Lush Vlad

Eh? That's rubbish tbh. He'd get in most teams, quite easily. He scores goals consistently, that's enough. Like who's team would he get in on a regular basis? Key word being 'decent'. Which top ten teams would he be a regular starter for? Going abroad, perhaps he could get in a better side than ours, but that isn't particularly hard is it? We're a shower. Saying that, you can point to our shitness as an excuse all you want. He didn't consistently score goals the last two seasons. Ba and Remy managed it for a longer period if memory serves. Both got the moves (payday) they wanted. If he is that good, why haven't teams come in for him with a serious bid? I like the bloke. I think he is wasted in our negative team. But I think his all round game is pretty crap. His touch is poor, he is born offside and his link up play is hit and miss. He's half decent in the air, but far from a target man to hold it up. Oh, I've wasted my time. I see this has been covered in the last few posts In summary, his 1 in 3 record is decent and he is a good player for us. I just don't see him playing for a top club in his career.

Would he play for a 'proper team' though? It would be good if we weren't such a negative, abhorrent side for sure. But, Cisse is such a poor footballer, I don't think he'd ever get signed for a decent team. If he did, he wouldn't be starting games. He can barely manage that for us and we're a disgrace

Pretty fair I guess. I'd argue he had a good season for us and could have been potentially very good for us, if the 4-5 games or whatever it was in Keegan's 4-3-3 was anything to go by. Sadly, the rest was a load of shit and injuries like you say.

I'm sure they withdrew the offer. Didn't he go public with his criticism or say something dodgy at a talk in? Him and Nolan knew they were going at the end of the season when we came back up. I remember the extra long lap of honour they did, where it seemed as if they both knew that was a goodbye. Turned out Barton played 2 more games the next season, then went.

Gutted for the bloke, as it sounds pretty worrying and he's had a shit start to life here. But I'm not really that arsed about him not playing TBH? I still fail to see how he'd fit in the current team. The only slightly enjoyable thing about our team now is the pace we have going forward and on the counter. He doesn't really fit the bill. Lumping balls up to him, with him being asked to play as a target man for Perez is hardly going to suit him either. So he'd just be wasted I think. Get him fit for next season and hopefully get an actual football manager in and maybe we will see him shine in the #10 role. It is annoying that we spent a fair bit by our standards, on a player that will miss a whole season.

I don't mind him. Not as good as he thinks he is. His pseudo-intelligence and fake interest in philosophy and shit is pretty irritating. But I think underneath it all, he's actually a decent enough bloke, if a bit fucked up. Met him very briefly and he seemed sound enough. People that have met him say similar. Whenever I've seen him up the races and in Newmarket. He isn't giving it the big one or craving attention like a lot of footballers/minor celebs that get up there.

I actually used to rate him in a way. He used to be pretty solid and was a good back up I thought. But I do remember arguing on another forum, with a Wycombe fan who was adamant Williamson would play for England His technical ability on the ball is horrendous. It must be the worst in the league surely? He doesn't kick the ball properly FFS.

Disagree. They actually maintained possession in the middle of the pitch and approaching our goal at times. It's a far cry from our misleading possession stats where we pass it across the back 4 for ages, then punt it forward. Why do teams need to high press against us, when we do fuck all with the ball and just try to go back to front all the while? I'd much rather hang onto the ball and look to exploit an opening or drag someone out of position and capitalise on a moment of indiscipline. Than just play the percentages. All of that, whilst at the same time keeping the ball away from the opposition. It reminded me of the Allardyce days watching yesterday. It was also quite similar to England v Wales in the 6 Nations we seem to kick for territory an awful lot. Most average to decent teams at this level can manage to hold onto the ball for long spells surely? It's not as if our team is littered with cloggers either. We have a few of course. But it has to start with coaching and I don't think any of the fans have confidence in the current bunch of jokers. I doubt the players do either.

I'm not sure why I am surprised. But I actually paid full attention for once yesterday, so clearly noticed it a lot more. I really am shocked that a team like Stoke, can come to SJP and play us off the park for long periods. They actually managed to string a lot of passes together and had good movement off the ball. For long spells, we were chasing shadows in the middle of the park. We're so ragtag it's unreal. Players are miles apart, we only look dangerous on the counter attack, due to the likes of Cabella and Perez, or Sissoko being used as a battering ram. Sammy conjurs up the odd bit of magic or gets tangled up and skins someone what else do we have? Apart from the long punt up to nobody? Even when Janmaat and Haidara get forward. There is never really an option for them. We just whip in crosses and get a corner (which invariably comes to nothing) if we're lucky The football is turgid and we have no clue what we're doing 9/10 when attacking.

I thought he was utter shite until the goal. In fact, for the most part, I think he's been shite all season. Set pieces are always crap, runs around a lot, makes the odd good tackle and can usually pass it sideways fairly well. He is just such a nothing player and is another, in a long list of distinctly average English centre midfielders, that are overrated by many for some unknown reason. Obviously he was lucky to stay on the pitch as well. He has weighed in with 3 good goals for us now mind. Something we are going to need if we persist with the 4-5---------------------------------------1 formation.

I thought it was more that Krul started to come and hesitated, something he does quite often TBH. He seems to mistime/misjudge a lot of crosses. He then never really got back into position and seemed to just be in no man's land, allowing Crouch to loop it over him. He should have done a lot better IMO. That said, he made a very decent save to keep it 0-0 and saved again later on from Walters. He's a good keeper. But I agree with others who have said they expected him to develop and play at a higher level then he is currently.

None of the pundits or journos on twitter seemed to mention how bad his positioning was for the goal. Kept saying it was a great header from Crouch. It went straight up in the air and lobbed Krul from about 5 yards out. Pathetic keeping and poor decision making from Krul again.

Utter shithouse of a footballer. We have a fair few as well.

FFS how bad is this bloke?

Steve Bruce and Kevin Ball are world class managers.

Off the top of my head. I can't think of a decent English manager I'd want here? Apart from maybe someone like Eddie Howe from the lower leagues. But he's not going to venture this far north. Especially to manage the shower of shite, that is NUFC. He's got a good thing going at Bournemouth. Thinking about it. I can't think of the last truly decent English manager to do well consistently at the highest level? Fuck, that is nearly as depressing as our current set up.

We're calling his type a "Second Striker" nowadays aren't we? Yeah, that. Someone else up top, with Ayoze free to roam a bit more behind them. Problem is, we have Cisse and Riviere as options. The former will get you goals now and then, but isn't very good up top on his own IMO. The latter seems to be half decent at holding it up and making the right runs. He's just less of a goal threat than Shola.

I think he is a good player and very important to us right now. Technically, he is very limited though. His touch is like a brick wall more often than not and he just attempts to run through players most of the time. I can see him getting a good move and then struggling to actually make an impact or get regular playing time. Which has happened to quite a few players who have left us for bigger and better things. Oh and for more money of course. I do think we'll struggle without him though. As it's not like we have many players capable of creating chances on a regular basis and he offers a lot getting forward from midfield.

All of this, just to possibly get Steve McLaren at the end of the season. Fucking hell man. It's just a never ending nightmare with this club.

Oh fuck this. I was looking forward to returning to SJP. Actually going to games and looking forward to watching us. I underestimated how much of a cunt our owner is, yet again. http://replygif.net/i/1031.gif

There's videos going round of all his horrendous tackles as a collage, that people seem to think is brilliant and hilarious. I don't get it? He was a filthy cunt, that happened to be a great player. So people seem to think his challenges are somehow funny? It's similar to Paul Scholes "oh you naughty boy Mr.Scholes, hahaha, he never could time a tackle". Usually after ploughing into someone that would have usually have commentators shouting for a red. Speaking of bad tackles. I think I have probably mentioned this about 10 times on here. But the "if you did that on the street, you'd get done for assault" line winds me up far more than it should. The situation is never comparable. When would you be double footing someone outside Ladbrokes or elbowing a Big Issue seller going for a header? Such a pointless cliché, where the situations are never comparable. I think when acts of violence, bad tackles etc happen on the field of play in a competitive, contact sport. There should be more leniency to a degree anyway. I'm not sure, but from a legal point of view. I'm assuming there is?

"RON YOU............ Shouldn't worry about it."

I don't even think he prioritised the league that much, he often just picked s*** sides. Some of our better cup performances were when he left first teamers out. League Cup win away to Chelsea when Josh McEachran(sp) came on and ran the show for the last 20 minutes, 4-3 to us wasn't it? Not to mention the league cup win over Chelsea this season. City wasn't it?

I found it odd that they've made a conscious effort to do a big newspaper interview for the first time in ages. Suggests it's all been planned. Yep. With the stock answers, that will change on a whim anyway. Reading the .com summary and it just seemed scripted. Like you say, as if it had been planned all along.

Not bothered reading the article. I have read the jist/summary of it and it just reads like the usual old bollocks. They didn't need to wait 3 weeks to tell us a load of lies and stuff we already knew. Fuck this club. We're a joke.