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yeah, I've escaped to Heaton for the purposes of uni, but I still come into contact with the fuckers on a day-to-day basis It's like they've got diseases!

No, he's being frozen out Villarreal atm and it seems the clubs in Spain don't want anything to do with him (or did but have since moved on - Athletic Madrid being one of them). Italy would actually be perfect for him but the big 4/5 don't need him and why would he want to go the rest of the teams in Serie A? The Bundesliga is pretty much out of the question so what's left is just England. Typical Sam signing too btw.

I'm sure it was Giggs Keane Scholes Beckham for quite a while at Man Utd with Yorke and Cole upfront or whoever. Though Scholes didn't exactly sit that deep whilst playing in the center of midfield, the whole team was essentially functioning as a 4-4-2 - this is the formation that I envisage Riquelme could probably fit in very well. Anyhow, I agree with others, Sam will eventually switch to 4-3-3 and bringing in Riquelme would be a big step in that direction.

Why won't he be suited to a 4-4-2? Just let him control the attack and let the other central midfielder do the defensive work. Scholes anyone? Both are defensively inept, both do not boast pace as one of their better attributes but both have an eye for a goal and a real eye for a pass. Obviously they are two different players in terms of how they actually contribute offensively but I don't see a reason why Riquelme would not flourish in a 4-4-2 if the rest of the team is set up right.

Line up 4-4-2 with Zoggy and Milner on the right wings and I say 2-0 to us. We have the ability to open teams up and our strikers are way more clinical than theirs. I reckon we have better players than them, on paper anyhow, in every single position. All of which should lead to a win for us. And a comfortable win because Allardyce will have learnt his lesson about playing for a point and about the needless fiddling around with the midfield.

It is a massive game in terms of local rivalry, but Arsenal and Liverpool will put a dent in our season anyhow so that's why I don't consider this game that crucial, especially this early into the season. Obviously 3 points will be great, but we're what? 10 games into the season? The return fixture will be much much more important (because they'll be nearing relegation and we'll hopefully be contending for a place in Europe).

I can. I sometimes think it's the club's Achilles Heel - the inability of fans to see the bigger picture and exhibit patience and support for what is clearly going to be a longer term rebuilding project. As Mort said, chopping and changing has got us absolutely nowhere. Sam said when he was appointed that there would be tough times ahead. Deep down when I heard him saying that I knew there'd be a section of the fanbase who would object to that instantly. What Mort should have said is, chopping and changing and making the wrong choice of manager has got us nowhere. Man City went through exactly the same process as us in the summer, new owner, new manager, and new players. The excuse that we did not have time to buy the players Allardyce wanted because the new owner/chairman wasn't up to speed, doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in the new chairman/owner. The truth is Man City have chopped and changed managers as much as us, but they made the right choice in Sven, a proven big club manager with quality trophies in his CV, whilst we yet again went for the cheap option of giving a "wannabe" a chance at the big time. As for those who say we will buy the players we need to turn the side around in the Jan window, we know from past experience that clubs just don't sell their best players then, so I would advise you all not to hold your breath waiting for quality signings because it just isn't going to happen. As for being patient, as a long suffering supporter and former season ticket holder when we were really really sh*t, isn't 40 years long enough to start expecting better! Manchester City already had a good settled spine to their team to build from. We didn't unfortunately. no they didn't they had a centre half (their captain), micah richards and a couple of young keepers. we had the debt and the missmanagement though. Dunne, Richards, Johnson, Hamann, Ireland and Mpenza is their spine at the moment, and its the same spine they had for much of last season. I disagree here. Just going off stats, Ireland started only 14 league games, Johnson started 10, Mpenza started 9 (and only scored one) and Hamann started only 12! Their spine actually consisted of Dunne, Richards, Barton, Distin and fucking Darius Vassell (started 28 games). So they actually have lost half of their 'spine' from last season.

No, it's too early in the season. I remember a 2-0 at St. James' during SBR's time that was more important in terms of us recovering from a dreadful start and going on to do something. Roeder's 4-1 was also probably more important in terms of us going on and clinching a place in Europe. This game, in the long run, will have a negligible impact on our season. On the other hand, it might be a big game for them because they're not likely to get many more points this season, are they?

Typical Sam signing. Old, seemingly washed out but still enough left in the tank. Then he comes to the Premiership and lights it up (see Djorkaeff, Campo, Okacha etc.) Edit - but of course Riquelme has way more potential than Okacha, Djorkaeff etc. so if he does light it up, we'll be fun to watch, and we'll be good too - damn good in fact.

Wow. Mort continues to impress me everytime I read one of his interviews. Talks so much sense and most of what he says is very pertinent. We're definitely heading in the right direction with him in charge blueyes.gif

For live scores and stuff people could just go to www.livescore.com Very useful and covers nearly every possible league.

I don't think anyone would argue that Allardyce should stay regardless of results or performances. Roeder's team had showed no progress since he took over, hell, it went backwards from the initial 2-0 win over Pompey, which is why he was rightly sacked (or resigned - whatever). If Allardyce's team shows an improvement in performance, or shows some sort of direction, then I'm willing to trust him and give him a couple of seasons. If, of course, the team's regressed and still direction-less like it was when he was appointed, then he's got to go in time. Using that reasoning, the fact that we are currently worse than the first 45 mins away at Bolton means that Allardyce deserves to be sacked. It wasn't only the result you idiot, it was the performance in that game, and the other games during that period. I can't believe you responded to what I wrote literally.

I don't think anyone would argue that Allardyce should stay regardless of results or performances. Roeder's team had showed no progress since he took over, hell, it went backwards from the initial 2-0 win over Pompey, which is why he was rightly sacked (or resigned - whatever). If Allardyce's team shows an improvement in performance, or shows some sort of direction, then I'm willing to trust him and give him a couple of seasons. If, of course, the team's regressed and still direction-less like it was when he was appointed, then he's got to go in time.

It's mind boggling that fans like yourself are only willing to give the manager 10 games to change his mindset! f***'s sake man, he's been in one mindset for about 15 years and you expect all that to change in what? 2 months? Give him some time. He's shown that he does realize the weaknesses we have in the team, and in time, I have faith that he'll show that he's very adaptive and will turn this club around. If we win the next couple of games what are the odds that you won't be concluding, already, after 10 games, that we won't be making it into Europe next season? Well Sam himself has said on more than one occaision that he cut his cloth accordingly at Bolton. If after 5 months in charge of the club he hasn't noticed that his resources and demands are somewhat greater than at the Reebok, and therefore the cloth needs cutting differently he never will. (not saying he should go btw) What about the possibility that he just hasn't been able to make us play the kind of way he envisioned because we don't have the players for it? The whole summer was driven towards acquiring the necessary backroom staff, setting up the foundations for everything, ridding ourselves of the overpaid underachievers and then lastly solidifying the defence. Come the next transfer window I bet Sam will know that we need to acquire a good attacking center midfielder and probably a right winger as well. And if he does that, who knows eh? It took SBR two signings to transform the whole side and maybe it'll take only that much in the next window to do the same for us.

Not completly fair, he was also caught up in the sale of the club which delayed transfers etc. Yet still spent over £25 million, £11 million net and brought in 9 players. And cleared out a shitload of deadwood from the SBR, Souness and Roeder days combined. Give him time, it's been one transfer window and 2 months into a season! Jesus Christ do we deserve to be in the position we are in or what?!

It is true that Allardyce does have a lot to answer for in terms of baffling team selection and negative tactics, but other than that, everything he's done has been really good. Just look at what he's done in the transfer window! We have a whole new defence, and apart from Beye who seems to need some time to adapt, who have all turned out to be astute signings. Zoggy's form has also improved massively from last year and he seems to be back on track again. And of course this is not mention everything that's gone on off the field (Clarkie leaving! ) and his new backroom staff. If we take the medium-long term view then we'll all see that we are heading in the right direction.

It's mind boggling that fans like yourself are only willing to give the manager 10 games to change his mindset! Fuck's sake man, he's been in one mindset for about 15 years and you expect all that to change in what? 2 months? Give him some time. He's shown that he does realize the weaknesses we have in the team, and in time, I have faith that he'll show that he's very adaptive and will turn this club around. If we win the next couple of games what are the odds that you won't be concluding, already, after 10 games, that we won't be making it into Europe next season?

He needs at least a couple of seasons. Honestly, anything shorter than that would be a disgrace. Unless we're in serious relegation trouble or anything of that sort, he deserves two seasons to turn us around on the pitch and probably more importantly atm, off the pitch. Anything less would be as Mort says, very short-sighted.

Should be a good game at Anfield. If Besiktas can somehow nick a goal it'll make my week Honestly not the best of games this week, except maybe the Barca Rangers game but that's tomorrow anyway. Today I'm just hoping Liverpool lose.

Umm, it's perfectly acceptable for him to say that. Hell, it's the kind of thing I wish some of our players started saying! At least he has his priorities straight and knows what actually matters in football.

Maybe I was just too excited for my own good then...

You're talking shit. And I bet you weren't saying that in the summer after he was coming off a good season and was a free agent.

Emre's car is really not subtle. Saw him driving into St. James' on Saturday. Usually people tend to mess around with the plates, like 3mr3 or something but his massive black 4x4 just said 'EMRE'

Bringing this thread back seeing as we're all quite frustrated with what's going on atm. Many people, me included, need to realize that it's going to take time for us to move forward. So much has changed since last year, just look at this thread! This was still a time when Shepherd was still our chairman and there was a shitload of deadwood at the club at the time. This year will be a year of transition, and Allardyce deserves at least a season after this to show that he can change the club around. Nothing will happen overnight and all of us needs to accept this and show some fucking patience.

oml, fuck me, have you ever thought of applying for a coaching position at the club? You and johnnypd would sort out this lot, that's for sure. You're defo right about going back to the basics i.e. sticking a right winger on the right, a left winger on the left and playing dynamic and balanced center midfielders. Allardyce is fiddling around too much with the midfield - what a tit. Barton was shite, can't believe he actually started. I mean, after 10 minutes you could see he needed fucking hours on the ball to make a fucking decision. And then whenever he actually decided to do something, it was shite. Even Butt, who perenially gives the ball away, gave it away less than Barton did. Wtf was Emre doing on the bench for 60 minutes? Why did Allardyce wait that long to make an offensive substitution? Did he need the PA guy to announce that it was 3-1 and that we were being dominated before he was going to do something about it? Too slow, too stuck in his ways - a feature he's exhibited quite a few times this season now. Change quick Sammy or you won't be here long. He's also not doing himself any favours as well with the defensive tactics away from home. Just frustrating because he does seem to know better; he speaks a good game and usually is able to identify where we were weak (or at least says it to the fans) but then game time comes and he does stupid shit like stick Milner on the left. Now any defender with a brain will know that a) Milner's slow as fuck, so b) he will not be trying to take the ball to the byline. They'll also know that c) Milner's favourite move is the cut-back so even if by some miraculous divine intervention he gets past the defender, he will cut back to his right foot to cross it. Which all leads to Milner being useless as fuck even though he had a lot of touches in the first half. Now imagine if Zoggy had had all those touches; all those chances 1 v 1 with Pamarot (or whoever it was playing RB for them), all those chances to try to get to byline and deliver a good cross for our lethal striker Owen, or to cut in and try a shot (which he's shown he can do - think Boro away this season). It was just obvious from the start that this wasn't going to work. Everytime Milner cut back, he had to pass it into center midfield or to just outside the area, so Owen/Smith had to drop back and pick the ball up from there with their backs towards goal and the rest of our players pretty much static because the ball was going backwards. It hasn't worked on the many occasions he's tried it this season so what made Allardyce think it was going to work against Pompey?! The next game cannot come fast enough. I just wanna see some fight now, some spirit, some and most importantly, some ambition (players + manager). Edit - Re: the actual topic (Mickey), he was pretty shit but then what do you expect from a midget playing 30 meters away from his favourite area, and up against Sol Campbell? Owen can't do that anymore. He can't sprint away from the defence and his movement is useless when its so far away from goal. When he does create some space for himself, it's too far away from goal for him to actually make use of it. There was one time when someone lobbed a ball forward and Owen was seemingly through on goal, but then when he brought the ball down, he didn't have the acceleration to just power through on goal so he had to slow it down and then try to curl it past James, which of course because he's not the hardest striker of the ball, struggled to and was easily saved. The Owen of old would have sprinted away and slotted it into the bottom corner. The newer Owen requires that ball to land closer to goal so he can actually utilize the time he has created for himself, but he can't do anything now if he's 20+ yards away from goal!!