but moreover we will get found out if we play sh*t - Man City, Reading, Blackburn. Performances such as at Fulham gives me no confidence that we will consistently get results.

Fulham were sh*t, we were sh*t, a lucky break at the end was the difference between two sh*t sides. So? So we didnt play ok, Fulham were a bad team on the day and people aren't complaining about the result or the clean sheet but how sh*t we played. Is that clear enough? But it doesn't matter how we played since we won In the bigger picture I think it does, every further game that we play cr*p gives me less confidence for when we actually play a team that is good. Secondly, I get no further confidence that Allardyce know what the hell is he doing. Indeed it really doesn't matter how we play in a one-off game as long as we win it, in fact if we play sh*t all season and win all our games then fine, but that isn't going to happen, the longer you consistently play sh*t, the more likehood we will be in a low position in the league come the end of the season as we will get found out by better teams and there are quite a few out there - as we have already this season. So by all means be happy for the result but not caring how we play isn't really seeing the wood for the trees.

Fulham were sh*t, we were sh*t, a lucky break at the end was the difference between two sh*t sides. So? So we didnt play ok, Fulham were a bad team on the day and people aren't complaining about the result or the clean sheet but how sh*t we played. Is that clear enough?

Fulham were sh*t, we were sh*t, a lucky break at the end was the difference between two sh*t sides.

I'm less concerned about attack as I am about our midfield - it stinks!

Neither, its a fair question to a loose comment. We haven't won, much better performance admittedly but if I'm being harsh it was against the weakest Arsenal side they will field outside of the league cup. PS Zoggy is not a left back and cannot be kept there long term - we spent £6m quid on a fullback, he needs to be played!

Sorry, when was that?

Was a damn site better than any of our midfield when we played them. Classic case of people thinking we are better than we actually are - get him in, good player, proven with premiership experience - better than Geremi for example.

Poor injury record and untested in the Premiership and clearly towards the end of his career - not definite but its difficult to see him being the same player as he was 5 years ago. None of which should automatically discount him and he clearly has god technical ability and has played at the highest level, however, very much a 'jury is out' signing. That being said - given the people whom we have at the moment, if fit and can adapt would probably add to our squad. Not a player I would get excited about but I can't remember the last time I did get excited about a signing - maybe Beye as it meant the end of Carr!

Well said

Could say that about any of them though. It was Rozehnal, not Taylor, who was muscled off the ball at Villa. And you have Roz's no-show against the mackems, his performance against Man City was dreadful as well. And Cacapa had his moments before the Portsmouth nightmare, including more than one air kick in the penalty area and a dodgy backpass. Cacapa and Rozehnal were all over the place at Derby. Even Faye, who's been the pick of a poor bunch, directly set up one of Portsmouth's goals with a ridiculous pass and his error led to sunderland's quick corner which put us a goal down. If Taylor had done these things he'd get slaughtered, but people have glossed over the new players' shortcomings. I think you're being hypercritical of one player. They've all struggled, because there's a different team out every week and the pressure on the defence has been huge. IMO only Faye and Enrique have come out of it so far with their credibility intact, the others have looked decidedly rusty, Taylor included. I'm not Taylor's biggest fan but I do think he has good potential. He gets hammered on here, people seem disappointed that he's not the next Nesta, Puyol, Terry etc, and point to where Ferdinand and Woodgate were at his age. It's ridiculous. He won't be world class like them, people should just get over it. I think he'll become a good solid Premiership defender like Lescott at Everton for example, who is not world class by any means but good at what he does. What an excellent post and good to hear a more balanced view on Roz and Cacapa - one which I agree with completely.

Brilliant. Of course if you completely make statistics up that opens up all sorts of opportunities for proving things!