Cronky

Mourinho is just being a tease, as usual.

O'Neill has a knack of getting the best out of individual players, and building teams that are better than the sum of their parts. True, their football is below what you'd call Champions League standard, but you don't have to play the opposition off the park to win a game. You just have to have that edge.

I think we'll win this one. They've got a lot of players out.

Reading between the lines, Martins will be on the bench. Shola and Lovenkrands will start. Quite right too. They did okay against West Brom, and Martins is coming back from a muscle injury.

A smart way of making money is writing about something very topical. Likely to be a boring play because the writer doesn't know any more than we do.

I find it a tough call, because for different reasons, I'd hesitate to call either of them an asset at those points in time. Each of them had something to offer, but should have been squad players, not automatic first-team choices. The way in which their reputations and status interfered with team selection and team building was / is the real problem. Particularly in Shearer's case.

I'm afraid the law doesn't work like that.

If NUSC had started off life as a general supporters' club, and then the majority of members had become committed to a particular cause, then that would have been fine. In reality, the opposite happened. A group of people got organised behind a particular cause, and then called themselves a general supporters' club.

I suppose David Kelly's goal against Portsmouth was the ultimate pivotal moment.

The failure to build on Sir Bob's 3rd place finish. The big mistake was not to replace Shearer at the correct time. He should have been a squad player rather than a first team regular in the last two seasons, and if he didn't like it, he should have been allowed to leave. In avoiding that decision - for which I think Shepherd was largely to blame - we sowed the seeds of Sir Bob's departure and the decline of the last four seasons. We turned an upward momentum into a downward momentum.

That's being a bit picky. Yes, he operates between striker and midfield, but that's like saying Rooney isn't a striker.

I just think Bendtner's touch on the ball looks a bit too heavy for the way Wenger wants to play. Plus he's competing with Adebayor, Eduardo, Van Persie and Arshavin.

I can't see Bendtner establishing himself as a first team regular. Compared to their other strikers, he's crap.

I can't see any reason to get enthusiastic about Avram Grant. He's hardly set the world on fire. For me, the key questions with Kinnear are 1) does he have the respect of the players and 2) can he work well with the Board. If the answers to both are yes, then I'd give him the chance. He's done the hard work of getting to know the players and the club, so why start again with some other manager who has to start from scratch. Given the situation we were in when he took over, we can't expect him to have done any more this season than keep the ship afloat. Next season will be a truer test.

So add a minimum of £50m on top of the 'crippling financial problems' (their words), is that what you're really saying you want him to do? I wanted him to invest the 50m into making sure the ream was not involved in a relegation battle - Oh, wait - that would have meant allowing the manager to manage.... If you'd had said that he could (and should) have freed up an extra 5-10 mil during the Jan window to get those one or two player that we will need if we get anymore injuries then i'd have agreed with you as that should be manageable in a debt sense and not a mad gamble. Throwing a minimum or 50m here and now is just crazy talk. Normally I would agree - but do you think it was wisely spent on gambling on the shares of a company that went down ? He lost THE LOT(100m), so 50 spent on players would have been a far better investment(in fact, 50m spent on booze would have been a better investment..!!). What a skewed way of looking at things, £50m would of been better wasted on the club....only it wouldnt of been wasted - or would it?? Incidentally the gamble took place before Ashley was badly affected by the recession...the other thing is that people are still failing to realise that spending big money would of added the clubs financial woes in terms of wages, supposing we add to the wage bill and fork out £50m in transfer fees, then what happens the next season - would the fans accept a curtial of spending? How do we look to invest next year? Do we sell those on inflated wages? Where is the next lot of money coming from? Howto we get to the next level without relying on Ashleys millions? The only way to do this is ensure that the players we do get represent absolute value for money whilst not spending on large wages. It seems to me that some people will excuse Ashley anything - once again, I have to say that you have your opinion, I have mine and I disagree with what he did, whether it was before the recession or not ; as I remember, it was early last year and by then, anyone with half a brain knew what was coming ; I certainly did, and pulled out most of our Superannuation before the big falls on the markets. Ashley has far more dosh than I have and is supposed to be a successful businessman so he should have seen it coming. In any case, he had taken over a supposed top rank football club and he had a responsibility to back it..... But surely clearing the £90 million debt and subsidising the club to £20 million a year is backing the club. Every supporter in the country wants their Chairman to spend more money, but you have to keep some perspective. Ashley is the first owner who has actually put his own money into the club. The previous regime was taking it out.

It's the usual old guff, but there's a particular point in there that I keep coming across - namely, the way the point that the old regime landed the club in a tricky financial position gets somehow dismissed by the fact that Ashley didn't take the time to discover the full extent of the debt before he took over. I just don't get the logic here. Whether or not Ashley checked the books well enough, the debt was still there and the responsbility is the previous Board's. That is what is hampering the club, not the fact that Ashley didn't check properly. In many ways, for our sakes, it's just as well that he didn't. I can only think that those who make this particular point are in the mindset that because Ashley made this particular mistake, the altogether different sorts of mistakes that Shepherd made are somehow balanced out. Or something like that.

For all their quality going forward, I didn't think they were unbeatable. We did create some chances against them, and that was without our best players (ie Gerrard and Rooney) I hate to agree with Sam A, but there you are. Note - I'm not saying we're as good as them. Just that we can beat them.

We just have to move on. Regardless of what you think of Ashley, there's no other prospective owner in sight and the state of uncertainty between September and January did us no good at all. This rally just sounds like a way of NUSC keeping themselves in the spotlight.

We missed Gerrard and Rooney tonight. The only players to enhance their reputation were Heskey and SWP. They were the only players who Spain found at all difficult to handle. Agbonlohor looked out of his depth. John Terry nowhere near as commanding for England as he is for Chelsea. As an aside, the AC Milan fitness regime must be top notch. Beckham looked half a stone lighter.

The actual article doesn't contain anything about Owen being offered a new contract. It actually says that the current offer has been withdrawn, and they'll talk to him at the end of the season to see what he wants to do. It sounds like they've accepted that they've lost the battle and he's going. I can understand the offer being withdrawn. We don't know what the situation will be at the end of the season, financially or in terms of Owen's fitness.

I don't think Shola is lazy. With that physique of his, he's not going to be the most mobile of players, but he gives 100% and is never afraid of taking responsibility. He saw plenty of the ball on Saturday. As for 'he only muscles other players off the ball once a game' - I can't understand how you can say that. The one area where I don't think he can be faulted is his strength. Even the best of centre backs now find it difficult to go through him.

These responses all tend to reinforce Ashley and Lambias's original standpoint - if they stay quiet, they get hammered. If they speak up, they get hammered.

Just the same as the eights for Lovenkrands and Ryan Taylor, then. Ameobi is rubbish, and was rubbish against the worst team in the league. Yeah but come on, 1's and 2's rubbish? I'd say he was worth a 3 of out 10 for that performance. One for managing to kick the ball in the direction of Duff in the first few minutes, one for keeping Smith out of the team and one for picking up the right coloured shirt. he was also involved in the 2nd goal winning the ball in a tackle...So involved in 2 of our goals and unlucky not to score himself..most people would see that as a decent shift but not good enough for some it seems He'd have had a proper assist if he was able to pass a ball into space. When was he unlucky not to score? Years and years of demonstrating he's not good enough and still people stick up for him, it's astonishing. The guy must be f***ing awesome in training, because when it comes to a matchday he struggles with the basics. So what we should just get rid? He is frustrating and unpredictable but there are other in the team who are loved for thier unpredictability and are equally as frustrating. All I'm saying (luck or not) 1 assist direct assist one good challenge to set up 2nd goal would see many other C/F's praised. You're wasting your time, mate. The idea that Shola is crap is too well entrenched.

Heres the link. http://www.westbrom.com/forum/index.php?topic=38396.0 Either all West Brom fans are blind or some people on here are just desperate to criticise him. I like to think i'm objective when it comes to players. He's been fairly useful this season imo. It's the second one.

I agree with that. They're both slow as a combination and the better sides will run right through them. Was Nolan playing as a DM at Bolton, anyone know? We've needed a quick, busy player who can link between the striker and midfield, and Lovenkrands looks that sort of player. I don't think he's the long-term solution, but we looked far more fluid as an attacking force with him around.