tomav84

100% this...don't know much about chester, but when i saw the money we paid for lescott alarm bells rang. they knew how awful he was and were laughing their heads off that we actually paid for him

i have a horrible feeling he will go on deadline day leaving us with no one but cissokho

I actually agree...I didn't see the drive and passion i that i saw at the back end of last season. I saw a player who was in a sulk about playing left wing when he wanted to be CF.

Ditto. Player comes inside its a certain goal, narrow the angle and keeper is unlikely to be beaten near post

At least Guzan's kicks went into touch! Who'd be a keeper eh...kept us in the game until then

I rate Baker, Elphick, and Okore over him...plus you have Toner breaking through too. Just hope we use the cash towards a playmaker or striker. His performances at the Euros confirmed how error prone he can be

don't we need to create a string of chances for that to happen?

Not sure about that personally...think there are 8 better midfields in the prem than that. think it's a lazy signing for them, 'we dont need to negotiate due to release clause, contract discussions should be straightforward' etc I liked his energy but for me he offered about as much as any other midfielder did last season...not a huge amount.

A mate who heard from someone claiming to be ITK (got info from Cowans - and yes we've heard all these so called ITK rumours before) say they were waiting on the outcome of the playoff final, as Bruce would almost certainly leave. Today, he gives interview saying he is considering his future. I put £10 on him at 12/1 yesterday and the odds have halved in 24 hours.

one suspects the delay in announcing ticket details could be due to arguments between blues and WMP over ticket allocation. imagine they wont want to give them the usual 4500 allocation after what happened at their place

I spoke to the ticket office yesterday and said i couldnt attend, so for this game only they are putting ST holder's seats up for sale on official site if you cannot attend and giving you the equivilant in villa cash so call them up if you cant make it friday

I sincerely hope he does...he gave me an 81m transfer budget last summer!

Exactly. had only 4 games on my history including the semi final so bought tickets to west ham, burnley, everton and saints. 8 games, final ticket on tuesday, job done

guess i was one of the lucky ones...it only errored out on me once then let me buy for me and my 4 mates 2nd time around. website wasnt even that slow. a mate spoke to ticket office yesterday who believed there will be tickets left tomorrow

The guy i spoke to let me assign one to a mate who only has 1 game history for this season. I very much get the impression there are so many left that they are basically giving them to anyone with booking history. I really hope this doesnt mean we have a big space of empty seats

..... or you can't get a ticket because you can't be bothered to make that a priority ? Seriously, strikes me some folks want to get a ticket without doing anything. If you REALLY want a ticket then it is not that difficult ..... just needs a little effort !!! So I need to take 6 hours out of my day and spend £40 on the train just to physically collect a ticket which could easily just be posted to me? For a ticket allocation which isn't even selling out? And you'd like to blame me for this? You can do one mate. call them up...i live in Bournemouth and they made exception for me and are positing the ticket i ordered this morning

Kwango unchained

Bentekkers is in... Tonev good value at 5.0 i reckon

many players have come from the lower leagues and thrived in the premiership. lambert hoped this would be the case and threw what little eggs he had in one basket. i personally hoped that these young lads would take the attitude that they would have 38 cup finals this season. lets face it, bradford tonight (and many other cup upsets over the years for that matter) proved that when facing superior opposition the extra fight and effort can see you through to a result. unfortunatly once the honeymoon period is over, as it clearly seems to be now, all you're left with is a group of lower league players getting outclassed game after game. lambert has taken a massive gamble. we all hoped it would pay off. hell, at times this season we thought it had. there have been some historic performances considering our squad vs the opposition (swansea home, man city and norwich in the cup, liverpool). a lot of our starting 11s in these games wouldnt have made these teams' benches yet still got results but as i said, i think they now feel like they have 'made it' and are now established premier league players. but theyre not...not by a long shot. someone needs to get that fight back into the lads because right now, i am tempted to put a sizable wager on us getting relegated from the championship because most teams in that league would batter us at the moment. they need a wake up call big time and whilst i like the bloke, i am not sure lambert is the man to do it. damned if i know who is though...not sure if even fergie could keep this lot in the league to be honest.

still **** humilated if we lose this

worrying thing is i can see bradford getting a 2nd...if they do we'll fall apart

long shot but anyone know of any spares going for death grips in london?

very strange...maybe theyre one of those clubs that reduce allocation cause of standing? would have thought we would have asked for maximum. booked neutral area right next to away fans as no hope of non st holders getting one for this

Superb following and on a Sunday too. It will be our biggest up in the North East league wise for some time. I have a mamouth drive on this one. Up at the crack of dawn in Bournemouth after a heavy few days on a Stag Do. I salute you Sir! Fantastic away support as per! bloody ell im driving up from bournemouth too! could have sorted something out if knew earlier...stopping overnight in newcastle tomorrow so should be a good piss up regardless of result!

deal seems fairly nailed on. welcome aboard son...we need all the help we can get