Ayatollah Hermione

Yes, Samba is better than Taylor. Also, Pedersen hasn't had the form in a while that he did two seasons ago. I'd have Warnock in a flash like and over Riise.

On the plus side, I'd have Samba.

Riise worth ten million now? Fuck me.

Black kid in my class was a machine at swimming fwiw.

The only sticker I needed to finish my Euro 96 sticker book as a young 'un. I hope he fails.

Undoing all the good PR work Jack Sparrow's done for them tbh.

I find the fact that sniffer's been in the middle of posting something for 15 minutes baffling.

At this point, may as well. Everyone already views us a farce anyway and the next appointment is going to be make or break for the club. Might as well take a risk as I can't see anyone with a proven pedigree wanting to touch us.

If he is staying, then he'll be wanting to make money from it. Wasn't there a load of stuff coming from different sources about Ashley wanting to buy young players and then flog them off for a tidy profit once they've developed? Zog fits that bill pretty neatly and he'd make a tidy selling off him. There's every chance Ashley wants to stay and make a profit from transfers rather than lead us to success. After all, why would he? Pretty sure that was Alex's point anyway.

A lot of that relies on the assumption that Ashley does indeed want to sell the club though.

Duff about as intelligent as his play, I see.

I don't think we'll go down this year but next season will certainly be the pivotal one in terms of the club's future. We could either be entering a era of prosperity with the right takeover, choice of manager, keeping players etc. or sinking down the divisions if nothing changes.

Aye, Blackburn are in trouble, I reckon especially if their key players continue to underperform. Plus, they've got a shocker of a goalkeeper and Ince's signings in the summer were poor considering the players they sold. Also missing Bentley a lot obviously. I think if Santa Cruz or McCarthy got on a canny run, they'd be fine though.

West Brom's insistence to try and play like Arsenal with a team full of cloggers will be their undoing. Stoke can't run off Delap's throws forever despite it getting them critical points. As for the third place, I'd honestly say that there's about 6 or 7 teams that could realistically drop this year if they got on a bad run, us included in that.

I can't wait to see the flair that Cacapa/Butt brings to the table.

Aye, it's depressing whenever one of our central midfielders is on the ball, looks around to see fuck all and has to knock it back to the defence. It's everytime we try and get forward as well.

Appiah would be a quality signing but can't see him coming here. Hasn't Wenger been sniffing around him before?

With us at the moment, it's not so much a low point that I hate, it's the feeling of never being comfortable at any point watching the useless bastards. You can tell a mistake is always a minute away and that makes watching the match horrid.

Right, since the Wigan thread has devolved into the old Owen/Martins argument, let's all talk about our favourite (not-so-much-right-now) England star. Personally, I love Owen. When he's played, he's been nothing short of the striker we need him to be; his goal record is great and they've dragged us out of the shit so often, it's shocking. While I think we overpaid for him, I can't stand when the circumstances that are out of his control, like the transfer fee, get held as some sort of criticism toward Michael Owen as the player, as the lead goalscorer. The fact we payed £17 million should not detract from the fact that he's, by far and away, the best striker we have and without him, we'd have thrown away a lot more points than we've gained because of him.

I don't buy Guthrie and Barton being stronger than Butt and Barton as well. Guthrie is tidy enough but only seems to be in the game for an hour or so before dissappearing.

Fucking hell , it's the midfield's fault that Martins is as thick as shit now? If they had some composure and positioning, I'm sure Martins would turn into Beardsley.

Also, it's all well and good saying "passing" but we pass the ball; it's just sidewards. We need someone (and we have for years) to sit in the midfield and unlock the defence with some killer passes and I don't think a player like N'Zogbia is the answer to those problems in midfield at all. Yes, he runs at defences but he usually ends up in alleyways and his final ball is to be desired. Barton is a canny player but I don't think he's the man who can create consistently and it's obviously not Butt or Guthrie's jobs to do that in the midfield. Guti in the middle is an option but I'd say (couple of poor games withstanding) that he's a far stronger option on the flanks than either Duff or N'Zogbia right now considering he seems to be able to get past players well.

What's the obsession with Martins btw? Because he does a couple of flips and has scored some canny goals? He's utterly hopeless at everything he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be this striker who terrorises defences and gets in behind them with his pace, except he's utterly shit at that because he hasn't got the footballing brain he needs to read the game well enough. He's like the world's shittest Terry Henry.

I say we'd have to appoint you as manager. Harping on about anticipation is all well and good but if Martins isn't any good at it now, he never will be. Passing THAT'S what we need!

He should have used his black card to get out of charges. Sorry, his African-American Express.