dukes

I think keep Richards for now, but maybe make one of the French lads a deputy captain, and drop Gabby from his role as club captain...it's not like he justifies the role. just look at his so called heat map from last night.

well, he did also get them into the mess in the first place.

Jesus, who do you want then? Woodytom for gaffer. Think.we missed out on Big Sam big time tbh. He'd have guaranteed safety imo. If we were going for a risk maybe Karanka. Is a cheeky punt for MON out of the question? you don't want Moyes, Rodgers or Garde, but you want MON.....seriously ?

No thanks !We'd have nobody to moan at.

Yeah, bankers at least do some good !

Your post reads like you wanted to start out being positive by giving him until December, yet by the end of it you couldn't find anything positive. In the words of Inspiral Carpets "This is how it feels to be lonely" ! I made a point of trying to be positive the last few weeks, but the dip in our performances since the Leicester game has gotten totally out of hand. Perhaps Sherwood is too emotional to be a manager ? I thought it was good that the manager seemed to be as affected by results as we are, but now i'm thinking he might be a manic depressive and end up found in his car in the woods with shotgun wounds to his head. If this carries on i might join him.

Well this is a bit embarrassing. I still want to give him until December, but yesterday was shocking. That game was there for the taking, Stoke were really very poor indeed, and we looked clueless, and seemed to be playing 2 right backs in the first half. More concerning for me was the fact that Sherwood hardly moved from his chair and sat there with his hands in his pockets like a grumpy school kid.......I can only imagine he read this thread before the game. Players look to their manager for inspiration, and sitting around doing nothing is simply not good enough ! They and we deserve better. Coming up we have Chelsea (A), Swansea (H), Spurs (A), Man City (H), Everton (A), Watford (H), i'm usually pretty optimistic, but i am looking at those fixtures and wondering where the points will come !

I think it's remarkable he managed to finish below John Carver's Newacastle. very clever, but Newcastle were in tenth when Carver took over from Pardew in January, so as we were in the relegation zone when Sherwood took over in February it shouldn't be any kind of surprise they finished above us. But I don't suppose that common sense suits your agenda. Please don't be so misguided as to think that only you or people that share your view have the monopoly on common sense. Oh and please stop accusing those who don't share your views of having an agenda. In regards what I posted I was simply trying to illustrate in a quick way that Sherwood didn't do a remarkable job with us last season irrespective of us reaching Wembley. We had some very good results but we always had some very poor results. He deserves credit and criticism for each but to claim what he did was remarkable is a bit of stretch in my opinion and I think probably the opinion of quite a few others. I'm not against giving him more time but it doesn't mean I think that with more time he will turn this around. The faults I thought he had before he arrived here have only been confirmed in my view of him and I don't see that changing even if the results do. I don't expect everyone to agree, that is football. Perhaps you should follow your own advice on the common sense thing ? This is a forum for discussion, it would be a very dull place if we all agreed. How many times have i accused people of having an agenda ? I think thats the only time, and maybe i shouldn't have, i'll be more careful in future. When Sherwood took over we were well and truly in a hole and only going in one direction. I'm not saying there weren't other managers that could have done the same, there were, but at the end of the season we were safe and in a cup final. For the first time in a while i had hope going into a summer. The summer transfer window was one of the most entertaining we have had in a very long time (and thanks also for your insight on some of that). We started the season off playing half decent, and quick paced football, and even though we lost a few games there were generally enough positives to continue to have hope. The Leicester game showed that Tim was naive, he lost us that game by being too gung ho, then against the baggies he seemed to recognise this and we were too defensive. The thing is, having signed so many players and then getting some injuries we are still gelling and finding our best team. The overhaul of the squad was necessary, we lost Delph and Benteke, who would be missed by any team. Gana and Traore look to be very good and very exciting acquisitions and in Gestede and Ayew we have two unproven premier league strikers trying to find their feet, much the same as Benteke was after 7 or 8 games. That is why i think we should be more patient, at around the 15 game mark if we are still in the mire, then we will have to react, but right now we need to get behind the team and the manager. On Tim's emotional post match interviews, i don't really know what to say, but it is quite good to see the manager hurting as much as i find myself hurting. If we sack Sherwood, what's the next appointment likely to be ? Redknapp ? Pearson ? no thanks (and i am aware that other managers exist).

I think it's remarkable he managed to finish below John Carver's Newacastle. very clever, but Newcastle were in tenth when Carver took over from Pardew in January, so as we were in the relegation zone when Sherwood took over in February it shouldn't be any kind of surprise they finished above us. But I don't suppose that common sense suits your agenda. I think the point is that by the end of the season we were freefalling faster even than Newcastle, which is a bit of a worry when you're supposed to have momentum on your side. I don't see that as valid. From where we were when he took over, he took us to safety and a cup final, that was something of a miracle. by your logic, Mourinho should no longer be manager of Chelsea because all that matter is the last few games. As as I have said he deserves longer with these players before jumping the gun, it's reasonable to give him until mid December in my opinion.

I think it's remarkable he managed to finish below John Carver's Newacastle. very clever, but Newcastle were in tenth when Carver took over from Pardew in January, so as we were in the relegation zone when Sherwood took over in February it shouldn't be any kind of surprise they finished above us. But I don't suppose that common sense suits your agenda.

Well i think what he did at the end of last season was remarkable given the players available to him. For that reason i will give him until mid December before i start calling for his head, and I am confident that i won't be calling for it then either. Results have gone against us, the team are still gelling, and we've had injuries to the best two signings so far. We haven't had much luck, but flukey win and things suddenly look ok again, the margins are that tight. Breathe everyone.

Well he has been gash for a long time

this is what Sky has done to our beloved game ! We have 11 new players to gel into a settled team, we have injuries to the two brightest signings ! the last game was the first this season where we have looked crap and not up for it, we had 3 seasons of that under Lambert !

It looked like an easy enough save to make to me

For me, Guzan to blame for the goal, also his distribution was even worse than normal, and he either does not communicate with the defenders or they just ignore him. Gabby, also dreadful, I think he has just forgotten how to play football, cannot hold the ball up, seems completely blind to where either his own team are positioned or where the ball is going. I don't think he beat a single player, unbelievable that he stayed on the pitch when Sinclair was taken off. Gestede, wasn't great but as we spent the whole of the first half punting high balls up to Sinclair and Gabby only for them to bounce right back into midfield, his presence was needed and I think had Sinclair stayed on and Gabby gone off we might actually have got a half decent pairing that could play off each other. Desperately needs more game time and is a better option than Gabby. Sanchez was the man of the match for me, the only steel in our midfield (we really missed Gana today). Amavi had his worst game for us, but to be fair to him he made some half decent interceptions and he was left very exposed. Still overall looks a good signing. Gil, was good but tired and was less effective in the second half....needs to work on his fitness. Westwood, was ok, but needs to play with stronger midfielders. Veretout needs to get up to speed and needs more game time, nothing special from this lad so far, but we have to give him time. Richards and Lescott look woefully slow and we will be run ragged if we play that defensive pair against the top sides, we need Okore back and on form quickly ! all the rest were a bit Meh I had high hopes for this season, but Tim has made some serious tactical errors in the last two games, today we were over run in midfield and should have switched to 433 or 451 to try and get an extra body in there. The overall play today was the worst We have seen this season, where is the fast passing game we saw in the previous home games, why are we now playing high balls up front when we don't have anyone on the pitch that can hold the ball up or even win a header ? I still think we will be ok, but this time last season we had 10 points, we currently have 4 so a couple of wins are now desperately needed.

Was she ?

Yeah, not a fan of patent black and gold myself either.

Agree with this, it's been an exciting window, the squad looks stronger than it has done in a while. There are a few question marks over our strikers, but we should be playing exciting football and I would expect us as a team, rather than relying on one player to score more goals than in the last few seasons.

But Lambert couldn't get those players to play, otherwise he'd still be in a job. It's arguable that Sherwood got more out of the players than Lambert did, so i don't really see your argument. regardless of the quality of the players, we had a team who were used to and on the face of it easily accepted losing, are you really saying that the mass change of personnel won't at least bring a new refreshed attitude.

Imagine actually thinking Sherwood is sitting around waiting for Leicester to identify targets and then moving for them What the fox is going on in their heads

There is a lot of speculation, and it does seem Darder and Amavi are close to signing and highly rated. This coming season we will be Tim's team, and an unknown quantity, maybe we will do a Southampton.

Just as things seemed to be looking up we get hit by an attack of douche bag by our captain. What a total asshole !

If I were Benteke I'd have serious concerns about signing for a "bigger" club who either under valued me, or can't afford me and play out their whole attempt to buy me on the cheap. In the media. As others have said, stay here, have a full season under Sherwood (who has shown he knows what is needed to get Benteke scoring), go to the euro's, bang in a few and the real big clubs will come knocking.

Been playing the 'one of us' card for way too long, pace and not a lot else, and I'm afraid and his pace is not what it was. Has seemed lazy and disinterested for most of the last few seasons (admittedly with some periods of sparadic form). Needs to leave (for him and us), but with him contracted until 2018, and most likely earning in excess of £50k a week I can't see anyone taking him off us.

Actually i think this is wrong, i might well also be wrong, but due to amortisation we would in fact be spending much more over the period of new contracts than what is remaining on existing contracts, Bent for example was out of contract before the exclusivity period was announced, therefore there would be no amortisation of his contract in the projected accounts for 2015-2016. £0 over how ever many years is still £0. If Weimann leaves for anything it'll be a profit on player disposal. Doesn't the amortisation of a players contract also include wages ?