brummie

"If you look at the Premier League managers, my record is second to none". Hmmmm.

I'd definitely take Hoolahan. I was disappointed we didn't get him in January in the end. I'd also take James Morrison from Ollbeeyun. He's an underrated player.

Sherwood having some real problems with tenses in this interview.

It's his squad, though. Last season he should have added two or three players from a better level, would have made a huge difference. But he just added more of the same. Not enough. I don't even think that's the biggest problem. Quite often we'll send out a side easily enough to get something from a fixture and end up looking abysmal. That is to say, the players together manage to look less than the sum of the parts. I have also got a creeping suspicion - and i genuinely mean this - that he's a bit mad. Like proper brainwrong mad. Like another recent former manager of ours was. Each to his own, but I've got some league title and european cup memories which are anything but meh ;-)

I would never play down the difficulty of learning a foreign language, and he actually speaks it very well if you listen to what he is saying, but Poyet has been in this country so long you'd think he'd have done a bit of work on his accent by now.

Altidore looks like one of the least accomplished players I have ever seen play top flight football in this country. I also can't believe managers keep buying Dossena, either.

I've been going to matches since 1973, and I struggle to think of a manager who has had more patience from the fans, it has been extraordinary. It is definitely changing now. In fact, it has changed. I can handle losing matches if we look vaguely like we know what we are doing. Stoke (lost 4-1 at home) and Fulham, we have looked clueless. The odd thing is we go and play someone like Chelsea or Arsenal or Man City (all of whom we have beaten this season) and we are transformed. We fight like fuck to get the ball when we don't have it, we close them down, when we have the ball, we use it, and sometimes very well. The problem is that the ratio of performances like that versus getting your arse handed to you on your own ground by the likes of Stoke or Palace is way, way out of kilter. It's not only a case of too many players not being good enough, either. The spine of the side - Guzan, Vlaar, Delph, Benteke, possibly Gabby - is very solid, some good players there. Vlaar, for example, has been excellent this season. Five or six really accomplished players isn't enough, but that's not even the main problem. The main problem is the frequency with which we look totally lost, just clueless. Really, I keep hearing in my mind the fact that we've lost more home matches this season than in any other year right back 140 years. That alone should get him sacked.

I've had enough of Lambert. Every ounce of positivity from last season has been drained away in an entire season of utter ineptitude. Yesterday was truly horrific. What is going through a manager's mind when, losing 2-1 at home to Fulham, he makes a sub on 90 minutes, taking off our only creative player on the day, and replacing him with someone at a club two divisions too high. On 90 fucking minutes. It's like something happened in August, he's had some sort of a stroke-like traumatic head event, and he's been knocked out of kilter. This season we have lost 10 home league games already. That is more than in any season since we were formed 140 years ago, including the years pre the formation of the league, when we'd just play friendlies and cups. Not only that, but we have still got two home league games to go, and last year we managed to lose nine, which in itself was abysmal. My season ticket price works out at about £130 per win over the last four years. Four fucking years. When we beat Norwich and then Chelsea recently, that was our first two back to back wins at home since 2009. Remarkable.

Blow your nose, Kevin Nolan, you fucking tramp, you're on telly.

Nah, I reckon they're done for. Just seen their four remaining away games, awful, as is one of their home games.

That is big, big troubs for Sunderland. I was relatively convinced they'd survive a few weeks ago, but the weeks go by and they don't seem to be moving anywhere.

I've never really noticed this before, but how come the seats at the (awfully named) Stadium of Light are so pink?

I've seen most of the game and am amazed how poor they've been.

I don't go out of my way to watch Man United, but I have to say, I agree. Every time I see them play, he seems to be moping around like he can't be fucking bothered any more. Excellent.

Have to say, fair play to Pepe Mel for at least having a go, while Pochettino, who has been here much longer, doesn't even try.

Him, Vlaar and Guzan have been a different class for us this year.

When Geoff Shreeve just said about Aguero 'it's his haaaaamstring" did anyone else find themselves thinking how incredibly FIFA 14 it was?

I dunno, but I think he should have a word with Mo Farah.

Of course they do. If your father arrived on the Windrush, then I can see how you'd feel the strength of heritage there, but I'd imagine the likes of, say, Daniel Sturridge, feel their heritage is more about kicking a ball around a playground in Birmingham as a child than it is about whichever location his ancestors came from. For all his faults (mainly his being an absolute twat), try telling, say, Ian Wright that his heritage is anything other than being English - especially in a football context.

Did anyone else just hear Tony Pulis saying how anti diving he is as a matter of principle and find themselve wondering where said concern was when he was managing the most horribly cynical purveyors of gamesmanship the game has seen in decades?

It's a definite headbutt.

It's absolutely nothing but wishful thinking. Ah, ok, gotcha. Haven't been around that much of late, so out of touch.

Genuine question, ignoring today, why does anyone think he's going to get sacked when you are 8th? Amazing stuff that, though. What an absolute fucking clown shoe.

Actually, we are, too. Which is about as laughable as you adhering to it. I've a feeling there's an increasingly wide ranging acceptance at clubs like us and you that, to make the jump into the CL places is prohibitively expensive, and the increase in earnings from 3 or 4 places higher up the league (when you are in the middle) doesn't really justify the risk and expense involved in having a punt at it. So what they do instead is talk about managing wage bills, being FFP compliant, "seeking value" (that's us and our £1m lower league players, which is fine when it is one or two, but not the whole squad almost) and reining in expectations. I have thought for a while that FFP adherence is manna from heaven for owners who want to limit their exposure. Managing the expenditure and generally bobbing along, not getting relegated and ensuring a certain level of income is where it's at for them.

Also, something of note for you - he's playing Baker alongside Vlaar. Mistake. Clark should be there, much better player.