Stottie

365 have projections of final points based on recent form. In them, Sunderland will finish fifth bottom, with Blackpool, Blackburn and Wigan for the drop. We're already safe with 39 points in the bag and our goal difference. http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/runin.html Obviously its just an automatic calculation, but they're not heading up the table if they can't score any goals.

Indeed. Wolves came into this game with decent form and beat ManYoo, so it was also reassuring to see how "good" they actually are. With teams like that us below us, we should be all right.

Red all the way that one.

Hope we get to play that kind of ManYoo line up! No dynamism in midfield at all.

Nice one Phil Dowd, but they would both be automatic three game bans with a slightly stricter interpretation. That rule is a total joke.

Only one more game this month. Get patched up and put Barton RW, normal back four, and HBA in for Loven and we'll be fine. The goal difference we have is worth an extra point compared to the teams below. Effectively seven ahead with nine/ten to play.

Missed Barton and wacky formation didn't work. Two "right backs" on the right and still gave them too much space there. Harper MOM for keeping it to two probably.

Looks like there's another goal in this.

Too much protective fat for that to happen.

Amazing that he wasn't even a starter at Twente. Has anyone seen them play much?

He says its one of his wife's diet pills, so maybe ephedrine. I dunno about now but it used to be legal in the States not so long ago.

Yeah but Shola got that mad offside goal against Everton a few seasons back. The one where he had time to stop, look across to the linesman, and then poke it in.

So long as refs don't pay attention to it, the baggage only works in our favour. Oh, and if your team needs a classy ball-playing midfielder, Charlie Adam's that way.

Isn't that exactly what Sol gets (for doing very little)?

They play nice stuff but they're shit at the back. Unless the new bloke is a player manager defender, its a bit pointless doing it now. Didn't one of their fans reckon they passed over Tiote to get whoever DM they got?

I'm sure someone must have mentioned it somewhere in in these 470 pages, but does anyone reckon us getting such a high fee for Carroll has something to do with Kia Joorbchian or however you spell Tevez's agent's name? It came out that he was advising us in the autumn, I guess after the Hughton sacking. Left to their own devices, I don't see why the Ashley regime would have refused the Spurs bid of twenty odd million. Doing so though has got us an extra ten million plus, albeit at the cost of no time to get another body in. Simply in terms of maximizing the fee, we played that transfer uncharacteristically well.

Doing all right in my book. Not breaking the duck for a while must have put pressure on the lad, but it hasn't destroyed him. Was unlucky against Spuds and put the ball in the net twice yesterday. Rather have him than a panic-bought Carlton Cole.

If he can shoot like that then ferk it, he is the new Vieira!

Stand back and admire them and you'll get crucified, but get stuck in and that's what happens. It's been said a million times, but they don't like it up em!

Once the threat of relegation is over, start Nile Ranger in every game. He's got one in two for England U19, exactly the same as Carroll did. If you include Preston, Carroll took forty league games to get going. Shola and Loven are going nowhere as players, so its pointless playing them. I have my doubts about Ranger, but lets give him a proper go before signing some other hopeful.

The lads on Toontastic have a thread showing a net spend of nearly 50M now under Ashley, so don't hold onto your hats. To put that into perspective though, 50M is probably what we spent on Luque and Owen alone.

Chance #1 for the joker in the pack to come up trumps? STR8888888 LIKE A BANANA!

No offence, but even if he did want way, why would he want to go to Liverpool? A CL team like Arsenal I could understand, but Liverpool? With ManYoo, Arsenal, Citeh, Chelsea still with money, and Spuds chasing, the door looks all but locked. Liverpool have weaknesses all over the pitch, starting with their two center halves. Carroll could simply bide his time and wait for a big club to come in. Looks like he's been pushed.

Given the fee, I guess that cashing in on Carroll is fine by many people. Better to sell him than say Barton where we'd only get something silly like 5M when he's better than Charlie Adam. The blame one is that we could have bought a half decent striker last week as "cover" and then still sold Carroll. I guess that is what the half hearted approach to Boothroyd was. Like FFS before him, it all smacks of everything being a reaction and having no plan as to what the club is or needs to do.

A draw against Newcastle would have been a win if Hutton hadn't gone walkabout, that's 2 points gone down to Hutton's defensive frailties. He's done that 4 or 5 times this season and the points lost do tot up. I'm not saying he is the sole reason we are not higher than we could have been, losing at home to Wigan and away to Wham are just as damaging but defensive errors cost matches and points, and Hutton has been our worst defender by a considerable distance (imo). You serious? In that case, Newcastle should be in the top 3 if not for Perch, Simpson and Krul. If you add Smith for the Blackpool defeat and Bolton walking through us, we'd probably be top!