millbrook85

We need a song for this guy....

*ahem* Might I be so bold as to suggest "Fabian Delph" sung to the tune of the 1970's power ballad "All by Myself"?

Adding to that, while this doesn't exactly set any pulses racing, at least Holt has been successful playing for Lambert (even in the Premier League) in the past. If he can rediscover that form in a comfortable situation, he'll end up being useful.

In fact, I'd offer up this signing as a metaphor for our current season (though in a different way than many would, I accept): not exciting, but ultimately decent. I'd have taken a boring, mid-table finish at the beginning of this season, and while saying that in foresight is different from enjoying it in its materialization, that appears to me to be just what we're getting.

Holt #29.

His weight in stones?

Am I doing this right?

How more of y'all aren't talking about Norwich is a real surprise to me. Their final three fixtures are against us, West Brom, and Man City. If we beat them next weekend, I think it's extremely realistic to wonder if they will get another point, especially after seeing West Brom pound Southampton yesterday afternoon while Norwich lost to a really poor Stoke side.

In my view, it's more likely that we will beat Norwich and draw with Sunderland than the other way around, and if we are in fact level (at least!) with them after next weekend, I'd back us to get more out of Chelsea and Wigan than they do out of West Brom and Man City.

If we survive, I think we will have done so by getting enough to finish above Norwich, as well.

I really doubt he wrote that himself. I might be cynical, but we have people for that and he does not have the time. As long as he puts his name on the bottom it will be a letter from him, as he agreed with what was written, but in no way did he sit down and type that himself.

I don't think anyone is saying he did write it, we all know we have a PR team for this kind of thing. Says all the right things, but every letter/email to the fans does.

Optamistic for the comming season and really looking forward to seeing where we are in a few years, but no more so after reading the email.

On the contrary, I assume he did write it. It's not terribly well-written or grammatically clean. That being said, it's a nice letter without saying anything particularly revelatory.

I agree with the poster above who said this is the best he's felt about the club since somewhere during MON's last year. Say what you will about O'Neill (many have, and it's not my intention to re-open the discussion here), but I always felt like he knew exactly what he was trying to do and had a real vision for the club. It didn't end up working quite how he or we would have hoped, but all the same, I felt comfortable with him in charge. I feel the same way with Lambert; I think he'll have a vision for where he wants to take the club and a real idea of how he wants to take us there. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the start of what I hope (and, what is more, am actually confident) will be a long and successful PL tenure here.

UTV.

I will miss him. I understand that we can't offer him a new contract right now since we don't know who the manager will be next season, and I understand that he will probably have quite a few offers to move on, particularly from mid-level Spanish clubs closer to home, but I wish we could keep him. I think he's every bit as good as Collins (the highs not quite as high, the lows not quite as low), and he also seems like a great guy at a time when, as another poster has already said, we seem to have a lot of assholes in the squad.

I thought he played very well last night. He worked hard and was involved in a lot of our threatening play. However, he was always just a bit off - a bit late for a crossed ball into the box, a bit too heavy on the touch, etc. - and I think it's all to do with the fact that he is sorely lacking in match fitness. He hasn't had a run of games (has he even played a full 90 in the last 12 months?) in two or three years now. I hope he continues to keep his head up and stays in the team, because he has talent, and we sorely need it at the moment.

double post.

Silly from Clark

Silly challenges often happen when your manager emphasises aggression and 'getting close' to the opposition every five minutes.

Also when you're playing young, inexperienced players. I'm no great McLeish fan, but honestly, not everything is his fault.

Honestly, we're well outplaying Arsenal at the moment, and I hope we get our goal before they can get a grip on the match.

I just have one of those feelings today. I think we'll outplay them and grab a deserved but nervy victory, 2-1. Gabby will tear Vidic to pieces as per his usual, and Bannan will have a hand in both goals.

We're football fans, so we want instant results; however, I think that given our current situation, we need to be keeping the faith with young players like Delph. We're far too good for relegation, but won't really be challenging for anything significant, so why not give our young players time and build for the future?

I think he's still quite a promising young player. He has been a bit overwhelmed recently, but he has time and talent on his side.

I'd be disappointed to see him go because I rate him as a player. However, I also think that McLeish needs to be able to shape the team, so I won't be crushed if he goes because it means that McLeish will be able to bring in someone that he thinks fits our squad better. In my opinion, we should either use him or get rid of him and bring in someone we actually will use; either way suits me.

Excellent performance against a side who will do well to stay up this year, but if we play this well against all of the crap sides, we'll be comfortably top half. As Pilchard said, it's a credit to our determination and calm to have responded so well to the Blackburn goal, and I'm tempted to credit McLeish for that. He may not have been the choice of the fans, but he seems to have had a good effect on the team's spirit and mentality.

I gave MOTM to Gabby for the brilliant first goal and for his role in our second. Even though he only played the first half, those two moments were enough for our win today. Delph also looked assured and promising, Petrov was steady, Collins won everything in the air, and N'Zogbia showed skill in bursts. I was also pleased with Bannan when he came on, and I would expect him to get the start mid-week against Hereford.

Overall, there are lots of good things to take away from this match, and I hope we continue playing like this. If we do, we'll be in for a decent enough season, and there's potentially some excitement in store if our young players continue to come on. UTV!

Great play again from Gabby Heskey's goal to hold the ball up and pass to Heskey in acres of space. Very impressive attacking start from us!

Holy Shit GABBY AGBONLAHOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An away point to open the season isn't too bad, and obviously it's always nice to keep a clean sheet; however, we never really looked like scoring, and that's a bit concerning after losing so many creative players.

Given for 3.5m, then NZog for 10m, and Parker for 6.5m (just my opinion) = £20m = i would take those three in a swap for Downing's £20m before he left.

Then use AY's money for Vargas + some more. Job Done

I think it's time to accept that the money we got for Ashley Young is going to be used to help us balance the massive losses we've been making in recent years rather than on new players. I think we're really looking at lowering our wages, but that can't be done overnight, especially since we have players like Warnock, Beye, Luke Young, Heskey, etc. with little left on their contracts that no one will take on their current salaries. As older players like the ones above go off the payroll after this season, I think we'll be trying to get some combination of our youth or younger players on lower wages in as their replacements. I think the end of the tunnel may be in sight wage-wise after we released so many players at the end of this season and will release more after next season. I for one will feel much more comfortable about the future state of the club if we can get on more self-sustaining footing. Then again, I don't know all of the exact numbers, so I could be totally wrong.

That being said, I think N'Zogbia and (hopefully) Parker will slot right into the wage bill to replace some combination of Downing, Young, and (looking increasingly likely) Cuellar. Even adding those two players, we will have cut the wage bill significantly this summer.

Isn't Samba just saying:

"Off to Honk Kong with the Blackburn squad! in unrelated news, follow my friend and fellow Frenchman and North of England resident Charles N'Zogbia on twitter"

?

Actually, I think that's exactly what he's saying. Now, whether he thought to add N'Zogbia to that tweet because as a friend he knows that N'Zobgia is likely to be joining him on the trip at some point is up for discussion.

You guys are kidding about flying him out to play the Asia Trophy, right? If not, God save us all!

If we signed him in time, I don't see why we wouldn't. It's more about fitness and getting settled into the squad than about success in the Asia Trophy. I get tired of hearing how x player "just needs a full pre-season with the team" in order to be fully effective. If we sign him, we should get him into the team as soon as possible so he'll be ready to go; this gives us the best chance possible of having a successful season.

I sincerely hope we're going to be making more than one signing. It doesn't make sense to not even spend all of the Downing money, and that's forgetting entirely about the Young money...

Agbonlahor is a pretty big name and I bet he was there, too.

is it just me being pessimistic that we have agreed a fee after agreein to sell downing thinking we need to sell to buy?

Well, I think we had money set aside for a GK all along and that the delay has been on the Man City side with trying to get his payoff settled. I'm glad it's over and that he'll be over here now. He would not have been my first choice, but I also think he's a very good keeper and will improve us.

However, as a side note, I simply do not understand the disgust with which the term "sell to buy" is treated around here. I hate the old cliche about sports being a business (it's not - too many people are too emotionally invested for it to be considered just a business), but really: in what world do people think an average football owner can pump hundreds of millions of pounds into the club without even considering balancing the books? In England, we're talking about Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour are probably the only two. Liverpool and Man U similarly have great spending power, but that also has a lot to do with their huge brand that leads to huge revenues. We are still in the midst of a global recession; have we learned nothing from it? Portsmouth almost went out of existence; Crystal Palace, ditto. It is not a horrifying thing that we have owners who are doing their best to make us a relatively self-sustaining club that can run healthily for years and years to come, and it's frankly ridiculous to expect the owners to buy and buy and buy without any consideration of balancing the books.

To get both N'Zogbia and Parker for a little less than we sold Downing for would be great business, in my opinion. We do, however, also need to spend the Ashley Young money...

Fingers crossed...we definitely need him now. I am concerned that we'll end up way overpaying, though, especially since our opening bid was 10 million.

Whelan admits Wigan might have to sell N'Zogbia

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has revealed that the club may be forced to sell Charles N’Zogbia this summer.

The 25-year-old Frenchman was influential in preserving the Latics’ Premier League status last season with a run of four goals in the last four games.

But this summer he has been linked with a move to a host of top sides including Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland and Aston Villa and Whelan has told talkSPORT this could force Wigan’s hand.

He said: “We have to sell Charles N’Zogbia because he’s on the last year of his contract. We can’t keep him if a big club comes for him and he does deserve a big club because he’s that kind of quality player.

“We would love to keep him and pay him what he wants to stay with us but it’s a very difficult situation.

“He’s such a great player and we are such a small club sometimes we don’t go together.”

Here are some quotes from Dave Whelan on TalkSport admitting that Wigan may have to sell N'Zogbia this summer since he only has one year left on his contract. I'll be surprised and disappointed if we don't make a real effort to buy him. He's the obvious and natural replacement for Ashley Young, and I think having him and Downing on the wings feeding great crosses into Bent (and with Albrighton pushing for a starting place) would make us very dangerous on the attack.