J7

I don't think there's a problem with one of them playing, most likely Smith, but we look poor when we have to play two. Smith and a creative CM next to him would probably be fine. in my opinion Barton is the answer, but he's too unreliable with injuries and takes a few games to get into form after coming back.

Saw enough CAUTION in the Leicster game to last me a lifetime and he just stood there perplexed and then made changes way too late. It might happen that we miss automatic promotion by 2 points, cause it's going to be close...We will lose more games as teams are less in awe of us than the start of the season and they've worked it all out...Hence Leicester continued to attack with 10 men cause they could see we were essentially toothless. Butt and Nolan basically have almost no movement and no ability to dicatate anything other than a pizza order on the phone. I'm astounded there are people in here who refuse to see that CH doesn't really have the mental and tactical tools to help us in the PL it is quite evident already, we are just scraping by at the minute....Sooner or later we'll lose 2 or 3 games close together and then the s*** will fly and he won't have the answers. I thought our strongest period of the game was last 10-15mins. It could have been because Leicester started to tire, but to me it seemed to be because we had taken Nolan off and put Pancrate on. Im not Pancrates biggest fan, and he was poor on the ball, but it changed Leicesters approach to the game. They had to take care of Pancrate who was making runs and confusing the defence. Before he came on they only really had Routledge to worry about.

I don't really care about the style of football, however we have been really lucky recently. We're drawing too many games. We might as well win 1 and lose 2 rather than draw 3 times, like we have in the last 3 away games. There's being cautious, then there's being cautious to the point we're just throwing away points.

World Cup forum?

Can we have a World Cup forum or something?

No, it was a fair reflection of club's performance over 38 games. True, but we can all look beyond those 38 games for the reasons to why we ended up with such a lopsided, overpaid, underperforming (considering what they were earning) playing squad. Not to mention the lack of leadership. Its not just 38 games, its the reasons behind the failure in those games.

As are we all, but this mis-management started long before Mike Ashley ever came on the scene and it still doesn't excuse the belief of a divine right to be in the Premier League. Who thinks we have a divine right to anything? Ive never witnessed it. Can I have an example?

turnover aye......i wonder how many clubs ran up bigger debts at the same time ? But thats the same point. Thats part of the mismanagement. Appointing managers who werent good enough, who bought players who werent worth what we were paying them. All mismanagement.

That's probably all true Pie, but the fact was we had the 6th biggest turnover and we ended up relegated. That's terrible mismanagement to allow that to happen. It shouldn't be happening, we shouldn't have been in the position, paying the wages we did, that we ended up in. Shocking mismanagement. Its obvious the team wasn't good enough, its obvious we deserved to go down, but that's the owners fault, nobody elses. Its nothing to do with thinking we have a divine right to anything.

The 'divine right' stuff annoys me. Of course we deserved to go down, that doesn't mean however that we should be here. We shouldn't be. Any owner with half a brain could have kept us up. If I say we shouldn't be in this fuckin league, its not because I think we have a divine right to anything, its not even much to do with the players, its all about how a club with the 6th biggest turnover in England at the time can be relegated. We shouldn't be down here, but we are because we've been mismanaged.

What if he scores 20 goals? you sound so negative. Yeah, and what if Carroll scores 20 goals? Not going to happen. Best has had one purple patch in his career. I would like to see him be a success, but its not going to happen. Not as good as what we have, when really we needed someone better than what we have up top.

Hopefully we signed him for peanuts so we can just get rid in the summer, if that is, we still manage to go up without a goalscorer.

Simpson 6/10 - Good right back. Best we could have hoped for and could do a job in the Prem. Williamson 7/10 - good third choice cb. Was good at Watford and has looked decent in his 2 games to date. Routledge 7/10 - adds some creativity to that side of the pitch. Pacey player who will compliment Jonas and put pressure on teams. Hall 4/10 - adds to the numbers, bit is pretty shit really. Would hope Kadar gets a chance ahead of him. Pretty pointless really, but I suppose is there should we have a major crisis with our main 3 cb's out. Van Arnvelt(sp?) 6/10 - good cover for Enrique. We needed this and he was available. Nothing to get excited about. Was vital we got someone in. Best 3/10 - getting a striker was a priority. We looked at some decent players, then in desperation went for a backup targetman to our already poor strikeforce. Even worse, he's on a long contract. Very poor signing in my opinion.

Average window for us. Some decent cover in Williamson and Simpson, a good signing in Routledge, some meh loans as desperate cover, and a shit striker who doesnt improve our team. Positive that Geremi's gone, but now we have another Championship standard striker on a long deal. Thankfully it wont be on as much money.

We've already got enough strikers, what we needed was someone to improve the quality. This is a totally shit signing. We probably won't be able to get rid of the cunt if we go up either.

How did the host manage to flam a trip to Thailand out of that, to present to us the obvious.

Ive blasted Stan Collymore on it once and he launched an attack on me. Also, add Henry Winter. If you don't hate him now, you will in about 2 days.

He should have been kept here and given a run of games. Was never given the chance. If it was possible to, I would just bring him back now.

Why do people assume the size of stadium, statue of club and crowds should play a part in his decision. Look at it in a footballing sence, he's going to a club with an up and coming manager who likes to play open attractive football. They also have other young talents they are developing like McCarthy. We on the other hand have a negative manager, who's really a coach and have a history of looking for instant success rather than focusing on the long term, for example we seem to always rush players back to early. Not every decision a player makes is going to be based on crowds and club history.

I thought Ryan Taylor was shit, but the number of times he, and the rest of the defence had no option but to hoof it long was unbelievable. None of the midfield were making themselves open for the ball. There wasnt really anywhere else for the ball to go but long to Carroll, purely because of the way the team was set up.

It really was total shite today. Hughton is to blame for this negative bollocks in the way he sets up the team. We should be going out to attack teams like this, not go out negative from the start. Its not even playing it safe. Who gives a fuck if we're unbeaten if 14 or whatever, thats 3 away draws in a row. We might as well have won 1 and lost 2. Utter bollocks, from Hughton!

Jonny Hall, I have read the thread properly. People are basically congratulating him on such a great transfer window. I understand some of it is toung in cheek, but I don't think acting like a normal owner in one window and not being a cunt is enough to get excited about.

Fuckin hell! Its no wonder the fat cunt hung around at the end of 08 if were this easily won over. I'm only surprised we have done fairly well in this window because of the shocking standards Ashley has set himself. We've had no cover in some positions for going on 2 years. By sheer luck its taken so long for Jose to get injured. The defensive signings were a bare minimum in my opinion. If anything they've came a window too late. 2 average loans. In average I mean Coventry can get that left back on loan. Its hardly a brilliant piece of business. Welcome, but nothing more than should be expected. I give them credit for Routledge, but I'm not getting carried away by it. Good signing, yes, will it make me change my mind on Ashley, no. Moses would be a very good signing though and we would have had a good window. Something we should expect. I'm not going to get all stary eyed about Ashley just because he's had one decent transfer window as opposed to the shocking ones he's given us in the past. He's only in part rectifying the mess he made in the summer.

That was about 4 or 5 years ago.

Bollocks to be fair. We have a decent support up there, but certainly not as many fans as Man Utd, Liverpool and teams like Everton. Not to mention Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs.