Teasy

Being so fed up of the crap served out week in week out I made bets recently with a man u and chelski fan that we'd stay up. I was really confident...then I saw our upcoming fixtures...man u, chelski, liverpool etc etc... TBH, if Nicky Butt is considered your best midfielder, there's not much to say really. I've learnt to just cop it and try to latch and hold onto any small weaknesses that arise in other teams e.g. When Scolari was sacked and when Tottenham were below us. Loved the latter especially. I'd say Barton is considered our best central midfielder. I'd like to think Butt is considered third choice behind Guthrie, but that might be too much to ask of our management.

Piss artistry? Most art is wasted on me anyway.

"We have winnable games left, we'll just have to see if we win them or not" is an unbelievable level of denial? I think you need to get up and splash a bit of water on your face, take a prozac if necessary. You sound as whacked out as the "No way will we go down" crowd

They'll the same winnable games we've not won all season then? Not really, as we haven't played these ones yet. Exactly The fact is we have winnable games left, enough of them to keep us up, we'll just have to wait and see whether or not we take advantage of them.

Not so much bothered where we move up to as long as we're picking up points.

Yes very strange isn't it, he did fuck all here and he's doing fuck all at Wigan. He wouldn't get in my team at the moment even with the injuries. We've sold one of our best players, one decent player and one waste of space. Also all of them asked to leave.

Mines gone from a 5 to a 6. We're in a bad position but I can still see lots of winnable games, especially with players returning. I only wish Hughton wasn't being left in charge as long as he will be, as I don't believe he could motivate a hooker with a hand full of notes.

Nah. Even if you do read it that way, then you can't ignore that he's blaming the owners for causing the fans' reaction and therefore the responsibility would ultimately lie at their door. I have to say that to pick out that rather tenuous interpretation and ignore the rest of what was said suggests that you might possibly have an agenda against the writer, wonder why that might be? You did see the quote from Keegan didn't you, why no accusations sent in his direction? Do I have an agenda? Not trying to be smart or anything but it depends on the interpretation of agenda. I think Ryder is a very poor journalist but I have nothing against him as really the Chronicle has had its day in my opinion. You're right that ultimately blame would lie with Ashley for causing the bad feeling amongst the fans but the way I read the paragraph I pointed out it was saying that the negativity from fans was transferring itself to the pitch which is why we're now in a relegation fight. It may be a short paragraph on a theme not central to his blog but sometimes these small snippets reveal a lot! Reason I posted is that I wanted to see if I read it correctly, nothing more. I ignored the rest as in my opinion the rest isn't worth commenting on and as I said I wouldn't get into a discussion with Ashley sympathisers (which is how the thread would go if I brought up the other issues) as I haven't got a lot of time for them. Just as they probably haven't got a lot of time for my views. None of us are going change our positions. With regards to Keegan’s comment, he may have had a go at the fans in the past when we’ve gone through a sticky spell but I very much doubt he would blame the fans for being in a relegation dog fight. There’s only two reasons for being in a relegation fight; poor players or a poor manager, a mixture of both. You read it right. Lee is blaming the way supporters have reacted to the Mikes’ ‘eventful stint in charge’ for the team’s failings, not how Mike has actually run the club. Selling your best players and appointing a joke manager with a dicky heart has nothing to do with NUFC staring relegation in the face according to Lee. Sold our best players?, like who?

Not guilty, he's my cousin.

To be honest even Duff is a bonus at the moment, I'm iffy on whether Butt is though.

Do you not think that the reason we played so well against Manure was because the players didn't need any outside motivation to play well against such a big team? IMO that's the difference between Kinnear and Hughton, Kinnear can motivate a team to a degree, Hughton can't.

We certainly wouldn't do a Leeds in our current state. But if we'd spent more who knows, I suppose that depends on the actual amount people are talking about spending. Also I wonder how much we'd be earning in the Championship. Undoubtedly less then we currently spend on wages.

There's so much wrong with that post it's hard to know where to start but the bolded bit...I disagree that JK is a worse manager than Allardyce, and if you are saying that it was wrong to pay out so much money to get rid of the fat faker, then obviously that negates your point about paying Keegan off as he would never have been here, we'd still have Allardyce, heading to Hull with a ten man defence and hoofing the ball 50 yards for Owen to scrap for. We wouldn't even be in the Premiership now had we kept Allardyce on. Oh and HappyFace, ask yourself what do the three players you mention all have in common? Answer is they all asked to leave.

People aren't pretending A lot of people really are annoyed at the ludicrous money he earns for doing very little. Also where do you think most of the clubs money comes from?

Yes but maybe with the exception of Barca, Milan and Bayern an english club will either win or come runners up in the champs league for the next 10 or so years. Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal (you cud add Man City in a few years!) are now the super powers of european football which dosn't bode well for the other clubs in the prem!! I think Man City have a lot to prove before they can be mentioned before the likes of Villa..

as will the days of top flight football for better or worse, as you say In the long run healthy financial status is way much important than big money buys! Fat Fred is one of the main reasons why we're fighting against the relegation every season now and the current global financial crisis haven't helped us one bit. No, the reason we're fighting relegation is because of this current regime. They have had 4 transfer windows to improve us and are now on their 3rd manager who they have driven to another triple heart bypass. We may have been on the edge near the end of the last board, but it's this one that's deciding to push us over the edge. pathetic. point scoring to the extreme. Fine, take that part out but the point still stands. If we get relegated you can hardly blame it on the old regime. To do so would be stupid. There are a multitude of reasons why we're fighting relegation. A lot of those reasons lie with the new board, but possibly even more of them with the old one.

Its not reasonable if its used in the way I suggested. The specific team loaning the player isn't the issue though, its the strategic use of the loan system by the team sending the player out that I'm questioning.

You prefer Hughton to stay in charge?

Suing the club for OBVIOUSLY valid reasons or he wouldnt have a case right? If the people above him stuck to their job descriptions and been good boys they may be £9 million pounds better off come next season. Like i say, if a manager was sacked he would want his compensation. Same thing. Managers get compensation which amounts to the remainder of their contract. He was here 9 months, so what kind of contract do you believe he was on to warrant £9 million compensation?

It all boils down ironically to the thing many are criticising KK of being - selfish. We selfishly expect an unhappy man to stick to his job just for us. We expect him to get on with people just for us. We expect him to forsake money just for us. We expect players to stay here for life just for us. We expect the owner to pump in his own money out of his own pocket just for us. We expect him to just f*** off and sell up even at a loss just for us. We expect him to pick KK over Wise just for us. We expect Wise to f*** off just for us. We expect too much of other people who I'll let you into a little secret do not and never will see things as we do where our club is concerned, be it KK or Shay Given, Ashley or Wise. Poor us more like... If players and managers didn't claim to "love the club and its fans" and kiss their badges then people wouldn't expect so much of them. You can't just say things you don't mean and then expect a free pass when you prove you didn't really mean it.

I didn't see him in Spain, but 9 goals in 21 games is a pretty excellent goals to games ratio. Out of interest what makes you think he couldn't be a prolific goal scorer if given the chance?

I've already stated my doubt over this "injury" The rumour of him going to Man City in the summer prompted me to say during the game down there, he'll be off the field with an "injury" very early on - and lo..... In some ways it waould be better for Owen and Viduka to have injuries that are definitiely going to keep them out of the side for the rest of the season. Neither player will put themselves about 100% and risk an injury between now and then. If they're injured all season they won't get the moves they want. Especially in Owen's case, he's going to have to remind people of what a top goal scorer he is in the remainder of the season if he wants £100,000 per week off anyone.

You agree that outside the best five teams in the league every other teams aim is simply not to be relegated? That's just not true though.

Like others have said they're shit and the fact that we've beaten them so many times obviously has a negative effect on them and a positive one on us. Its certainly not guaranteed, but nobody can argue its a very winnable game.

The loan system works well as it does now and have for ages. Nowt wrong with it. End of discussion. Ok hypothetical situation. Club A is in a relegation battle and have a good player who's unsettled. They loan him to Club B who are also near the bottom of the league and he improves their team. Club B then has a better chance of beating other teams, including the other teams in that relegation battle. Apart from club A because he can't play against them as part of the loan agreement. Do you see that as fair?