Pretty much, and everyone wanted bolt to win. Think once a drugs cheat there will always be the doubt. Sen Coe said they wanted a lifetime ban but they couldn't get it.
Yep. Thats right Vince. But the reason for the booing I think is because he came back from 2 bans. Every Russian is banned because many of them, but not all of them, failed 1 drugs test. Mixing politics with sport is stinking the hell out of athletics. If Gatlin was Russian, he wouldn't have been there this weekend. That's why they were booing the hell out of Gatlin.
It's odd when you watch hurdles and there's someone who knocks over nigh on every hurdle, what's that all about. They have two jobs, run fast and jump over the hurdles. If you can only do one of the two then how the hell do you compete at the highest levels.
Don't see why they would, for one thing he never said they were in a relegation battle and for another he's earned the right to criticise and lay down a few home truths having got them promoted.
I'd think both men were/are being completely realistic. Both sends the same message to the fans. Expect a relegation battle.
They'll blame Ashley no matter what happens. The Mags all claimed Benitez was 'brought in too late' to keep them up. So he has absolutely no excuse now does he ......
I think Lee Charnley needs to carry the can for some of what's gone on. Apparently deals are taking for too long to complete and other clubs are jumping ahead of us. I totally understand that financially we cannot compete with most of the league and in truth a 20million pound player will have better clubs chasing him than us. The malaise is what concerns me and that lies at the feet of Charnley. With respect to Rafa, whether he would or wouldn't have kept us up if he had a few extra games is a matter of opinion. Failing to beat you or Villa in the run up was a concern but we picked up some results against teams which I think had little to play for near the top. I suspect he might have (had he had 5 games more perhaps) but it's all moot because we went down anyway. With respect to this season, 17th is a success. If he manages that with what we presently have he will have done well.
His script is almost identical to what Moyes was saying the start of last season. "We've not got the money to compete" "Broken promises over transfers" "We're in a relegation battle" Something along those lines...
All very true. I would think the main difference is we are a recently promoted side whereas you were established. The lack of furore over these comments is that it is expected we will struggle. Moyes had to aim for better than a relegation scrap. His comments were overly negative in my opinion. He was the same at Man Utd too o believe (Tel would know better than me there!)
How? The squad wasn't capable and need about 70m spending on it just to stand a chance to stay up. He wasn't the only one who could the situation for what it was. We were always going down the second the summer window slammed shut from the fan perspective clinging on for the signings we needed. Moyes knew before we did the limit of our spends, he was just being realistic trying to softern the blow for when we found out what he already knew. There's no difference between the two other than Moyes was never really wanted by a lot of our fan base so it served as a convenient weapon to use against him. If it was Pardew and you lot there would have been murders at Rafa's comments. But you want Rafa and you back Rafa, so Rafas comments are 'realistic' while Moyes were 'Negative' even though the message is Identical, and that's struggling to compete in the transfer market, expect a relegation battle.
More than a concern, it's what sent you down. Villa were already relegated, Sunderland were very poor and Newcastle played us at home, and we won 3-0 at Norwich who you couldn't beat. Villa were there for the taking and Benitez set you up for a draw ...... 3 shots on target all game.
