Mick

Our fans deserve better than this shit.

Our movement off the ball doesn't get any better, do we want the ball?

Listen to the TV then you can watch replays if anything happens.

Both teams are terrible so it will look like Scottish football.

If it wasn't for him, Bobby would have won the FA Cup with us.

Poyet must be due a defeat against us.

I hope your faith in him pays off, I doubt it though.

I'll trust what I've seen from Shola for the last 12 years to form an opinion, thanks.

If he's not in our plans then he shouldn't be in the squad.

Ranger would at least offer some movement and offer a threat up front, something I don't expect from Shola.

Ranger and Campbell would both be better choices so yes.

The same thing could be said about anybody defending Shola starting up front.

We didn't have to play shola up front, that's my only real problem with the starting 11.

You're right and it's a good thing.

Marveaux on the bench, why? I hope he is being protected.

Shola, Christ.

I'm not bothered what happens today as long as we don't get a replay, that said, it's easy for me to say I'm not bothered because I've invested nothing in the game. I hope we slaughter Brighton for those who have travelled because I know how bad it feels to travel distances for nothing. I used to set off for most away games early Saturday morning when the nightclubs closed and would get back on a Sunday morning because we would find a nightclub on the Saturday night before travelling back home. It was always a good weekend, usually in spite of the football as the games were rarely memorable, especially after so much alcohol had been consumed. Thinking about it, I don’t know how our bodies survived as we’d drink from 6pm on the Friday until 2am on the Saturday. Drive to the game in a car with a boot full of beer and go to the first pub we could find at 11am and drink until we went to the match. I remember once when it took us 8 hours to drive to Norwich as we went down in 2 cars and probably stopped every 10 minutes on the motorway for somebody to have a p*ss. We would drink at some grounds but not many actually sold beer to away fans so we were sometimes dry until the pubs opened again at 6pm on the Saturday. Then we would be drinking until 2am on the Sunday when we would finally drive home without any beer. Who was driving Mick?! It changed by game so it wasn't always the same person who had to stay sober, I hated driving because a car full of drunken bastards singing all of the way to the game is no fun. Being a brunken bastard and singing all of the way down was brilliant.

That's a very good point. It's not if Taylor picks up another injury, and if we don't bring in another defender during this window we'll be in the same position as we are now, having to bed a new player in at some time. Debuchy looks capable of fitting straight in anyway so I have few worries on that score, he's not a kid who is still learning the game.

I'd rather win a league game than a cup game in our current position, we don't need any more games than we already have so I don't want a replay. If I had the choice of winning one of Brighton or Norwich and losing the other, I'd take a loss this weekend while still preferring to win.

I'm not bothered what happens today as long as we don't get a replay, that said, it's easy for me to say I'm not bothered because I've invested nothing in the game. I hope we slaughter Brighton for those who have travelled because I know how bad it feels to travel distances for nothing. I used to set off for most away games early Saturday morning when the nightclubs closed and would get back on a Sunday morning because we would find a nightclub on the Saturday night before travelling back home. It was always a good weekend, usually in spite of the football as the games were rarely memorable, especially after so much alcohol had been consumed. Thinking about it, I don’t know how our bodies survived as we’d drink from 6pm on the Friday until 2am on the Saturday. Drive to the game in a car with a boot full of beer and go to the first pub we could find at 11am and drink until we went to the match. I remember once when it took us 8 hours to drive to Norwich as we went down in 2 cars and probably stopped every 10 minutes on the motorway for somebody to have a piss. We would drink at some grounds but not many actually sold beer to away fans so we were sometimes dry until the pubs opened again at 6pm on the Saturday. Then we would be drinking until 2am on the Sunday when we would finally drive home without any beer.

I must admit that I can't wait to see how much of a difference it will make to us going forward. Especially once we have Cabaye and Ben Arfa back in the side and somebody other than Mike Williamson in the centre of our defence. Williamson must be replaced, Debuchy will be miles out of position at times and he'll need somebody to cover for him at the back if we're not going to get caught out like we currently do when Simpson plays. Replace Williamson with a competent defender and the whole back 4 will change in its effectiveness. Coloccini will not have to be all over the back and Santon will have a rock next to him so he’ll also gain more freedom. The whole dynamics of our defence will instantly change if we finally upgrade Williamson.

Clough was always the same, pissed or not. He's the best manager this country has produced while I've been watching football. Here's an interview where he's clearly sober and he doesn't give a shit what he says.

Let's hope it's third time lucky for him then because his record is shit in the FA Cup against lower league teams with us fielding strong but unmotivated teams. Stevenage beat us 3-1 and our clown moaned that our players were running on empty and we had some big players missing. Our team that evening was Krul, Coloccini, Williamson, Simpson, Perch, Nolan, Barton, Routledge, Smith (replaced by Tiote who was sent off), Lovenkrands and Best. Should that not have been enough "Big players" to beat a league 2 side? Last season we went down to Brighton and lost with Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Perch, Santon, Ben Arfa, Guthrie, Cabaye, Best, Shola and Jonas. Pardew was moaning that we hadn't won because we didn't have Coloccini, Tiote, Cisse or Ba which is a bit worrying because it looks like he'll have none of them today.

Nonsense. Given his degenerative knee condition it's not unreasonable that Ba wants to maximise his income while he still can. Anyone who thinks he should have turned down an extra 30-40k a week offer to join the current Champions of Europe is living in fantasy land - apart from Shola there isn't a player in our squad who would turn down a move like that to stay at SJP. Ba did well while he was at SJP. The club agreed to his release cause and if the team suffered because he didn't want to play out wide that's Pardew's fault for being a weak manager. Agreed.

He's not even good enough as a third choice, he's injured far too often and isn't capable of playing a good 90 minuted. A third choice chould be capable of putting 90 minutes in when needed and he's not.