sadoldgit

I would suggest that there is a difference between gloating and wallowing in negativity but that is just my opinion?

Sorry for the late response but I have just picked this up. Verbal, you are in danger of becoming another Hypo! I have not confused anything. I know full well that the "festive season" is enjoyed by many as an excuse for a party. That is why I made the point that those who celebrate the birth of the son of God are Christians (Hypos definition of a Christian is someone that follows Christ). There is clearly a difference between those who celebrate the birth of the saviour and those who don't give a toss but enjoy everything else that goes with it. That is why I mentioned about adopting the American practice of using the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Happy Christmas" (although you watch all the people who don't "follow Christ" suddenly kick off if their right to say Happy Christmas is called into question!). As for "ritual fundamental religiosity" I went to the local church Nativity at Christmas and although you say it has nothing to do with the festive season, the Canon who gave the service seemed to disagree big time. I appreciate that it ties in with Paganism but as wilkipedia says "Christmas (meaning Christ's Mass) is am annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on 25th December as a religious and cultural celebration amongst billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide which historically in the west lasts 12 days."

Just read the article and they are saying that Koeman moved the meeting forward by 10 minutes and there was also some confusion over unfamiliarity with the hotel. Apparently Mane was 2 hours late so not sure how that excuses him!

It appears that everyone else managed to get there on time though.

It wouldn't be good if we took clowns seriously would it?

Yes I know.

Calm down dear. As you say it is only a football forum. By the way re pitchforks, go and look at post #334. Also I should add that Batman was trying to get people to dress up as clowns the other day (the Arsenal match I think) in protest at the way the club is being run. Ok, not quite pitchforks but a protest is a protest. Oh and if you find me tiresome just a little tip. Put me on ignore.

People like you? You are wrong. I don't only see things through rose coloured specs and I don't refuse believe that anything could ever be wrong. Something is clearly not working at the moment. However there is a difference in opinion between when the pitchforks should come out and there seems to be a group that have had them in the back of the car and have been itching to use them for some time now. ps I should add that I predicted that we would get only one point from the last 3 games so that hardly makes me a happy clapper!

I am old school and think that you should go out to win every game which means playing your best team. It would be great to see a settled team out there week in week out, or as much as possible. The way to cut out these stupid defensive mistakes is to play together as much as possible. Only mess with the defence if there are suspensions or injuries.

wrap

Sadly there seems to be a faction who want to believe that the club is run by a bunch of clowns, who think our players are substandard and who see everything through a black filter. When things are not going so well they come out of the woodwork and tell everyone else that they were right all along. The fact that we are still mid table and are just as close to a European spot as we are a relegation fight doesn't stop them from peddling their pessimism. It must have been so galling when we had our best Premiership finish ever last year after they had been telling us we were screwed in the summer. Same this year when we beat Chelsea and went unbeaten for 6 games. But they are in their element again now and despite the fact that we are clearly not as bad as the bottom teams in the Premiership they use the recent poor run of form to make up for the hurt of last season and the last two summers when the club proved it could continue to exist despite losing the omnipotent Nicola Cortese and a raft of players who clearly wanted to be somewhere else. Alpine calls this sneering. I call it pragmatism. We have had a great last few years and now we are going to go through a period of plying our trade in the mid table of the Premiership. If this season had been offered a couple of years back most of us would have taken it with both hands. But now we have a crap Board, a crap Manager and half a team who should be no where near the Premiership if you believe certain posters? Really? Not so long ago people outside the club were lining up to say that we were a shining example of how a modern medium sized club should be run. Even then those on the Dark Side were still chipping away whenever the team had the temerity to lose a football match. Maintaining a high position in the Premiership is no easy task if you haven't got bottomless pockets, as Leicester will soon be finding out. If we can maintain our Premiership status with some good cup runs and the occasional tilt at European football then that is good enough for me as we will never have the financial clout to be a "top four" club. As for relegation, I will worry about that if it becomes a possibility but at the moment I don't believe it is.

Urgh! I thought it was only one match for a second yellow?

rocker

When did it become a "policy" to sell every summer? Our hand may have been forced during the last two summers and might be again this summer by certain players but there is a difference in pragmatically letting people go who are in the last year of their contract and selling players per se.

If you are a reasonable height with reasonable pace and a decent defender you should be able to play either CH or FB without too much trouble.

Is a mini Fontes head a euphemism?

Lose the next two home league games and I might just join the Dark Side.

The man has played at the top level and aspires to manage at the top level. He has said himself he doesn't like to lose. You might think that he is disinterested but that is purely your opinion. There is a big difference about losing interest and being frustrated.

Me neither.

It is one thing to write off a relegation battle, it is another to say, or behave if, we are in one right now.

Van Dijk, Clasie, Soares all Internationals. Are they really crap?

People seem to forget that we played plenty of matches last year when we were good in one half and poor in the other, but we got away with it whereas this season we haven't. There is a fine line between success and failure and we wont know until the end of the season where we figure on that spectrum, but to write us off as a failure at this point of the season and when we are 13th is somewhat previous.

lubricant

Thanks for the name check but I suspect that he would be more worried if he found that he was agreeing with your posts. And I do love the phrase "contrary to everything anyone posts" having just said that I have agreed with something he wrote. Isnt that a bit of a, erm, contradiction?