Minhosa

Good shout, I've wondered this for ages too. Seems our first team squad think they're too good for it, if you ask me. Still happens at most other clubs.

Biggest game in years. Wish it was at home as the crowd would be a 12th man. I'd be inclined to chance Owen, his name on the teamsheet will scare the hull defence. If they see Shola's moniker they'll take their morning papers out with them.

Gooch wasn't dreadful.

FIFA = Federation of International Football. If he wants to implement anything here, or even 'influence' as he put's it, he can do the same elsewhere. If he's not embedding the same plans in France, Germany etc he can fuck right off.

I reckon we'd be actively trying to flog Duff and Butt (probably to someone like Birmingham or Wigan) but, either way, with a few decent 'stayers' we'd have enough to come straight back up. Edit - I think Nolan would stay too. Firstly, I think he'd want to and secondly, on a 4 year deal we'd be wanting decent money for him. Nolan and Guthrie in the middle would run 90% of Championship games.

True, but in Reading's case particularly it was the squad that had brought them up in the first place. So they were already prepared for championship football. It'll come down to whether or not Ashley is prepared to take the gamble on us coming straight back up. If he is, which I suspect will be the case, he's bound to ensure those who are good and actually would be prepared to stay will be kept. I would hope. What gives you that confidence? The fact that he is a gambler, the club are worth far less in the Championship and he'll only ever get his money back if we're a Premiership club AND he'll be far more comfortable with a premiership status that doesn't require his financial support in the way of loans, cash injections etc. We are already in the prem and he has put that status at risk with penny pinching, what was needed was a bit of investment to stabalise a lumbering club (not talking about stupid champs league qual), then he could have put his plan into place. I really fear if we go down, things wont change in a lower division. Appreciated but my point (probably badly made.....) was that relegation may speed up the balancing act of salaries;turnover rather than trying to retain a premiership status by gradually losing your better, highly paid players as their contracts expire or you can flog them and picking up the Bassong's of this world. We could potentially get promoted and have a mini buying spree if we've got a better control over costs. All hyperthetical, and probably me talking a load of bollocks, but food for thought none the less. We can do that in the prem, one of SBRs first jobs was to reduce the wage bill when he first arrived. I can see your point in it may speed up the process of clearing the decks but would you want the added pressure of being a newly promoted team in the prem sniffing about players,getting the knock & having a relegation battle as soon as the season kicks off?? Worst thing that could happen to us is going down, I really cant take anything from it. To answer your question - No - I wouldn't want the pressure at all. In fact, I'd like never to have to worry about the r word either. The thing is though, we are going to be flirting with relegation every year for as long as we have to sell our better players to pay for the dross and leeches on the payroll such as Duff, Viduka etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not advocating relegation as the answer, merely trying to look for positives should it happen............which, incidentally, I think it will unless we can stop having to sell our most attractive assets. This may be a vicious circle but if Ashley and Co can keep us free from a relegation and improve the financial situation without the support of any press organisation, with less and less support from the fans and with a shite managerial team they'll have done well in my opinion. Runs and dives for cover after making a pro-Ashley statement!!

True, but in Reading's case particularly it was the squad that had brought them up in the first place. So they were already prepared for championship football. It'll come down to whether or not Ashley is prepared to take the gamble on us coming straight back up. If he is, which I suspect will be the case, he's bound to ensure those who are good and actually would be prepared to stay will be kept. I would hope. What gives you that confidence? The fact that he is a gambler, the club are worth far less in the Championship and he'll only ever get his money back if we're a Premiership club AND he'll be far more comfortable with a premiership status that doesn't require his financial support in the way of loans, cash injections etc. We are already in the prem and he has put that status at risk with penny pinching, what was needed was a bit of investment to stabalise a lumbering club (not talking about stupid champs league qual), then he could have put his plan into place. I really fear if we go down, things wont change in a lower division. Appreciated but my point (probably badly made.....) was that relegation may speed up the balancing act of salaries;turnover rather than trying to retain a premiership status by gradually losing your better, highly paid players as their contracts expire or you can flog them and picking up the Bassong's of this world. We could potentially get promoted and have a mini buying spree if we've got a better control over costs. All hyperthetical, and probably me talking a load of bollocks, but food for thought none the less.

True, but in Reading's case particularly it was the squad that had brought them up in the first place. So they were already prepared for championship football. It'll come down to whether or not Ashley is prepared to take the gamble on us coming straight back up. If he is, which I suspect will be the case, he's bound to ensure those who are good and actually would be prepared to stay will be kept. I would hope. What gives you that confidence? The fact that he is a gambler, the club are worth far less in the Championship and he'll only ever get his money back if we're a Premiership club AND he'll be far more comfortable with a premiership status that doesn't require his financial support in the way of loans, cash injections etc.

Or Martinez?

True, but in Reading's case particularly it was the squad that had brought them up in the first place. So they were already prepared for championship football. It'll come down to whether or not Ashley is prepared to take the gamble on us coming straight back up. If he is, which I suspect will be the case, he's bound to ensure those who are good and actually would be prepared to stay will be kept. I would hope.

Birmingham and Reading both kept the core of their squads though, so it's not unthinkable that we'd keep a fair few decent players.

This is from left field but it's been on my mind for a while, so I'll share it and hope it comes across as a thought out post rather than a pro-ashley thing; Should we head down to the land of fizzy pop it could have it's upside. Yes, we'll be gutted, yes we'll not have top flight teams visiting St James' Park and yes we'll be on the road to the Ricoh Arena rather than Old Trafford for away trips. However, what relegation may mean is that we'll pretty much lose all of the top earners overnight and therefore go some way to solving the issue of our high salary:turnover ratio. This, coupled with the parachute payment, plus the chances of us keeping a hold of a few of our decent players (i.e: those too good for the Championship, see Martins, Bassong & Enrique) would mean we should head back up to the top flight with a relatively clean bill of health, if we can do so at the first time of asking. This led me to thinking who, from the current squad, would almost certainly leave and I came to; - Owen - Viduka - Geremi - Duff - Cacapa - Jonas (I don't think he'll be on huge money but can't see him hanging around, when he could be playing for top 8 side) - Barton - Smith Then I thought of who, out of the players left, would have to take a pay cut (given they're all likely to have relegation clauses built into their contracts - that's pretty standard isn't it?) if they wanted to stay and I came up with; - Martins (could we persuade him to stay for one year?) - Colo (Would anyone else pay big money for him + wages?) - Beye - Butt And finally, I arrived at those left who would be good enough (and not on silly money) to take us back up; - Harper - Enrique - Ryan Taylor - Steven Taylor - Bassong - Nolan - Guthrie - Amoebi - Carroll - Lovenkrands - Xisco - Kadar - Tozer - Lua Lua - Edgar There would obviously be changes to this in reality but even the bottom list, as the core of a squad, would be good enough to get us promoted in my opinion. Therefore, does relegation, actually expediate Mike & Dekka's plan to get us on a more financially sound platform and back, not just playing premiership football, but actually competing again within a quicker timeframe, perhaps to everyone's benefit? Ta for reading. NB: Conspiracy theory time, does this explain the JFK appointment? Did KK tell them straight that they're approach (i.e: running a very tight ship) wouldn't work in order for them to reach this decision?

Parker was being slated by the West Ham fans I know (all season ticket holders) for most of the opening 4 months of the season. He can have the odd game where he dictates play but they're few and far between and he's not great at anything; - Doesn't score - Can't release the ball quickly enough - Doesn't have an eye for a killer pass He is decent at winning possesion back, I'll give him that. I wouldn't pay £6m to have him back, which makes it a good sale in my opinion.

Oh no.

Tony Adam's was a fantastic reader of the game too.

Definition to be found under the following names in the Oxford English Dictionary; Beardsley, P Messi, L Maradona, D Butt, N Oh wait, one of them is wrong. Forget Messi, the rest stand.

Cheers for posting mate. Some interesting points come from that, primarily Stoke looking good to stay up.

Thanks for telling me 4 minutes after the Fantasy Football transfer window closed Same for mate, apologies like!

Anelka out for Chelsea tonight, injured.

I said 9 back in the day because I was worried about our (then) form, JFK being in charge and above all else our run-in fixtures. To play 5 of the top 6 in the final 11 games is awful.........well 6 of the top 6 in the last 13 if you go back to Everton. My hope is that Portsmouth continue on their downward spiral, same with Hull. I think WBA are gone. I think Beattie was an inspired buy for Stoke and will give them a good chance of staying up. Wish we'd have gone for him.

Not sure how he can command the respect of top level proven pro's such as Owen, Beye, Martins etc. One of my main worries going into the last 11 games this. When the going get's even tougher, can he make the right decisions? Can he drop those experienced players who aren't performing? Will the players even listen to him? The run-in will be all about players having to show some professional pride for once, because, if they're needing inspiration or top man management then we're fucked.

Quite. And a modern day Kinnear whose team we'll not now catch. This is painful

Results have been shit for us this weekend but then we shouldn't be in the position of being worried about others - we fucking are though.

10mins plus stoppages. Ta Dave.

How long left?