Lighthouse

You both seem to be under the impression that some of our problems from the last 2 years have come from appointing the manager too late. I can't say I've felt any sense of 'if only we'd appointed MoPe earlier' during last season. Perhaps if we'd started badly like Palace I'd agree but we were worse when MoPe left than when he started. Likewise Puel, the 0-1 defeat at home to Stoke was hardly an improvedment on the 1-1 opening day draw with Watford. The last 2 January transfer windows I'll agree were an absolute clusterf**k.

That will be one of many things they are probably negotiating over.

Like the one in 2014? We will have been tracking targets for months and will be well aware of which positions need strengthening. Even if players are at the WC, their agents will be on call 24/7. If anything the WC means nobody will be doing much until July anyway as everyone will be hanging on to their players in the hope that their value rockets on the back of 3 above average games.

Koeman was appointed on June 16th and look how that panned out. It'll take as long as it takes. If it is Hughes, his methods wont come as a shock to the squad, if it isn't then 2 months of pre-season for the new guy is hardly a last minute fix.

You can't be pinning your hopes on players getting sent off. True, Alonso should have been sent off but what if he had simply not committed that foul? We shouldn't be throwing away a 2-0 lead at home to a lackluster team in 8 minutes, be it against 10, 11 or any other number of men. As for the Everton game, what about Yoshida getting sent off, not pick up our men, clearing our lines and giving them a shot? How many results did we throw away with seconds left by not concentrating until the final whistle. At least 4 I can recall.

I was dubious when he was linked last summer as he will basically just be after one last pay cheque at West Ham and hasn't really got anything to prove there. He might do alright but I can't say I'm especially envious, especially as their board will provide ample hilarity in other aspects of the team.

Indeed. I don't get why academies are looked at as either Premier League or failure. Plenty of players have gone on to have successful careers at other clubs and playing in the football league is quite some achievement. I think he should be congratulated. There are plenty of Josh Dutton-Blacks and Aarran Racines who don't make the grade at any level. If every club produced a Lallana, Bale or Walcott every season, the England team would look like an NBA all-star XI.

No thanks.

I can believe he would go out into the street and pay the nearest black man £5 to hold up the sign. Would be interested to see which background he uses though.

Here in my native Estonia we have safe standing at our local Skonto stadium and it works pretty well. Should definitely be considered IMO.

He's been posting absolute nonsense for years, including completely ficticious quotes and statistics.

I wont believe anything until AR-10 confirms it as well.

Actually it's just one head, arguing with himself on several different log ins. You have a point though, it is a little peculiar.

1. Despite being the most technically gifted player he is well behind both of those 'mediocre' players in terms of goals and assists since he joined. 2. He has made 30 appearances this season, JWP has 33, Redmond 36. 30 is more than half of either of those numbers. 3. He's had 2 years and shown no improvement whatsoever. 4. The race card? Yawn. 5. You're actually comparing him to Le Tiss?

Yes but we signed him, which was the question posted in the OP.

Lambert was hardly being savy, he was the leagues top scorer when we signed him and was easily good enough to play in the Championship. It's all well and good saying sign the best talent from the lower leagues but Huddersfield and Brighton had a lot of it 2 seasons ago and they've been mediocre at best in the Premier League. We had the Championships 2 best strikers in Lambert and J Rod, plus the best midfielder in Lallana, 2 of the best defenders in Hooiveld and Fonte, plus Kelvin from the Championship team of the year. Despite all of that we'd have gone down without signing Boruc, Davis, Gaston and Yoshida.

That's some bang average use of the English language there, need to work on that.

One of those where you're not really sure who you feel sorry for.

Hughes reminds me a bit of Pearson, taking over from Dodd and Gorman in 2008. Whilst his results were nothing incredible (I think we were something like 13th in the form table during Pearson's tenure) there was a marked difference in attitude, organisation and application compared to the previous regime. Getting any sort of result or performance from a team as hopeless as we were, without any time or money, takes character.

Everton are no better than us at hanging on to their star players when big clubs come calling, nor do they get better prices. Of course we say they aren't for sale. Chapter 1, page 1 of selling anything for a good price - "It's not for sale"

If we got £60m from Virgil, after Celtic's cut, and spent £19m on Carrillo, you'd have to start asking questions if there was no money available.

As opposed to Les getting mugged off by only accepting a world record fee for a defender.

Which doesn’t nescesarilly mean he won’t get the job. It’s like buying a house, you may have a preferred choice but you still look at what else is on the market.

If you're talking about myths then you've just invented the biggest of the lot. There are literally pages of threads with many people criticising Hoedt.