praisedmambo

I say this sounds like someone caught out. Why wouldn't you say that straight off? Classic ITK vague melding of the known facts.

Any more news on Dale Stephens?

Boring (way to go not taking in any previous facts yadda yadda). Can you stop repeating yourself by any chance?

Are you basing your info on wikipedia by any chance? (because it's wrong - about two seasons out of date)

Why? If we actually start getting points again there's no reason why we can't stay up.

Bent was the best player?

Funny I remember two years ago refreshing this website for the opposite information, Bent signing.

I do think people go a bit extreme. You can't blame Bannan for that result. (But he should never be allowed to float a ball in again from a set-piece)

Hey, Bannan was good in the second half. I think he has been very very bad recently and a big weak link but second half he did nothing wrong. At least this game should put an end to the wingback system.

Er, including those shitty cup games our recent form is better than Newcastle's.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21227938 8,281 posts Posted Today, 07:57 PM praisedmambo, on 28 Jan 2013 - 19:53, said: "What? 3 teams around us have strengthened their squads. 2 of them in Newcastle and QPR have done plenty of business. What transfer window are you watching?" QPR bought two players, that is not really "plenty of business". Take out Newcastle and West Ham and there's not been much going on at all.

There's also not much activity in the transfer window at all, never mind our club. Unbelievable? Why is it unbelievable? It's a famously tough window.

Why do we need a striker and is that the same Sunderland we can't outbid who paid 12 million on Adam Johnson and 12 million on Fletcher this summer?

He never says "there is no money" outright though. It's more "there's not lots of money" or "there's no money for players like Bent" or something even more abstract. I might just be hoping. I think quite often, like when he ruled out Lescott, it is about the wages as much as anything.

I just think we've got too many players who aren't good enough, and you can't teach people to have more talent. (That's players from the academy, squad pre-summer I'm thinking of.)

dudevillaisnice, on 28 Jan 2013 - 10:44, said: . KEA wasn't the answer in hindsight. It hasn't worked out but I think there is an example of Lambert trying to address the issue we all knew we had. I think he was meant to be the answer. He never bought Delph, so I'm not sure what that was about. The job is still going on. Do you think that Lambert has completed the overhaul of the squad that he intended? We know Dale Stephens was in the pipeline too, whatever happened there. There are still players on the wagebill who need to go and more signings in their place before his squad building can be fully appraised I think. Work in progress. Things take time etc. They do. He had to lower the wagebill and form a squad - it's a difficult job on 20 million (that's after losing Petrov, Collins, Cuellar, Heskey, probably someone else, from an already shit team, who - except Heskey - would all have played significant roles so far this season - but they had to go, we had to lower the wage bill). We're short of players as it is and that's after signing 7/8 in the window.

There's a key part to this supposition that I think was in the managers intentions and the failure of anyone being stupid enough to buy them might just have dictated the number of signings we made. Maybe it, even now, stopped us going for Sissoko. His remit is to reduce the wage bill though, so his hands were tied. You can use all the if's in the world but KEA was/is a DM - some signings don't work out, and that one is a shame considering how he looked at the start of the season. I hope his bit of sunshine in Africa maybe has given a kick up the ass because I think him and Westwood and N'Zogbia are the best three in the squad for midfield. Also, there is no way KEA is on the wages that Sissoko is on, which is not Lambert's fault if he is having to work to a budget.

"It's all good and well these valid points but I'm going to completely ignore them."

To be honest, I have avoided pointing the finger at someone to blame, but if it goes anywhere it's between those two. Lerner has made some naive decisions.

The mandate for any manager coming in was to reduce the wage bill. That means many players have gone and we have had to replace them with younger, hungry, players. That is totally sensible way to approach those financial restrictions. With those restrictions what else could he or any other manager have done? What other approach would give us even a chance of sorting all this mess out? We were always going to have a weaker squad. It's a transition period anyway. And face it, we're not that much worse than last year, and to think two years ago with Downing Young and lots of experienced players we were in the relegation zone outright at this stage, your principle accusation that HE made the squad worse is short sighted for so many reasons. You ignore all the facts surrounding what he is having to do in the job and how the club have been since MON left. You are also ignoring the fact that his approach was always going to take time to come to full fruition, and requires stability. It is a job very much started and the process is only in the beginning.

At least he's trying to sort out the problems. He doesn't look like he's running away either. I don't think it's too big for him at all. "Too big for him!?" What does that even mean, come on man. It's dumb rhetoric.

He had one window. We are cutting wages aren't we? So why offer Cuellar a new contract? Lowton is not worse than Hutton. Your sarcasm covers a lack of thought, I'm sorry. We were so shit last year too, don't forget that. The squad is absolutely not of his own making...it is full of inherited players, academy players, and also players overpaid and underperforming we can't shift, you know that. So why ignore it?

I pointed this out because we are relying on completely different players this season (Lichaj, Clark, Baker, Bannan, Delph) who have all made a significant number of appearances this season, compared to last season, what's more, I'm pretty sure if Lambert got the opportunity to replace them with more balanced players he would.

If you want to blame the financial restrictions then it is Lerner not Lambert. We keep hearing "Get the wage bill down", what chance did he have? What choice did he have? We have a talented manager working under tough conditions with a shit and limited squad.

Last year vs this year comparisons. (Last year is obviously the full season, this year the half season we have had) Appearances: I've included players who played quite a few games last season who have left, which is obviously fair. last season vs. this season Lichaj...9 vs 10 (whole season vs half season!) Petrov 28 vs 0 Baker 8 vs 11 Dunne 28 vs 0 Collins 32 vs 0 Heskey 28 vs 0 Clark 15 vs 20 I can't get stats for Cuellar or Delph. My point is to BJ10, he didn't take the same squad and make it worse. The players that left we all believed had to go. Lambert only had 20million to sort out a squad that was shit the season before, with significant players missing (Petrov, Dunne maybe).