Wallsendmag

If he gets us CL next season I'll be very happy but then if it's followed by another really poor season like this one then none of the questions or concerns will have been answered or addressed. He needs to prove he can juggle the demands of a European campaign alongside domestic duties which is something he's struggled with so far in terms of his squad management. I've already mentioned the farcical team selection v Qarabag at home as an obvious example. As I've said, the 2 names I've been championing for a while are both in new jobs now and the 3rd one looks like he's about to so I genuinely don't have any idea who could now come in and do a better job so I'll be backing him from August but with doubts in the back of my mind.

Last season was his chance tbf. Ambitious clubs shouldn't tolerate 2 seasons in a row of bottom half finishes*. If next season is more of the same he could have no complaints if he's sacked. *I'd gladly accept another 12th placed finish and winning the FA Cup.

If that's the case (and it wouldn't surprise me) and that's the punishment full and final it opens a huge can of worms and makes a mockery of the rules which others would be able to now break now that it's the known that the punishment isn't much of a deterrent. We should be all over it and looking to exploit this with Nick De Marco on speed dial if the PL try to get funny and treat us differently!

I'm probably around 70/30 in favour of wanting him gone but can still see the argument for giving him next season. It just boils down to whether or not people have the confidence that he's able to turn it around or not. Also the Cup win has an emotional sway on people. Basically I'm 70/30 that I think the decline has set in and he won't be able to turn it around but there's still that part of me who thinks he might which is why I still understand why people want him to stay. Another big factor is that my first 2 choices to replace him would have been Alonso and Iraola but they are now both in new jobs. After those 2 my next choice would have been Glasner and it looks like he's off to Milan so I'm scratching my head now as to who his replacement would be.

Absolute scum of the earth. Storming the Farmers Rest with Stanley knives and attacking and slashing innocent supporters in there will always go down as the biggest liberty any set of visiting fans have took up here.

If we finish 17th next season I'll 100% be calling for the managers sacking!

Hopefully Man City find out their punishment this summer and then attention turns to Chelsea after that.

They were seen as a more fashionable club due to their location. I'm also old enough to remember the Save Stamford Bridge campaign and Ken Bates being able to buy them for a quid. Still think all being equal they were the bigger club. Aside from that, in the 60s, 70s and early/mid 80s they were the only London club who'd would travel up here in big numbers. Even Spurs and Arsenal didnt. I mean a large % were absolute knuckle draggers but they still had the largest away support of any London club by quite a margin.

Pre Abramovich Chelsea had won 3x more major trophies than West Ham and had a bigger fanbase. Historically Chelsea are the UKs 6th best supported club with West Ham in 10th place (in terms of all time average attendance). I'd say trophies won and fanbase are the two biggest factors when ranking the size of a football club. Aside from that Chelsea have played top flight football far more than West Ham have (91 seasons to 68).

They've always been a bigger club than West Ham tbf. Always were Londons 3rd biggest club. Arguably went up to number 1 with the CL wins and PL wins and probably now cemented as Londons 2nd biggest.

Spurs have finished 4th bottom for 2 seasons in a row. When does them being a top 6 team not be seen as a normality? To go from 17th 2 years running to top 6 would take a miraculous turnaround. Chelsea have a very good manager now so they'll undoubtedly move back into top 6. Villa have CL football next season and may well drop out of it.

Yeah I see what you're saying but in a regular season I don't think there's a hope in hells chance of a newly promoted Sunderland finishing 7th on 54 points with a -6 GD as an example.

I just thought the standard and quality of football throughout was poor. Barely watched a game from start to finish that didn't involve us (even switched a few of ours off well before the end) as I found the vast majority of them boring as hell and that's not like me.

Personally I thought the league was of very poor quality last season. Arsenal basically won it on set piece goals, Man City nowhere near consistent enough to put genuine pressure on them, the defending Champions were awful and lost 12 games, Bournemouth finished 6th despite losing their best players and a newly promoted team finished 7th on a negative goal difference. Top 6 has to be the aim next season especially with no European distractions.

Made 4 appearances for us in something like 5 years and the daft cunt is moaning on because we didn't recognise him when he was out and about. In order to recognise someone surely you've got to know what they look like in the first place.

Bournemouth just finished 6th. Sunderland were 7th, Brighton 8th and Brentford 9th. It should absolutely not take a miracle to finish above that lot.

The decision to sack SBR was the correct one. He'd lost certain players in the dressing room (the brat pack) and the team was starting to decline. We'd only won 2 out of our final 9 games in the 03/04 season and performance levels had dropped off massively. We then started the following season in similar form and won 0 of our first 4 and he was gone. This is what can't happen next season. The problem was who they brought in to replace him. They went for someone who would rule with an iron fist to get the aforementioned brat pack under control, ignoring the fact that he was a very poor coach and we were entering into an era in which you couldn't control the dressing room in that way unless you were Alex Ferguson.

Always felt that people thought he was better with his feet than he actually was, probably because he wasn't Pope, but even so that surprises me a bit.

That's my worry. I believe he'll be able to get the best of him. I'm banking on a career ending injury preferably in this first game of the World Cup now as I think he'll be excellent next season.

No more excuses. We need to come out the blocks flying in August. Losing 5 and drawing 1 of our final 8 games after exiting the CL was disastrous. There's been many cases of clubs ending seasons really badly and then continuing where they left off the following season. That can't be us.

Some people thought that once we were down to 1 game a week for the final 2 months of the season (8 games) that out form would pick up and we'd maybe grab a European place as we were 9th at the time. It was a fair assumption and I remember debating with Yorkie about it as he thought we would whereas I thought the malaise had set in and we wouldn't. We both put fair enough arguments across I felt. In the end we dropped a further 3 places when we dropped to 1 game a week and finished 12th which was desperately disappointing. Not sure if the players, or some of them downed tools or not. It's impossible to prove anyway. I'm 99.9% certain Howe wouldn't. I just don't believe he's that way inclined. My gripe with him was more about his summer signings, tactics, style of play, in game management and squad management. Obviously whatever he was saying in his HT team talks was having the opposite effect to whatever he was wanting as well. Playing a near enough full strength team for the 2nd leg v Qarabag bordered on the ridiculous with us being 5 goals up and going into it on the back of an energy sapping game at Man City where we spent a lot of time chasing the ball. We lost the following league game at home to Everton iirc. Hopefully they don't just draw a line under last season and write it off as some are suggesting. I want Howe to learn from last season and not make the same mistakes again. He can't afford to anyway. Lot's of wrongs need to be put right and a good summer window and a quick start next season are vital. If there's a repeat of last summer and a repeat of last seasons start to the season he'll be away by the October International break and that's something nobody wants.

I've got no time for either Liverpool or Man Utd but facts are that we will always be vulnerable to losing our best players to these teams. They're simply further up the food chain than we are. It's nobody's fault. That's just how it is.

Flip flips on (your words), downed tools. Pretty much same thing really.

Well isn't that a damning indictment of Howe and his squad if they downed tools with 2 months and 8 games of the season still to play whilst sat in 9th position. Plenty of other PL teams have more players at the World Cup than we have, including those 12 miles down the road, and didn't seem to suffer with the same lack of effort.

The next mistake you've made is taking the utter cesspit that is Twitter seriously It's full attention seekers farming for interaction.