I'm writing this quickly before I head into town to pick up a school girl outfit (hoping it'll bring in a few more ããã for the marathon tomorrow). I was on the phone to my Mam last night, talking about todays match and the rest of the season, she said something really stood out for me: "If Hughton had still been in charge, he wouldn't be in the press talking about how we're safe yet - until it's a mathmatical impossibility to go down, he'd say we weren't safe" Our players (minus Jonas) looked laxidasical, lazy and disinterested today...If results go against us in the next week or so it'll be performances like that we will come to rue! I know I've mentioned Hughton a lot recently like and I know there's nout we can do about it now, I'm still fully behind Pardew, he needs our patience and our backing, but if he wants to fully win me over, he needs to give his head a shake and think about what he is saying sometimes!
He said that the lads will be playing freely. Why say that when clearly we are not safe yet. If we beat Birmingham I will relax but at the moment im not.
I think a win will be enough . Hopefully it's next week so we can blood some youngsters in London and maybe get to see Arfa at West Brom
If we win against Birmingham and it means we are guaranteed to stay up, then he can spout whatever ****e he pleases... Coming out in the press and saying "The match today was moved so that people could laugh at us, 'cause they thought we'd be in the bottom 3, well we're not, we're safe" was just plain ****ing stupid in my opinion! It sounds too simple, but until we're safe, we're not safe...If the manager is acting like we're home and dry, why would the players act any different!?!
Six point clear with 3 to play, I'm very confident we're okay. Can't see that many teams below us winning two and drawing one of their final three games. Pardew was wrong to come out and say that we're safe though when he did.
Pardew promised us that we'd finish tenth. Two things here; the first is that it's unlikely that we shall do so. The second is that when he said that we were ninth. I am still failing to see the obvious reasons as to why Hughton was replaced.
What AP says in the media shouldn't affect how the lads play on the pitch, especially about league safety -- I think they can do the math and decide for themselves. And it's not like he was sending out the reserves to coast to the finish line either. Having said that, with the performance they put on today, maybe he should let some of the young guys see the pitch, some of the mistakes were ghastly.
The more time goes by I'm starting to see it not as a bizarre decision, but a bad one...Hopefully I'm wrong!
6 points from our last 2 homes games and i'll be please with that, and i'll be pleased with this season infact. We've had a lot of great results this season and have proved a lot of people wrong in doing so, i just hope that in the summer we can get the right players in and have a better all round team with some depth
6 points from our last 2 home games and I'll be ecstatic! At the minute, I'd take a point from the last 3 games, if it means we'll be safe! That's all I hoped for this season!
And then we will have the problem of next season. The squad has got worse not better and it doesn't look like we'll be getting much this summer. The club is getting a bad reputation for not having any desire to win anything these days. And that won't attract the players required. I wouldn't bet against relegation at the end of the following season.
It'll be tough! We've got Ben Arfa coming back, and we'll hopefully keep Tiote! With a decent man up front Barton will have something to aim for and ideally he'll get back on form...I also think that without Enrique down the left Gutierrez won't always just look for the 1-2 and instead run at players like he did today! The key for me is who we get up front, who we get to replace Enrique and who else goes out the door!
A bit severe. Ben Arfa & Gosling = two new signings effectively. We only need 3/4 players and we'll be comfortably mid-table next season. Left back, winger, a couple of strikers. Job done.
Would you say that anyone is comfortably mid-table this season? If we don't start to encourage good players to join the club then we're going to get the old has-beens here again.
Mmm.. Ruud Van Nistruud is on a free.. Oh and I heard Kluviert wants to return to football. Class partnership that would be...
Agree that there has been no 'comfortable mid-table' this season, but I do think this is a one off. I think we can achieve a top 10 finish next season and be safe much sooner. I've got confidence that the scouting team will turn up some good buys.
I do hope so, JK25. I'm just too old and too jaundiced to expect anything positive from this club. I still wake up at nights in a cold sweat screaming when I have had flashbacks to the Jackie Charlton era of management.
