lovejoy

he never does anything to change my opinion of him, he's unreliable, and not just in his finishing. Best for all he moves on asap.

The last contract they gave him was absolutely bonkers. They've done very well to get him off the books.

i agree. can't think of a less than 7/10 from him since the opening day.

didn't yedlin get one as well (derby maybe?) when he came on in right mid?

we had nolan, the end. pretty sure barton only got 1 that season (free kick i think?) and i'd back diame to outscore both guthrie and raylor, and ritchie to outscore them all. lets not pretend we had plenty of goals from midfield last time, nolan aside, we really didn't. 35 goals from midfield is quite a lot like, Nolan got just under half of those. totally agree on nolan, but ritchie could quite feesibly hit/surpass his figures. the others mentioned, guthrie got 4, barton got 1, raylor got 4. Diame did that on his own for hull last season. they were hardly prolific. On one hand you're saying they weren't prolific, then saying we should ignore the one who was. As a unit they were, it doesn't matter so much where they come from individually, in fact it's better if they all get a few as it means we don't lose out so much when injuries hit. Put it this way, I'll be absolutely f***ing astonished if we score 35 goals from midfield this season. what we on atm? about 25?

That's pretty standard tbh. Man Utd have done the same for quite a while now. Most Man Utd fans are glory hunting cockneys anyway, most of manchester support the blue half. I bet quite a fair few thousand of Man Utds attendances are just tourists i've lived in Manchester 14 years or so now, the overwhelming majority are man utd, or certainly in my area.

8 wins gives us 90 points. has anyone ever not gone up with 90 points?

where is this from?

Agreed.

There's no way he's here come September if benitez is still manager.

Thick as fuck.

Did I mishear, or did caulkin say he has it from sources within the club that there has been an awakening and, should rafa go, they'll go for another high profile manager? What the fuck is the point in that?? We won't get any better or higher profile, just don't fuck him over and you're golden.

Okay then, this season we have beat the following by a one goal margin: Bristol City (1-0) Norwich (4-3) Rotherham (1-0) Preston (2-1) Cardiff (2-1) Burton (2-1) Brentford (2-1) Derby (1-0) Thats 2/5 of our 20 wins this season that have been by a narrow margin. Compare that to the pack chasing us? I get s*** scared with us leading a game by only 1- Villa (sky?) Norwich (narrow,sky) hull , forest (sky>) ,Blackburn (Sky) Qpr (sky) and derby (Sky) Norwich wasn't on sky but Brighton, Leeds and Derby were, and we were very good in all 3.

This.

let's get back to the football please, lets hope this is now put to bed until the season is finished.

not how i read it mind.

i'm the same. i love the fact rafa doesnt give a f*** and is going up against him, it'll be interesting to see how it pans out, but i'm past worrying about it, going to enjoy the rest of the season with rafa and see what happens. if it does go down that road i hope rafa doesn't jack in at the first hurdle and makes it into a popularity contest basically, would be so much better than him just walking away ashley needs a taste of the vitriol i hope he'll receive if he manages to f*** things up Agreed. His Liverpool power struggle shows he's up for sticking it out, that went on for ages, so let's hope he does the same (if it comes to it).

i'm the same. i love the fact rafa doesnt give a f*** and is going up against him, it'll be interesting to see how it pans out, but i'm past worrying about it, going to enjoy the rest of the season with rafa and see what happens.

He's played this game before at Liverpool with the Gareth Barry /Robbie Keane thing. He knows what he's doing. Good on him. It'll be interesting to see what Ashley's move is.

Press clearly briefed by rafa. He doesn't give a fuck does he? It's great.

Or maybe that he knows that there is s*** times ahead. maybe, it still suggests he isn't going anywhere.

the full interview transcript isnt anywhere near as alarming mind. using language like 'we must stick together' doesn't suggest he's about to walk.

he'll be gone by the end of the week if they're stitching him up. It'll all unravel very quickly.

i totally agree, it appears the manager didn't want any though, he wanted players who were prem ready. You honestly believe Rafa didn't want more boddies in midfield if we were willing to get then? Or do you not think any opinion he has is based on the restrictions he has placed on him by Ashley? He also said he only wanted Prem ready players in earlier in the window when he still young and nieve, he thought he was getting atleast 2 in back then. He'll put on a brave face but he repeated yesterday that he wanted at least 2 in and that it was all on the board whether he gets them or not. his crack from December sounds pretty categoric, whether that opinion changed or not i've no idea, and nor has anyone else tbh. I'd like to think he wasn't just being ashley's mouthpiece though, we've had enough of them. i think we should have brought more competent bodies in for sure, prem ready or not. Guess we'll see how this plays out over the next week or so, we just have to hope he doesn't feel (and hasn't been) stitched up.

i totally agree, it appears the manager didn't want any though, he wanted players who were prem ready.