Mick

One of the few things they've done so far which has been proven is that when they say they put money in, they put money in and we should see a new set of accounts any day now.

If we were making a £7 million a month profit, why did Ashley have to put £20 million in at the end of October?

Have they put Boro on again?

He might be on his mobile, for some reason mine doesn't show up as being a phone, probably because I use Opera.

Sunderland had 25,190 and 8,000 were from Barrow.

Us having lost Geremi to the same competition more than balances that out.

Sorry, I think I'd fallen asleep by then.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

I wonder what he was trying to do.

Nothing.

No such luck.

This game sounds dire, I feel sorry for the people who have travelled to watch it.

Maybe so but probably right.

I heard our lot singing "One Bobby Robson" a few minutes ago.

It looks like our latest signing is having a mare.

Nicky Butts first touch ends up with us being put under pressure, no surprise about that.

Sad but true.

I think most of us over estimated this division so I think Shearer didn’t get the job because he wanted to keep more of the players who got us relegated than Llambias or Ashley would allow. I think we’ll get away with it this season and pay for it next when we come back down. As for what Hughton has had to put up with, having no players coming in isn’t really true, he’s had three loan players in who I can only think were his choices and we’ve signed two other players, one on a 3 year contract and one until the end of the season. We no longer have a Director of Football so Hughton must have sanctioned incoming players. I’m not too sure that our best players have left us; I think only 2 of them were worth keeping anyway, Beye and Bassong. Martins just didn’t deliver and Owen (who Shearer dropped) doesn’t even need talking about, the same goes for Viduka, Duff and Edgar. I don’t see what not having a permanent manager has to do with anything; it may have helped as Hughton wasn’t under any pressure to do well. The club being for sale was the same last year but again we’re not in the Premiership, we’re in the Championship and we’ve got away with is because of that. And key players haven’t been injured much so far this season, we missed our two centre backs and shola but we’ve still brought in players who should be better than the opposition. As for motivation, I’m sure that I read a few quotes from players saying that they got together as a team and talked about what they were going to do. I’m sure it was the players who sat down together to discuss this season and told whoever didn’t want to stay at the club to leave the meeting. Here’s the quotes from Alan Smith “We went to Leyton Orient and it was a disaster. But everything came to a head. It was clear that five or six of the players wanted to leave, which was fair enough. We had a meeting when we came back from the game - just us players. We said whoever wants to leave, they can leave, and we’ll help them to go. Whoever wants to stay then commit yourself to stay. That’s where we are now. That was a massive turning point. In a way getting that bad result was the best thing that could have happened. It was what needed to happen. It was one of the strangest things ever. We were managing ourselves. Chris knew that we were having that meeting and he stood back and let us sort things out.” As for Hughton being very calm and professional, I agree with you, that doesn’t make him any better than he is. We’re doing better than I expected but again, I over estimated this division. I also think we’re doing better in spite of Hughton, not because of him, I hope he proves me wrong.

Shearer managed us under the same circumstances and has slightly better results. As for Hughton this season, what has he done that stands out? He hasn't done anything which I can think of which has made me think he’s done anything special. We’ve been terrible for more games than not and he seems to be incapable of either recognising that or doing anything about it. The players can rarely put in 90 minutes and we’ve got players who while being shit for the Premiership are more than good enough for this league. I could be wrong but we look as if we're not fit and that reminds me of when Shearer first came in and was criticising our fitness and discipline, or lack of it. Hughton is only here because he’s a yes man and he’ll end up going because of that. I doubt very much that he’ll still be our manager this time next year as he hasn’t got the balls to make tough decisions and he’ll do whatever he’s told. We can score goals and keep clean sheets but we’ve got a terribly static midfield yet Hughton has prioritised strengthening our defence and forward line, it doesn’t look as if the midfield is even on his radar. That’s probably because the midfield is where we have our most experienced players. I don’t think he’s got it in him to stand up to them and upset them; he’ll avoid making tough decisions.

Was that the tournament that we beat Liverpool and then lost to Tranmere? If it was then I was at Wembley for that couple of games and it was weird sharing Wembley with fans from so many clubs. We went clubbing on the Friday night and travelled down at 2am when the club closed. We parked up at Wembley then got the tube into central London and started drinking all over again until we had to go back for the matches, which were crap. I'm sure the mackems were in it because I seem to remember seeing loads of them on the way down but didn't see any once we hit London.

I think you can have 8 in total and if you take a player on permanently then that player is no longer classed as being on loan so you can technically have more than 8. For instance, if we permanently signed Simpson he would no longer be classed as having been here on loan.

I would have more faith in Shearer than Hughton.

I detest that advert; I could easily put the screen out on the TV when it comes on. Irrational but true.