The Kraken

Pressure my arse. We were overwhelming favourites for a very good reason, in that we have players who have proved it at this level and above before. Pressure doesn't account for our poor start, we should have hit the ground running from the firt game. Sheff Wed were touted as 2nd favourites to go up this year and sit at the top of the table, with a game in hand. Pressure didn't get to them so it doesn't apply here. Our players need to grow a set and realise they have to earn victories, rather than just waiting for it to come. Today's performance was risible, and utterly rudderless, for which Clotese has to take some of the blame for.

We really need a manager to come in and knock a few heads together. This team is good enough, they just need to bloody realise that they have to earn victories. It's almost as if we're just waiting for the breakthrough to come, lots of pressure but no real invention in and around the box. Our "star players" need to man up and get the bloody job done. And that'll only start to happen with an authoritative figure in charge, too many excuses for the team to hide behind right now.

The fact that the Echo continues to give them their oxygen of publicity just makes it worse. Lazy journalism in the extreme, the Echo are complicit in their duplicity. Shameful.

If these publicity whores would just f*ck off, I'd be a lot happier. To see the moronic gurn of O'Callaghan constantly in the Echo under his self styled moniker of "Fans Chief" sticks in my throat every single time.

No, I just don't agree with that I'm afraid. Guly can in no way be considered backup to Hammond or Schneiderlin; he adds to our options in giving us a new dimension but he is not a replacement for the current midfield duo. If one of them wereinjured I would expect (unfortunately) Wotton to fill in for them, and not Guly. Chamberlain may well prove to be a great player, but having just turned 17 he needs to be nurtured slowly and not thrown in at the deep end. He will have dips in form and also need rest, so to say he fills the void left by Antonio and Waigo on the right hand side is just not right. And as you say the CF slot remains unfilled. So, while I think we have added to the strength of the squad by signing Guly, he in no way fits the need of a traditional CM or RM, so we're still missing in those 3 areas. Pardew knew about Chamberlain yet still said he needed to strengthen there, so I don't see why we shoudl pretend that we now don't need to, just because we've failed to sign anyone.

Following Kelvin Davis going public in the Echo in the week, stating that Clotese is happy to wait "as long as it takes to find the right manager", I have no confidence whatsoever that the Chairman shares this aim.

It's over the top of course, as usual, but the criticism is half fair. All summer long everyone agreed that we needed 3 more players (CM, RM, CF); some people were prepared to be more patient than others in terms of when they arrived, as most expected the current squad to be more thank capable of getting off to a strong start. What we seemingly have now is a stuttering team (Bristol Rovers performance aside), fitness doubts over our best players, and still short of the 3 players our previous manager deemed necessary for the campaign ahead. Clotese has led the way in a series of failings at the club this summer.

What exactly has Wilkins said, and where? It perhaps would be beneficial to at least post a link to what he actually said?

He doesn't. Kelvin Davis was quoted in the Echo yesterday as saying that the Chairman is happy to wait as long as it takes to get the right man in.

Jesus, you love to attention seek over nothing, don't you? At the start of the transfer window Pardew said he wanted to bring in cover for Lambert. All throughout the window, amongst Alpine's "why haven't we signed anyone yet" threads there was consensus that following on from the signings of Dickson and the two right backs that we were still deficient in three areas; cover at CM; replacement for Antonio; cover for Lambert. Pretty much everyone agreed that was the case, yet here you are with another "look at me, I was right" post. Pathetic, especially when 95% of people were on the same sheet of music in the first place.

There's countless examples of it happening at the top level of football. Take the Premier League; Joe Cole at Chelsea; Ashley Young at Villa; Rosicky at Arsenal; Duff at Fulham; Adam Johnson at Man City; Milner at Man City; Modric at Spurs......I could go on (and on), but it's clearly prevalent at the top level of fottball so to not entertain it ourselves would be a refusal to adapt to modern football.

So he had a 2 year contract, with an option of a third year which has obviously subsequently been exercised. Who on earth decided that was a good idea?!

Really? As reported in today's paper... "Christopher Myers.....blah blah blah.....Any suggestion that his appointment was due to an improper relationship between us is utterly false, as is any suggestion that I have ever been involved in a relationship with any man". Seems pretty clear to me.

Go with pest control mate. My friends have had rats recently and they started with putting traps down, and caught 18 of the buggers over a period of time. Nothing for 2 or 3 weeks, then they started seeing rats again. They called pest control in and they had a good look round, and put some poison down (which apparently the rats take back to their nest as food, so it gets them all). Result, no more rats since. You could also try calling the council; they have specialist pest control, might be a bit cheaper.

And its featured in the Sun again today. Giving us yet more publicity from their "blackout of a once proud club".

The man from Del Monte did also; he was neither cool nor uncool.

And said person is clearly an idiot. However, labelling all people as either pro or anti Cortese does nobody any favours, yourself included. Most of us are vested with a sense of intelligence that means we can make decisions based on the information in front of us, rather than the bandwagon rolling past. It's a completely different thing to ramp up an anti-club agenda than it is to rationally inspect and debate decisions which clearly affect the running of the club and the fans' involvement with it. A little bit of respect from all sides wouldn't go amiss, not least that it might rescue this forum from the playground slanging match it has become.

Resorting to picking up grammar and spelling; well in, you've done me, you wordsmith genius. And again, you choose to identify everything in black and white. Just because a vocal minority want to go over the top with criticism it's a shame you're incapable of comprehending that there's many people who reside in the middle ground, who will criticise and praise the chairman/club for each individual decision they make.

Well done for outlining the black and white and ignoring the massive amounts of shades of gray.

While there has certainly been a good deal of over-the-top criticism of Cortese, I think it does a dis-service to fans to suggest that people can't express their sincere disappointment about how this has all come about. The sacking of Wally Downes and Stuart Murdoch as well as Pardew would inidicate that this is a complete structural change rather than a kneejerk reaction from the chairman, in addition to the club statement and comments from the first team player alluding to such. As such, I think it entirely justifiable to criticise the timing of all of this. I'm sure Cortese has his reasons for wanting to make the change, but it really coulod not come at a worse time. We have plodded through pre-season and the early season games in the knowledge that we're still 2 or 3 players short of the squad that we need, and it would be folly to suggest that Pardew's impending departure had nothing to do with that. So I don't think blaming the fans for reacting this way is all that fair. Cortese simply has to take his share of the blame for the shambolic way this has all been handled. Do I think he is capable of putting a top level structure back in place? Of course. But to put ourselves in a position of weakness before doing so is a failure on his behalf that he needs to rectify, and very soon if last night is anything to go by.

Bad to worse. No Barney for 3 games, brilliant.

The only problem with that is that, in hindsight, we'd have been much better off if AP had been sacked a month or two ago. At least that way we'd have had a manager in who would have been allowed to bring in a full complement of players to mould the squad to his desire. With the approach Clotese took we now have a squad that is 2 or 3 players short of what we need, has some glaring omissions still (no pacy wing replacement for Antonio, no competition/backup for the CMs, no backup for Lambert), and no time left in the window to bring in replacements. Nice work Nicola.

I hate feeling like this; I really don't care about this game and almost think it could be beneficial for us to get thrashed, as it might actually wake Clotese up to the fact that we need a good manager to provide some direction to the team.

Whispering Dave hinting that Wilkins may have been under pressure to play Guly. Also that, if you're going to play him, why not play him in his natural position? Fair points Dave.