weedman

This, if we're winning games and pushing for promotion or even to win the league we'll definitely get bigger crowds. Much more fun watching a team battle it out at the top than watching one unable to compete and languishing at the bottom, regardless of what division it is

The thing is though our new boys mostly signed on 5 year deals I the summer, we are very unlikely to sell them for the same or less than we paid, and they weren't bargain basement signings, I think the power is with us even if we go down. Unless their wages are cripplingly high, which I doubt given our recent policy, if we didn't want to sell them their only real option would be to go on strike to force a move and that's pretty rare in isolated incidents let alone en masse throughout our team Not sure how much contracts meant theses days, there will be relegation clauses for wages, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's also release clauses for relegation too. Wouldn't surprise me if there was a firesale and Hollis is here to instigate it, I'm not saying that it will happen hopefully not. But, and I would never claim to be any form of ITK, I'm 99% sure the relegation clauses would be for more than we paid, maybe not by much, but surely more, and we paid £8-10mil for most of our better players, so we'd be looking at worst at £10-12mil clauses...have any of them done enough to command that kind of fee? Maybe Ayew but while he's highly thought of here I don't think many other teams know too much about him. Traore has proven he's not ready for PL football yet, so you're assuming someone will take a £10-12mil punt for a player likely to be in the reserves or loaned out who may or may not make it, there aren't too many teams that would take that kind of gamble, 1 less once we go down as well!

The thing is though our new boys mostly signed on 5 year deals I the summer, we are very unlikely to sell them for the same or less than we paid, and they weren't bargain basement signings, I think the power is with us even if we go down. Unless their wages are cripplingly high, which I doubt given our recent policy, if we didn't want to sell them their only real option would be to go on strike to force a move and that's pretty rare in isolated incidents let alone en masse throughout our team

are you sure? Being a yard out of position on a set piece resulting in a goal is a fatal one imo. But he wasn't out of position

I want to sign him for the pun potential alone

Ugh I see some real goalkeeping experts in this and the Guzan threads, experts I'm assuming have never played in goal but figure it's piss easy and they know everything about it. Bunn out of position for Leicesters goal?! Do me a favour, in much the same way Guzan wasn't "out of position" for the free kick (can't remember the game) he's absolutely not out of position there, it's bloody textbook. Reading these threads I see a continuing trend, people who don't play/haven't played in goal don't know anything about goalkeeping positioning, and simply assume if the ball goes in the net from more than 20 yards away it must be the keepers fault somehow. Guzan wasn't anywhere near as bad as claimed at the start of the season, mode recently he's gone to pot a bit and was deservedly dropped. Bunn has come in and done fine, I don't think he's the better keeper, but he's certainly the form keeper and should keep his place, he hasn't had a lot to do so it's hard to judge him too much, but he's done mostly fine with what he's had to - I do fear though that if the dropped cross had gone in or if he'd seen red for the foul on Vardy this thread would be becoming far more Guzan-esque despite him putting in the exact same performances

Also Vardy was pretty shit before the end of last season/this season, in the Championship Leicester fans described him in much the same way we describe Weimann, "good energy and runs around a lot but needs to work on his finishing, ok for a backup but not championship quality". He's kicked on this season of course, but even if we signed a Vardy this winter, or even last summer, he probably wouldn't be in a position to actually help us for a few years. There is a place for cheap gambles, absolutely, but only if you sign some better players at the same time because at best the cheap gambles will take some time to get up to speed, and at worst (the majority) will just turn out to be rubbish. We don't need cheap gambles this January, we need someone to hit the ground running even if it's only for a few months. Problem is we need proven quality and a) not many of them are available in Jan, and the ones that are available probably won't come due to our position

He's quite skillful, capable of some great things but lightweight and pretty inconsistent. Carles Gil is a left footed Shaun Maloney (no disrespect meant I actually like Shaun Maloney)

Have to disagree mate. Norwich, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Newcastle are all having no problem signing players. Do you honestly think Afobe would have chosen Bournemouth over us had we matched their bid? Yes I think he would have. We are 9 points cut adrift and barring a miracle we're getting relegated. Any player with aspirations to play in the PL would chose them over us. Again, that may be different in the summer, we may be able to beat some PL teams to signings simply due to our pedigree and the fact that we should be able to sell our ambitions to players where long term we're probably a safer bet to be in the PL than someone like Bournemouth but players don't give a damn about that now. Taking the claret and blue specs off, if I were a player wanted by Villa and any other Prem team I'd chose another prem team. Newcastle have a far greater pedigree than say Stoke, but they'd really struggle to sign a player if Stoke also wanted them at the moment. We have more pedigree than Leicester, or half the teams in the PL, but those players still won't choose us because we are as near to relegation certainties as you can get in January. Taking off the claret and blue specs, if I were a player (say mid table Championship player) and was wanted by Villa and Middlesbrough, I'd probably choose Boro, simply because they look very likely to go up, whereas we are more likely to go down. Go to Villa, and have a few months of demoralising football before getting relegated and ending up right back where I started, or go to Boro, have a few months of winning matches and actually enjoying football followed by a season in the Prem then reassess the following season? Sounds like a no brainer to me. It could backfire spectacularly of course, but playing the odds they have a far better chance of being in the PL next season than we do. I personally think we do have a chance, albeit a very slight chance, and therefore should be looking for some short term deals, loans or players with equal value "get out clauses" following relegation or large bonuses if we stay up. If we are buying for the future it'll be better done in the summer, but if we are buying for the right now then forget potential and buy/loan/whatever the players who are best right now, whether they are 19 or 39. Obviously it's not gonna be easy getting players to sign, and that is why I think (hope) we'll see more movement towards the end of the window when players realise there are no better offers

I think thats down to the fact that we kind of have a head start on many clubs with regard to planning for next season, and we aren't using it. I'm in the camp that thinks its to late to avoid the drop, and I also think we could be doing a lot more to make sure we give ourselves a chance of coming back up. Take the boy Afobe, had we have signed someone like that (I like to think we could have beat Bournemouth to his services) he maybe, just maybe, might have scored the goals to keep us up, at worst we have a proven Championship goal scorer. Why wait till the summer to do our business? We have a head start let's use it. We don't have a head start though. There's less players willing to join us now than there will be in the summer. At the moment a player will join anyone in the PL over us and more so any player vaguely in that Championship promotion mix won't want to join either just in case they go up, so we're looking at mid table Championship or lower, providing no one in the promotion mix or PL is interested, hardly a big pool of quality players. Next season we will arguably be the biggest name down there, and the chance of promotion should mean we can cherry pick anyone the PL overlooks. If our plan is to "prepare for the Championship" then our best bet is to sign no one this window, and rebuild (where necessary) in the summer

All reports point to him being injured, unless you dislike him, in which case he clearly isn't injured but Garde doesn't suffer fools and he is a prick for posting on Instagram and not busting a nut to get back in the side. Something like that

Jeez calling him a prick for an Instagram post when 99% of his Instagram is filled with pictures of his family or teammates is kind of retarded. If everyone who copies and pastes an "inspirational quote" on their social media is a prick then most people on social media are pricks...which is most people

What are the parallels though? That they're both old? Rio was a couple of years older than Vidic when he signed for QPR. That's a lot at that age. I don't really see any parallels. Plenty of older players go to clubs and can still do a job. Some don't. I don't think you can conclude that Vidic wouldn't work out just because Rio didn't work out. I could quite easily point to Cambiasso going to Leicester at the age of 34 and doing very well for them. That they're both old former Man Utd central defenders who were immense and part of a brilliant Man Utd team who were ultimately released/sold as they got to their sell by date before (possibly) transferring to a team destined for relegation in what is likely to be their final destination before retirement IIRC Vidic lost his legs in his final season for Utd and made a lot of mistakes that year leading to him being dropped then sold, it's now a couple of years later and I can't imagine he's got them back now. Again, I haven't seen him play for a long time and if we sign him I'd love to be wrong, I just don't think he'd be an improvement on Lescott and they couldn't play together as even in their primes they weren't quick

Us signing Vidic would be basically the same as QPR signing Ferdinand. Great, world class players in their day, now old and past it and probably with a choice of retire now or grab an extra 6 months of £100k a week then retire. Big name to calm the fanbase a bit until we realise be hasn't got it anymore. I'd love to be wrong, Vidic in his prime was immense, I just see too many parallels

haha yeah that made me laugh! I think Saunders said that us recalling Guzan proves that it was a full strength side as well

Hopefully he's good, I've never heard of him so can't comment, but highlights packages are even more worthless for goalkeepers than any other position on the pitch, you'd learn more about them if it was a compilation of the goals they conceded

Its worth noting it'll be easier to attract players next season if/when we go down. At the moment we're as near a certainty for relegation as you can get, meaning that players are more likely to join any other prem team or even a few championship teams if they want a crack at the PL next season. Next year we'll be considered a big team in the Championship and one of the fsvourites, highly rated aspiring PL players will probably prefer to join us than just about anyone down there, as well as a few PL clubs considered shoe ins for relegation. With that in mind let's try and bring players in (be it on loan or whatever) with a mind to staying up this year, I'm not talking about bankrupting us and spunking £100 million up the wall, but a few experienced PL players that, worst case scenario will go back to their parent clubs or can be sold for a virtually identical value in the summer, then we can worry about "building for the Championship" when we're actually there, when we'll actually be able to attract players easier.

This. Bad day at the office and on to the next one He was poor and I agree he looks tired, hoping he gets a rest on Tuesday as the week off could do him (and Ayew, who also covers a huge amount of ground) the world of good

Veretout had a real off night in that respect, his set pieces are usually bang on the money as it was for the Palace goal (if it was him taking the corner instead of Gil). Tbf Veretout had an off game full stop, I know he wasn't fit at the start of the season and he gets through a lot of running so I think he's fatigued, needs a week off and some rest I reckon because he's been one of our better players in recent weeks and we need him refreshed and ready for the run in if we are to have any chance

I quite like Leicester, used to live there and know a fair few fans and they're the same as anyone, a few idiots but generally decent. It's good to see them doing well, hopefully they can keep it up as is would be great to see someone different up there who didn't have to spend a billion quid to make it. So if we smash them 11-0 and end up 17th and they win the league I'd be happy!

Tom Fox, excellent PR, "Yeah but it means nothing, all the talk in the world is irrelevant, it's actions that count so he's shit" Steven Hollis, terrible PR, "you can tell from that talk that he's totally out of his depth, what he says is very important and proves he doesn't have a clue, he's obviously shit"

At least he's better than Owen

There are whispers on Twitter that not only did Micah abuse Reginald Ray, he slept with his wife, and Remi Garde's wife and mothers of Gabby's fifteen children. I'm not saying it's true, but it's on Twitter so you never know. No smoke without fire...

I like Remi, I think he is/will be a good manager. He's articulate, clearly knows what he's talking about and has a defined style with sensible team selections. It cannot be denied however, that he is not doing a good job. We've had a couple of performances where we've looked organised for the most part, but it's led to nothing. If the transfer committee is true, and I don't think there's much doubt that it is, then we would have had largely the same squad if he had started the season instead of Sherwood. We had already replaced Benteke, Delph, Vlaar and Cleverley with lots of new additions, and it was considered too much of an upheaval, I can't imagine him also binning off Gabby, Guzan, Hutton, Westwood etc as well, it would have been too much and I don't think we would have done it. If we would have had largely the same squad, which I'd say was likely, then would we be doing any better? It's not like he came in here and we were cut adrift to the point there was no return, we were 4 points adrift after 11 games. 11 games! Not even 1/3rd of the season! In those 11 games we'd actually played some decent stuff at times (should have got more from Palace, Sunderland, Leicester but for some horrendous luck/individual brain farts) but it didn't lead to anything, Sherwood was clearly out of his depth and rightfully sacked. What has Remi done that's better? I want him to succeed, and I like the idea of him moulding his own squad and building us up again, but he has not done anything to warrant that (yet), and until he shows us he is capable of doing something that the last managers couldn't do I don't think he can be immune from all criticism, I mean, it took Sherwood 11 matches to get 4 points adrift, it's taken Remi 9 matches to get a further 7 points cut away, not quite the messiah yet

Really want to know what #5 was...