Toonpack

His tenure could (should?) have been significantly better Glad we agree. We do, to a point. Selective quoting, are you son of Leazes ??

Agree with that, however the threat (of an injury recurrance, and similar impact related injuries) with HBA is greater. Opposition outfields (with a hatchet-man) will set their radar on him, due to the fact that when fit he is the 'key man' in the final 1/3, particularly in the hole where he is more vulnerable to the attention of a loose playing defensive midfielder ie. De Jong. We have little to offer in the form of that ability, to shift the focus away from him. With the likes of Man C and Liv, the attacking threat is more widespread Sorry but you don't buy a Ferrari to park in the garage and catch the fucking metro. In the winter you do, the salt on the roads fucks them up good.

His tenure could (should?) have been significantly better, but the relative depths we've plumbed have their seeds way back and (as has been my opinion all along) without a billionaire to bail us out we'd have sunk a damn sight lower. The final story of the "tenure" won't be known until it's done, but I would suggest finishing 9th or above, from where the club is now (and I don't mean just the league position, but general health etc) year on year is not beyond possibility and if Ashley can't accomplish that he is indeed, incompetent. If that raises us back to 5th best whoopee fuckin doo. It's a sad indictment of what is considered "success" when finishing regularly around 9th in a competition of 20 can make you considered the 5th best at anything. Last time I looked, competitive sports are about winning things and we have been crap at that since the 50's (1969 excepted).

This is the thing though. If you can't be allowed to enjoy a good run then this place has truly lost the plot. But you express any pleasure at a sequence of good results and he's foaming to either a) misrepresent what you've just said as Pro-Ashley propaganda, claiming we're on course for a CL place, or desperately trying to goad you into a thinly veiled Ashley/Shepherd 'ambition' debate. Sad for the forum to be honest and could hardly be less appropriate either because almost every post expressing happiness has a massively studied air about it in the sense that people are at great pains to say they don't think 4th place now will mean 4th place in May. I'm only asking you a few questions, concerning your opinions on how you think the club may do in the future with the current policies and set up, you pathetic idiot. As usual, you do nothing but babble on instead. I express my opinions quite freely on here and I have previously on those very points. They're rooted firmly in reality. You shouldn't expect me to repeat them for your benefit though given your track record of just making things up. This is old ground. Try and listen to what people are saying to you in this thread. Try and answer direct questions, instead of avoiding the main issue, which is what I have asked you. Just "pointing it out" again. Sorry like, but I didn't "make up" the vastly superior league positions this football club finished in before ownership changed hands. I don't see your replies, I only see babbling nonsense tbh. Sometimes, actual average (also not made up) 9.4th That is vastly superior to the average finish under Ashley Never said it wasn't, but it's not a lot to equal/beat tbh. Only four teams managed it. True, just shows the divsion within the division and that outside the top 4, (maybe 5 now that Citeh have joined the club) the league is pretty crap and finishing above 9.4th year on year should not be difficult, for a club our size.

This is the thing though. If you can't be allowed to enjoy a good run then this place has truly lost the plot. But you express any pleasure at a sequence of good results and he's foaming to either a) misrepresent what you've just said as Pro-Ashley propaganda, claiming we're on course for a CL place, or desperately trying to goad you into a thinly veiled Ashley/Shepherd 'ambition' debate. Sad for the forum to be honest and could hardly be less appropriate either because almost every post expressing happiness has a massively studied air about it in the sense that people are at great pains to say they don't think 4th place now will mean 4th place in May. I'm only asking you a few questions, concerning your opinions on how you think the club may do in the future with the current policies and set up, you pathetic idiot. As usual, you do nothing but babble on instead. I express my opinions quite freely on here and I have previously on those very points. They're rooted firmly in reality. You shouldn't expect me to repeat them for your benefit though given your track record of just making things up. This is old ground. Try and listen to what people are saying to you in this thread. Try and answer direct questions, instead of avoiding the main issue, which is what I have asked you. Just "pointing it out" again. Sorry like, but I didn't "make up" the vastly superior league positions this football club finished in before ownership changed hands. I don't see your replies, I only see babbling nonsense tbh. Sometimes, actual average (also not made up) 9.4th That is vastly superior to the average finish under Ashley Never said it wasn't, but it's not a lot to equal/beat tbh.

This is the thing though. If you can't be allowed to enjoy a good run then this place has truly lost the plot. But you express any pleasure at a sequence of good results and he's foaming to either a) misrepresent what you've just said as Pro-Ashley propaganda, claiming we're on course for a CL place, or desperately trying to goad you into a thinly veiled Ashley/Shepherd 'ambition' debate. Sad for the forum to be honest and could hardly be less appropriate either because almost every post expressing happiness has a massively studied air about it in the sense that people are at great pains to say they don't think 4th place now will mean 4th place in May. I'm only asking you a few questions, concerning your opinions on how you think the club may do in the future with the current policies and set up, you pathetic idiot. As usual, you do nothing but babble on instead. I express my opinions quite freely on here and I have previously on those very points. They're rooted firmly in reality. You shouldn't expect me to repeat them for your benefit though given your track record of just making things up. This is old ground. Try and listen to what people are saying to you in this thread. Try and answer direct questions, instead of avoiding the main issue, which is what I have asked you. Just "pointing it out" again. Sorry like, but I didn't "make up" the vastly superior league positions this football club finished in before ownership changed hands. I don't see your replies, I only see babbling nonsense tbh. Sometimes, actual average (also not made up) 9.4th

So do I, uncorroborated just now though.

About to sign extended deal (same terms as now) alledgedly Rumours yesterday, in late editions of the Times today evidently, no link as it's a subscription job, and I don't subscribe.

Can't disagree with many already mentioned but has no-one mentioned Beckenbauer

The sheer number of new players was one of my major concerns and Im impressed the way It's gone, with Cabaye and Ba especially. My fear we wouldn't improve on last season was predicated on that, and at the moment I'm being proven totally wrong. You're prediction is also not being helped by the fact that the league in general is as "average" as I can recall it for a long time

Don't forget we are also bedding in 4 new players to the team (Cabaya, Ba, Obertan and I include R Taylor as left back) that's a third of the team, you could also potentially include Krull as well, a keepers relationship/understanding with his centre backs is pivotal. This team has started well when it should in reality have taken "time to gel", yes we'll suffer injuries and suspensions (as will everyone else), if we avoid key one's great, if we don't form will likely suffer, but I'd rather be facing that likelyhood with 15 points in the bag than 5 or 7. What's not to like.

Mackems and fulhsm are the teams we've beaten that finished above us last year. Both were within 3 points of us. Perhaps I should have said fellow also-rans. PP's thread shows we're picking up points where we didn't last season so couldn't ask for much more right now. As I've said previously, all but the mega-rich fall into that category.

No mention of the chance Ba missed that would have killed the game either. Games ebb and flow, away fom home it's natural to be "under the cosh" for long periods, little things make a huge difference, like Ba's miss for example. We were lucky at times, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

So we're not just like Blackpool and hull then. Outside of the "real" class, which currently is Man U, Citeh and possibly Chelsea the league is a humungous mass of averageness.

We won

Toys out of pram, "am not travelling half the length of the country to sit on the bench" I believe was the quote. Tango-keeper can fuck off, Krull just might become one of the REALLY good one's, he's not far away now tbh and he's about 5/7 years from his peak (if we can keep him that long, cue "first good offer etc etc etc").

You're coveniantly ignoring the pen Wolves shouldve had and the apparently good goal they had chalked off. If we're as open v Spurs they'll more than likely rip us a new one. Not that i'm not chuffed as nuts with results. Today was great. But chill the fuck oot man. We're at best a work in progress. Agreed 100% But, from little acorns It could all end in tears, but I don't believe we're like Blackpool/Hull were, with their early runs, and "punching above our weight" we have some potentially VERY good players, who are getting better. T'is rather nice just now.

If the rest of the team (well his closest team-mates at the time) were on his wavelength those flicks would be picked up and would take a couple of oppo playesr out the game for that moment in time. It's a sign of confidence, I think he'll be alright.

No such animal in my book Poor second half, Krul is one hell of a Keeper, Saylor was huge. Cabaye faded and second half passed him by a bit I thought, he doesn't do the blood and thunder games yet, he will though. Another win though. Sweet.

Didn't realise we hadn't won there since 1958 (according to that article in the Pardew thread) so were due one.

People who value being able to count properly. Seriously it has got to the point where if you include the safety wink, it would be counted as 4! If you included "safety wink" it would actually be five

That's three words

Williamson is more often than not a walking penalty waiting to happen though.. Im not sure what the solution is, but Im quite sure there are backup players out there better than him. Who would be happy to sit on the bench in case of injury ?? I'm not convinced. Let's face it Colo gets crocked and replacement comes in and say does well, no way Colo doesn't come straight back in, at the earliest opportunity, when fit. Maybe the solution is what we've got. You're not going to get a first teamer from elsewhere as a bench warmer, and your not going to get a decent bench warmer (Huth for example) to come to continue to be a bench warmer. You may get a decent "prospect" from a lower league team, but that's not much different to where we are now. Any team loses a key player there's a natural detrimental effect, some teams (the usual suspects) can afford very good replacements, but they nonetheless are "not as good".

Even with better decisions, let's say decisions that didn't see us relegated, I doubt we'd actually be much better off than we are at this point in time. This squad/injuries thing. We loose a key player or two then yes we're likely screwed until they're back, but that is true of any team. Look at Man U, started incredibly, looked unbeatable, Rooney goes down (along with the Mexican) and they look nothing like they did even though Man U can afford a Berbatov (as an example) as a squad player. Our "small squad" (it's not actually, it's the same size as all Prem Clubs) is another thing. We need better quality, I agree in some positions, but how, without European football do we have the number of fixtures to play a "quality" squad player enough to keep him happy ?? As an example: Williamson > Perch, he'll be back soon, what centre back of better than Williamson quality could we realistically expect to have as a squad player ?? Saylor is playing up to his potential just now, part of that is Colo, also another part of that may be, just may be, down to training method, scheme and coaching. Lose Colo, no matter who we had "in reserve" I reckon we'd struggle or at least be more vulnerable.

When you say you haven't posted for a while, were you sectioned under the Mental Health Act?