Saint Charlie

Same - there is also no way that Sky didn't know about it as was advertised a fair bit, even if not through Sky directly. Would imagine it is something to do with who gets the royalties.

Davis has made more errors than Gazza this season and won't have become better sat on the sidelines. If Gazza didn't play vs Swansea it should have been Boruc. Gazza hasn't done a lot wrong bar that error.

I would define better as in play better football and are a more skilled team. If we played Reading now for 5 games I would certainly back us to come out on top, regardlesss of what happened last season because we added to our squad and their first XI is largely what they had last year. That is despite some on here moaning that we didn't sign Mariappa, Guthrie, Pogrebnyak - and none of them are first choices. Proof will be when we play them, and it has taken away from the thread. Alpine said Reading would beat us because they did last year - which is just ridiculous whatever way anything is looked at.

Were you at the game? Can't argue the result but we did play them off the pitch for most of the game? If you were there or watched on TV you could easily conclude we should have won. Just like when we beat Leeds away it is far to say they were the better team although the result suggests we were. And McDermott can say what he wants, after 7 games they were almost bottom, so we were certainly better on a consistent basis hence being top 2 all season. Anyway as you said, they beat us last year so thats enough reason to think they will again...

Yes - he is aware of the league table and that they were 2 points ahead of us. Real won La Liga but Barca are still better IMO just like Utd are better than City. I would bet us on to beat Reading at SMS.

Lambert, Ramirez and Lallana showed some good signs vs Swansea though. As they get used to playing together thats a decent attack for a relegation battling team.

Actually according to Alpine they will beat us because they did last year. FACT.

Agree those comments are silly, WH are better than us at the moment unquestionably. I notice you didn't respond to the question I asked you a couple of times the other day - if we could swap NA for Allardyce now would you?

For that game Yoshida had to play full back because Clyne was injured plus Richardson got injured after 5mins and Hooiveld played and scored two ogs and wasnt meant to be in the lineup. I actually said we have a better team out now, which is clearly true because Ramirez was also missing for Fulham as was Cork. Can you answer the questions of how a reasonable argument for Reading to beat us is that they "did last year so non argument to suggest otherwise".

So Reading beat us last year and thats a non argument. So when we play West Ham at home would you say that we will beat them because we did last year? I doubt it. If we have gone backwards then so have Reading. We finished one place below them last year and are the same now - we are both in the same situation.

So we drew both of those. Fulham we were also missing some key players. However, you feel we will lose at home to both Norwich and Reading. Why?

We have a better team now than faced either Wigan or Fulham.

Agree - basically need to get back to 1 point per game overall which will just about keep you up - or at least puts you in a very good position to.

At least judging my this thread we are starting to be more aware what our best team is, that will help a lot. Yoshida will be travelling back from Oman on Thursday which is a pain.

So - decent run coming up - what do we need and/or are likely to get: I think we will get: QPR Away - 1 point - better results for us than them Newcastle Home - 1 point - tough team to play although suspect at the back without Collocini Norwich Home - 3 points - have to win Liverpool Away - 0 points - poor record there and they are finding a bit of form Reading Home - 3 points - have to win Total - 8 points from 5 games - would be happy with this ultimately, although if the results went like this we could be quite adrift at the start of the Norwich game. Minimum Points Acceptable - 6 or 7 minimum Will NA still be in charge when we play Sunderland Home 22nd Dec? - Hope so, but will be touch and go...

Dunne is far superior to Hooiveld.

Richard Dunne IMO would be possible to get perhaps and would make a difference.

Frimpong has never really done anything for anyone.

So Shaw and JWP are two players who play in our first team squad - I think that is a decent return. Plus a decent amount of the team from last night are really U18s - they aren't going to be near a Prem squad unless they are Bale, Walcott, Chamberlain etc and its unrealistic to expect every player you produce to be that good.

If you actually thought about it you would realise that the U21s would normally have had JWP, Stephens and Calum Chambers playing but they were away with Eng U19s. Also on Saturday when we played a match against Swansea we had a new left back playing called Luke Shaw. He has played lots of times for the U21s this season, but because he is now in the first team he didn't need to play for them this week. So thats four players that actually have a bright future. The whole point of the U21s is to feed the first team, and this season we have seen JWP and Shaw pretty much graduate to being first team players.

I don't think they do though. Why would I care that the Chairman sits on his own FFS?

SPL is poor but the last two seasons he played as no 1 for Fiorentina which is better than KD ever has. Also has 40 caps for Poland.

Spurs have a strong team out, Carroll has played for the first team a few times. NA said Richardson was going to play but he isn't.

Is Senderos at Fulham injured? Someone like him who has played plenty of Prem games, probably is available and is quite physical but still able to play a bit would be a possibility. Or find the next Chris Samba from France.

Agree - he has been awful, even in a collectively poor defence. Too clumsy - Yoshida generally is much better.