The Prophet

I've said people need to lower their expectations but at the same time a lot are taking their views out of context. No one was expecting a massive signing, in fact at the beginning of January expectations were quite low, then silly season begins and we getting linked with the likes of Veloso people getting sucked into the media hype. So yeah expectations were too high for some but some people rightly wanted more. I wanted more. The business we've actually done isn't too bad. It's the fact we've failed to bring extra bodies in. Like I said we can't really lay direct blame at Ashley and the recruitment team until we know the full picture, if speculation was to be believed he was attempting to throw £16 million around, not a small sum. However this money wasn't spent and we're still sorely short of players. A decent transfer market would of eased fears of relegation but I think today it's finally dawned on a lot of people we're in deep shit and that in itself might be one of the reasons we struggled to attract players. There will be a lot of finger pointing going on with what is rightly being described as a missed opportunity. However this does not bring us any closer to relegation. The problem is it doesn't help us out of it either. So all in all undeniably disappointing, underwhelming but no where near bad enough to fuel claims we're going down because of it. If anything the continuing post-window witch hunt will do more damage than the transfers (or lack of them) themselves.

Indeed, we can only go on the tangibles - tangibles you are blind to. Shy of an unlikely surprise, they are bad - Ashley's organisation has, at best, failed to achieve necessary successes. At worst, they didn't attempt to achieve them. You seem to think we are operating in a sealed environment. We are not. Yesterday's result was us failing to win a relegation six-pointer at home. Those are the matches that must be won to stay up. Any assumption to the contrary takes it as true that we're as likely to draw against Man United, Liverpool (1-5) et al at home. In case you forgot through lack of interest, Sunderland won the converse fixture - a direct relegation rival of ours now holds a two point advantage over us. We don't have a lot to go off but a few sources corroborated we made an eleventh hour bid for Johnson. If this was indeed the case why was it so late? Were bids elsewhere rejected? Did talks break down? If so why did they break down? It isn't as simple as saying Ashley failed, we are only getting a key whole view of the full picture, until we know the reasons behind the lack of activity it's difficult to hold the recruitment team accountable. All that can be said is this is a disappointing transfer window due to a lack of personnel being recruited. Regarding your second point in an ideal world it is a game we needed to win. However you've got to take into account injuries, the fact it was a derby and Kinnear's general failings as a manger. The worrying thing is in the short term two of these things are unlikely to change. However in the long term we still have several opposition relegation rivals to play, should things pick up by then and given we pick up the off point from teams above us we should survive. A good transfer window would have helped in the short term but at the end of the day this squad is good enough to stay in the Premier League, we just need to drop this attitude of feeling sorry for ourselves. Do you think we simply possess extraordinarily bad fortune, then? Maybe Napoleon was right, then, preferring lucky Generals to good ones. This is as simple as saying Ashley failed. We can go over the reasons for why that failure took place, but it's definitely a failure. Why do these big bids keep going awry? Good question. We'll just have to go on what is demonstrated before us - Ashley's administration repeatedly fails to advance NUFC's fortunes and has us staring at the prospect of relegation. Re: bold, indeed - who's apparently offering him another 2 1/2 years in charge? You’re looking at a rather wide context when my point was a pretty narrow one to begin with. Yes Ashley has failed in some departments. His lack of footballing experience led to the events that unfolded earlier this season and his lack of due diligence on the club means he inherited a few nasty surprises when he bough it. That's to name just two of his errors I'm not praising or in fact defending where he's taken us as the club as a whole I was simply reflecting on the transfer market. In the context of this transfer market though did Ashley fail? We just don't know. He appointed a recruitment team who along with Kinnear only brought the three fresh faces in. Indeed this is disappointing but can we categorically point the finger at them or are there external factors to consider, maybe in this instance we were simply unlucky, until the picture becomes a bit clearer we just don't know. So yeah looking at the big picture it would certainly appear Ashley’s failings have had a major contribution in where we are now. He started a chain of events which led to the main contributing reason for our position today. But to then say "oh Ashley has consistently made mistakes, so this transfer window must be his fault" which essentially what your insinuating, is a completely illogical argument.

Completely ignored why they wanted to leave. Given because he's sick of the club consistently being mired in the s*** and N'Zogbia because he spat his dummy out when our manager mispronounced his name? Exactly. Although Nzogbias reason was pathetic they still both wanted to leave because of push factors rather than pull factors. Im f***ed off because if we were being run properly then they wouldnt have left we could have been up 3 players, rather than up just 1. I'd say their factors but not the absolute reasons for them leaving. I think Given would have left two or three years ago had he been handed the choice, it's just been a rainbow road with no treasure at the end for the lad. The recent events may have been the straw that broke the camel's back but not the absolute reason. With regards to N'Zogbia that could have been resolved with some common sense and a quite chat, both parties were in the wrong for me.

Completely ignored why they wanted to leave. Given because he's sick of the club consistently being mired in the s*** and N'Zogbia because he spat his dummy out when our manager mispronounced his name?

Indeed, we can only go on the tangibles - tangibles you are blind to. Shy of an unlikely surprise, they are bad - Ashley's organisation has, at best, failed to achieve necessary successes. At worst, they didn't attempt to achieve them. You seem to think we are operating in a sealed environment. We are not. Yesterday's result was us failing to win a relegation six-pointer at home. Those are the matches that must be won to stay up. Any assumption to the contrary takes it as true that we're as likely to draw against Man United, Liverpool (1-5) et al at home. In case you forgot through lack of interest, Sunderland won the converse fixture - a direct relegation rival of ours now holds a two point advantage over us. We don't have a lot to go off but a few sources corroborated we made an eleventh hour bid for Johnson. If this was indeed the case why was it so late? Were bids elsewhere rejected? Did talks break down? If so why did they break down? It isn't as simple as saying Ashley failed, we are only getting a key whole view of the full picture, until we know the reasons behind the lack of activity it's difficult to hold the recruitment team accountable. All that can be said is this is a disappointing transfer window due to a lack of personnel being recruited. Regarding your second point in an ideal world it is a game we needed to win. However you've got to take into account injuries, the fact it was a derby and Kinnear's general failings as a manger. The worrying thing is in the short term two of these things are unlikely to change. However in the long term we still have several opposition relegation rivals to play, should things pick up by then and given we pick up the off point from teams above us we should survive. A good transfer window would have helped in the short term but at the end of the day this squad is good enough to stay in the Premier League, we just need to drop this attitude of feeling sorry for ourselves.

For the record this isn't defending the club, this window has been a disappointment, we needed more bodies but the business we have done hasn't been two bad. You can criticise the sales of Zoggy and Shay all you want but at the end of the day they wanted to leave, we cannot afford to carry passengers in the current situation. Nolan is average, but he's a body while I think Lovenkrands and Taylor will come in handy during the current injury crisis. It's key to remember we have players returning from injury as well. Has to be said though I do agree with the whole if we wanted Johnson why didn't we use him as a bargaining chip school of thought.

Also to that add in the event we stay up people seriously need to lower there expectations in terms of the quality we bring in during the summer market. We will need to get over ourselves and start consolidating.

What a bunch of fucking morons. We haven't a clue what bids we made, who we held talks with, who we may still be holding talks with and yet people still pour themselves over these media sites expecting the God's honest truth. Selective reading at its very best my friends. For all we know we're still working on deals behind the scenes, we might not, we haven't a fucking clue. Look at the summer for an indication of how unpredictable we are in the market. But at the end of the day if we haven't strengthened the team any further, it's a bit like yesterdays result. It doesn't put us any closer to the drop but it doesn't really help either. We are still well capable of staying up, it isn't the end of the world man.

THE TRANSFER WINDOW HAS CLOSED BUT DEALS CAN STILL GO THROUGH WITH NOTICE AND EVEN IF THEY DON'T IT AIN'T THE END OF THE WORLD.

We don't have a clue what's going, people need to calm the fuck down.

Arsenal arent yet, Walcott has grown, but still need a Flamini replacement, half replaced Hleb in Arshavin (Would prefer Hleb) I'd say Nasri was your Hleb replacement. Forgot about Flamini though, you badly need some steel in the middle.

Congratulations to both Spurs and Arsenal. They have both splashed the cash and are exactly where they were this time last season, played.

No, where do you people hear these things? Christ on a bike.

Agreed, nice to see for a change.

Why do people continue to believe these so called news stories. The media know about as much as us, fuck all, they are merely speculating.

Probably defines most Premier League players these days.

Ah Quaresma. The guy was brilliant in his earlier days at Porto. Unfortunately he seems settled for second best happy to play the game with little urgency or character. His laid back nature means he has struggled with the pace of Serie A so God knows how he'll cope over here. On his day he's a world beater, but the lad just doesn't seem interested anymore.

I don't think anyone is saying that in fairness. If anything Sunderland edged it going into the break with us only creating one chance of note. We got a point in the end because you tried to hold a one goal lead away from home. We were a lot better after the break and you tried to play us on the counter, it was a ridiculous decision but if you try and defend such a narrow lead on the road in this league then your asking for trouble. A harsh decision? Yes, a fair result? Yes.

So we'd of finished that high up the league second time around? Would you like to back that up with any form of fact or any kind of logic for that matter? How can you give facts, on an opinion you have or a belief you have that is based on experience? its my belief, If Keegan had been backed we would be doing significantly better than we are doing now,...just an opinion based on my experience,...i may be wrong,.. its possible, im brilliant, but not perfect. Can't really argue with that. I don't know about siginifcantly better but if it's of your opinion then yeah why the hell not.

So we'd of finished that high up the league second time around? Would you like to back that up with any form of fact or any kind of logic for that matter?

So, let me get this straight cp40. Our best footballing years since 1971 and most defiantly our best footballing years in the Premier League were during Keegan's tenure? OK I wouldn't argue with that. So can you please explain why because Keegan was successful in the 90's why he'd automatically be successful now... Yes we appreciate what he's done for this club us in the past, but does that mean he would be guaranteed success second time round? No. Does it justify him walking away the way he did? Well if he was undermined I'd have serious reservations about remaining in my job, however to walk out on us at the time he did and the way he did, I don't think so. The man deserves respect for the good times he brought to this football club, but that doesn't make him exempt from criticism for the role he played in the events that lead up to the current debacle.

Obsessed. Can't deny it would be hilarious though.

In terms of business it makes absolute sense to cash in on him now, he didn't want to be here and he's starting to get on a bit. It's the sentimental side of it that sucks, eleven years at the club and he's finally decided to chuck in the towel, just wish he'd held out for the big club he deserved

Was I watching a different game?

Aye I believe you, thousands wouldn't...