oldtype

alternatively, it could mean that he just really, really wants to play in South Africa even to the extent of switching his national side to guarantee that he do so, and will want out even more to maximize his chances.

I won't even be looking at the Premier League table. It'll be too painful seeing us not there. Used to like Man City pre-takeover because they were a team full of characters. Never had anything like a true "second team" though.

Just cast the slightest aspersion on Kevin Keegan's good name and watch the spark's fly we're going to be arguing about this on this board for the better part of a decade I'm sure. As for the topic itself, I'm kind of pleased in a sense that we're now playing in a league where we're actually one of the big players, aside from merely co-featuring for the likes of Man U and Chelsea. That doesn't make me feel any less devastated though.

Lots of potential in there but absolutely no bottle. Needs to grow up/grow a pair. He'll never succeed in a top league if he remains as flaky as he is right now. I have mixed feelings about his time here. He was an absolute legend when we were flying "high" in relative terms, i.e. parts of 2006-2007, the 4-3-3 etc. But he's been an absolute disgrace for the last few matches apart from Boro and basically sent us down with the boxload sitters he missed. Can't decide if I want to say "good luck" or "good riddance" with him. I think I'll continue to be unsure about how I feel untill I actually see him suiting up for another team.

Aside from his merits as a manager, we need him because the alternative is oblivion. If Shearer and Ashley can't compromise and Shearer walks out, it will no doubt be a messy situation that results in protests -> Ashley shits his pants again -> tries to sell -> we spend precious months in the summer in limbo with no manager. Better that Shearer just takes the job and gets on with it from day one.

It will be high time to give some players a chance, but none of them should be in the first team in anything more than cameo capacity other than Carroll and Lua Lua, maybe Kadar at a push. I just pray Mike Ashley doesn't think that relying on our "soopa youth team" is a good plan for the Championship. Thinking that kids could suddenly be capable of doing a job just because we're a division lower is a sure-fire plan for disaster.

No doubt off to the first Segunda Liga club to offer 500k

There's a whole crapload of Korean senior internationals that I could see doing a brilliant job in the Championship, the Korean league is pretty much a mirror image of the Championship in style and quality and I think many, many of our players could do very well. Kim from West Brom is at the top of that list, accompanied by Seol from Fulham (on loan in the Saudi League at the moment,) and Lee Young-Pyo, late of Tottenham and currently at Dortmund who looks set for a return to South Korea in the summer unless somebody else comes in for him. Cho Jae-Jin, who we almost bought two winters ago, would be a horrible Premiership player but has the right style to dominate in the Championship. Even domestically in the Korean Leagues I think there would be 4~5 players I would love to see us taking a chance on. But going beyond just Koreans, we should definitely have an eye on bringing in established internationals from the smaller footballing nations. There are no doubt many players in places like Scandinavia, East Asia, or North America who are desperate for a move to Europe and would come much cheaper than the best English players in the Championship, and with a bigger upside to boot. (Skeljbred falls into this school of thought as well.) If anything, our scouts should see relegation as an opportunity to further expand our range of signings, as opposed to just playing it safe and buying English/Scottish/Irish.

Now that I think of it, Kim from West Brom would be a great signing. He's fallen out of favor there but I know from firsthand experience that he's good enough to be one of the best players in the Championship if used properly. Also, if we sign a Korean I'll get to see us on the telly every weekend

regarding Chopra, he'd be a great signing but would he be available? I can see Quinn holding on to him/selling him elsewhere just to spite us.

That said, we cannot afford to turn our noses up on good Championship players just because they won't make it in the Prem. Bouncing back up within our parachute payment period will be extremely difficult and we need every little bit of help we can get. Getting ahead of ourselves and planning for the Prem before we're actually there again is the surest possible plan for failure. Do everything we can to get out of the Championship first. We'll think about the Premier League if and when we get there.

Goes without saying that we should be going for 1. Best players from lower-table Championship sides 2. Random foreign imports 3. Top-four youngsters on loan Going after the best of the best in the Championship is going to be a. impossible, as the clubs would refuse to sell to their rivals, and b. unwise, as we'll have ended up spending mountains of cash on Championship quality players if we get back to the PL.

Chopra. Him missing that chance at St. James' this season was surely an omen? Stephen Cranie from Blackpool? Hates Dennis Wise so he should fit right in

Unfortunately, it seems likely that it's those high-earning wasters who will be staying on our books (sans Owen.) It will be the young, promising, and cheap players who will be leaving for greener pastures.

There's been a few clubs sniffing around for him like Arsenal so it might turn his head if they make a clear bid for him, especially as he's on peanuts for wages here. If he hadn't established himself so early on and well for us this season things might be different in my opinion.....I reckon he'll go unfortunately which is a shame as he's one of the few good defenders we've had over the years..... He'll be a big player in a few years time..... hope we do stand our ground as you said, but he said he'd wait till the summer regarding the new contracts so we'll see what happens.......like i said earlier if he does leave, I would hope it would be a loan deal for season till we get back up (touch wood) Stand our ground? Hah, the minute a bid for 8m or so comes in Ashley will trot out the good 'ol "financial crisis" line and bite their hands off. And he'll probably let them pay in 8,000 weekly installments of a thousand quid too.

first time in a while that Martins actually looked bothered. Too little, too late.

I don't care. Laugh all you want, pull up the good 'ol "foreigners don't understand' shtick, whatever. If I met him on the street I would punch him.

Fucking Kevin Keegan. Just thinking about him makes me angry, especially today. I hate him. I absolutely hate him and hopes he never comes anywhere near football again. And I won't be bothered trying to argue why it's right or not that I feel that way. I just do.

Harper Taylor Taylor New Guy New Guy New Guy Guthrie New Guy Duff Carroll Lovenkrands

Properly sums up the way I feel about Jonas, that. I reckon he'd have been ace in Robson's midfield for example. So Gutierrez is neither the disease nor the remedy really. I even reckon that extends to Collocini too - I think they'd both complement good players but we haven't really got any good players. Yep. I definitely think Coloccini will be an awesome player in a team where he's not being forced to make last-ditch tackles again and again. If he could just be himself, be someone who anticipates what's coming and doesn't have to face a healthy dose of quick strikers running at him, then he'll be good. It's not a perfect comparison but I see a lot of Vidic in him. Of course, Vidic is strong and gets his head to the ball but he's not the paciest defender nor is he the best tackler. He's good at anticipating the game and being in the position to deny the attacker a clear shot or run at goal, thus slowing down the attack. If you have players running at Vidic (like Torres did, like Gerrard did, like Martins did) then he'll struggle too. That's how I feel about Colo. Well, at least we don't have to talk about them anymore aside from wondering where they'll move to in the summer and how much we'll get.

It'd feel weird but I suppose I'd have him back. He's got a vendetta against Sunderland now and all is forgiven really after he earned us a point at St James' this year.

are there any other kinds?

Idiot friend of mine left some jokey comments on my Facebook about us. Just deleted them and I don't think I'll be talking to him for a while now. Why is it so hard for friends/coworkers/etc. to understand that this is not a fucking joke. I honestly haven't felt as worse as I have today in several years yet instead of offering comfort a lot of people think it's funny to rib me about how "shit the barcodes are" or how "we'll be sipping Coca Cola next year." It's particularly frustrating since most of my friends are Man United fans. Times like this wish I was living in the city or at least back home where I know other people who support the club. I don't mind being miserable but I could damn well use someone to be miserable WITH. I suppose that's what this forum is for

Alright, it's officially time to have this conversation now. GK: Harper. Next. ....alright, not quite. There's obviously the issue of what we do with Krul. Hopefully we can get him to agree to being a number two and competing for the shirt, put him in cup games to prove his ability. By all indications he's a real prospect and it would be a shame to lose him. Forster should go out on loan to league 1 or 2. Backline: Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor, David Edgar, Tamas Kadar Coloccini will get the move he's been wanting since Christmas. Bassong will be sold on first offer. As much as Beye loves the club, he's only got a couple more years of top-class football left in him and will surely want to move. Enrique I think will be in very high demand, and while he's a decent bloke, he's got no reason to stay. Hopefully Taylor wasn't talking out of his arse when he said he wants to stay, somehow I think a year in the Championship might do him a world of good. Ryan Taylor is allegedly a great Championship player. He'll get to prove that. Edgar has shown flashes of decency over the years and there's no reason for us to let him go now that we're playing in what's probably his level. Hopefully he'll rise to the occasion and prove himself, although it would probably be a good idea to find a more experienced head to occupy this position. Ditto for Kadar. I think he just might cut it at Championship level but there would be no harm done in buying some more experienced competition for him. Overall we'll be in need of some bodies to make up the numbers, but there's at least the skeleton of a workable backline here. The biggest mistake we could make is to not buy sufficient cover and force ourselves into rotating in the likes of Tozer/Tavenier/Grieve when the inevitable injury crisis come. midfield: go buy a f***ing new one Seriously. We might be able to keep Nolan or Guthrie but just because we're going down a division doesn't mean that the fundamental problems in our midfield cease to exist. The players we have simply do not work with each other. We'll need a new DM to finally replace Butt and also a more mobile creative player to play with said new DM. Perhaps that's a part that Guthrie will be able to play but I'm still not sold on him. Nolan, as far as I can tell, is simply incapable of being effective in a standard 4-4-2. I don't mind Guthrie continuing to be deployed at right wing in the (very, very) poor man's "Beckham" role, but still, we need more wingers. Jonas is gone and Lovenkrands should not be played in this position under any circumstance. I envision Duff being semi-effective in the Championship and LuaLua being a useful squad player, but we'll still need two more wingers just to have a viable squad size going. So two wingers and two CMs, there's an entire new midfield we need to buy. Good luck with that. PS: Barton and Butt can go die in a fire Forwards: Carrol, Lovenkrands Those two and Shola is realistically who we're left with. It's simply delusional to assume we'll keep any of the others and the likes of Ranger should be at least a couple of years away from being effective even at Championship level. Hopefully we'll tie Lovenkrands down to an extended contract because his pace and finishing could make him one of the deadliest strikers in the Championship. If he agrees to stay I can see him banging in 20 goals next season. Carroll's improved in leaps and bounds this year and hopefully he'll do better than he did the last time he was in the division. While I highly doubt he'll be dominant, his physicality will be an extremely useful tool to have in the squad at least. As for Shola, fair enough he could prove me wrong and turn out to be an awesome Championship player, but I simply don't think he has the fitness or attitude to succeed at any level of professional football. He's nailed on to be injured for at least half the season already. To round out our strikeforce we could probably use a honest, hard-working Championship goalscorer in the mold of Michael Chopra (but hopefully not the man himself!) So overall we're looking at about 6~7 new signings, which isn't bad at all considering the amount of playing staff we have leaving. Of course, it's our ability to identify players who aren't s***/past it/injured/c***s and buy them which will inevitably fail us.

FUCKING HELL. That's possibly the most cringeworthy thing I've seen in my lifetime. I can't believe this cunt gets to stay in the Premiership while we go down. Absolutely cannot fucking believe it.