merlin

This post doesn't hold much water now, does it ? 'Ashley on his way out..' ? he's still wrecking the club nearly 8 years later and KK was proved TOTALLY correct about Ashley by winning his case for constructive dismissal against Ashley...KK brought Beardsley back from Everton at an age when he was unlikely to get another move to a top club - true, he did offer great value for another 3 years, but he was quite happy to dissociate himself from KK after the walkout. Couldn't really care less what the fans feel/think, just happy to pick up his extended pension.

Beardsley was a great player - and that is all. His contribution to the youth set-up has been hopeless and he is basically an Ashley stooge, as is that other former star, Moncur ; no time for either of them, wrecked any respect we might have had for them and any decent new owner would have them out of the door like a flash. There was controversy surrounding Beardsley's role at the club long before Ashley arrived and one young player at least walked out because of a dispute concerning Beardsley.

Fail to beat WBA - and to give a half-decent performance - will have my vote back to a 9 again....never looked like salvaging anything at Everton and this team have no heart. They will lose the Derby in this frame of mind.

Nothing more needs to be said about McClaren....basically, he is a manager that suits the current NUFC ownership and board - that is why he is there and why he won't be going any time soon.

This guy can play - we know that - but when he is finished with football he will have another great second career by going on stage and re-inventing himself as 'The Invisible Man'....esp when he is not playing to home audiences....

Completely predictable performance away from home - team badly set-up from the off and the lack of a decent striker was obvious throughout the game ; Mitrovic is never going to get many goals but he would have taken the weight off Perez who fought a losing battle up front. Townsend did what he is good at, running at defenders then losing the ball and our lack of a decent LB/CB showed that the transfer window is far from the 'good' one that many fans believed it to be ; Aarons awful tackle put the seal on their win by conceding a stupid penalty and Lascelles showed his lack of experience by doing the same and getting sent off whilst Mitrovic missed a total sitter just after arriving on the field. Poor manager, lousy backroom management, owner uninterested in anything but TV money and square-peg-in-round-hole players, most of whom couldn't give a stuff about the club....yes, anything other than 3 points v WBA will have the writing firmly on the wall....

Maybe - but that doesn't matter one jot...they got the 3 points, an improvement to their GD, whereas we.....

With a decent manager who has good tactical knowledge, we should have been able to scrape enough points from the home games to survive...JUST. However, we don't and after the failure to get a proven PL striker through the door as well as a decent CB or LB, I am still looking at an 8 ; the Derby will be critical and I just cannot see McClaren having the nous to out-think and out-prepare Fat Sam...furthermore, we do not have enough players who will be up for the physical battle we need to win in order to get a result.

No surprise to me at all - never thought he would sign for NUFC and he will probably be a Spurs player by July although others could launch a surprise bid. Our transfer policy is well known and kills any chance of really top young players - esp forwards - wanting to join us as a first option.

I never forecast scores but we shall do very well even to get a point - they are a much stronger side than us and new players often take time to bed in. If Everton score first, we shall almost certainly lose.

This really. Shelvey is a decent addition, we didn't need the other french midfielder or Townsend and the new striker isn't proven in the PL. We have also basically f***ed off Thauvin while lots of dross still remain. Overall you still have to point to the squad and its still bang average and that's how you determine whether its been a good window. Agreed - marks out of 10...? No better than 6. The CM problem has been addressed, but the glaring weaknesses in both defence and attack have NOT....getting a loanee of dubious age etc from Roma(no PL experience) is highly unlikely to solve the lack of goals from the front men and Colo will get even more roasted as the season wears on and his legs start feeling the strain ; likewise, we are poor at LB and even Janmaat struggles when forced to defend in depth. Fail to beat WBA and we shall be rooted in the bottom 3 and require some superhuman results from the remaining fixtures.

The Berahino thing is dead in the water in my view - they don't want to sell him to us in case he is instrumental in keeping us up at their expense and you can understand that. Also the player probably prefers to go to Spurs and will get his wish if he waits until summer. Remy is the best we can do in the circumstances unless he HAS gone to Leicester because he is a proven scorer both here and at Chelsea when given the chance. Taking chances on players new to the PL is a luxury we cannot afford at this point in the season and in our position - looking at the money which is at stake in next season's PL, I would spend what it takes to get Remy - even if he only stays for a year.

Those two, Ayoze, Wijnaldum and Krul for sure. There'll be some like Anita and Haidara who may not have other clubs interested. Possibly even Mitrovic. Absolutely this... no way Wijnaldum is going to stay with a Championship side.

We beat Liverpool at home. It was early in Klopp's management - do you think we would do it now..?? Or when we got to Anfield..?? No, we'll probably lose at Anfield. But Norwich just played them at home. That was my point. You made it sound like their valiant loss to them was better than we could do. Because we beat Liverpool at SJP and Norwich lost to them at home is no guide how the 2 teams will finish - we used to beat Leeds - the best side in the country then - regularly at SJP in the 70s but we still finished below lots of teams who lost to them at home. What the Norwich game shows is that Norwich DO have goals in them and as you know, we don't....unless we sign a decent striker we are not going to win the crucial games we need to win to avoid relegation

....and Beardsley says there isn't a losing culture in the club - despite his young side getting tonked every week. We can't even get a respectable score in a friendly against the Mackems...I would LOVE to have heard what Bill Shankly would have said if it had happened to Liverpool in a friendly v Everton ; he once said that there were only 2 teams in Liverpool, Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves. Well, there are only 2 PL clubs in the NE and the other one seems to be Sunderland Reserves...! Is there NO depths this club can sink further into ?

Hope this guy is going to be worth the money - 12m is a lot of money for a player unwanted by Spurs who will probably use the funds to get Berahino or another striker - which we need more than anything. Will give him the chance and hope he succeeds but unless we get a decent striker it will probably be a wasted signing.

OK, and yes, I agree..!

We beat Liverpool at home. It was early in Klopp's management - do you think we would do it now..?? Or when we got to Anfield..??

That is highly unlikely now - whereas we were able to keep most of the last relegated side and they consisted of players who, in the main, wanted to get the club back in the PL, you can bet your bottom dollar that any decent players in this squad are going to be on their bikes. We have no players like Nolan and Barton who got the dressing room up for it and Colo is now 7 years older and much slower....Gini, a Dutch international, will be sought after and off like a shot ; ditto Janmaat although his defending will prevent the very top sides coming for him ; Shelvey will have interest from other clubs too and so will Mbemba. Take those 5 out of the equation, together with Sissoko, and see if you still think we'll do well in the Champ league....!

The club is lumbered with the worst combination at off-field management level - we have probably the most useless, timid, inexperienced and talentless MD in Charnley who is so far out of his depth and beholden to Ashley for his unwarranted position, combined with a manager who has failed in all the big challenges he has taken on. His only success in the UK was a LC win for Boro and for me, that was the highline of his career ; failed at England, moderate success in a much less competitive Dutch league followed by a disastrous spell in the Midlands resulting in Derby firing him after he had been linked with NUFC(which he turned down)but mainly because he presided over them falling away disastrously from the promotion positions after being in the upper reaches for most of the season. He was appointed by Charnley because he was prepared to swallow any control over buying of players and not challenge Charnley's running of the club under Ashleyl Nobody can surely be that surprised that we are now in serious danger of returning to the Championship under this guy despite all that has been spent, the biggest waste of which has been the purchase of Thauvin - thanks to another of the off-field star men, Carr, who, along with the other muppets, has had a fine pension pot addition thanks to Ashley's great personnel selection. Nevertheless, even if McClaren went we are most unlikely to get a decent manager unless Moyes fancies a crack at the job until something better comes along because nobody good wants to work under Ashley & Co. Hard to see how we are going to escape this death-spiral.

Swansea's win at Everton shows just how difficult it will be to escape the drop now. It looks as if the club have little intention(or idea)of obtaining a proven striker so its hard to see how they can finish above even clubs like Norwich and Swansea who are both showing the right spirit ; although Norwich lost on Saturday, they were 3-1 up at one point and have made a good signing in Naismith - I am willing to bet that we will lose heavily at Liverpool even though we might give a spirited performance because we cannot score the goals we should. If we don't sign a striker, I shall stay with 9....

All that counts for nothing - look at clubs like Wolves and Sheff Weds, once giants of the game, now viewed as perpetual yo-yo material between Championship and Lge 1. Sunderland's last title in the 30s, ours in 1927 - they at least won the FAC in the last 40 years, we haven't won a domestic honour since 1955...compare that to Villa, who won the European Cup in 1980 and the LC under Brian Little - so some would say that NUFC and SAFC have been of little importance to the top div apart from KK's first spell as manager and Sir Bobby's 5 years. You have to say that its hard to argue against that and this is a direct result of Ashley's ownership...he has made the club exactly what he wanted it to be, a vehicle for his own promotion aims and followed by an accepting and apathetic following.

Everton - L Chelsea - L Stoke - L Leicester - L Norwich - D Saints - L Liverpool - L Villa - W Home - WBA - W Man C - L Bournemouth - D Mackems - D Swansea - W Palace - W Spurs - L Total - 15 points ; relegated

At least 3 of the wingers are not up to PL standard at present and the fourth has a big question mark over him ; all the LBs are Championship level at best... Carr & Charnley have done a splendid job, haven't they...??

That is grasping at straws - look how every team near the bottom is desperate to avoid relegation because of the financial rewards in the PL next year....they will ALL fight hard to stay up and only Villa look likely to miss the 40 point mark at this stage and even they are mounting a recovery now.