Jon

Excellent report Pete. Good to meet up too with you and Bicks. Excellent day, excellent result, very good performance and hard earnt 3 points. Bicks kindly rang the pub so they held my top for me behind the bar which i picked up after the game. also managed not to get to soaked on the walk back as we chnaced upon some buses going straight to lime street. 8) all in all, an excellent day. I'll have to get to some more of these away games

One could argue MON is heading the same way with his transfers. 2/3 right so far. TRL you're not seriously comparing MON's firts signings with DOL's are you? MON didn't have the comfort factor of a few weeks to bring in new players did he, plus Ellis was still in control of the money and even then, tried to screw up what MON wanted to do. Given that situation, you can't compare it with DOL. Sutton and Agathe were free agents, were available outside the window and known quantities to MON, also He wanted to retain Milner, but Fat Freddy scuppered that. indeed AinS TRL is way wide of the mark here IMO. :? He has IMHO purchased a player far superior to anything TPMWNMNBM purchased during his time here. His free "stop gap" acquisitions during the closed transfer window were just that: FREE signings OUTSIDE of the window. I cannot see any sort of valid comparison.

an excellent summary of TPMWNMNBM's transfer dealings the summer before the one just gone, Mart :winkold: strange that out of the infamous Secret Seven, only one is arguably still a first team regular starter with a fully fit 11 (Hughes). Hopefully he won't be after january.

indeed Ian. the thread was resurrected on here the other day and the broad consensus was that most welcomed the addition of EDD. Some even thought it was a great purchase :oops:

The Wardrobe as Fulham fans call him, is a good player. My only gripe is he is always injured, or appears to be always injured. TPMWNMNBM would maybe have tried to buy him then? :winkold:

not as a left back he isnt matter of opinion. I'd say he was. also according to our current manager Barry is the next best thing to Cole at left back for England. So i reckon he thinks he is too.

When will these rumours about Bridgend?

"everyone agreed"? Well that would be a first. you never get everyone agrreing on here Simon :winkold:

in fact, in terms of incoming players into the "first 11", we have not strengthened at all this season. Incoming: Stan Outgoing: Milner, CKP in terms of purchases/outgoings, that appears to be the only "strengthening" we have been able to do. To expect a european push on the basis of that is asking quite a lot, IMO. DOL in his first full season had a full summer to assess the squad and bring in players of his choosing. MONster has not had the same benefit. But at the present time is doing a better job (at this stage of the season).

seems Malc is hankering after some Leeds type "success" of 6/7 years ago. Jam today, sod tomorrow, as Blandy rightly noted. Also trying to crank up the pressure on MON to get immediate results. MON was bought in too late for that. This season for me is one of assessment and rebuilding with a hoped for gradual improvement on the pitch. That's what i think we're getting at the moment (with the odd blip along ther way). I'd rather go for growth in a sustainable manner, which means having patience and giving MONster more time to mould a team. To expect/demand a European push this season is for me frankly unrealistic.

We Love You General K!

admirable James, but surely if you let 1 club in the prem do it, you have to let them all do it if they want to. i think it's mainly a safety issue after Hillsborough ......

Hillsborough

indeed - it's a bit like complaining to the geezer behind the Virgin counter that the trains are late and that it should be put right. or complaining to a taxi driver about the length of time a journey takes due to the amount of roadworks. Terracing in the premiership is outlawed by the Sweet FA. on the flip side, if we got relegated to the Conference the terracing is indeed an option :winkold:

another hello and welcome General K from a dull, grey and wet Manchestoh. Hopefully AVFC will soon overtake that crap club that i have to look at from my office window every day

Not really You see the subtle difference as I see it is that I am thrilled by what we are achieving this season. TRL does not appear to be and anyway he is not prepared to give credit now, prefering to wait until the season is over. Yes we did crap last year and yes this season is a lot better because they are performing to their capabilities. I am thrilled that we have a manager able to get the best out of the players. Thats the difference in viewpoint I think. Fair doo's Trickie. I think as you suggest here and DDID says, TRL seems to be of the belief that ANY manager would have acheived a similar start to the season, and hence in his view we're not overachieving. I believe this to be a very odd viewpoint with little evidence to support it. I'm in the camp that believes the very good start we have had is almost entirely down to MON and the fact he is now getting the very best out of a small squad of decent to good premiership players. I didn't expect to be 7th at this point, which is why i opted to say "overachieving", but i can see both sides of this. "Exceeding my expectations at this point" would sum my position up on this.

In McCann's Role :oops: I think he got confused with all the shouting ..... If Gav is out again I would go with Ozzy in his place. which means i would also go 4-3-1-2, with Gabby as the player behind Baros & Angel operating alternately on either wing. my 3 in midfield would be Ozzy, Stan and Davis

AGree with everything apart from the last sentence Trickie. I'm a tad confused. If you don't think we're overachieveing at the moment, then surely this is quite a similar view to TRL who thinks we are performing "as expected" or that that things have been "average"? Personally, for a manager who had but a few days in charge before the season started, and who has been able to purchase only 1 player, I think he's excelling. To be undefeated and 7th at this stage is mouch more than I for one expected, so on that basis i'd call it overachieving.

:shock: 100% sure though Rich? what if the MONster doesn't want him? Would Randolph force through a purchase against the manager's wishes? from what he's said, MONster wants pacey attacking players, and Becks surely doesn't fall into this category. Suppose he could play central in a 4-3-3 though. Gav/Ozzy, Becks and Stan occupying the middle 3 midfield berths would be quite good come January, come to think of it. Would Becks move to Brum?

can i be the first to sate the obvious? How can we have 2 MOTM's? especially when one gets a 6 and the other an 8 :wink:

i voted no - which i think makes me a hypocrite :wink:

possibly yes on both Ian, althought train crashes are very few and far between. Coaches defo - thought they already were? I sometimes don't wear seatbelts when i'm in the back of a car. Depends who's driving :winkold:

a bird in the bush is worth two in the hand? :?

I think that works out as 95% of votes cast being in favour of our Man Randolph. and this was BEFORE he had his bid accepted IIRC.

Bumped in response to Ian's Support for Randy thread. The result here looks quite comprehensive!!