Cronky

In the face of criticism, he can't resist the urge to hit back. Someone will persuade him out of it. Surely?

My feeling is that Ince can make things happen, but his control of the ball isn't as secure as might sometimes appear. That tends to get found out when you play at the higher level, and I think that's why so many clubs are hesitating. Redmond and McManaman look more the real deal to me in the long-term.

Norwich and Swansea linked to Redmond for £2m. Fee apparently agreed. I thought this lad was head and shoulders above his team-mates in the Under 21s. He has real ability on the ball.

Agreed. Ferguson and Sammy are potentially at least as good as Ince. I'd be really disappointed if we pushed the boat out for Ince. He looks to me like the sort of player that only shines up to a certain level.

Neither a striker nor a centre back, so hopefully nothing in it. I don't think he's all that good. If I was looking for a young English wide player, it would be Redmond.

Money talks! Someone moving from somewhere like holland or France would significantly increase their income joining us. We're not the only one that offers good money. With the standard of player that we need to be going for, I'd have thought we'd have at least one other rival who can match or get near our salary. Given the uncertainty behind the scenes, it's hard to imagine beating off any real competition.

I'm worried that we'll find it difficult to attract any decent players when there's so much doubt about the manager's position.

There is a problem, but getting politicians and lawyers involved won't help IMO. I'd like to see financial fair play properly enforced, a limit to clubs' debts, and a more even distribution of TV money. That would deter the reckless and the opportunistic.

I'd agree with that, both prioritise the style of play over anything, both likeable and idealistic. But only one of them has won two national league titles, a national cup and got to the Champions League final.

A possible picture here is that Ashley wants to be a bit more hands on, and wants a football man as his right-hand man to advise him. Trouble is, looking at it from the bottom upwards, Kinnear appears to be in a very powerful position.

The footymad article has some credibility IMO. I'd started to think that Pardew was a good coach, but not a great judge of a player. He can improve an individual's skills, but doesn't often recognise their limitations. So maybe Ashley sees Kinnear as someone who can advise him as to who is right - Pardew or Carr. But surely if he didn't trust Pardew's judgement, then he's the one who should have gone, not Llambias. Another major problem is that Kinnear will have opinions of his own. He won't just be an adjudicator. So you'll have three different opinions competing. Ashley may see Kinnear as being a useful voice, but his role doesn't seem to have much in the way of boundaries. Kinnear seems to be talking as if he's a real supremo on the football side, and you wonder how well he'll be able to work with people, and negotiate, if there's a lack of clarity over his powers.

This just has to be Ashley's worst decision. It's even gone belly-up already.

Even I can't defend this. A ludicrous decision.

I think this is more cock-up than conspiracy. With the Keegan - Wise fiasco, Ashley showed extremely poor judgement in setting up a system which, given the individuals in question, was never going to work. He might well be making a similar mistake. A football club isn't just a private company, where you can hire and fire and muddle through. It's also a public institution in which the community invests a lot of attention and commitment. You can't just blunder along like this.

I've still not come across any quotes, anonymous or not, from any player or official at the club. It sounds like everyone has been told to say nothing. I suspect that, behind the scenes, things are in a mess.

Interesting. The mystifying thing is how all those discussions could have taken place with the likes of Llambias, Carr and Pardew, and a contract signed and sealed, without word leaking out beforehand, and without any subsequent confirmation from the club so far.

You don't think there might perhaps have been a denial by this point? Well yeah, or a confirmation. Unless there's some serious discussions behind the scenes about precisely what's been agreed with Kinnear.

Still nothing from the club then. It also seems odd that all these discussions have been taking place and yet there's been not the slightest rumour about it until yesterday.

You're in denial, if you think its a joke from Kinnears side. Normally an appointment like this is announced by the club. This story seems to be coming entirely from Kinnear. It's unusual. It hasn't been denyed, club are usually quick to deny stories like with Cabaye on Saturday. Well neither confirmed nor denied. The other thing that puzzles me is that with a story like this, every journo would be phoning up every source they have on their phone book, inside and outside the club, trying to get more information. So far, there doesn't seem to be anything beyond what's come from Kinnear.

You're in denial, if you think its a joke from Kinnears side. Normally an appointment like this is announced by the club. This story seems to be coming entirely from Kinnear. It's unusual.

Has there been any confirmation from the club yet? The only quotes I've seen so far have been from Kinnear himself, and nobody seems to be quoting any 'anonymous sources' either. I wonder if there's some confusion behind the scenes. Presumably some clarification is going to be coming from the club today.

And he ends up destroying what he loved.... Just pointing it out.

Spain setting new standards yet again. I'm sure I've never seen a better U21 side than that.

It's difficult for the specialist hardman to operate now. Refs are so much stricter and it's quite easy to pick up two yellow cards. Tiote's the only one that springs to mind. For some reason, he still seems to get away with quite a lot.

Yeah, that'll help.