S-Clarke

You can't compare him to Bale or Theo, they're totally different players in different positions. He's a very talented left back, who puts defending first at the top of his game.

They were bought as potential, in a few years time we will probably look back and say it's the best £20m we've ever spent. As fans we expect too much, too soon. All 3 have obvious quality, and all 3 have demonstrated that. It's a struggle to make much of an impact when you're in and out of the side as a couple of them have been. I think the £20m will prove to be a sound investment in time.

CB, RW, LB. Done.

He's not been awful, but plays in fits and starts. He had a completely disgusting performance today, but in other games he always wants to do a little too much himself, and 99% of the time loses the ball. He's got obvious quality, more than anyone else in the team, but you do feel that at times we're not quite on the same wave length as a team.

To give him credit, he's consistent.

But he still did nothing, never does anything, and never will do anything. A non-player.

Awful, awful, awful. Gaston and Mayuka both had an aberration of a performance, abysmal. Wouldn't complain if either were dropped after that one. Puncheon was back to his frustrating, blind ally self, but still gave us more spark than anyone else on the pitch. There wasn't anything to get excited about, cheer about, or shout about. The most forgettable game in the history of football. Abject.

Sunderland have Danny Rose back in the side, massive boost for them. One of their better players. Fletcher is there too.

He was in goal for the last game, HTH. That front 3 looks very exciting.

Our pitch has always been very good, it would need to have been torrential rain for 24 hours non-stop for it to be under threat. It's not really been too heavy here, just the depressing light drizzle...!

I don't think it's a big deal that they keep it close to their chest, as fans we kind of know he's out for a while - so if he's back any sooner than that it's a bonus to all. So let's just treat it as the fact he's out for a few months, and be surprised at anything less.

Already done, by 2.

Let's not...!

I should really start betting more You could kind of tell though, Reading just stood off them from the start and allowed Arsenal to just move it around with ease. Was only a matter of time before the goals flowed.

This is pathetic. We competed better in our 6-1 defeat. They're just awful, no where near good enough to compete at this level. They're gone, I think that's safe to say.

Reading can't get anywhere near them. Only one winner here as it stands, and it will be by a big margin.

That place is like a morgue, what an awful set of fans they really are.

He's been given a 3 game ban! Just for the headbutt. The other 2 incidents aren't deemed as violent conduct apparently.

Wouldn't say no, but he'd demand a hell of a lot $$$

I do totally get where you are coming from, and I do miss the fact that the season is kept alive until the last 2 weeks in the championship for e.g. That makes it exciting to be fair, and I did also enjoy the classic mid-week games under the flood lights. They were always a good atmosphere, but as a fan of this club I just want us to be as successful as we can be. I want to see us with more Gaston Ramirez's in the team, more young players coming through and staying etc, and even though the Championship is a good crack, that wouldn't be possible down there. It's easy to stagnate as well, very easy. and you find yourselves on a slope towards a relegation battle really easily in that league. Luckily we had the finance to get ourselves out and swing our fortunes around, but if you're a club which has stagnated, doesn't have a massive amount of finance etc, then you're in trouble.

I do like him as a keeper, I've seen a fair bit of him when I have been able to - mainly because of our interest in him, so i've taken more attention of him. Very confident, very agile, leads from the back and communicates very well. I've seen him pull off some complete stunning saves in some games, and then do a silly pass out from the back in others - he's young, and those mistakes from the start of the year are now few and far between. He's become a very consistent top championship keeper. If i'm honest, it should wait until the summer as he will cost a fair sum (and then he's got another 6 months experience in him). Would rather we concentrate our January budget on top quality CB's. If we stay up, then we'll be in a better position to get him.

I don't remember having too much fun in the championship in 07/08 or 08/09 The problem is, there isn't a gaurentee of success. Going down would open the door for a hell of a lot of our players to leave, so in many ways we'd need to start again and probably wouldn't be competitive for a few months. Ask the question to Blackburn or Bolton fans...I'm sure they're loving it down there, and I'm pretty sure they'd have been saying the ''championship isn't all that bad'' last year as well. I just want to see us competing as high up as we can, and we need to be in the PL to achieve that.

It's very odd, surprised when I heard a week or so ago. ''Gross Misconduct'' apparently.

Post of the day.

Let's hope Chelsea are as toothless when we play them in the cup. They looked completely hopeless in all areas.