SKD

Exactly my point - Everton have since over taken us. But I can't wait to lift that 10th place trophy at the end of the season. If all we can expect is finishing up to 10th place every year then I would rather be in the championship.

I assume you don't look at the table? They are 3 points behind Arsenal in 4th, like I said, it's a possibility. Who knows where they will be without Lukaku, I would say it depends completely on recruitment. However it's irrelevant, they've had Lukaku since 2013, it's the managers job to get the best out of the squad / players he has, which I would suggest Koeman does. I'm not saying that I want Koeman back or in fact that we should have kept him, just pointing out it is completely possible to finish in the Top 7 consistently, with the right manager.

No, but as I said, I have doubts that Puel will get us into the top 7. With the right investment from above, we could attract someone who would keep us in the top 7. For example Koeman would have not gone to Everton is a) Les didn't try and force his hand b) We had offered him some re assurances around the transfer window c) Offered him a salary he couldn't refuse.

Okay, more realistically top 7, who our previous manager who had us finish 7th and 6th in his 2 seasons in charge and has since led his new club to 7th (possibly top 5). I certainly wasn't miserable for those 2 seasons.

A good post this.

Realistically, if he didn't play for us, would you want us to buy him? I very much doubt it.

We've not played on a Thursday since 8th December.... We've (Gabbi aside) not exactly set the world alight since. We've looked better since changing from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 (credit to Puel for this), but this come very late in the season. I'll give him until Christmas (unless we have a horrific start to the season), but I have doubts he is the man to take us to consistent top 6 finishes. A real shame as it could possibly be 2 wasted seasons. FWIW I would not consider a top 10 finish a success as the majority of people on here seem to. Targets for every season should be European qualification and/or cup final/win (finish top 6 final okay, if not, should be winning a cup).

Has played very well for the past month or so, has he finally found his position? IMO was partly at fault for their goal (bottled a tackle in the middle of the park which let them counter) and needs to add more goals / composure to his game (pretty poor miss in the second half) Still not convinced his is quick or strong enough to make it to the very top however time will tell.

Then you should know that at the pace the game moves, it is much easier for someone who gets to watch 2 or 3 replays than someone who gets a split second to make a decision. As it happens, I too am a qualified ref and played at a decent level until injuries hit. Talking from experience, Video replays will help. Rubbish. His arm was in an 'unnatural position' and he made a clear movement with his arm, towards the ball. Accidental yes, but that doesn't stop it from being a penalty. I don't know when you took your course, but by the look of things on this thread it may have been in the 40's

Anyone who didn't go and watched on stream/ssn or listened on radio, can they confirm that we should have had 2 penalties (and their man sent off for the foul on long) and they should have had a freekick for our goal. Appalling officiating today IMO

Is this a joke? If not, I assume you've never played a competitive game of football nor sat pitch side and experienced how fast the game moves. TV you get to watch multiple times, real life you get 1 shot and about 1 second to decide. Ridiculous statement

Agree. Him and Tadic our most creative players. Our style (get it wide, look for overlap and put a cross in) suits wing backs and IMO he has flourished this season. A shame for him (and Tadic) we've not had someone who knows where the back of the net is for half the season or more

Just because you did not play the game at the highest level doesn't make your opinion invalid. Jose never played at a decent level, yet he is one of the best managers in the world. Paul Merson played at the highest level and is one of the worst pundits in world sport. Football is a game of opinions, just because someone disagrees with you, doesn't make them incorrect.

I don't like Puel, I think he's a yes man with the personality of a cardboard box but some of what you have said is ridiculous Not sure you can blame Puel for that. It's not his fault JRod and Long are ******** useless. Would love to see some evidence to suggest this is the case, which I suspect it isn't and if it was, again I don't think you could blame Puel for that. But it would would suggest that he needs to grow a pair and actually say no to Les.

Hopefully this came from the same source who said Gabbi is fit for tonight, when Puel clearly stated he wasn't.

Have to say I thought this. I can't see it happening however unfortunately

Lose tomorrow and palace will be level on points with us. Do they have a chance of going down? Lose tomorrow and Hull win against boro (a good chance of that if you ask me) they are 4 points behind us. Do they have a chance of going down? 5 games ago Leicester were all but gone, they now sit 2 points ahead of us (granted we have 3 games in hand, 2 of which I'm expecting nothing from). To suggest we have no chance of us going down makes you look a little bit thick or comptely arrogant, I'll let you decide on that one. Do I think we will? No, we are 2 wins from gaurenteed safety imo. Do we have a chance of going down? Yes.

Absolutely none, but if he's unlucky with injuries, he's very lucky (we could well be in a relegation scrap if we hadn't) Les & co managed to get that one across the line.

If you're as boring on there as you are on here, I assume he has since unfollowed you.

Standard tactics from the left. Call everyone who voted for Brexit stupid and say they lack intelligence... when that doesn't work, resort to making things up.

It's worth mentioning that Gabbi wasn't (he admitted he hadn't spoken to the manager when he signed) a Puel signing....

For me, it's the uninspiring football we have played for 85% of this season. Lets face it, we've underachieved in the EL, underachieved in the FA cup, had 3 excellent and 1 good performances in EFL cup and have had a very in different season in PL. Claude has been very unlucky with the injuries to VVD, Gabbi and Austin and I probably wouldn't get rid for the sake of it, unless someone else became available. IMO Les made the wrong decision appointing him in the summer, personally I think we should have gone for Marco Silva, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The cup final has brought him time, but if not much has changed by Christmas, I will be fully expecting Les to pull the trigger (not that I think he will).

It'll be interesting to see how many ST's we sell next year. I wouldn't be surprised if next year is the least sells since being back in the PL.

Do you have any evidence that they had Caceres in mind? from the way it looked to me was that we had other targets who we failed to get and Caceres was a panic buy. Sorry to be pedantic, however you are, so why the hell not

A cousin of mine is a skate and fancies a laugh, I mean wants to know everything PFC with the exciting times on the horizon... How would he go about becoming a member..?