Rayvin

Wasn't R.Taylor our preferred free kick taker back when he was fit? I don't know if that makes up for his shortcomings elsewhere, but he has a decent fucking shot on him.

@@The Fish - you know that you ignoring CSD is meaning that after he's had a few guesses, the rest of us can't make the same guesses without looking like we're just copying him? In this case he's made three suggestions, all of which sound possible, and it sort of means that none of the rest of us can say anything unless we've totally ignored his posts. That's not something I expect you to do anything about I'm just saying that it's happening. On that note, Fowler. I'll just try to ignore his posts in here I guess.

Pardew really didn't seem to have it in him to properly coach attacking play. In the final third we were either reliant on individual brilliance (Cabaye) or we were utterly blunt. Same problem with free kicks and corners I think. Pardew just wasn't a creative manager when it came to breaking teams down or exploiting weakness.

Sheringham?

I thought he was unbanned...? The thing is, he seems so desperate to come back

Those were the days..!

Haha he'll hate that.

Cazorla..?

Carroll

CSD suggested Collymore and Carroll (who definitely did manage it). It looked like you were suggesting them yourself though...

That was really confusing for a second, you taking his avatar...

Going against the trend here somewhat, I basically think that this is right. That said, you're saying it too soon after the event for most people, I think Appointing Carver will be an acceptable decision if a) we aren't relegated and b ) we hire someone who is actually half decent in the summer who would otherwise not have been available now. Appointing Carver will be a terrible decision if we are a) relegated, b ) he gets the job long term c) we hire someone godawful instead. The thing is, I reckon they could get someone godawful now if they really wanted to, which is why it's at least tempting to think that they might bring in someone decent.

This is my feeling on it as well. Even if we accept that Ashley knows very little about football, from a business point of view, keeping Carver on makes very little sense. Ashley would have very little concept of how well he'd do when left to his own devices across a full season, and having a relatively low profile manager in place is unlikely to be an attraction to the kinds of players we hope to bring in (i.e. young, cheap and looking to make an impression for their big money move somewhere else).

As Koeman has apparently claimed though, managers don't need time to find their feet. Even Pulis said he'd only need 4 games.

Why is our new thing buying people we can't use? Did they just realise that it was possible to do this or something?

True. Just looking for positives, I guess.

Won't happen if Derby get promoted but in fairness, he's better than Pardew.

Ah that does make sense actually. I thought he was concerned about it just because, for some reason, he thought Miliband was going to tear him apart. I couldn't see that myself as I don't credit Miliband as being that good an orator, but the whole bit about being the incumbent makes perfect sense. What a coward. I suppose the best we can hope for is that they all gang up on him.

How is that debate even going to work? The show has to be longer than an hour or two surely - otherwise they'll only get about 5-7 minutes of speaking time each.

I think for me, who we get is potentially a game changer. If we get another Pardew, it's going to be really difficult to retain any serious interest in the club. I mean, there's just no fucking point. If we get someone decent though, De Boer perhaps, I'd be prepared to accept that we're moving in the right direction, more or less. Just think about how much of an improvement it'd be on Pardew, who in earnest was never going to produce anything meaningful this season save for a possible 8-10th place finish. If we finish above 18th and get De Boer, then I think it'll have been worthwhile.

Well, on the plus side, if we do get someone decent in, and we don't get relegated, in 6 months we'll be in a far better situation than we would have been with Pardew. A lot of ifs.

On the plus side there are a lot of shit clubs this year. Worryingly however, they do seem to be picking up points on occasion due to the erratic form of the big guns. Perhaps Carver is intimidating enough that they might play for him, who knows. Ultimately though, unless we pick up points soon, other teams are going to start seeing us as easy pickings, which will only make the job harder.

What a waste of a season. Every fucking year it's the same. Fuck knows what the players make of this, I hope they really are on side with him.

Nah, they'll think of some other bits and pieces to 'value add' with and will rely on people being too lazy to change.

Change, for better or worse, is better than the stagnation we had with Pardew. I think we're being a bit quick to despair here, there does seem to be a reasonable chance we'll get a solid manager in come summer, and Carver isn't the only rubbish manager in the division.