DeepDish

Because we were hoping? That is the problem being an optimist. Glass is always half full. Always looking after some positive things to get confirmation that we are on the right track. I don't deny that it was wrong. But it is just the way I am, being optimistic about most things. My biggest strength and biggest weakness at the same time.

Now that Arsenal is out of the picture, I want Liverpool to win. Why? Hate Chelsea, John Terry and Mourinho. Don't like the billion pound investments that City are doing. And most of all: Will make the United fans' season even worse than it has been. Holy shit. 4500 posts since 2006!

I decided a week ago that enough was enough and that two seasons is enough to show what you are capable of as a manager. I am fully aware of all of Lambert's problems regarding the financial restrictions he is facing, but he just seems to struggle with getting a team ready to fight now. When the Culverhouse news came, I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt, and as many here I expected a rejuvenated team coming at Southampton. That did not happen, and it is very disappointing. I don't think Lambert is here when the next season starts. It will actually be a gamble for the club to let him stay. Why is that? Well, apparently his manager style has given a lot of responsibility to his coaches and he has had a hands off approach (if we are to believe what we hear). It is like taking on a new an inexperienced manager if Lambert is the manager next season with a totally new style, where he is involved in the daily training and is in reality taking in a new role for him. Remember: What made Lambert a success in his previous clubs was actually a style where he let his coaches have the hands on role. Now they are gone.

More to come on this unfortunately I hope this is all bollocks and we are not the club involved. I don't think it is a Premier League club. They would have written Premier League club then, instead of "Major football club in England". I think even Leeds can be categorised as major football club.

You mean us getting a point?

One point isn't enough - Liverpool cannot be allowed to win the league! I actually fancy them more than City or Chelsea. Even though I have to see the wall of Facebook full of horrible bragging by the YNWA brigade.

One point to Sunderland today would actually not be too bad, as they play Cardiff next weekend. Sunderland needs 9 points to overtake us if they get one point today. A point today gives them hope vs Cardiff and they can kill off Cardiff's chances of overtaking us with a win next Saturday.

One point to Sunderland today would actually not be too bad, as they play Cardiff next weekend. Sunderland needs 9 points to overtake us if they get one point today. A point today gives them hope vs Cardiff and they can kill off Cardiff's chances of overtaking us with a win next Saturday.

If we can smell bullshit when he praises a player, how in earth can the player get confident after getting praise? Surely the players know when they are poor? Or are the players totally in their own world where everything is rosy?

Sell, sell, sell.

I'd rather give grealish an opportunity and i'd hope we'd be adding better players in the summer. Albrighton is a lot better than Grealish. If Albrighton played in the League One, he would be the biggest star there, with tons of goals and assists. Maybe Grealish can become a squad filler in a few years. Let's hope so.

I think being fan with a football club in shambles is very comparable with being a small stockholder in a company that is poorly run. As a fan you want the management of the club to do better: Better tactics, swap poor players with better and you want the owner to listen to you. As a stock holder you want the management of your com pay to do better. Better management principles, swap poor workers with cheaper and more productive workers and you want the other owners to hear you, so you can get change. Problem is when change do not happen. As a football fan you can voice your opinion on the match in order to get the owner and management to hear your views. As a minority stock holder you can voice your opinion on the yearly stockholder meeting or you could write letters in the papers about how the company should close the worst factory and move it abroad. The problem for us as football fans is that we have not the luxury to do what the stockholders who give up does: Change the football club or stock. And in both cases we know that no one will listen to us. The company will keep its domestic expensive an inefficient workers and the football club will keep the manager who keeps players that are not good enough. Not an easy thing.

I think I'll just accept what looks to be the fact and do the best under these circumstances. And that is if Lerner stays, it is seems that Lambert will stay.

Here is a google translation (with some of nye translations when Google makes no sense) of an article about Magath. It is his former player Jan Åge Fjørtoft who is talking about Magath: Fjørtoft about Fulham manager: - Dictator? No, please, he is worse than that He has both been called "Saddam" and "Europe's last dictator". Jan Åge Fjørtoft think Felix Magath's worse than that. The former national team tip was Eintracht Frankfurt even with the rescue at the last minute with the current Fulham coach. Now you Magath - who have taken ten points in eight games after he took over responsibility for Brede Hangeland and John Arne Riise - enough once to avoid relegation with a crisis-hit club. Fjørtoft have a pretty special relationship with the hard-hitting German. He both like and dislike Magath methods. - I have a satirical look at Magath. He joined Eintracht Frankfurt at some point in my career where I was experienced enough to look a little funny on the whole. He is tough, but I laughed at him all the time, says Fjørtoft VG. - The former Eintracht Frankfurt striker Bachirou Salou has stated that Magath is "Europe's last dictator". Is he that bad? - No, please, he is not that kind, responding Fjørtoft laughs. And elaborates: - Fulham players think they have it hard now. We can see what they say when they finish pre-season in the summer. The players are going to face something they've never seen before. I have never been so tired ever in both head and body after a summer of Felix Magath. One time we were at training camp in Portugal collapsed suddenly a player on my beach during a tough workout. The right man Earlier this winter met Fjørtoft one Fulham player (not Hangeland and Riise) in London. He did not deny that the transition from the other two managers the club has had this season, Martin Jol and Rene Meulensteen, was relatively severe. - The player said he had followed what I had written about Magath on Twitter and thought I had overdone. But he concluded that Magath was even worse than I had described, tells Fjørtoft. He believes the former German national team player is exactly right man for a Fulham who have conceded incredible 74 goals in 34 Premier League matches. Few people are better to squeeze out the last drop of a wounded animal than just Magath. - If someone is going to save Fulham, so it Magath. He is totally uncompromising, says 47-year-old about the man who has previously been the savior of Stuttgart, Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. Pulled up Fjørtoft - But he's not just fire extinguisher. Remember, he won the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg and "the double" with Bayern Munich two years in a row. He requires a lot back from players who earn very much. Once he suggested that a player not had delivered, should pay the club back money the times he played bad.I could held a half-hour long stand-up show just about Felix Magath. - He runs the mind games like no other. One time he called in one of the stars of Bayern Munich office. He just looked at the player and drank tea in five minutes. So he asked the person to go, says Jan Åge Fjørtoft. It seems that Magath also had a sense of the Norwegian. In an interview with the German magazine "11 Freunde" in 2011, he stated: - Sometimes I feel like the only player who really understood my philosophy, Jan Åge Fjørtoft. Saturday play Fulham away game against Tottenham. Four rounds before the end London-made two points behind Norwich at a safe place.

The new manager will have an easier time with the same constraints, due to the fact that there will be no big loss on players shipped out. For example Bennett: Bought for a fee of 2.75 mill pounds (according to Daily Mail). After two years his book value is now 1.375 mill. He has been the biggest flop, but can easily be sold at a price over 1,375, thus with a booked profit after the depreciation. This means that the new manager (or Lambert if he stays) will have an easier time balancing the books on player purchases toward player sales + depreciation. This will also give Lambert an easier ride if he gets another season. Whan a club invest in players, it is important that the player have a sell on value that either is on par with or exceeds the book value. Then the new investments can continue. Aston Villa is there now.

Have you read what happened? They out-numbered the students, repeatedly kicking them in the head whilst on the floor injured; one broke his jaw, while another required 20 stitches. If that doesn't make you a thug I don't know what does. There isn't much point in arguing about the specifics, but he was sent down for affray and not GBH, ABH or assault. He also apologised to the apparent victims in the situation and served his time. Surely that is the end of it, he has clearly knuckled down and got his career on track too, so no I personally don't think he is a thug. Well, the fact that he has said that he can not see himself playing for Villa and the price makes it a no go'er.

No way we can compete for a player of such quality. He will go to Everton or something like that.

Expecting players to be able to pass to each other, defenders to concentrate for more than 30 seconds without going to sleep, plus lots of other despicable acts I expect. And expecting supporters to enjoy the football, which is another despicable act...

I keep reading things like this but as I alluded to in my post, he wanted to take action sooner but wasn't allowed to do so. I have a feeling that the club would want to wait until the summer to do such actions. But then the results deteriorated.

The thing I wonder: How the hell can the club let this happen? Is Faulkner too weak? Is the lack of footballing brains on the board a huge problem?

Get us over the line and then pray for big changes at the club. Wont happen.

I have to admit, I clearly can nothing about how the clubs set up the responsibilities with managers and coaches. I have only played Football Manager, and it gives a wrong picture of what a manager do, obviously.

And the word on the curb is that leaking team formations/line-ups is one of the reasons for one of them being suspended. Makes sense to be honest. The leaking was one thing. I found it worse that he posted wages of players here (Delph).

Then what does lambert do? This is one of the things I have never understood about the manager role in English football. In Norway the manager picks the team, train the players and is always on the training ground. I hear it is different in England. When I first heard about it, it was when I heard that MON barely was at the training ground. He let Robertson and the other coaches do that. It is a weird concept. BTW, those who say that Moyes struggle because he god rid of Ferguson's coaches may be right if it is so that the manager role in England is like we have seen with MON and Lambert.

Two scenarios: 1) The board do this against Lambert's wishes. The aim is to get him to resign. 2) The board pick Culverhouse and Karsa as scapegoats to take pressure off Lambert, meaning Lambert will stay and get money next summer. And if there is a reasonable reason to suspend Culverhouse and Karsa, the comments from Lambert about "other things going on" and the message from Faulkner makes perfectly sense. My money is on scenario 2.