switters

Yikes I missed that one at the time, but just found the video. Nicely sums up McLeish's level of ambition. He dreams of us hacking and long-throwing our way to the dizzy heights of 12th over the course of his reign.

So why do Lampard and Barry get blame for failure as 'golden generation' but not Gerrard & A.Cole? Though he is the same age, Barry was never really part of that generation, he came into England team later, under McClaren. While Gerrard is looking much more washed up than Lampard or Barry on club form. Lampard's helped his team to CL final, Barry may well win the title on Sunday - Gerrard is a declining power in a mid-table Liverpool side and has been injured for large parts of the last 2 years. Also: Chamberlain in the starting line-up? He's barely got into the Arsenal team. I could see the point of him in squad as potential impact player, but he's really not done anywhere near enough to be ahead of Lennon/Walcott.

We don't want to ruin the next generation by rushing them through with excessive expectations too soon. People like Lansbury and Cleverley simply not ready for this tournament. Cleverley's played about 6 games all season and you put him in the first team?! Not a good plan. Similarly Smalling-Jones is not a partnership Ferguson has chosen to play, so why would you put that in England team? A defence that inexperienced would be destroyed by France and co. I understand desire to see change, but it needs to be done sensibly. Take the youngsters who are established first teamers at club level and seem ready for step up (Welbeck, Smalling, Sturridge, Walker, etc.) but we can't throw out all the old regime. Particularly in central midfield, there really aren't many good options beyond the usual suspects of Parker, Barry, Lampard etc. (Cleverley, Wilshere, Rodwell, Huddlestone, Frimpong - all injured/been injured most of the season, and younger players like McEachran, Barkley, G.Gardner even, just aren't ready)

I understand what you're saying but they have played a significant part in a very successful season for Newcastle, it's not like they have been sat on the bench all year. They've played a part in it, but let's face it, it's the core team of Krul, Coloccini, Taylor (until injury), Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse who've got them where they are. Likes of Simpson and Guthrie are like O'Shea and Darren Gibson were for Man Utd - functional elements of the team when played, but completely replaceable. Hence Newcastle are willing to let Simpson's contract run out.

That team is a thing of such ugliness as I've never seen before. You've got a CM which is made up of 2 thugs who would be getting sent-off within half an hour by any international ref. Holt and Carroll would just get in each other's way and give away free-kicks every time they go for a header. Team would be wide open for attacks down either wing as Walcott/Lennon/Dyer are not wing-backs (Wigan play Beausejour and Boyce in these positions in their system, completely different players with much more defensive awareness). And also despite getting rid of the old guard elsewhere you still want to play Terry, who is the main problem element in the squad. If you wanted to play something that actually ressembles Wigan's 3-4-3 system, I'd go with something like: Hart Smalling-Ferdinand-Lescott Milner-Parker-Barry-A.Cole Young-Welbeck/Rooney-Walcott

Guthrie's alright & I'd take Simpson if it meant Hutton going, but it'll be pretty depressing if we're after multiple Newcastle cast-offs.

There's also the fact of Carroll being 23 and Holt 31. Holt deserves consideration based on his goalscoring form and it would be great for a journeyman to go all the way from League 2 to International tournament in just a few years, but he's not any kind of long-term solution. Would say similar for Zamora, who may well be Hodgson's preferred choice. Carroll has had a bad time since moving to Liverpool but it wasn't so long ago he was starring at Newcastle and he may have long term part to play for England, so it might be beneficial to take him to his first major tournament.

For me GK: Joe Hart GK: Ben Foster (would tell him to get out of retirement already, even if just for this tournament!) GK: Scott Carson/whoever DF: Kyle Walker DF: Ashley Cole DF: Leighton Baines DF: Joleon Lescott DF: Rio Ferdinand (leave Terry at home) DF: Gary Cahill DF: Chris Smalling (can cover CB & RB, to save a spot for extra midfielder) MD: Scott Parker MD: Frank Lampard (done much more than Gerrard the last 2 years) MD: Gareth Barry MD: Paul Scholes (a regressive choice but he is fit, on form & all the good young CM options like Wilshere, Cleverley, McEachran are injured/not ready) MD: Ashley Young MD: James Milner MD: Adam Johnson (don't think Ox is quite ready, Johnson good impact player) MD: Theo Walcott MD: Aaron Lennon FW: Wayne Rooney FW: Danny Welbeck (don't think Bent will be fit enough) FW: Daniel Sturridge FW: Andy Carroll (found form at right time) Hart Walker-Ferdinand-Lescott-Cole Parker-Scholes Lennon-Young-Walcott Welbeck Rooney in for Welbeck/Lennon/Walcott when available.

Er, no. We've score more than one goal 10 times in the league this season alone. I think the actual stat is about winning by 2 goals. We've only managed that 5 times, and 2 of them were Hereford and Bristol Rovers in the cup. Birmingham last season won by 2 goals on only six occasions and four of them were in the cup (mostly against lower league sides). The season Birmingham finished 9th they did not win a single game all season by more than one goal! Even in their promotion season from the Championship, he only managed 5 league wins by more than one goal. 38 - 3 38 - 2 38 - 0 46- 5 That makes 10 times he's managed to win by 2 goals in the past 160 league games, including a year in the Championship. Woeful.

I don't buy that last part. Expectations have been driven so low by the awfulness of the past 2 years that fans aren't going to be expecting any new manager to come in and perform miracles. We just want someone who's going to put out a team who'll play in a way we can actually get behind - one that will try to score goals and try to win. McLeish has given fans absolutely nothing to support. A new manager would rekindle hope and even if the season goes badly again, I can't imagine any fans saying 'if only we'd kept McLeish it would be better'. Lerner may calculate that he will get criticized if he changes manager and it starts badly, but he must surely see that he is going to get criticized a hell of a lot more if he retains the manager and it starts badly.

Dear lord. As depressing transfer links go, this one truly is a winner. Karl Henry is a talentless hacker. Would want him nowhere near Aston Villa. Championship is where he belongs, and that's being generous.

Well, we kinda did last season, although there was mitigating circumstances. In the last few years, found these examples of post season sackings/'mutual consents': Chelsea sacked Ancelotti immediately after their final game last season. Zola @ West Ham, 2 days after end of season. Benitez @ Liverpool a couple of weeks after end of season. Avram Grant @ Chelsea, 3 days after losing CL final. Stuart Pearce & Sven Goran Eriksson in successive seasons @ Man City.

Don't believe ITKs, but I certainly expect he will be leaving soon after the Norwich game - if I was trying to look like an ITK person on twitter, that's what I'd be posting, because it is a pretty reasonable guess and may well come true. McLeish has looked like a dead man walking since Bolton - 1 win in 15 now is it? He can't survive that. I think they letting him leave as honourably as possible by giving him till end of season, rather than humiliating him by sacking with 1 or 2 games to go, but I expect a 'mutual consent' type announcement by this time next week.

The league was so different when he was playing to how it is now and his only managerial experience is with international sides in East Asia. It's hard to see that he'd be able to make the transition - you can't give someone managerial job on playing reputation alone.

These are bound to be last season's figures. The full list has Blackpool and Birmingham included. Hence it probably includes Friedel, A.Young, L.Young, Downing, Beye, Pires, Carew, Reo-Coker and possibly even Sidwell and Davies. Pretty certain average wages will be lower now, given that only a few of them have been replaced with equivalent earners, and most have been replaced by kids.

Er, no. If McLeish goes, all bets are off. He's still under contract with Villa, so any new manager coming in could consider him as much as any other player he inherits. Makoun left because McLeish didn't fancy him and he was one of the (few) players who we could find someone to take his wages (in order to sign Jenas, presumably). Quote from McLeish in Jan: "Has he got a future with us? It depends. The reason for letting Jean out was I looking for a different type of midfielder. I’m not saying he’s not got a future – it would be stupid to say that – but certainly I was looking at our midfield without Jean."

Most interesting/dangerous set of results: Blackburn beat Spurs Spurs beat Bolton Spurs beat us QPR beat WBA Bolton beat Stoke Blackburn beat Wigan Table going into final day: Villa 37 37 QPR 37 37 Blackburn 37 37 --------- Wigan 37 37 Bolton 37 37 (exact order would depend on results but we'd definitely have best GD) Okay, the results aren't exactly likely, but not impossible. The Spurs results are the most unpredictable..

Spot on. A good manager would not have settled for a point here, in the situation we are in. You'd think he'd have learned something from the way he took Birmingham down. I dread us going to Norwich on the last day and him doing exactly what he did last season - playing for a draw because it 'should' be enough..It failed that time and it could fail again. WBA were there to be beaten and we could be sitting pretty much safe on 39 pts. Now we're in a situation where if we lose to Spurs (quite likely) we are guaranteed not to be mathematically safe on the last day.. If he'd given Carruthers and Weimann half an hour, they might have won the match. It was never going to happen with the players we had on the pitch in the 2nd half.

I can see it going to the last day with us, QPR and Bolton all on 37 pts level vying for the last spot. Goal difference is in our favour at least. If QPR get something at Chelsea tomorrow, it won't look good.

Players showed some decent fight. Given MOTM for the crucial save. Manager beyond woeful. The 2nd half was just waiting for WBA goal. No attempt to make us attack, no positive subs until the 90th minute, and as ever, we came out at half-time much worse than we went in. God knows what he says, but whatever it is, it saps the players spirits. Given 9 - didn't have many saves to make, but made them and the last one was VITAL Hutton 3 - tried his best to cost us the match Lichaj 7 - mostly good Cuellar 5 - bit ropey Dunne 6 - look off the pace at times but made important headers Warnock 5 - crossing and passing mostly bad. Tried hard Herd 6 - good battler Clark 6 - see Herd N'Zogbia 6 - little end product but still seemed the most likely. Had a couple of decent chances saved. Shouldn't have been subbed Gabby 4 - off form and not taking chances Heskey 6 - worked hard but is never going to get us goals

WHAT a save. Might've just kept us up.

That sums up our striking prowess. Neither Gabby or Heskey able to get a shot on target with no keeper in place. Woeful.

What the hell kind of sub is that

The choice is more: go for a win and probably lose or go for a draw and probably lose. McLeish needs to go for a win but he's too much of a coward. We had a reasonable first half, with more of the chances. Half time team talk should have been a galvanizing 'we can win this' but they come out anxious and negative, which suggests more a 'let's try and hold on'.

You reckon we gonna finish with 11 men. Should sub Hutton and one of Warnock/Clark - can't afford a red.