afar

No problem at all with this tbh. If he's not doing the job he'll be sacked whatever length his contract is. If he continues the work he did last season then we've got a bloody good manager tied up for a long time. Really all this does in many respects is to protect the club if someone comes along and tries to poach him. The positive angle is to send out a message to the staff that the board has their backing and to the players that there is stable leadership here at the club for the first time in a long time, this might also help a little with incoming signings.

Oh well there goes the perfect season, just the treble to go for now.

It amazes me why Everton were so unhappy to lose him !!

We need what he brings to the team....errr

We are allowed 4 changes ?

I used to love watching Dennis Pennis on some obscure Sunday morning show he was on when I lived back in England, always thought he should have had a bigger segment on a better time slot. Is he still about ? Seemed to fall off the face of the planet.

Interesting post there Brummie (the long one obviously). Got to admit I was a bit of a fan of MON's, I thought he did a good job everywhere he went, especially at Leicester. I would have been more than happy if we had appointed him. Now that he's at the dirty Mackems, I'm paying a little more attention to him, and understand completely where you are coming from the stats for possession and shots on goal support your theory and puts a little doubt against the universal mackem theory right now that we are thick because they've only played 1 home game to our 3 and quite obviously they would have had at least 7 points from those home matches In terms of signings, clearly there's been little change in direction of buy British, with Johnson and Fletcher brought in, although I do like Johnson a lot, think he will be a great signing for them and I am a little jealous of that one. Johnson kind of reminds me of the Ashley Young for MON early on at Villa. Glad we didn't get him in the end, especially with the mess he left at Villa, you guys are still recovering from that, it could take another year or two.

totally agree

Delighted for the lad, turn his career with the club around over the last 12 months or so.

There's really no need for all this religious nonsense in football, I cringe when I see players cross themselves, point to the heavens, reveal Jesus is great under shirts or do this kissing the ground stuff. keep that crap for your churches, mosques and places like that. Certainly won't don a T shirt with someone doing that, nice shirt though apart from that.

Way too many over reactions here. Harper played OK and about what you expect from a backup, especially one getting on in years. He's not in Krul's class right now obviously, but not his fault at all for either goal, they were both well struck and perfectly placed.

I'm with a lot of others on here (I don't think it's all biased at all) that I still can't blame the linesman for either decision. The offside goal, looked offside and even in the stills, stoping the action a millisecond later would show a different view. For the other one, the linesman has to get on the byline to judge it, which he does, but in doing so he has a conner flag, goal post, about 5 players and netting between him and the ball, how the hell can he see that unless it was conclusive and it's just too close to call. How in the world is that a free kick for that "goal" anyway and the refusing to play the advantage rule for benny, doesn't allow me to have a lot of sympathy for Everton nor do I think we were lucky at all. Strange game becasue I thought we were clearly second best iin the first half yet they really didn't create a lot of clear chances and Cisse really should have tied it up and we had the one cleared off the line, in the 2nd half thought we were the better side, yet concided more chances.

Do I need my eyes tested because that looked bloody off to me

Damn that was close, better

Player for player on paper we are at least as good as them if not better, this is poor, despite how good they are on their own ground

should be booked for that

Should have buried it, bad miss

Wow Macamanan and Drury laying into us, hehe, for them this game is over. unfortunately they are probably right.

FFS that was not harper's fault. Pick a scapegoat I see.

We are gonna get murdered here, this is awful.

Just watched the first half, was trying to stay away from the result but when we were getting beat couldn't resist looking. Got to say Villa are bloody awful not to get the win today is a huge disappointment.

Hugely disappointing window really, too many teams have improved around us and I worry about a few of our players. Will Cabaye continue to produce or does he feel like he's already made it in England, early form is a worry. Can Cisse and Ba play together can either capture the form of last year. The right back spot is extrmely suspect. Squad is thin as fuck. I'm going for a 9th place finish, wouldn't be surprised if it's a little lower still, but no danger of a relegation fight.

So...yeah I'm disappointed so far, last minute deals still possible but I have a feeling we are gonna struggle to maintain our top 7 status this season, with the squad the way it is and I can't shake the thought that Cisse may have a down season this season, and that could kill us. Needed another striker, a RB and a first team CB to replace Taylor when he inevitably goes down. With the extra games of europe the squad looks extremely light to me.

Terrible miss

Very poor performance really, not shown anything up front, that's got to be a huge worry.