Cronky

He's very tall - Pulis loves tall players, he'll probably stick him at full back. Well according to the Torygraph, Martinez and Moyes are interested as well. The lad has improved a lot this season, and we can expect more improvement to come. I'm pissed off that, having nursed the lad through a large part of his learning curve, we're then going to let him walk away. I can only hope that offers of new contracts have all been suspended until the new manager is in place. I fear the worst though, because there was another story that he'd been offered a contract which Sammy considered unsatisfactory.

I'm not sure that City would be the right fit for Klopp. He seems the highly-strung maverick type and I don't know how well he'd deal with the politics of the club and all the overpaid prima donnas in the squad. I'd love him to come here, but he'll get better offers. What's gone wrong at Dortmund? You don't normally expect a club that size to slip from top to bottom in one season. Not these days.

Nothing incredible about it. It's totally obvious, if you're prepared to use your brain. It was widely reported that Keegan was reprimanded by Ashley for telling the truth to the fans, the truth being that we couldn't challenge the top 4 without significant investment. He may well have been trying to exert pressure on the owner for more funds, but the point I was making is that the way you repeatedly turn things around on one of the best men ever associated with the club in favour of proven liars is absolutely unreal. Very strange. Also, Ashley was quoted many times in his first few years at NUFC saying that he wanted us to challenge the best. Upto you whether he was lying or not. Firstly, apologies for my previous post, which was a bit rude. I must point out though that you have acknowledged that Keegan might have been trying to put pressure on Ashley, so I can't see why my initial comment should be described as 'incredible'. It does get frustrating that any comment on Keegan's behaviour that isn't 100% positive, gets treated as a vicious attack.

Nothing incredible about it. It's totally obvious, if you're prepared to use your brain.

No. It was Keegan trying to get Ashley to spend money by putting public pressure on him.

Yeah, I thought he was poor last night - not necessarily through lack of effort. He just looked clumsy in comparison with the opposition. I can't see many CL clubs breaking the door down to get him. I'd like him to stay, because despite his often poor use of possession, he does carry an attacking threat. But he's not in the 'irreplaceable' category.

We only need one more win and I think we'll get it.

The back four couldn't defend and the midfield couldn't keep the ball. Ayoze did his best to try and create something out of nothing, but that was it really. I'm a man of moderate opinion, but y-o-y-o-y is Obertan getting picked? I don't mind players of limited ability who at least try, but he just floats around like it's all a bit beneath him.

Sorry for quoting this lads but it deserves to be on every page of an al pards thread. Excellent post tmonkey man :clap: Brilliant post indeed - can this not be the last comment on the subject and just lock it? Free speech, yay!

Points that have been made before, but here goes - Every club in the Premiership, and many in the Championship, prioritise the League over the cups and field weakened sides. We're just the ones who have admitted it. There is evidence from other clubs that playing in the Europa League can affect your league form (Spurs, Swansea, Everton). Overall, yes, it is a mixed blessing. What I'm not convinced about though is this idea that there's some policy not to finish higher than 10th, to avoid European qualification. The limit to our team building is finance, and this regime has made it clear right from the start that they will run a tight ship. Having said that, we do have an interesting window coming up. Unusually for a businessman, Ashley has tended to run things with a piggy-bank mentality, spending what we have in hand, rather than go into debt on the promise of future earnings. It now looks like we have a genuine profit in hand to play with. There is talk of more spending this summer and of course we have to wait and see if that's genuine.

A couple of promotions, a Cup Final which he nearly won, 5th place in the Premiership. Nothing stellar, and he's had his bad times, but he's clearly not useless. He took far too much blame for the problems at our club, and the campaign to drive him out did no-one any good. Apart from Palace, I suppose.

He's shown a number of times in his career that he does have some ability. This is just the latest example. He's not in the elite class, but the policy of hounding the guy out of his job at any cost was always daft.

The beginning of the end.

Old Trafford, 1968. MUFC 6, NUFC 0. Best got a hat trick and totally destroyed us.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/picturegalleries/11153856/Premier-Leagues-100-greatest-ever-players.html I thought this was a very good list. (hope it's not been posted before) It brings home just how much outstanding talent we've seen over the last 20 years. I agreed with a lot of the choices, but I think they've under-rated Suarez and Aguero. I can see the reasoning behind Giggs at Number 1, given the number of games and trophies, but purely on ability I wouldn't have him up there. Cantona made a difference to an already good Man U side, but again I wouldn't have him in the top 10.

Ronnie, whilst it's flattering that you should take such a keen interest in my opinions, you'll find that your memory is at fault with that one.

Colback does show for the ball and he's a better passer than Sissoko, Jonas or Gouffran. So yeah, we did miss him. The idea that he 'hides' is crap. You Aye that's right, we play a midfield of the finished three years ago Jonas, Sissoko and Goufrann and it shows how 'good' this cowardly sack of shite is. You really are spouting some absolute bilge these days. If you read my post properly, all I was saying is that he'd be an improvement on the midfield that we did play. You don't actually seem to be disagreeing with that.

Colback does show for the ball and he's a better passer than Sissoko, Jonas or Gouffran. So yeah, we did miss him. The idea that he 'hides' is crap.

Very impressed with Bournemouth. They had a lot of confidence in their system of play and in one another. Eddie Howe is going to be snapped up by a bigger club sooner or later. I'd be fine if it was us.

He lost the ball a few times last night, due to over ambition - trying passes that weren't on, or trying to beat opponents when he should be laying the ball off. At other times though, he opened their defence up with similar moves. His judgement will improve in time. He's not had a good season, and I'm not sure why. It could be mental - he's made his breakthrough and now things are expected of him. He might be trying to take on too much responsibility and then not coping. It could also be physical exhaustion. The game is faster then ever now, and it's asking a lot of a young player. What I don't doubt for a second is his talent. He's strong, quick and skilful - no real significant weakness to his game, other than that which you can put down to inexperience. We've got some great young players coming through and he could be the best of the lot.

Yeah, in a split second he can undo a defence completely. He just needs to cut down the over-ambitious moments where he loses the ball in a vulnerable position. That'll come in time.

There's not a lot of technical ability shown by the front six. Hopefully that'll improve with Carrick on.

Ugh. I'm hoping it's three at the back but I fear the worst.

That stat doesn't surprise me at all. I know that on any forum a certain momentum can build around particular opinions, but I'm baffled as to exactly why there's such a gap between the view on here and how Colback is assessed by the majority of supporters and by the professionals at the club. I don't want to get into a pointless 'he's decent - no, he's not he's shite' type debate. I would agree though with tgarve that our main problems are elsewhere - particularly the defence. He's nowhere near good enough for a starting spot in the middle of any top sides midfield imho. There's not a club above us where he'd get a regular game. What I can say is that, given our other options in midfield, I'm not surprised that he's an automatic choice. This is why I find the targeting of him quite exasperating. Of course, if you prefer to compare him to other players at other clubs, or some other player who we 'should' be going for, then you'll find better options.

That stat doesn't surprise me at all. I know that on any forum a certain momentum can build around particular opinions, but I'm baffled as to exactly why there's such a gap between the view on here and how Colback is assessed by the majority of supporters and by the professionals at the club. I don't want to get into a pointless 'he's decent - no, he's not he's shite' type debate. I would agree though with tgarve that our main problems are elsewhere - particularly the defence.