Shak

Legend in my eyes. Had he not done such a good job last year the club could have really got in the toilet. Hope Ashley has a good plan for a replacement and all that good work doesn't go to waste. Thanks Chris.

Fucking shocking stuff. Cheers for everything Chris, you deserved better.

at people saying he was good yesterday. Doubt he touched the ball ten times. Clinical finish for the goal though, to be fair to the lad.

Prefer this one, from back in the days before we signed him. Thought Best did pretty well for a guy who'd obviously never been involved in a game of football before. Considering he's a championship striker up against Champion league defenders... Doesn't excuse clearly not being familiar with the offside rule. That said, I see no real harm in giving him a chance at some point. We've been effectively playing with ten men the last few games with how rubbish Shola and Lovenkrands have been. Best, Ranger or Xisco couldn't be any worse, really.

I think he's just weak mentally tbh. Always looked to me like there was a good player in there somewhere. Good touch, decent technique and can pick a pass out better than most of our midfielders. He just doesn't seem to be able to impose himself on games at all though, things just pass him by or even worse, he hides like he did yesterday. Was a complete waste of a jersey yesterday, no interest in ever seeing him play for us gain.

I know he couldn't cut it in the Championship, but the Premiership might just be right for him!

Two terrible places for World Cup's IMO, shame that England didn't get one.

It's amazing how much a semi-competent Premiership striker would improve us. Best, Shola, Ranger and Lovenkrands. FFS. If Carroll gets injured before January we're absolutely fucked. Shola is still probably the best bet to do something positive, embarrassing as that is.

'Flame haired'

Desperately need a better player up there alongside Carroll than what we have available at the moment. Shola is a passable backup at this level, nothing more. Nolan up front just doesn't work at all, his best quality is lost when there's a CB there to pick him up when he moves into the box. Still reckon Keane would be a useful signing on loan until the end of the season, streets ahead of the likes of Best, Ranger and Lovenkrands both as a player and as a useful partner for Carroll. He'd do really well working off Carroll's knockdowns from long balls, unlike Shola who seems to just stand there and looked shocked when Carroll wins every single ball in the air. Ben Arfa playing just off could be interesting too, eventually.

Guthrie was poor today, he's quite a decent player from a technical point of view but he just doesn't impose himself on games at all and generally the game tends to pass him by as a result.

Decent result, thought the lads gave their all and deserved the point. We don't have the creative players to play a whole lot better than that to be honest, especially against a team like Chelsea.

Shola is the prototypical captain tbh.

NEVER forget.

Throwing him in there to start games is a bit much at this point, but I don't see the harm in having him on the bench and giving him twenty minutes at the end of some games, see where he is in terms of being ready for the Premiership. With the way some people go on you'd think that these lads get completely destroyed emotionally if they play a game and don't do well. A few substitute appearances aren't going to do any harm.

Disgrace if he plays. It's a fucking friendly FFS, shouldn't even be a debate about it.

Nah, they're basically all the shite things about football rolled into one shitty football club. - Unlimited budget to try and buy success. - Negative, boring football style. - Overpaid bunch of wankers for a squad. Honestly would rather see Man United keep winning things than City, much as I've hated them over the years. At least that club has some sort of soul to it.

http://files.sharenator.com/yay_The_Newest_Sharenator-s311x302-103062-580.jpg

Someone clearly faxed the FA a letter that simply read -------------------- -------------------- Naturally, this convenient "misunderstanding" just came straight to light in the ensuing minutes.

.com does seem to reckon he wasn't booked against Chelsea and will be available for the Fulham game. Ideally wouldn't want him and Barton both out for the same game, so could be good news depending on how soon the FA decide to give Barton his 3 game ban.

Fair point Skirge, he made a mistake right at the start of the Mackem game which gave them a great chance on the break. Had they taken advantage of that we'd have only won 5-2, which would have been disappointing. I'll put it down to getting used to the Premiership for now, not overly worried unless this becomes a habit and he's still doing it in a couple of months.

Stupid from Barton. Yeah Pedersen goes down like a two-arsed poof but you can't go doing that and expect anything else in the modern game, unfortunately. 3 game ban, pretty much nailed on. Hopefully Routledge comes back into the team like he's got a point to prove and does well on the right against Fulham. We'll really miss Barton at Chelsea though.

Footrball clips!!!!!!!!!!!