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The away game against The Great Unwashed


Anorthernsoul
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Can't honestly see there not being one. Not exactly a land of milk and honey over the horizon but I find it inconceivable Ashley won't take steps to protect his investment. He's shown in the past he's done this when he's had to as well.

 

he'll probably do the bare minimum required to ensure survival.

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he'll probably do the bare minimum required to ensure survival.

What you're probably looking at is a new manager (possibly with a bit more say over coaching support than Pardew had - not saying a lot) and enough new players (with a few leaving) to make mid-table obscurity the most likely outcome. That's what he's after. Just surviving is certainly not the aim because it's far too risky a strategy.

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I never said that I expected us to go into next season with the same squad (we'll lose a fair number out of contract for a start) but what I don't believe is that we'll do anything other than sign mediocre players to do just enough again. I also think that we are likely to be even shorter in terms of squad depth than we have been this season. We might get a new coach such as Garde who might be better but isn't really proven but I still don't think that's a forgone conclusion (although I do think it's now likely).

I just think that all of that offers very little optimism.

 

Why? How does that stack up against Ashley's previous behaviour?

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Why? How does that stack up against Ashley's previous behaviour?

Our squad seems to have been getting thiner and thiner each season and this season we have Raylor, Jonas and Sammy who have regularly been around the starting 11 when fit, along with a few others who are all out of contract. So we will lose them without even trying to sell anyone for the profits he likes. Edited by David Kelly
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He wants to do just enough to keep us out of the relegation battle and that is a dangerous strategy to begin with. If you are doing just enough to remain comfortable and you lose a few players or have a particularly bad run then you can get drawn into that dogfight at the bottom.

He might have learned a bit from when we went down but not enough to push us into real security. The likes of Swansea and Stoke have fairly comfortably been able to manage that while he still wants to do it on the cheap and that prevents us from moving on at all.

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He wants to do just enough to keep us out of the relegation battle and that is a dangerous strategy to begin with. If you are doing just enough to remain comfortable and you lose a few players or have a particularly bad run then you can get drawn into that dogfight at the bottom.

He might have learned a bit from when we went down but not enough to push us into real security. The likes of Swansea and Stoke have fairly comfortably been able to manage that while he still wants to do it on the cheap and that prevents us from moving on at all.

I agree with that in that it's a potentially risky policy. It's offset by not trying to win a cup though. Also, he's shown that when it's looked dodgy he's splashed the cash in the January. Gloom will bring up Ashley's past record when it suits him but, since we came back up, there's nothing to suggest the owner only wants to do just enough to stay up or that he has done just enough to stay up. That's not a defence of his record because I hate the fat cunt and he's destroyed my interest in and just about any enjoyment I derive from the football club, but the facts don't match up with a lot of the hysteria. He took a calculated gamble this season because plenty of points were already on the board, hence Carver being given a shot. If he'd done great then then Ashley would've had a potential manager. If he completely fucked up then relegation was still extremely unlikely (which is pretty much the case). Barely staying up is/was worst case scenario stuff. You can't really point to the summer signings and say barely staying up was the objective though. So why would it be the objective next season? If you say that might be the way it pans out then, aye, fair enough. But since we came up we haven't really skirted with relegation. Even when we came 5th bottom the 3 that went down were miles behind us in terms of their points per games average (which is surely a great indication over a 38 game season).

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I agree with that in that it's a potentially risky policy. It's offset by not trying to win a cup though. Also, he's shown that when it's looked dodgy he's splashed the cash in the January. Gloom will bring up Ashley's past record when it suits him but, since we came back up, there's nothing to suggest the owner only wants to do just enough to stay up or that he has done just enough to stay up. That's not a defence of his record because I hate the fat cunt and he's destroyed my interest in and just about any enjoyment I derive from the football club, but the facts don't match up with a lot of the hysteria. He took a calculated gamble this season because plenty of points were already on the board, hence Carver being given a shot. If he'd done great then then Ashley would've had a potential manager. If he completely fucked up then relegation was still extremely unlikely (which is pretty much the case). Barely staying up is/was worst case scenario stuff. You can't really point to the summer signings and say barely staying up was the objective though. So why would it be the objective next season? If you say that might be the way it pans out then, aye, fair enough. But since we came up we haven't really skirted with relegation. Even when we came 5th bottom the 3 that went down were miles behind us in terms of their points per games average (which is surely a great indication over a 38 game season).

Up to the last couple of games of the season we finished 5th bottom we were right in the mix no matter how shit the other teams were. We definitely skirted with relegation there but you're right he'd learned from the relegation season and made the signings that kept us up that season.

I don't think he wants to just stay up, I think he wants to stay up comfortably but he's got no interest in more than that because it costs more than he's willing to pay. But as you said he's williing to gamble on it if he sees an oppertunity to make money (like with Cabaye) or he think's we can get by without spending (as he's done this seaon). I don't think we spent anymore last summer that what he thought was required to do that and I don't think we will this summer either. I don't think we're that likely to end up with a squad that will get relegated next season I just think we'll have another season of the shit we've had this season.

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Pretty much the way I feel which is why I stopped caring. Im pretty philosophical about the club. It's like getting irate at some shit driver who's just cut you up and is either oblivious or couldn't give a toss. You're the one raising your blood pressure. Much better things to do with my time really. I do think it's very sad but I'm way past the point of letting it have much impact on my life. Fuck it, tbh

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Mackems currently reading this thread on RTG.

 

They think the posts about having the biggest profits and bringing Obertan on are serious :lol:

 

They weren't, for those looking in over the water ;)

Edited by StraightEdgeWizard
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Pretty much the way I feel which is why I stopped caring. Im pretty philosophical about the club. It's like getting irate at some shit driver who's just cut you up and is either oblivious or couldn't give a toss. You're the one raising your blood pressure. Much better things to do with my time really. I do think it's very sad but I'm way past the point of letting it have much impact on my life. Fuck it, tbh

I still find it difficult to switch off to it but I find myself caring less and less about the results and getting far less worked up at the match these days.
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i still care. i must do. it's the only explanation for why i continue to tune in most weeks despite knowing i'm going to regret watching afterwards.

 

i'll admit i enjoyed our little six game winning run earlier in the season. i still want us to play good football and do well, regardless of the cuntish owner's attempts to dampen enthusiasm. i guess that like most out-of-towners, it's my connection to my hometown and youth.

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I agree with the mackems anyway, the derbies don't really matter- only the league table counts for anything* and it's a disgrace that Colback hasn't been played for England**.

 

 

 

*31/10/2010-14.04.2013

**2010-2014

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Absolute fucking dogshit.

 

The worst away I've been to in terms of the game and our support.

 

I'm not sure which was worse to be honest. If booing the opposition support DURING a VOLUNTARY minutes applause for not joining in wasn't bad enough, our fans decided to start the booing on 16 minutes and 45 seconds - 15 seconds before it was even due to start FFS. Genuinely beyond belief.

Edited by TheDimpleboy
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I agree with the mackems anyway, the derbies don't really matter- only the league table counts for anything* and it's a disgrace that Colback hasn't been played for England**.

 

 

 

*31/10/2010-14.04.2013

**2010-2014

[emoji38] have some sympathy for the poor fucker that's in charge of shifting those goalposts.
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I know this has moved on but I want to give a big shout-out to John Carver's tactics on Sunday. I thought that his groundbreaking idea of hoofing it long to a bloke who was 5 foot 8 would have worked on the 700th try. Bringing on Riviere so he could have a slightly taller bloke to hit it at was admirable but I don't think we tried aimlessly belting it up the pitch enough.

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I know this has moved on but I want to give a big shout-out to John Carver's tactics on Sunday. I thought that his groundbreaking idea of hoofing it long to a bloke who was 5 foot 8 would have worked on the 700th try. Bringing on Riviere so he could have a slightly taller bloke to hit it at was admirable but I don't think we tried aimlessly belting it up the pitch enough.

Aye there's definitely something in that hoof to Perez tactic that just needs tweaking. Obviously Ayoze was enjoying the running from one side of the pitch to the other as well chasing defenders as he gave his legs a stretch.

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What's disappointing to me is how often we hoof from the back 4, hoofing directly from the goalkeeper would save the defenders' legs for the inevitable onslaught when our lone dwa fails to hold up the ball.

 

This is basic stuff John.

Edited by trophyshy
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What's disappointing to me is how often we hoof from the back 4, hoofing directly from the goalkeeper would save the defenders' legs for the inevitable onslaught when our lone dwa fails to hold up the ball.

 

This is basic stuff John.

Dago With Attitude? Out of order.
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