Mowen

get a grip man why do you disagree ? his business model was for us to be in the bottom 3 in early april was it? there's a huge difference between frustratingly incompetent decision making and "a plan" as we saw with FS the man is fucking up royally, to say he's following a plan is mental - i don't even think he's following his original financial plan due to a number of external factors that have occurred since he bought the club, never mind any football plan he might have had that's why and it gives him precisely 0% credit before you start I said business model, not football model. He thought that we would always get capacity crowds, or close to, whatever our league position, and probably thought we always had had capacity crowds. In other words he was a clueless tosspot like many other people. What he doesn't understand - like many other people - is that the success on the pitch drives the success of the business [in an industry where very few clubs if any make profits] and not the other way around. I've seen many blind views on these message boards over the years, but the blind and misunderstood hatred of the old regime is by far the worst, which I could understand up to a point by those who didn't know any different, but what amazes me now is the amount of people still clinging to it, and attempting to justify Ashley watching the team go down and down while clinging to his "plan", whatever it is. you didn't read a single fucking word i wrote did you? i'm so disappointed in myself that i even got involved again, find someone else mate i know you talk a modicum of sense but i'm refusing to be ignored in discussions these days...if you want to acknowledge the precipice the club was on before ashley bought it then we'll talk otherwise lets carry on with the detente, i prefer it that way of course I read what you said..........but I think his "plan" is first and foremost to just make a profit. Throw in lots of football related knowledge he didn't have, and you get out what we have now. Basically, I agree with what cp40 is saying. He has misjudged our support in terms of the extent of it, foolishly thinking we would draw those crowds whatever happened, and decided he would spend less and just stay in the premirership. All he had to do was look at the history books and he would have seen that it was the old regime who attracted the crowds back to the club, sadly Ashley is driving them out again. Everyone's 'plan' is to make a profit. The previous regime did it, and just about everyone else in football is looking to do it. There aren't many philanthropists about. I think Ashley's main crime is a lack of football knowledge. His first thoughts were first and foremost to cut expenditures whilst maintaining premierleague football (in the short term at least). This is the most obvious way to go about getting a profit, and should have been possible (not defending the concept btw) as we were well overplaying for the quality of players at our disposal. Unfortunately for him (and more importantly us) the way he went about this - as we have seen - was absolutely shambolic. It's ended up with a huge gamble on us having enough to beat the drop this season - as he must realise that this would cost him more money than £20m-worth of players would have done in January. If, and sadly it's a huge if these days, we stay up the real question is will he do the same again? A blind man could see we need more investment than we've had this season, otherwise we'll be heading down sooner rather than later. Can he pull his head far enough out of the sand to see this? My worry is that if he doesn't get in some people who understand what's going on ASAP it'll be more of the same. Which, quite frankly, would be a disgrace, and show him up to be even more clueless than he's demonstrated so far. The real shame for me is that in Keegan he had almost the ideal man (within our reaches anyway) who could take this club forward, understood what it meant to be successful in this division and could compensate for Mike's lack of footballing knowledge. Screwed that one up as well, eh Mike.

It is just awful and to think it will/could get a shit load worse over the next 2 months. I can see if being bad for years. I really cant think how long it might take us to recover from this mis-management. Ashley is never going to be able to sell us so I can see us being under his "guidance" for a few years yet might come down to a FS style good luck appointment (uncle bobby) What was lucky about appointing a world class manager with a world class CV who knew and genuinely cared about the area? Not like it was the first time we'd been in for him either.

that's because they all lied about their ages

No way of knowing. It depends what conclusion Ashley comes to really - he must know we're struggling but does he even realise it's up to him to do something about it? If he's got any sense in him he'll bring in a better manager and give them a reasonable transfer kitty to work with. Doesn't have to be particularly extravagent, just reasonable, something like £15m+sales. That would see us fine. Can't say I'm holding out a huge amount of hope mind. If he does nothing it'll be grim.

Very arrogant statement. Slovakia (like most teams at that level) have some very decent players (thinking of Hamsik, Skrtel, Vittek, etc.). It is very important that England go out and handle their business quickly. Pretty average if you ask me. About Nigeria's level. Ahh! What have I done to deserve any of this?! Only joking with you mate

I loved watching Nigeria in '98 but I've been underwhelmed by them ever since. Africa as a footballing continent does seem to be getting better mind, Ivory Coast and Ghana both looked decent at the last world cup, Egypt impressed me in the ACN last year as well. Cameroon have got Sammi Eto'o too, must be fairly good.

Very arrogant statement. Slovakia (like most teams at that level) have some very decent players (thinking of Hamsik, Skrtel, Vittek, etc.). It is very important that England go out and handle their business quickly. Pretty average if you ask me. About Nigeria's level.

1-1.

You'd already put a full stop in your sentance, comma, there really was no need to spell it out as well.

How many brilliant chances arsenal had in the first 20 minutes if they had 11 men whole match, and Giuly kept his goal, it would have been an easy win tbh!

If we stay up I reckon he will be. If we go down he won't.

I paid just over £20 in Lima, pretty pricey for there! I think you must have the away, mine's pretty much the inverse, white with a thick red diagonal stripe, very cool kit. The Peruvian 'medium' sized man is seemingly a lot smaller than the English equivalent though.

Do you realise that Habib is only about 50 minutes into his comeback?

It was very hard to find a Peruvian shirt with Solano on the back in Lima last summer...had to pay full whack for a real one rather than my preferred cheap and nasty option in the end. Legend.

Whilst I don't think Fab is anywhere near the best in the world, there would be few better CM partnerships than Cesc and Essien. Would complement each other perfectly in a proper 442 imo.

I agree, didn't know what he had until it was gone (particularly if you look at his 'career' after leaving us). Was a class act for us whilst on the pitch mind, and we did well to hold on to him when West Ham came calling the first time.

1? edit: was thinking just wigan, 2 loans at brum as well iirc (both of which he subsequently signed permanently?) - don't see why Wenger deserves the credit for those.

Sounds like he wants it.

Essien is superb. Best CM in the premiership last season. Utterly world class. Agreed. Very underrated footballer (always described as an athlete first and foremost). Two-footed, explosive, great passing/shooting, the archetypal modern central midfielder. He's got it all (apart from possibly arial prowess). Underrated about what a miss he's been to Chelsea this season - Scolari would still be in a job if he'd been fit all year, and they would be right in the thick of the title race imo. The tap in he scored against Juventus summed him up to me, he must only have been about 60% fit, first game back (I think) and yet he still made up an incredible amount of ground to get there first - he's the drive and heartbeat of the team.

The fluke he scored against ManU wasn't a belter.

Bollocks. 9 goals under Keegan last season, in something like 17 games. He's a very clever player, but useless if he doesn't get to take part in the game. people are fond of quoting these statistics yet dont take into account the fact that his record for us is less than 1 in 2 if you take away penalties and goals are all he gives the team anyway. He isn' the same the league as an Inzaghi as a poacher and at somewhere like Man City he's a long way behind Bellamy as a footballer. He'll do ok for a mid-table club next season perhaps but he wont excel at the top level again. I bet he's scored more for us than Inzaghi would have with the same service / set up. Also, saturday evening proved why penalties count as goals.

Pot-Kettle Ever named a stadium after yourself Davo?

Was always pretty much shit after he left us mind. Pure excitement on the wing when it was going for him, straight to the byline.

Essien is superb. Best CM in the premiership last season. Utterly world class.

Don't agree he's better than President King Ruler of the Earth Gerrard though. A cracking player, though. Oh, Xavi? Xavi vs Gerrard is an interesting one. Technical wizardry vs physical domination. I love Xavi. Declared him the best player in the world after the Euros. Don't think he is, but he's absolutely sublime, a joy to watch, just like the entire Spanish team.