hypochondriac

Yes that was my point. Likely in my view that lesley and Fernandes will be deemed premier league quality but certainly not yet.

Good post Gloucester Saint. I disagree with you a lot but of late I've found your responses to be respectful and reasonable. Much better to have a discussion that doesn't get personal.

No I don't think I have given your posting style towards other posters as well. They have had some impact but I didn't deny they did. They aren't the cause of our overall uncompetitiveness or the reason we've shipped so many goals.

Fraser has a proven history of performing to a good standard in this league.

I fail to see how we have a lack of PL quality players. Ramsdale Sugawara Bednarek Stephens Kwp Taylor Downes Lallana Dibling Cornet Fraser Are all example of players who have either performed adequately or better in this league before or who I believe appear to have the necessary talent to be described as Premier league quality.

We may see what his expectation is if we are without any points from the next three or four games. If his attitude is that relegation is the expectation then we will just carry on.

I'm not getting excited at all and I'd appreciate Less of the patronising tone or we can just end the conversation here. I simply don't agree with you that those three things have been the cause of our poor start. We haven't been competitive for large parts of these early games and I don't want that trend to continue. Certainly against forest and Brentford and a large part of the United game.

Again it's the manner of relegation though isn't it. I don't see how Martin can retain any credibility if he continues to get smashed every week and remaining uncompetitive.

The potential for two relegations in three years probably doesn't make him thrilled.

Will be very interesting to see where we're at in another 7 or 8 games.

Whatabout, Whatabout, whatabout

Martin bigging up the performance and how brilliant it was against Everton. It was very average for me but maybe he's trying to use it to inspire a performance against Ipswich.

He might well do but what confidence would you then have that he wouldn't take us straight back down again? We've also scored one goal in four games and I'd say it's the manner of the defeats and how u competitive we have been for large parts of the games that has been the concern for me rather than just the results themselves.

Exactly. How could shipping multiple goals every game with the current defence get more fucked up?

Thanks for telling me what I think but I'm perfectly capable of articulating what I believe without you making it up. Cheers.

Hasn't he held himself to a different standard by his own statements?

It depends how we go down to be honest. If it continues like this it simply isn't good enough. We aren't hard to beat which is the minimum I would be expecting.

Didn't we just agree a new deal for train drivers which kept them on their existing silly contracts and asked for no increase in productivity or negotiate any more favourable terms?

I love the managing of expectations. As if we should just accept that if we did get relegated again that would just be alright and expected in some way. If we go straight back down then that's shit and it's because we've cocked up again. This is particularly true if we finish bottom and get a seeing to every week. It's not acceptable and the fans shouldn't just be happy to go along with it.

Hence my line "yes there's a very long way to go"

I agree. My point is not to make some sort of comparison with the conservative government because this government should be judged on their own terms. If anything they should be held to a higher standard given everything they've said previously. Even though I have a rather low opinion of labour, I did genuinely think they would be beginning their regime without even a whiff of impropriety given how much controversy the Tories got mired in. Keir is clearly an intelligent chap so he's not naive. He knows how things like this and other smaller controversies will play out and how overall lower level events will combine to change the perception of his party in the minds of the public. Labour in my opinion were elected largely because people were absolutely sick of the conservatives and felt that a change was required, not because there was any particular love of Starmer or his party. That being the case, you'd think this would be their big chance to prove to the country that they can be a party that people feel happy and inspired to vote for. Yes there's a very long way to go but so far the main takeaways for the average voter who doesn't follow politics much is screwing over grannys and taking big money for himself to afford tickets for Arsenal. They better have something inspiring to come out of the budget because if it's just whacking up taxes on everyone and screwing over the middle class (taxes on the increase in the value of your home for example) then Keir and his parties popularity is only going to get lower.

Isn't it the case that he only declared it all after the newspaper came to him with the allegations-hence the potential investigation into the clothing bought for him and his wife?

And the kudos from being a former prime minister means you're effectively set for the rest of your life. Absurd to point to the salary as if that's likely to ever put anyone off.

If the job of prime minister was so terrible and didn't come with significant perks over and above the base salary, you wouldn't have loads of MPs fighting for the job.

The difference is that Ferguson had the luxury of choosing almost whoever he wanted for his team. Our potential alternative to knock picking ABK is possibly starting someone like wood in a Premier league game at some point which is surely motivation enough to try to mend any fences here.