NeilS

Is it just me who really doesn't expect any new signings this side of the WC? I'm not bothered, actually. I just don't expect anything to happen before mid july.

Not just you, this is what I think as well.

Hmm whoever it is, it's bound to be announced very soon!

I reckon it will be announced after the last game of the season. I don't think Randy will want to take the focus off Acorns until the season has ended.

I thought it would be interesting to see the stats, As i honestly thought Chelsea must have pummeled our goal with shots etc but they had 13 shots in total with 7 going in now that is some purple patch they had. Personally i see it as a freak result and our boys will bounce back.

Yeah I thought the same, they had 9 on target if I recall correctly. So they must have been fairly clinical with their finishing.

I didn't bother watching MotD, for some reason I didn't feel compelled to. So I can't really comment on the game, other than to say the result made me feel very ashamed.

We need to bounce back from this, and use this as motivation for the rest of the season. If not, then I fear another disappointing ending to the season.

I think it's 50/50 atm. I hope he can turn the end of the season inot something really good and then he might stay. If not and it ends in tears I think he'll walk for a few reasons.

This was pretty much what I was saying to my Dad at the weekend. If we get a reaction from the defeat and finish the season strongly he may stay. If we finish the season limply, then I wouldn't be suprised to see him go in the summer.

I would disagree with the poor manager label being given to MON. I think he has done reasonably well so far, I do wonder however, if he has taken us as far as he can go.

He's good enough for it too.

but is kicking other teams off the pitch really the United way ?

tbh I think one would have to be crazy to take the Man U job ..impossible act to follow and it's not the youngest team there at the moment so they are soon due for a major rebuild .. without Rooney this season would they be in contention ?

Exactly my thought on that second bit, Tony. It's probably managerial suicide to try and succeed SAF.

You are quite right, the next manager would be on a hiding to nothing having to follow SAF the most succesful manager of modern times. You would need an massive ego, with a large dose of self confidence. Step forward..... Jose Mourinho.

Everton are certainly not a shite team. I don't think they will catch us.. but they will certainly run us close now. It could come down to our head to head.

If Spurs make it to the FA Cup Final, 7th will be Europa spot. That's a good incentive for them, and our heads have dropped as 4th seems to have slipped away.

I think they have the momentum now, we are struggling to get wins wheras they are picking up some great results. If we keep on drawing games then they'll soon pass us. I said a month ago that Everton shouldn't be ruled out of the 4th place battle, and with the way teams above keep blowing hot and cold they might just sneak it.

I'm sorry to keep on about this, but ive read the above about interpretation of 'moving directly towards goal' and also graham poll on radio this morning stating he probably didnt send him off as he was moving away from goal...

ERM NO! vidic did get back goal side, but no matter what angle you look at it from, gabby pushed the ball past him in the exact direction of the goal and his next act was an unimpeded shot at goal if he wasnt pulled down.

Blatantly heading towards goal and blatant red card. he does need to be questioned about this and suspended

This is pissing me off as well. They make it sound like Gabby is heading for the corner flag. If running directly at the goal means running straight between the goalposts then a lot of Red Cards have been wrongly issued over time, and the FA are going to have lots of appeals to handle in the future. I think they are taking the rule too literally, to make excuses for a blatant mistake/cheat by the ref.

warnock wouldn't have slipped and we may well have won

warnocks slip was when they hit the post at the end of the 45th minute ... wasn't it ?

Indeed. In fairness to him though the pitch was very slippery and in a poor condition. His tackle on Valencia in the first half when he caught up with him was brilliant.

the pitch was absolutely dire! during Valencia's run that you refer to the ball kept jumping about a foot off the surface. not good enough really - then again they probly used it for american football/rugby league/car racing during the week :shock:

When they interviewed Dion on SSN before the match they showed that they had a giant plastic tent covering the pitch. This was because of the torrential rain in London over the weekend. They also had blowers on it beforehand to try and keep it dry. I'm guessing this didn't have the desired effect.

Graeme Poll is a massive tool, so I disregard most of what he says. Dowd is a massive word removed of an even higher order to coming up with this excuse, would he have done the same if the was foul was commited by Dunne on Owen? I doubt it, he probably would have dished out some card.

Agreed, I tend to ignore the opinion of a referee who fails to send off a player until he issues him with his 3rd yellow. If he can't even get that simple rule correct, his view means nothing to me.

Just remembered Zat Knight against Chelsea when it was 4-4, he was shown a straight red despite being between the player and the goal. Guess who the REF was, what a bloody coincidence just checked it out.

That is quite right, and if I remember correctly the Chelsea player was heading further away from goal than Gabby was at the time.

Gabby did have to change direction, mainly due to Vidic grabbing his shirt, but he still had a large view of the goal to aim at, until Vidic pulled him over his leg. They are trying to make it sound like he was heading for the corner flag. I don't understand how anyone can even consider defending this decision. It was outrageous, and Phil Dowd should never be allowed to referee a top game ever again!

85 Minutes against 10 men with a goal headstart. Even my pesimisitic self would fancy our chances with that. I feel robbed, that once again when one of the so called big 4 need a break it magically appears for them.

Does Carew enter the final year of his contract next season? If so it wouldn't suprise me to see him move on in the summer for a small fee (£3m).

I'd love him to come good and bang a few goals in, but I don't think he has offered enough consistancy against the top teams to push us onto that next level.

I thought that we would be in for a tough game at Palace, and wasn't suprised to see how the game panned out over the 90 minutes. I'm relieved that we are still in the cup, as I believe we should be trying to win both cups. I'm quite suprised by some of the comments on here and other forums, as I didn't think we did too badly. I think that people perhaps thought it was going to be a relatively easy victory, and got frustrated when it didn't work out. Palace battled hard, and roughed up our players at every opportunity. How Lee didn't get sent off for the elbow I'll never know. If he trys that again at Villa Park, I would expect a straight red.

I thought Brad was at fault for the first goal, and perhaps could have done better with the free kick. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the 2nd as it was a great strike and he may have been unsighted by the Palace forward on the edge of the box.

There were some great balls in to the box, we didn't always get on the end of them though. I thought Ashley Young had won it at the death (from I think Downing's cross), but again just missed out the killer touch. We scored from two great set pieces, though they were almost identical deliveries. Heskey should have done better with a similar 1st half effort, but ballooned it over. You would have thought they would have wised up to that type of delivery. Luckily they didn't and Petrov capitalised near the end.

All in all, relatively satisfied with a draw. We could have done without a replay, but at least we get another chance in the competition. Still some work to do before we can start planning the next round though as I expect another tough game at VP.

I'd love to be as optimistic as some of you lot and do admit that I have a thought that this could possibly be our year to "do them".

However, they knowcked Spurs out of the League Cup with a team mixed up of first teamers and kids.

They stuffed West Ham 4 - 0 and the Germans 3-1 with many players missing incuding two midfielders sitting at the heart of the defence.

They are 2nd in the Prem, into the last 16 of the Champs League (topping the group) and are in the League Cup semi.

They are not exactly crap are they.

This kind of sums up my feelings as well. Yes I know they are suffering an injury crisis at the moment, but they are still seeming to pick up some very good results. Add to that, the fact the game is at OT, and the extra man they have on the pitch, plus Fergie time at the end if required. I'm not so confident as some of you guys.

I think Carragher retired from England duties during the McLaren reign.

If you would have watched McGrath week in week out you would fully appreciate the class of the player. Yes he had his low points, but when he was at his peak with us he was immense. His reading of the game was second to none, he was also a very skillful player with the ball. I remember little skillful backheels and flicks to safety.

I used to have a conversation with my Spurs supporting friend, who used to claim Mabbutt was as good as McGrath. Did Mabbutt win Player of the year? No! I'll admit Mabbutt was a good defender, but nothing special like McGrath. Again Ledley King, decent defender, but still not in McGraths class I'm afraid.

Mabs and McGrath were different types of defender completely. Mabs was a blood and thunder defender, who wore his heart on his sleeve. Spurs legend but never as talented as Mcgrath.

King is a different kettle of fish to Mabs, he has all the attributes that Mabs didn't snd had to make up for with sheer endevour.

OK I'm glad we're agreeing on the Mabbutt thing, as my mate wasn't having any of it at the time. Which has led me to take everything Spurs supporters say with a pinch of salt.

I don't think we'll ever be able to agree on King/McGrath. It must say something of McGrath, the idolisation he receives from all Villa and Ireland fans many years after he has finished playing the game. That combined with the fact he was a Central Defender, not the most glamorous/glorified position in the team.

Will King be as fondly remembered ten years after he finishes playing?

If you would have watched McGrath week in week out you would fully appreciate the class of the player. Yes he had his low points, but when he was at his peak with us he was immense. His reading of the game was second to none, he was also a very skillful player with the ball. I remember little skillful backheels and flicks to safety.

I used to have a conversation with my Spurs supporting friend, who used to claim Mabbutt was as good as McGrath. Did Mabbutt win Player of the year? No! I'll admit Mabbutt was a good defender, but nothing special like McGrath. Again Ledley King, decent defender, but still not in McGraths class I'm afraid.

I haven't seen the game so cannot comment on the performance, but it does sound like we were poor in the first half. A draw is not a bad result, I will not be too down hearted about that. I would have liked a win, but considering the form of the home team and tricky conditions then a draw is not all bad. A lot of teams will find it hard going away to Burnley this season.

I would take Lennon to the World Cup, purely because he offers something different to our other wingers. He has pure pace and due to his low centre of balance can change directions pretty quickly. He is always likely to cause panic in a defence and possibly win penalties. The defence always run the risk of picking up cards against him as well. I would take him in place of SWP for certain.

Ah yes Christmas Eve. I like working Christmas Eve as there is no real work going on, there is lots of Christmas food on offer, and the company raffles off all of the alcohol/hampers/chocs that they receive from other companies to all of the employees. Then we finish at about 1pm.

When I say raffle off, I mean a raffle ticket is attached to all gifts and we take a lucky dip. We don't have to buy raffle tickets, they are free.

Hehe, If Shevchenko is the top of their list then I'm not worried in the slightest. He flopped big style in a good Chelsea team when he was nearer his peak of his career. Now a few years later his stock has fallen, his game has probably dropped further, he will not suddenly get the hang of the pace in this league. If they smash their wage structure to sign him, it will be a big waste of money and it will cause problems with the rest of the squad. Bring it on!!!!

I agree with pretty much what Santa_Rosa typed. I voted 9.30 as well.

This is going to sound strange, but I have also found if I'm laughing alot at standup gigs, then I start feeling a little tired towards the end. I don't feel sleepy as such, just need to yawn alot. Can't explain why, just something I have noticed over the years.

They also said that money is to cover the wages as well, not just the signing of players. Anyone else think Carson Yeung could be Doug in a mask?

Hehe, I was just thinking the same. One day he'll have his latex mask pulled off, and he'll mutter that he would have got away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids.

Dion broke his neck in December 1999. He was never the same player when he returned from that awful injury.

ooops.

in which case, i change my vote to Angel.

But i can't

I'm rubbish on the whole timeline bit - thought dubbers was very much post 2000 - seems he wasn't.

Angel and gabby for me then.

I agree that Dublin wasn't the same after his injury, his goalscoring record when he first signed was amazing.

A good way to remember is that Dublin's comeback was to slot home the winning penalty against Bolton in the Semi Final of the FA Cup. It is best then to forget the Cup Final of 2000.

Who has voted for Whittingham!!!! Haha, I know Young hasn't been up to his usual standards recently, but even so.