AyeDubbleYoo

Not sure Shola is the exception, his shooting is generally awful. The last couple of decent strikes he's had have been his first in years! You're right though, we don't have anyone who looks direct for goal really... I love a striker who just looks to hit it at any opportunity. Defoe's probably the best example around.

Hope so, he hasn't played a game yet!

Are you in the squad at the moment or hoping to play your way in?

We thought the away game was going to be tough, but in the end we turned them over pretty easily. Fingers crossed for the same again. pretty easily ? Am I thinking of the wrong game?

I'm not claiming to be an authority on European football BTW, all I'm saying is that of all the football I watched during the time he played for us, Woodgate stood out as being brilliant. And yes, he ended up at Boro, but if he'd been fit he would have probably ended up at Man Utd.

I like Colo at the moment, but that's bollocks. He was one of the top defenders in Europe, excellent anticipation, tackling, everything really.

UV, so do you agree that they were appointed because they were totally different to their predecessors? Or do you think that they were appointed on merit and the difference was a coincidence? You can't on one hand say that appointing the opposite was correct because nobody would replace a manager with someone the same, and then on the other hand say that they didn't employ them because they were different. What I would say is that the managers were chosen based on a very simplistic view of what was going wrong, and generally took things too far to the other extreme.

One of the skills Souness and Allardyce share, blaming someone else for their uselessness.

Woodgate's on another level to most of the defenders we've ever had. Sadly his fitness record is so bad that the whole thing's academic. Probably the best defender I can remember seeing play for us.

Just out of interest, why? It seemed he was exactly the wrong man for a club with a recent history of good football and some success, I was amazed he was given the job - it felt like I didn't know the club at all anymore.

The problem was that each manager we appointed was the opposite to the one before, absolutely mental strategy from the board.

I also knew Allardyce was completely the wrong man for the club mind, but I see what you're saying.

We thought the away game was going to be tough, but in the end we turned them over pretty easily. Fingers crossed for the same again.

Before the last game itd only been 3 games since Nolan scored. Its a managers job to put faith in his players, let alone the sides top scorer. I imagine he'll be coming close to a decision to drop him soon, i see no reason to think he wouldnt. He has shown he can identify the weaknesses in our side previously, hes not blind. With Smith its a case of him or Butt & people are happy with neither at the moment. Butt was better than both in the last game for me, but people werent happy about him staying on either even though we ended up massively on top after the other two went off. The things he does arent that baffling. You could argue that you'd do it differently, but the choices he's making arent as idiotic as theyre made out to be (on the whole). Very good post, I've said before that the scoreboard and league table demands a much more cautious approach than most people would like. I don't always agree with Hughton's choices, but I can usually see where he's coming from.

Fucking hell, just saw this. Horrible to hear, all thoughts with Sib and family.

You're right there actually, when you list those incomings it's far beyond what we could have expected from one January window. All of our weaknesses have been backed up, with the possible exception of a central midfielder. And hopefully Guthrie moving inside and Barton returning will help a lot with that.

UV, you've only gone and undermined the whole existence of this forum.

Mate, we've signed 6 players in key positons. Not a single player, of any reasonable worth, has left. It's been the perfect transfer window for us. There shouldn't be any reason to be unhappy. People complain for the sake of it. I think it's summed up best by saying, 'haters gonna hate'. This really. Exactamundo. Happy with the window, obviously I would have liked Beckford or Moses, but they weren't available to us.

True, I think he was just trying to endear himself to the fans and/or he just couldn't help saying what (as a fan) he thought needed to be said. That's a cardinal rule as a manager though, to back your team and not tell the world how weak you are in certain departments, even if it's obvious. It might make fans and MOTD viewers happy but it didn't really get a great response from his players. Yeah, I agree. As much as fans don't like to admit it, a big part of being a manager is lying to the press and the public.

Surely the captaincy isn't the issue, it's more about his presence in the squad. If he's causing disruption and making other players unhappy then it's a question of whether he should be there at all, right?

There are a lot of examples of that. Even at SJP they home changing rooms are a lot better than the away ones.

I would rather give him a season to prove he can keep us up than emply a nothing manager like Hughes or Curbishly, who we'll undoubtedly sack in 6-12 months and have to start again anyway. If a world class coach is available then sure, get him in.