Rich

God knows what bollocks fat Sam is feeding him. The current squad as you say isn't quite good enough and with Villa, Man C and Blackburn still showing weakness I feel with a couple of good Jan swoops we could still fight for Euro. Long termism is good but should be continuing in the background as a foundation. First team matters are infinetely more sensitive and have an immediate impact on a clubs fortunes. Mort's quite clearly stated he thinks this squad is only going to get better in time and that a lot of our problems so far have been due to the fact that the squad isn't settled/hasn't gelled yet - which he has a lot of supporting evidence for, particularly when you look at most of the goals we've conceded. We almost brought in half a first team squad over the summer, most of them being foreign and some not even being able to speak the language. As always with these sorts of interviews, we never know what his real intentions are, but if he is speaking the truth about our plans then I can see why we'd be adopting that approach. Unless someone of genuine quality becomes available that Allardyce/Ashley/Mort all want to bring here, it's fair enough that we'd be sticking with what we have and planning for the long-term.

I'd be surprised if we didn't bring in at least one "senior" player in the window, mind, which would probably be enough if certain players would stay fit. The squad isn't exactly small these days, it's just we have 3/4 players who are never fit and until they can be sold/released I can't see them being replaced. Personally, I wouldn't mind a player like David Edgar being a bit closer to the first team, if necessary.

Spurs totally dominated a team who beat Spurs last weekend, though.

Also, the staff must get those black/white predators free.

No, why would he be wearing the away kits shorts/socks???

I would kiss Habib Beye right now, on the lips. That last Getty photo is awesome. I forgot about the penalty we might have got from Emre's free-kick near the end, well I'd have given that actually as the ball was going on target and was blocked with a blatant outstretched arm.

Because I'm fairly sad, just checked and he's scoring a goal every 159 minutes this season, better than 1-in-2. Not bad at all, and I don't rate him as highly as some.

And nearly every game being played on the right wing. Ill definately suck on it after dinner. :lol:

8 points clear of 12th now and 10 points clear of Spurs, which is obviously the most important thing. Happy Beyes.

If only Big Sam hadnt of missed out on Distin, we could actually have a pretty good defence right now. I think it's just a case of getting one of Faye/Cacapa back, personally. They can only get better, but Rozehnal isn't the answer in the short-term.

While the Duke has a breather.

Fucking hell, looking at it again Beye did brilliantly on that corner. Lovely little backwards/sidestep to avert the first marker and then had enough about him to stoop in front of the next man and get the head on it. This is why you need men at the near post every time, man. Beyen saying it for years.

Fuck me, he did brilliantly there. Won the corner all by himself, egged the fans on as he ran into the box to await the delivery and then fucking did the business. What a bloke. Prince Habib.

HOWAY THE LADS!

I think we'll see him today though, thankfully. I'm expecting to see 3 subs whatever the scoreline.

English, hoardes of Premiership experience, had the best coaching going for years. Wouldn't be surprised to see us in for him and would be fairly confident of him being successful here.

Venables actually talks a lot of sense, if you take 2 minutes to read the article. Fair play to him. I can't even read. Well I must say, I think you're a marvel.

He'll probably make an appearance at some stage, on his way back to full fitness. De Ridder and Jerome are the worries for me from what I saw last week.

Martins should rape Schmitz. Unfortunately Martins is no Lennon with the ball at his feet (who butchered him at White Heart Lane, but didn't see the ball enough), I'd prefer to see Milner given a go at him, he'll turn him inside out. Get Martins in there closer to Smith, for me.

Very clever stuff indeed. We have an old fanbase these days and we need to start getting more youngsters in through the gates. Hats off to them. £200 for students an all! Could my season ticket be getting a fair bit cheaper next season?

James Johnson Campbell Distin Pamarot All have PL experience, though, which cannot be underestimated, in James & Campbell's cases - more than amost anyone else in the league. Distin has been around the Premiership over 6 years, Johnson more than 6 years (although not with too many appearances) and Pamarot for over 4 years or something, again without having played too much. This is what Allardyce wanted to do with our defence, he wanted players like Distin, but instead we ended up having to buy 4 defenders with absolutely zero experience of England, let alone thePremiership and Abou Faye, who has barely played. That's the difference.

Venables actually talks a lot of sense, if you take 2 minutes to read the article. Fair play to him.

I said during our defeat that they were the best team I'd seen at St. James' for a long time, including all of the big four from last season. They played us off the park and put some fantastic counter-attacks together. Harry Redknapp has sussed how to play away from home.

Yes, I'm juvenile. Fuck it, it's Friday. That's just reminded me that the draw on Wednesday prevented Big Sam from becoming the first manager in our PL history to lose 3 home games in a row. Happy days.

Looked the best of our new signings so far, let's hope he stays fit and keeps his form.