Beren

Shit, man.

Check out Pardew over here

They'll be no lag in getting up to speed on our set pieces then.

The club must be aware of this hijacking shit. Maybe that means if us (the fans) are hearing no news, the club are being successful in stealth moves [/hope beyond hope]

Beginning to sound conspiratorial almost now! :lol:

Also, the Arsenal fans love Theo. Important to keep them onside.

I think he is - in terms of making sure they don't continue to be seen as a selling club, so they can keep hold of Wilshere, Santi et al. Also, he's not bad, and pretty young. Needs a bit more consistency to his game, but he's a fine Premiership player.

Don't know much about this - presumably using his 'Golden Boy of Real' status to get his own way on things he ought not to have authority on? Anyway, I think he was fantastic with great natural instincts, finesse and incredible finishing. I think he's miles better than David Villa, for example, who I do think is a touch overrated. [/tin hat]

As jdckelly has argued above, this looks a lot worse at first glance. Time will tell if it's a masterstroke or the blunder it currently seems. Gutted for the man, but as others have said he'll not be out of work for long and he has greatly enhanced his reputation in the game. Hope they crash and burn now though, of course. If there weren't more despicable clubs loitering around the bottom, I'd probably want the same. Just read the chairman's comments. What a cunt "acknowledge" instead of "thank" plus the same bollocks spiel implying Adkins has hit his glass ceiling.

Great thread idea. Imagine I'll only be able to contribute in another 20-30 years, mind you! "Yes, yes, yes, Mike Williamson was a strange one really, he had the pace of Roberto Carlos and the strength of Jaap Stam... he could head the ball about as well as Les Ferdinand..."

Daftest decision since the Hughton sacking (which will take some topping). Looks a very promising manager.

For real? Both late, both predicted Wednesday's match incorrectly

He just joined late, tbf. Consistent as owt since he made his first entry.

Want to go back and edit my predictions for this weekend's fixtures but the GW has already started. FFS.

Chris Wood would have been good (instead of Graham, that is).

Pardew: Yes in fact, the squad are working four days out of five to make sure the pitch is okay for the match go ahead.

Just thinking exactly the same. just popped in to ask exactly that. From his comments, sounds like the latter. Even Blobfish must know that Suarez is a serial diver (how could you not?) so I don't think he's belatedly angry about that, it's got to be the admission that has riled him. The twat.

I honestly think that if you spend wisely.. And get a good footballing style to boot, you can compete with man utd etc I mean arsenal could compete if they actually sorted their defence out and actually bought a striker who suited their style.. Not 6ft + immobile sky scrapers. It probably could be done. You'd have to use your resources super efficiently, get quite lucky (with injuries and the like) and withstand the inevitable media/refereeing corruption that SAF would try to bring down around you as he took your threat more seriously It would be glorious if a real club could ever win the Premiership again without having to get a sugar daddy.

No, it's like buying jeans tbh. You think the pair or two you have is just about enough to get by - if you're lucky, but wouldn't mind an extra pair. You go to the shops and think "man, jeans weren't this expensive back in my day" and think fuck it. I'm not paying £60 for one pair of jeans ffs. Ameobi was free for crying out loud. Thing is, next time you go back to the shop, the jeans will cost £80.

I'll say this, at least the team Rich has put up there has attacking capability. Whether they play with a style/strategy that reflects that capability remains to be seen. There's enough there to have a tinfoil Reading side on the back-foot for the majority of the game.

Sovereign state and all that. Russian oligarchs, Arab Sheikhs and Delia Smith. We were always up against it.

I think playing good football, for me personally, is a big part of being successful.

Success isn't really a static concept, is it? I guess if you take things for granted quickly you can re-evaluate what constitutes success and risk being called overly-demanding/delusional etc for doing so - which is where a lot of the conflict on this board comes from. A short 6 months ago, I think Dave's answer would have been right. We've had to re-base what success is, and depressing though it may be, success this year would be staying up. Ultimately for me though, any meaningful success (ie. success which a club with our resources could reasonably be expected to achieve if utilised/performing to its maximum/near maximum potential over a number of seasons) could only be achieved through the club being Ashley/Pardew-less or we are forever at risk of having our feet cut out from beneath us.

Village Idiot to Oatcake (or whatever it's called).