romavillan

There's differnet ways we can go down though isn't there? The not investing and backing in our talented manager way which may see the fragile progress he has somehow managed get shot to shit and we lose 12 on the bounce and are a laughing stock. Then there is backing the man this window so he can start his own project and us seeing an upturn on the pitch and we go down fighting and make a fist of it. That's a whole different atmosphere in the sumer right? Which club would you be inclined to join for their promotion push? The laughing stock penny pinchers or the rebuilding fighters? IMO not investing now could directly contribute to staying down in the Championship for a while instead of coming back up sharpish.

I do, he has shown real balls in taking us on in the first place, lately shown actual progress in what is a hopeless task, his reward? Nowt, go with what we have. He must be feeling a bit hung out to dry by the people that hired him.

Granted it's a gamble, but you sign them with relegation clauses don't you? Not strengthening will be far more costly IMO.

The argument that we aren't an attractive proposition is undoubtedly true, but how are we really that much worse than Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich and Bournemouth? Paying ever so slightly more than them would surely smooth out any possible problems, we just haven't been prepared to spend, I really don't believe that we have been trying to sign players and that money has been available to Remi but the players don't want to come. If that clearing Ashley can get his head around it the fact we can't is pretty embarassing. Yes they've paid over the odds, but being an unattractive proposition forces their hand there, as it does ours.

Yeah a Delph goal at Villa Park would really be taking the piss. If lower division sides can cause upsets in the cup the why can't we? In all likelihood we are going to get played off the park, but we might nick it so we should really give a good go for nothing else but preserving some of the fragile confidence we have put together. A heroic effort and us losing narrowly would still give Garde some scope to beef up the confidence a bit for the next league match.

Crespo and Ilori aren't dead wood though really, they might still come good long term. The actual deadest of the dead wodd is still stealing a kings ransom every week. If Newcastle get Remy too and stay up after their outlay this Jan and we put some sort of form together, get close, but still go down it'll be hrd to swallow the seeming unwillingness to spend anything this window when the club have repeatedly said that the money is there to spend. Admittedly they have paid over the odds, but they are giving it a go. It's risky if they still go down but I'd imagine all the new contracts have relegation clauses anyway to minimise the damage wage wise. We really need 3 or 4 new faces to stand any chance fo building on the great work Garde has done so far which is starting to bear fruit. Keeper, Debuchy, Striker and a defensive midfielder or better left back than Cissokho could spark a little winning run... ...as it stands, the first time we get the wind knocked out of our sails Garde will have to carefully put back the shattered pieces back together again and we'll be relegated in March! Happy days.

The last time I took search advice from a forum it resulted in me seeing something involving 2 girls and 1 cup. I haven't been the same since.

Better shape, better width, better crossing. Benefits from the better shape could include one or two midfielders feeling they can get up the pitch a bit more to help out, or god forbid, run into the opposition box or something.

Delph's fee was £8m IIRC, for a promising youngster.

I'm not so sure, playing possession football is no bad thing and we have the clean sheets to prove that Garde has managed to organise us better. I think a Bent type price paid for someone in Jan would make a big difference to our results. Not enough to save us as we are too far gone, but it would have meant 3 points today. I'd take controlling a game and winning 1-0 over playing open attacking football and getting bummed every week.

Thing is though it's off the back of a draw that could easily have been a win (after we were lucky first half granted) against a Leicester side who are top after spanking the shit out of a good Stoke side, which was after we beat Palace and deservedly so. It's not like we scraped a 0-0 with a poor Pulis side and that's it. The positives have been on display for at least 210 mins out of the last 270. We are still down, no doubt about it, but the positives are that Garde even in this shithouse situation has managed to get a team spirit, a way of playing which isn't just smack it up the park and hope together and some points. It's not much but with respect to the last few months of the most abject miserable rubbish for a long long time it's a breath of (relatively) fresh air.

The fact we can have 60% possession away from home, 15 attempts on goal and keep a clean sheet are all plus points. Garde has them playing for each other and as a team, we are starting to look organised but we lack movement and a cutting edge up front. If we do sign some players maybe we can start putting a run together. With a quality striker we win today no problems. They were usual catenaccio pulis anti football and had we converted or be given the blatant pen then they'd have had to have played football and we might have got another, with more threat up front and the pen we win that 2 or 3 nothing. With a new keeper and some fullbacks plus a good strilker then we might even survive. Garde has to take massive credit IMO, we are starting to look like a football team.

Why break with a british tradition? Do we have a second appeal then? Or is this now dead?

Win and we prolong the agony a bit I spose! Combined with all our rivals losing and it becomes significant only if we can get a positive result next time out too, and the game after that... What am I saying though? When was the last time we had a sequence of 5 games undefeated?

Moore might have got a hatrick but he was a striker playing in a better performing team, Grealish is a creator in a team which has done little to be deserving of being called a team for a long time, perhaps only the last few games. There's a player in there, but he clearly needs sort his head out a bit and quickly before it all goes a bit pear shaped. Maybe a year of Championship football will be good for him, lots of games, less time to think about then inbetween, and a lower standard of fullback/defending to have a go at and hone some skills.

Scandalous that we have slowly got sucked down a division, flapping about like a half dead circus won goldfish haplessly just going through the motions of the inevitable spiral down the drain. *Sigh* Still though, looking on the bright side, um, well, nothing. Lerner out.

cock piss partridge lerner

That and saying Grealish was a regular starter all last season and the scorer being KEEE-RON clark was pretty funny really. Oh and the surreal Deano Gaelic sports interlude, and it being his mom's birthday. He did give us the great "...it's not all about running..." too. Which you know, might have revolutionised ow I think abotu football.

Well, listening to it I got the impression we were BOTTOM OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE, because they said that every time they said our name. I also got the impression we were totally lacklustre and clueless. The BBC article says we "edged" past them, however the stats say 69% possession and 7 shots on target to their 1. I am struggling to reconcile the stats with the stuff I've heard and read. I voted Garde as good, because he was rotating his squad and having a look at players against weaker opposition, last time he did that the selection for the Palace game was well received and won 3 points. He might have learnt some more tonight. Hopefully the players will start to want the winning feeling a littel more regularly!

Ahah, well he seems to be a very exciting prospect I must say

Good hands?

So you'd say he goes down well for a big man? * snicker *

Maybe we'll play him as a target man?

The mental changes, positive mentality gained, from the forwards not shitting bricks about losing the ball as the defence may just choose that moment to have a brain fart and give a goal away, which a solid and well organised defence will bring, can't be underestimated. If Garde can continue what does actually appear to be good work with the back 4 and we do manage to keep some clean sheets in a run of games, I think you might see more midfielders getting forward and helping out and some more risks being taken from the likes of Gil, Grealish, Troare or even Ayew (though to be fair he has looked very bright of late). All of that woudl help either Kozak/Gestede or our shiney new centre forward (cough) to score. Just going out and signing a forward or two might not have the same effect. IMO we need left and right fullbacks, a defensive midfielder who specialises there and a striker. Signing Debuchy is a good start surely?