J7

He's quality. Has improved those around him so much too. Just the attitude we needed.

I've no issue with this signing and was impressed with him at Leeds, but the fact remains that with Wilson out for nearly the whole of the rest of the season, we're weaker in attacking areas than we were in early December. Can't help but think we should have also brought in a younger forward player, even from the Championship in January. They didn't need to be a long term option.

5 for me. That's not being critical of anyone either as I understand the difficulties of the January window. I just think we've made a marginal improvement at CB, and the same in attack. I'm not sure Targett is a huge upgrade, though I'm delighted with Trippier and Bruno. Don't get be wrong, this is so much better than what has gone before, but I'm not sure if it has improved our survival chances by a huge amount and I'm 50/50 on that. I actually think there's a good chance that Burnley end up better of with Weghorst than Wood and I expect Watford to improve now. Lingard or van de Beek would have made it a 7 or an 8 for me.

Wood was good against Leeds I thought.

Get to know someone who has quite a few loyalty points and ask them to order them for you if they're not going. You get the ticket, they get an extra loyalty point. I've not has an ST since Bruce came, but my mate managed to get me one for Leeds. Hoping to get an ST again in the summer but will be starting from 0 points again.

I get that, though were a bit different to Man City in the fact that we're far more desperate, and clubs know that.

A DoF would still face the same problem that we do now. Anyone seeing us coming will try and drag it out as long as possible to see how desperate we get towards the end of the window. If you were in charge of another club with a player we wanted, why would you you sell now? They're only really going to sell if they're desperate for the money and we can show them that we won't go back at a later date if they don't accept now. Watford seem to be getting a lot of players in, but clubs know they don't have unlimited money. If we'd went in for the same players it would probably still be dragging on, with far higher offers needed than Watford paid. This was always going to be a problem in January. Meeting release clauses or hoping a player would take a huff to come is probably our only way in most cases.

The persistence with Ritchie at left back is worrying, especially when Manquillo is on the bench. Ritchie was never that great, is long past his best, and isn't a left back. He can't even hold the line.

His achievements in Scotland were average at best. I was surprised to see some fans wanting him here. He won one trophy in about nine or ten attempts while Celtic were on the down. Granted they were unbeaten last season and he did fairly well in Europe, but Calum Davidson at St Johnstone still won more over the same period. I'd have had him over Lampard, but thats not saying much. For Samuel to claim there would have been joyous scenes on Tyneside is bizarre. Why would we be celebrating snapping up a legend at another club who hasn't managed at this level before?

They were 13 points clear of the relegation zone. He changed the way they played and improved throughout the season. They're now sitting 7th with only 2 defeats in 11 games. I think he's done a fairly impressive job.

Quite highly from what I have seen and read. Brighton have come on a lot since Hughton left, who also did a good job. Their style of play is also good.

I'd have OGS last of the lot. Absolutely nothing to suggest he's a good manager.

Bournemouth still had a wage bill of £100m plus and were signing players for decent transfer fees. It doesn't really matter the 'size' of the club. That said, I would take Howe. Its a bad job at the moment for the reasons others have mentioned. I highly doubt we'd be able to attract our long term manager now, under our ideal club structure. We're heading down at the moment.

Belittled the club the whole time he's been here, then claimed to not know he was doing it. Loser. Get rid already.

Unsure why some are looking towards Gerrard. He's done 'OK' at Rangers, but it's coincided with Celtic nosediving a bit. Don't think they've even won a cup competition in about 9 attempts. Far better than Lampard, but still.

A level playing field to compete for an utterly pointless title.

However you're allowed an opinion on whether you think fan group ownership, or a fans group having a seat on the board is a good idea or not. It's not just a test of who is optimistic and who is miserable.

When you say 'bother your arse do anything yourself', that doesn't really mean much. I think we all want to see Ashley gone and new owners, but this isn't seeking to achieve that. This is about a degree of fan ownership, or fans having a say on the board. Personally, I don't agree that it's desirable so for me I have no interest in ever doing anything to achieve that aim. It would be similar if one of my neighbours wanted to paint my block of flats red and I said I didn't want to be involved and didn't like it. The argument back can't be 'easier to be negative than bother your arse to do anything yourself'. Well, I don't want to do anything as I don't agree with the aim. I've seen this kind of idea play out at another club (granted far smaller) over 15-20 years. When a group of well meaning people got together to set up a Trust so that fans could have a say in the club. Attracted hundreds of members paying Direct Debits of £2+ each a month. The original group and one person dominated and eventually caused all sorts of problems and conflict over the years, speaking on 'behalf of members' and of course, it's all democratic because they hold elections. The problem is, the leaders or the board of the trust end up with their view. If people don't agree, they leave. They don't try and change things internally as it's not worth the effort. Easier to criticise from the outside as opposed to voicing discontent on the inside while paying for the privilege. In the example I'm talking about it ended up with the original group who were well meaning individuals constantly going into battle with the club board who had as much, if not more support from fans than they did. They used the 'we have hundreds of members' and 'democratic elections' argument, but only a handful ever went to their AGM. The membership was basically a group of people who agreed with the Trust board, a section who we're barely interested and a huge section of people who simply set up a Direct Debit at the start as they had an affinity with the club and never thought about it again. Good for fundraising, not as representation. It certainly wasn't representative of the support. Nothing against the guys in the Trust and they've done a lot of good things. Alex is a great on the podcasts and when on the radio. Nothing against the individuals, but I couldn't back this idea.

It sounds like more preparation for the arbitration than some kind of killer blow.

It's crazy how this loser is still in a job. To even get it in the first place is baffling. Paying Sheff Wed millions for him. I know Charnley and Ashley are pretty clueless, but it doesn't take a great mind to realise what a joker Bruce is.

Agree with that. We've been playing far better and the pressing is working, however you just know we can't keep it up for any length of time. Well, apart from Almiron. I even think Shelvey is looking better. That said, on staying up, we still concede weak goals far too often and struggle to score without Wilson. Huge chance we will go down.

Surely thats wrong.

Tonight? Tomorrow. My sincere apologies.

I'd prefer a draw tonight in all honesty. We're hardly cut off from the teams above and as shite as we are, you'd expect at least on of them to have a poor run.

Struggle to understand how he's so bad at set-pieces. They're pretty much all terrible.