James

I must have dreamt them being down in the old division two (like we were), coming up through the Championship (like we did) and then finishing mid table in the Prem for years before being jettisoned into the Champions League. There are plenty of clubs that have won more trophies than we have if that’s all you put it down to (Pompey for one, would you be calling someone a plum for saying we were a bigger club than the Skates?) My point was that, before they were bought, City were a club of very similar stature and with very similar recent history. I take the point that Manchester is a more attractive location but do you honestly believe that an Arab sheik bought Manchester City because they won the Cup Winners Cup in 1970? I don’t think so.

Spot on.

At the moment I have to admit I feel I’m slightly “going through the motions” as a fan. I travel from London to home games to spend time with my family and I travel to away games for a few beers with my mates. The games and the general malaise and inaction from the club are an immense source of frustration but the games themselves are largely pretty lifeless for me - we play sh*t, don’t score and usually lose. If I didn’t have the family connection I’m not sure I’d renew my ST on enjoyment value but it’s an institution for me and the old man so I’ll be there whatever happens.

Just a smokescreen whilst we compete a deal for a far cheaper, far less good and far more underwhelming signing in Carrillo.

Read his post though. He’s lamenting the fact that we had an owner more interested in priming us for sale than investing - Man City are a similar size club to us historically and they attracted a benevolent owner whereas we unfortunately didn’t get one with the means or the desire to push us on. Obviously we could never have kept the players under this leadership.

If Everton are in relegation danger this season (in any sense) then we were last year, something which was vehemently denied by all on this forum.

Yet he’s taken them from below us after we gave them a hiding to comfortably above us into the top half...

There’s a difference between sustainable and self-sustainable. Name me a club that operates within the profits it makes, with limited external investment, yet finishes in the upper reaches of the Premier League on a long term basis? There aren’t any. City are only “sustainable” because the Sheik puts money in, same with Chelsea and the rest. You really are incredibly patronising towards anyone who dares to take a different view to your own btw.

You can sound out potential replacements whilst leaving an incumbent manager in post. Plenty of clubs on the continent sack their manager and appoint a replacement on the same day, they hardly start talking to the replacement on the same day they fire the existing man.

Brilliant wasn’t it? Commos trying desperately to paint him as having a good game but the truth is he’s been very average.

Misses an easy chance for 2-0 and then out of position for the equaliser. Unlucky Virg, you utter Bell end

Let’s face it, a striker who has scored 45 in his entire career is unlikely to be the answer. The fact he is clearly a Pellegrino pick is worrying because a) he must be staying and b) if Pell has picked him he will almost certainly br sh*t.

All we need is the Les Reed interview to say we are confident and the day after he will be at Milan.

Not our year is it? That's what happens when you don't limply concede 5 goals...

An unconvincing win would buy Pellegrino more time than he deserves. At least a big win might indicate we'd turned a corner or, at the very least, gained some confidence.

Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence that anything that’s required to save our season is going to be done does it? A month to finalise five meaningless sentences? Ridiculous. Here’s my advice Ralph, save the paper, as you’ll need to throw those pledges out the window in May if we are in the Championship.

Nothing surprises me about incoming transfers for Saints. Les Reed is a master of selling quick and buying slow. Was looking at his Wikipedia profile earlier and I must admit I laughed out loud at the fact that the only mention of his time as Director of Football at Fulham (a time when they went from competent mid table side to relegation cannon fodder it would seem) was the fact he’d sold Chris Smalling to Man U for £12 million having signed him for a few tracksuits. Bet that’s on his CV. He’s got form for selling players for high prices to big clubs so it’s no surprise we are declining whilst he remains in charge. Our top (and only goal scorer) in Austin was injured 10 days before the window opens and it appears we are going to wait all window in the hope of signing a short winger that we will presumably play up front on his own and then proceed to give no service to. Should obviously have had a number 9 lined up by then after the Fonte/Caceres debacle it’s clear that, despite all the PR guff, there’s no sense of planning at all with a incoming transfers, only as long as we get the best deal financially.

That article is quite confusing. In one breath it says we are determined to bring in 2/3 players and then goes on to mention players who would command a massive fee (Mawson, Benteke, Sturridge, Tosun) whilst on the other hand it says we are going to spread the cash over “several” transfer windows. I predict a relatively uninteresting/uninspired permanent signing in the next week or so followed by a last minute loan for Sturridge/Walcott on deadline day, by which time it’ll be far far too late. Christ, what a depressing state of affairs. The messages coming out of the club at the moment are all over the place.

We are only 3 days into the window but it is ridiculous that other sides have already started signing players (Hudds have made a very decent loan signing already) whilst we dither as usual. We knew the money was coming in and so we should have had deals lined up. That said, I'm not sure I want Pellegrino around to have any input into who we signed or to apply his "coaching" to any new players. Would have given the fans a big lift if we'd immediately brought someone in but as usual we sell our players ASAP at the start of the window and then dither about getting players in. I'm all for getting the best price and that would be fine in normal circumstances but we are at the stage where every game counts and having players come in and hit the ground running would give us a big lift.

Yes - I genuinely think the most responsible thing we can do at this point is use £5-6m to pay up MP and get someone else. If the worst happens and we are relegated then at least we’ve got some in reserve to mount a serious challenge next year. I fail to see who we could get in that will make the immediate impact we need in any case. Some off the wall Reed signings are all we will get anyway (talk of Sturridge and Walcott is just fantasy IMO) so I’d rather leave those if it meant a competent coaching staff.

Will be decent in the Championship which is about our level at the moment.

Looked like he'd been crying I thought...put the poor man out of his misery.

Even Hughes would be a better bet than Pellegrino to be fair. We could do a lot worse at this point.

This will be the one time he's proven correct just to ultimately con the fans.

Can't really see how placing a bet to cover the cost of next season's season ticket to soften the blow that we've feared has been coming makes you any less of a fan to be honest....will still be there at Fulham on Saturday, as I was tonight and as I will be at Watford.