Happy Face

I'd have been blase about 12th before Ashley arrived. wouldn't you? I'd have been blase about going out on the piss and pulling a lass before Ashley arrived. Things change. He's missed a trick, he should have taken us down to the 4th division. Then promotion 3 years running would have been worthy of a statue Howay man, you know he's judged on whether he takes the club forwards or not in the time he's in charge. At the moment he hasn't.

Even if we only get a couple of seasons out of him I'd love to see him come for that much. But I think we'd get more. Never been reliant on pace. Just a great brain and footwork.

I'd have been blase about 12th before Ashley arrived. wouldn't you?

I'm not as furious with the board as these shitty arguments CT instigates would suggest. It was the same with Accadadacaspacka. He came in with a deliberately antagonistic posts when people were pissed off. So a lot of people reacted against his OTT guff. He was ultimately right because we were champions, but he went on like we'd have the trophy tied up by christmas, this was before we knew what the squad would even look like and how the chips were going to fall. The people reacting to his posts didn't necessarily think we would do too bad, most were confident of promotion, many as champions. Since relegation it's gone pretty much as I expected. I thought we should target 8th - 10th this season, what Stoke/Birmingham achieved last season, but 12th was more realistic. That doesn't mean anyone should go on like CT does and suck the cock of the bloke who took us down in the first place. He deliberatley posts WUM shit like the OP and you know he does. I'm not particularly negative about anything, but next to his shit eating POV anyone would look like Jack Dee. On the selectiveness, Ben Arfa and Cabaye haven't started a comparable number of games.

The number of times I've read "box to box" from people who've got it off Wikipedia. Haven't several people with a bit more knowledge already said that's bollocks?

1. We'll be in the top 4. 2. Gervinho will be current top scorer. 3. Ben Arfa and Gosling will be injured.

We've done no better than I've predicted. You said "Most people predicted we'd struggle". I'm not putting words in your mouth. Selective choices there. Aren't Milner, Carroll and Given better than Best, Guthrie, Kuqi and Krul? I'd say those were better things. And that annoyed me, as the likelihood of adding 5 or 6 top class players (what we need) and not letting anyone go (possibly beyond anyone's control) is remote. Thats an acceptance of change and a hope that we will be better off than last season. I'm sory it's annoyed you, but that's the way it is. Ashley's tenureship has been an unmitigated diaster and he's going to have to do more than get us promoted and aiming for survival to convince anyone otherwise. Of course the burden of proof is on him and anyone approving of his every decision.

He had a get out clause in his contract, which is why we got him so cheap by all acounts. He wouldn't get into those other teams at the moment (much like Barton), but he wants to play in a better league and I reckon we'll have improved his current salary.

Those feminists, an evil that should be stamped out. Missed that. Kudos CT.

They were 9th the morning of the last games tbf. ...and 6th with 8 games to go. Allardyce reckoned he should get the Real Madrid job for that feat.

You forget though that 15 years ago was our "high" in decades.... There are lads today logging on here who only know Ashley (poor buggers) but they still want to feel positive and support the club, same as most of us did in the dire shit of the 70's and 80's. Twaddle like that makes you as popular as you are. Tony Blair Mk. II tbh I love you to But its still true. Like Stevie I remember being devatated when the mackems beat us in the play offs. Tearful when KK's helicopter left the pitch and fucking distraught when Beardsley (the greatest toon player I have seen) was sold to Liverpool. This after years and years and years of shite football. Times now are fucking brilliant compared to some of them. edit Ossies fucking army ffs (our lass thought we had a lot of mascots that day) Away and shite. You wouldn't know who we were playing when Keegan took his helicopter ride without Google. You're this bloke...

You forget though that 15 years ago was our "high" in decades.... There are lads today logging on here who only know Ashley (poor buggers) but they still want to feel positive and support the club, same as most of us did in the dire shit of the 70's and 80's. Twaddle like that makes you as popular as you are. Tony Blair Mk. II tbh

Because that's what we do. We did it with Milner. We did it with Given and Nzogbia. We did it with Carroll. We sell without cover at the end of a window, occasionally having bought early to move season tickets. Do me a favour, Liverpool sold Torres at the last minute, leading to the Carroll deal. Hindsight proves it was better not to make some stupid 12th hour sale and instead have the time now to invest that money properly. My point is that there's an undeniable pattern of flogging players with value at the end of a window. It worked out with Carroll this season. Good deal. But it ended with relegation the other times. Hopefully it'll work out when we do it this window. Which you must agree we will.

Most people didn't think we'd struggle at all...this thread for example, where the consensus seems to be playoff places.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...hl=championship and my thoughts on the matter were.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...st&p=630298 We didn't, but I thought we'd do just fine. And again this year, I predicted the exact spot we'd finish. Thought we'd do OK, not great, and we did. It was always based more upon which teams were worse than us than any sort of ambition though. No deals have been finalised yet, but as I stated before, happy as I'll be to see the mooted players coming in, we have a clear plan to buy early in the window to sell season tickets and sell players closer to the window closing...like we always do. Can't imagine why anyone would think any different given the rumblings of discontent and the history...especially someone who was so sure Carroll would stay in January. See I remember this thread where a good few including the great Alex, laughed at Accadacca. http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...093&hl=piss (Apologies if its the same thread, havent checked.) Very few people saying we'll struggle in that thread. What people like you and Chez need to remember is that there's a whole host of possibilities between disagreeing that we'd piss the league and thinking we were relegation bait.

I didn't get shouted down

Tbf buying earlier gives the players more time to settle and have a good preseason. Selling at the end means they go for higher prices as other teams panic buy. Yes there may be an element of wanting to increase ticket sales, but even so it just makes good business+footballing sense to do it this way anyway tbh. I'm not saying it's a bad way to do it if you want to sell all your best players. I'd prefer we just didn't sell them though. And anyone having a wank at the moment, taking what goes on in May as evidence of our overall moving and shaking in the window, should know better by now.

That's a false equivalence. 95% of people posting, apropos of the past 4 years, are predicting no changes . There's been no activity whatsoever to suggest that the frugal approach taken previously will change at any point. Those people are not saying "I'll be proven right", they're saying "There's no reason to expect anything different". We will sell our best players, we will not improve anyone's contract to keep them. We will not go that extra inch to secure a signing in a vital position. We will make do with Best/Kuqi type makeweights until we can strike gold by chance. The other 5% are predicting much greater things, with no apparent supporting evidence. The burden of proof will be on those misguided few come September. Hang on, that's not right. Most people predicted we'd struggle in the championship and slated posters like accadacca and called him a spacker for predicting we'd waltz it. Then when we were promoted they did the same when people said we would do ok. Last summer was a great window and the christmas window has not panned out how everyone predicted it would. Carroll added fuck all to Liverpool this season and therefore by definition we lost little. That may change next season but it hasn't happened yet so when you talk about the burden of proof it falls just as heavily on the depressive fuckers on here. For the record we've spent £5m and sold no one so far this summer, yes? See, this is why I love Chezgiven. Someone with an iota of intelligence sharing your view? Unfortunately it drags him down rather than you up

Because that's what we do. We did it with Milner. We did it with Given and Nzogbia. We did it with Carroll. We sell without cover at the end of a window, occasionally having bought early to move season tickets.

Most people didn't think we'd struggle at all...this thread for example, where the consensus seems to be playoff places.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...hl=championship and my thoughts on the matter were.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...st&p=630298 We didn't, but I thought we'd do just fine. And again this year, I predicted the exact spot we'd finish. Thought we'd do OK, not great, and we did. It was always based more upon which teams were worse than us than any sort of ambition though. No deals have been finalised yet, but as I stated before, happy as I'll be to see the mooted players coming in, we have a clear plan to buy early in the window to sell season tickets and sell players closer to the window closing...like we always do. Can't imagine why anyone would think any different given the rumblings of discontent and the history...especially someone who was so sure Carroll would stay in January.

That's a false equivalence. 95% of people posting, apropos of the past 4 years, are predicting no changes . There's been no activity whatsoever to suggest that the frugal approach taken previously will change at any point. Those people are not saying "I'll be proven right", they're saying "There's no reason to expect anything different". We will sell our best players, we will not improve anyone's contract to keep them. We will not go that extra inch to secure a signing in a vital position. We will make do with Best/Kuqi type makeweights until we can strike gold by chance. The other 5% are predicting much greater things, with no apparent supporting evidence. The burden of proof will be on those misguided few come September.

His best one is Rape Me. Such a jolly tune, the xylophone really works....

Were you off work like?

Why do you want the club sold if Ashley's doing so well? I didnt say I did

Why do you want the club sold if Ashley's doing so well?

It was one of the worst days of my life when we signed Shearer Dont be a dick HF....im tryin to actually have a decent debate with you and you like many others revert to pathetic sarcasm rather than discussin the opinion. Shearer was a trophy signing and was fantastic.....what about Luque? Boumsong? Smith? Owen? to name but a few. To say you're glad we aren't in a position to make "trophy" signings is daft though. Isn't that the position we all want to be in? Some people running clubs in the past have got into the position to do so and then made the mistake of maintaining the spending but not the position. We aren't in a position to make trophy signings, and I'm not advocating it. Just that we give the manager the money he's been able to generate from sales as a minimum, and that he's able to keep the players he wants that are currently on our books and don't have to layout any funds for. No...When did i say i dont want us to be in "that position"? I said i am happy we arent in that game anymore where we splash huge amounts on money because it looks good, because it shows ambition. Id actually say more "trophy signings" flop than cheaper "bargain basement" signings as LM would put it. I agree that whatever money is brough it from sales should be made available to spend plus a yearly amount out of FMA pocket but it if it not possible its not possible. In our case it is possible but why go a blow it all just because we can and because some annoying wrinkley on here thinks thats the only way to show ambition? Fuck off man. Spend what needs to be spent...if you can get that quality in cheaper then great. Are you going to spend £100 on a pair of jeans from a popular shop because its the done thing or would you buy the same jeans cheaper elsewhere if you could? You seem to have ignored my post and responded to one from Leazes. I'm most concerned with who we're selling. Not who we're buying. As we've neither bought or sold anyone yet I guess it's all a bit premature.