Rich

So you think we'll stay up, but still vote a 6 (which to me would indicate a 60% chance of going down)

6. I'm worried, but still believe (hope) we have the quality in the areas that matter to see us right again.

its hull.............you cant trash hull.nobody would realise its been trashed.

I agree it is regarding the stance the likes of Happy Face has taken on it, but that's not the issue I was discussing.

The whole of the club's website is piss-poor, though, not just the survey, and that is nothing new. Doesn't make it acceptable, though. While I do think .co.uk has improved a fair bit since Craig Hope was brought in and since the re-design, as you say it still leaves an awful lot to be desired in certain areas. I just find it embarrassing that a club of our size can be so inept in so many departments. I had hoped Ashley coming in would change that around a bit, feeling perhaps the former lot had just allowed things to go a little bit stale/take their foot off the gas a bit, but any progress (much like on the park) hasn't been immediately forthcoming. Probably a small-fry concern when you look at what has gone on this season, but in the bigger picture it's just another thing to be disappointed in NUFC about. All talk and no trousers.

For what it's worth, I think the timing isn't an issue on this one.

It's done very, very poorly like. This sort of stuff does have a place at football clubs for those clubs that WANT to do right by their fans as best they can (captive audience and all that), but the way it's been structured/delivered leaves a fucking shedload to be desired. Ran by monkeys from top-to-bottom. Still.

IF Llambias and Ashley are genuine about not taking anything out AND putting £10m a season in, then I still have cause to be optimistic if we manage to stay up again. As others have mentioned the main thing is that we get those who can be classed as a "drain on resources" (don't offer anything back for their income) off the wage-bill and that the money freed is available immediately for reinvestment as transfers on players who may not get paid as much but who will hopefully offer a lot more to the team. Mark Viduka and Claudio Cacapa are the two main culprits on this score, as an educated guess, and I'd also expect to see David Edgar leave as well (although I appreciate he probably gets paid relative peanuts and I wouldn't be too upset if he stayed). Michael Owen is the real contentious issue though. As the poster above says he probably earns more than he's worth, mainly due to his injury record, but losing him again leaves the club open to massive criticism and is again seen as a major lack of ambition. From a personal perspective I wouldn't be too upset to see him go, especially if a decent enough replacement was brought in (surely the club could do something with an extra £5.2m+ per season?) Llambias and Co. will need thick skin again, like. Then you move onto the likes of Smith, Geremi and Ameobi, who I suppose a lot of us would be happy to see go if any decent offers came in. You'd bet that those three would be responsible for £100k p/w easily between them as far as wages go and even if you bring in a couple of players who are quality and don't take up as much of the budget then you'd be moving forwards as none of them are good enough/involved enough to be genuinely missed. The other contentious one who fits in here, for me, is Damien Duff. While he has shown signs of improvement and appears to be one of Kinnear's favoured players, he must be one of the highest earners in the squad and for many he wouldn't be in a first choice XI. The decision there is whether we can afford to pay someone who isn't an automatic choice such a massive wage, especially when he doesn't even offer much when he is on the park. I DO have enough faith in the "recruitment" team to replace these players adequately (especially with the wiggle-room they'd get on the wage front) and I don't think they would be too difficult to replace if all of them went, to be honest, as you've only got to look at appearances between them/form between them to see just exactly what we'd be missing for the £15m+ per year or so they'll be taking out of the club. As long as the money saved is spent on transfers (in installments!) and a big enough chunk is allowed for wages (say £10m of the suggest £15m for wages with the extra £5m p/y used as installments in transfers as a crude example) then I think we'd see things moving onwards and upwards. I'm not overly confident we'll even stay up though and even then everything I've said is "ideal scenario". My faith in the current regime certainly doesn't extend to believing that they are capable of doing things "ideally".

I turned up with extra large pockets in fairness. I never gave myself top billing! Was just trying to scare cp40, it clearly didn't work. Your pockets clearly did have a small hole in, cos I did manage to score a blatantly not offside goal. Was that when we had 2 at the back against your 8 strikers?

I turned up with extra large pockets in fairness.

Can't see it making any difference to be honest. In general, people are cunts and will continue to act like cunts until they pop their clogs. This place has a few shining examples of instances like this making no difference at all to people's behaviour/posts! My real issue was the fact that BooBoo had already retracted his opinion somewhat, or at least admitted he'd overreacted, didn't see the need for anything else after that.

Funny no one thought Man U were "there for the taking" before the game. Now we are making excuses for those fuckers for playing extra time before this game, with a massive squad of world class players at their disposal. Shearer could have made excuses on our behalf as well you know? We had players missing as well although he failed to mention it. Suppose we'll just have to disagree. We did well, Man Utd looked jaded and underperformed would be my take on it, which lends itself to exploring the reasons for why this was so. We deserve credit, but they deserve some sympathy for the time that we played them, they simply were not on their game. Just gutted we didn't even get a point, personally.

Never said that. My last comment was not a intended to a blanket statement. They know who they are Came across that way like. They might know who they are but I bet they don't alter their stance at all Coming to think of it, it's not even funny really.

Was he wrong? I personally thought we had a shout because we were playing them at a decent time. I don't know how anyone can argue with that? They fielded an exceptionally strong team but in the midst of their busiest period so far (and most important) and I think it showed. While they had their big guns out there and we played better than we have done for a long time, you surely can't tell me that ANY of their players where anywhere near top form. Now I know some of that (a lot, perhaps?) is down to the way we harried them and got at them, but I think it's fair to say they looked a bit "hungover" in general, especially defensively and were out of sorts. They probably came up here expecting a stroll as well and got a shock when we were at it from the first whistle. I think we deserve a lot of credit for the performance, but at the end of the day we still lost and Man Utd didn't have to get out of 2nd gear to beat us (in my opinion). I don't think people should go OTT though, which is what Shearer may have been trying to avoid. Aye it was a good marker for future games, but we got nowt from it and if we go to Hull and perform ineptly again and lose then it means absolutely nothing and we will literally have zero to show from it. I genuinely think you've over-analysed things/underestimated the potential effects of playing right after an extra-time/penalties cup final win (even if they didn't all play). I do think you're right to defend our performance though and I feel we deserved at least a point. To me, that Man Utd side looked wobbly and there for the taking, and we STILL didn't have enough about us to do it, which is a worry, although we obviously improved.

Not by everyone though, which is the key.

Nowt like stringing up fellow fans though, is there?

I'm happy with all 5 of those, to be honest. Cacapa and Edgar can both move on, but we absolutely have to get them some help in, create some competition and push them all on.

Fucking terrific attitude. Well done. I think the suggestion is ludicrous to be honest and I think the best I can suggest is that he tries too hard to be impartial and sometimes comes off the other way because of it. I can't blame him for it too much. I also would expect that his "support" of the club WILL have waned after playing here so long and seeing everything that was wrong, is wrong and will be wrong in the future. I hardly think he'd want to put us down though and I bet he still feels a similar sense of loss to us when we lose or when things are going bad. I know things are bad at the minute but poison like that in your previous post is still fairly uncalled for. It's nowt more than bile, which is becoming worryingly regular from formerly quality contributors such as yourself.

First time I've felt compelled to use that.

There's no excuse in this day and age with the research at hand and the facilities/money we have for training to have a negative effect on the players at all. IF there is something wrong at the level we're at, then it is seriously, seriously worrying.

It simply cannot be a coincidence. Something is wrong somewhere and by God it should have been sorted out by now. It's no wonder we're shite when we've got a shite manager (a shite chairman before that, some would argue) and half a squad every week. Even those that do play don't look the fittest bar a couple of exceptions. Someone wants a slap somewhere along the line.

This thread is the only fucker worth reading now people are being civil to each other. Studying coaching at university at the minute means I've got a massive interest in other people's experiences of coaching and ideas of what coaching should be as I believe one of the main ways I can improve personally is by taking on other ideas and suggestions from all-comers. Everyone who has had experience of competitive football at any level (or even those that haven't in some cases) have a lot to offer and are a valuable resource in this instance. When it comes to doing my dissertation on the social, psychological and political aspects of football coaching I might well be tapping a few up off here for interviews if I can't get my name to a professional club! Have loads to add from my own POV but it's late and I've got "proper" dissertation research to do, but I'll do my best to get involved in this over the weekend. Loving it, though, if that wasn't obvious enough.

Really, really good again. Fast becoming one of my favourites. Hope he wants to stay and hope we keep him (and that he stays fit) because I can just see him getting better and better. Nice to be waxing lyrical about some of our players. Enrique, Bassong, Jonas and Oba (if we stay up and we can keep them) are keeping my optimism alive.

The bloke is absolute class man, too good for us in our current predicament and like Chez says he'll be even better if we stay up (and get some stability/movement up front). He's like a one-man attacking force in the midfield at the moment when you consider what we've had on the opposite flank and in the centre. He is not a perfect footballer (who is?) but he has fantastic abilities in other areas bar his finishing/end product (which isn't as horrendous as some make out). IF we could get a right winger and a central midfielder to take on those roles (which all good teams should have, really) then he'll shine even more. The way that people sometimes slag him off is probably due to the praise he gets from the likes of myself and the raised expectations he's made for himself with his early season performances, but I am in no doubt that this season he's our best outfield player (I would even argue that when everybody is fit). He is the last person people should be criticising when you look around at the contributions of the rest of the squad this season.

It must have been Rooney man, cos CRonaldo is well fit.