ExiledGeordie

I’m at an 8. There just isn’t enough quality in this squad and we are so obviously lacking quality to stick chances away. We have the look of a side who could likely get relegated. The lack of a takeover and Ashley being Ashley is almost the nail in the coffin for me.

I almost get the feeling Ashley is actively trying to screw Benitez now. He doesn't like anyone going up against him and you wouldn't put it last Ashley to have someone lined up in the hope he can make life so difficult that Benitez resigns and has to pay up his contract. He's that much of a cunt. You just have to hope there's enough of a chance of the takeover happening that's still keeping him here.

I think we’ll have a pretty decent indication by end of Jan. We’ll have had the two home games against Swansea and Burnley and we’ll know where we stand with the squad.

Could (should) apply to any number of our players! Fair point

If Benitez is still here next season (with a takeover having happened) I don’t think Shelvey will be here.

This place if/when it's confirmed

Swansea is massive, win that then we have a free hit v Man City away. Then it's Burnley at home hopefully with some reinforcements. Beat Swansea and things will feel very positive.

Has to stay injury free for us

There will always be knackers in this world, in fact there's a knacker born every 6 minutes True

To think there were knackers writing this lad off completely too.

Brighton and Stoke are huge matches to set us up for the new year one way or another

That's what I'm thinking, keep it low key, get some names in on loan or whatever then when they are sown up or close to announce the takeover.

I've also heard it's done from my usual reliable source but also no details

Back to full fitness after his injury. Quality

Is Geordiedean some plant by Bishop ffs What a melt, f*** off. Good job most of the fans don't throw the towel in like you pal

Yeah you'd hope we're not dicking around at the end of Jan otherwise we're screwed. You have to hope that behind the scenes Rafa knows his budget and is already working on tying up deals for players.tranafer windows under Ashley range from pure rage to compete apathy

You can be encouraged all you want...the facts are we lost both games without scoring There is absolutely no point in being tight at the back if we cannot score for s***............teams that don't score many goals go down simple Boro had a fabulous defensive record last year but scored the lowest in the division...guess what happened Absolute rubbish. Start of the season we were tight, well organised, defensively sound and winning a few tight games albeit losing tight games too. Atleast we were in contention in games. Switching to essentially 442 and playing more open has badly exposed us and we've been all over the shop ever since even if we've looked like scoring more. It's a fine balance but you need to be in games to take points. No point scoring 1 or 2 goals in a game if you're shipping more and coming away with no points. Judging by your posts you sound like you've thrown the towel in anyway mate

I agree, he's average but he's less likely to drop a clangerunlike Darlow

9. As it stands this squad is almost down, they're crumbling under the pressure, inexperienced with no real leaders bar Lascelles. If Rafa can bring in some impact players, an experienced goal keeper, immediate goals with a striker and one or two elsewhere (LB, midfielder) maybe even some loans deals, which they may have to be at this stage we should be ok. A few quality additions will give everyone a lift and we're not cut adrift at the bottom at all. 5 with additions

Can’t be trusted, fuck off

As with Clarke he's looked dogshit recently, all over the place.

I forgot to add above that if we dont bring any players in in Jan or have the usual farce I'm a 9-9.5/10

5/6 I'm more in line with the above. As shit as we've been recently we're not in the bottom three yet and haven't been cut adrift. A couple of results with the way the table is and things could look very different. Benitez needs to patch and tighten this side up and crawl into January before signings must be made. Lascelles will make a big difference returning as we are soft as shit without him.

On course to delivering his most crushing blow yet.......fucking off the takeover and then screwing Rafa in January again. The second part would potentially send us down, even for him you'd have to say it would be ridiculous because he must know we're on a precipice again. The joys

He’s got to go!