Cabrone

Like the mafia.

Results at SMS over the last 12 months... The SMS League table .....................P.......W......D......L.......F........A.........GD........Pts Rest of PL.......18......7.......9......2......26......18.........8.........30 Southampton..18......2.......9......7......18......26........-8.........15 Chelsea and Leicester city have won the same number of prem league games as us at SMS over the last 12 months.

Lots of ppl on here saying we're relegation certs but to get some perspective on where we are at the moment here is a comparison of today's crop vs the class of 04/05 - the last time we got relegated from the prem. Up to this point in the season the stats were: 2004/05 P 12 W 1 D 5 L 6 F 10 A 16 Pts 8 2018/19 P 12 W 1 D 5 L 6 F 08 A 21 Pts 8 The remaining fixtures till the half way point were\are: 2004/05 Portsmouth(h),Norwich(a),Palace(h),Man U(a), Boro(h),Spurs(a),Charlton(h) 2018/19 Fulham(a),Man U(h),Spurs(a),Cardiff(a),Arse(h),Udders(a),Spam(h) Results are exactly the same but the 04/05 team was scoring more and shipping less with an easier (IMO) set of fixtures to the half way point. That team got to game 19 on 14 points, we'd need 6 from our remaining fixtures to keep up. In 04/05 we finished bottom on 32 points and 34 was the survival threshold. We are currently on track for 25/26 points so that team improved as the season went on. Looks like our stats are currently worse than 04/05. Over to you Gao.......

Remaining 2018 fixtures coming up ..... Fulham(a) D, Man U(h) L, Spurs(a) L, Cardiff(a) D, Arse(h) L, Udders(a) D, Spam(h) D, Citeh(h) L On current form 4 points from that lot doesn't sound unreasonable giving us 12 points from 20 games played. We'd have one foot in the grave by 1-Jan-2019. Even 17th would be tricky to get from that position. Are you awake Gao? Do you care? Do you have a clue what you are doing? Wake up!!!! Your investment is going up in smoke.

"We haven't got any money, none of us has a clue about running a football club, the owner doesn't even have much of a clue about running a business, however we've now sacked someone so we should be OK for 17th and another pay cheque. Oh and I have a real problem trying to explain myself in plain English" Would have been a much quicker interview.

At long last, thanks for the initial years Les but after the last 2-3 seasons you just had to go. Maybe Gao does have some balls after all. Sparky's position is looking very tenuous now, not completely his fault TBH but when these things happen they tend to clear everything out. Time to get some energy and ambition back into proceedings - what's Cortese's number?

Attitude - but that's down to those that are running the show. The club exudes a lack of ambition and that seeps all the way into the dressing room.

What we get out of this depends on Watford. If they turn up with the correct attitude I think they will beat us. If they don't then we can get a draw and maybe a win. IMO they are a better team than us at the moment.

It starts at the top, until we get an owner that cares the downward spiral will continue. Can't sack the owner though can you?

Yeah OK, I'll be round tomorrow.

Doubt anyone on here is surprised and if you are then you'd better get used to it, this won't be the last spanking we get this season. Club is in a malaise. Just looking at the remaining 2018 fixtures coming up ..... Watford(h) L, Fulham(a) D, Man U(h) L, Spurs(a) L, Cardiff(a) D, Arse(h) L, Udders(a) D, Spam(h) D, Citeh(h) L I think we'll get 4 points from that lot giving us 11 points from 20 games, deep in the merde.

I could see a 2nd tier coming in very quickly with the likes of Spurs, Benfica, CSKA, Ajax, Celtic etc being invited into the structure. However without a promotion\relegation opportunity to this new setup the gulf between national leagues and this league would be IMO quite a bit bigger than the gulf between the prem and the champ and even league 1. That's not good.

As long as there is a way of getting promoted to this 'super' league then I'm not against it, would make the prem a lot more competitive. Could see Spurs getting promoted into it fairly quickly making the prem even more competitive.

We have a real malaise about us, 17th is good enough - just keep on taking the cheques. Yes the prem is rigged by the big boys but there is NO excuse not to try and at least entertain. We take OK'ish players and turn them into duds - a really bad sign of a club on a downward drift. Sparky has inherited this situation and changing him won't stop the direction of travel, it's ingrained. Ambition and will to win starts at the very top and seeps down. The players aren't stupid - they know that it's just about survival and finding\flogging anyone vaguely decent and consciously\subconsciously don't give it their all. I miss Cortese TBH. He had his faults but he was ambitious and we had an 'anything is possible' vibe about us when he was running the show. His tenure got your pulse moving, the current lot send you to sleep.

Good goal, maybe he could select himself this weekend? Was a top striker in his day.

We park the bus but Citeh still win 1-0 or 2-0. Doesn't sound like it's going to be a thriller but then when are any of our games anything other than pretty boring these days? 17th place and another payday is the height of ambition now.

.....................McCarthy Cedric...Alderweireld.....Yoshi....Bertrand Hojberg.......Schneiderlin............Lemina MLT..................Ricky.....................Ings

442 is generating chances but if the forwards can't convert then it's nullified. Short term I'd give Gabi a run and drop Charlie but the problems are deep rooted and start at the top. There needs to be a culture of success built up again but with our stay away chairman the whole structure has gone into malaise. Unfortunately we can't sack the chairman so we're stuck with what we have.

We are turning OK players into bad players, the sign of a club in crisis. A stay away owner, a couple of incompetents running the day to day stuff and a manager who is running out of ideas in addition to 2 years of a want away chairman and a couple of deadbeat managers. It's no wonder the rot is deep at this club. As of now relegation beckons.

Should win but then again we should have won quite a lot of others. Really though, Newcastle at home has to be seen as 3 points. Draw it is then.

Can't get my head around Gabbi, was absolutely immense when he arrived but has since been messed around. We know he can do it given a run in the team and the correct setup but he just gets yanked in and out of the team all the time. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he walked away now, just not happening for him here. Bet wherever he goes he'll end up scoring a decent amount though.

Replace Hughes and we'd be on the next manager's back within 3/4 months. Problems start at the top, the club is drifting with an invisible chairman and poor leadership. Whilst the cat's away the mice will play.

'If only we had a new manager' etc etc etc. Understandable frustration and loads of suggestions for a new sticking plaster on the wound but it won't make a jot of difference, if the adequate but unspectacular Sparky was to be replaced by A.N other we'd all be back here in 3-4 months time calling for a new messiah to save us because the last one wasn't good enough. We have a board whose height of ambition is to make sure they get their premier league payout. They don't see the club the way the average fan does, they are happy to 'sweat' the asset and their idea of a perfect season is not spending a penny more on what is needed to achieve 17th. A bit like buying a house, renting it out for as much as you can get whilst spending a minimum amount on it and then flogging it when you think you can make a bit of a return. There's no love here, no passion, no fun. Even in the unlikely event that we managed to get an energetic ambitious manager in this board would drain the life out of him in 3 months tops. When the wood is rotten no amount of paint is going to improve it.

The club is drifting, the lack of leadership from a distant chairman who looks happy with 17th is seeping through the entire structure. Can't blame Sparky, the whole place has lost it's mojo and he's no miracle worker. The rot starts with Gao, I'd love for him to go now and get some energy in the boardroom but that's not going to happen. Depressingly we could have a long spell under his stagnant leadership.

The PL would be improved by more relegation slots IMO, even of it means we go down. More clubs involved in relegation giving fans some value to the season - stagnant PL clubs would suddenly have more competition to stay up - a greater churn of hungry champ clubs coming up - virtually the whole of the champ fighting it out for promotion. The sterile prem needs a bigger shot of fresh energy every season and an increase in pressure on the lower 75% of clubs to up their game and stop aiming for 17th (us for example).