Tyrone Shoelaces

You can relax when we've got to 50 points. Until then - hold on to your hat.

My paper's full of him at the moment. There's an interesting article about management with a revealing quote from Gordon Strachan which I'll paraphrase - " Football operates in cycles. The third year is fatal, the moment when the critical mass of players tire of the techniques and idiosyncrasies of their manager, when one or the other has to change ". Ring any bells Tony ? Previously in the article it mentioned Liverpool losing to Watford in the FA cup. Bill Shankly went into the dressing room after the game and told 5 of his long established stars that they were finished and he'd be moving them out and new blood would be brought in. He said " It had to be done and if I didn't do it I'd be shirking my obligations ". The players changed but his methods did not - " We played to our strengths. We pressured everybody and we made them run. " How times have changed.

If he did I've got some magic beans he can have.

If we lose he needs to go.

What high work rate ? Whatever he demands he's certainly not getting it.

That's a crazy way of looking after their " Investments ". It's like having an Aston Martin and not bothering to top the engine oil up.

Yes, we give it our best shot and more that day. We were under the cosh most of the game but we never took a backward step. That's all I ask really. How long ago is that though ?

That's an interesting point. In your opinion, or that of anybody else, when did we last clearly overachieve in a game ?

I agree with most of Clayton's post but regarding the " Deadwood " , he's got rid of a lot but he's replaced it with plenty of deadwood of his own.

They're as easy or as hard as you make them. If you're going to get out enthused most of the time they're all going to be hard.

Given the number of long and medium injuries we seemed to have been plagued with for years it makes you wonder whats going on in the treatment room ?

He just never looked the part to me. Even in his " highlights " it was more of what can't he do instead of what can he do.

I wouldn't be too hasty regarding Cunningham. We don't want another Chapman style signing.

We're far from being the finished item yet. For all the clever passing Kosovo produced the Dingle didn't have a real save to make. They were pretty toothless up front and couldn't punish our mistakes. We seem to lack concentration for 5 and 10 minute spells. When we get in that last third our passing has to be more precise. Good finishing though.

Do you there's the remotest chance of that happening under the Chicken Chokers ?

I think he was on the way to making us a fitter team and a team that could play for 90 minutes. That'd be a start. Mowbray has had plenty of time to address those issues and in my opinion he hasn't.

I honestly think we'd be in better shape on the pitch than we are now.

Are Wigan paying all of his wages or just part of them ?

If you put yourself in a position in any walk of life of being responsible for running the show yet you haven't got the power to effect changes then you only have yourself to blame. The ideal position to be in is having power without responsibility, not responsibility without power.

I also suspected he may be the Whittingham Mk 2 but I think he's been better than that. He's not the David Wagstaffe Mk 2 though, which is what I was hoping he might have been.

We used to joke about that " Monty Python sketch were Transylvania played Treasure Island in a spoof World Cup game . For those who haven't seen it - 11 Dracula's versus 11 Long John Silver's. I think you can guess who won ! I'm expecting Transylvania to be fielding a team any day now.

I thought he didn't lack enthusiasm when he first got into the team albeit most of the time as a sub. in fact I thought he was bit impetuous to be honest. That was before the serious injury he had. I've not seen anything of him since then.

I don't get your point there Stuart. If anything I thought then he was a bit too keen to run at people then. That's a higher level than the U-23's.

Yeah, we could do what we did then and play him out of position at left back. Get well soon matey, you always gave it your best shot.

Maybe the succession of injuries is playing on his mind. i didn't think he seemed to lack enthusiasm prior to the injuries,