Shak

Exactly. This is not like last time (although we're not out of the woods yet). But the situation is more under control than the last time that Hughton was thrust into it. Situation is not perfect, but better than last time. I do wonder if they are NOT hiring a proper manager, so that they can start afresh during the summer without an incumbent in the way. That's the only explanation that makes sense. They'll leave it until the last minute, make what they'll describe as a generous offer for a quality manager the Friday before the season gets going. Then when they're rebuffed they'll flounder around, shocked, and eventually hire Kinnear again and vow that everything was done to get the best manager they could.

I don't think we'll see any noticeable drop-off, Kinnear was absolutely useles after all. One clueless fuck out, another in. I'd wager the epic shitness of Houghton last time out was as much due to circumstances at the time as anything. He'll do better this time, though he'll still be shite. The real issue here is that the board can now give Kinnear the job full-time in the summer, even if we go down.

What was the explanantion for Kinnear being offered an extended contract btw, anyone?

It'd be a pretty big improvement on our net spend, to be fair. I assume he just meant that it'll be definitely added to whatever our summer budget is going to be btw. Of course, our summer budget could be zero or we could be trying to make a profit again for all we know.

Agree with that. Lose-lose situation tbh.

The Premiership has been more or less the exact same for the last 10 years, with the odd slight reshuffle of the middle clubs every so often. The emergence of Chelsea is pretty much the only thing that's changed since ten years ago. Man U the ongoing dominant force in contention every year. Arsenal sort of lurking about. Making a push every second or third year due to how good Wenger is, falling away in other years due to their inferior players compared to Man U. Liverpool being good, but not quite good enough to mount a worthwhile challenge. Yet comfortably consistantly better than other pretenders. They've not finished anywhere other than between 2nd and 5th since 98. Every so often a team comes along that looks like they might emerge as a contender before fading away. Leeds, Newcastle and now Villa. Same shit, different season every year tbh. Something needs to happen, but I've no idea what.

Just can't see Kinnear going for it though, he does like a big man up front. Regardless, I don't think our CM's could give them the service to feet they'd need to be an effective duo. If you're playing two small, pacy guys up top then you need midfielders who are a lot better passers of the ball than what we've got. Our team at the minute needs a big man to play off IMO, at the moment Carroll and Martins would be first choice for me. Very encouraging stuff from Lovenkrands yesterday though, looks a useful replacement for Oba when he's out injured.

Hope it's nothing serious.

Blatantly here for life. We'll get 7 more years of the same sort of carry-on from him, in about 3 years time when his contract is up again we'll re-sign him for a bit of squad depth. Then he'll come of the bench to score an injury time winner in the 2016 FA Cup Final in his last game for the club, finally ending our long wait for a trophy. And it'll be epic.

Every time I see a thread title like this I hope for something a bit more exciting than a player doing something stupid at a nightclub. We need an OJ type of story, could you imagine turning on Sky News to see live helicopter shots of Rooney or Lampard being chased through the streets after murdering someone? Preferrably Jamie Redknapp.

Weakened. We've basically signed Kevin Nolan and sold Given and N'Zogbia. Lovenkrands and Ryan Taylor won't do anything to improve the team whatsoever most likely. Tidy profit though.

There was absolutely no reason whatsoever not to insist upon getting Johnson as part of the Given deal if we really wanted him. Stinks to high heaven, this whole thing.

Anyone who wouldn't take 17th right now is a lunatic. Could we finish higher? Of course, there's a lot of other shite teams around us who have just as much, and in some cases more, of a chance of going down. But honestly, the difference between finishing 12th and 17th has pretty much no long term effect on us. The absolute best thing that can happen to us this year is to not get relegated, depressing as that is. 17th is good enough to achieve that goal, and it'd do me all day long.

Seriously doubt that. There's something very much amiss though. Ashley is a fantastic businessman, he's proved that his whole life. Yet he's now completely bolloxed up the end of two transfer windows in a row, and we could now get relegated because of it. Lots of smoke and mirrors going on here IMO, I think it's pretty conceivable that we had no intention of signing anyone other than Taylor today. Yet they've gone to all this fuss to make it seem as though they've been busy working on deals all day, so they can now go "We worked tirelessly all day, but in the end we just couldn't get the deals done." I reckon they sat in the office doing shots all day tbh.

do you include the injured players Harper Taylor Coloccini Bassong Enrique Taylor Nolan Butt Jonas Martins Ameobi > Given Carr Bramble Moore Babayaro Solano Parker Butt Duff Martins Sibierski All depends on Martins really, if he were to miss the rest of the season we'd go down pretty comfortably tbh. Worst manager in the league, easily.

God damn that's cynical. You know it makes sense.

This thread. I'll bet a part of the Given deal was that City would pretend they rejected a bid from us for Johnson, make it look like we tried to actually spend some money.

For fuck sake.

http://i39.tinypic.com/28bsk6w.gif

Some of the best out-and-out attacking footy i've seen from us, atleast in glimpses, were in the first 20 mins of this game, and the first half of the West Brom game. Butt wasn't playing in either and it's not a coincidence. Stoke first half was good too, and we were Buttless in Seattle for that as well. But now, as then, I expect Kinnear to put a stop to that as soon as is possible.

We can actually play some half decent stuff going forward without Butt there to ruin everything.

Tend to agree. Would love to see Geremi and Guthrie run the show today, see if Kinnear has the stones to keep them in ahead of Butt. Not a fucking chance like, obviously.

It's a myth that Owen is a brilliant finisher tbh. Sure, he's half decent at it and probably the best in our squad. But his real talent is his movement, how he anticipates where the ball will be and gets into position to get the chance. He does this so well that he generally gets numerous chances per game and eventually puts one away. Doesn't half miss some sitters in there though.

One thing that's always seemed strange to me is that if the last defender takes the guy down he's deemed the last man and a red is given. But then a keeper can take someone down as he goes by, then gets a yellow because there's a defender back on the line to cover. Surely beating a goalkeeper 1 on 1 is a tougher task than having just a defender on the line to beat? (unless it's Steven Taylor, obviously) Always think a penalty is enough in those situations anyway, a red card and a penalty at the same time is too much. Unless the foul is cynical, but often a defender or keeper just gets to a 50-50 ball a moment late and as a result his team both lose a man and most likely lose a goal too.