Frank's cousin

Watcher? Window licker more like - reckon he's the guy in the photo on the bus. Oh and LTC - top post - says it all

Promotion and relegation is what it's all about? I bet if the PL had their way they would reduce it to 16 teams, select who they wanted based on tv audience potential, and make it a closed shop - and I suspect most fans of those clubs selected would be happy with it..... For me that's what the pl has created - it's also about fear. Fear of relegation and loss of revenue and that makes for 451 ****e..... Played by most in the bottom half.... Sadly westHam and BFS would probably become the new Bolton and stay up and is 'legend' would improve playing the same old antiquated shiet . .... But the satisfaction of seeing us get promoted still outweighs those negatives

As much as Turkish's reasons are pretty spot on and Not being too worried about the sky ****** and the way it has ruined fair competition, going up is what it MUST be all about otherwise what is the point? Sport is all about striving to be the best you can possibly be - yes we will always be restricted by some circumstances, but we have not yet seen what the best we can be is under the NC regime. If it turns out it's a yoyo or championship side so be it, but the players the club and the fans deserve a chance of testing ourselves in the top tier and seeing what that best is. And as for patronising shiedt from the slug balancer and the other boring miserabl ****s on MOTD, feck em, they are so far up Kenny Dalgliesh's arse, it just shows their opinions count for feck all.

And hello championship winning run next season... come on we are way ahead of where we though we would be right now with this side. Its been a brilliant season and far form over yet - there will still be twists and turns to come. We go up, great. We dont, we learn and try again next season, with teh resources and mindset, we have we will be there or there abouts...

Nope, did not blow t, just got beat - happens after a long hard season. They are all still learning as is our Nige and as he said time and again, there would be twists and turns to come yet. 3 games to go, not for the faint of heart, but come on admit it, its bloomin exciting!

Chin up Alps... still in our hands. It was lawyas going to be tense, exciting and likely to require firm clenching of teh buttocks... but its what teh game is all about and why we love it!

How amusing - read that back to yourself and tell me me you dont sound like a complete pompous arse. I hide behind no 'moniker' and like most football fans can read see and deduce exactly what I want from a game - you like to pretend you are looking to analyse every minute detail, yet you do NOTHING but focus on negatives - all the fricken time, and you try and come across like some arogant 'pundit' and we all know how badly they read a game. I am sick of the likes of you calling yourself a supporter. You obviously dont understand the nature of 'support' - If you want higher quality every minute of the game go and support Barcelona. As to your deductions about my age, I suggest you don't become a detective.... If you had half the 'knowledge' of the game you like to believe you have, you would appreciate all that has been achieved by the team - a side far form the finished article, that has made fans proud, yet you wet yourself with glee when we lose as it provides you with your crumbling soapbox to whinge, moan, under the guise of your 'special' brand of 'in depth punditry'.... more commonly known as total bo ll ox. We can all see the frailties and mistakes both due to quality of individuals and tactical naiviety - yet throughout the entire season, no matter that we have done so incredibly well, you have done nothing but spout your rubbish ... Skate...dear boy.... tos ser

At last a voice of fricken sanity amongst the clueless panty wetting mongs!

Wayman and Supersonic... why dont you just FO and support someone else - you obviously enjoy walling in self pity and miseray when we lose far more than supporting a side that has out performed all expectations so far this season... feckin do one, will you, I am fecking sick and tired of those that seem to relish our negatives more than enjoying our positives - absolute feckin w @nkers the lot of you.

Agree to a point, but we cant magic up some extra strikers who can do this - sometimes things work out sometimes they dont with transfers - we all jump on Guly's back but he scored some vital winners in teh eraly seaosn... Sharp has had an horrendous year - that puts football into perspective, so the fact he is hit an miss right now is understandable - he should be getting our support not ridicule - he will come good. Its impossible to ever get over teh loss of a child, but I wish him all teh very best and football can help him focus on something, but it will take time. Lee is the sickener because he was just starting to gell with the side - had we had him fit for the run in, I believe we would be home and dry now. This is an honest grafting group of players that that have out performed the sum of their parts and for me, the mistakes are just that, we all make em, the best make em and you sometimes need the footballing gods to be smiling on you. My criticism is of the fans that seem to expect faultlessness form a side that was promoted last year. Yes we have obviously some players who may not be the standard for the prem... so its natural we will see mistakes more often than not, so why get on their backs?

Just a thought.... we had 12 chances - on another day we might have had a bit of luck and scored 3 or 4! Yes we still had defensive lapses, but had those gone in and we had played as we did last night, would those miserable feckers still be dolling out the stick to players and the side? Mistakes will always happen, even the best get beat, but I think you are letting the result cloud your judgement of the performance. We are still a championship side, not fricken Barcelona, yet some of you expect faultless performances week in week out...

Fair point, they did a pro job and got the points. But although I dont go along with the mugged routine, afterall we did that to Leeds - that happens in football to even the best sides - My point is that whether the performance is good, bad, indifferent or not, whether we can blatently see what frailties there are or not, whether we blieve it was bad luck etc or whatever,. at this stage in the season it about hanging in there. Sure for those that enjoy deep analysis of each players performance etc, its a free country and balanced views without emotive ignorance is fair enough.... but I take issue with those that seem to gain some bizarre satisfaction form being able to have a go. We can do all that player analysis in closed season... now is the time for remaining positive, believing and acknowledging just how far the club has come and getting behind each and every one of them. I kno some will say its empty words or naive, but hey, we need to show our metal right now and do what it says on the supporter tin. We can do this.

This. Well said. See the fannies out in force again. I fully understand the folk that are ****ed off at a loss, natural reaction of any fan. But there are the usual suspects who seem to enjoy the fact that they can point to failings in the side which is simply idiotic and comes with the traditional fishy smell. We made mistakes that cost us the game - it happens to all clubs. We are not the finished article and anyone with any sense knows that, but thats not the feckin point. The point is this group of players, only promoted last season have done a magnificent job this season and now is not the time for faint hearts and doom mongers. We are still in control of our own destiny and whatever happens, I wont be having a go at a single player, the manager or the club. Pick ourselves up, dust down and move on and dont lose faith. Feck yeah, I'm 'happy clappy' because the this team is second in the league, still 6 points ahead of 3rd with 3 games to go - think about that after where we have been and roar the lads on.

True, but in theory you can do what they did before and transfer the Golden share to a new entity that is not liable for teh debt - however this is regarded as failing to agree a CVA by teh FL so a huge points deduction will follow

Get in!

Just posted my first comment/question - you'll recognise the name

It's a strategy based on self sustaining financials - if the Fair Play rules are challenged or circumvented, nothing with change and depending on how the others in prem manage their finances, will mean our plan will either work as a mid table sustainable club in the PL, Championship or yoyo. Thing is I believe its the RIGHT way to do things. Key to success is how long any good players will stay. Leave at 16-18 and we get no benefit, just the cash to fund a few quality players that may keep us mid table. If we can find a way of making it attractive enough for them to stay until 21-22, we have a chance in the future of having cyclic success (a top 6 finish is not unrealistic under those circumstances). We can argue all we like about how (un)realistic any success might be, but that does not detract from the fact that its still the RIGHT way to go about things. Fottball supporting IS and always has been about dreams that one day.... lose that or be too cynical then you might as well give up being a fan.

I think what we should remmeber though is that what he is talking about is not some fanciful idea of winning teh Chapions league or being the best in the world,.... but being the best WE can be. What that is remains to be seen and no one is living in any fantasy land believing we will be the next Barcelona, but the aim is to emulate the strategy of developing more talent that helps us compete. If we find more gems such a sWalcott, Bale and Oxo etc, the chances are that they will still end up at other 'bigger' clubs, but we may be able to offer them nough to keep them here until 21-22, rather than seeing them depart at 16/17. That way me might,just might see some cyclic success such as German teams as Dortmund and Leverkusen, Schalke etc, who have all had decent years in teh past because their kids stay until 22ish, then move on AFTER they have done something with their clubs. Aiming high is what its about, not unrelaistic ambition, but a focused mind set on being teh best we possibly can and ensuring the infrastructure, culture and importantly feelgood factor is there. I liked teh fact he said it must alos be a 'fun' place to come to, to enjoy what is afterall a game, and provide enjoyment for the fans by playing as much as possible an attractive style. Yes we need to improve the quality to be able to do this at the next level, and it wont always work, but as we wont be in teh 45mil per player category, we need an alternative to develop talent and that is what we have set out to do. If it fails? Do you know what? I wont not care as it's you can guarrantee it wont be through the lack of effort, sound strategy or a disire to build on sound principles full of integrity - it will only fail should others simply sling money at their own. For me, its the fact we ARE doing it this way that makes me proud to be a fan of this club. When NIgel is criticised for his cliches - I believe its because those folk simply dont get it. They are used to the miserable-serious-all-the-time-old-school ****s that see football in their own narrow dimensions. Nigel's enthusiams is infectious, he enjoys what he is doing and its clear he is aligned with the the whole plan. He wont moan about 'support' and need for more players, he believes we are dojing it the right way. For me whether writen by a fan or not, That article captures teh spirit of what the club is now about perfectly. It is simple very sad that Markus is not here to see it... he would have a huge grin on his face!

Sorry Rally boy - as much a sI admire your comic gold, on this occasion, I beat you to 'that' joke several pages ago....

I suspect we will be linked with all the ****e players on good contracts from the releagted prem clubs as their agents desperately try and hold on to their 15% of a prem salary... thankfully as I understand it we seem to have more common sense as a club.

And also the FL rules that the Skates ignore?

Indeed, I guess the old arse grapes would at least give fans a proper excuse for not sitting down like good boys and girls

Dont think its so much the Sky millions being available, its the huge gulf its created between the PL and the FL, rather than a fairer and more egalitarian distribution of the available cash. It means that if promoted to the prem, you need to spend big to stay there and offer large and longer term contracts often without relegation clauses to attract players - with agents pushing up the deal... some chairman bite and we all know what happens when relegation happens... in the pre sky days, the financial gulf was not so great, so releagtion had less impact - less financial risk needed to stay up and compete. Most chairman of the prem also rans operate on the idea that fans will keep coming as long even if stranded as a mid table mediocrity or lower prem team, so try and keep things stable... but where is the fun/ambition - unfortunately impossible without the bilionnaire sugar daddy.

Alps, please calm down mate - I like reading your opinions and thoughts but they always seem to be presented as if you are straining with constipation - your'll end up with hypertension/piles! I know the league position and end of season nervousness is effecting us all, but you have been like this all season! (Please take this comment in humourous spirit in which it was intended)

ST holder for over 10 years + about 8-10 aways every seaosn until I move to Scotland/daughter was born - mixed results... had not been since early part of the 2010/11 season - a loss..... then went to Blackpool couple of weekend ago..... needless to say I am NOT going to any more games this season.