AyeDubbleYoo

They're still wrangling with Tesco about planning, they won't proceed with the demolition until everything is agreed with what is going in its place. I'll be sad to see it go, would rather have seen it refurbished and made part of the new developments. Will be good to see some shops actually worth going to in the heed though, might help liven up the town centre a bit.

Don't really understand the criticism, a lot of people thought we would struggle this season. Pre-season we were all expected a real battle and we were tired of hearing how tough the Championship was to get out of. We also had a team with no spirit or organisation and that was leaking goals all over the place. With a totally unproven manager to boot. Happy to admit I thought we wouldn't get promoted, happier to be proved wrong.

The size of that ground is mental... they were obviously following the Field of Dreams model with it - "build it and they will come". Good to see Gateshead's plans are a bit more modest.

There's one at about 22.10 and then another about 5 mins after. The first one is about half hour quicker though. Will probably be a bit of a scramble. I am having to stay overnight now. I needed to get that 22.10 train as I needed to get back to Liverpool Street for the last train at 11.30. Didn't think I would have any chance of making it to Reading station for 22.10 as I read on another website it takes about 15 mins on the bus to get from stadium to station. Significantly more than that after a game I would say, the traffic and queue for park and ride can be a reet pain.

Not sure about the slightly shocked seahorse peering into your face mind.

Saw Steed Malbranque on Northumberland St the other day, he looked depressed.

It's just not true that we've won the league while playing terribly, being unmotivated and being outplayed every week. It's not possible. We've had some poor performances, no doubt, but have we forgotten how awful we were when we went down?

UV, Beye is now Villa's third choice RB, Viduka is god-knows-where, Owen is picking up his pay while bench warming for Man Utd, and Bassong is in and out of the Spurs team. Martins is doing OK in a poor division, and only Duff looks any good (and only when viewed through highlights). The idea that the likes of Owen and Viduka would be 'just is hungry' is way off the mark. You're right in that we still don't know whether our improvements are real or totally due to the opposition... but I see lots of reasons for optimism. Look at Boro, they haven't walked the division have they?

If he was letting Keiron Dyer pick his signings then we deserve everything we got TBH.

When you consider those qualities were present in many teams who were weaker on paper than us in our relegation season who then finished above us it puts things in perspective. I don't think Hull or Stoke players were earning a quarter of what our superstar squad was but they did much better. Even on paper it's not that much worse when you think about it. Is Routledge worse than Duff? Probably not. Is Lovenkrands any worse than Owen nowadays? Not in terms of impact. Carroll any worse than Viduka? Maybe, but much fitter and younger. I wouldn't swap the current team for the previous one. Most of the players that went, we wanted them out anyway... and for good reasons.

It's just as well really, we're probably still paying for players we bought in 05-06!

It's certainly better than parachuting in a totally unproven manager like Zola, Keane, or even Shearer.

Think almost our whole squad is premiership standard. Of course we went down with some of those players but imo we went down because of one accident after the other. Keegan resigning... Kinnear... Kinnear getting ill... getting Shearer instead of a proven manger... and so on. Under normal circumstances with that squad from 08/09 we would have never ever gone down imo. Said before that we would only have gone down about 40 times out of 100. Only because the other teams were horrible mind, as we were also abysmal.

On paper it might be slightly worse in terms of names and reputations... on the pitch it's miles better in terms of passion and performances.

The run they went on to get in this position was unbelievable, but I don't think it's something they can do consistently.

I'd love to get Bellamy, though I suspect he's out of our league at the moment.

I think Guthrie was on the right out of necessity more than anything else. Until we got Routledge he was arguably the best option on the wing. I agree pretty much, I didn't rate him on the right but we didn't have many options. It's great that he didn't get dropped though, he got moved inside where he's most effective.

While the first half of the season the performances were awful, since the signings in January we have been playing a completely different kind of football. While you are right it isn't going to be easy, I think we'll add some quality and the fact that we will have a squad that is eager to make it's mark with young hungry players rather than bloated big name cast offs is going to make next season one I'm really looking forward to. To add to that, there's no way our current team is worse than the one that got relegated. Some of the performances last season were an embarrassment, and the attitude of some players clearly showed they didn't give a fuck. We have performed poorly at times this season, but nothing like as bad as then.

You're probably right, we also have quite a lot of players who have something to prove in the Premiership (Colo, Nolan, Routledge, Carroll, even Shola!) so they should be hungry for a chance.

What 'affair' is she talking about, the Carroll thing? If we replaced Hughton with Hughes or McLaren without giving him a chance, it would be a big mistake IMO.

Man.U fan and a Forest fan at work reckon they were all over us..stupid bastards, obviously weren't even watching the match. Pleased them Man.U cunts got beat last night, wankers. Being as objective as possible, we dominated possession in the first half - we just struggled to make breakthroughs. Seemed like that anyway, don't know that stats.

Flexibility is one of the most important traits for a good manager. Firstly, it means you cut your cloth according to what you have - i.e. if you have a squad of cloggers then you play to their strengths (unlike Sammy Lee for example, who tried to play good football with Bolton during his spell). Beyond that, it means that you can vary the style of play over time by signing better players... which Hughton has done. Also, he realised that we didn't need the defensive midfielder, and he got rid of Smith/Butt and moved Guthrie inside. This took longer than some people wanted (me for one), but it shows it was in his mind. If anything, the fact that he only made that change when he knew we were ready for it is even better.

The training wear should be better than the adidas stuff as well, Puma usually do a better job of tshirts, tracksuit tops etc.

We'd have been promoted already if we had a manager who had testicles. We have played far too negative away from home, and if you think it's going to be any better when we go up then you want your head examined. He still needs to learn a hell of a lot imo. Think back to Leicester away. They had 10 men, we played abysmal and he got his tactics all wrong. There's also the league cup, getting knocked out by Peterborough after fielding a bunch of kids. If he was going to do that then what was the point in the Huddersfield game at SJP? There's also been numerous substitutions and times where we've been stale and boring on the pitch yet he's done fuck all about it. He hasn't done a bad job overall, but to wank him off like you have just done is laughable. You've got a tiny bit of a point there, we could have played more positively away from home. But we were continuing to pick up points and were on course for promotion... it's more than understandable that Hughton decided to stick with it. And in the latter weeks of the season we've been all together more positive home and away IMO.

When Taylor's fit it will be great to have the options. In the end it might end up being Williamson and Taylor - if Colo gets his arse handed to him like he did last season (not that I think he will).