Bad Wolf

Ralph is a bang average manager working with below average players. If we go down, who is going to be raided? KWP, JWP and that's literally it.

No idea, you'd have to ask them because things will be different from their perspective. For example, I personally thought Dean Smith was doing a great job at Villa however most of their fans wanted him out.

He's a decent enough keeper. Henderson is obviously miles better but I don't think he'll come to us.

I think we'll sign Johnstone

He's got a long time on his contract so the ball is in our court. I don't think that anyone is going to be prepared to pay what we'll demand for him.

Ralph saying JWP isn't going anywhere. Worded very differently to the usual "He's our player, he's happy here, I see no reason to sell, we don't want to sell" stuff that they usually come out with which basically translates to "We don't want to lose him but we might not have much choice". He must be pretty confident on keeping him.

No, of course not however I think had they appointed Ralph instead of Stevie G, I don't think they'd have been up in arms about it.

If you believe what you read in the papers, Villa and Norwich both wanted him a few months ago. Though I think I'm being harsh on the Leeds manager. Maybe take him out of that list.

List of current Premier League managers that I would NOT want should Ralph leave: Arteta Lampard Marcsh Rangdnick Howe Smith Hodgson The others are probably better than Ralph.

Isn't that true of every team? Because pretty much every goal in history either comes from crap defending or great forward play.

That's basically my thoughts too. Like a few years ago when Cardiff got absolutely screwed by the officials against Chelsea.

I just don't see how it can be measured by anything other than goals. If Team A has one chance and scores one goal while Team B have 20 clear cut chances and screw all of them up, I don't get how Team A doesn't deserve their win by taking 100% of their chances. Never understood how people think that possession, corners and shots on target go any way toward 'deserving a win'. I appreciate that that's not an argument you made but I see it all the time on social media "Look how many corners we had, we clearly deserved more!"

I've always thought the team that scores the most goals deserves to win 99% of the time. Maybe once a season you get a game where everything goes against you and circumstances beyond your control dictate the game (ie Brighton at home this season) but ultimately, it's about putting the ball in the net.

The fact that we lost 2-1 suggests that we did create at least once chance.

Just seen the goals and though I don't actively blame Forster, had McCarthy conceded those they absolutely would have been his fault.

And that's an argument...For...?

Ings for example, if we'd turned down that money from Villa, considering his contract and injury situations, we'd have been utterly crazy.

We do it to other clubs. Football is a business. Has been for a VERY long time and no it's not just since the PL came into being. Fans are customers, players are employees. People need to realise that players, managers etc aren't going to have the same sentimental love for a club that fans do. If JWP feels that he can better himself elsewhere and someone makes a reasonable offer then good luck to him. People that moan about players and managers having "no loyalty these days" are, in my experience, the same people that turn on players and managers as soon as things go slightly wrong for them or they make a mistake.

I don't, for one minute believe he's on that.

On another note, with regards to Walcott I hope he stays on the grounds that he's an incredible asset to the club, just not so much the 'team'. He does A LOT of mentoring and work behind the scenes and if he were to accept a role playing for the B team and occasional game for the first team in the cups then I'd be delighted if he stayed. Obviously if he thinks he can still play regular first team football in The Championship or whatever then good luck to him.

I don't like this "Not for sale at any price". Everybody has their price, I just think JWP's price will be higher than teams are prepared to pay.

I agree with all of that. Some of the stuff I blame Forster for I don't think is purely his fault (Burnley's second and Man United away this season) however they are goals that had McCarthy conceded, he'd have been lynched. Yet Forster makes an absolute howler on Sunday (Brighton's first) and no one batters an eyelid.

McCarthy is poor but he's nowhere near as bad as everyone makes him out to be. He just gets blamed for things that clearly aren't his fault while Forster can do no wrong even when he clearly does! I think Forster is very slightly better but the gap between them is not massive at all.

I don't think he's ever been awful. It's just that at times, he's been so incredible that his lesser 'average' games just seem poor. His worst game for us was a solid 6/10 IMO

KWP