Stottie

I think people are being unfair on Pearson who basically set Leicester up for this season. He gave Mahrez and Vardy lots of playing time when they were not producing goals and assists every week. He also brought in Huth. The thing I would question, along with Moyes, Benitez or whoever, is his ability to take the unmotivated and unorganised jumble of talented and untalented players we have and immediately start getting them to produce enough extra to get results. We're clearly going down with McClaren, so we have to take a punt on someone. If it were me, I'd give Rafa till the end of the season and offer him say a two million bonus for keeping us up. Aim high for a good manager and set it up as a no-lose situation for them. fwiw, I also thought that Bobby Robson applied for the job by himself, rather than being asked to do it. I think John Hall is rewriting history by saying he wanted him and went out to get him.

Dem tactics :drool: :drool:

Aye, we're down.

A new, new low.

Roflcopter landing on Arsenal!

Their defence has really tightened up since we last played them. Only seven conceded in their last 8 away games compared to many more before that. Only 8 scored though in those last 8 away. I didn't see the Stoke game, but it sounded so dire that I can't see us getting the result we need tomorrow against a team that plays with team spirit.

We need a win and results have gone our way making this a big opportunity. Clutching at straws, but our best away game of the season came against a defensively strong team with a great keeper. Not that I can see it happening.

We need to channel the spirit of Demba Ba for this one. That was one of my favourite games in the last five years or so.

Imagine having to sit in a court and read that out with a straight face.

I'm not a lawyer but doesn't the "age of consent" mean that someone under that age cannot give consent. They cannot be "willing", no matter how the defence tries to spin it. As Shay's Given Tim Flowers says its automatically treated as rape/sexual assault because anything that may resemble consent is invalid. The only defence is to claim nothing sexual happened.

Lescott ;D ;D ;D

This is well embarrassing.

This is increasingly the highlight of the week. Them struggling that is, not the King naked stroking his Manager of the Year award.

Look at how premeditated it is. As for the mackems, the end result is that Sunderland continued to play him after he'd used his position and the club's shirt as bait to sexually abuse a child fan. Even if they sue him now for his wages since the crime or at least him being unsuspended, it sounds like they still took 24 hours to sack him after the guilty plea. Basically they don't care about their community, and the sad thing is that I'm sure plenty of other clubs don't either.

Must play Mitro but without isolating him. Maybe drop Gini and play Perez at 10. It worked second half at Spurs.

Christ, lock him up and throw away the key. On a lesser note, the mackems have a lot of explaining to do too.

Exactly what I was thinking. I can't remember a worse side at SJP. West Ham were similarly bad in our last game last season, but they were on their holidays and Allardyce knew he was getting the push. This WBA team were similarly disinterested in early February.

Like the 5-4 against Norwich, it sounds like they let Sunderland score two in spite of creating very little all game.

He gets credit for sticking with Mitro and Tiote came in and did well. WBA didn't test Aarons, so we might have got away with one there. Let's see how we approach the next game. 7 of our last 13 are away, including the game against Norwich.

Nearly half a season already. I wouldn't have guessed that.

Another week without his strikers bothering the scoreboard. We all know how he is at directing set pieces, so imagine if he'd chanced on a squad without a center half who's already good at them.

Townsend well unlucky!

Well in Mitro son. A goal's been coming for him. That Tiote goal against Man City was disallowed after about eight of them hounded the ref and lino. From the replay, it was clear most of them hadn't even seen it.

Didn't touch him.

ffs, Wigan could have gone down several times under Martinez before the inevitable. In 2011, they were saved by Wayne Bridge effectively pulling a Bosingwa and having a 'mare against N'Zogbia. Wigan had previously finished comfortably midtable in the PL under Jewell and even Brucey. Wigan are currently in Division Three.