sadoldgit

Those who made the decision to buy him, I assume, have seen him play. The point is that some people here just seem to want the worst to happen. Remember how Mane was slagged off when he first started?

He clearly thinks that Stephens is a better option than Yoshida and to be fair, skills wise there is not much between them. I would say that Yoshi has the better mental attitude but neither are Premiership quality. Hoedt and Vestergaard are both internationals too remember. When we bought these players we clearly thought that they would be good enough. Some players just don’t seem cut out for Premiership football. There are also decent players who do well in the Premiership and then lose form. Torres is a major example. In our case, Ings can play but seems to have lost it after injury. Lovren was great for us but lost it at Liverpool. Any manager would struggle with the CBs we have.

He kept us up. No mean feat given how poor we were under Hughes.

Perhaps it is. But here’s a thought. Perhaps watch him play before you write him off?

"Men are just a bit better at getting things done." Why am I not surprised that this sexist generalisation came from hypo?

I meant to add, our problem wasn't getting rid of Fonte, it was not replacing him with a player of similar, if not better, quality.

Despite people telling us on here that this is happening, Hoedt has not been involved in any games so far. If that was the case I am sure we would have seen him in a friendly. I think we can safely assume he is on his way.

I dont know. He was slowing up and was often a penalty waiting to happen. He was dreadful at West Ham and has probably found his level in French football. It really doesnt matter now as he is long gone and would probably not be a starter if he was still here. He was offered a new contract which he turned down and made it clear he wanted out. Time to move on.

Fair enough.

Have I missed something? When was the last time we finished in the bottom three of the Prem? Not for many years if my failing memory is anything to go by. A lower half of the Prem club would be more accurate. I don’t usually agree with Alan Brazil but this morning he said that all teams from 11 down will be in a relegation fight this season. We are an average side and we have to make sure that we get more points than the other average sides, something we are very capable of doing despite our obvious weaknesses.

Do you think that Ralph showed that he was a decent manager for us last season?

You said we are a poor side with a manager who flatters to deceive. You don’t sound like someone is remotely optimistic about the club to me. It is easy to support a team who is flying but perhaps teams who are struggling to find some form could do with a bit more support? They don’t play badly on purpose.

Only in your dreams pal.

They came from 3-1 down to score 3 in the last 8 minutes and win 4-3!

It is still happening, albeit on a smaller scale.

What has that got to do with ‘class.’ And as said, the checks at football have nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with the history of violence at (and before and after) football matches.

So we have gone from being an average side with a decent manager to being a crap side with a crap manager after the first game of the season? No we haven’t. We are still an average side who put in a poor display for the last third of the game with a decent manager. For all of the reasons that we understand, we are still stuck with some players that need to be moved on. It clearly isn’t an easy job to ship them out and get the right replacements in and as has been said, it will take 2 to 3 windows to sort the mess out. 2 of the new signings did not play yesterday. Even for this forum, throwing the towel in after just 1 game takes drama queenary to a new level.

The security checks have nothing to do with potential terrorist threats. Football matches have a long history of violence amongst rival supporters and it still goes on now. You don’t get that in tennis, cricket, rugby etc. I don’t see it has much to do with class. I knew a number of football hooligans in the 70’s and 80’s that would be described as ‘middle class.’ Is football still a ‘working class’ sport? How many so called blue collar workers can afford Premier club ticket prices week in week out? Unfortunately there is something about the game that still attracts mentally unstable people. A teenager is just as likely to get involved as older people. I don’t see a problem in the security checks.

Perhaps they are perfectly fine in training? I read the other day about how good Mo was in training. Some of them it seems don’t have the mental ability to carry it through when the pressure is on.

How many incidents of violence have there been in football matches against how many at tennis matches?

As I said, it is one thing to get ****ed off with a result/performance, another to assume that it is going to be the same every week. Cheer up, we haven’t been relegated yet.

Really? Optimism is tedious? Ok. Let’s just call it a day now then shall we and not hope for an improvement.

If you bothered to run what I said through what passes for your brain you would see that I am not criticising fans for being unhappy. I am unhappy. We have every reason to be unhappy about the result and the performance. But to read some posts you would think we were already down after one game. Fortunately there are some reasonably written posts that are well thought out and balanced, but you have to wade through an awful lot of drivel to find them. Oh, and I am not the only one to point this out but thanks for singling me out.

You really are a reactionary aren’t you? One game and 2 of the signings haven’t played yet.