Merkin Muffley

Bil Mcgarry. Cunt.

Deleted posts, crikey. Mike Ashley is lovely. Better?

Even dozy old Joe seems vaguely aware that these promises may not materialise.

We were fucking shite against the mackems, shite (despite winning) against West Brom, shite against Wigan and shite against Fulham. And not much better against Everton or Man City either. Villa was our best result, but we were no better than decent against a surprisingly poor-on-the-night side. We got away with ten behind the ball at Chelsea and fair play but that won't happen often. I can't remember coming out of a single match recently thinking we'd played well - it's usually been either relief or gloom, and it's never been easy on the eye. Ten points in eight games with that run of fixtures is hardly 'brilliant'. We've not won away all season and of the twelve remaining home games, four are against the 'big four'. Kinnear's a relic who will be found out I suspect. The rest of the season will be painful and a sell-to-buy January is a fucking massive gamble on Ashley's part.

That's a perfect image. *grinds teeth in a paralysis of despair*

We've been better than we were under Houghton, but not by much to my eyes. Houghton bore the brunt of the worst of the chaos in the immediate aftermath of early September, and also had to contend with a significantly worse injury list. With players back and matters - relatively speaking of course - settling down some improvement was to be expected. The football is still poor and on the pitch we look like what we are: relegation candidates. We've played in fits and starts and managed to scrape a few results together but we've never looked convincing. And the Chelsea game aside there's been far too much reliance on lumping it to Shola and hoping to feed off that. We're reverting to bypassing the midfield again. It's ugly and predictable. Kinnear looks to me like another one-dimensional manager. We'll be bottom six all season in my view. If we lose Owen in January we become that much more likely to go down. Of course from where we are today it's perfectly reasonable to argue that the Kinnear contract extension makes sense for several reasons, the biggest one being that no fucker else would come. But we're only where we are because of a disastrous series of events which are ultimately entirely down to the incompetence (and, I suspect, greed) of the owner, and it's all utterly depressing.

Totally agree. We are fucked.

Owen's as good as gone, Charlie wants out and Given must be seriously considering his situation - top 'keepers aren't that easy to find and there'll be plenty of interest. In fact, as far as players leaving goes, the question as I see it is not who they will sell but who they won't. They'll sell any player if the money's right. And who will come? There's no danger they'll be handing out bumper contracts, and we're not exactly an attractive proposition for good players with options. So it'll be bargain-basement stuff and loanees at best. Gambling on avoiding relegation with a relic for a manager, a thin squad that may well be weaker come the second-half of the season and a 'board' that doesn't give a fuck. Terrifying.

Like being forcefed shit whilst getting arse-raped. And paying for the privilege.

Hard to work out what the fuck is going on really. He's lost the trust of most of the fans, and I make him absolutely screwed as far as season ticket sales go if he's still here come summer - they'll drop through the floor unless there's a dramatic turnaround on the pitch (no chance of that) I bet. Yet if he doesn't sell before January he's here till the end of the season minimum as no fucker will be mad enough to buy it between January and May given the threat of relegation. The only thing I'm convinced about amid all the murk and spin hovering round the club is that Ashley is a complete cunt.

I suspect Ashley is unrealistically valuing the club. Shepherd and Dave Whelan, among others, have both expressed the view that he's being greedy, although against that they both have axes to grind. There was one good indication of the sort of figure Ashley is seeking which has gone surprisingly under-reported. Keith Harris, in one of his many interviews, was commenting on the £400mil figure being bandied around and called that 'an exagerration'. Immediately after, however, he mentioned £300mil as being 'realistic'. I remember seeing that interview and being surprised it wasn't subsequently picked up on. It's mentioned here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...guaranteed.html

Cheers. Been reading for a while and as you can probably tell I'm in the camp that is less than impressed with Ashley and co.

Thats takes me back to the summer piss up a couple of years ago when the topics of conversation was Merkins and Dwarf Chess.... Merkin is a tremendous word. I reckon Derek Llambias wears one on his head.

We'll be in the mix come the back end of the season unless the club is sold. We look a very moderate side just now most of the time, and I suspect Kinnear will rely on lumping it to Ameobi with ever more frequency the longer we're down there - he doesn't strike me as an imaginative manager, to put it politely. If Owen goes in January it could be enough to tip the scales I fear. I agree with the OP that we could be looking at losing other key players in January as well, either through them actively seeking an exit or because I suspect this mob won't turn down a bid for a player if they see it as good business. Kinnear's ramblings about bringing in four and shipping out six or whatever it was he said last week fill me with dread. A sell-to-buy policy, with Dennis Wise and Joe Kinnear responsible. Christ almighty. So I suppose what I'm saying in this cheery first post of mine is that I think we're fucked.