hughieslastminutegoal

Yeah, and if only the moon went round the earth in 14 days we'd have twice as many new moons and the werewolves would be out at midnight twice as often, and................. We actually beat Crystal Palace because we can claim more 'if onlies' that they can. So let's change the points system - 4 for a win, 2 for a draw, 0.5 for a MOTD-approved If Only.

You have seen his job description or other announcement of the position as "outfield coach"?

Not sure that a nappy and dummy would be approved kit for a football match.

Jamie Redknapp again. Payday for crocked ex-stars.

You are probably right about that. What I am unclear about is why they can borrow the funds to do that and others can't or won't. I can only assume they were the only ones that came anywhere close to paying what Kat wanted. We assume that Marcus never had such an intent but I'm not so sure. I think disposing of the club for a nice profit was always the intention and the little Italian thought he was in line for a share - but Marcus' death allowed Kat to cut him out of what was probably a private agreement. Guesswork, of course.

If her business is construction, why would she sell to the chinese if she intended her business to redevelop the land around the stadium? Are you suggesting that she probably has some other 'agreement' with the chinese we haven't heard about that would get her off the pr disaster that running down the football club would bring about?

So some people with no money bought a club that is broke and has loans outstanding to the previous owner. So what, in your opinion, are the reasons why chinese people, apparently with little interest in football, would borrow money, which will need repaying, to buy the club? Kat is most unlikely to have sold the club for less than the assets are worth, so quick asset stripping is not likely to gain them anything. So I'd have thought they would have a long term plan to invest and grow its potential market in China. The fact that they aren't leaping up and down firing people is possibly a good sign?

1 out of three ain't bad.

I've been sitting here in my lounge, laptop fan whirring away furiously, and shouting "come on you reds" at the top of my voice. Oh, I forgot, this is a web forum where opinions are expressed.

So Watford looked decent playing the way you say Pellegrino wants to play, but you say the problem is the players we have. Chez (in a post above) also thinks the front five players are crap. The football has been boring under Puel and is even les effective under Pellegrino. So maybe we are too ready to blame the manager when it is the players who are just plain mediocre, when mediocre might be ok in Holland, France or Belgium but it just isn't anywhere near enough in this league. Maybe there isn't a system that will deliver good results plus entertainment in this league with these players. I believe we are now witnessing the absolute disappearance of any vestiges of Pottechino's time here. Koeman presided over a steady decline in fitness, the windows progressively have seen a weakening of the squad, the Academy is now pretty much worthless, and we are left with poorly motivated players, some of whom seem to have attitude issues, while the dressing room is probably pervaded by a dismal atmosphere. Southampton is the new Sunderland who are proof that it doesn't matter what manager you have if the players don't give a sh*t, or just don't have the necessary grit and ability. I doubt Pellegrino is the right man, not necessarily because he is a poor tactician, but because he sounds far too 'nice'. His tactics are being made to look worse by players who lose interest, focus and determination after 15 minutes. I'm no Allardyce fan but these players need sorting out, as does recruitment; we have bought too many fancy-dan, tricky-dicky players from, it seems, Les Reed watching Youtube videos compiled by player's agents.

Absolutely not. Hughie never hid from receiving the ball, no matter how much the crowd were on his back. Melia on the other hand seemed to me to want not to be playing ... and shot-shy come nowhere close to describing his abhorrence of giving it some wellie. And I think £30k was our record signing at the time. Was he the replacement for David Burnside? My memory is fading.............

Could you set these out for me, please?

So no club ever needs a new manager? Because the players can manage themselves? We sacked Puel for no reason at all? Back in the day, Ian Branford could not be improved on? Bizarre.

Sorry I don't buy that a goalkeeping coach can turn a good keeper into a bad one. A good keeper's confidence could be shot by bullying and belittlement, but you wouldn't do that, sit back and watch the results and yet still keep playing him week after week as he gets progressively worse. One can only assume we play him, woeful as he has become, because we are terrified of playing anyone else. So we are back to Les Reed who seems to have all the transfer power. Any manager really worth his salt doesn't really want to stay once they realise the situation, nor it seems do any of the decent players once they get another club offering them a pay rise.

Offer them Tadic to practice on.

What they mean is that if the player gets injured we continue to pay him and try, and keep trying, to get him fit and save his career. But when he is about to return he looks around for an even bigger payday. Let him go and get the biggest fee possible, Liverpool or not. Why take less from another English club just because we don't like Liverpool? It is a business. The days of locally owned clubs expecting loyalty from players have long gone. They just expect loyalty from fans because a) it maintains the illusion that these are cosy "clubs" and b) they know fans are mugs with syphon-able wallets, by and large.

Aren't the two highlighted bits in contradiction with one another? I suppose not - we do the research but the results have been quite poor.

And he'd still fight someone over him taking a 4th.

So you've come out from under the rickety bridge to get the billy goats gruff have you?

That is true if it is the right way up. It's upside down and therefore a skate in disguise.

Always makes me smile that somehow a player clapping the crowd means "he loves the club". No matter how many take the bucks as soon as they are offered elsewhere, people still are unable to drop their illusions about players.

Why? It seemed obvious to me at the time that Cortese was earmarked for assuming some kind of control after Marcus, it's just that ML died rather sooner than was expected and Cortese didn't yet have all his ducks in a row - hence the final acrimony between Cortese and KL. Cortese's "passion" seemed rather greater than what he would have shown had he been just an employee. I don't believe that an already ill ML just went along with Cortese's idea of buying a "bankrupt" football club just to diversify his investments and leave his multi-million pound heiress daughter with something she didn't at the time really give a fart for. It seems much more likely that this was supposed to be a parting set-up for Cortese. Obviously unless Cortese came out of the woodwork to confirm such speculation we'll never know, but looking at the circumstances, I think the above is more likely than not.

If you are as old as you claim you must have had it more than once.

It was written in the stars.

Well we all know what constant heading an old heavy football does to the brain. Overrated himself did Ginger Jim.