PB

I think Christian has answered his critics in the best possible way. Keep it up kiddo

If that was true, clubs wouldnt pay millions and millions for strikers Apparently Bowery is doing very well for the U21s. He is reportedly loving it here and looking forward to his chance when it comes

I think we are in such a state that if Dunne is fir he should partner Vlaar. I would move CC into midfield to partner Westwood, and move KEA forward into the attacking three behind Benteke, with Gabby And Ireland.

Against Swindon he was shocking. He was genuinely that bad that i couldnt quite believe he was getting paid to play football. I really feared for us when he came on against Sunderland, but he seemed to do OK. Against United though? I think its clear I'd rather hope Bennett gets fit

Gornik Zabre? theres a blast from the past for us old uns. A player called milk? Cue a million dairy themed jokes

The books show clearly that he has put everything back in plus some Where it has gone is on wages, fat long term deals agreed on players like Cuellar, Collins, Beye, Heskey, Ireland etc. Thats about £10 million per year in wages right there. Not that hard to grasp is it?

I agree that Bent *should* be upset about being dropped, I dont have any issues with that. I have issues with him *publicly* being so upset though. I would imagine that rather than relying on Gabby and Andi the plan would be to buy another striker to replace him I am not as convinced as you that bent represents a route to safety. I dont think we have the players to supply him any more with the kind of service he eeds

What do our accounts show? Do they show money coming in (ie profit for randy) or losses (ie Randy putting money in)? I'm almost certain that they show significant losses, but I could be wrong. If so, then that means all the money from sales, plus some, has been re-invested, almost all into wages

He played well yesterday, but weak against Swindon Consistency needed imo

Darren bent is nowhere near the quality of Young. He is also not our best player imo. I also dont agree that most clubs would love him. Opinions eh?

It does have to be said that the MOTD highlights failed in any way to represent the game in any meaningful fashion. As has been said this should surprise no one

Hmm. I think we are 17th because we have only 9 points, which combined with a poor goal difference is a worse record than 16 other teams

Seriously? You have asked for Lambert to be sacked? Wow

In the interests of balance and objectivity, it is worth noting that we needed that win so badly, that despite winning we are still fourth from bottom. More improvement needed

And you accuse other people of being condescending? Why did you think the post was aimed at you? Do you expect a new manager to come in and turn a shambles of a club around in less ten games? Did you expect the kid from belgium to have delivered more than he has done? If so, would you care to explain why,given your encyclopedic (albeit media based) knowledge of football?

Well, you would hope so. What do you attribute the tendency fo some posters on here to want everything now to? Like, there are some who think a manager can come in and turn around a shambles of a football club in less than ten games. There are others who expect a kid from Belgium to have somehow deliverrd more than he has done already. I know form experience that playing these games, if I sign a star player I expect him to tick immediately, he is a creature made of statistics who doesnt require a settling in period. If I take over a struggling club I can look on various forums and find a formula for turning that club around. If I fail, I reload. It seems to me as if this is the attitude that certain posters have on here, wouldnt you agree? It seems as if some posters have forgotten that football is a game involving people, people exactly the same as you or me

I dont really agree that Downing is what we need Milner or barry? Yes. Downing? No.

Because it is hard for a young man to settle at a new club, doubly hard if it is another country, triply hard if it is your first time living outside your home country. This means that if you look at him objectively, as a human being rather than a character in a computer game, it is fair to assume that he is settling in, sorting out his new house/flat, finding his feet, learning the language etc. It is normal under such circumstances to cut a guy a bit of slack. He is also 21, which is very young. it is usual for strikers especially at that age to be a bit rough and ready, it is an exceptional talent indeed that looks comfortable at this level at such a young age. So for yet another reason, any fair and rational observer is going to cut the lad some slack. Frankly, anyone slagging him off, even if he was playing like a donkey every week, would be being harsh in the extreme. The thing is, he snit playing like a donkey. He has scored four goals in what, seven starts? He has missed some good chances, but all strikers do. The trick to being a striker is to get the chances. Anyone will tell you that you worry about strikers when they arent getting chances, not when they are getting them and missing them. And thats just for Villa. He is also currently spearheading the attack for one of the best national teams in Europe. He has this season scored three goals in four starts (?). one of those goals was against Holland, another against Serbia. I have a sneaky feeling that both of those teams are better than Swindon. Imagine if he was English? imagine if he had come through our youth system and was as a 21 year old banging them in for club and country, the kid would be a national and club hero. The fact that he is doing all this while going through what I stated in my opening paragraph would surely make anyone sit up and take notice and go, you know what? This boy has every chance of being the real deal. Does that answer your question?

Half that Swindon team will be playing for us in January [jokes]

Really glad I went along last night to see the lad play. Enjoy him while you can, a player of his quality isnt going to hang around this shower long, destined for big things

Back from the game, and well, i dont quite know what to say about that...... First things first..... last minute winners away from home in the cup are bloody epic, and I dont care who it was against, but moments like that are what football addicts out of us. Absolutely fan-bloody-tastic, the away end went mental. More rationally, we look very at home at this level. Defensively we are just a joke. Comical really. First half we played OK, we contained the expected rush early on, put our foot on the ball, played through it pretty comfortably, scored a couple of good goals and seemed to have it in the bag, easy street. It wasnt a particularly impressive performance, just comfortable Second half, well, we got played off the park from 45-85 minutes. Totally outclassed. They scored two, could have easily been four or five. Just a total shambles of a football team, so, so fragile. Then, at 2-2, instead of crumbling away altogether, we suddenly stepped up about 20 gears, passed it quickly and incisively, nearly scored twice, then did score. How important will that goal be? We will see. It felt like a big moment.

Well, that wasn't very pretty, was it? I wrote on twitter that I felt uncomfortable about being outplayed (and we were very outplayed) by Norwich. Alan Hansen reportedly described our performance as embarrassing, and while i dont usually have much time for the miserable sweaty, on this occasion he was right. it was embarrassing. I dont do knee jerk reactions, and while I remain confident that we will come through this, I'm not *quite* as confident as I was before. For me, what has changed from our performances against Newcastle and Swansea is that we arent working as hard, and thats whats worrying. In those two games, our best of the season.we hunted in packs, shutting down the spaces, making it hard for teams to play against us. We did the same in the last round of the League Cup too at man City. Yesterday, and last week? That energy and enthusiasm seems to have dissipated, Norwich just had it too easy. They had too much time on the ball, we didnt shut them down at all and we were very lucky to steal a point. On the plus side, we are starting to see what Benteke is made of. I thought that was a great 70 minutes from the young man, and taking him off for the zombie Bent was a mistake, as we lost our 'out' ball. If we are going to stay up, The Beat will be a big part of the reason why. ************* Me and Tim are heading off to Swindon on Tuesday, hoping we arent on the wrong end of a cupset, as Tim goes to school with a few Swindon fans. Despite their current financial plight they have been on an up since the mad Italian arrived there. Looking forward to meeting up with old firends, and hoping the match marks the start of an upturn,

oh, and instead of dodging the debate in this kind of way, and making epople think you dont have a valid answer to the point raised, as you have done several times in the past few days, try making your point, go on, its fun So lets hear your reasons as to why you think the points I made about Moyes arent true. I'd be really interested to hear them, because I remember Everton staying up on the last day. Do you not remember that?

Did you feel the comment was aimed at you? I'm sorry, it was aimed at the kids (young and old) who think a guy can walk into a disaster zone of a football club and turn it around in five minutes, like you can on Champ manager or whatever its called these days Thats quite clearly not you, is it?

The kid just needs to be given more time to settle, more patience. He was bought for peanuts, he is very young, but he will score goals. I just hope he is still here when he starts scoring, and isnt chased off by the boo boys, because this kid is going to be huge, he has all the attributes to play at the very highest level. One day he will change hands to a major club for a major fee. I hope the fans of this football club stick with him, stop bloody laughing at him and mocking him, and give him support. If they do, then it will be us that benefits from his goals before he moves on to bigger and better things and we benefit financially too. Anyone who has seen him playing for Belgium can see just how good he is. So, he has missed a few chances. All strikers do, every single one of them has spells like that. Get behind the lad, let him know he has come to a club with real fans who will support him. I know, fat chance of that, the boo boys will have their way, as they always ever have done at this club. Our own worst enemies