Legod Third Coming

Well, I wasn't going to go on Saturday (I have work) but feck it, I'm going to move that to Sunday and go and support Nigel. Whatever you think about his tactics and selection, the bloke DESERVES your support while he is still there. And who knows, he might yet do a Ferguson. I hope he does. He's earned the right to be successful.

This is a very ineresting appraoch - but don't we already have a sporting director? It's clear we have a strategy to play football the right way so we can't just ditch Adkins and hire any old manager. It would have to be a manager who understands this approach - like Pep! But actually, we would be better keeping Adkins and having someone he can genuinely talk to and learn from. It's no surprise the best managers in the world worked for the best managers in the world. Jose and Pep learned their trade from the great man.

Bingo. Amazing how quickly people fall out of love with a league when we're getting hammered. I bet these muppets hated every minute of leading at the Etihad... feckwits.

Funny to see Einstein there. It reminds me. The universe is made up of Protons, Neutrons and Electrons. Of course, they don't mention the myriad of fecking MORONS. Happy evening

Does the Barcelona model look undone with the change in their manager this year? Surely that is the WHOLE point of a strategy. It is 100% manager agnostic.

Word of warning... As someone who knows a few bookies, there are two markets they love: Next Manager First Goal Scorer. They make a fortune from both...

But there isn't! The truth is with the right set-up we whipped Villa. We were just beaten by United and City with us gifting both teams goals. What's different is we are being punished for mistakes we got away with last year. Every one! And we're making more of them. Often under no pressure... But to be fair, you cannot compare Everton with the top of the NPC. I still maintain there is not much between us and the teams ACTUALLY in the bottom half of the league!

I will put my hands up and say that I thought a number of players (Fonte, Jos and Fox) would be good enough to compete.... BUT... I wasn't counting on Jos losing the plot - by his own admission! Fonte actually hasn't been too bad. Fox I just called wrong. He has been hopeless. Which I am very disappointed about.

All this really depends on what Nigel asked for and what he was given. I find it incredible that we spent £20M (TWENTY MILLION) on Gaston and Jay-Rod and find ourselves so weak at the back... Think what £10m could have bought you at left back, centre back, in goal...

You don't take a guy out of being a pundit and criticising all and sundry and make him a manager. What exactly is Hoddle's proven record in the Premiership? If you want a new manager at least pick a top quality manager with a record of success. Guardiola is out of a job...

Hoddle? Right let's go for a manager with no recent Premiership experience... That's like asking Martin Brundle to give up the commentary and climb back in the driving seat. Sure, he would do a better job than you and me, but against Vettel and Hamilton or even Maldonado, no fecking chance... If we are going to appoint a new manager it needs to be from the new generation who understand the way football is now played at the top level.

If Stoke and Fulham are Premiership clubs, so are we. What we need is a change of tactics and QUICK. Our defence (as you identified Alpine) was woefully neglected in the summer. Truth is we started the seaon without a Number One goalkeeper and settled back four. Criminal with a capital F! And not putting it right will probably cost us Premiership status.

Delete duplicate bloody internet!

Keegan left in 82 and we came second a couple of years later. But you can't deny the signing of Keegan was instrumental in a shift within the club and the signing of other 'big' name England players...

Millwall reached the FA Cup Final in 2004... I'm sorry you find it pointless. I don't. The world has moved on. Either enjoy it or don't. Your choice. I don't find football any less enjoyable now than I did when I was 12 and watching us finish second. And now, thanks to Sky, I can actually watch games I couldn't ever have thirty years ago. I look forward to the Chairman's vision of being able to compete in this league.

30 years ago Liverpool won the league every year and the only reason we got close, was spending a fortune on Kevin Keegan! The truth is this. In the twenty years before the Premier League, these teams won the league: Derby, Leeds, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Everton - Liverpool won the league 11 times. In the twenty years of post-Premiership football, these teams have won the league: Manchester United, Blackburn, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City - United have won the league 11 times. Liverpool (with the Moore's money) were easily the waelthiest club in the land. By contrast, Manchester United have not been the wealthiest since 2004. So while you could argue money has changed football, has it? Really? Isn't it just the degree of money? And what's different in football than say Formula One? Red Bull are World Champions by money. Before them Ferrari were the same. All sport is surely about money these days? Ever since the advent of professionalism. People herald the Olympics as grand example of where money doesn't matter. Only it does. Because we would be nowhere without the massive sums of money spent by the BOC courtesy of the Lottery. 30 years ago you couldn't win the league without rich owners, 20 year ago Jack Walker bought the league at Blackburn. Nothing has changed, just the amounts involved...

Precisely. It suited us when money delivered us two promotions. And now we're tiny fish in the money pond, money is the problem! What a lot of hypocritical old b o llo x. I didn't watch the last day of the last Premiership season and think anything other than WOW! It was quite simply breathtaking. And in between was some incredible football and some woeful stuff. If you want to support a team with no ambition and no desire to improve themselves and the level of football played, there are plenty of non-league teams who would LOVE your support. If you want to watch professional football, accept that your team is aiming to be better than they are (no matter who they are). Money didn't kill football in this country any more than money killed Olympic cycling - or was that delivered by chance and a wave of Harry Potter's wand?

That's why Pardew disagreed with the Chairman over the league and the Cup. I don't think anything gave us as fans more belief than that Wembley win. It reminded us all what success tasted like - players, staff and fans alike. I am a massive believer that winning is a habit. Chelsea take every competition seriously.

You didn't enjoy tearing Villa apart? You didn't leap from your armchair with a lump in your throat when Rickie scored at the Etihad?

It is more than understandable - losing all the time is soul destroying. Especially losing when you know you have the ability to win...

Oh Lord, here we go, money buys success, football today isn't all long studs and Reader's Digest down the socks for shinpads... The Premiership today is more competitive than Division One was for the whole of the 80s. And the standard of football played by teams like Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Barca, Citeh, (even Spurs last season) makes football in the 80s look amateurish. Then, money bought success (Nottingham Forest were the first team to pay £1m for a player - you might remember Trevor Francis - and then won the European Cup, twice). Today money buys success. What's changed? The difference today is that there are now three/four teams with a genuine chance of winning the league. Arsenal could compete but they don't have a plan or a defence. That's got little to do with money and everything to do with an untouchable manager who hasn't delivered silverware for seven years - during which even Harry Redknapp won a trophy! Fulham don't seem to have a problem finishing mid-table. Or Stoke. To give up on the Premiership is simply because we're getting poor results playing poor football. In which case, you're right. We don't DESERVE to be here, let alone enjoy it...

The point is there is nothing romantic about buying success - whichever league you buy it in.

But on paper we have a squad at least as good as most bottom/mid-table sides. This is not inevitable. A change of approach is needed. Whether that is a change of manager, I don't know. But I refuse to believe Wigan have a better overall squad than us. What they have is an ability to see out winning positions and not to concede the most amateurish goals that a League One side would be embarrassed to concede...

Er, we spent £1m on Lambert in Football League Division One and TREBLED his wages - a move no club could match. It is the very equivalent of spending £12m in the Premiership - if not worse!

What this forum sums up is that, no matter what people say, we want to watch a team winning and not losing. Being associated with a winning team is good. It makes you feel better. Watching a team lose (in any league) is not. Right now, maybe the Olympic effect and the false dawn of the Villa game, I'm really not that bothered about football... which is a shame. I didn't once feel that way last season.