James

Agree. We are going down.

Dreadful performance considering the opposition. Still, at least it keeps the atrocious Pell here for a defeat v Watford. Fun times.

Narrow win and a turd performance, great. Means MP will stay for the loss at Watford. Not ideal.

Best player on the pitch subbed by the clueless Pelle*****.

Unreal support considering how bad we are. Won’t stopped the keyboard warriors who don’t go to games telling us how crap our fans are.

Sorry I should have refined to talismanic striker. Romeu is great, although has been very poor this season, but even if he puts in a cracking performance we won’t win if nobody scores. I remember times gone by when we played trash but Lambo or Pelle would score and we’d get something.

Agree with this - don’t think I ever claimed that we were a bigger club than Man City, my point was that, at the time they were taken over, they were part of a cluster of similar sized clubs and that we had been in an around them in the time which led up to their investment. I misspoke when I said they were similar size to us historically, I meant they were similar to us when they secured the Sheik, not that we had done better than them in the past and certainly not that we are bigger than them now. Shock horror that my original post was largely ignored and that the forum police focused on one statement they disagreed with rather than taking it as a whole (not aimed at you to be fair).

The same scouting set up that has left us with the prolific Shane Long as our lone striker....

See Wolves have signed the young and highly rated Rafa Mir for £1.5m as he was banging them in for Valencia B. If we are going to take a punt I would rather it be on someone like him rather than spending big money (for us) on a player who has a poor scoring record. Austin shows us that, if you have a knack for scoring goals, you’ll score them in any league and it doesn’t appear that Carrillo has shown any kind of knack for goal scoring throughout his career even in the Argentinian leagues. We need someone who is going to come in and hit the ground running immediately not someone who might be alright but then equally might not be. As others have said, if Pellegrino is as good at picking players as he is at setting up a football team then I don’t have high hopes at all.

Scoring early is a disaster for any Saints performance at the moment - Pell just calls back the attacks as soon as we score and we sit back until the inevitable happens.

Not really relevant to the point that’s being debated is it ? Did you miss the part of my original post where I admitted to it being impossible for us to keep players from other clubs under our current regime? If we had a rich owner like City we’d be able to keep players but we don’t, the point I made was that it could easily have been us taken over by a very rich Arab Sheik given that, at the time they were taken over, both clubs had a very similar recent history.

Was having this exact conversation the other day. It doesn’t help that most of us probably view them as mercenaries now who would move given a chance. I miss the days of having a talisman figure, someone like Lambert or Pelle, who could win us points out of nothing with their goals. Austin is the closest we have to that but you can’t be a talisman from the Physio’s bench.

With you on that, would rather give a young lad a go than spunk one third of the VVD money on a striker with as poor a scoring record as Carrillo. Even more so because he’d be a Pellegrino signing and I don’t want him to be around much longer.

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.