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To say he has been a disgrace, is nothing short of embarrasing TBF. Nolan's attitude has been brilliant and he has brought a dozen goals to the team. To say that he lacks fitness and ability on the ball would be accurate enough but to say he has been a disgrace is laughable. His attitude on the pitch is good. That however, is the easy part. I'm confused, you seem to rate Ameobi, who I see as bringing zero to the team except goals, yet you despise Nolan, who brings zero to the team except, err, goals. For what it's worth, I hope neither gets anywhere near the team next season, but this season they've been equally infuriating when on the pitch, yet have scored some vital goals that have won us matches. As for the Birmingham comparison, i've been banging that drum for a while now. Whilst there is no guarantee we can go up and perform like them, I think there's also no guarantee we're coming straight back down. Using the players we got rid of compared to those we have signed is also a pretty harsh way of looking at it. There was so much wrong with last season's team, injuries, attitudes and lack of balance to the team being the obvious. I think we're all relatively agreed that we have a defence and goalkeeper that can at least match that of the bottom half of the Premier League and if we keep our wingers fit they'll do a decent job. What we need are Barton fit and playing well, at least another central midfielder to go with he and Guthrie, a back up for both wings would be nice, and obviously a decent striker. If we go into next season with a CM of Smith and Nolan then fair play, Hughton has fucked up, but until we actually get promoted and in a position to sign players good enough to play CM in the Prem, Hughton may well have decided it's not worth trying to deal with the issue now when we seem to be coping. He's gradually trying to shift Guthrie into the centre of the park and I reckon that when Routledge is fit again that Guthrie will be picked in the centre ahead of Smith or Nolan, it's just at present he feels it's better to keep Ryan Taylor and Pancrate out the team, which means shifting Guthrie.

You can tell how gutted he is when they do the reveal. Really thought he was in the squad

Not sure where this should live so will stick in here. From a Charlton fan re Kazenga: good, quite pacey and good control going down the wings. flew past a few of our defenders in the first half. got a very good reception from the brighton fans when he was substituted about 70 mins in.

Why? Has the whole Notts Couty saga somehow escaped you? On F365 the sidebar solely had the headline. Don't really need anything that says "Magpies" and "Winding up order" in the same sentence, Notts County or no Notts County.

People need to be more careful with their headlines. Almost had a fucking aneurism http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5977289,00.html

Ah ok, yeah, I agree with that. Might need to be under a different banner, although let's be fair it's likely to be a lot of the same suspects one would imagine.

I've always felt that Ashley's mistakes came through naivety, rather than any desire for personal gain or malicious intent. He therefore has the capacity to learn from those mistakes and should be given another chance. Certainly there don't seem to be any wealthier alternatives on the horizon. Any possibility of partnership between NUST and Ashley is a non-starter though. NUST crossed the boundary between criticism and abuse, and the information they were giving to the public seemed, at best, unreliable. They cannot work together in an atmosphere of trust. Was just about to post that as a response to the post you've quoted. Whether it was intentional or not, they've put themselves in an "all or nothing" position in my view. Yep, agreed, that is likely the case, although with that said you just never know with Newcastle United or Mike Ashley. I certainly don't for one minute believe that this will happen, but should it I wouldn't be that surprised. It could be argued his treatment of Keegan (and by proxy the fans) means that there would never be the level of trust required to work together, but sometimes needs must. If Ashley needs cash and fans want in, it might be the only way.

Even with Cole out he still has more chance of 1st team footballl here, even sitting on the bench means he has to learn how to cope with that. Also Jose will prob not stay fit for 14 games in a row. But didn't Zhirkov pick up an injury at the weekend too? Chelsea are rapidly running out of left backs.

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5973383,00.html Harris way beyond his brief in my view now. Seems quite the moron. As for Pro / Anti Ashley. I was rabidly anti Ashley so I suppose I'm rather fickle with what I'm about to say... I'm hoping, beyond rational hope, that what has happened in the last 18 months has taught Ashley a huge lesson and that he is finally beginning to 'get' how to run a football club. Taking us back up and spending a decent amount of cash would be a good way to confirm any commitment to the club (if he does have any long term ambitions to stay here, which is probably unlikely) but another way would be to invite NUST in. He said almost as he came in he needed outside investment and I don't think a supporters trust could immediately take over and run a club successfully stand-alone, so whilst it would be a rather uneasy marriage, if it gave Ashley what he wanted, in respect of a financial crutch, and gave us fans what we want - some kind of real input to the running of the club - then it might be worth a shot. If it didn't work out then we'd either rely on one party buying the other out or we'd be completely back to square one looking for new owners, but hopefully with the club in a far better position financially for anyone coming in. Unlikely I realise.

This is getting so fucking dodgy. Now those tossers at West Ham are offering to lend them £10m as they don't want to lose the 4 points they would lose should Pompey go out of business.

So you've had a bad experience with them then, which makes your view understandable, but comments such as "Arseholes, the lot of them" is absolute rubbish. My mates aren't arseholes and they follow them all around the country. They aren't vandals or hooligans. After last night Leeds fans are probably feeling similar about Carlisle fans... Doesn't make it right. We've all experienced shit fans from other teams (and even sometimes our own), but it's too easy to project that on to an entire fanbase / team. They have come up through the leagues fair and square, from absolutely nothing. They've got every right to feel pretty pleased with themselves about that.

No idea. Sure there must be special dispensation somewhere in rules if club goes out of business

But surely in the event of liquidation there would still be a firesale? By definition they must have to liquidise the assets, meaning selling the players contracts, etc. I've got an amusing image of bailiffs turning up at Pompey training and loading the players into the back of a van and then the lot of them showing up at one of those govt. auctions as bankrupt stock.

Good point. I've no idea. There always seems a fair few accountants on here - any bankruptcy experts?!

Yep, if this had been a team in any other English league they'd have been pushed into administration and slapped with the 10 point penalty. Premier League seems to get / give as much special dispensation as possible. Re raising funds, if they went into administration would they not be able to sell players like when we bought Ambrose?

I can't stand AFC Wimbledon. Would be a completely different case. AFC Wimbledon were formed when Wimbledon FC were still playing. Wimbledon FC only stopped when the name was changed to MK Dons but they are a continuation rather than a new club. You try telling an AFC Womble fan that his club are a new entity and not the phoenix from the flames of the FA Cup winning Wimbledon FC and they practically explode. Timing schmiming, IMO. What used to be Wimbledon FC might not have been formally finished by the time that AFC Wimbledon started, but it was in the post. What other choice do ex-Wimbledon FC fans have? It's either AFC Wimbledon; follow MK Dons (which, as the most evil/hateable team in England, is not an option for anyone in possession of a soul); or stop watching football. AFC Wimbledon get the from me. You've clearly never met them then. It's only an hour drive from London to MK. It takes that long to get from Ploough Lane to Selhurst Park on a good day. FYI there are plenty of 'old' Wimbledon fans who are now MK Dons fans. I've met a few. The majority of AFC Wimbledon fans are bandwaggoners who have jumped on board as they rise ough the leagues. They have a nasty bunch of fans and believe it is their divine right to get into the football league. I can't stand them. Poppycock of the highest degree. I think I've read from your other posts that you are London-based, and with your kids supporting Chelsea I'm going to assume West / South West London. If Brentford got bought up by Islington would you expect their fans to suck it up and support the 'Islington Bees'? Football is all about community and in London especially that community is a pretty small demographic due to the number of professional clubs in and around the area. Wimbledon is part of London, Milton Keynes is most certainly not (a quick check on trainline shows a 3 train 1.5 hour journey up to the other side of London and out to Milton Keynes). Moving to Selhurst Park was never supposed to be the permanent solution and they always wanted to come back to Wimbledon, so suggesting that a permanent switch to a totally different city with a change of names constitutes anything other than a change of club is not true. I'm friends with a fair few AFC fans, all of whom were avid Wimbledon fans, none of whom could be described as 'bandwagon jumpers'. In their first season playing in the Isthmian League they averaged over 3k for home games! AFC are, without doubt, Wimbledon FC; MK Dons are a franchised football team that stole a league positioning and set a precedent that should never ever be allowed to be actioned again.

Same gap to 3rd and another game down, forest appear to be losing their flow. It's not the best of evenings but from some of the posts on here you'd reckon we had been relegated again. HTL ps Portsmouth just made it a little better

On the other hand we were winning comfortably before he came on, and when he came on he scored twice. Could go either way! He came on when it was 0-0, with the rest of the players. Oh, I thought it was later, forget I said anything! You're talking about the wrong game aren't you? He started against Swansea, think you're meaning Cardiff.

Wrong topic I know... But asides from an admittedly amazing body, that photo doesn't exactly to wonders for her mug, she's got a face like a drag queen on pills there.

Was just looking for somewhere to post about those quotes. Yes, David, it will be a lot worse, as you won't be top of the league as you head towards the final third of the season, you'll lose the very few players you have who have any genuine quality and you'll hopefully end up stuck in the Championship for the foreseeable future with you and your stupid mates losing all the money you ploughed in. I had nothing (well, not much) against West Ham until these idiots went in there, but now every day we've got to listen to how much they've had to sacrifice, what idiots they are for getting involved and that they only did it because they love the club, how without them it'd be bust and how they have uncovered a shitstorm in the accounts. It's like a more irritating mouthy version of Ashley. Stop acting like martyrs and shouting to all and sundry about your club's problems and get on with sorting them out. If I was a player and this was how a request for a wage cut was brought to my attention i'd be telling them to stick it up their collective asses.

I blame my dad, he blames his dad, and so on. It's like a disease, gets inside your blood and no matter how much at times you wish (or at least i've wished) that you could walk away, you just can't do it. I can think of games on telly where we have been 3-0 down and I've turned them off in disgust and walked away, only to walk back moments later and feel I have got to watch it as the sweet's never as sweet without the bitter. First memory of a game would be on my way home from getting beat away at Swindon in 1991 when my dad explained I shouldn't be upset as we were the strongest team in the league as we were holding everyone else up. That logic made everything better for a 9 year old!

He may indeed, although i'd argue that there is a far better chance he wouldn't have, but that's a whole different debate into mental health that i definitely don't know enough about! As for him getting far more chances, that is certainly true, although maybe the issue there is that we should be doing more to help the 'unknowns' rather than less to help the more recognisable mentally ill. Anyhow, veering rapidly off-topic so i'm going to shut up.

The Barton one is a bit dubious... Bar work? Lets hope not.

You absolute f***ing pillock. Have you ever been involved with someone who has mental health problems? Do you have ANY idea of people who have mental health problems go through? Obviously not from your immature replies. I'm sure some of his actions are self inflicted, but he's surrounded by people or attracts people who only seem too happy to help him on his way to oblivion. I've bumped into him a couple of times, on both good and bad days, so I've seen both sides to him. He's a great bloke, but he needs serious long term help if he's going to get through the next 10 years or so. I'm interested in your views on how people with serious mental health problems should be treated, especially when they live their lives being chased around by the media. Just a note to other people - if you read his book, you'll see that the mental health problems came way before the alcoholism the problem is there are many people like this and because they are average joes and we just say he's a wanker who needs to sort himself out. because gascoigne is a former nufc player and a bit of a lad we are supposed to make extra allowances. But as i said above, that parallel doesn't work - your average joe has had nowhere near the same amount of pressure on him from a young age. Gazza is very much a special case. Yeah, we'd all love to be footballers, but that doesn't mean being someone with Gazza's profile and intellect is easy peasy. We've not been in his situation and tried to live his life so it's incredibly difficult to pass judgment. But I can't begin to comprehend what living with the kind of intrusion he's had to live with since his teens would do to my mental health. Every single mistake under the microscope and every single movement watched. I think anyone with any sociology / psychology experience will tell you it's pretty much proven that this will fuck with a normal person's head, let alone someone of Gazza's disposition. Also, with regards your average joe, if people are just calling someone 'normal' a wanker who needs to sort his life out and offering no help, then they're pretty rubbish too. I know if I had a close friend who fell into that sort of lifestyle i'd fight every step of the way to help them through it.

Hmmm... I really don't get the comparison of 'you wouldn't have sympathy if it was the builder down the road'. The builder down the road hasn't been chased by the media for his whole life, had the weight of the nation put upon him by said media and constantly been pushed to act the clown and be the life and soul of the party. Gazza has clearly never been the sharpest tool, but he was gifted with an amazing talent, in an age where the media had just started transforming into the all intrusive animal it now is but sadly just before footballers had their lives set out before them with diet and discipline in all aspects of life rather than a few hours training a day. He had all of the pressure with very little support and it has broken him. How people can wish death and injury upon the guy is just absurd. His alcoholism has developed into a mental illness, he used it to escape overwhelming pressure, incorrectly, and is simply not strong enough to kick out of it. He needs every ounce of help and support he can get and yes, it's likely he will fail, but that still doesn't mean people should just wash their hands of him. Total lack of compassion. He's not malicious, he's been caught up in domestic violence which is absolutely abhorrent but that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about alcoholism. The reason he's an alcoholic is because he's been under pressure for his entire adult life and was simply unable to deal with it. And he deserves to die for that?