Monroe Transfer

I don't think Routledge can operate without his best mate Hall sticking around.

Fair enough. To be fair they're about as credible as each other. That is to say, they have no journalistic credibility whatsoever.

there aren't half some clueless posters posting on message boards. Whatever you say, old man.

The OP has NOTW written all over it, as it were.

What reports are these?

Bet today has done wonders for his already massive ego. Can't even laugh at Arsenal when fucking Titus and Insomnia did the damage.

In what country?

Few thoughts on the match; - To reiterate, Shola was abysmal. Slow, lethargic, petulant (lucky to get away with just a warning for kicking a defender's legs away in an off the ball incident). Fans weren't happy with him, as normal. He couldn't disguise his dreadful performance with a goal last night unfortunately. - The referee was a joke. Lost count of the number of times he ignored blatant fouls. Can't wait for the better standard of officiating we should encounter next season. - Reading weren't great, they were much more in the game after their jammy goal. Disappointed in them to be honest. Their fans didn't sing much, didn't have much to sing about. About the only 'original' tune they had was one about having 106 points. Been to the Madejski before and it's always a bit of a mission getting in and out of it. Won't be too critical of Reading as I like the club in general. - Our fans were decent, plenty loud where I was standing. Good bit of banter. - Harper had a reasonable game, except for one incident were he almost inexplicably fisted the ball up into the air. He probably could have caught it (as he managed to when it returned to earth), or at the very least punched it away from the box. - Williamson was simply solid, as ever. Coloccini didn't do much wrong before he went off, but on at least 3 occasions he started playing with the ball instead of just getting rid. Can get away with it in this league, we'll be severely punished if he continues it in the PL, as evidenced last season. - Simpson, Guthrie, Routledge, Gutierrez, Enrique all had pretty average games. Taylor was a bit sloppy. Smith didn't really do a lot, gave the ball away a few times. Barton didn't do much when he came on either, nor did Carroll when he came on although by that point we weren't pushing for goals as much. Nolan had a good game and I would have been delighted for him had his header gone in instead of hitting the post. At least he could smile about it afterwards. - The team as a whole were pretty hit and miss, but we deserved the win.

Just got back from the match. Need to get up at 7 for work so no in depth comments right now but I will say this - the ref and Shola were truly abysmal.

Jesus wept.

Thoroughly pleasing sight to come home from work to. Nice to see Routledge on the scoresheet after not making the most of his opportunities in our previous match.

I'd rather seal it at Reading as I'll be there. I'll be at Plymouth too but with the home fans. Might well be the day their relegation is confirmed. Talk about awkward...

I keep hearing about this £25k wage ceiling thing but if it genuinely exists, it's more of a guideline than a rule isn't it?

I'd rather Forest came up too. A weaker team, and from a more neutral perspective, it'd be nice to see them in top division again. West Brom are boring, a yo-yo club.

We always have a lap of honour pretty much don't we? Didn't last season for obvious reasons. I remember going to Blackburn at home a couple of seasons ago for our last home match and they might as well have not even bothered. A few half-hearted waves from the players but most fans didn't bother to stay.

That Portsmouth keeper shirt is for charity, right?

I thought everyone still liked Mort.

gave us our only decent team for the best part of 50 years. aye right. And that little 'fact' has what to do with my point exactly? Souness didn't give us our only decent team for the best part of 50 years, by the way.

Such a dull shirt.

Owen? Shouldn't you be blaming the men who got Owen in? The same men who spent supposedly our entire Northern Rock sponsorship money on the one player? We all know he came here because he more or less had to. Yes he didn't appear to care for the club but at least he did the business on the pitch fairly often.

Everyone remembers them chasing refs around in the days of Keane and Stam, but they certainly still do it today. Fletcher loves getting in the ref's face, for one. Not that I agree with any club's (especially us) players harassing officials, but it was a second yellow regardless of the Bayern players. Maybe Ferguson should have checked a replay. And why did Rafael take about 5 minutes to walk off the pitch? Did he forget where the tunnel is?

Colo and Gutierrez won't be going anywhere. No-one is that stupid. Steven Taylor we'd get a few £m for and he's probably on a decent wage given his contract renewals. I wouldn't be too upset if he went.

I'd be stunned if Butt is still at the club next season. He's been making noises about playing in a lower league and he wants to get into coaching too. From the sounds of it, he's not expecting us to hold on to him. And nor should we.

Just ignore them. To be fair I've seen several positive ones too. I don't particular care what the media think of us.

Re; a decent budget. I'll believe it when I see it. And even then Chris Hughton is the same guy who got in Leon Best, so I wouldn't fully trust with him with that amount of money (Routledge and Williamson on the other hand were decent purchases). On one hand Ashley isn't a stupid man, he knows the club need investment and lots of it or we won't have a chance of staying up. On the other hand, he's Mike Ashley.