Monroe Transfer

What if you're a woman?

And - shoot me - I don't understand why people are having a go at her for calling it by its official name. Hardly abuse now is it.

I wasn't asking for you to be banned, I'm just agreeing that you and those who bait you and others aren't really contributing to the board.

He's been given numerous chances now. He must have played at least 10 games for us, and has only had a telling contribution in one of them. He's been given more than enough time to build his confidence up. I'd like to think one properly decent performance would be the turning point for him but I can't see such a match occuring. Unfortunately we're lacking other options at the moment, so he'll get more games. Our lack of depth is a serious issue especially given Pardew's reluctance to play reserve players for whatever reason. We knew it would be a problem before the season started, but we all hoped the best starting 11 we have would stay fit long enough for us to be alright. We've hit a bad period in terms of injuries and it's not a surprise to see us struggling a bit with players out of position etc.

Would this place really suffer if you were banned though?

I love how you randomly use colloquial English words (even Geordie ones) yet get basic phrases wrong.

Has he?

Can't believe I sat through the draw for that.

I think it was more to do with tactics/formation and Ben Arfa being the one to be sacrificed more than anything personal towards Ben Arfa. Having 2 proper strikers worked much better for us.

Villa are somewhat surprisingly in joint 8th with 16 points which isn't too bad. They're 7 points off Liverpool in 7th and a full 10 off us in 6th. So McLeish will be going nowhere soon despite how poor they are at the moment. I don't think they were this bad earlier on in the season.

Nothing to do with Krul per se but the thought of actually weakening the squad in January is beyond me. Look what's happening to us now with a few injuries. We still haven't even adequately replaced Enrique. I know every player has his price but I'd imagine if we sold in January we'd come out with some excuse as to why we're going to wait to the Summer to spend it (and then not spend it at all).

Tavernier might get called into action before too long. Kadar (central/LB), Ferguson (LB) and Tav (RB, central as well I think) are supposedly genuine prospects with question marks over the other youth/reserve defenders. I really want to see them given a chance but I appreciate Pardew prefers experience and sticking with a settled team. And of course there's Santon.

The reserves generally train with the first team don't they? Either way Kadar is always involved in first team training sessions, and appears to do alright at reserve level. Yet Pardew does not give him a chance. Of course he might just feel that he wants more experienced options like Perch on the bench.

I swear referees are just getting worse. I know it's such a hard job and they deserve a lot of credit generally, but far too many games now seem to be far too heavily influenced by refereeing mistakes. Our last 2 matches and the Spurs-Bolton red card mentioned above are prime examples.

I love how he turns up only when things are finally starting to look up for his club again.

This is no laughing matter.

Even 6 weeks+ would be a big blow.

That's awful. Can't imagine what's going through these people's heads. On a less serious note, again a black font on a dark background doesn't look good.

Time for Kadar to step up and for Williamson and Perch to prove their worth. Massive loss, trying not to think about it lest it wind me up even more than I am already.

Alex has had a transfer request accepted by Chelsea. Worth bringing him in?

Eh? Ryan Taylor was 1242149124912 kinds of awful, we look a lot stronger as a team when Jonas is on the pitch. I know, but Jonas was only out because of suspension. Have I been wooshed here?

Any news on Tiote?

You just have to laugh. We all knew our lack of depth would fuck us over.

Spurs 1 up against 10 men. By all accounts a ridiculous sending off especially compared to the Luiz incident earlier. Seeing those twats in second in the table is making this bad day feel even worse. And now Arsenal get a very lucky break, and push us down to 6th.

Honestly, 2 or 3 additions (even with Tiote out) and we've had got more than 1 point out of it. Our deficiencies are glaring. The club's good position can not be allowed to hide this fact. It really is imperative that we strengthen when possible and I'm desperate for some of the reserves to get a chance at some point because it really is time for a few of them to step up and prove their worth. I don't care how high their resale value is, unless we get completely stupid money for them we simply can't afford to lose the likes of Tiote and Coloccini. Even selling them and replacing them for big money wouldn't guarantee success because a replacement might not adapt as well as they have.