Mick

Are you asking if Keegan is a shit manager?

Of course we needed quality forwards, I have no idea why we wasted so much time trying to replace Bramble, Bernard, Moore and Gooch when we only had Michael Owen coming back from injury and Boro's highest scorer of the previous season (I think) coming in. The stupid bastards would have probably wasted more time looking for creativity in midfield if they had more time instead of going for forwards, totally clueless.

It's great that you've been proven right so soon, well done.

I'm not sure I'd go that far but he'd be the one I'd drop.

I'd rather have Keegan seeking tallent, I'm not sure how much say he'll have with the new setup, Keegan has a record at this club which is second to none.

The only surprise is that you took the bait.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/884/guinnessbookkeeganup4.jpg

2nd Jan, Man City at home.

That shouldn't matter, even if true. What he does for 90 minutes of a game is the only thing that should matter.

This is like the chicken and the egg, why make runs if you know your team mates can't find you?

I remember not so long ago that people weren't too concerned that we'd lost away to Reading.

You're showing your age, I guess I am by knowing what you're getting at.

Restricting people to only one choice of who to leave out is like a mild form of torture while we're playing Butt, Smith and Barton on a regular basis.

I agree about the Allardyce appointment, he wasn't a recognised serial failure like his previous two appointments, very few if any could have seen the way things would go with him. The Barton transfer was put on hold while the greedy bastard held out for his loyalty bonus, a bonus we had to pay in the end to get the transfer through, it had nothing to do with a sell to buy policy. I'm also sure we brought somebody in for £6 million while the Dyer transfer looked to be going nowhere after we had problems with the way West Ham were trying to do the deal.

I think we're launching the ball forward aimlessly less that we were under Allardyce, we actually had more possession in midfield yesterday than Man U had although it came to nothing. 43% of our possession was in midfield against Man U who had just under 42%. It's far from attractive because of who we've got playing in the middle and that isn't going to change this season unless a kid comes in and does something that the cloggers aren't doing.

Carroll is ineffective most of the time because even when he wins the ball with a header it goes nowhere because we rarely win the second ball. He's a god prospect but have we got the players who can help him and bring him through to realise his potential? At least Keegan is trying to get the team to play the ball on the ground which should benefit Martins and Owen more than Owen and a tallish player.

I think the team is desperate for a hero, we've got no pace and are struggling for goals, Martins can bring both of those if he's given enough chances during a game. He's the only forward we've got who might be able to get behind a defender and cause problems for the opposition keeper.

I agree with that, how many times did Man u just walk straight through our midfield?

We would probably get told to piss off but I'd try for Mascherano, Carrick, Bentley and a forward, I doubt we'd get any of them though.

OK.

Signing Diarra would have been a good move, Keeping Allardyce would only have been a good move for the reasons previously mentioned. The confidence of the players was shot to pieces long before he left the club.

What relevance has Shearer to the topic?

We didn't have Shearer last season.

I agree with him to a certain extent but life isn't that simple. The loss of the creativity and speed of Solano and Dyer is having a massive impact on this season. Those two players would have made a huge difference against a lot of teams because they offered what we're struggling for, something different, something that can change a game. Dyer blew hot and cold but he could keep the opposition worried because of his pace, Martins can do that but he's as erratic as Dyer and doesn't play enough, again, like Dyer. Nobby could find a pass better than anybody at our club and could so easily turn defence into attack with one ball. We rarely do that these days, if ever. We’ve got too many cloggers in the team and have no balance, we’ve too many players who are the same type of player and because of that they cancel anything out that the other brings. Butt, Barton and Smith are terrible together but would offer something different if they had a Solano or Dyer in with them.