Shak

Yes, stupid tournament is every two years. Somewhere, an alarm just went off in Babatunde's head.

What a man. If Ashley and Llambias make a mess of the Shearer discussions and fail to appoint him as permanent manager, something I fully expect to happen, then he could still be off though. Great news though, if he's here next year he's the captain for sure.

Still be a decent crowd IMO, be surprised if we don't average above 40k. Prices will come down surely, and we might even win a few games and be fun to watch against a lower standard of opponent.

2 of my friends bought Sunderland tops and were going to wear them in the pub yesterday. I decided to watch it at home in the end, thank fuck. What a tremendous waste of money for them. In a number of ways, actually.

Oh, how sad.

They'll both be an important part of the squad, I'd imagine.

Should buy Gibson outright to be fair, guy is a neat passer of the ball and doesn't have a prayer of cracking the Man U line-up any time in the next decade. Alright, Uri. Eh? He's a decent player but not even near in the same class as Carrick or Anderson, his direct competition. He's also not excessively young or anything, he's actually older than Anderson.

Should buy Gibson outright to be fair, guy is a neat passer of the ball and doesn't have a prayer of cracking the Man U line-up any time in the next decade.

Aye, aside from the fact that he's completely unsuited to that role, there's no reason to believe he couldn't do a job there.

Will be a decent defender back in Spain or wherever he goes, simply not right for the English game this guy.

If he takes a pay cut I'd be happy enough with Duff staying tbh. He's been shite since he came here, but he'd be one of the better players in the Championship I reckon and could be key to us coming back up. He's also one of the very few who I think has looked bothered the last few weeks. Odds are he knows he won't get that money anywhere else though, and is looking to protect his wage. Money where your mouth is Damien, or else off with you.

I'd imagine we'll end up paying a percentage of the wages of players even after they've left. For instance, some mis-guided Premiership team wants Alan Smith but doesn't want to take on his 50k a week. Smith doesn't want to take a pay cut either, so we end up paying about 15k a week off his wage at the new club just to be rid of him. Kind of a kick in the balls, eh?

Nah, it was a tough day yesterday and you can't help but feel down about it but I can't imagine ever crying over football. Did as a kid a few times, but as you get older you see there are so many worse things that can happen in life than your favourite football team get relegated. I'll save my tears for those occasions.

Of course there are better candidates out there than an unproven manager with a track record consisting of eight games, most of which were defeats!! If people can forget for a moment that his name is Alan Shearer, then you'll see just how ridiculous that statement is. This is what I mean by the insular thing, everyone's reduced the number of potential managers down to a list consisting of one name. Already, before we've even begun looking!! There's more out there than Alan Shearer, there's more places to look than a list of previous players, than the Premiership, than England, than Europe. Look at where the two best managers in the league came from: Scotland, not even the Old Firm, Aberdeen; and Japan, Japan for fuck's sake, do people seriously not think we could attract someone from the fucking J-League!?! There's loads of potential candidates out there, it's whether or not we actually go and look for them or just go with the easy option and appoint Shearer uncontested. If he is the best that we can get then fine, but let's not assume that without even looking at the alternatives first. Do you honestly believe we have an owner and chairman capable of going out and finding the next management sensation in fucking Japan like? They'd probably come back with some ageing Japanese racist called Jo Kin Ira. What exactly gives you hope that Ashley and Llambias will produce a moment of brilliance and find the right man for the job given their record of absolute and total failure in running the club to this point? Do you think they're due or something? In Shearer we have a man who was one of the best players of his generation, a man who will command respect and do everything in his power to make this club great. He's always come over as someone who really understands the game, and while that's no gaurantee that he'll make a good manager it does make him a pretty decent managerial prospect, especially for a Championship football team.

Thanks. Sums Derek up really. To be fair, it's impressive he's managed a statement at all with Ashley's cock clearly lodged down his throat.

This all all Mike's fault, the man is a fucking curse of a sports fan.

Hilarious that some people still defend him. Johnny Giles summed it up very well on the Premiership talking about the job Ashley has done here. "He's done as bad a job as it was realistically possible to do running the club". Summed it up quite well.

I really don't imagine there are many better candidates out there to be manager than Shearer. If we could get a proven top class manager to take over then that'd be the way to go, but how likely is that when we're no longer a Premiership club? Not very would be my guess, particularly with the clowns we'd have trying to make the appointment. Hoping Ashley will agree to Shearer's vision for the club and support him in what he wants to do. If not, we won't be a Premiership club again for a long time.

Devestated, fully expected defeat today but it still hurts a lot when it actually happens. Deserve it though. Fuck you Mike Ashley, you big fat cunt. I hope you suffer a horrific accident and are kept alive with machines for twenty years, with each and every passing second being a seemingly eternal living torture.

Think we'll give a good effort and put Villa under plenty of pressure, but get caught on the break and fail to create much of note at the other end. 2-1 to Villa.

Has to be one of the worst signings we've ever made, been wanting rid of him for years now. I'll finally get my wish this summer, but the damage has been done. Piss off, you miserable little gimp.

Comparisons aside, why did we sell him again? It seems like we sell players for either having bad attitudes, being good or for the money. Whilst buying players with notoriously bad attitudes, or who are past it, for a lot of money. Loaned him out and then fell out with him when he refused to return when an injury crisis struck and we'd a big game coming up, in Europe if I recall? Was a bit daft from both sides really.

It's always fun to see them going down tbh, but ideally they'll bounce back eventually cos it's more fun with the likes of Leeds, Forest and such in the top division. Everyone'll take great delight in watching us go down, and so they should because if ever a club deserved to go down it's us this season. I'd imagine most will hope we come back sooner rather than later though, as I imagine I would if someone like Villa, Everton or even Spurs were to suffer the same fate.

Better looking too. Stronger, hehlfy looking hair too.

He'd miss, nailed on.