romavillan

i think having a core of the team coming through the academy will help with the pride and knowledge of the club. in the shorter term though this has to be done by AM, at the very least he's someone who has won things under SAF so *should* know something about getting players to put in the graft in order to earn a shirt. today's footballers are a funny bunch though! as for RL only time will tell i suppose, next summer will be a big indication of his intentions.

ahah. funny what internet anonymity can do. on the article, very good read and pretty much on the mark i would say. it's a difficult time for the club now, and one we have to get through as fast as possible. the premier league is a very different place to what it was prior to the man city money. look at the table now and their is a two tier league. with the right investment, and it doesn't have to be tons of money, in playing staff in the middle of the park we would be in the bottom end of that top tier. looking forward, we have to continue to invest in youth, we have produced some good players but only gabby has really made a name for himself here so far. i think continued investment in youth will see another 3 or 4 first team regulars in the next 5 or 6 years. a situation where we have brought up half our first team through the academy and spent wisely to compliment that talent is the ideal way to stay in that top tier and push for some silverware. that would appear to be the only way we are going to "wake up" the fanbase and get bigger regular crowds and more money to build from there. the question remains though whether the current board and the current manager are the people to take us there. RL has invested heavily in bodymoor heath, and that kind of thinking will surely see the necessary funds put into youth. AM however is going to have to do something spectacular with this squad to be anything other than a dead man walking. so even short term (next 1 or seasons) you'd think we'll have yet another new manager. hopefully RL will have better advice on who that should be!

i'm hoping he plays a lot of them, gets his confidence back and comes back to us a better player...

the marker for where we are is the league table, and it doesn't look too bad. mcleish's first priority was to make us hard to beat. we are unbeaten. now comes the task of getting bent/agbonlahor enough chances in a game to net a couple. the second half against qpr showed signs of the front half clicking, the game against wigan was better. as far as citeh goes, i don't think it is a marker for where we are, it will give us an idea of how we will fare against united and chelsea. but there are far more teams in this league nowhere near that level than near it.

ex nose in charge is the problem there for a lot of them i reckon he's doign a good job so far under the circumstances, the result at city is not gonna change my mind on that, whatever it may be. i reckon we will still be top 8 at least come christmas. hopefully by then a few people will have digested some humble pie.

glad to see conversation in this thread is about whether we can nick a point away at city and not about whther we can afford to get rid of mcleish! was a ridiculous thread title anyway! we'll do well to take a point off city away, it's not beyond us but if we do it won't be pretty to watch! even if we do lose our unbeaten record there, we are improving and i can see us getting another 11 points on the board in our next 7 or 8 games and being well on track to finishing higher up the table than last year without any relegation panic. that would mean progress from mcleish, and next summer some big contracts run out and we can invest and go again aiming for europe. UTV.

plus i reckon it would get the best out of bannan and ireland, we'd have better movement and link up to bent... doubt eck will play it though

yeah i reckon even... ------delph---petrov----- bannan---ireland---gabby ----------bent------------- isn't bad either, deffo think we would benefit from 4-2-3-1, we've got the personnel to play it a few diff ways. we have a good screen for the back 4, and if one fo the 2 in front of the back 4 comes forward we attack with numbers too...

deffo think bannan should start, i'd go with... ------jenas---petrov----- zog-----ireland----bannan ----------bent------------- with zog and ireland and bannan swapping all the time, maybe even gabby as one of the 3 seeing how zog has been playing... i think ireland and bannan woudl benefit from the freedom of being in a fluid 3 and bent would deffo get more service.

tanner 'ba, would be a cheap football

He will be the next Paul Scholes IMO. Real good player, who we will be very lucky to keep hold of. next paul scholes is right IMO too. we should play 4-2-3-1 with him in the middlw of the 3, zog and albrighton switching flanks around him and bent up top.

this should be locked! he's not going anywhere, and he shouldn't be going anywhere either. this team will come good this season, i doubt we'll finsih top 6 but we'll do better than last year for sure. the diff between first and second half performance was down to the manager against qpr. he said they play great in training and he was pissed off that it didn't show in the first half. i expect the players to get a rocket again this week and i expect 3 points against wigan. no-one was that chuffed about the appointment, but for me eck has proven so far that he deserves a chance here. let's give him that chance please instead of calling for his head.

second half was good for us, he passed it well and played some neat first touch stuff. shoudl deffo start for us.

yup, we should have won that, we did well second half, if the zog had been on his game we'd have won easy. i had a bad feeling when on that last corner there was no-one in the box and they crossed it anyway! good positive football in the second half, something to build on, unbeaten still and unlucky not to be 5th. i hope we give eck time to get this lot playing as they did in patches in the second half for 90 mins. if he can do that we will do well.

hutton will come good for us i reckon, not a good day for him but it wasn't a good day for a lot of the players today

he's never going to hit 100% of his passes, people say he played really well because he played a LOT of great first touch football to buy time and space for people around him.

1-0 bent? 20 times next season and we are laughing... one nil, to the vi-i-lla, one nil, to the vi-i-lla.....

could get moody when we play them next month

good team spirit

dion dublin was gonna give heskey the man of the match!?!??!

makoun, gabby and bannan

they're all sweating buckets BEFORE they get on!!!

hmmm, makoun off and not stan....

samba is a monster! great save given!

i don't think he starts in our strongest 11, but he could be usefull for 30min stints here and there