VillaChris

Like Paul said that is OTT. We had a worse keeper playing for us when we finished 6th in 2007/08, didn't get magnified as much as we were so good going forward that year.

Like so many he is done at this level now. A shame as I've always liked him but that's the truth and I'd be amazed if he's still number one after Feb 1st.

Is he allowed to come back into the team again or does he have Adama itis. I could understand the reasons for him not making Norwich but given he was supposed to be fit I'm baffled as to why he was left out today as Lescott looked a bit better alongside him which says a lot.

I didn't think he was too bad at CB in the early weeks but he's mirrored our form big time and has got more hopeless by the weeks, his positional sense has been as bad as I thought it would be and what I remember from when he played there at City and Dunne had to bail him out time and again.If he has to play it has to be at RB. Him there, Adama also starting out wide and suddenly our team has a bit more pace in wide areas and looks more threatening.

That post was laced with sarcasm in fairness.

Now where have I heard that one before....

Nice...I was travelling back on the train while the game was on otherwise I'd have lumped on City at 1-0 down, what were their odds to win with 10 minutes left?

Ayew and Adama upfront for rest of season please, it would be fun at least as there's nothing else to look forward to now.

Looks o.k for Ireland though, is that due to the slower pace of international football or that Ireland defend on the 18 yard box?

Yep it would need a record low points tally to stay up for yes to survive imo, what's the lowest a 17th place team has stayed up with. Our best chance is if someone like Norwich or Bournemouth barely win a game second half of the season, it has happened before even if both are in good form, remember Hull in 2008/09 season. The big problem I have though is imaging us stringing a few wins together...we have a poor team, squad etc, can't score more than 1 a game, can't keep clean sheets. It's not going to happen.

It's alright...the surnames just amuse me with both coming from the same club (small mind alert).

Well if it's a loan Chelsea will pay the majority of his wages. Plus Palace have been taken over recently haven't they.

Will he be better than Ibarbo?

Palace certainly need a new forward given Wickham is their first choice striker, can stay in London aswell.

It happens, 10 years ago likes of Charlton and Bolton were finishing in top 7 and both could be in league one at the end of the season. There's 6-7 big clubs in England so if a couple of them drop off and have poor seasons like us and Everton (and Spurs a few years back) that creates a void that can be filled by a smallish club on a good run.

All the managers we've had in the last 5 years will all have played a small part in the relegation, some more than others but we've been slowly creeping down the table since September 2010.

It's one of the things I back Garde on actually...he's realised early on that long servers like Gabby and Brad have been part of our decline (the losers as dear old Tim would put it) so think it's best if we move them out rather than relying them to get us promoted.

Has been a regular last couple of years though.

Just seen Norwich bid 10m for Andrea Ranocchia. That probably sums up the Prem's financial strength....a promoted team can offer an attractive package to a regular of one of the Milan clubs. I remember Ranocchia was seen as Italy's big defensive hope a few years back...hasn't quite panned out like that but he's still got a very good pedigree so interested to see if they get him

I've been a fan but his level is miles below what it was 2 years back. Can still have his good games like Man. City at home but they are rare now. Would be amazed if he's still number one in our first game after February 1st.

Well at least he got 30 mins at Norwich so it's slowly building towards a start (probably at Wycombe) but I'd like to see him start at Sunderland as one thing from our recent games up there is Sunderland back 4 always seem to have a nightmare v our pacy players (and last season it was Gabby and CNZ so no world beaters there). I did say a few weeks back that yes if he plays we really need to put Bacuna somewhere in midfield to cover that right hand side and make sure Hutton isn't exposed to Adam Johnson (unintentional honest!) or whoever. With the Ayew and Westwood suspensions and Cissokho available now there's an opportunity for this.

Yeah you get that every 3 weeks or so....well I do as I've had an account for 6 years. Haha yes I've also thought of that, I did actually one weekend put a fiver on a team to score before 80 minutes, they scored on 79 and that snowballed for the rest of the weekend's games into 400 quid profit so that's about my best attempt from a free bet.

Too much work for me lol but fair play to anyone who does this! As you've probably gathered from my posts I do a fair bit of Internet gambling on football games....my complicated method is betting on the time of goals being scored, some weekends that works brilliantly, other times it dosen't so probably like most other methods. One thing I would say...at which amount would your betting account be closed down or at least heavily restricted in the stakes you can make. I was watching the Coral documentary a few months back and there were a few Professional gamblers who had their accounts restricted or closed on account of a business decision by the bookies so intrigued as to how much they were actually making per month.

Next game is Real Madrid at home aswell....he'll be sacked when they're eliminated from the cups as still in Europa and Copa del rey. He'll do well to last to April.

Sunderland are done aswell....they're as useless at home as we are.