S-Clarke

Well, if you go with the club...he's just out for the next game....until the next game, and he's out again for that one. Seems a really odd way of hiding the injury, because I think to most of us it's pretty obvious that he's out for a good few months at least, so why do we just have to hide it away? Weird. I guess we can use it to our advantage, slightly, but I'm sure the scouts within other clubs would be pretty aware of our ''real'' injury situation. But yeah, we need more in the wide areas - we did anyway, but we now do as pretty big priority in my eyes.

You're just guessing what the loan was used for, who knows? It was taken out long after our transfers had happened anyway, so (again, this is just a assumed guess from me) it's more than likely to be related to the ''further'' improvements which needed to be made at Staplewood. That seems the more reasonable explanation for it anyway.

Could well be, he was on our wanted list in the summer.

After a bit of a baptism of fire at the start, we've got to grips with the league and seem much more competitive in the games we play. At the start of the season I felt we were naive, not just the players, but the entire management structure. We seemed to assume we'd be able to play this expansive, flowing game, and win lots of games. The reality is that we didn't strengthen at the back sufficiently enough in order for us to play that game safely. We just found ourselves getting caught, again and again and again. Quite embarrassing sometimes. But credit to the players and to the management, because they woke up to it and we've progressed nicely since the WBA game in my opinion. But I'd have to say, overall so far our attacking side has been excellent, there's very little wrong there - other than a lack of cover in the wide area's, but our attack matches up with most of the other teams in and around us. Players such as Lallana and Lambert have stepped up, and are still pivotal to the way we play. Puncheon has surprised the hell of me, and that's credit to him - he always did have ability in there, but it was always a question about his mentality. The defense was, and probably still is, a concern. For me, the jury is still out on Yoshida - I'm not 100% comfortable with him if I'm honest, I think he's a little too rash in his distribution and clearances. His reading of the game and positioning is top notch though, that part of his game is high class - but it's the other area's which let him down, but in recent weeks he's shown that he's getting there - slowly. Fonte has, for me, been our best centre back by a long way. There were a fair few question marks over him at the start of the season, and probably rightly so based on his 2nd half of last season (which still confuses the hell out of me). But what we had was a composed, classy, centre back - that never changed, and we've got him back again, full of confidence. I think he looks more than comfortable at this level and has looked very sharp in recent games, he seems to grow with the captaincy - good choice for it. The full back area's are decent, young, pacey, energetic - no problems there for me. Could possibly do with a bit of cover at LB in the long run, but Shaw has stepped up and has turned himself into a pretty impressive 17 year old left back. Class act. My main frustration so far this year, and probably everyone else's, has been the goal keeping situation. After the Villa game, when we signed Boruc, I looked at our options and thought ''we look pretty well covered'' - but it just hasn't worked out. Gazzaniga seems a gamble, which hasn't yet worked out for us. Davis is backup at this level at best, I'm a big fan of how he's stuck with us but he's not good enough for this level as a regular starter. Boruc is an odd one though, when he played he didn't do much wrong in my eyes....yet because he upset a few fans, he's seen as this villain who we need to ship out in January....Personally I'd put him in goal and keep him in there, our most experienced and talented GK by a long shot. Overall, we're in a decent position. We've got our heads above the pit, we've got the teams above us in sight and we've shown we're getting better. We'll still have our blips and defeats, I'm sure, but I think we've got a lot more about us than other teams down there - which is why I'm getting increasingly confident about our chances. The 2nd half of the season could surprise alot of people...

Stick Guly or Jay Rodriguez out on the left, they'd offer far more than SDR. I just don't rate the kid, never have done. Just don't think he offers anything but a little bit of pace, with no end product. He runs around a lot, but produces the grandd total of nothing.

Would love it! I remember when we won up their in GB's first few months, Rasiak got both IIRC. Not sure why, but I never forget that win. Felt good! It was only 7 years ago, and so much has changed. They were a bog average championship side back then, with Boskamp...(i think?) as their manager.

Will still be near on impossible, as they'll only attract the wrong sorts in their position. For any meaningful additions that'll make a difference, they'll need to convince them to join by offering $$$$$$. They're ****ed IMO.

Christ, they're not that good. The fickle short-term mind of a football fan never ceases to amaze me. Unbeaten in 8 or 9 and you're barcelona, you'll beat anyone who steps in front of you. But...hang on...Lose 2 or 3 on the bounce and the manager has to go, the players aren't good enough, and we need a whole sale change in January...!! (That's what stoke were saying earlier in the season for christ sake!) For a club like Stoke, they can easily endure a 9 game non-winning spell as easy as they've gone on their winning run. They're a solid side and it will be difficult for us, but they're not that good.

We need more strength and pace down the flanks. We've got options up front already, it's more important that we've got the players to create the openings. Jay Rodriguez and Lambert are good enough to put them away.

How long has he been there now? He can't see to make any sort of impact with the players they have, they needed more wins by now. It will be very, very, very hard for them to survive with the points total they have and the games they've got coming up. 10 points at the turn of the year 9 times out of 10 will relegate any team, so I'm quite confident that Reading and QPR will go. The final place is up for grabs, Villa, Us, Wigan, Fulham as well could all get dragged into it. Newcastle and Sunderland will pull themselves away. I think we'll give most of those sides a good game, but January was always a ''hell month'' fixture wise, so it was important we picked up a fair few points from a winnable period - which we have done, and we've got our head above water. So at least we go into next month in a decentish position. The March-April fixtures are great though, and compared to the other sides around us, we're very fortunate. We could have easily been going into the final weeks of the season facing the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd - but we're lucky.

Away at Millwall, great day. Watford away was another great effort, will remember that one for a while. - same as posh away. Cov at home, obviously. The celebrations after that knowing we had done it. Finding out we had the possibility of signing Ramirez, and then actually doing it. The Man City game, watching us take the lead at Eastlands. Our thrashing of Villa in our first home and league win. Seeing Shaw and J-WP make their first team debuts and look above their age in the PL. Seeing us learn and adapt to the PL as it's gone along, and as a club having the patience to stick with the management which served us so well.

How can you say this thread is OTT, and then come out with that comment? Sunderland was one of those days, but I think most fans appreciate that as a team and a club we have turned a massive corner since October. Personally based on our start we are better off than I thought we'd be, so I'm pleased with that. Now, if i was a Reading fan I'd have serious course for concern....but I think at the moment we're ticking along alright. We'll be down there until the final day, I'm sure, but we've shown the fight and the quality to make an impression on the teams down there. I'm not as nervous as I was a month or so back, that's for sure.

Rickie has penalties nailed, hit it with power as far to the corner as possible and it's pretty much a guaranteed goal. The GK may get a touch to it, and it may look a bit scruffy at times, but with the pace Rickie hits it with it's often passed him before he's got a decent hand - so GK's don't really have a chance.

Pretty sure it changed to 7 when the amnesty cut off point was moved to the new year. used to be in Feb. Might be wrong, but rings a bell.

Morgan has a decent brain on him, he can attack. Remember him popping up on a few occasions this year inside the box, he's got a couple of goals and even a couple of assists IIRC. He's shown a bit of variety to his game this year. But what you describe is pretty much par the course in any team. Attacking midfielders, and defensive midfielders. Some attack, some defend - all rounders are rare, and are at the big, big clubs. (i.e Yaya Toure). What most teams at our level do is have 2 of each, and alternate them around to suit the situation and game. If anything, we need another defensive midfielder who has a bit of baulk about him. Other than that we're fine there, we've got the ''crafters'' and the passers in there.

It's the world of a football fan though, we're all football managers in our heads and we all think we know better! So when we lose, we know of why and how to fix it in our heads....!! If only the real world was a straight forward as that!

Boruc would be my shout for this game as well if I'm honest. Someone strong and confident enough to dominate the area, that can't be said about our current 2 of we're honest. I remember he was brought in against West Ham because of their physical power in and around the box, didn't work out that well though as we were well beaten (but that was the entire team playing a stinker) - but I can see Adkins making that call again.

I didn't know Cameron was on 4 yellows....sorry.

Good news that Shawcross AND Cameron will be missing, 2 key players for them at the back. Didn't expect both to be missing. If this is a bit like ''after the lord mares show'' for them, we have a chance. Let's hope we catch them off guard, got a funny feeling that we may do.

Need to hope they're off their game, that's the only chance we have. Let's hope the Liverpool game took a fair bit out of them.

The only chance we have is if they're knackered by the time they play us. But if they play anywhere near their level, then it's an impossible game for us to get anything from. We just don't have the players to contain their play, so we just need to hope that they're off it on Saturday.

Don't agree with the idea of changing the back 4 around. It's working now, so why change it? We look more assured that we have done, and they've hit off a decent partnership back there. Only change it if one is injured.

I dunno, these days that's probably a 30-40m player. A 14m outlay in the PL isn't a huge deal if we're honest, not really. It is for us, and I think we've got a talented player for it, but if he was the sort of player who could win games on his own at the moment he wouldn't be here. He has the potential to do so, but at the moment he's still growing.

What's that all about? Weird. They've been ticking along quite nicely.

Their young players are pretty bog-standard average to be honest. Players like Herd and Baker, IMO, from what I've seen, shouldn't be playing the PL.