Cronky

Jose hasn't looked quite himself this last few weeks. The other players have adjusted to the change of manager, but his focus seems to have gone a bit. I don't know how settled he is in England and the North east in particular, but if you've been wondering about moving on, the loss of Hughton could be the trigger / excuse you need. So Bridge for Jose wouldn't be the most earth-shattering news.

Never mind the header, what about Barton's corner? It was a planned move and he landed it right on the button.

On a related subject, can we ban people from talking about 'must win' games when we've still got half the season left and we're 6 points clear of the relegation zone?

Tiote was accused of play acting, but the Wigan player did seem to flick his fingers into his eyes. That can sting a bit.

Of the ones that we've been linked with, the one who's impressed me most is Jonathan Legear. (After extensive research, of course)

It was a reckless tackle and he could easily have got a red. Luckily, we had a strong ref today who could make his own mind up regardless of the pressure from the opposition and the home support. The message is simple - when it's a face to face 50-50 ball like that, don't jump into the challenge.

He had a decent first half, but faded completely in the second. It's an improvement over most of the performances that I've seen this season, where he's struggled to get involved at all. I'd still like to see Ranger given a chance though.

I'd love to know how many times he touched the ball today. He was absolutely everywhere.

Very scrappy game. We battled hard and deserved to win, but you can't say much else. We struggled to hold on to the ball in midfield where Nolan looked seriously off the pace. Fortunately, Tiote does the work of two men, and our back four didn't come under much pressure.

Bit of an eccentric maverick, is my impression. He was after the Newcastle job a few years ago but was far too left field an option for Freddie to consider. He'd be a real gamble for Liverpool, and he's never managed outside Germany, but it might come off big time, like Wenger.

I'd go - Krul Simpson Williamson Coloccini Enrique Barton Nolan Tiote Jonas Ranger Shola I'm pretty sure he'll play Taylor though. Also Nolan up front with Smith in midfield.

I think the problem with Bentley has been over-confidence - a tendency to think he doesn't need to make quite so much effort once he's achieved a bit of success. In both his club and his international career, he's fallen away after making a good impact. He needs to play with a bit more fire. Barton would be a good example to him. Both players lack pace but Barton has that determination and puts a lot into his performances. We have some forthright characters in our dressing room, and they won't let Bentley get away with 75% effort. When Bentley made it into the England side, I thought he'd be there for a long time. The ability is there, and hopefully Pardew will bring that out. Redknapp doesn't like him and the relationship hasn't improved with time.

Classy player, but I've seen so little of him over the last two years that I'm a bit nervous about the outcome of this one. I was also hoping that we were going to sign someone with a bit of pace. Still, as Midds said, if he comes with the right attitude, it should be a good buy.

Outside the top five, I don't honestly think there's a lot to choose between the teams. With loans and more players becoming available from all over the world, it's probably a lot easier for a smaller top division club to get a decent team together. A lot will depend on who gets unlucky with injuries in the second half of the season.

Can't get enthused about this. He's better than Lovenkrands, so from that point of view he'd improve the squad, but I'd rather we went for a more imaginative choice. Keane looks good in flashes, but is too easily blotted out of a game.

I would have thought a left back and a forward were higher on the list. I'd hope they could play wide right in place of Routledge.

Pompous crap that should give every Supporters' Group committee member and fanzine editor pause for thought before they start hammering on their keyboards. I think the owners are in a very tricky position. The attitude of the supporters is probably affecting the team and the manager. However, once the fans start calling the shots, you're in trouble.

Looks better than Routledge.

I can't see that QPR would let him go, half way through a likely promotion season, where he's playing an important part.

The problem is not just that Wolves won, but that Wolves deserved to win. They actually looked the better side. There was no spirit amongst the players, and the crowd was virtually silent.

Supporters aren't all of one mind on this issue. I get the impression that this board is more critical of Ashley than the average collection of supporters would be, and even within this board, there's shades of opinion. It's a common enough view that, although he's made mistakes, there have been some good developments, and things are now moving forward. When I read many anti-Ashley posts, I feel there's an air of anger and revenge that clouds people's judgement. Particularly over the Keegan issue. As for the players and other staff, the view of the insider is often different from that of the outsider. That's true in so many aspects of public life, not just football. The outsider just measures things against how they would ideally like them to be. The insider is more aware of the practicalities, and the realities behind the difficult decisions that someone in authority has to make.

I was wondering what the catch was. Still, as Best is no use to us at all, we've nothing to lose.

Rooney? I did think of that, but Torres just pips him.

Torres - I can't ever remember seeing such a good player play so badly.

'Rescued the club financially, addressed the structure of the club's management & organisation, implemented some sort of youth system,' - those are considerable achievements. It's a bit of a 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' type post tbh. The big, big error, from which a lot of consequences flowed, was setting up the Keegan - Wise partnership. Never likely to succeed and it took us two years to recover. But recover, we have, so why look backwards?