kyle04

1 win in the last 14 home games, Eden Hazard, whats not to be optimistic about...?

A quote from the geordie forum : "We're on 2 points from 8 games. Ant and f***ing Dec could do a better job." They're not happy with Rafa at all....

Hold the front page - 3-2 Utd !

The way Utd are going I'd expect BFS to get the call sooner or later.........

We could be in the bottom 3 after tomorrow. Toon 2-0 up

Could be, maybe we have a chance of Ronaldo after all....

Incredible to think we actually managed to sign KK. I heard a story that Lawrie Mac lured him to his office, locked the door, threw the key out of the window and refused to let him out until he signed. Don't know how true that was but sounds plausable.

I think the fear is that if we do go down we'll either stay there for a long while or descend further, it's happened before. However having to witness 0-0 v Burnley and getting spanked by the top 6 is not , I suspect, what fans pay the money for. I want to be entertained, see Saints win, or both. Our League 1 -> Championship -> PL adventure was hugely enjoyable, although like many I think the PL is now an insane circus, centered around a handful of big clubs. I predicted years ago that the player prices were unsustainable, but I was wrong, it's getting even more ridiculous year on year. Ticket sales contribute next to nothing to a PL clubs wealth now. The 14 other clubs are just cannon fodder for the top 6 generally. Leicester did buck that trend admittedly but that was a freak occurance. Jumpers for goalposts now !

For those of us old enough to remember managerial longevity : Nigel Pearson : 15 months Jan Poortvliet : 9 months Mark Wotte : 7 months Alan Pardew : 13 months Dean Wilkins : 1 month Nigel Adkins : 28 months Mauricio Pochettino : 16 months Ronald Koeman : 24 months Claude Puel : 12 months Mauricio Pellegrino : 10 months Mark Hughes : ? Not since Chris Nichol (ended May 1991) has a manager lasted more than the 3 years the club handed Mark Hughes....

Hughes is known for this. Says it's just a hobby. I'm not so sure....

JWP's dead ball technique is very good and it's clearly something he's worked on over the years. Anyone who's ever kicked a football would appreciate how difficult this seemingly simple skill is. Beckhams career was made largely on this attribute. He was so good at it not through natural talent alone, but through obsessive practice, staying behind after hours when his team mates were home and hosed. I wonder how much dedication some of our players are putting in. As an academy product I'm a little disappointed that JWP is struggling to make the grade, I'm sure as "one of our own" fans would like him to succeed. If I was at the club since before I started shaving and trying my best to be a good player I'd be horrified by some of the spiteful comments some fans seem to deem OK to post about me. Many managers instruct their players to stay away from social media / forums. For good reason.

I think we'll stick with Hughes until December at least, which would be a fair chance. The potential scenario of 3 managers a season has never been good for any club. If we have a manager who performs minor miracles he won't stay for long anyway (re Poch), or the club will repay the success with the sack ( re Adkins). Football's too brutal these days, the only constant are still the fans. Bought my son his first shirt recently, took him to the Leicester game. Still hardly took it off afterwards.

Dinlow - now there's a word I haven't heard since I was a lad....

We have been fortunate in the not too distant past to have found many decent players (VVD, Lovren,Fonte, Schneid, Lallana, Ox, Walcott, Clyne, Shaw etc) who have served the club well and made us a nice profit when they've moved on, but seem to have lost the knack over the past couple of years or so. We have spent a lot of money but the players have either been clearly not good enough (Hoedt, Boufal and the utterly dreadful Carillo for example), or need a little more time to develop (or not). I remember Lallana seemed to stand still for 2-3 years with us before becoming the player his is. Many people dislike the current PL ethos of instant success (with the obscene amounts of money involved), at the same time becoming impatient when it eludes the club they support. Like many I find the PL a little boring lately, even though there are 6 clubs competing at the top rather than 2 or 3 as it used to be. Maybe I've been watching football for too long (40+ years). In a recent paper article Kieron Tripier noted that hardly any academy players in any club are good enough for first team football and end up in lower leagues or discarded altogether. It's no different with SFC, Lallana aside our academy system has been a dismal failure and we now rely on gambling on new signings, which are not always successful, as we know...

lol. Maybe Walton Vale one of the side streets....

Hughes quote after the game : 'Frustration is the emotion we are feeling,’ he said. ‘You can stick with individuals for so long but you might have to make a change to stimulate the group' About F***ing time !

Referring to our attack as "lightweight", rather than the more accurate "totally ineffectual" would be diplomatic in IMO....

True, though same could be said of Hughes to some extent which is why I suppose we kept him on. One thing that did change last season when Hughes stepped in was the fighting spirit which had evaporated under Mope, and despite his record at Stoke many were cautiously optimistic. I don't know where thats gone , although in the 2 pre-season home games (Celta and Borussia) we looked very underprepared and unfit (especially Lemina). In a way our "easy" starting run has done us no favours (at least Newcastle for example have played 4 of the "top 6" already and only lost each by the odd goal). I still believe we have a half decent side within our squad somewhere and MH needs to find it. Austin needs to go immediately, whatever attributes he had are gone. Long also offers very little. Hoedt is a liability. Redmond is trying but is aimless. Vest looks out of his depth. Lemina and Bertie look disinterested most of the time. A tough nut to crack.....

The MOTD lads were diplomatic, saying "decent performance, looked lightweight up front". From the highlights we had a couple of weak speculative efforts on goal, and Wolves could have scored 4, so a fair result really despite Hughes saying we didn't deserve to lose (if he genuinely believes this he's deluded). Even if we had scored first after 75 mins say, I doubt we would have closed the game out without conceding (re Brighton etc). From the little action I saw, Hoedt really is a poor defender and the Yoshi debate rages on. You could forgive Hughes if he made changes (eg Yoshi, Stephens, Gabbi, Gallagher, JWP) and it didn't work, at least he could say he played all his cards. So out of Burnley, Leicester (who were poor), Everton (who were poor), Brighton and Wolves (who were average) we have 2 points when 8 or 9 could reasonably have been expected (and sorely needed). Hughes is no Pep but surely he can see it's not working at the moment, he must at least try something different. The longer this goes on the worse morale will become. Players are bickering in public already and with an average squad if the spirit isn't there we are doomed.

Saw a bit of this on the pitch towards the end of Mopes illustrious reign, and it's never a good sign so f*** knows whats being said in the dressing room. Has MH got what it takes to sort it out though. I wouldn't want to spill his pint on a night out but everyone's getting paid no matter what so who cares...

All these teams are better than us (Newcastle debatable), some by a wide margin. I don't see 4 winnable games here at all. Can't honestly see more than played 15, points 10 at the end of this run....

Well I was in the "give him a go he kept us up" camp but no longer. To keep selecting players who consistently under-perform makes no sense. Austin , Hoedt, Lemina in particular. If our squad has players who can't do better than these we are in real trouble, and I can see us doing a Sunderland quite easily. Why on earth isn't Yoshi not playing for example, is he turning up drunk to training or something ? Every match seems to be 1) we will concede at some point. 2) we probably wont try and score until we concede if at all. 3) If by some miracle we arent losing towards the end of a game we will bottle it. Our club has gone backwards in the past 2 years , our much celebrated academy has produced next to nothing and we buy players who should be playing at least one division below PL. The way football is at the moment to hand MH a 3 year contract was ludicrous, which will lead to even more money spunked away when the axe falls, cos he aint gonna be here in 3 years thats for sure. As to Hughes replacement, its beginning to look like the Mope syndrome - anybody please !

It dosen't matter that Wolves are newly promoted, or dont have the "PL experience", they are a good side with a good manager playing with confidence and belief, the polar opposite of us at the moment. I predict a defensive set up with little attacking ambition (Long up front as usual), although Ings may make things happen, about the only player who can trouble the opposition. 0-0 at best, but more likely 2-0 Wolves. Still we can look forward to 3 points v Chelsea at fortress St Marys later. Yes..?

Yes we return to the turd polishing analogy, although I think we're slightly better than under Mope. There are many sides in a similar position though, and not many can say they've had a satisfactory start to the season. The reality is that we are a bottom 10 club, emphasis on the word "club". We've been very fortunate to have recently unearthed some players that have moved on for huge sums of money (mainly to Liverhampton), and managed to spunk it away on second rate players. The rare find of a decent talented manager (Poch) is quickly gone when they move on to better things. We have Hughes because he was available at the time, ie, just been sacked. Is he doing the best that can be done with whats available ? Debatable but general opinion says not. So we either stick with him until the situation gets past the desperate stage (like last season with Mope), or start the merry-go-round again with a new face and hope for the best.

Maybe Jose when he gets the boot from ManU...? Why not, we have Chilworth, The Bargate, Witherspoons and maybe a signed photo of LeGod, what more could the man want?