ikri

Well, that's us relegated Disgusting performance.

1st half was utter crap, no idea how the hell we weren't 4 down by half time. That midfield created simply nothing for 45 minutes whilst letting Norwich players to run past them every time.

Putting the 'being shit at life' bit slightly to one side, I suspect a young Gazza wouldn't progress through academies these days as the 'chosen ones' all seem like little robots. Very technically adept, competitive, and most of all very good at listening/paying attention/being well-behaved. Not many who look like they would crack you up on the coach or who have the attention span of a goldfish. Watch a fair bit of under 7 & under 8 and the 'elite' (yep, that's what they call them...) kids seem to have a pretty joyless experience of footy. Real shame, given they're all sold the dream and risk having all their 'self-esteem eggs' in one basket but even from those who last until under 9's, less than 1 in 500 are likely to have a professional career after 21. That said, if someone had appreciated the talent of a young Paul, I really hope he would be better supported and nurtured these days (bizarre as it is, I really wish he'd went to Man Utd instead of Spurs- think Fergie may have done a Giggsy on him). Clubs have a duty of care to their young lads, the kind of pressure they're under must mess with their minds; even those from loving well-balanced families. Putting Gascoigne in a team alongside Bryan Robson & Paul McGrath would not have been a great idea if you wanted him to avoid drinking.

A massive sack of cash?

A draw is better than nothing but the performance still wasn't anywhere near good enough

Utter rubbish so far

Disappointed with the loss, but that's probably the hardest I can remember seeing the team work all season.

The people running this club are a fucking disgrace. There must be amateur clubs that are run with more professionalism than this.

You think that the board are actually capable of plotting to make him resign? You have a lot more faith in their abilities than I do, I think they're just a bunch of incompetent twunts.

It all comes down to Charnley, he always appears to be terrified of making decisions that might put him into conflict with people. He can't bring himself to say no to lasagne-face when he wants the job, then he can't face sacking the lunatic when it's clear that everything is falling apart under his leadership. He doesn't want to shift McClaren because he'll have to sack him, plus he essentially wasted 18 months and £80 million on his decision to firstly wait for McClaren then to back him even when things failed to improve so Charnley's own decision-making has to come under extreme scrutiny by Ashley. Ashley may be an absentee landlord but even he might notice that his chosen property manager is currently sat in the living room playing with matches whilst the building is burning. Hell, Charnley was probably even hesitant about signing a new centre-half because it might mean him telling the club captain that he's being replaced.

Absolutely pathetic

Since McClaren seems to make substitutions based on seniority (age, time at club, etc.) I fully expect that if he does take Riviere off it'll be to bring Gouffran on in his place.

Completely predictable. What was the point in Riviere when Perez and Doumbia were on the bench as well?

A Palace win would be good. Keeps the pressure on Sunderland and allows Pardew to continue his crapiness - win 1, lose a few, repeat.

Pathetic

Utter disgrace, just utter dogshit performances at the back. Only have ourselves to blame for being 3 behind.

I don't give a fuck if he's playing out of position, that was a fucking disgusting pass & he should be ashamed to call himself a professional footballer with shit like that

Can only assume that the only reason he wasn't subbed last night instead of Saivet is that he was so anonymous that even the coaching staff forgot he was on the pitch.

What a pile of wank.

Where the hell did Boro get £11million from? Jordan Rhodes is an odd one, always scores a healthy amount of goals in the Championship and you'd imagine that a number of Premiership clubs would be eager to sign a home-grown player with a 1-in-2 goal record in the Championship yet no one has ever taken a chance on him.

Another game where our forwards miss chance after chance after chance and surprise, surprise our defence isn't good enough to keep the opposition out. Even without the clear offside for their opener it was a poor showing from us yet again, no one played well.

Good result & a very good debut from Shelvey

Why? Elliot is playing well and we have probably at least 5 positions who are more important to stenghten than a new keeper. He's been close to missing games through injury a few times already and has missed one through illness. He's in the form of his life right now but cannot be relied upon to keep that form up and stay injury free for the remainder of the season. Darlow as backup is not ready for this level of competition and Woodman is completely untested.

Why haven't we signed a goalkeeper on loan? Rumour was that since Krul was injured on international duty the Dutch FA would pick up the tab for a replacement, if that's true then not having someone in place to join on day 1 of the transfer window is rank incompetence. Even if they're not picking up the tab, not arranging for a backup keeper to come in on loan on day 1 of the transfer window is rank incompetence.

RIP Pav