Parsley

Midds, this one is for you. What good will another short-term appointment do? If a new manager is to be appointed it has to be long term and in that sense we can do far, far better than the likes of Pardew and Coleman. No we can't. In the state we're in I'd hand either one of them a two year contract in a heartbeat. Despite the likes of Terim, Deschamps, Bruce and Shearer declaring interest in the job when KK left?

Midds, this one is for you. What good will another short-term appointment do? If a new manager is to be appointed it has to be long term and in that sense we can do far, far better than the likes of Pardew and Coleman.

It's not as if Kinnear was a class manager with a decent record and we're just turning on him because of recent poor form. FFS. He was never good enough. Appointing hiim was a mistake from the start. Let's just get around to rectifying that before we're dead and buried. Who should we have got instead then bearing in mind the club was for sale? What we should have done was say "thanks but get the f*** out of here" the moment the club went off the market. Why? We were looking alright going into Christmas when, as I recall at least, we put a decent little run together. To sack Kinnear on the back of that would have been very unfair imo and would just alienate the players even more.

It's not as if Kinnear was a class manager with a decent record and we're just turning on him because of recent poor form. FFS. He was never good enough. Appointing hiim was a mistake from the start. Let's just get around to rectifying that before we're dead and buried. Who should we have got instead then bearing in mind the club was for sale?

Well we kept it respectable at least.

Harsh booking on Jonas that.

Why the fuck is Barton coming off.

Been a much better second half, we're keeping the ball quite well.

Surely Lovenkrands has to be worth a go.

He isn't but I wouldn't look too much into that, Kuzmanovic and Montolivo are both very highly rated.

Fagan had been on the wind-up all day. All Gardner did was win the ball while Belhadj was faffing around.

He played up front in the trial match so hopefully that'll be where he'll mostly be playing.

What an absolute numpty.

Owen's off in the summer anyway. If he's stripped after the window he won't be leaving any sooner, plus if he wants to play for England Owen'll have to keep his performances up anyway.

Hull equalize, Cousin.

Who's to say he's still like this?

Fair point but it at least shows that he's willing to put his point across and try to change things. Owen seems to just give up with the rest of the team and do nothing.

Could it be worth the risk? - We're in desperate times and need more of a character at the forefront to keep morale high. For me Owen just isn't vocal enough and while I can accept that he leads by example, that's difficult to do when his role is purely scoring goals and Barton's is to win tackles. I think seeing Barton winning challenges will inspire the midfield, our big problem area, more than seeing Owen beat the offside trap only to miss his daily sitter. - He's already captained Man City. - Owen's off in the summer anyway so any dissuasion caused might not count for much. - Barton can communicate with the players and drive them, I'm not convinced Owen can. I've never seen Owen pep up the team like Barton did before West Brom while he's been captain. Obviously it has some big drawbacks in that the media would have an orgy over it and it could push Owen out the door when we desperately need his goals. I'd also like to point out that I think Owen's a terrific player but while it made sense for KK to hand him the captaincy last season, circumstances have chanegd massively and perhaps giving Barton the armband could give the players the morale boost they need.

The Hull one was pretty debatable too iyam. Halmosi was virtually mid-dive before Butt even made the challenge.

No. Imo this is exactly the type of signing we should be staying away from. We need dynamism, enthusiasm and spirit in our midfield, not some old crock looking for a final payday.

Lennon has been Spurs' best player so far this season by a fair distance. If Harry has half a brain he won't be going anywhere. But Bentley on the other hand..

Given Taylor Colo Bassong N'Zogbia Lua Lua Butt Guthrie Jonas Owen Xisco ...is what I'd play. Jonas will give Charlie plenty of cover to make up for his defensive frailties and both have pace and guile in attack. Lua Lua looked promising against Hull and I'll be disappointed if he doesn't at least feature today. Xisco is better than Carroll imo and with an alright performance mid-week should start again. I think we'll go a goal down in the first half but come back strongly, get an equaliser and come within inches of winning it right at death, 1-1.

Fuck's sake. I like Joe but I can't see us getting anywhere with him in charge next year. Really hope this isn't true.

By Blackburn isn't it?

Going by the highlights there's no way we deserved to lose that game, as poor as we may have been.