dubliner

5 hours ago, BOF said:

Oh it'd exist alright.  You can be sure of that Warranted?  Maybe not.

Yeah what was I thinking??

Of course it would 

6 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

To be fair to Brighton, they've been incredibly unlucky not to have been a premier league team for a good few seasons now, they have an incredible infrastructure there, their training ground is state of the art, their chairman is Brighton born and bred, when they go up they will be staying up and in the top 10 within a few years.

 

They also have a brilliant manager. Ridiculously underrated.

If only we'd gone for him in the summer and promised him the money we've spent - you could be sure this thread would not exist.

Thought his attitude was poor all evening.

Strolling around the pitch when Forest had the ball.

Not good enough.

Get rid of this clown now. Horrendous keeping yet again

He was a victim of the system we used last night rather than being particularly bad at any aspect of his game.

Three new midfielders thrown in together in a "formation" that was non-existent.

I'm 100% confident he's going to be a good player for us.

That is as bad as it's been this season.

No shape to the midfield whatsoever.

Bruce has to take the blame for that. 3 new lads with no idea what system they were supposed to be playing in.

As for our centre backs and Johnstone..... Woeful 

You'd get a jumbo jet in between our two centre backs 

23 hours ago, dn1982 said:

Burnt bridges is another excuse to miss training 

But if we bring in Rhodes he should be able to make it

I was optimistic about this one in the summer but how wrong I was.

In hindsight, when you sign a player who can't get his game for one of the worst teams in the Premier League (and who I think had the worst record in all of English football in 2016) it's only going to go one way.

It's for this reason that I'd rather see us sign the likes of Hourihane, Lansbury etc in this window than any player who is not featuring for a struggling Premier League side.

8 hours ago, Mantis said:

Can we rename the Witton Lane stand after him?

Not a bad idea.

McGrath would be the first I'd name a stand after personally

RIP.

He'll always be remembered fondly at Villa Park

Would have to say McGrath is the only one I've seen in my 30+ years watching the Villa that I'd put in the World Class bracket.

In the last 25 years have we even had another player finish in the Top 3 in the PFA awards? (We may have done but I certainly can't remember one).

McGrath's performances for both Villa and Ireland were exceptional almost every time.

The game against Italy in USA 94 will always stick in my mind, when he was up against the world's best at the time, Roberto Baggio.

Honourable mention for Platty but was he World Class while playing for Villa?? I think he fell a bit short of that mark

He has literally no hope of becoming United's number one so with a bit of luck he has a fantastic few months and United will sell him to us.

That being said he's fairly inexperienced so I'm expecting one or two mistakes. 

On 1/4/2017 at 10:45, Demitri_C said:

I will be cheering any side that isn't ivory coast. Unhelpful twas ts

Yeah the fact he plays for one of the best teams in Africa is the main concern. He's gonna be gone til February without a doubt

Why can't he play for Eritrea!! 

Wish him all the best.

Always gave 100% but just never seemed to fit here. 

Would love to see him have a successful few years 

34 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Its absolutely ABSURD to blame him for all his performamces.

ALL of these good,players have come here only to transform into absolute shite?

Wake dafuq up everybody!

Agree with this.

He hasn't made an impact at all but no way would I write him off yet.

The service to him has been woeful. 

Get the midfield right and we may see the best of him 

On 12/22/2016 at 15:38, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Expand? Personally I've been watching football for 25 years, I feel like I know instinctively whether a player is working hard or not. I don't think there's any basis for questioning Ayew on this.

Even compared to the current squad under Bruce, who are to a man putting a shift in, he's still one of the standout contributers in terms of workrate, in my opinion. 

To expand I think he's capable of a hell of a lot more to be honest.

That's what frustrates me about him. Not at all a personal attack on the player.

That being said he's not the only one who could improve drastically! 

13 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

Err... nothing to do with what I said. But okay.

I'm stating my original point. 

The fact that we've come to the stage where people are seeing someone like Ayew as one of our workers is one of the reasons we are where we are.

I appreciate that in comparison to some of our current players he may look like a workhorse but my point is that Bruce will fix this and bring in players of the right mould (the likes of Brady).

Ayew will not be with us next season IMO

4 hours ago, kurtsimonw said:

Lack of effort is one thing Ayew can't really be criticised for. For someone who's a forward, he makes an absurd amount of tackles (most for us this season, I think|) and tracking back. I can understand people thinking he's selfish, lacking end product, slowing the game down, etc. but effort?

If we sign someone like Brady we'll see what constitutes effort 

15 hours ago, TRO said:

I would be reluctant to appraise him while we have such a poor midfield.

Totally agree.

It also took him time to settle at Fulham and once he did the goals kept coming.

I'm hoping he proves his worth when the African Nations is on because we badly need him to.

I've never been his biggest fan but thought yesterday he was solid.

If he plays like that I'd be happy to stick with him

31 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

He still had a lot of flaws in his game that need to be ironed out.

I agree but it's his attitude I love. 

Never stops trying 

The man is an absolute boss 

Just now, AVTuco said:

Bacuna's doing fine.

Glad to hear he's keeping well! 

Hopefully he makes it to Loftus Road for the second half

4 minutes ago, imavillan said:

is McCormack playing?

I was going to say the same about Bacuna