Monroe Transfer

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.

The amusing thing about the whole Cockney Mafia nonsense is that Ashley isn't actually a cockney.

Yeah, bit early for the Sir Bobby comparisons, although I understand the underlying sentiment.

The good thing about the likes of Routledge is that they've got something to prove. Indeed the whole team do really, but things didn't work out for Routledge at Spurs and Villa (who clearly saw something in him) and he'll want to deliver on the potential he showed at Palace a few years ago. He's only 25 but he'll do well to get m/any more chances in the Premier League if he fails again. I personally think he's been a fantastic acquisition. Same goes for Williamson, another new face with something to prove in the top league after what happened to him at Portsmouth.

There are a few who clearly aren't worth holding on to in this league. There are even more whose abilities in the top division are debatable (Simpson for one, despite my sig). I think a top class striker, a CM, and a RB are what we need in as minimum. CM is an interesting one as on paper we look pretty comfortable there as it is. However I think Barton is too unreliable, I doubt Nolan will be able to deliver consistently, and Guthrie I like but I'd rather have him as a squad player if I made my way. They might be important members of the dressing room but playing the likes of Smith and Butt will just be asking for trouble. edit; Do I think we'll get the 3 (minimum) - 6/7 (maximum) players that we need in? I honestly doubt it. Time for Ashley to prove me wrong.

He's also a bit... predictable? In this league that's not a problem as he's far too strong for most defenders.

Forest deserve it, if that's possible. I'd rather the weakest club of the lot got lucky, as others have said. I'd hate to see Boro manage it - not likely I know. They don't deserve it at all. Doubt they'd fill their Wembley allocation even if they were to make the final.

Bit early to come to a conclusion like that isn't it? I'm giving every member of the relegation side a proverbial blank slate to work on from next season. Delivering in the Championship doesn't guarantee a great deal about a player's ability in the Premier League. I fully expect the likes of Gutierrez and of course Enrique to prove themselves as genuine PL players next season. They're clearly too good for the Championship.

The club handled the situation impeccably tbh. Can't fault them. Stuff like this would have been in the papers for days upon days in years gone by. The complete silence put an end to it having any real damaging effect on the team and indeed the club's massively improved reputation (as I perceive it, at least). The fact that this was the only real controversial incident is quite astonishing really, compared to what we've been used to. Doesn't matter that we're in a lower league - any controversy involving us would have made it all over the back pages regardless of what league we're in. As was the case for the topic of this thread.

Should see if we can get Benzema on loan. That Henry is getting on a bit too.

Won't miss the standard of refereeing. Will miss being on TV so much. I live in the South at the moment so can't get to many games, and since I can't rely on streams in this division, very much appreciated the media attention Sky and the BBC gave us.

Wonder if he at least came down to the changing room after the match. No sign of him in the .co.uk pics.

Stopped reading there.

Still a few tickets going apparently. I'd love to be there myself but it just isn't feasible especially on a Monday evening.

Would be the biggest anticlimax in the club's history if we did... maybe less so if Forest don't beat Cardiff. In all seriousness the vibes around SJP alone should carry us to a decent victory. 3-0. Ameobi (not sure Carroll will start), Lovenkrands and Smith. Can't think of a better night for him to actually score on.

3-0 loss, Barton found the champagne before the match and couldn't help himself.