AntrimBlack

Great player, Merson, but he hardly knows what day it is, never mind making informed comments. I do love him on Sky Sports Saturday, though, unintentionally hilarious..

A lot of the comments and worries are OTT. We cannot know how he will do next season - how can we - he is really just a rookie manager in one of the best leagues in the world. I have reservations, like many others, but we need to give him more time before judging him. By all means, lets discuss his perceived shortcomings, or his successes, but let's try to keep our posts sensible so that we can have a reasonable debate.

Hold on a minute... Arsenal beating us next week would not in any way shape or form make anything dismal. Arsenal beating us would be just about par for the course. They're expected to beat us, and any other result would be a major upset. Losing to them is NOT going to make the season any worse, unless they absolutely destroy us Such a defeatist attitude. Us beating them would not be a major upset and being in the FA cup final is not just a bonus as stated elsewhere. The way some people are talking you'd think it was a friendly or something. If we lose next week, it will certainly make the season worse for me, but I guess that's up to the individual. Yes, it would be a major upset. Get real, or you will be in for a disappointment. We can beat them, and it would be brilliant if we did, but it is unlikely, especially in light of our last two performances, when it looks to me that the players have thought `job done...relax'. Hopefully they can have a better attitude for the final, and not humiliate us in front of millions.

Drop Agbonlahor - we were doing better without him.

The important thing was to keep us up, and that was what he was tasked with doing. The FA Cup was never a part of that.

The keeper is one of the most important players, and it is imperative to get it right. You probably need to spend decent money to get a good one. I like both of our keepers, but recently neither has filed me with confidence.

The most important thing to have is a quality, proven scout, buying from a variety of markets, and in Reilly we do seem to have that.

Jesus. Why does it have to be "personal"? Because only a blind fool could think he isn't good enough to even make the bench. That will be Sherwood then.

That is more like it. I would still prefer a ``He is going nowhere''. After all, what the journalists have ignored is that he is our player for 2 more seasons, and we do not have to sell him. It could well make more sense just to keep him and let him go on a free at the end of his contract. Provided we could be sure he would still put in the effort, of course. If he wanted to enhance his career he would have to, but players do not always do the sensible thing.

You might be surprised. There was an article on Yahoo earlier, turns out Liverpool were trying to get together all of the guys who got a winner's medal in Istanbul 2005. Anyway, they called everyone, and then realised that they hadn't phoned Steve Finnan. Nobody had his number, they tried to make contact with him through some tradesmen or something. Obviously nobody at the club has thought about him for years, and I doubt the fans have either. Why would they? Point being, not everyone will earn the mantle of 'legend'. Some of the players we discuss everyday on here will fade into obscurity, and quicker than you think too. Also, if you start calling lots of players `legends', it denigrates it for those who actually deserve it.

This term `legend' gets bandied about far too easily. Benteke has been here 3? seasons, with the avowed intention right from the beginning that he was using us as a stepping stone to a better Premier League club. Hardly the stuff of legend in my opinion.

Anyone got any proper links to reliable sources indicating that he is off? Or is it all just newspaper shit as usual.

Jesus. Why does it have to be "personal"? Because we are gradually eliminating all logical footballing reasons. If he doesn't make it into the team or squad for the Burnley game it's tough to think of any other reason. But the logical footballing reasons have not been eliminated, except in your head. The most unlikely scenario of all is that it is personal.

Yeah, I actually think he brought out the leader in Clark. I think Clark has always been a leader, even when he was playing poorly. Always exhorting on the field and doing the pre-kickoff pep talk. I am disappointed that he was not made captain.

I do not understand why the club/manager do not just say ``He is not for sale''. It would only push his value up if he then did go. Unless they actually do want to sell him, which in my opinion is a mistake at this stage, as I think we should be getting another year out of him.

What utter speculative bollocks!!!!! It is as if we were invisible. Hello, we might not wish to sell.

Clark for his consistency, leadership and improvement. Grealish for his impact.

It is the sort of thing a fan would tweet, and that is what he is.

No way is Baker better than Clark. Did you not see Clark and Okore play together? Baker has a heart like a lion, but is constantly picking up injuries now, partly because of his playing style.

Too much bloody money maybe?

False. It's not "most likely not true" It's an utterly false, trolling, trick, designed to fool some people into posting bollocks like "Well, if that's true, it's very worrying.", and thus fuel the general underrcurrent of baseless dissent that underpins this thread. So it's not "most likely not true". It's NOT true. So there is nothing more to say about it. Agree with this. It is the sort of baseless accusation that winds people up unnecessarily.

I don't think that's correct. There is no published interview saying anything like that as far as I can see. Show your source or withdraw, Sir! There is no source. It's just complete and utter rubbish. Hardly surprising either. The thought that Sherwood would right off two players ( one who hasn't played a minute of football under him) is laughable. That's the thing for me that shows it's very unlikely to be true. Sherwood might have made his mind up on Gil already. At least he's seen him play and had him in training. But Kozak has barely trained under Sherwood, let alone played a proper game. It would make no sense for the manager to have decided not to keep him at this stage. Given FEY's absence since he posted it, it may be safe to say he's made this up. Lets keep talking about it anyway You're not obliged to read threads. If you don't like what's being posted in a thread then don't read it. Crying about it just fills the thread up with even more pointless posts for you to moan about. You won't know you don't like it unless you read it.

On present form, I think neither is actually good enough. Therein lies the dilemma.

Clark has been excellent, probably POTS, and way better than Okore.

Was there anyone in that team yesterday that was not hopeless? If there was, I cannot remember them. High line did not help either.