S-Clarke

No chance in hell. Doubt he'll ever play for England, not fashionable enough. Carroll will probably get a call up.

To be fair, we are getting results. We've only lost 3 games in the last 9 or so weeks. Just too many draws in there really.

Wigan, QPR, Reading in that order down Cardiff, Leicester and Watford up

At least we actually put some thought into who we signed, in terms of long-term benefits and potential re-sale values. QPR just had this massive scattergun approach, where they picked up anyone who could breathe with very little thought into age, potential and long-term benefits. Their transfer policy is a complete and utter mess, and it has proven that this approach simply doesn't work.

You're not down wit' the kids Turkish.

Still way too early to say. It was a massive gamble though

I'm happy to pull him out of the fire for a bit. Davis is better suited at the mo

We don't....ignore that mus-guided comment. We actually have 6 more points now than we did then.

You are an idiot. I said I'd heard lots about him, and not one of them was negative. I wasn't talking about our fans.

The first half did worry me a little. We looked a little unsure of what we were actually doing, players were playing passes too short and down blind allys. We did have a lot of possesion and (bar the goal) Wigan barley threatened, but then neither did we. It was a pretty hideous first half to watch. The 2nd half was positive though, the reaction of the players was what you want to see when you're down at the bottom. Don't lie down, jump up to the plate and fight till the end. We gave it a good go, and in the end threw it away which will grate me for a good few days yet. Plenty of positives from the 2nd half, but bits to be worried about based on that first half.

I was on about Forren...

I thought that was the case. About time too, as the first one was awful.

£3.5m actually, and he's injured at the moment. If you bothered to read the pre-match stuff, you'll read that in reality he's under-going a mini pre-season with us, as his season ended back in December and has done no training since then. Makes sense. Once he's fit though and gets his chance, I don't think we'll see him out of the team. I've heard lots about him, and not one negative.

This gets the thumbs up for me, every week I've used a stream from here. No pop ups, no adds, it just plays instantly. No buffering, no skipping...HD Quality. Looked fine on my 42" TV. Looks like there are streams of every PL game up on that site. Def. worth bookmarking! Not worth trying anything else IMO.

That's why people liked him.... Run around a lot, throw yourself into a few tackles - great player. When in fact, technically, he is utter dog ****e.

Exactly this, really. If we give up on him this season, we'll be looking on in 18months time thinking ''what if?''. He's genuine class, but not exactly the sort of player we need at this moment in time. For a club like us in our current position, we can't really sign the ''full article''. Our model is to buy young, potential and slowly build the team around it. Over time that will be rewarding to the extreme, but staying up this year is critical to it being a success. I still think we'll be ok, but today is still very disappointing as we were within touching distance of breaking away into the mid-table pack.

Good post.

No surprise, although Bolton isn't exactly a club to get your career going. And Bolton, Blackburn and Wolves are fine examples of why getting relegated, no matter how strong your squad remains, doesn't equal an instant return.

wtf @ this thread. weird

The problem we have with Mayuka is that his confidence is on the floor. An awful AFCON as well as a non-eventful season for us, where he's played more for the reserves than the first team. It'll be hard for him to get into a head of steam this year, but his pace off the bench will still be helpful, although don't expect him to tear up any tree's just yet.

He's miles better than that level, thought he was at least worth a championship loan. Massive coup for Southend to have a player of his ability.

Don't think we can. What we have now is what we have to run with through to the end of the season.

One of the best CM's in the PL. Love his energy, and it's becoming a regular occurrence to see him bursting into the box - that was a terrifically well timed run today. Only a few years ago the guy looked like he'd never get into the final third to take a shot, now he's scoring in the PL!

QPR would pay £30m and £200k p/w

To be fair, we are due a big result against one of the big boys. We haven't had one yet, bar a draw against Arsenal. See no reason why we can't cause them all sorts of problems, especially with Kompany and Toure missing. Slightly nervous of Tevez/Auguro up against Jos though!