Fatwax

To be fair if we ended up with a few seasons around the 8th-12th mark I wouldn't be too bothered as long as there were signs that the first team, academy and general setup were improving and being built upon. Anyone that's actually played football or has a clue about it will tell you that you can't just buy a load of quality players and watch them shoot you up the table, because it's a team game and it takes time for a team to truly gel an work together - this is helped by having a good manager as well. The thing is though, irrespective of where we finish this season, there have definitely been no signs of improvement with possibly the exception of the academy. Last season we bought players to improve our very thin squad but also threw out some players that on their day could turn a game - these were replaced by workhorses, shit ones at that. We flirted with relegation, were unable to strengthen in January and managed to pull ourselves away from the drop zone thanks to Keegan and his ability to lift players. This summer saw some improvements in certain areas again, but it seems to be the same story of selling players as well and not really building up a squad, oh yeah and Keegan left which fucked up our season royal. Now, if we'd have got in a better manager or hadn't have had some of the bad luck with injuries at times then we could possibly be out of the mire right now.. if you look at the points dropped and where we'd be if they hadn't have gone then we'd be looking pretty decent at the moment - but of course we did waste those points and they're gone for good. I can't see us doing any better than 13th or so this season which is a step backwards. This club is a mess and I'm fucking sick of being pissed around at every level possible. There hasn't been any progress and this January should also tell us about Mike Ashley and how he feels with the club. If he invests in some players that'll help us that's brilliant, if not then he'll have done the impressive task of turning an entire city against him as I can't see us staying up with the current squad, bearing in mind it's Kinnear who's picking the first 11.

they also said deco and rivaldo in the past. And Distin in Jan 05. We did move for Distin though didn't we? Pretty sure Souness confirmed it. Must be true then.

Whenever I read one of his interviews, I imagine Kinnear spouting off with a megaphone like Jimmy 'the Mouth of the South' Hart.

If we don't sign a central mid - a good one at that - then I reckon there's a big chance of us going down. Saying that though, if we do get Upson, does that mean that Kinnear doesn't rate Taylor or Upson? Assuming Taylor is fit I think that may just be answered on Sunday. Clearly Bassong is the brighter prospect but let us not forget that our beloved club is being run by a cretin.

That's nonsense. Complete nonsense. Your blaming the recruitment team for the manager offering a contract to player that is already at the club and has been there since before they arrived?? I think he's blaming the recruitment team for being incapable of pushing Nicky Butt out of the first team with younger, better players. If we had better alternatives then we wouldn't need to offer him a contract. We have no depth at all, or real quality if we're honest, in the centre of the park.

And the season before.

More like would he take us back, chortle chortle. If he wasn't injury prone then maybe, and if we didn't already have loads of strikers. I'd rather we got midfielders, since we'll be ok for strikers til the summer. You know, before the exodus.

At this moment in time I honestly think we'll get relegated. Kinnear is a bumbling idiot that has cost us points and provided us with 2 wins and 6 draws in 10 games - I'm that fucking kind I won't even count the Blackburn game. You could even forgive this if the fixture list had been particular hard, but we dropped 3 points to Sunderland and Fulham away and 2 points to Stoke, Wigan & Man City at home when we were in front with minutes to go! When you're losing points to some of your direct rivals for drop you know you're in trouble. If we were already midtable that'd be fine but we're not. We've been rotting at the bottom for ages and with every chance we've had to claw ourselves away we've fucked it up royally. We're only seeing certain players like Bassong and N'Zogbia on the field of play because good ol' reliable Duff & Taylor and the likes have been injured. It's no coincidence that as soon as Joe threw his big fat fuck-it-all-up spanner into the works, the defence hadn't conceded a goal. I know we had rough times with Keegan when he first got back but what it came down to was trust. I trusted that he'd be able to turn it around, to get the players going.. I don't trust Kinnear, or his ridiculous drivel that he comes out with week after week about who he wants to sign and how close we are and how he calls the shots. It's a fucking slap in the face to our previous manager with a track record of actual success in the league. People can say that we've still got months to go, but at the end of the day we know that Kinnear is here til the end of the season and that he's in charge of who's coming and going in January. Who here can say that they actually trust him with this club. I'd rather trust a drunk toddler with a Ford Fiesta to drive this club to safety.

You thought they wouldn't respect him yesterday mackems.gif Bit of a difference between coach and manager, alzheimers must be a bugger mate So they will respect him as a coach? Nor, but do you need to be "Respected" as a coach, all he will be doing is taking them through drills and the like Ferguson has created, if anything a coaching role will raise how much he is respected as Ferguson has chosen him. Of course you have to be respected as a coach.

We didnt get them therefore it didnt happen. That's just about it, aye. If we had so much money readily available and had our sights on top players like that, why did we end up not buying anyone instead of them? Woodgate/Coloccini excepted. I gave Ashley the benefit of the doubt all summer on the back of those bids but f*** all happened. Becasue the manager and board werent rowing in the same direction? Are you actually arguing Ashleys intention of spending off the back of a few players turning us down? Intentions mean f*** all when the actions don't back them up. What? What more action could the club of taken with Modric and Woodgate in particular? These intentions alone give me the evidence i need to have some faith in Ashley. If Keegan was still here and we signed who we signed, id be pissed. You know exactly what happened with Modric and how hard we tried to get him? I thought that was your thing, not having an opinion until you know all the facts. You may be happy to believe that we tried as hard as we could to get Modric, yet he went to Spurs for a lower transfer fee and lower wages, but it doesn't quite ring true to me. also just won a cup, had european football, spent/spending big and well enough (imo) in the summer to be pushing for europe again and london is better than newcastle in most peoples opinions. woodgate also admitted as much when he turned us down. There was other reasons why Woodgate couldn't come to play for us, which is quite common knowledge. and very, very believable. (no idea which specific one you mean as ive seen at least 3 completely different "versions" of this) I haven't heard this, wouldn't be able to share at all could you?

You only sing when you're fishing! Sang to Grimsby to.

He looks like a scruffy cunt.

Hmm, a thoughts occurred - has Owen ever played a UEFA match for us?

We've already offered him a contract of something like 120k a week to my knowledge. It was announced on SSN yellow ticker style in a kind of "well we've offered the contract, if you don't take it our hands are clean" kinda way.

SHUT UP JOE! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!

He's not exactly going to come out and say Smith is s**** and that he's looking to flog him as soon as he gets fit is he? Why not? He's already said that he's going to sell some players to buy players. Yes. Kinnear publically saying Smith is s**** is going to have potential buyers queuing up round the bloke.... Exactly, or drive any potential fee right down. Well ok fair point, I'll accept that.. but from his comments he clearly wants this cunt in the team. Moving away from the selling point you could argue that he's saying it to perk Smith up a bit and get him to perform for him. Lets not forget that this useless bastard was consistently picked by Allardyce and was even captain at one point and was utter dross in every game bar maybe the Arsenal one if you're being generous. I've said it in another thread but it's like the powers that be at this club are stuck in some ridiculous time machine, where Duff is still half decent, Alan Smith has a shot on goal and Nicky Butt is a spring chicken. It's like we've got a bunch of lesbians for players and each manager comes in reckoning that they can be the guy that turns them straight.

He's not exactly going to come out and say Smith is s**** and that he's looking to flog him as soon as he gets fit is he? Why not? He's already said that he's going to sell some players to buy players.

The entire thing is bizarre. Since Ashley has been here he's hired Keegan, caused him to leave and then been in talks with the likes of Venebales, Kinnear, I think I read Dalgleish at one point (although paper talk etc.) It's like he's stuck in some bizarre timewarp and these names are still shaking it with the best of them. The whole situation is really, really weird.

2 injuries to Kinnears first team starters causes the team to improve. Go figure.

Ameobi can cunt off. He can take his shitkicker mates Duff & Butt with him too.

I think Inzaghi has 57 goals in 146 Milan games, is that so good really? He does scores important goals though If we had a striker that regularly scored on average 1 in 3 I'd be happy for them to stay with us. Like you said, his goals are important.

£££££££££££ Reckon we'll be diving into the January market, do you? We'll spend f*** all, mainly no player in their right mind would come to us right now but also because the 'manager' is a f***ing plum. His masterplan is to try and sign 2 Arsenal players on loan that he's said a day or two later won't be coming and ginger balls Riise. Ding f***ing dong.

We're hardly any better than Blackburn.

Our midfield is quite poor I'd admit. Losing Gutierrez for 6 weeks and Barton to injury and suspension hasn't helped though. Guthrie & Butt isn't great, but it's still no better or worse than Cattermole & Brown at Wigan, Bowyer & Parker at West Ham, McCann & Nolan at Bolton, Whitehead & Reid at Sunderland, Andrews & Mokoena at Blackburn, etc. Well to be honest I think that any of the 5 teams you've named could possibly go down. You can say that injuries haven't helped us, but after that all we've got to come back is Barton who IS a step up, but not much of one.. and if you're going by that you could say that West Ham are missing Dyer etc. I just don't see any chance of Europe this season. It's impossible to tell if we'll go down and I don't think we will - more out of habit than anything, heh - but we've already screwed up 2 recent chances of getting a bit of space between us and the bottom feeders - Fulham and Wigan. Teams that go down lose these kind of matches.

We had no other senior LW in the squad and the signing of Duff for only £5m made sense. I wouldn't say it was unnecessary signing, but in hindsight it hasn't worked out for us at all. Not that you can really use hindsight when signing players.