Ex Lion Tamer

Did a fantastic job at Sunderland too, a club which was in a similar state to what we are now

The biggest problem here is either that Ross Wilson is no good or Paul Mitchell was irreplaceable.

Good post

What's worrying is that players at Stoke said the same thing

Imagine if we didn't have Gunn and were faced with bringing Forster back in

If i was Rodgers i would go to Villa over us because they have money to spend and are likely to be a club on the up

Allardyce would get us into mid table. Agree on the others

Not sure how you can say we're sleepwalking in a thread about players and senior staff arguing. They know things aren't good and they're searching for answers

Our academy will continue to be weak if we rely only on our local catchment area. We only need one prodigy to make us a big transfer fee and the investment in 30+ others is worth it

I imagine this is pretty common. Clubs aren't allowed to give contracts to under 16s, so try to exercise as much soft power as possible, giving financial perks, helping out with training options etc etc, in the hope that the player will be grateful and agree to a longer relationship. But ultimately if the player decides to sign a contract elsewhere, then that's entirely up to them

OK but they + Armstrong could make a difference

Fair point about MLT. I think we need to assess Hughes in December - it gives him time to get it together but if necessary we can get a new man in before the January transfer window. The big problem is our policy of only going for managers who are out of work, so we will have to assess who is available.

There is reason to be worried, but here's three reasons for hope: - We have lots of new players who may bed in and get better - How many times in the 90s did we have a terrible start and somehow pull it out of the bag? - We can always sack Hughes if it isn't working and get someone else in

You've got to give Ings some credit for the driving run which won the penalty

Regardless of how Brighton played in the first half, I thought we played faster and with more urgency than we did under the last two managers. Finding a cutting edge in attack remains a problem and the pressure got to the players in the second half, they still seem low on confidence which is worrying. I'm not at all convinced that two up front is the way to go

£12m for Ken Monkou probably a good deal?

Everything from his agent this summer suggested he wanted to stay. Presumably his wages would be hard for teams abroad to match so may have been difficult to find a buyer willing to spend on wages and a transfer fee that we would want

Not that I think it would be good to get relegated, but presumably if all the players have their wages halved by relegation clauses then it will be easier to move them on

I think it's self evident that our recruitment has gone badly downhill since Paul Mitchell left. On coaching, Poch is one of the best managers in the world and was a brilliant pick. How many managers like him are out there waiting to be plucked from obscurity? I'm not sure there's many. Especially now we don't have Cortese spinning the line that we're going to spend loads of money and get into the champions league

Will you got me there! Just 7 teams then. West ham came up the same season as us

Only the following clubs have been in this league longer than us: Arsenal Everton Liverpool Man utd Liverpool Spurs Chelsea Man city We are doing well and the reality is that's really hard to stay in this league for a long period of time. People are jealous of Bournemouth but when Howe leaves they will begin the downward spiral. Swansea were the same when Rodgers left

Redmond goal against Everton was pretty good

Why would Howe, Wagner or Rodgers join us? They'll all be looking for bigger clubs higher up the table. We're not an attractive proposition at the moment. The only realistic name on this thread so far is Allardyce

I've always believed that his record of mid-table performances means he will be decent for us, and there's still time for that to happen. However, I wasn't impressed with his "tactic" of throwing on a million strikers (OK three) at the end of the Everton game, leaving no one to give them the ball

2 up front doesn't give us enough control in midfield