afar

I have a hard time believing Moyes wouldn't have had the power to bring in his own people, he was a manager the owner had courted for years apparently, certainly not someone begging for a job when he got it. It's just another thing for the RTG crowd to bash Short with, which is their general pastime. In terms of Irvine being the difference between him being the successful manager he was at Everton to the horror show that turned up at Manure, Sociedad and the Mackems, I think that's probably too simplistic, Irvine was hardly successful when he got the West Brom job.

Sounds absolutely ridiculous but there could actually be some truth in that. The main issue though is a lack of trust Rafa obviously has with Mitro and Mbemba (in a different aspect i.e. following instructions).

Depends if we are still in an Ashley world, Ings would be the best we could hope for if that's the case and almost certainly an improvement on what we have. But if we've suddenly got a lot more money to play with, I would look to spend that on someone with a lot more recent football behind him.

The thing is as well Moyes's success at Everton was not instant, they were awful in that first season with him, I think we beat them 6-2 or something that year, they very nearly went down, it wasn't until the following year that they started to do well. It's difficult to see the logic here for West Ham.

Just saw this, wtf are they thinking. Moyes is done, three jobs in a row have proven that. As one of the teams we are competing against, this is great news but honestly why are they not taking a lead from the likes of Southampton or Watford and bringing in coaches/managers who are up and coming and are still relevant.

LOL, perfect.

Pretty much this. It's easy to blame the manager, but he literally has f*** all to work with, especially up front. Agreed but why did he chose to prioritise the signing of a wide player who isn't anywhere near ready for the PL and a CB, where we were already well stocked, as our two biggest signings in the window, for me the priority of our transfer business was way off, we should have been looking at the number 10 situation and splurging on one, since he obviously doesn't like Mitro, get rid and replace him with someone a lot better than Joselu. Only then bring in players you can develop, or try to slightly upgrade another position.

Every defeat worries me for this potential sale, if we start getting close to the relegation zone, we may see them get cold feet, Rafa needs to address the slide.

I fast forwarded through most of the 2nd, could see this one coming after missing our chances in the first and that awful decision by the linesman (who should be fine for that honestly it was a simple one to call as offsides come, he's got to be 100% sure Gayle is offisde to flag, it wasn't a fast break away or anything).

That's possible yes but that means that as soon as a decision goes against us we can't win? I don't really get that. It was in the first half, still plenty of football to play We are set up as a team that plays best with a lead, we are not a team that cna chase a game. We don't dominate, every game is likely to be a "one goal in it" type. The point I'm making is we are set up in a system where there is no margin for error.

We had a perfectly good goal disallowed in the first half, if that correctly stands, we win this game, I'm sure of it. Fine margains, but that's the kind of side we are now, we can't afford mistakes from either our players or the officials (unless those mistakes are in our favour of course).

Worrying times right now, still think we'll be fine, but Rafa has to find a solution to the lack of goals. The harder schedule may help us in a way, we have generally found it hardest when the onus is on us to attack. If we can get something at Manure, that'll give us a lift, Watford and Brom are beatable, and we'll need to win at least one of those.

I was watching Jessica Jones during my work out this morning, S1E3, could have sworn he was trying to attack Jessica in his parents apartment. Today's developments though are just confirmation of what we knew, Rafa wants him out, think he'll be gone in January on loan or even a free transfer.

Everytime I have seen Maguire play, he's done little to suggest why Leicester paid as much money for him as they did. Certainly not any better than Lascelles or Dunk.

I was thinking the same. I think Loftus-Cheek looks talented and Newcastle should be watching him closely, but he's done f*** all really. Absolutely, ridiculous decision from a ridiculous manager that should never be in charge of the national team.

That is very true, however the statement is probably right Lascelles is not ready yet, if he was playing for one of the top 6 he would certainly be in the squad though.

I'm not sure Abraham deserves the call up tbh, hardly set the world alight at Swansea.

Maybe this was the best that group of players could play, clearly limited squad, hopefully it's all downhill from here.

For once I might just agree with you, who the fuck would say something stupid like that

As I said yesterday, it looks like it's really between Brum and Sunderland for that last relegation spot. With Burton and Bolton tragically bad, no resources to improve themselves, almost certain to go down. The rest of the teams have pulled away a little from Brum and the dirty Mackems. Long way to go of course but probably all down to which of those two teams can recover fastest even if it's just slightly. The Mackems are lucky this season, last year, really only Rotherham looked woefully uncompetitive in the division, this year there are the three around them.

What's Aarons done to say he deserves a chance? He did look a little more focused for the last u23 game, than he had previously. Both Atsu and Ritchie had poor games at Burnley from a final ball perspective (although Atsu did make some good runs, just lacked that final ball) and they both need to step up their contributions on that game. But you would be a mad person to change either one of them out with Murphy or Aarons right now, firmly believe Murphy's time will come though, not sure if Aarons will ever be Rafa's cup of tea though.

Karanka is probably the best realistic choice on that list but even he should think twice before going there, he would be doing his reputation no favours at all.

They are going to have to take a risk on someone with no track record, but also someone who is stupid enough to not see that the problems there are way too deep for anyone to solve unless there is a fundamental change in their economic situation. The next person is on a hiding to nothing. I honestly think though, and you can tell by the tone of the statement they made, that they believe this is some dream job for championship level managers and that they will be able to snag one of the manager of one of the high flyers in that division or someone even better. They are going to be in for a rude awakening when the quality of applicants manifests.

Has a 15% win record with them, 2 wins in 13 games for them over 2 spells as caretaker. That will do. It's better than Grayson's

I'm just so fucking slow at typing guys