tmonkey

Word on the street is that "27" year old Kevin Nolan is actually Nigerian. Which would explain alot.

Bednar was pretty against us a few weeks ago. Really don't understand how anyone can say he's not a good player.

Please, just f*** off Hughton. The team has no style of play, no tactics, no drilling, no visible evidence of coaching or strategy, nothing. It's just eleven players on the pitch in a basic formation lumping it long to the big guy. The only thing he seems to be doing for his handsome salary is picking a team, there's absolutely nothing being shown that suggests otherwise. Nolan also winds me up. I don't know what he does in his spare time, but how the f*** can he continue playing professional football for a club like ours when he moves (and looks) like a couch potatoe thrown into a sport filled with athletes. This prick is one of the reasons why we're down here in the first place, and seeing him getting molested at this level now that the goals (his only positive) have dried up is beyond a joke. Decent result, pitiful performance.

Have to disagree. You say it isn't a factor in judging a sale, but that's merely your opinion as to what factors contribute to making a good or bad sale decision. I don't see why that shouldn't be a factor. Keegan for example stated on several occassions that he should be judged on the sale of a key player by looking at the replacements (Cole, Milner spring to mind). Woodgate wasn't sold to ease or repay any debts given how the money was stated to be available and then spent in the next window iirc on Boumsong/Babayaro and Amdy Faye. I think it's reasonable to expect that unless the sale is forced due to debts or a poor financial position, key players, even flawed ones, should only be sold with an adequate replacement plan in place. More so when the club is in decline and starting to struggle, as it was during Woodgate's sale, because the risk then becomes that the club is no longer in a position to attract suitably high calibre replacements. So a plan (with potential replacements already identified/scouted/lined up) is paramount for selling key players, otherwise it's just a case of taking a stab in the dark and risking much of what has been built up for a quick buck, and if that plan is faulty, then I see no issues with claiming the sale was flawed and shouldn't have gone ahead.

Despite the fact I rate Woodgate higher, I am still much happier to have the Argie here. He came with a reputation of being virtually unbreakable and so far he's lived up to it. I reckon he will be ok in the premier provided we can upgrade the midfield by then. Selling Woodgate for £13m was the best piece of business Fat Fred ever did. It's like the Milner sale though. Useless if that money isn't reinvested wisely. Especially since we spunked large amounts on Boumsong/Coloccini and most likely similar wages on insufficient goods (maybe Coloccini will be better next year? Regardless, he was mediocre last). Woodgate eventually got fit and gave 2-3 good seasons for Boro/Spurs. Let's say we had kept the faith with him, put up with the 2 years of injury that he suffered whilst at Madrid - would we have been relegated last year had he been playing the same amount of time for us as he did for Boro/Spurs? Maybe the scenario is a bit far fetched, but still, at the time I would rather have kept the player, and even the lengthy time out after the sale hasn't changed my stance, because we threw that money away without having the hope of a quality centreback returning to fitness.

More to the point, that's why Real Madrid splashed out £13m on a crock. Clearly very highly rated. Had he not been so injury prone, the fee could easily have been three times as much. Woodgate during his time here, when fit, was a better pure defender than Rio Ferdinand.

We'll probably sign him in 8 months time when we're in the Premiership and Wigan are in the Championship. [/bitter]

You cant be serious. After that game you choose to pick out Guthrie? Very serious. Those who played worse than him, it's only to be expected. Butt, Nolan, Smith and Carroll were all woeful, but we expect that - Butt's been finished for years, Nolan is shit/useless if he's not scoring, Smith is shot and goes missing, and Carroll thinks he's in an ice rink. Guthrie, like Barton, is better than that lot, but he's playing like a knob imo.

Guthrie was the biggest disappointment for me. Looked slow, lacking in ideas, and generally wanted far too much time on the ball. Bit like Barton whenever he's played in this season, there seems to be some sort of underlying arrogant mentality where we have a combination of a player thinking he's better than he is on top of thinking the opposition are shitter than they are. He needs to go back to how he was playing in the Premiership. Keep it simple and sharp. It may be a step down, but he hasn't got the right set of attributes to be dwelling on the ball or dribbling at the opposition regularly.

Butt has been missing pases aimed at teammates 5 yards away from him. His tackles have actually helped the opposition dribble past him. Other than scoring spectacular own goals from the half way line, I don't know how Butt can actually get any worse. I guess you could argue that that's a positive.

Nicky Butt for the past 2 years = worse than Fumaca.

Not sure how anyone can say he flopped at Villa. They have the best right wing coach in the world, Bobertson or someone, the man who (based on information provided in this forum) taught Garrincha how to dribble effectively, and is now working hard to turn Milner into the most feared right winger in the northern hemisphere (and has successfully done so, so much so that the Government has passed a ruling forcing Villa to play Milner in midfield in case his right wing awesomeness caused a nuclear fallout). So quite clearly, Routledge was great at Villa but never got the chance to show it, and having been coached by the greatest winger coach of all time and a former playing legend on a par with Maradona himself, I find myself disagreeing vehemently with statements like "we know he's not the next C.Ronaldo".

Wow, we're finally going to have two pacey wingers on both flanks. The great thing about this deal is that assuming Routledge is still decent, both players are going to be good enough for Premiership football if we do achieve promotion this year.

Suprising just how agile/fit he's looked. To be fair though, doubt we'd have gotten him to this level of fitness. We're just not that type of club.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Beye. Million times better defensively than Simpson, even if he is slowing down a bit.

Because he makes the same mistakes every game almost, just that he's not being punished for it very often. He simply doesn't track his marker when the ball is being crossed in, even on corners. IMO he's a ballwatcher.

The run at the end made me wonder. Imagine if he had gone for the shot, and scored - had he remembered to bring the Spiderman mask with him? If he had, and if he had scored, it would have been one of the greatest last minute goal + celebration combinations ever in the history of football. Beats a hairy chested Ryan Giggs twirling his shirt in the air for sure.

Can see why Fergie didn't even bother recalling him when he was having to play midfielders and wingers in defence.

West Brom have been a right bunch of dirty fuckers.

Nolan's first shit under pressure is almost always shit.

One game is never fair, but this is a real eye opener about Danny Simpson. Looks pretty shit against semi-competent players.

Dorrans has had a field day against Simpson today.

4-3 win for us. Last minute goal ala Leeds 2001. Hat-trick by Lovenkrands.

Was that Smith again with the lunge?

Carson is dogshit.