Thorpinho

We are not going to get into Europe and we are not going to get relegated, we are going to be midtable this year. Whilst I don't especially like the current management of the team, there isn't a catastrophic amount of harm in giving him until next season to turn it around. Martin O'Neill has shown at Villa that it is possible to go from low midtable to a top 8 side with a bit of time.

Does anybody watch Serie A regularly? I don't but a mate told me recently that week in week out in the league Kaka doesn't actually play that well. If that is actually the case then he shouldn't win it.

I have a question for Joey and the people who think booing should be banned or whatever: As a season ticket holder how can I express to Sam Allardyce and some of the first team squad that I think their attitude towards a lot of games this season has been utterly pathetic, and that its embarrassing to be a supporter when we are going to Reading and Derby to sit deep and "nick something"? NB: this is not a question about whether the attitude has been pathetic or not, its a question as to how a supporter can express their opinion to the people responsible.

I dont give a toss whether he "needs telling how I feel", i pay for it so he can fucking well hear how i feel when he wastes my money.

thats exactly the point i was making - there is no form of communication with the club/staff other than the rather crude booing.

or alex did u not read the bit where it said "if u want to leave early then by all means do"?

what i meant was i dont mind booing at full time - it gets a point across. booing during a game doesnt help. And my issue with early leavers wasnt them leaving, it was them standing up in front of me so i cant see the game that i want to stay and see.

I am fully supportive of booing and chanting "you dont know what your doing at Allardyce". As a season ticket holder I feel I have no plausible way of communicating effectively with the club on any level. The only way to get across my opinion that I utterly detested his decisions on saturday was to shout you dont know what your doing at him, and to boo at full time. I do however think it can go too far at times, and booing during the game when 2/3-0 down just demoralises the players so badly. I also have a MAJOR issue with some early leavers - if you want to go early by all means do, BUT PLEASE DO NOT GET UP TO LEAVE WHEN PLAY IS CONTINUING SO THAT I CAN'T SEE!!!!!!!! This was especially annoying with 35 mins gone on saturday when we were near their area for a change and a whole row of drunken pratts in the leazes think oh this is a great time to ruin it for people behind me.

I would like to address a point made by one or two people in this thread about sven and the people in the media now referring to "what a good job" sven actually did. He was not a good manager, never has been and never will be. He could take an extremely talented and or wealthy side and beat lesser managers. As soon as he came up against any talent in the opposition dugout he failed with england. Makes me feel sick seeing people in the media saying what a good job he did with England, especially after they crucified him.

Does anybody else feel that we are in quite a similar state to when Sir Bobby had been in charge for a year or two? Very midtable, a few players with quality etc. Then 2 or 3 signings in the right places could transform us into a strong force in the premiership?

Im sorry but if we even contemplate wasting money or time on securing jussi then I will strongly advocate sacking allardyce. Would be the most utterly pointless signing and anyone who cannot see that is an idiot.

There have been a couple of threads on here lately about goalkeepers which I frankly find bemusing. We need to be concentrating on other areas wayyyyyyy before the GK position. We have Given, Harper, Krul and Forster for fucks sake! Why is everyone so concerned about this position when clearly we need a world class centre back and high quality attacking players????

oh and actually on the topic of mourinho..........not a chance!

This is such a strange feeling....on the one hand i am happy that mclaren will imminently be unemployed and that many of the England "stars" will have their careers blighted by this, but on the other I am disappointed to be missing out on some good old fashioned summer tournament watching in various pubs etc.

His point that these owners should invest in American 'soccer' if they actually liked football is right. The thing about the adverts every 15 minutes is complete and utter bollocks and will NEVER happen! American football does not stop every 15 minutes so coke can do an advert - they stop at random intervals to CHANGE THEIR LINE UPS ROUND! They have to switch their entire teams from offensive to defensive players when their attack is over, so when this happens they just stick adverts on because nothing is happening! Im starting to wonder who is more of an idiot, Platini or Blatter. Blatters got the experience of being an idiot, but Platini is storming up on the outside with some ridiculous comments lately.

Krul's height will give him an advantage in terms of improving his aerial dominance. There are not a lot of good young goalkeepers around so we should be thankful that we have one of the potentially top keepers in Europe. He should be at a good championship side though rather than cannon fodder up in the SPL.

As Goalkeeper is obviously not even close to being a priority and is a frankly ridiculous suggestion, what position do people think should be the main priority? I would probably go for attacking midfield.

Italian police are an utter disgrace. Italian football in general is an utter disgrace. The reaction to this and related incidents in the past? 2 game stadium bans, 30k fines. Put this in England = football banned forever!

it looks as the moment that Sam has absolutely no idea what he wants his midfield to be. Seems to be a lot of random combinations at the moment hoping for something to work.

If thats what he wants to do and its all part of his grand total points plan that he allegedly has (and had at Bolton) then I guess we will just have to wait and see at the end of the season where he gets us. The biggest problem I have with it is that he is limiting himself and the team. They are capable of winning these games, but the mentality he sends them out with is almost the equivalent of tying their bootlaces together at times.

If it wasn't for the Gallowgate there wouldn't be an atmosphere this season. Yes the i know the 'Ultras' sing, as i sit in the North West Corner of the Leazes but the songs that go around the ground are nearly always started from the Gallowgate Thats a load of bollocks. I sit behind the goal in the leazes and never hear the gallowgate. Theres a little corner that seems to sing, but any of the atmosphere in the leazes comes from level 7. All interaction with the away fans is from the leazes which creates some good atmosphere occassionally. On the subject of foreign stadium atmospheres, those Turkish fans sound awesome (albeit probably dangerously insane). When Fenerbahce were hear last time in the UEFA cup they were mental as well, constantly jumping up and down in unison despite their team doing absolutely nothing.

The fact that I have barely seen the lads play a pass along the deck in the midfield for about 3 years now suggests that Riquelme would not exactly work in our team! Would obviously improve the set pieces beyond measure. He is however very lazy and pretty slow. Once he has the ball great things would happen - its just getting it to him in the first place with our current tactics thats the problem. There will also be better offers for him. That Arshavin guy looked a good player for Russia, good creativity and pace.

Man U fans are the best away fans for variety and quality of songs, not necessarily for constant singing/support. I would love to hear similar levels of imagination when i go to newcastle away games - singing "newcastle newcastle newcastle" over and over and over again (with occasional we are the geordies) is certainly loud enough but isnt exactly imaginative. We need more songs.

These days most title wins are due to money - chelsea most definitely, and Man U spend millions upon millions to make sure they stay up there. I would love to see Arsenal win it this year having not spent so much and for the style they would win it in. If we were to buy loads of world class players and "buy" the title I would be ok with it. If we bought it AND played awesome attacking football I would love it and would not care at all about the money spent. It must be depressing for Chelsea fans to have had the chance of unlimited resources at one stage and to now be regarded as one of the more boring teams in the league.

If the tactics are going to continue the way they currently are (ie long balls from full backs up to the forwards and only using the midfield as a second set of defenders) then Crouch would not be a bad signing at a low price. I would however much rather Sam got his act together and told the players to look for a pass first and then only when playing poorly/chasing games resorting to long balls. At the moment it seems as though he has no faith in the teams ability to play any kind of decent football.