TRon

Jenas was played on the right too much to accomodate Bowyer, hardly surprising our football suffered as a result. I will say even now he is back playing for England, I still have doubts about Jenas being tough enough mentally, but as a footballer he's got all the tools. SBR said just recently that he was sad to see Jenas leaqve Newcastle because he knew what he brought to the team. What we are missing now basically and that is legs in the engine room.

Jenas played the holding/defensive MF role under SBR. Who plays that role now? Nicky Butt. We sold Jenas for £7m, since then we have bought Alan Smith for £6m. Where were we then? Where are we now?

Ferdinand was a good sale at the time. We got decent money for a player at his best who never did anything of note afterwards. Speed did ok with Bolton who were perfectly suited to his talents. Good business on both accounts IMO. I have to disagree with you there completely, the point with Ferdinand was that he was doing something here, bare in mind it was his sale that forced keegans hand. You dont under any circumstance sell players who are scoring for you. That was probably one of the best partenerships this club has ever had, why break it up? Also Speed was insrtrumental for our side, was a very very important player, when we sold him the sides perfomances suffered alot. Was also a very mature head in a relatively young side. The business is alway bad if you sell players who affect your team, irrespective of the cash. During our "nearly season" Ferdinand and Lee scored for fun early season during easy fixtures then the goals dried up when the heat was on. They went missing while Roy Keane, a defensive midfielder drove Man U to the title, leading by example and goals when needed. That's what I remember.

Jenas stagnated? Who's playing in his position now? Fucking Nicky Butt, and the £7m we got for Jenas, £6m was wasted on Smith. Fantastic busines that was.

Ferdinand was a good sale at the time. We got decent money for a player at his best who never did anything of note afterwards. Speed did ok with Bolton who were perfectly suited to his talents. Good business on both accounts IMO.

I just love these hindsight merchants. The vast majority of the clubs supporters - and on here - fully supported the sales of all these 4 players. And for what its worth, I agreed with the sale of Jeanarse and the sale of Dyer, being a massively underachieving prick for the club, who had pace but ended up with a terrible attitude whereby he was just no use to us anymore. I would not have sold Robert and Bellamy though, particularly Bellamy, and I had loads of grief for saying so at the time on here too. There is no hindsight here mate. Like SBR, a true football genius, I defended Dyer and Jenas while they were here because I rated their ability and athleticism, while narrow-minded cunts (no one in specific I should add) carried out hate campaigns online and offline which made it inevitable they would leave. I said so at the time, if you like, I can find the posts, assuming they are still searchable.

Not bad, but Taylor and Capaca at the back will get crucified by Liverpool's strikers. Faye has to play CB for me, alongside A.N.Other. Preferably Cacapa.

Dyer, Robert, Bellamy and Jenas were all let go by dour football specialists. You tell me if we are better off now.

I've added Milner for those who feel it's another option.

I always thought Speed suited Bolton a lot more than us. Good runner with great heading ability, but not enough skill to be a playmaker. Tended to let the tempo of the game dictate him rather than the other way round.

It's obvious to most people, and common sense, but it won't stop two types of critics: the ones with an agenda who just need to throw shit in the direction of the new board at every opportunity or those who get frustrated easily and want signings...any signings ..now now now!

Carrol's a handy player to have on the bench in any case, gives us a different option.

Funnily enough even though we lost, I couldn't help feeling a bit proud at the way the lads got at Blackburn. Yes there was a sense of desperation and no, it wasn't clinical. But for 90 mins they had a damn good go. It reminded me of the old Keegan teams which used to get you on the edge of your seat. A pale shadow but it was there nonetheless.

That is just...brilliant. It's football forum poetry, nothing less

What a difference Benjani's made to City tbf. For the first time this season they actually look fairly shit.

I'd go for N'Zogbia myself, failing that Geremi - but I'm pretty sure it'll be Smith. Atleast Martins or Viduka will start if that's the case. I'm assuming Emre's still out injured btw.

He's too slow to get anywhere near them unfortunately.

Ashton has been playing shit for West Ham recently. His confidence is shot to pieces apparently, so he'd a be a big improvement.

They are desperate to win that last CL spot by getting 4th place. I don't think they'll be taking it easy against us at all.

The very nature of the I'll discuss it if we go down. Until then it's a moot point. Whether we go down or not from this point on will have very little to do with what Ashley & Mort do now. That is in the hands of the manager, the players, and the other teams in the scrap. It is the decisions they have already made which have put us in the position where relegation is a distinct possibility. It's like saying it's okay to drink drive if you don't kill anyone. The decisions at the start of the season were cautious, which was understandable if frustrating for us as supporters. The decisions in January were high risk, showed a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the situation, and are deserving of criticism whatever the outcome. Keegan had 9 days to try and sign players in the transfer window. importantly, players that he wanted. At that point relegation was not on the radar and the decision was made to wait till the summer to get genuine targets which was sensible what we are seeing now is people coming out of the woodwork armed with a shitload of hindsight, now that we have failed to pick up points. yes it was if you had opened your eyes Weren't you advocating signing Benjani in the transfer window? He looks a proper pile of shit tbh.

We wouldn't have been relegated or been close to it this season. There are too many hopeless sides below us. We're 11th ffs!! People don't need the to create a spectre of relegation to justify this and if they do then it shows we are collectively grasping at straws to make ourselves feel better at what we clearly see as fundamental failure of judgement. Part of the longer term problem now will be is that it is clear that that the role of the owner is too blurred with the safety net of an independant thinking chairman. Regardless of how Redknapp performs I see no due dilligence in this. Shame you didn't post one of your own quotes from the first page Parky

There's no mention of relegation in there I see.

Yes, it's one of those places that i fancy us to get something but because Birmingham are in the shit as well, they will be up for it. I hope it will be an open game and our better players can produce. They will have the physical edge and will battle hard. But at the same time they must fear Martins and Owen, they'll have been watching us batter Blackburn so they know we can handle it and what we are capable of. We ARE the better team we just have to go their knowing it and pick the players who won't be scared to perform on the day.

The point he had 9 days? Fuck me. He had half the window. If he didn't know what he was doing he should never have been made manager of a club who desperately needed to sign players. This is what I mean when I talk about people armed with shitloads of hindsight.

In a nutshell. 9 days was an estimate by the way TT. Way to pick up on piddly irrelevant points though