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Come to think of it, didn't somebody mention some daft rumor at some point about Ashley wanting to sack Hughton so he could appoint Beardsley? ...

You know what the funny thing is? We don't even have an assistant manager. In fact, I don't think I can name a single remaining member of our coaching staff. Who takes the reins for the next two months while Ashley and his motherfucking band of idiots stall over which third-rate manager to appoint?

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No. We can't attract ANY manager really. It's either going to be Kinnear or someone else who's way past it and desperate to get back into the game.

When they don't want the club, they make terrible decisions. When they want to stay at the club, they make terrible decisions. Just fuck off asap, thanks.

It's fucking pointless discussing this though, nobody's going to want the job. Look back at our last three years under Ashley: the sacking of Allardyce, driving Keegan out of town, the shoddy treatment of Shearer following the relegation, and now this. Literally nobody in his right mind would ever take this job. So I suppose that leaves Joe Kinnear.

Didn't deserve this. Pure and simple.

I give up on this club. I mean, no, I don't REALLY give up on this club, but I kind of want to. What the fuck. I felt like we had something good going here for the first time since I've started supporting us. This makes no sense. I can't process it because IT MAKES NO SENSE.

My answer to that question would be no too. However the amount of defeats to teams who will almost certainly finish in the bottom half is very worrying. We cant rely on a season full of Villa/ Mackems games performances. I don't disagree. Am I worried? Yes. Am I worried because of Hughton? No.

We're missing both his leadership and his goals. I'm not entirely happy with the fact, but you can't deny that he's integral to the team we have right now.

At the end of the day, is he doing significantly worse than expected with the resources at his disposal? Answer that question whichever way you want. My answer is no.

Does this just change game by game? We win, I hope for mid table. We lose, lets not get greedy, 17th. Win = Europe Draw = Mid Table Lose = Relegation!

It was at least amusing to see Taylor in full-on "Geordie Hero" mode again and trying to play up front alongside Carroll during the second half.

Guthrie was tried on the wing too many times last season and it didn't work so why try it again this season? How many times to we need to keep trying failed players in certain positions? As for Shola, playing him today is proof as to why he shouldn't have started. Might as well have not read my post. We were successful playing a certain way and putting Guthrie on the wing allowed us to continue playing that way. You have to look at it in context. It's easy to say that Ameobi is s*** when you can pretend that we have clear-cut alternatives.

We should just let him loose twice a year against the Mackems. I don't see why anyone is surprised, Ameobi is just being the same player he's been for the past decade. He'll alternate between some great ups and terrible downs, with the latter being much more common than the former. He's actually the perfect symbol for our club, now that I think about it.

He was terrible. I think we can take this as evidence that Campbell is in that stage of his career where he's just not physically capable of starting every week. Coloccini and Williamson as a first-choice pairing backed up by Campbell would be a perfect arrangement.

I just don't understand what's happened to him this year. He played a big part in our promotion and he genuinely wasn't this bad two years ago. Him getting crocked for second half of the season was actually a pretty significant contributing factor to our relegation.

There isn't a sensible mind on this forum that wanted Shola Ameobi to start that game after that utter nonsense last weekend. I'm sure you'd be jumping with joy seeing Lovenkrands in his place then.

The problem isn't Ameobi's potential, which has always been high. The problem is that when you name AMeobi to the starting XI he'll nab a goal and be a handful for defenders or he'll control and dribble like frankenstein with a charlie horse, lose possession and sap your will to live. Loven and Ranger, despite not having a better upside to their game, seem at least more consistent in what you get. A better known quantity to work with. I agree that you can argue both ways. Clearly the fact that we're having this conversation proves that "picking Ameobi" isn't a surefire indicator that Hughton is a terrible manager?

At the end of the day, people are just badly disappointed and looking for scapegoats.

I can understand playing Guthrie on the wing. We were playing well with Barton as the "winger" crossing from deep, and putting Guthrie there is ostensibly a simple like-for-like that doesn't require us to change a successful system. It didn't work so we don't try it anymore. Saying Shola shouldn't play is all good and fine until you consider the alternatives. Out of him, Best, Lovenkrands, and Ranger, can you honestly say with a straight face that Ameobi is not the most likely to score over the course of 90 minutes?

Worst performance I've seen since the last day of 2008/2009 at Villa.

I don't get it man, did you forget to put a facepalm on after quoting my post? Surely you can't be agreeing with me. EDIT: omg, you actually DID forget to add the

When you're a relegation struggler you're going to have some terrible losses. At the beginning of the season, Hughton himself mentioned the need to stay strong through these inevitable poor patches. We just have to accept that some degree of fluctuation is natural. There's still a lot of football to be played and there's no point in labeling him yet. Just in general principle, you shouldn't even consider sacking your manager unless he's a. lost the dressing room, or b. persists on making the same mistakes. We've seen none of that from Hughton.