Kitman

I'm sure he'd love to play for Joe Kinnear in a relegation battling side. I'm also sure Kinnear would improve his play. "Tell that fackin Savlon to fackin tackle back or I'll fackin kick 'im up the 'arris! Fackin Argies Jesus (no offence Colon)!" Inspirational, I bet he can't wait.

I'd be depressed if JFK was appointed long term. He was all right for a stop gap - on the basis he was better than nothing - but imo he's a very ordinary manager who's lacking on all sorts of levels. IF we survive, we need to replace him in the summer with a visionary appointment with the next 5 years in mind, who's willing to work within whatever contraints the Board want. We will never go anywhere with JFK except down into the championship.

Damn them EMOs

I can't be confident about staying up with our squad, injury record, manager and recent record. I don't think that's being unduly pessimistic given recent events and the lack of investment as things stand. If there is the intention to invest, our recent run also highlights the folly of leaving things till the very last minute.

It might help if Mike & Co realised that football is a squad game, because of the injuries, suspensions, and loss of form. Especially our club. On second thoughts....

Agreed. Wouldn't it be typical of our club that we decide to get serious about transfers at the end of the transfer window? Ashley: "What do you mean there's no-one decent available, there's a good 4 days left! Let's work those phones!"

Look at Ashey's eyes, I've always said tiny eyes is a handicap. Piggy eyes. And grasping piggy hands. Piggy must go

I agree. Maybe he'd do better in a less physical league, as a back up striker in a big Italian or Spanish team.

Toon career over as well.

Looks like the ship's going down with no survivors. The captain is a fuckwit who's randomly spinning the wheel this way and that in the hope something might happen. The few remaining able bodied crew are in the liferafts already. The chief engineer is abroad looking at spare parts. In the meantime the owner Piggy Clueless is in the restaurant stuffing his face a la Mr Creosote, ignoring all pleas for urgent repairs. Somebody pull the flush and send us round the U-bend.

That's my view too. We're building up momentum towards the championship, and I don't think JFK has a clue what to do about it, not helped by injury crisis after crisis. There's a whiff of death about us at the moment I'm afraid. New signings needed to lift the quality and morale of the squad. Time to deliver, Fat Mike. Pizza? Too slimming. He eats LARD, in handfuls and washed down with lager

That's my view too. We're building up momentum towards the championship, and I don't think JFK has a clue what to do about it, not helped by injury crisis after crisis. There's a whiff of death about us at the moment I'm afraid. New signings needed to lift the quality and morale of the squad. Time to deliver, Fat Mike.

Tough times for Mark Hughes. If this is true, be interesting to see if Citeh get the same flak as we did for Bowyer & Barton from the press. Plus, if convicted, will Citeh cancel his contract and write off their 32.5 mill outlay? Real must be counting their money and laughing, the guy seems a bit of a loon, whether this is true or not.

My questions: 1. Why is communication with supporters so poor? 2. What is the Board's strategy to ensure we do not get relegated this season or the next? 3. Does the Board recognise it needs to recruit senior people with expertise of running a large premiership football club? 4. Does the Board consider that all things being equal Joe Kinnear is worthy of a long term appointment? 5. Would the Board like to apologise to supporters for the season to date?

Yes. There's free drinks and enough fun and sunshine for everybody apparently.

I don't believe we've Donadel at all. I thank you.

The unluckiest billionaire on the planet? He's probably only a multi-millionaire these days. I bet he hasn't even got a yacht. What a loser.

If you listen to some people we should be grateful to Fat Mike because we're not in liquidation. Plainly it's unreasonable to expect him to have been able to afford the club, and invest it. Thank fuck we've got him and not some super rich Arab consortium, eh? To be serious, there's no doubt we were heading into financial difficulty under the Halls/Shepherd, hence the Halls desperation to sell, but there may have been an opportunity cost to Ashley's swoop on the club. Which we're paying for now, because he's brassic (figuratively speaking). Still, we do have a "plan" instead, so we'll be all right. * Takes more Prozac *

I expect it's been said elsewhere but this comparison with Arsenal is totally superficial. Firstly you need a Wenger type character at its head PLUS an extensive scouting system - it's well documented that Wenger has a huge amount of contacts, especially in French football where a lot of the best African talent starts out, which brings players to his attention. We have Joe Kinnear and Dennis Wise, draw your own conclusions. I couldn't see us signing Vieira from AC Milan or wherever it was for instance. Secondly, Arsenal were still a top club when he took over and being based in London is an attractive draw for young and older players alike, especially foreigners who can find plenty of home comforts in the big smoke. The toon doesn't have the cultural diversity of London of course but my sense is we've never as a club been professional about helping foreign players settle in, like Man Utd say. Thirdly, Wenger didn't take over at Arsenal and spend nothing on the first team, as per the good doctor's post above they've invested heavily in certain areas notably in attackers and wide players. This without considering someone like Bergkamp, whose wages would have been hefty (and worht every penny). Wenger was lucky enough to inherit the best defence in English football, whereas our squad is crap from top to bottom, particularly in the wide positions including defence. Fourthly, there's nothing to suggest young talent will flourish at our club. It hasn't in the past, we've been very good at taking young players and ruining their careers (Viana anyone?). We can sign as many 16 year olds as we like but we have to turn them into first teamers and bring them through. I haven't noticed too many starlets getting a chance in the first team but we'll have to see on that one. My point is, just signing these guys doesn't make us like Arsenal - until we have a Fabregas or Van Persie playing in the first team, it hasn't actually saved us any money at all.

I think he was being tongue in cheek mate.

Has been a problem simmering away on the back boiler for a good few years...only now it's coming home to roost. Like a fat pox-ridden chicken

Yeah, all those article writers are right cunts

This is the crux of it for me. We're not talking about spending money to take us into the top 6 - it's purely about survival now, and the squad is so lightweight and undermanned that we're in serious danger of going down through the effect of injuries and suspensions and players who just aren't good enough (not to mention the manager). I can accept we are carrying players who are overrated and overpaid but the summer's the time to address that and try to re-engineer the squad.......now we he has to protect the club's income which is in peril. I can't see how he would be better off in the championship, it's likely quite a few of our top paid players - Owen, Viduka etc will leave anyway in the summer. And nobody could take for granted either that we'd bounce straight back up, or that some of the dead wood would then piss off. Surely there's sense in investing to protect the value of his investment......why not chuck another 20-30 mill into the pot, eh? If he's in for 250m isn't another 10% worht a shot to preserve value? Maybe he could get co-investors in in the summer if he needs to recoup it. Or are we just a rudderless ship, hoping for the best? Unless there's no way to borrow the cash of course, which I find hard to believe.

I think we can get through this but we'll need a fair chunk of luck. Key to it is prem survival, ditching JFK in the summer & getting in a decent manager. We then need to rebuild the squad, losing the dead wood, letting malcontents go and making some canny signings well ahead of a decent pre-season. Unfortunately this will require the Board to get a grip, make some plans, make them happen in good time and spend some money - all of which seems to be beyond them up to now. More likely if we survive, they'll all have a nice long holiday and then get together to discuss what should be done a week before the season starts. JFK will then write out a list of urgent transfer targets and Wise will wipe his arse on them, as usual. While Ashley's stuffing his face with Lame-Ass in some Knightsbridge eaterie, Wise will be negotiating on deadline day to sign Dean Windass and three 16 year old wonder kids. Bah!

Perhaps but we were deteriorating at an alarming rate under his "stewardship". Much like we are now of course.