Badger

Glad you wrote that, I was questioning if it was worth it. I think yo're right about the route across the pitch as well. Bit like at The Dell which always allowed the Branfoot protests to maximise their impact with fans holding up red cards when he came out.

Les Reed.

I suppose the writing was on the wall when we sold Mane and bought Relegation-Redmond.

I'm sure he will be when he realises the implications for his investment.

He should have been booted out after the Leicester game at the latest. There can be no excuses for keeping him in place now. Worry is that if plans haven't been made how long Les will continue to dither until making an appointment, and given his track record it doesn't give me confidence that he will get this appointment right. Every other bastard seems to conjure some fighting spirit, but our lot our feeble and gutless.

Bednarek was on the bench at Old Trafford.

or daughter ??

Didn't go to that game but do have good memories of the 1977-78 promotion season, and the away following we used to take, many of whom seemed 'up for it', not that I'm looking to glorify it !. As a teenager getting into away games and all the fun of it, these trips were quite an eye opener. The latter end of the season in particular was a special time, Cardiff even though we lost, Luton, Fulham and of course Leyton Orient will long stay in the memory.

Don't necessarily agree, many clubs have the 'new manager syndrome' or bounce after an appointment. Just hope if we make the change that many want it doesn't have the 'Burley effect'.

Now come on don't leave it dangling there, spill the beans;you know you want to really.

Would have thought any suggestion that Arsenal want £30m is the bigger, probably insurmountable, problem for the deal. If that is true then we should quickly move on.

I understood Schar was the player we were interested in last January but Hoffenheim upped the price to £10m and we withdrew from it. Shame because he was highly rated at Basel and at one stage was linked with all the bigger names (Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool). I think he ended up going to Spain or Portugal for about £4m in the summer. No idea how he's doing there but I suspect we've moved on.

Ditto

I thought Walcott was surplus to Arsenal's requirements and nearing the end of his Arsenal contract. £15-20m would be nearer the mark surely. Any more and I'd have thought we'd be looking elsewhere (but please not Balotelli or Sturridge).

Would have though Balotelli would have been discounted by our character/attitude screening/ process in the Black Box.

That's him sold in the summer then.

Excellent point - would crainly have accepted that pre-kick off. Two things that stand out though, Utd might have been there for the taking as the game wore on, should we have been a little more adventurous by bringing Gabbiadini on sooner? Secondly, why has it taken so long to drop Forster? Must beat Palace though.

The back four certainly look there for the taking, and you'd imagine Lukaku and Pogba terrorising them frankly. McCarthy is a bit of an unknown quantity, just hope he has an inspired game to keep it the score down, sneak a 0-0.

So that's both Gabbiadini and Austin he seemingly doesn't rate,although they are the only ones likely to score. Despite this he still fails to consider whether playing an isolated striker might be the problem.

Lamina on the bench which seems a strange selection unless he's nursing an injury. And Bednarek on the bench.

It's obviously time for McCarthy to live up to the expectation of his early career then and prove you wrong. Especially as he's been under the expert coaching of Dave Watson for the last 18 months. That is assuming McCarthy has been selected. You never know it may be Taylor between the sticks.

1)Possibly as long ago as the 1960's. 2)Admire your optimism, but don't necessarily share your summary of the situation. No, they're not that good, although we have it in ourselves to make them look worldbeaters; unfortunately we can just be bad in key areas- defence, in goal especially, and in front of their goal (take a bow Shane Long & Redmond). Hoping for an upset, but not banking on it.

Don't bring me in to it. But when Pep signs him for £30m Les will yet again bask in glory... until then though...

Yes that's exactly what we could do with during a relegation struggle, a Pruttonesque 12 game ban (or whatever it was) for the a chunk of the season. Anyway rumours of him moving have been dismissed by the club president: http://www.espn.co.uk/football/soccer-transfers/story/3326596/mario-balotelli-leaving-nice-in-january-is-unimaginable-club-president

Can we negotiate for the Nice manager, Lucien Favre, whilst we're at it? Reading about the two from Nice reminded me that we were also linked with another of their players last season, Cyprien, until he sustained a major knee injury. All three are highly rated and I believe coached by Puel at one stage. Surprising then that their flair and skills weren't coached out of them as many believe this was his way.