saintwbu

If Rose is worth £50mil, Bertrand’s worth more

That’s interesting to hear because i’ve always regarded Marriner as a ref who doesn’t do a lot during games. He seems reluctant to make any decisions, unless he really has to, which I guess is lazy. Maybe it’s a consequence of the Gibbs/Ox confusion, but he just seems to let the game bypass him. He’s dreadful.

We are so much better with JWP, he keeps everything moving all game. The opening goal vs West Ham and Newcastle came from Lemina on his own on the edge of the box panicking into doing something stupid. JWP is always an option for everybody, even if only to take it and give to the next person, just recycling play all the time. He has to play every game until the end of the season, he brings more out of Cedric going forwards too (he’s still ****).

At home to Brigton Tadic sat on the floor just outside Brighton’s penalty area waving his arms at the linesman having taken yet another pathetic fall trying to get a free kick. In the meantime 3 Brighton players attacked Bertrand with no assistance whatsoever, about 10 minutes into a huge relegation 6 pointer. How on earth he played another minute for us after that is beyond me. His time at this club is well and truly up, he’s a waste of space and numerous times has rolled on the floor whilst WE are in possession, only for us to kick it out for him and watch him get straight back to his feet when we are LOSING!! Nothing about him is endearing and i’d sooner play with 10.

Pied for Cedric should be a certainty. The only time i’ve seen him play was at home to Palace where he kept Zaha silent all night despite being obviously ****ged after about 20 minutes because he hadn’t played for so long. He also put in the ball that created Shane Long’s only goal this season. Cedric is ****ing dreadful, can’t head, can’t cross, does nothing and other teams target him for their crosses.

We’re ****. I know it’s cliche but we need some ****ing passion and some ****ing pace. Yoshida, Long, Austin, Romeu and think what you want about him, Ward-Prowse, will all give everything they’ve got, they should be the first names on the team sheet with McCarthy every week. Tadic, Cedric and Redmond should be nowhere near it. Throw in Sims for excitement and we might actually get somewhere.

We’re gonna win this. McCarthy Pied Yoshida Stephens Bertrand Romeu Hojbjerg Ward-Prowse Sims Boufal/Long Austin Cedric, Tadic, Redmond all to be left at home. Stephens isn’t the best but he’s not a complete pussy like Hoedt. They’ve just won comfortably in what is normally a comfortable fixture for them, so in typical Arsenal fashion they’re gonna **** it up. Then Hughes will have just seen who absolutely isn’t up to it for us and will cut them out accordingly to get a reaction.

To be honest i'd be intrigued to know how he would do after a full pre-season followed by an immediate run in the side, rather than waiting 10-12 games like he's had to do these two seasons. For someone who isn't particularly fit, I can't imagine working hard all summer to then not play for weeks, and then be thrown in for a run, is the easiest thing for his body to cope with. Maybe I'm just making excuses for him.

I rate him higher than Walker personally, his delivery is superb, he just isn’t quite as quick (still quick enough!).

2 or 3, does that mean he’s not in the top 5 RB’s in the league?

Walker, Trippier, Clyne, Bellerin, Azpilicueta, Coleman, Valencia all comfortably better than him. Moses, Fosu-Mensah, Alexander-Arnold all in with a good case. I’m never in the ‘he’s **** now that he wants to leave’ camp, but I just don’t think Cedric is very good.

Stands off his man allowing a cross way to often, almost a given he’ll lose any aerial challenge, and his end product is ****ing atrocious. Decent speed to recover, but that’s pretty much a given for a full back these days. If we can get good money for him i’d wish him well, for me Pied is better from the small glimpses i’ve seen, just not fit enough.

Pelle, Bertrand, Mane Vice and Virg falling just short because I think we miss Mane and Pelle more than we miss those two. Bertrand has never had a bad season in my opinion, even this one he’s quite often been our best player in games, and now is in his 4th season is it? Surprised he’s still here.

I don't think two strikers is necessarily the way for us to go, because we don't have the quality throughout the squad to cater for it. However, I think it was definitely needed yesterday because it gave everyone a lift before the game knowing we were going for it and that we were prepared to compromise stability for attacking intent. Psychologically, it was spot on from a fans' point of view I think, and thankfully it paid off on the pitch too.

Joey Barton has publicly discussed his hatred for Mark Hughes on numerous occasions over the years. If I remember rightly, Hughes offered to fight him when the pair were at QPR (may have been the other way round, not sure) as Joey documented in his book and in numerous interviews. I don't doubt there's some truth in what Joey says, but I wouldn't consider his view on Hughes' managerial ability to be a particularly fair one.

Jokanovic if Fulham don't go up, has to be. Plenty of Fulham fans saying Matt Targett is the best left back they've ever had, as well as the form of 17 year old Ryan Sessegnon, show he's a manager for young players and plays great attacking football, he's the perfect fit. But would be very happy with Rodgers, never thought I would've said that a few years back given how much I can't stand the bloke.

I agree completely. Shame it's never quite happened for him in the Premier League, may be down to him or may be down to bad luck/circumstance (the West Ham/Tevez thing when he was at Sheff Utd, and QPR being a mess). The job he did at Rotherham to keep them up was remarkable, and should he get Cardiff promoted this season it'll be unbelievable, probably his greatest achievement.

The biggest advantage we have is a full stadium, having this game behind closed doors would be absolutely catastrophic for us. Charlie Austin back for this would be ideal because he ****ing hates West Ham. If ever there was a game that needs us to come flying out the traps and grab an early goal it’s this one, that place will go into meltdown and we could run riot.

You may be right but he didn't leave, he got sacked

He certainly wouldn't have had much control at Watford! Probably even less so than he would get here

No. I was concerned after the 0-0 against Swansea on the opening day, that there was no clear difference between the performance and the ones that people criticised Puel for instigating. Whilst one game was too early to judge, I thought a manager with 'exciting, attacking football' would stand out pretty quickly.

I didn't say they were all good signings... just that there were similarities in his methods at Stoke, to how we like to operate. Young stars who have gone stale at big clubs. Also regarding above, I have been bemoaning for years that we are too nice, we get bullied all over the pitch and players get away with murder against us. I don't recall us having a red card all season, which is great of course, but I don't recall us even getting away with a near miss or anything close, we never stamp our authority on a game at the moment. I don't want us to be dirty, but i'd like us to be able to if it's needed.

I realyl don't think we need much, just a manager who encourages the side to go out and try and win the game. We have the players, despite how frustrating they are at times. We have had a manager all season who is scared to try and win the game, we don't need Pep Guardiola to be able to improve on that. Any other season I would not want Mark Hughes, but considering the situation we find ourselves in, I would be satisfied with his arrival. I saw someone say on Twitter that Hughes only knows how to sign 6 foot 5 players to suit his style. I must be thinking of a different Mark Hughes than the one who signed Shaqiri, Bojan, Jesé, Afellay, Van Ginkel, Joe Allen, all in the name of trying to implement a more cultured brand of football than what Stoke had previously been known for. He isn't some lump-it-long Pulis type, he has attracted some pretty decorated players who have played for some huge football clubs, but haven't quite lived up to expectations. In some ways, his transfer dealings are rather similar to our own, and it's probably no coincidence that half the players we have signed have been linked to Stoke at some point (Cedric comes to mind, in particular). He's probably not a bad fit, in reality, just not particularly fashionable. I think we need to just appreciate the fact that we won't have Pellegrino in charge anymore, his replacement is not particularly important to me, personally.

Mad that if we were to beat Wigan on Sunday (big IF) then we'd have won just one less game in the FA Cup than we would have in the league. Presumably it's because this massive dunce realises that you can't draw an FA Cup game, so no choice but to try and win it.

Clubs normally jump at the chance to throw the manager under the bus and blame them for everything that's gone wrong. There's always so much criticism of the role of DoF's and Chairman etc. in that they pick the manager/players but don't take responsibility and the manager gets sacked. Yet here we are, not sacking arguably the worst Premier League manager ever when it would be so easy to just blame him and move on! Really really ****ing weird.