Mick

I read somewhere last night that he'd passed his medical and West Ham were waiting for his medical records, it might have nothing to do with cash unless they've found something and want to re-negotiate.

It's a good move for him, he can probably still train with us during the week and get up to Falkirk for the games which will not unsettle him too much.

That same person can come on at 1-0 up and disrupt the game if we're under pressure, the same player can come on if we're struggling and give us a lift with just one tackle. He wasn't really my ideal choice to replace Dyer but he does have a few good points.

Nobby's face.

Where did that come from? 12th next season is better than the 13th before but I hope we do better than that. We're now in a poor position, sorry were a month or so ago, Mort did not take over a team who were 2nd top of the league.

I think we just retained that trophy but Doug Ellis kept his for finishing above us more while him and Shepherd were leading the clubs.

Allardyce said something along the lines of Mort taking too long to move, that has turned into him not being backed, try again, nobody is denying what actually was said.

Getting into the top 4 would be brilliant but it will take a lot of hard work, let's hope that we do it, maybe then you'll be able to move on. Shepherd has gone and I'm over the moon about that. The fact that he's gone doesn't mean we're going to automatically do better, that goes without saying but I'm not going to worry about things going wrong before they do, especially when things are going in the right direction, you need to relax a bit, doom and gloom from you doesn't mean things will not get better so try and see some positives and move on.

I'm sure he mentioned getting into Europe regularly, we'll not do that from 9th unless we get to cup finals regularly, something that you should be happy with.

Them 30 odd years were not good enough and that 50,000 was closer to 52,000 the season before.

I'll make another guess, Allardyce will not get sacked a few games into the season if we finish 4th, 3rd then 5th, he certainly will not be told that he's on his last year after doing that.

Shepherds league finishes for completed seasons are 14th x 1, 13th x 3, 11 x 2, 7th x 1, 5th x 1, 4th x 1 & 3rd x 1, I'll guess that we'll beat at least 6 of those league placings in the coming season, that will be better than 60% of our league finishes over the last 10 years.

What is?

I've never seen "fact" used so often to express an opinion, it's your opinion that quality invariably costs money, it can cost money but you can also get it on a free, it's your opinion that Allardyce has been set a budget yet we're being told from within the club he hasn't. None of that is fact, it's an opinion.

He's now probably thinking "I wish I'd asked Woodgate about Newcastle."

"He's a manager who gets the very best out of his players and I'm sure we'll see the very best of Alan Smith at Newcastle."

If he's got real problems then I hope it goes well for him, if he's lying then a broken leg would come in handy.

Dyer will be the better of those 3 if he keeps his fitness.

I'm sure he didn't mean you. I'm really struggling to understand the people who are appearing to be gutted because we've spent nothing. Personally, I was pissed off when we spent money on players who left at a massive loss, we might even make a profit on a few at this rate.

You're right, I can't understand people complaining because we've spent next to nothing, it's not what you spend, it's what you get and it looks like we've done a good job which isn't often said when talking about our club.

I might be wrong but it seemed to be a male thing, the French females I've known were not too bad, they were huffy but not unhygienic like the lads. French males seem to think hygiene is some sort of greeting.

Are they all dirty ignorant bastards or would that be too much of a generalisation?

We've never done it.