Everton a Fulham a West Brom h QPR h If this season is to be salvaged i think we need 9 - 10 points from these games however on current form i can only see 2 - 4 which would see us embroiled deep in a relegation scrap. Its make or break tme and if all goes badly i can see the end of o neill.
Everton 1-1 Fulham 2-1 WBA 0-1 QPR 3-0. That's 7 points and the season underway (although Decembers fixture list is TERRIFYING)
If we continue to work as hard as we did yesterday we can win both home games and draw at Fulham. We will lose at Everton. 6 or 7 points will be okay with me and we just need to get to the January window as a mid table average team to recruit and push on from there. A football season is not decided on every individual game but over 38. If we have 25 points by game 19 (16 required from the next 30 available) then we are on course for 50+ points and thats improvement on last season. We are not a million miles away from turning this around and O'Neill is the man to do it imo.
I can't give him 100% at the minute Cest, and I'm sure that's understandable. I'd still like to know what we are meant to be playing, it's not counter attack, as we play the ball across and back to many times for that, allowing a regroup. It's not high intensity possession (what we look best at). It's not slow concerted pressure. We appear almost tactic-less at the minute, that's what's really boiling my piss. I'm not MON out yet mate, but I', certainly not gonna sit and say 'he's still the only man for the job'. Realistically, we may be bottom 3 after Goodison, 10 games in.
7 points over the next 4 games on current form is totally unrealistic, more like 4 at best and that would leave us in a right mess cos December, well, lets not look too far ahead but it's ****ing scary.
We do also have QPR, Reading, Norwich & Southampton with the big boys mate, so it's not actually as bad as it appears at a glance.
We had the majority of possession yesterday and on any other day could easily have scored and won the game 1-0 ourselves. Villa's pace was our undoing but we were not outplayed at all in any shape or form. Our problems stem from persevering with keeping Sess as a striker - something he will never be as long as he has a hole up his arse - and not going with conventional strikers. Not playing recognised players in their best position (the managers fault I admit) with Rose at LB for instance. A complete lack of pace in the middle of the park - Bruces fault not MoN's and; No strikers until MoN came - again Bruces doing not the current manager If Martin had been here 2 or 3 years and still hadn't addressed the problems left to him by Bruce, then I would be shoulder to shoulder with the O'Neill out debate but he hasn't. He has been here less than a year. A management team of SAF, Guardiola and Mourinho couldn't turn the Bruce mess round in 11 months ffs. Give this man the time his record deserves and he will deliver. Hound him out and we will soon be back to the Mick Buxton, Ricky Sbragia appointments because no decent coach worth his salt would touch us with a barge pole if we ditch the likes of MON inside a year.
He's had 2 windows to work with though Cest. We should have enough up top now, but we aren't creating chances. The midfield, I'm sorry mate that midfield man for man is potentially outstanding, but the players are being used incorrectly. We can't keep blaming Bruce, we simply can't. The team MON inherited had a great run, he's since added a top striker and a quality winger, now we can't perform? This is not an anti-MON thing Cest, but take the blinkers off mate. We won't lose Short, and go back to **** managers etc that is preposterous. Ellis is a self made multi-billionaire, he will chop and change till he succeeds, that's what people like him do, don't kid yourself he'll spit his dummy and walk.
We are in danger of talking ourselves into a mass suicide here ffs. A couple of wins and things will look so different. The season is only 9 games old for us and we have over three quarters of the season still to go yet. Big bollocks needed lads. Soft ****es, fanny's and old ladies need not apply. Lol
My worry is that we get the usual defeat against Everton as always, if we can't pick ourselves up against Fulham then confidence will be at an all time low and we have some really iffy games coming up. We struggled to be a **** poor 10 man Wigan, QPR, Reading Southampton, Norwich, are all should win games. Right now i'm not so confident.
Nowt wrong with my bollocks mate, they're big enough, i just wish some our teams were. I can live with getting beat if we've had a go at the opposition, ****ing can't stand it when we just roll over and die. So far this season that's all i've seen us do. Don't get me wrong, i sincerely hope that we go out and get the results we need, i just can't see it right now.
So he was appointed on December 3rd and 28 days later you think he should have had a shopping list of players to recruit? Thats bloody ridiculous Mons and not deserving of your intellect. He had from December to June to plan for recruits and in Johnson, Fletcher, Saha, Rose and Cuellar he did pretty good business. His 2nd proper window is in 6 or 7 weeks time and we shall see what he brings then. He actually went for Kevin Davies to try and turn a quick change but the player used us to get a bigger contract at Bolton. Its not like he didn't try anything is it but he could hardly be expected to make big signings over night? He managed to get a boost from the Bruce flops for 3 months but then ran out of options and players. He has bought well this summer and needs those players to respond. Far from my blinkers, you need to take yours off regarding Sess, who flatters to deceive most of the time and is neither a striker, a midfielder or a winger. We need a more conventional formation of players that get stuck in and he doesn't. He is a bonus in a free flowing team and a liability in a one that needs big hearts. Oh and don't under-estimate the possibility of Short walking. He doesn't have the history invested such as you and I have and although he has bought into the project from Quinny, as a Billionaire with many varied interests, he buys and sells those interests like you and I buy groceries. He could very easily just say bollocks to this and sell the club to whoever offers him a decent price and move on without looking back. Thats the danger of having businessmen owning the club and not rich fans. I'm not blinkered at all and if the results keep getting worse he will eventually be replaced. I just think they will improve thats all and I cannot see one single credible alternative out there. Martinez is the manager of a club that has just avoided relegation 2 years running? What on earth makes you certain he would be better than a proven top flight manager and if he failed in his first 11 months, would you then sack him? Then his successor after another 11 months etc....etc. Its bloody ridiculous.
If he sold the club, he'd want his £300million or so back, so he'd be selling to another mega wealthy man, that simple. And you really think MON wasn't aware the job was coming and not sizing up what we needed prior to his appointment. More fool him if he wasn't. He had half a season and a full summer window man Cest, he's accountable. Again, I've not said I want him out, but I'm not defending him when he doesn't warrant it.
So he had half a season and a transfer window (your words) with maybe 1 or 2 weeks notice (at best) that Bruce was being sacked and because we are not top 6 now and scoring goals for fun we should start to question his ability to manage? This isn't Buxton, Crosby or Sbragia we are talking about here its a top class proven top flight manager that has won titles and trophies, taken clubs to the top 6 of that league and been respected by contemporaries and opponents all his playing and management career. I give up. Tell you what, lets just appoint a new manager every 11 months and that way, we can be sure of a long term stability can't we?
Who said we should be top 6? What we shouldn't be is 2 points above relegation, and that's where we are with the Reading score. What we shouldn't be is playing for draws. What we shouldn't be is incapable of creating a shot on target. What we shouldn't be is completely devoid of ideas, fluency & creativity. It's not me against MON Cest, ok he won league cups with Leicester. McLaren did with Boro. OK he won the league with Celtic. So did Strachan. He finished 6th twice with Villa. So did many a manager before him. He's been a very good manager, but let's stop pretending he's some kind of Fergie botherer mate, for **** sake. I want my beloved club to be winning games, or at least looking capable. As we aren't and don't, I'm ****ed off, and as the team is failing as a collective, then I look at the captain (best player on the park all season, no blame attached..) then the manager. He should have seen in 2 weeks that Vaughan, Meyler, Garnder etc where nowhere near the level we require.
He finished 6th THREE times in a row with Villa but thats splitting hairs. As I have said many times. If you're not happy and lets say he is sacked tomorrow to change things, just who would you appoint? Martinez is your choice I have read many times? The manager of a club that has survived relegation on the last day for his last 2 seasons? **** me and yippy do, thats a real improvement isn't it?
Cest, your intelligent enough to know that that is not how you'd judge a manager. He took Swansea from nothing , on a tiny budget, and moulded the free flowing tika taka team we see today. He keeps the smallest club in terms of size, budget and squad in the league, again playing immaculate and attractive football. No surprise that both Villa & Liverpool have made desperate attempts for his services, as well as Spurs registering an interest. If you think that keeping Wigan up is small fry in terms of achievement, then I'm STUNNED. If ou think the foundations he built at Swansea weren't magnificent, go ask on the Swansea board. Martinez WILL go on to be a great manager at a top club, but that's a different debate, as you seem to be ignoring my repeatedly saying 'I don't want MON sacked'. Yet.
