afar

Thing is if they sack him, really where do they go ? They were lucky to get Grayson, and that was before the true state of the club was really apparent. Now everyone knows, that the club is in deep shit, the playing staff are not fit for purpose, there is no money to spend to fix it and the atmosphere from the fans is toxic. Honestly the best they can hope for is Grayson staying, they are not going to get a up and coming manager or even a current assistant that looks at that job and thinks he can make a name for himself. Ordinarily you would say that someone coming in would at least be a position where they can't lose, but they can, the crowd knew the hand that Grayson has been dealt and have been merciless with him. They are screwed practically every way you look at it. It's awesome

Could be a hell of a fight for the auto spots this season, 2 points separating the top 3 with Bristol City not far behind. Hell of a fight for the playoff spots too currently 9 teams within one win of Leeds in 6th spot.

They've actually moved up the table, lol.

It's shaping up to be between The Mackems and Brum for that last spot, Bolton and Burton look cannon fodder in their division.

Boro have been pretty crap too though this season.

I don't think it will. Yeah I think I agree with you, if it stays like this, although they'll be relieved and will try to lauded the comeback, at the end of the day, this is the bottom club in the division, you have to win that game in their position.

It literally is, although Burton at home is another one that you could put in that class.

Hell's tits, I guess that's why these two teams are at the bottom, they have no idea about defending.

If they lose it really has to be, no way he can survive. They will be bottom of the league, one win in 15 games.

LOL everytime I type something Bolton score...need to keep typing

8 for the season, according to Radio Newcastle. That's pretty impressive in that turd of a team.

Grabban's got a few now hasn't he ? Probably saved Grayson's job tonight, that may or may not be a good thing long term for them. Edit: doh so slow at typing, hehe.

You can sure tell that nothing is happening with the quality of the recent posts (no disrespect intended)

He is such an strange player, I know it's been said many times, but he is. The goal against Southampton was excellent because he didn't just give up on it and was alert to the possiblities, showing a strikers instinct. He had a good effort yesterday in the second half (it was actually the one positive thing I saw from Joselu all night, as he fed him the ball). But these incidents are so very few and far between, he's just not effecting games nearly as much as he needs to, he's in the most pivotal role for a Rafa team and it's killing us from an attacking perspective that he is so ineffective. He is such a nice lad though, that you are always pulling for him, but the number 10 role in a Rafa team is so ill suited for him, honestly difficult to determine what role he would excel in. We need to upgrade in January, there is zero options for replacing him in the current squad, unless Rafa ditches his formation.

Don't agree with that bit mind. We also want rid of Colback, should we be playing him too? We can't be playing players just to get them noticed by other clubs. Saying that though, he should be starting ahead of the god awful Joselu who is crumbling game by game. Not to try and put him in the shop window though, but to try and add some kind of presence upfront. You kind of argued against yourself here. For Colback there are very decent alternatives in Shelvey, Hayden and Merino. For Mitro that's not the case at all. I agree with Sho'time that it's counter productive for Mitro not even to be making the bench now.

If we are not sold by the time the January window opens, we are in danger of being sucked into the relegation battle, last night showed how much we are lacking up top, to resolve that issue we need investment, Ashley won't be putting any money in if they are still talking to the potential buyers. It'll be like the deadline day all over again. Ashley is a gambler and he'll be prepared to roll with this squad in that situation, obviously the big problem with this situation is that it is totally reliant on Rafa being the boss, if he doesn't spend Rafa may well be off even if a takeover is on the horizon.

That's the ideal scenario however unless a takeover ever happens, incredibly impractical. There is a player in Mitro though, Gayle is a spent force at PL level obviously and Joselu is just dreadful. But clearly Rafa is no fan of Mitro, and probably never will be so unless you are insane you replace the player here and not the manager. Joselu is safe in January since he's just been bought but assuming no takeover has occured. Gayle's still got a little sell on value to a champ club, maybe 5-7 million though some playoff hopeful may gamble on coughing up 10 million. Mitro's sell on value is dropping like a stone, again 5 - 7 million is the best we can hope for. So that gives us a pot of at max 17 million to spend, that will buy you just one decent player and we probably have to bring back Arma or Toney from their loans (wouldn't be a bad thing considering how effective the loan has been for Arma in particular).

to be totally fair to him on his crossing, when your striker is nowhere near the penalty area and the only man to aim for is perhaps the smallest player in the PL on the back stick, it's hardly surprising he was a little off last night. Still not great but for me he's been an excellent buy, I can only really think of one game where he's been poor (Ipswich away last season) which is a good sign for any player.

Aye, it only takes one fuck up, like Perez made last night for the plan to fall to pieces. Rafa needs to take a closer look at his front two and make some changes, it's not working and the rest of the team isn't chipping in either with enough, despite his assists, Ritchie has shown nothing in front of goal himself, Atsu's end product has been poor most of the season, Shelvey hasn't popped up with the odd goal like he was doing last season. We need much more of a goal threat, because we are too easy to defend against right now.

It would be truly glorious to see Arma grab a hat trick tonight in a comfortable Bolton win, that would be it for Grayson I feel, no way for him to come back from that. No idea where they would go after him though, one of their so called "legends" would be great

Need to win this, or a promising start turns into a worrying dip in form. Bournemouth are up and down form wise, but really nothing to fear there, need to be more positive than we have been in the last few games though, and ffs drop Joselu and replace him with anyone really.

There were a lot on here that didn't think that at the time, they rightly pointed out that at least he was getting into positions. He's not even doing that now, he's adding little to our link up play, offering no threat whatsover, isn't opening up space for others to exploit and isn't giving the opponent centre halves anything to think about, apart from that he's been spectacular I know Rafa's options are limited but Mitro and this strange version of Gayle we have now offer something in at least one of those areas, clearly both are not in Rafa's good books right now and Joselu still somehow is.

Rafa got his team and set up wrong here, the one thing he surely had to have learned from the last few games is that Joselu and Perez are rotten together. Should have changed it.

We've lost to some very average sides.

Pathetic performance tbh, we've deserved nothing out of this game, mind you neither have Burnley, two boring sides, one got a break in the box the other hasn't. Joselu and Perez are killing us up front though, that needs to change.