The Prophet

What's your point? Didn’t particularly have one...

Good post but you'd also have to add the general standard of the league has improved dramtically since then, even under Keegan there'd no longer a game you'd consider an easy three points.

Right I'm very, very bored so I've whipped a quick set of stats together for you (applies to the Premier League only): Since joining us Martins has been substituted 24 times, on average around the 67th minute mark. In total, after he has been benched, we have gone on to score 11 goals, interestingly we've only conceded 10. Martins has come off the bench a total of six times since joining us, on average after 62 minutes. He's never scored on any of these occasions. The team however have score six times after he has come on, only conceding once. Under Kinnear Martins has been subbed six times. After he has left the field we have never scored and conceded twice. And for knit-pickings sake and just to show off, Martins has been replaced by Owen five times. Of these five occasions the team has scored four times (Owen getting two himself) and have also conceded four times.

Shut up yourself Sorry if you don't like me laying the blame at the owner/board 100% for the small squad the manager has, but I do. I know I feel I ruined my point with the soft ending, poor. But seriously, I don't care where you laying the blame, whenever you a post in a thread they go down the same old worn away path, just leave it be.

Oh my word, NE5 your as welcome to this forum as any other member but get it into you disturbingly thick, bot like skull that no one gives a shit. If we wanted to discuss the board we'd be in your quote-tastic thread arguing with you about the same things, watching you dodge the same questions and generally behaving like a five year old. We've seen the routine and its boring us, so please do us all a favour and a give over. Oh and I don't want you to think it's because the truth hurts or because I don't like Shepherd its because your an incredibly annoying, thread-jacking, attention seeking twat, shut up!

Aye spot on in terms of yesterday but it is becoming a bit of a habit if you look at the City, Wigan and very nearly the West Brom games.

I can see why someone would say this but I tend to disagree, to me any hatred of them would be born out of pure jeolusy. How else are the clubs in poverty (in footballing terms) meant to make something of themselves without spending money. ...and as mentioned above it's not like they've done a Chelsea or a Man City.

It does appear as though we've lost the bottle to finish off a game. Probably through a mixture of poor use of substitutions (and tactics) and a lack of leadership. The problem is the more it happens the more likely it is repeat itself. Players begin to realise they haven't finished off opposition in past games and so the nerves creep in. It's a nasty habit, one that's far too easy to slip into. Last season's Fulham are a prime example of this.

No where near as blatant as Chelsea are. Yes they have a billionaire owner but instead of chasing the world's finest players they choose to do their recruitment largely in South America and Germany. For example, three or four of their players were bought from the Stuttgart academy, they were deemed not good enough by one of Germany's top clubs.

Jealous? I most certainly am. It's fair to say in 1990 Hoffenheim were absolute no marks. They were nothing more than a local amateur side languishing in the Baden-Württemberg A-Liga, to you and me the eighth tier of German football. Things began to turn when former player Dietmar Hopp, formally a player of the club, returned as a financial backer. He began to pour his new found wealth into the club and by 2001 Hoffenheim had already jumped to the Regionalliga Süd, German football's third division. Despite their remarkable progress the football club still went about its business relatively unnoticed and the magic seemed to have disappeared with the club spending several seasons rooted in mid-table of the division. However in 2006, with Hopp as the club's owner, the club were on the march again. Ralf Rangnick former Stuttgart and Schalke manager was employed and with Hopp's financial backing the club were promoted yet again to the originally named 2. Bundesliga. Still not content with their rapid change in fortune, the following season Hoffenheim went and got themselves promoted again, this time to the top division in German football, the Bundesliga. And here they are now 16 games in sitting at the top of the pile. So apart factor of wealth what else has prompted the unlikely growth of this football club? Well despite having control first team, the reserve team and the youth academy, Rangnick has worked under and director of football, Jan Schindelmeier, since he took charge since 2006. Now interestingly they have a good working relationship and Schindelmeier continues to find fantastic players from quite frankly no where. Hoffenheim's scouting system is brilliant. Over the last two years they have managed to set up the best youth facilities in Germany. Rangnick and Schindelmeir are both strong believers in youth development, so it's no coincidence the average age of the side is around 22. These young players are plucked from the academies of leading German sides: take the likes of Andreas Beck, Tobias Weis and Salihovic for example. But if you still want evidence look no further than Ibisevic. Last year he was playing his trade for Aachen in Germany's second division, now he's competing for the golden boot scoring an impressive 18 goals in 16 games in the top tier. These signings along with the likes of Carlos Eduardo, Demba Ba and Luiz Gustavo have led the club to play a mouth watering brand of football. It's the stuff of dreams isn't it? And the thought that has contributed to the club's massive growth sounds very familiar doesn't it? Our very own Mike Ashley tried to form a set-up which would bare similar results that of Hoffenheims. For example he, like Hopp tends to stay out of the day to day business of the club, the chairman Peter Hofmann runs the German outfit. Ashley also wanted to buy players who would grow in stature and value something Hoffenheim have also done successfully. So to me it's obvious that it all lies in the execution. With money and the right people in the right positions all sharing a single goal anything can be achieved. With a new 30,000 seat stadium on the horizon Hoffenheim are living the dream. We can only hope that one day our own fortunes will change for the better, but for the time being doesn't it feel good to watch a club, that not so long ago in 1990, achieve what must have seemed like an impossible dream?

This is relegation form. I don't know how you can deny that. You don't throw away 2 goal leads at home to teams like Stoke and expect to get away with it. Aye, but relegation candidates don't go to Stamford Bridge and keep Chelsea out for ninety minutes. I'm not sure what concerns me more, the match I've just witnessed or the reaction of the fans. We played the most defensive football I've possibly ever seen us play and got lucky. On another day they'd have broken us down. The fact we drew against them is now good proof that we're not likely to be amongst those in the bottom half is it? I was happy enough with a point there but I'm afraid that doesn't excuse dropped points against the likes of Stoke. We can't rely on games like the Chelsea match to keep us safe and secure. I'm unsure how you've drawn so many false inferences to my initial post but I'll have a go at explaining myself. We've just f***ed up against Stoke City. Kinnear and the players on the pitch should be taking a long hard look at themselves right now because it was pretty big f*** up at that. Does that mean we'll go down? Well if I sat here and read some of the brainless responses on here, yeah, I'd be pretty certain we were. One result alone cannot determine a team's fate. The Chelsea result in itself shows we have enough quality to stay up, but it doesn't mean we'll stay up. The result today shows we're equally as culpable of going down but it doesn't mean we'll go down. Are you following? It would be foolish at this relatively early stage in the season to start making forecasts about our outcome and yet that's what so many fans have done when there is so much football to play. The inconsistency in this team is so evident that a 2-0 defeat next week is as plausible as a 2-0 victory. We don't what the team are going to do in the next fixture and we certainly don't know what they are going to do for the remainder of the season. So yeah relegation is a real possibility, I'd be an fool to deny it, but this result alone is not going to send us down. So why when I read this forum and listen to fans reaction do I get the feeling it is. It's because as per they're too busy engaging their knee rather than their brain. I don't speak for anyone else but I think the vibe is more one of us having relegation form, as opposed to us looking dead on for relegation. But that's the point, we're not. A team that gets two credible results away to Boro and Chelsea is not in relegation form. We're not in any kind of form, we vary from game to game, that's why its impossible to predict where we'll be come the end of the season.

This is relegation form. I don't know how you can deny that. You don't throw away 2 goal leads at home to teams like Stoke and expect to get away with it. Aye, but relegation candidates don't go to Stamford Bridge and keep Chelsea out for ninety minutes. I'm not sure what concerns me more, the match I've just witnessed or the reaction of the fans. We played the most defensive football I've possibly ever seen us play and got lucky. On another day they'd have broken us down. The fact we drew against them is now good proof that we're not likely to be amongst those in the bottom half is it? I was happy enough with a point there but I'm afraid that doesn't excuse dropped points against the likes of Stoke. We can't rely on games like the Chelsea match to keep us safe and secure. I'm unsure how you've drawn so many false inferences to my initial post but I'll have a go at explaining myself. We've just fucked up against Stoke City. Kinnear and the players on the pitch should be taking a long hard look at themselves right now because it was pretty big fuck up at that. Does that mean we'll go down? Well if I sat here and read some of the brainless responses on here, yeah, I'd be pretty certain we were. One result alone cannot determine a team's fate. The Chelsea result in itself shows we have enough quality to stay up, but it doesn't mean we'll stay up. The result today shows we're equally as culpable of going down but it doesn't mean we'll go down. Are you following? It would be foolish at this relatively early stage in the season to start making forecasts about our outcome and yet that's what so many fans have done when there is so much football to play. The inconsistency in this team is so evident that a 2-0 defeat next week is as plausible as a 2-0 victory. We don't what the team are going to do in the next fixture and we certainly don't know what they are going to do for the remainder of the season. So yeah relegation is a real possibility, I'd be an fool to deny it, but this result alone is not going to send us down. So why when I read this forum and listen to fans reaction do I get the feeling it is. It's because as per they're too busy engaging their knee rather than their brain.

This is relegation form. I don't know how you can deny that. You don't throw away 2 goal leads at home to teams like Stoke and expect to get away with it. Aye, but relegation candidates don't go to Stamford Bridge and keep Chelsea out for ninety minutes. I'm not sure what concerns me more, the match I've just witnessed or the reaction of the fans.

I've got a cracking idea, lets protest outside the ground surely it can't do any harm, oh wait...

Defended Kinnear at times this season but he was a fucking joke today, can't be completely faulted for the result but he certianly takes a large majority of the blame.

Win, 13/1 that'll do.

Surely it would be far easier to just push Coloccini into defensive midfield.

Frankfurt to beat Bochum (Currently 4-0) Stuttgart to beat Cottbus (Currently 3-0) Bielefeld to draw with Dortmund (Currently 0-0) Keeping fingers toes and everything else crossed for the time being. Lille to beat Toulouse Nice to beat Marseille Cean and Rennes to draw

It's going to be the "Europa league" and the format is changing but I don't think it's much for the better. It's being re-vamped again? What ingenious format have they gone for this time?

The best way to approach this game is to go at them hard. There's no point in sitting back and worrying about their long ball game or we'll just fall deeper and deeper and play into their hands. Joe needs to tell back line to stay a bit higher than usual. They've got no body that's going to do Coloccini or Bassong for pace if they do happen to get through. The deeper we go the more pressure we'll invite. The reason they've been successful this season is because they've pushed teams back so deep that they're pretty much sitting on the keeper when a throw in comes in. Not to mention Coloccini hasn't covered himself in glory in the air up to now. Another reason the centre backs are so important to this game is if they keep punting long balls up the field all day long then we'll have all kinds of trouble scoring. The personnel in their defence are generally large but not very mobile. If we keep it on the deck Jonas and Martins could well have a field day, if just pump the ball over the midfield in the hope the strikers will get some joy then we're going to make seriously hard work of this game.

Your posting on an internet forum, the only way is up from here.

To answer the original post though I know what you mean but I think it depends on which team you are supporting. Say you support some Lithuanian minnows and they qualify for the UEFA cup you'd be over the moon. They would receive a healthy cash injection and would get to contend with some of the bigger names in Europe. If you look at it from the other side of the fence, say one of the Italian giants, then it isn't going to mean as much. They know they should be in the Champions League, the money is a drop in the ocean and they risk injuries to key players playing significantly lesser teams. Then you get the mid-table teams. If you are finishing tenth and eleventh regularly in a league of twenty and the same four teams are taking the Champions League spots what is there to motivate you? The UEFA Cup provides some incentive for the team to push up the league which is ultimately better for viewers of the sport. The cup itself might not provide the riches but mixing it with some of the biggest names in Europe can brings prestige and ultimately better players to push on and progress.

Would feel more legitimate if third place finishes in the Champions League groups didn't qualify teams for the UEFA Cup knock out stages. Just feels like a second bit at the cherry for them.

CB, RB, LB or if your desperate on either flank...

Wait! Reckless long balls are going to be encouraged? Right, I'm starting as well. F*** you all. Your prone to the odd tumble in the box as well... Only after two-footed lunges, Proph. And you're prone to missing open goals Handbags at dawn. Was it bollocks a two footed lunge, I got the ball and you made the most of the follow through. ...and defenders shouldn't be the ones relied upon to provide goals, especially defenders with two right feet. You're saying a lot that you have 1 right foot, never mind 2. Your one to talk, remember blazing that beauty of a cross over the bar from a matter of yards. It happens to the best of us...