ikri

The players need to take a huge chunk of the blame. No matter what's gone on off the field there's no excuse for the performances some of the supposed "senior" players have produced. Has anyone figured out yet where Duff disappeared to in the 2nd half? I figure he popped out for a pie & chips since it's the only thing that would account for him vanishing for most of the 45 minutes.

Was probably telling him to stop hitting opposition players

Wish it was, then we might actually see a miracle on the last day of the season Plus, the team's coach might explode on the way back from Villa

Probably confused him with Steven Taylor

I'd not include Duff, he simply vanished in the second half today, think he got about 6 touches.

Any player that needs motivation to play in front of 52000 people in a Premiership game should be shot.

Harper - 6 - Couldn't do a lot about the goals Enrique - 6 - Solid at the back, didn't do a lot going forward S Taylor - 7 - A couple of great blocks but probably going to get a ban for the foul on Arshavin once the FA look at it Bassong - 7 - Did his job well enough Colo - 3 - Woeful today R Taylor - 4 - Gave away pointless free kicks, offered little going forward Duff - First half 8, Second half 1 - Just stopped playing after the restart Nolan - 6 - Got forward well but didn't do enough defensively Butt - 3 - Too slow to get forward to aid the attack, too slow to chase back Lovenkrands - 7 - Linked up well with Martins Martins - 7 - Scored a decent goal, but should never be allowed to take another penalty Beye - 6 - Not a centre half Owen - 1 - Showed exactly why he was dropped Ameobi - 1 - What was the point? Hughton - 3 - Took some balls to drop Owen but he fucked up the substitutions

Ameobi coming on but Duff not going off Insane, Duff has had about 3 touches this half

just falling all over ourselves at the back disgraceful considering how much we apparently concentrate on defending in training

too fucking slow

S Taylor now crocked

Oba!!!!!!!!!!!

Do our players have money on us going down?

Don't need to worry about that. Taylor will be given a 3 match ban once the FA view the video of his "challenge" against arshavin

ffs Bassong injured

1 good game in 7/8 = decent? Nahhhh... He's been a top performer for the last 3~4 times he's played. Granted, it's not that hard to shine given the rest of our current setup... You're so used to him being utter shite that an adequate performance makes you think he's playing well

awful pen

They're going to massacre us down our left. Duff??? FFS

If our lot had to sign performance related contracts 2-3 of them wouldn't have been paid in 2 years.

Krul's the obvious choice since it would only take an injury to Harper to get him in the team. Kadar's similarly close but it would take injuries to Enrique, Bassong and probably Duff to get him in the team. Lua Lua is close but he's not there yet. Again, despite the overwhelming mediocrity of our midfield it would take injuries to about 6 players before he would be considered as in the starting XI. If Lua Lua wants to be considered a starting player he needs to show that he's worth choosing ahead of anyone else, something that he's not really not done in his substitute appearances so far.

Non of those, excluding possibly Sunny, would ever, ever come to us in this situation. Ever! I think some way could be found to persuade them. http://www.pfadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/cash.jpg That's not an option anymore though. I don't think that Jonas or Coloccini are earning peanuts here. Even though there may be moves to get rid of the high earners who don't justify their wages I think there's still probably enough cash for players who do justify their pay packets.

Non of those, excluding possibly Sunny, would ever, ever come to us in this situation. Ever! I think some way could be found to persuade them. http://www.pfadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/cash.jpg

There's not a player at the club who wouldn't leave if Arsenal came in for them. We're just not in the position to compete with Champion's League clubs at the moment.

In other news today, the pope has said that he's not catholic and a bear has denied responsibility for taking a shit in the woods.

Worst case scenario (worst for them anyway, quite good for us)? Yes. They've already got some pretty nasty debts from throwing money around on wages to get them out of the shit when they nearly went down. If all of the claims go to court & West Ham end up losing or settling out of court they could be looking at an additional £10-20million debt, on top of what they've agreed to pay Sheffield United already. With their wage bill already at a massive level they've got to lose their top wage earners to just break even again, with a potential £25million to pay out to Sheffield United over the next few seasons + whatever comes from these court cases they may be looking at having to find upwards of £50million to cover wage debts & whatever they're sued for. Their owners have no more money to throw at the club and thanks to the credit crunch there's not much likelihood of a new buyer appearing for them. Oh, and the Tevez affair still isn't over. West Ham may simply reach the point at which administration really is the best option for the club.