brummie

It really depends how you view it. When he came, Ellis still owned the club, we were utterly, utterly skint, and heading for relegation sooner or later, but we were also days away from being bought by a US billionaire, so, in that sense, he had a lot of help, and i think anyone would have struggled not to leave us in a better place. I am not going to rewrite history and pretend finishing 6th three times wasn't nice. It was. The flip side is that MON arrived in 2006, 14 years since the start of the PL. In those 14 years, we'd finished top six in 6 of the years. David O'Leary got us a sixth placed finish, with way less money. Brian Little had us 4th and 5th. Ron Atkinson has us 2nd. Sixth place wasn't special to us, it was good, but not stratospheric, so it was nothing like the sort of achievement it would be, say, to finish sixth with Sunderland, who have been a yo-yo club for most of those years. The problem with MON is that it was all achieved at such a high cost, and on such a short term basis, and with such a limitation to how far it could be stretched. The fact we reached Wembley twice, a CCF and a FAC semi, looks good on paper, and I had two magnificent days out, but the most telling fact of that is that over 180 minutes of football, I think we had at most four shots on goal. We'd peaked, we were never going to get better. re the short term basis, he spent a lot of money. You could say it wasn't "that much" in the wider picture, but that misses the point that so much of what he spent was spent badly. Yes, we did well from Milner, Young and Downing, who he signed, but we also did abysmally on other fronts, like the purchase of two entire defences in successive seasons, 50m on defenders. It was all so scattergun, but he spent enough that it worked. The problem was that, he left us with all those players still on big money deals, and still with years on their contracts. You have to wonder, who would think Emile Heskey on 65k a week on a 3.5 year deal when he's almost 32 is a good idea. Or Beye on 40k a week for three years, aged 32. I think the best way to look at the MON years is to think of it like renting a really opulent house for a few years, spending a fortune, having a bit of luxury, and enjoying yourself. When you move out, you've got nothing left, it was expensive and fun at the time, but it was the building block for nothing. What you should have done was buy a house and give yourself a platform for the future. That was what MON left us with - a massive bill, a lopsided squad replete with players who weren't good enough, but were on big wages. He left because he wouldn't do what managers have to do - wheel and deal, manage their squad. Was that a better place than when he came? well, yes, but look at the state of us before he came. The biggest impact on how we improved over that time was not MON, it was Randy Lerner pumping enormous sums into the club. I look at clubs we competed with over that period, like Tottenham and Everton, and I think how cannily they were / are run, and it reflects terribly on MON's legacy. Spurs spend money, they sell their best players, but they have an overview of what they are trying to do, and they make sure there is some ongoing value to the money they spend. There was none of this in the way MON managed my club, none. The ultimate example of this is that, after four years of spending Champions League transfer money, paying Champions League wages, we now have a squad that looks more Championship.

More like the media all over, completely ignoring the facts in order to back their favourites. Holt is the absolute worst of the MON lovers in the media. I see a lot of them are starting to turn now. These are the same cunts who called us all sorts for, errr, being shat on by O'Neill.

Oliver Holt tweeting today that Short hasn't backed MON properly. See, that is really MON all over, in that he is given 25m to spend (and, let's be honest, unless you're a CL side, that's a decent wad), and opts to buy just the two players, and they're both predictable UK buys, and both massively overpriced. Their run of fixtures up next looks utterly horrendous.

Bent's agent is trying to move him to Liverpool (not very interested) or Fulham (more interested). The rumours about his ostracism being due to personal issues with other players are apparently not true. Lambert just doesn't like him, and thinks he's a Billy Big Bollocks. He's also of the belief (and I tend to agree on this) that the days of the striker who just stands there, waits for the ball, and scores, are largely over. He did well under Houllier for us, as he had a regular supply of balls in from the wings. Less so under McLeish, as he didn't have a clue how to get the ball anywhere near the front, he didn't seem to think it was necessary. Lambert doesn't "believe" in wingers, and isn't going to change tune in a hurry, so Bent is probably a luxury we should cash in on. I do like Bent, but I can certainly understand why Lambert prefers Benteke. He, incidentally, is a fucking beast. He won't be with us too long, he'll be off somewhere at the very top eventually, mark my words.

Why on earth have the people on RTG convinced themselves that the lack of John Robertson is the reason MON is struggling? At Villa, he'd stand on the touchline during training, chain smoking and occasionally shouting. He's no tactical masterbrain.

It could happen: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/aston-villa/9636019/Aston-Villa-offer-to-trial-standing-areas.html Apparently, the problem is that not enough of the top flight clubs support it. It's also worth remembering that converting areas from seating to standing doesn't mean just ripping the seats out, it will involve expense in converting the areas in question, and a lot of clubs will be against the proposal on that basis.

Monaco is a depressing concrete hole, but it's in one of the loveliest parts of the world. From the Italian border at Menton, down through Nice, Cannes, Antibes (super lovely) is the area I know best. I once had a chance to go and work at a place in the hills above Cannes, and turned it down. I must have been fucking nuts.

They were never "our" clubs to start with, at least not in living memory, but the Premier League has succeeded in putting as big a gap as possible between fans and club, to the point that, in their eyes, it's not "clubs and fans", it is "clubs and customers". Wankers like Scudamore will take no persuasion to start believing that the shirt-buying, televised match watching hordes in Asia are more important than the people who go through the gates. In fact, i would be amazed if he didn't already think that. Television money both home and abroad means that the people in the stadium are amongst the least important. Anyway, fucking Chelsea, "we want our club back" - what the fuck? Where was this sense of indignant passion when their club was buying trophies (including the big one they bought in May) and foreign supporters with money Abrahmovich effectively stole from the Russian people? Plastic wankers, fuck them.

Search for posts by me containing the phrase "75" as I will no doubt have used it in describing his substitutions policy.

Believe it or not, in our match last night, everything that Reading did came through Nicky Shorey. Quite amazing.

So has he been doing well? I've never had any faith that he'll make the grade, but most reports on his time at Sunderland have been really positive. I'd absolutely love it if he develops into a solid left-back - he's relatively cheap, and completely homegrown. http://www.sportitotal.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Daniel-Levy-Tottenham.jpg Guess who wins again Too right. I was gutted at watching Kyle Walker turn into an excellent player at our place only to have to release him back into the claws of Levy. The guy's a fucking legend. Levy, I mean.

There are six points between 17th and 8th. That's not a lot.

And we've only scored 1 goal more than Sunderland, despite them being almost pathologically unable to put the ball in the net and everyone on here laughing at them for it. On the bright side, your manager doesn't look like a broken man like theirs does. That's all going to end in tears.

I've a feeling that if they did try that, they'd throw Downing into the deal. 15m for Bent, or 20m plus Downing etc etc etc

Martin Laursen and Jamie Redknapp just saying the same thing, btw. So it must be true.

Bent is one of the best finishers in the league, should be starting. Only if he gets the ball, and if he's not prepared to work towards that himself, then there's a problem.

First goal from a corner since 1995. Well, for at least 18 months.

havent you heard, Villa are pushing him out, cutting down on wages, wouldn't want the boy to get crocked before the big window opens again would you. That did occur to me, but then again, what's the point in doing as we are now - surely it'd only make him cheaper to get, if he's seen as not getting anywhere near the pitch. I think there's been a king-sized bust up behind the scenes. Must be on some mad wage? Can see why Lambert doesn't want him, trying to build a team with a bit of character , Bent doesn't fit the bill. I totally understand that bit. Bent is a type of striker which is dying out - the type who does nothing (quite literally nothing) but put the ball in the bet. He won't drop back to pick the ball up, he won't run at defenders to make space for other players, all he does is his thing. Benteke is playing extremely well, and contributes so much more, he leads the line so well by comparison. All that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is Bent not even getting onto the bench. That suggests something afood behind the scenes.

havent you heard, Villa are pushing him out, cutting down on wages, wouldn't want the boy to get crocked before the big window opens again would you. That did occur to me, but then again, what's the point in doing as we are now - surely it'd only make him cheaper to get, if he's seen as not getting anywhere near the pitch. I think there's been a king-sized bust up behind the scenes.

I've seen this thread and avoided it till now as I'd thought you were nuts to even consider it. Then I noticed that we are only 1 point behind you, despite us being almost pathologically unable to win matches. The general standard of the league is terrible this year. Anyone could go. Tell you what, though, on the bright side, Sunderland will be one of them I reckon.

Good grief, that was terribly nervy from us tonight. Oldest player in the side was Guzan at 28. I can't remember seeing a younger starting XI for us in 35 plus years. Something has clearly happened between Lambert and Bent. Not starting him, I understand (and agree with). Not having him on the bench is fucking nuts.

I understand McLeish is free. Then you'd really know what to suffer is like.

Nervous? Probably more like excited what with him being on an eight year deal *wink*

Ha ha ha, brilliant

RTG alive with talk of MON coming in for Downing in January. They're all getting over excited. They seem to think that: 1. MON got the best out of him - incorrect. He was injured the first half of the season we bought him, and was utterly, utterly awful for the rest of the season. Houllier came in, and Downing was transformed and had an excellent season. In fact, MON got absolutely nothing out of him 2. MON frequently played him centrally. Also incorrect. In fact, I can't remember seeing MON do that once, let alone "frequently", and in any case, by the time Downing started to contribute anything at all, MON had already left.