Cest mate I'm not having a go at you - we have different opinions about certain things but we both want the best for our club. I believe we are capable of winning the next 2 - If we play like we did against the mags and with a striker up front who wants to score goals for us and wants to be here I think we will beat them. Finishing has (except against Chelsea) been our biggest problem this season - we are creating chances and putting the ball in the right place (we did against Liverpool, Newcastle, Swansea and Chelsea) - it's the final finish that has been missing. Hopefully, with Gyan gone (disruptive from what Quinn was saying) then players will relax and start playing. Defeatist attitude I have never had - my glass is definitely half full today.
The only fact that matters of course is disclosed in May not September. Bruce lucky or not got us to tenth (I happen to believe had it not been for injuries we would have been higher) he deserves more time this time around. Quinn and Short it appears from the outside agree. I'm happy with that...For now.
Your arguments are bizarre. It seems pointless to continue that line. I see myself and all other SAFC fans as insiders; you can view them as outsiders if you like. We will never agree about that perspective Cyprus. As for that wish list. Good luck. I can see Darren Bent having a big say in that Villa game and not in a good way for us but we may sneak a draw. I do agree we will taste defeat at Bolton and Arsenal though and I see a draw at Norwich and a win at home to WBA as our only hope for points. Stoke will be strong, organised, striker rich (watch Crouch have a huge say in that game too)and confident of victory. All the things we are not at the moment and if we all turn up and shout our heads off, its not going to change the managers tactics, team selections or outcome. If we have 5 points from those 6 games I will be pleasantly surprised mate. If thats the case, we will have 7 points from a possible 30 and will most certainly be in the bottom 3. Would you still be a Bruce at all costs supporter by then? If we have, as you suggest, 11 points from 30 possible, its still hardly a fantastic achievement is it, for a club all you BiB's say will be an improvement on our wonderful 10th place finish last season. Is it? We would be bang on for JUST avoiding relegation with that tally and thats hoping and praying of course that Bruce doesnt have 4th straight consecutive 2nd half of the season slump from January onwards. Thats a helluva lot of faith Cyprus and I hope you are right.
Eh...Unless you have some 6th sense that can let you see into the future, you are dealing with speculation not facts...That's a fact.
The thing is, we would all have been happy enough with the 2 points if we'd lost a cracking 4-3 derby and put up some sort of performance against Chelsea. The worst thing has been the bizarre, unambitious team selections and consequent displays in games we should have hoped to win. The most outrage I've ever seen on here (I read all the time) was over the Brighton team selection!
Marcus - if you're right and I'm wrong then we will all be dancing in the street. Its only opinions on an internet forum mate. However, for all the confident talk, are you really convinced that we will be set up, organised and motivated to beat Stoke? After what I have witnessed so far this season (and from the best part of last season) I doubt that ability to win anymore. We can all turn up Sunday and cheer our hearts out but playing Sessegnon as a 2nd striker behind Bendtner wont work. I just dont see a manager prepared to admit he is wrong about Sess being a striker. He's Not and never will be. If we play won and Bendtner and go for the game we will have a better chance than one up front as we did against a crap mag team. We only looked like we might score when we played 2 up front on Saturday but it was too little far too late. Bruce holds the key to our future. I just think he has that losers mentality now and is more afraid of losing than actually going into games to win them. If I am proved wrong then fine. My glass is only half empty because Bruce has kicked my glass over that many times in the last 9 months, its fast losing its contents all over the floor.
Cest. Bruce could go today and I wouldn't give two hoots. I don't back Bruce because I think he's the man for the job. I'm not in anyway qualified to know what goes on behind the closed doors of a Football club. I back Bruce for one reason...Quinn.
No, actually all I have done is look at our recent form guide from the past 9 months and to suggest we will win 3 out of the next 6 (how many home games have we actually won in the last 9 again) is pure fantasy. This prediction table is so optimistic, given we have failed to strengthen in key areas this summer and have just lost out main striker on Saturday morning. If you can show me the facts you have based your fairytale predictions on, I'd be happy to reconsider my assumptions. Just to help you here are our last 22 EPL games (since January 1st) for a guide. I've left the cup games out mate as they dont help your arguments. P - 22 W -6 D - 4 L - 12 Win ratio 27% in 9 months, which equates to 1.6 win in the next 6 games or less than 3 points (I'll round this up to 3 to help you out). They are facts and form guides are a good indication of the direction of the team and club is it not. Its not good reading is it? If there was the merest indication that things could turn around I'd stand side by side with you to defend Bruce. There isn't and its why we are merely treading water until he is replaced.
Is that regardless of what you see on a week to week basis then? Even if we are bottom at Christmas you'd still back Quinn's judgement? Such deference belongs to another era mate of dothed caps and an upstairs downstairs mentality. I love and respect Quinny but certainly dont offer that without caveats and my right to question him on his decisions. He is an integral part of the current set up but he isn't SAFC in its entirety. We survived 128 years before he became chairman and we will survive after he goes. Whilst he is here he receives excellent support from the fans but as I say, thats not unconditional by any stretch of the imagination.
Football I am told is a simple game to explain, you stop the other side scoring and you score goals yourself. The position of my beloved football team is currently:- Our first choice keeper is injured and we do not have a left back. We also have not played an unchanged back 4 for ages. We let in silly goals. We have not had 4 fit and able strikers in club for ages and we struggle to score goals. We currently boast 1 EPL experienced striker and he is a loanee In midfield we have not had a left wing for ages (I think Sess is a RW not a striker). Our skipper is a defensive midfielder who is slow and cannot pass, his best attribute is tackling for which he receives many yellow(red) card. On SMB there is a post talking about Birmingham's position when SB was there in a relegation season, it is uncanny you could swop our name for Brum's. I reckon this is going to be avery tough season, if our loanee Bentdner gets injured we are going to struggle to score goals even more than we do now. Without scoring you usually lose football matches! Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=627465&page=8#ixzz1XpCJxhRq
Not at all Cest. As I have said many times. For me Bruce has six games to show his worth. One bad league defeat is a little early for me. And before you mention the last nine months again how were we doing before Xmas? Before the injuries. Who was our manager when we were all living in clover?
You got beat 2-1 by Chelsea. That's not something you should be ashamed of in any way, it's a fixture in which you should always look at as one that you just have to take on the chin. If any fans of SAFC genuinely thought you'd get something from the game then you need to take your self to the nearest mirror and take a long hard look at yourself. The points picked up against title challengers are a bonus, even for teams like Arsenal and Spurs. No Element of surprise brought in for Chelsea, just the same stale tactics, which top teams will contain with ease. Given your home record you cannot seriously look at any fixture and say you're likely to pick up any points. Bruce sets his team out to win, not to stop the rot. He desperately needs something to build on and a draw would provide just that. Stoke up next for you guys and they have the best defensive record in the league and a squad that will physically bully you around the pitch for 90 minutes. Bendtner will be ineffective in this game, he won't get much time on the ball. You might have got a scare on halloween last year, but this year you'll get a rocket straight up your arse on the 5th of November if Bruce even attempts to play his one dimensional tactics at Old Trafford.
When you consider this is Bruce's 3rd season and 5th transfer window, those statements make it look even worse mate. I have said here many times, the writing is on the wall as far as relegation candidates goes. We are very much one of the relegation candidates IMO and having seen the signs so many times over the past 36 years, it is as plain as the noses on Bruce's face that this is another such struggle ahead. It may not be what some fans want to hear but its as clear as glass to me and no amount of head burying will change that. Oh and dont forget, if we continue the poor start, we have the infamous Brucie 2nd half of the seaosn slump to contend with from January onwards. The only reason we have survived for the past 2 years under him is the good start we made. He has had 3 successive annual slumps now (with Wigan and us) after the Christmas break and I am far from convinced another isnt just happening again, only a teeny bit earlier this time. Our form over the past 22 games is as bad as at any other time in my life followinmg the lads, considering that for all that time we have had a settled board, decent crowds (and not one dissenting voice) and a pot of money to spend some managers would die for. How anyone can still back the man as our manager is beyond me.
As I said, 'suggest' doesn't equate to a fact..It's your suggestion..You will not find any fairytale predictions from me simply because I havn't made any....And that's a fact. As I said, 'suggest' doesn't equate to a fact..It's your suggestion!..Also,you will not find any fairytale predictions from me, simply because I havn't made any....And that's a fact.
But we are NINE months on from that pre Christamas form. Its not like its been hitty missy is it? Its missy missy. If you can only see one bad defeat as our problem there is little point continuing the debate, or us arguing about it, as we are at totally opposite ends of the thinking process here. We are entrenched in our positions and its no use falling out over it. I see a long term trend based on facts and figures. A trend that is spiralling ever downwards with a manager looking less and less capable of turing it round and a team that look beaten before they take to the pitch. You only see 1 defeat and predict 3 wins in the next 6 games. (we have won 6 in the last 22 attempts). Fair play to you. I just hope for thre clubs sake I am wrong and you are 100% right.
You stated we will win 3 out of our next 6 games. Hans Christian Anderson couldn't have written anything more fanciful at the peak of his creative prowess mate. We have won 6 games in 22 attempts and lost 12. What it is about these FACTS (and these are facts even you cant deny) that gives you such bold confidence to state we will win 50% of our next 6 games all of a sudden? To base this on this season only, we have won NONE in 4 and scored 2 goals; conceded 5 and look about as threatening as a hamster fighting a bear. If you include cup games in those stats (against lower league opposition) its 6 wins in 24 games. I'm just intrigued thats all.
Cest you stated the other week that Bruce deliberately threw the Newcastle game. Do you really believe that? If you do you will never accept Bruce as our manager. I know if I believed that to be true (which I don't) he could win the Champions league and I'd still want him out.
