Parky

It's more a light hearted chrismassy lift the spirits of the troops kind of thing Davidos.

Sam:Manmachine?

Bless. He must be looking at his printouts in the early hours wondering what the problem is. Yes get in more defenders!

Haven't seen enough of him to base an opinion. Better than anything we've got? Yes.

Good player and can pass from the back.

All as good as goals. He is not a goalscorer though. None of our central midfielders are really scoring goals, so other variables need to be taken account, and as far as these stats are concerned, Geremi wins the ball in the right places and does something effective with the ball, whereas the same can not be said about Nicky Butt. exactly! Love the way Nicky "can do no wrong" Butt gets treated like the messiah these days, when actually he can't pass a ball to save his life and that costs us possession every time. Geremi is actually capable of far more actually if he raised his game, but he doing a lot better than Butt overall and far better than some people have been making out. I'd replace Butt before Geremeee.

Maybe. Who knows what the future holds. But all that matters to me is that right now MCFC are doing well and i'm going to bloody well enjoy every moment I can. COYB. Fair do's. What do you make of the Anelka interest? He's good. But he's not a young man anymore and the amount of money Bolton would want for him could be better spent on someone with a longer shelf life. I'd rather get a younger, hungrier player. I want City to sign top class young players like Benzema, Modric, Mascherano etc. I read somewhere Svennis will go upto 10m for Nico. Mascherano....??! Have a word.

We might catch Blackburn going through a tricky period.

Maybe. Who knows what the future holds. But all that matters to me is that right now MCFC are doing well and i'm going to bloody well enjoy every moment I can. COYB. Fair do's. What do you make of the Anelka interest?

Good point. Paying off the debt is a very strong sign MA is looking ahead.

No blank chequebook. If he had one of them Georgio Chiellini and Marco Bresciano would have been City players by now. The way I see it. Sven has transformed a team that was complete and utter shite into a team that could go above the Rags tomorrow by adding 4 players to it. Garrido(£1.5m), Corluka(£7m), Elano(£8m) and Petrov(£4.7m) are the only signings he has made who are playing. Of course you can say if you buy enough players enough will come off but really. 6 signings who should be in the team. 4 of them are ever presents, 1 did his knee (£5.7m), and the other I'm at a loss to explain as he looks a good player to me(£8.8m). Net total less than £30m spent on first team players factoring sale of Barton. And less than £16m of that has been shown on the pitch. Is that really so much? Its not all about money. If it were as simple as spending a bit of money everyone would be able to make a side as good as the mighty blues. Of course we needed that injection of quality. But IMO, Whats really made a difference - whats turned us from a midtable side with a couple of good players in it like we could have been (Like we were under Keegan basically) - is the philosphy of Sven. As Richard Dunne put it "I think his way of playing football is different. There are a lot of managers and teams in the Premier League who play `Premier League' football - 100 miles an hour, up and down, without any real control - whereas Sven wants us to have control of the ball at all times. For defenders it is a lot better, we seem to not be under constant pressure this season, and when it goes forward or into midfield the players are passing the ball around and keeping it. I think that has helped the side improve.". He's still after Bresciano and Anelka.

What probably put FS off is that Sven always needs wads of cash. By the end of the Jan window he will have spent £60-70m I reckon.

Bojinov wasn't peanuts either.

We haven't played Liverpool. And I wish we hadn't played Chelsea. ...but ya, Sven is an infinetly superior manager to Allardyce by the looks of things. You know what I think the big difference is. Why we're there and you're there. The takeovers. We both had a managerial vacancy at the end of the season. Difference was, our board was for the off and they knew it. They held off appointing a manager and let the new owner sort it out. Was nervewracking as owt but looking back it was the right thing to do. Shepherd appointed Allardyce, who was probably as good as was available at the time given the circumstances with all the debt - I remember I was gutted when you got him cos for a long time I didn't think the City takeover was going to happen and I wanted him here - but I wonder how things would have been different if Ashley was left to make the appointment (IIRC, Shepherd didn't even know he existed at the time, it came right out of the blue to most...apart from the Hall's...). Would it have gone to Allardyce? Would he have got more backing? I mean, he might have got the job from Ashley as well and it might have worked out the same and it just turns out Sam is a bit shit...but just as likely Ashley could have fucked him off after his interview and appointed Van Gaal or Adrianse or Ramos or even Sven if you beat us to it. I think thats where your chance of doing better this season went up in smoke. Not really. I mean, the accountant might say so but looking at whats on the pitch. Keepers, Richards, Dunne, Hamann, Johnson, Ireland, Mpenza, all left over from last season. The only signings Sven has made that have really made a big, big difference are Elano and Petrov. £12.7m the pair. (Compare: Smith + Barton). Corluka and Garrido are playing too but they're fullbacks and good as they are (especially the former), I think we wouldn't be that far away without them. Others signings have been on the fringes or in the treatment room. achievments? what would they be then? Manager of the month? Why must you turn this forum into a house of lies? He wasn't most peoples first choice. But he was welcome. I personally wouldn't have minded Sven and said so at the time, but the truth is I was also happy with Allardyce although he is a different type of mnager and I still believe is really trying to do something here. Bianchi who you've brushed off was £8.8m iirc. Your point about the takeover however is an excellent one, for me the main motivation for FS was to get a manager who could turn things around on a budget and SA looked ideal, but after the takeover expectations have tripled.

The saviour surely?

I'd say yes he was a great player, but he's overrated by a lot of more modern fans, which is not a surprise really as obviously he's someone they grew up watching. Platini was better than Zidane though. Zidane was better with the head tho innit?

They haven't decided the Jan strategey yet? Wierd imo.

I'm on the record against Edmilky.

I think you're right Parky. France is usually to blame. Prepare the troops. ...and expensive lagers...I refuse to invade without adequate sustenance..! Invade....Bloody catholics!

It's not adequate. We have a very rickety squad.

The only ans to all this is to invade France.

You're not asking for much really are you? A Wenger type manager who plays good football and can get us winning games. Well frig me slightly, why don't you just ring Ashley and tell him? Thank you for saving our season, Kenton