Shak

Think it's a disgrace that they're going to be allowed stay up personally.

I'm happy to give him credit here. He's gotten his man in quickly so he'll have a full summer to do what he feels needs to be done. The real test will be over time, though. Will he continue to do the right things? We shall see, though I'm hopeful.

Owen is a much better player, but he's got no long term future here by the looks of things and will be gone for nowt in two years if we keep him. Meanwhile, Martins is young, not intent on leaving and still improving so I'd probably keep him.

Quite happy Wigan stayed up personally, only cos one of my best friends supports them though. Really wanted West Ham to go down personally. Only reason they've stayed up is because of a player who they acquired under incredibly dodgy circumstances. Now they're gonna have plenty of money in the summer and will probably do a lot better next year. At least with Wigan and Sheff U we know they're gonna be struggling to survive next year, but West Ham are likely to be a thorn in our balls in challenging for UEFA spots in the coming years.

Players who get injuries generally tend to do a lot of work on the weights though tbh, as they can't really take part in proper training.

Be shocked if it didn't tbh. Pretty obvious that Clark and Mc aren't up to much as coaches, and Allardyce is renowned for his approach to coaching/fitness. I'd expect he'll look to bring in some people who actually know what they're doing, don't you? But knowing Shepherd, he'll try to compromise and go 50-50 with SA saying "You can have 'blah', 'blah' and 'blah' on the condition that Lee Clark remains in his role as Reserve Team Manager and you give Pearson a coaching role" Maybe it's just the optomist in me, but I get the impression that Freddy is starting to see the light a bit in terms of giving his mangers total control over things.

Be shocked if it didn't tbh. Pretty obvious that Clark and Mc aren't up to much as coaches, and Allardyce is renowned for his approach to coaching/fitness. I'd expect he'll look to bring in some people who actually know what they're doing, don't you?

Blacka would be a tremendous name for a footballer.

No, he was dropped because we'd bought Duff to play in his place. That you've said it already on here just means you've been wrong twice, so it doesn't help you really. Roeder has created the problem by buying Duff, it's as simple as that. I'm sure N'Zogbia may have sulked a bit about it, but who wouldn't honestly? You're young, playing in a foreign country and the manager sells your best friend, Boumsong, at the club (correctly), but not before slagging him off publicly despite the fact that he's had personal problems (wrongly). He then goes and buys someone to play in your position, despite the fact that you were widely acknowledged to be one of the best players on the team the year beforehand. So you're demoted to the bench while the rest of the team which you at times carried last season gets to keep their place. Honestly, would anyone here want to play for a club who did that to you? Like fuck you would.

Shockingly, considering he's easily our best player, I'm not in the least bit arsed if he goes now. The fact that he's said nothing the last few days speaks volumes. He wants out. Can't really blame him tbh, particularly if one of the Top 4 are interested. Get rid of him and Dyer and I'll be happy. Owen doesn't look like he could fit into an Allardyce system, while Dyer will NEVER be worth his wages. I wish Owen no particluar ill-will if he leaves, though I'd not be in the least bit bothered if he fucked himself up again in the first game of next season.

Shocking that so many people are so thick that they can't see how bad a case of mismanagement this is. A good football team/manager knows how to get the best out of their best assets, be they self-centered little twats or not. They don't just let them walk away for less than 5m because they can't be bothered to practice some man management. Jesus wept monkeyballs.

We know you certainly don't.

Only started becoming finacially feasible this season to go really, and I've travelled over from Ireland for three home games this past season Fulham Sheffield United Blackburn Will be hoping to get over for 3-5 games next season, unless my circumstances change.

No, he's not a superstar. Just an obviously talented young player with a lot of potential who a lot of us are pissed off that the club seem intent on getting rid of. And Milner is only still here because we got horibly lucky last summer and Villa stalled too long and then we couldn't buy Viduka. He'd have been gone to Villa like a shot the moment we allowed him.

We're looking at overhauling the entire structure of the club this summer. Massive changes to both the playing and coaching staff. Next season I expect we'll draw a lot of games. We'll be hard to beat but may struggle at times to click going forward. Top half of the table will do me, pushing for Europe will be a bonus and we should be capable of it. But I'll have a lot more patience under Allardyce as I feel we'll be able to see what he's trying to achieve, whereas with Souness and Roeder you never got the sense there was any long term plan in place. Patience is key, though tbh I will be disappointed if we end up in the bottom half.

sheep hahah. if wed won 3-0 there would have been 40,000 left clapping. I bet he wouldn't. I sat beside him, didn't seem like the clapping type did Bluf.

That's as much as we can hope for I expect.

Can't beat his man? That's complete and utter rubbish tbh.

You know the pair of fat twats would have ended up scrapping over the last spam fritter. Thats why The Fat Man employed Roeder. He knew the little pinchy-faced cockney could be sent down to Greggs without fear of him eating all the pasties on the way back. "Glenn Roeder doesn't eat other people's pasties."

Really can't see what's so bad about it tbh.

Things went fine until there was a real crisis point (Alkmaar) and then they just crumbled. Situations like that are where good managers stand apart from the rest and keep the team behind them. Roeder couldn't do it, obviously. Good read.

Guivarc'h To be fair we had him signed before the World Cup. Once he had it won you could see he wanted to go to one of the top teams and leagues in the world, once Rangers came in it was only a matter of time.

You make it sound like we're a bad prospect. He's won the World Cup, yeah, and fair play to him. But what has that got to do with anything? Name some better prospects for him this summer then if he wants to get into club management?

Hoping to get there for the NFL game in the autumn, love to see what it's like.

Presuming Allardyce gets the job (which isn't by any means near certain) I would imagine that more often than not we'll be utilising the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. Losing Owen looks more and more likely, he's only got two years left on his deal and we'll be losing him for nothing then, so I'd assume we'll be looking at spending the money we get from him on a focal point for our attack, ala Drogba or Kevin Davies. After that, it'll be key we get someone to play in the hole just off our target man, as Lampard does at Chelsea. However, could this be a role which Milner might be better suited to? In a 4-5-1 you look for your wingers to be very pacey so they can get at the full-backs 1 on 1. I think Milner could be effective in one of those roles, probably on the left as it happens due to his lack of pace and how good a shot he has cutting inside. But he may be better through the middle. He's direct, can run at defences and has an ever improving shot. With a role in the middle you can definitely see him hitting double figures for goals. His first touch is good and he's quite a smart player as well so it could definitely be an option. Or should we leave him on the wings?