Ashley17

The season we went down we were awful and many of the overpaid shite would have stayed and played poorly for a lot of money. The season in the Championship was fun and got the fans back on side, it was nice not having your weekend ruined and I began to like our squad again. Of all the transfer decisions Ashley/Llambias have made since we were promoted there's very few that haven't proved correct, although it's too early to tell. Right now selling Carroll for £35m looks smart as fuck, getting rid of the inexperiened but very likeable Hughton for a more experiend man in Pardew is also starting to look like a good decision, but we could just as easy lose the next 5 and the whole argument will turn on it's head. I still don't buy into this "Ashley will sell our best players at the drop of a hat" argument just yet. We've sold Milner & Carroll for daft money, got rid of Barton because by all accounts he was becoming a problem in the dressing room (if the rumours are true about the Leeds game) and sold Nolan for footballing reasons. If he does sell half the team in January, then obviously that is a cunt's trick and people will rightfully be furious. I guess it's easier to understand their decisions when things are rosy on the pitch, but when things are going wrong the ammunition is there for everyone

That relegation has proved to be the best thing that ever happened to us. Well, sort of. Looking at it long term we're in a better situation now than we were when that season ended even if we had stayed up by a cats pube

England have San Marino in the next WC qualifying campaign, Rooney could be half way to those 22 after those two games.

Still can't believe Warnock bought all these creative has-beens and has protected them with Sean Derry

QPR think they're Arsenal. Just fucking hit it man

The fuck?

How does Albrighton not get in this Villa team? McLeish is a ridiculous man.

Love that report about all our goals coming from long balls. The first was Coloccini dinking one over the top into the channel for Best, the second was from a cleared freekick. The third was from a delivery very similar to our goal at Villa, nice that Tiote has some guile in his game as well. We did kick it long from some goal kicks but once we had the territory it was all very neat and tidy. The couple of moves after Ben Arfa came on were fantastic to watch, as was the spell later on when we kept the ball for ages. On the one hand people were getting a little annoyed we weren't trying to smash 5 or 6 but there's a lot to be said for just being professional and killing the game. There's not too much to say about the game that hasn't been said already, our full backs are definitely the weak link but it worries me to say Ryan Taylor is perfoming better out of position than Simpson is performing in his natural position. I've no doubt Simpson is the better player but his current form is terrible. Obertan reminds me a bit of Kieron Dyer, very direct but nowhere near as intelligent in his use of the ball. I was watching the 02/03 DVD the other night and the amount of our goals that came from Dyer running the channels and playing it to a Solano or Bellamy was phenomenal. Obertan gets into a lot of similar positions but he's always looking to run inside rather than take the full back on outright. His pace is very useful though and he's worth sticking with, he wins a fair bit in the air as well. Pardew seems to like him too as he rarely subs him. Pleased Ba's got his mojo back, took the first goal inparticular really well. Bit of a conundrum now as both strikers are in the goals and Ben Arfa's going to play in the number 10 role sooner or later. Probably stick with 4-4-2 until we need to change it, but away from home I wouldn't be upset if we went to 4-2-3-1 or whatever you want to call it.

Aye as cover, sort of surprised Pardew didn't go in for him given his comments about us needing someone who can cover 3 or 4 positions. He's a jack of all trades but a master of none to use a horrible gay cliche.

"Shay Given had absolutely no chance" as the replay shows Given getting across fairly comfortably.

Was good to see him back, tries to do too much sometimes but it's often how it is with class players. Going to be a huge asset.

Really starting to adore this team like I did the 01/02 team, nice supporting players you actually like. Sat in the Leazes yesterday, we're quite fluid but still room for improvement. The abuse Simpson gets is something else

Blackburn are home to Spurs on Sunday 23rd and away to Norwich on Saturday 29th. So er yeah...read into that what you will.

That's not really a home draw though is it lads?

No you can listen to 5Live allllll the time

If we can get through that, there's at least 2 Championship sides in the quarters. We have to get a home draw eventually ffs

Wolves vs Man City Cardiff vs Burnley Blackburn Rovers vs Newcastle Arsenal vs Bolton Stoke vs Liverpool Aldershot vs Man Utd Palace vs Southampton Everton vs Chelsea

There's so much shit still in this, which will make it all the more annoying when we get drawn at the Emirates

Well played.

I've put him in, at 5.4 his value can only go up you would think, and he's replacing Obertan in my squad who does nothing anyway. I doubt you'll get much better for that price.

Our league fixture following this is on the Monday night (Stoke away) so hopefully less of a need to rest players if it's tough. Don't want a repeat of last year's humping at this stage.

Barca had offisde training from Shola and Best this week?

I'd say there's no way Marveaux will start, likewise HBA. Probably be the same team that started at Villa with Marv & HBA getting cameos in the second half.

Got away with it/cursed with him for 3 more games, however you look at it.