The Prophet

Shola is a big pudding but he's still streets ahead of Ranger.

Shola and Lovenkrands.

Playing devils advocate here but would anyone care how we'd played thus far if you were told in August we'd be four points clear at the top of the league with a game in hand?

Yep, be involved in a nasty relegation battle at a club that likely have 4 months left in the Premiership and will then disapear without a trace. Or be involved in a promotion push where he can establish himself and continue to improve followed by a full season in the Premiership at a much bigger club, I agree its a no brainer. To quote part of my earlier post. It's hardly a certainty Wigan will go down either.

Too many are looking at this with black and white tinted specks on, career wise it's an absolute no brianer.

He doesn't have the engine or fitness to play on the wing, this is something he needs to address. Given the options we currently have though he's by far our best midfielder in the centre, he can still make a yard for himself and pass a football more than five yards, something other more experienced heads fail to do time and time again in the middle.

I don't understand why people get so wrapped up in these transfers. I'd of liked to see the lad in a black and white shirt too but it was always a long shot with Premier League clubs in the running. We're still not the best prospect in the world, we struggled to attract players in the summer and matters off the pitch haven't really changed at all. We still have an owner who will flog at the first sign of someone meeting his asking price, no proper manager and rumours of players running the dressing room. Yeah Wigan aren't the ideal club but they've got a stable structure and as many of said he'll give himself a chance to show what he can do at the highest level, thus advertising himself to the big boys. Martinez also has Wigan playing much, much better football than ourselves, career wise its an absolute no brianer. Chances our even if our bid was accepted he'd turn as down but as far as the bid goes we don't know the circumstances surrounding it, it isn't as simple as FM. His agent may of told us it's a waste of time or that he's demanding silly wages, Ashley may have his eye on cheaper alternatives, the list goes on but I'm afraid it isn't just as simple as sticking a bid in. The window has gone OK so far but we need a striker and in an ideal world an attacking midfielder, Hughton has said as much about the former. I'm unsure why people pour themselves over these potential transfers before they're even done, this was always going to be a long shot. As far as I'm concerned if we get striker with a bit of pace who knows where the goal is I'll be happy even if it's on loan until the summer. Yeah Moses would of been fantastic but people were getting far too excited when a deal was some way off, we need to to realise we're still not the most attractive option out there and a majority of Prmeier League clubs are going to be a more attractive alternative.

Will probably be dumped out wide at the expense of Routledge.

If you paired Guthrie in the middle with an energetic box-to-box player I think he'd be canny.

Do explain...

In fairness as well as Colo has done this season he still struggles against any kind of strength. He needs to hit the gym.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/2325920887_b206236832.jpg It's over guys.

The game didn't change specifically because of Ranger, more a change in tactics. As soon as we went two up top with natural width we looked much better. I think if we had a midfield which would provide service Carroll would get more goals than Ranger. Both are average but at least Carroll gets himself into goal scoring positions. Ranger tends to drift out wide and dither on the edge of the box, he also seems reluctant to shoot at times. Both have time to improve but both look like they'll be nothing more than distictly average players.

Had more to do with going 4-4-2 with two genuine wide men.

Was garbage tonight mind.

Pretty bog standard away performance from us, minus the goal of course.

Bottled it big time today.

Caroll (5): Offered little as an attacking threat? (5) whats his role? Ranger(4): got in the way when he wasn't aimlessly dithering on the ege of the box. The way I saw it was he was the biggest threat on goal the entire 90 mins, at least he knew what direction he was shooting towards. They were both pretty shite, gave Carroll a five on the basis he caused problems earlier on with his flick ons. Ranger got in the way of an attack at least twice, at one point Pancrate was darting into the box and Ranger just stood and got in his way. His best contriution was scoring a goal when he was a good two or three yards offside.

Not and awful performance, we didn't because of Hughton, he bottled it big time. Relentless Notts Forest finally drop points, your playing a side low on confidence after four consecutive defeats, so he sets up with two defensive midfielders, one natural winger and one striker. We had no pace to get in behind, it was very rare to see a player take someone on and we looked clueless at times. On another worrying note the defence have seemed to go back to the mode they were in last season, as in drop off, drop off, someone stick a foot in for fucks sake. There were a couple of times players just wandered through without so much as an attempt of a tackle from the near by defender. Harper 7 - Didn't have much to do, but did well when called into action. Taylor 5 - Poor defensive performance, just lets players drift past him at times. Not bad going forward, knocked the odd decent ball into the box. Williamson 6 - Steady away for the most part but makes some silly, uneeded challanges. Colo 6 - Alright, still gets muscled off the ball far too easyily. Van Aanholt 7 - Our best player going forward, overlepped well and whipped some good balls in, bit shakey defensively at times. Routledge 7 - Bit isolated early one but looked more threatening as the game went one, took his man on and whipped some decent balls into the area. Smith 5 - Was even playing? Offered very little in the middle. Butt 6 - Did OK, nothing flash but tried to get forward and link up play later on. Guthrie 4 - Pretty dreadful performance from someone you usually expect better of. Nolan 4 - See Guthrie. In fairness he did at least try to get in the box but all in all poor perormance for me. Carroll 5 - Looked promising early on, winning most of his ariel battles but offered very little as an attacking threat. Pancrate 6 - Not bad, offered some width and certianly posed more of a threat than Guthrie, not that took a lot. Ranger 4 - Absolute tosh, got in the way when he wasn't aimlessly dithering on the ege of the box.

We should probably wait until the end of the window before we start sucking each others dicks, but yeah this is definetely a positive.

He couldn't even get in the Palace first team to face us the other night, no thanks.

Possibly, or for every moment the creditors don't get paid the default payments increase, and were not talking £20 a day for being over drawn. Aye good point, never looked at it that way.

Can see this one going to deadline, Palace will no doubt wait until the last minute hoping one of the top flight panics and puts a silly bid in.

We all know Ashley is a twat, better late than never though.

Another swing and a miss from the Mail.