Legod Third Coming

Well, this is proving close then...

I love the fact that 3-1 is our second most frequent score. Stick that in your negative manager pipes and smoke it!

One of the biggest mistakes any manager can make is to mend what is not broke.

And rightly so, we have better resources than all bar about six clubs in the land. With that sort of backing we should expect, at the very least, promotion and with a fair wind, to go up as Champions. That does not mean we will win every game - look at Chelsea at Wigan and United at Burnley. So that means some of the intellectually challenged on here getting their heads around an occasional defeat and not using it to lambast the manager and players. But we should expect promotion form and be rightly annoyed if we don't get it. My money's on us being crowned Champions in late March.

Hope I wasn't the only one to avail myself of the 11/4?

aye, very bright and very funny.

I'm thinking we might need to know who is actually in this league first...

Would you? Non-runner no bet?

I agree, but to me that doesn't make the league easy, just means we have good resources and a good manager - Leeds have had the former for three seasons! But you only need to look at Swindon's result on Saturday to know some of these places are not easy to get results...

It will just be a bit easier for us because of money - but managers have proved time and again, money doesn't guarantee success. I expect us to win the league, but teams aren't going to roll over just because we fly to their grounds rather than come by push bike...!

Tell that to Leeds... or Man Citeh, or Sheffield Wednesday... This 'easy' league idea is cobblers. They are all filled with teams who are here on merit or lack of it. Chelsea with their gazillions do not find the Premiership easy. They have spent conservatively ten times Arsenal's budget and are about 5 points ahead of them. I believe we will win this league because of a balance of resources and a good manager. But do not kid yourself it's easy... if it was anyone could get promoted which would mean de facto it was not easy...

I genuinely don't either. We have the resources to do just that.

You don't think Barnard and Waigo are good enough to beat Gillingham???

No I think you misunderstood me, I was agreeing with you!! Rest players when you think you can win without them. Fergie DOES that, correct. Wenger just throws kids into competitions like the League Cup and they often get stuffed by people they shouldn't. I'm not sure what that does for the kids? It's like when Redknapp did it at Southend. What do you learn? What you already knew!!!! For me, you could say, right, we're playing Gillingham home on Tuesday but we're playing United in the cup on Saturday - so which game do you play Lambo in??? Given that we have Barnard, Waigo...

Rest them when you think you can win without them - that's what good managers do. And have them on the bench in case... That's not what Wenger does.

This argument has some value, but if a player is sent off in a league game and could have served a ban in the cup... Fate will deal you a hand, you cannot guard against fate. What about players who could gain match fitness in a league game, or play themselves back into form? Cup games have a huge value to a team like us. They enable us to experience pressure, success and to know what it's like to win when it matters. Big clubs can afford to ignore this if they want - but maybe if Arsenal players knew how to win when it really mattered, they would...

..and Chelsea twice...

Hmm, shame United don't take is seriously, what with having won it three times in the past five years...

But not more than Chelsea and United who accept that you can win MORE than one competition in one season...

And for every example where a club loses and then wins, are a hundred where they lose and then lose again. You are missing the point, what is the point of deliberatley losing?

Man Utd made a decision in concert with the Premier League to promote their finances - by going to try and win a compeition in Brazil!! And the club with a history of playing weakened teams, Arsenal, how many trophies do they have in their cabinet? We are world beaters in THIS League, so we should be able to rotate our squad accordingly.

No, but you said it yourself - 'it affects immediate form' - and that can have a lasting impact. We only need to lose a few games, drop points on our competition, create unnecessary pressure, get the crowd on the players' backs... Better to try to win every game. If we don't, so be it, but let's not chuck away chances to earn revenue, give players experience/match fitness and create something? Put it this way, didn't Lallana and Lambert both say that a taste of Wembley made them determined to get back and have more? As a club we have forgotten what winning is about - the pressure as well as the joy. The more exposure we can get to what a 'winning mentality' requires, the better in my view...

Pompey is a prime example... do you think they have performed worse in the league because of their cup run?

Defeat breeds defeat. Harry Redknapp chucked away an opportunity against Manchester United and we were relegated anyway. What if we'd been relegated as Cup winners with all the additional income? Or if an unlikely victory over Manchester United had spurred additional belief? It's funny how you don't see the leading trophy winners in the world throwing away opportunities to win games... We will have the strongest, deepest, richest squad in League One. It's up to the manager to utilise it to win as many games as possible. I'm sure he will!

Agreed, play him when you need him and he's fit and able to play. Rest him when we need to despatch Lincoln City....