STM

Nothing to suggest we will win this. Nothing to suggest we will lose. Draw 1-1

I'm sure the sale of Given and Milner will cover the money he is having to spend. Perhaps if he hadn't made a pig's ear of running the club we would be in a better financial situation. Sounds like the bloke who says, "what about all the times i haven't cheated , sweetheart".

Exactly. I can see him letting Butt go in the summer (fingers crossed), however i think he will stick with Smith next season, even if it's merely in a rotation basis. On the other hand, a decent bid for Smith would certainly tempt him and Mr Ashley, due to his sizable wages. I'm certain Hughton will sign some new midfielders in the summer, although it will be younger players like O'Hara, Johnson etc that he will target.

I feel sorry for them but hope we can benefit in some way. Even if it's simply by taking a player or two off them in the summer.

There's no way Chelsea would sell someone who will never play for them? Don't kid yourself, he's good but he will never play in the first team for Chelsea for a sustained period. Youth systems aren't just about creating talent for themselves but for making money for the club.

Providing we can keep him "under wraps" and not over rate the player, then we should definately look to sign him on a permenant in the summer. It's the sort of situation the club has refused in the past because we have already got a left back. However, we need a big squad and he looks like he would fit in nicely here. Either sign him up as cheap as possible in the summer or take him on loan for next season.

Doesn't take into account standard of opposition, trohies won or european qualification = pointless.

Which teacher did you prefer at school? The teacher who let you did whatever you want & never even attempted to discipline people or the teacher who told you to shut up & get on with your work? Whilst I don't necessarily want a disciplinarian manager (we've tried that with Souness), I do want a manager who knows what they're doing and who has enough respect from the players that when they're told to do something, they do it instead of forming a committee to decide among themselves what to do. I don't really care what the players want, some of the more senior players have woeful fitness levels that don't seem to be being addressed, we still have players making the most fundamental errors during games (not bothering to look up before passing), too many players still have less movement than a traffic cone. These are really basic parts of the game that haven't been addressed since last season and don't look like they'll ever be addressed by Hughton because he's too willing to let the players get away with doing the absolute minimum necessary. I have no problems with Hughton as a coach and will congratulate him for his efforts to get us promoted at the end of the season, but I want a manager next season, not a friendly coach. I liked the teacher who got the most out of me

Kalinic and Klasnic have both impressed.

I think he will end up at Birmingham. Does anyone think Hughton might flog Ameobi in the summer? Bound to get offers from Championship clubs.

So going from that it could be; Harper Simpson Williamson Coloccini Enrique Smith Nolan Guthrie Jonas Best Carroll Perhaps with Lovenkrands and Van Aanholt included in place of Best and Enrique.

Keane would be a perfect signing. First off he is a goalscorer, next year more goals are a must and Keane would fit that bill. Secondly, he's a striker who likes to drop deep and get on the ball. What i would give to have someone who looked for the ball in our current team. I don't know why people are comparing Ranger and Keane, i know this is Newcastle but surely it's all about having a squad of players.

TBF Watford weren't bad at ours earlier on in the season but most of their play went through Cleverley. I'm looking forward to seeing what Routledge and Jonas offer us away from home.

Spot on Wullie.

It's far more beneficial for Chelsea to let Van Aanholt play games here and develop, rather than to bring him back without a realistic chance to play there. He will have his loan extended. Hopefully Jose will return without problems.

I was thinking that and i actually think Williamson has looked threatening. Matter of time before Williamson gets his first.

GERRRRRIINNN

I thought we were supposed to be the 'Manchester United' of the Championship. It seems West Brom are with all the penalties they get and the amount of extra time in this game. We are the Chelsea, boring as fuck but effective

5 mins added time. West Brom fuck off.

Villa attendance 30k Ours 45k

West Brom deserve to lose. Hope they don't do what we do and nick a point.

I've given him credit and stick. I think he's done reasonably well with his transfers for this division. I also think we should have been looking further ahead than this season and if we couldn't afford better than we brought in then we should have made more use of the loan system because if we go up we'll have players who are nowhere near good enough for the Premiership. I think he's picked some decent starting 11's and picked some stinkers, especially when he goes with our static central midfield, a central midfield which hasn't been improved. I don't think going defensive away from home as often as we do is needed because despite our squad being poor by Premiership standards, we've got the best squad in this division. You can point to Derby away when we were beaten 3-0 with a more attacking line-up but that doesn't tell the full story because Derby scored with almost every shot that they had. We were more defensive against Swansea and got a draw but would have been murdered if they had of scored with as high a goals to shots ratio. What we have done this season has been a success and Hughton must take some credit for that. We cant just look at this season while were in this division as we must plan for next season if were to avoid coming straight back down. If we were in the Premiership and doing well then looking forwards would be less necessary because we would be performing at the level which we all want to see us playing at. Some sensible points there. However, i genuinely believe we would have dropped more points away from home with an attacking approach. Perhaps not now that we have signed Routledge, that helps. Personally i would demote Hughton to assistant if we got promoted and hire someone more experianced. Someone like Erikkson. I doubt it will happen though.

Nar, you think? Burnley, and Hull are at this moment in time the only team I can see keeping Sunderland up, Portsmouth don't need to even be mentioned. It would seem obvious but there is alot of dross down there. Any number of teams could go.

So he's done a poor job or an average job? Average, but far from good enough. So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations. Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

Burnley will get relegated on this showing.