The Larch

He did an absolute peach of a potential assistant against Liverpool last season. Their striker fluffed it though.

I think our back line is fine...its the lack of cover in front of it thats been the problem...that and after we score a goal, we then back up into our own box and give the opposition possession until they score.

He's an absolutely dreadful player because he just doesn't have the right attitude. There have been too many times when he just stops playing, rather than behaving like a footballer and trying to win the ball back when things dont go to plan. Yesterday was a prime example. He lazily swung a let out to stop the ball, then he saw it hit the crossbar and was slowly plodding backwards away from our goal rather than being ready for the rebound. He just doesnt have the right mentality.

As great as I think Eddie is - I think he'll bend the truth when he needs to. He may well have said Gordon had an injury, but i dont beleive that it was anything even remotely significant (like the one where the threw the towel in against barca), and equally eddie has just came out with some nonsense about why he isn't playing Gordon now. Eddie is fighting for his job, and if Gordon was anything other than a rat - hed be fighting tooth and nail to help him.

I would guess that Eddie has sat down and discussed it with him, and agreed that we will sell him, but he needs to sit on the bench to avoid embarrassing both Gordon and the club. Why else would he have gordon on the bench, but not using him when eddie is fighting for his job and hes one of our best players?

If it was just these last 2 matches Gordon wasnt going to be playing in advance of a transfer, then i wouldn't be too bothered, but hes missed the last few games before that too after picking up a very dubious injury (which i dont beleive existed). He pretty much downed tools a few weeks ago as far as I can tell, but Eddie has managed it extremely well do that there isn't a stink played out in public again. From the clubs point of view - If you have a good player willing to play, then you're going to use them to get as fair up the table as possible, especially when getting Europe was still within the realms of possibility a few weeks ago. Again from the clubs point of view, what's the problem if he does get injured in the last couple of games and it scuppers a transfer? If it fell through, then great, we have another willing player for another half season at least. I think the problem here though, is he isn't willing.

I'm not really convinced about verbruggen after his performance against us. No better than what we already have as far as i can see.

What effer said that!?

Spot on. Exactly stuff like that.

Nice one woody...dont want those mackems having any chance at a champions league place

I dont know why we put all these overpaid players on pedal stools

I'd love to keep Eddie, but either way, the board will need to know why we've been terrible. If it's because he's peed off too many players through his team selections or whatever reason that they dont want to play for him - then thats not easy to fix and he probably needs to go. If its just a case of a couple of bad apples and everything else is fine - then Eddie should stay and get rid of the rot. Or that Eddie has just lost the plot and his tactics don't work, but i seriously doubt that, given how great he has been for us in previous seasons.

I thought Eddie was an underwhelming appointment at first, but i quickly came to realise how great he was. Over these last few matches I've begun to have doubts though, because i really expected to see our performances raise after we didnt have the champions league and cups to contend with - it looks like the number of games had little to do with the issues we've had this season. To see us start with osula, murphy and willock up front, and burn at left back is worrying. I can only assume that there are massive issues in the dressing room. If that's the case, then it just comes down to, is it easier for the owners to replace eddie or the players. Of course I could be way off the mark - that's just how it seems to me with the scraps of information we have.

If we bought him for £55m and sold him this summer, i guess he'd have a book value of around £44m. So if we sold him for £30m (probably ambitious) that would be a £7.5m sell on fee (assuming its % of fee, and not profit) and a £14m loss - so a loss of £21.5m. I guess hes going to cost about £11m in amortisation anyway, and another £8m in wages...so its not that much worse to sell him and take the hit. A horrendous transfer.

They probably also made whoever signed our end of the contract wear a clown costume and enter the room doing the chicken dance as part of the deal.

I don't think we've even seen enough of wissa to know what we've bought. His backside has either been on the treatment table or firmly planted on the bench.

Tavernier would be fine as a squad player, but only as a replacement if we were to lose someone like murphy or barnes...and only if we didn't pay more than £20m. I wouldn't be happy if he was signed with the intention of being a starter.