NeilS

Did we sign a promising young Swedish player last season? This all sounds very familiar, is it the same player or a different one?

I think what is concerning most people is the return of 9 points from the last 36 available, when during those games we have played Swansea, Cardiff, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Stoke and West Brom whilst playing some pretty dreadful football along the way. I think that is fair enough to be concerned after that little run. What concerns the most is our ability to lose to the teams around us, when in reality they are the games that will either save us or relegate us. The team seems to be unable to string two decent halves of a football match together, let alone two or three decent matches together. I must admit that the season started fairly brightly for us with the win at Arsenal and valiant defeat at Chelsea, but we have regressed massively over the last few months and those performances seem a distant memory. I know we haven't been on the receiving end of any major tonkings like last season, but things don't appear to be getting any better in terms of performances, and the average points per game is starting to come down in line with last seasons efforts. This all makes for a nervy finish to the season for us. I hear the argument that Lambert hasn't had the finances to compete at the top, but the reality is he should have achieved better results with what was left at his disposal. The teams coming up have spent more money than us in transfers, but the reality is they needed to to catch up to where we should be. I am not convinced the players he has bought into the club bar Vlaar and Benteke have the ability to play regularly and be succesful at the top level. I hope I am wrong, and we finish the season strongly and he builds a bit of craft and guile into the team in the summer but I can't see it.

Let's be honest, he should have scored or at least hit the target. But, heading ability can be worked on and I am sure he will get better with age and experience. Also It looks like he mis-timed it more than any technical issue, which I bet is easily done when the ball is whipped in and people in front are going for the ball.

I would guess it is Salifou that she is referring to, she probably forgot about his time in Switzerland. I imagine Switzerland is fairly peaceful country, so the noise difference would still be quite vast.

Zola just resigned as Watford manager according to the beeb, coincidence? I would be suprised if it was, it is probably too soon for him and he hasn't done as well this season at Watford.

I also thought at first that it might be a good idea, but on reflection it couldn't work with the way the game is at the moment. As BOF says earlier then number of players doesn't stack up, With some refs dishing out yellows like they are going out of fashion we would have teams playing with 8 or 9 players at some points in the game. Also can you imagine, if your team is leading at somewhere like Old Trafford, the ref suddenly books 2-3 of your team meaning you play the last ten minutes with reduced numbers. There would be calls of corruption and favouritism from fans all over.

Well done Uefa and the big clubs, you have finally made club football a closed shop. Tied up any loose ends, that may allow teams to rise up compete. You have stopped any team taking a quick fix to challenging the dominant teams with the financial fair play rules, now you have stopped the other method of challenging by bringing through a decent youth set up. This has made my blood boil over the weekend. What is the point of modern club football anymore. It is not a sport, it is a business and I can't say what I want to say as it may land this website or me in trouble. I have been feeling like this for a number of years and this is more or less the final nail for me. The best youth players will now start to move towards the usual suspect as they will want to play in the competition (as seen with Crowley), which will mean that not only will the best young players come through at the top teams, any that they do miss can be hoovered up with their greater financial clout further down the line. We have seen the same teams at the top for the best part of a decade now, and I can only see this cementing their places at the top table for many years.

Whoahhh! I have changed my mind about Jack's loan now. Bring him back asap, I hadn't realised that Treacherous toad was there.

I am for the extension of a loan, learning his trade out of the spot light at Notts County will do Jack the world of good and toughen him up to the physical and Mental strains of a whole football season without being in the spotlight of having to perform at the top level. If he were to come into our team, and he wasn't physically or Mentally ready then he may struggle and Jack that could put back Jack's develpment by years or even stop it in its tracks. For example, pretty much all of the youngsters we have thrown sdtraight into the first team in recent history, bar Gabby have struggled to perform consitantly down the years. Many have been moved on, and some are still trying tho get there. I think patience is the key here, and I am all for letting the younger lads go and develop themselves in the lower leagues. With regards to Januzaj working out for Man Utd, he has done very well in his 2-3 games to date, but the difference there is that he is surrounded by top class players throughout the team and will have less pressure on him to perform. Also, the true test will come later when he has been under scrutiny from the top players in the league, and things don't always work out for him. The future does look bright for the lad, but it is still early days to say he is going to be a certainty.

Has McLeish been mentioned yet? Although drawing every game from here onwards probably won't be enough to save Palace this season.

I agree, The majority of the league places are still up in the air during January, unless you have had a terrible first half of the season. Selling Benteke then could spell disaster for our season. Just look at Sunderland when they sold Bent to us, they were in with a chance of Europa League qualification but nose dived after his sale and we went past them. Keep Benteke until the summer, and with a bit of luck and hopefully the rest of the team finding form, we could put in a late surge up the table and give ourselves an outside chance of Europa League qualification, sell him and we could easily drop like a stone.

So Notts County then, good luck to Jack with the loan move. I hope it goes well for him, and he comes back better off for it.

Ignore this.

It might explain why the top teams have such good records here! (Man Utd/Arsenal etc). Lets look at it, the pitch is big, nicely kept which allows for slick passing. The best teams tend to see the lions share of the possesion, and the bigger pitch will ultimately leave bigger spaces for them to exploit. This however flies in the face of us struggling to break down lesser teams at home; even during our better years we would be drawing too many games because of our inability to break down a well organised defence. I think that rather than reduce the pitch size, we just need to make sure we become better at retaining the ball and exploiting the spaces ourselves. Hopefully Lambert is moving us toward that goal.

Does anybody know when does Boardwalk Empire start again in the UK on Sky Atlantic? I see that the first episode has been out in the US, but cannot find a release date for the UK?

Haha, those were the days.

Is it a case of the fee being £4m ish, and the total overall cost after fees and wages making the deal woth £7m? It may be reported in two different ways? Does that sound feasible, or am I talking rubbish

I guess they are not expecting any action of interest to be happening at BMH. Also, the players we tend to be looking at these days are not "Box Office" names as such, although they one day maybe with the way Lambert is picking players. Are you expecting any action other than possibly Kozak today Richard?

I don't know anything about this guy, but by the sounds of it he is a big brute of a player. We may be looking to play the two big forwards up front, in a similar fashion to the Shearer/Sutton partnership of yester-year, and that It may allow an alternative option to the current front three that we use, and will give a slightly different game plan. I guess that gameplan could be described as a battering ram style to use against teams that defend deep. That may be harsh on the guy, as he may be technically sound like Benteke for all I know. I guess he also would possibly rotate in our current system with Benteke, just in case Benteke gets injured or suspended. We all saw how people panicked when the rumours of Benteke having broken his leg surfaced on twitter. It seems a strange signing, but we don't know all of the stuff going on behind the scenes, or what Lambert is hoping to achieve with this signing. I shall reserve judgement for now as I don't know enough to make any informed opinion on the fella, although I am slightly perplexed by the signing, and I'm not sure yet how this signing will "make a difference", which is what I think the quote was from the other day.

You would hope that the club would have taken action if the Twitter account was Gabby's.

Leftism by Leftfield. Although I have just noticed prior to hitting the post button that Rev has beaten me to it.

I think the original point referred to our time under MON when we were challenging for top 4, not our current boss.

Beeb reporting Anelka given compassionate leave

The "It all evens itself out over the course of a season" rubbish, is the mantra of the Sky 4 supporters. It rarely does even itself out. Yes, you may see the odd favourable decision go your way, but against the Sky 4 it is very rare for one of the other teams to get the benefit of a bad decision, especially on their own soil. The thing about last nights decision that was annoying, is that the ref can't say he was unsighted as both incidents (Elbow & Handball) happened right in front of him. Therefore he has ignored , or chosen to interpret the rules differently to suit. If the incidents would have happened the other way around, you could almost guarantee that he would have taken different action.

It wouldn't suprise me if Ireland ends up without a club when his contract expires, he may end up in some far flung place or retired imo. No top team will want to take him on after the last couple of seasons.