Howay

Just checked, because I'm bored and I guess I'm morphing into Fish. League games won by 3+ goal margin: 2015/16 = 3 (including the Spurs win by Rafa) 2014/15 = 1 2013/14 = 4 2012/13 = 1 So taking out the PNE cup game it's been 5 in the league this season. We're areet man. Went to the 2011/12 season (season we finished 5th) and we got 2 wins by 3+ goals in the league (Stoke and Man Utd), we lost 4 by the same 3+ margin (Wigan, Fulham, Chelsea, and Spurs) #TheKing.

Great minds and all that, although HMHM or someone will likely be along in a minute to have a pop.

Aye was going to say we've dished out a lot of kickings this season compared to the prior 5 years or so. We also wiped the floor with Spurs 5-1 at the end of last season.

I think we'll win the league, we'll have a few games where everything clicks and that'll be enough imo. Brighton will come 2nd, there's a chance they might nick us since it's still so close but I think that's the top 2. I think Leeds will come up through the play-offs, Huddersfield are hitting a rough patch at a bad time and I just think the battling style of Leeds will fare better in the knockout bit.

It's a shame Clark is missing again as I think he's clearly shown he is our most capable CB this season. If Anita can put in a performance anywhere close to what he did at the weekend that will mitigate Yedlin being gone as he actually played the ball forward and found Ritchie in some good positions. I went for 3-0 to our lot, no reason why it's just hope more than anything and I agree with StoneCold that our lot are due a game where everything clicks.

"el pesadilla rojo"

I think you lot are forgetting about a very important stipulation the mackems come up with at the end of last season. Once we get promoted all of our squad are PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYERS, therefore all automatically too good for SAFC as they will be in the "lower leagues". So I'm afraid everyone will be above them, yes, even Jack Raymond Colback.

:lol: Why would someone even think they'd be able to manage that? "Aye I wouldn't be against a 22 goal striker in the league we're about to be in coming here" of course you wouldn't, if anyone was they'd be insane, but there's no chance whatsoever of something like that happening. Gayle also isn't just Championship standard imo, he was regularly the top scorer at Crystal Palace even when he was getting infrequent starts, he's a bottom half of the PL striker at the least.

Cheers, just watched that. Agree with what AH was saying about the match above. The referee was once again an inept twat, I've no idea what he was watching half the time there was a slide tackle on Shelvey outside the box in the first half where the bloke didn't even come close to the ball and the ref just allowed Wigan to play on. I thought that was the best little Vurn has played for us in yonks, he finally looked to come forward (into useful positions) and pass the ball forward, he played a pass through the defenders legs into the box to Ritchie that had us in a really good position 2nd half that was quality. If he would put in that type of performance more often I'd not moan about him anywhere near as much as I twist on about him now. The Lascelles and Colback string of errors that led to their goal was comical and I think it's something to look at as a positive that such a high percentage of the goals we concede are down to ridiculous individual errors from players who shouldn't be starters next season.

Aye was going to say at least Carroll is a football player rather than whatever the fuck Sissoko is. Both cracking deals mind. Hopefully Ashley lets Rafa spend the Sissoko money in the summer or Leazes will be fuming.

They'll be down there so long that they can get used to the Boro v Mackem derby, or the paedo derby as it has come to be known in light of recent events.

Aye that switch was fucking hilarious, as you say we stood no chance but then should have been winning more convincingly. They are now saying that they will do similar to what we did this season, despite their performance this season being closer to Villas than ours last season.

Yet somehow they were more clued up on the form of teams below us, how many points sides were off us and how teams looked than many of our fans. They can enjoy not watching any Championship games next season to be fair, they'll barely be on Telly.

The funniest part is they're all saying similar things to what they ridiculed us for "going down will get rid of some of the rot and let us reshape the side" etc, 12 month ago the PL was the be all and end all anything else was an irrelevance and a disgrace to them. There are also a good few of them talking about what a good job Silva is doing at Hull without mentioning how Rafa "took them down" despite him having a comparable record and less fixtures than Silva Fucking absolute idiots.

Aye he rarely buys outside of the British leagues iirc. He suits them down to the ground mind and is exactly the calibre of manager SAFC should have, he's as haggard looking as those 'red' seats in their shite stadium.

It always struck me as a buy that was over Pochettino's head, they didn't really need him and Pochettino didn't make great attempts to accommodate him (mainly because Moussa is shit), there were also those recent stories Sissoko got put in the paper of "it's either Pochettino or me" which I always felt was the result of Pochettino yelling "I never wanted to waste money on you anyway you little mug" in training. Maybe I'm just being overly fair on Pochettino because I like the bloke though. Either way we absolutely mugged them off, he'll either be at a club like Hull or West Brom, or at a mid-table ligue 1 side within 3 years.

Aye was going to mention them two as well, he's tragic tbh. The last time he was doing canny was yonks ago when he took a scrappy Everton side and bored teams into submission, using 5 across midfield when everyone else was using 4-4-2. Lee Carsley and Thomas Gravesen booting everyone off the pitch (Gravesen was a good player, Carsley was a cunt), since then everyone pretty much plays 5 across the midfield so he's not able to capitalize on that anymore. Thrilled they've kept him tbh.

They're an utter embarrassment. Genuinely hope they do get rid of him and then drop to mid table after Sanchez and Ozil fuck off.

It's also worth bearing in mind Moyes is shite, they love saying Rafa took us down but that bloke actually did take them down. The players he has brought in have been completely fucking rotten, Donald Love and Paddy McNair were 5m ffs.

I can't see them getting anywhere near 15m for Kone, he's been a shambles this season so I think that ship sailed when they were asking too much from Everton. Even if Moyes got that sort of investment he'd need a hell of a lot more to come anywhere near the team we have. They have nowt in the side tbh, they're far worse than our side that went down, they are closer to Villa tbh and we've seen where they are even with a ton of investment. Bottom half of the Championship for them imo. Look how much they struggle to attract in the PL, they'll struggle massively to attract players at a level to be fighting for promotion. Couple that with the fact they have fuck all money and heaps of debt and it doesn't look good at all for them .

Aye that Marco Silva is doing a canny job, if Hull go down he'll get a PL job as I think his contract is only to summer. That Traore is rapid and is very skillful, his final ball is sometimes lacking but his decision making is decent. I reckon he'd be a good buy for us as Rafa will get our defence solid enough that we could afford a 'flair' player like him in the side. Agree completely about the mackems and boro, it'll be nice to pass both of them on their way down . Even sweeter if we buy Gibson and Traore off Boro.

Agreed, with 8 goals and 11 assists this season it'd be a fairly big ask. If Swansea stop up he might just stay there as well seeing as when he moved to Spurs it didn't really work out for him (due to lack of chances rather than lack of ability), he'd be an ideal target for us mind and would fill the behind the striker role perfectly.

Just watching Swansea v Boro, would love both these teams to go down as I reckon Sigurdsson, Traore, and Ben Gibson would all be good targets for us in the summer. Sigurdsson would be tough mind as he's leading the assist chart at the minute so there'll be a fair few sides in for him.

:lol: Fair point.

Just saw a comment that the Mackems have only scored in one game since Van Aanolt left, I thought as shite as they are there's no way that could be true so had a look at their results. :lol: It's spot on though they have only scored in that 4-0 win over Palace, they drew 0-0 with Spurs the day after he left and haven't scored a single goal since the match against Palace. There's still some among them that think they might not go down as well.