Newcastle 1 Reading 0 (Sibierski 23) Now 1-1 (Harper 37)

That was the next point I was going to make but it's taking the thread even further off topic. :ph34r: What's going on at the Academy? If we had a steady stream of youngsters coming through we wouldn't need to worry so much about finding big transfer fees. All our successful players Duff, Dunn, Beattie, Given, then to a lesser extent Martin Taylor and Damien Johnson all seemed to come through at around the same time many moons ago. That's something else we need to look closely at. The Academy should be the lifeblood of the Club and fans feel more connected to players who have come through the ranks. At the moment however it's costing us 2-3m p.a. and we don't seem to have got any return at all for four of five seasons now.

I can't really see us spending that sort of money in January. I suspect the Board will make their usual cheery xmas announcement that there is no money for the manager to spend in January and we will try and muddle through with a loan signing or two and a bit of wheeling and dealing. i.e. a Dunn for todd type deal However if we did I think that sort of signing would be money far better spent than drafting in another foreigner with no previous Premiership experience. At least a player like Nugent has an idea of the physical side and the pace of the game in England.

Always avoid putting Rovers in if you can help it, I find it usually ends up with the heart ruling the head and you putting in the result you would like to happen instead of making dispassionate objective shouts as you do on the other games.

I would say the jury is still very much out on McCarthy, good at the start of the season but since the temperature's dropped a few degrees he can't seem to be bothered enough to watch the line and stay onside let alone put in an honest 90 minutes shift. In our current position if we're bringing anyone in in January we really need proven performers in this League. If we must gamble I'd rather we did it on hungry up and coming youngsters than more players at the wrong end of their careers who know that even if things go wrong at least they've had one last big pay day.

Imo we are now seeing the effect of the sustained lack of investment in the side since Hughes took over at Ewood. Since he's been at the Club I think he's spent a net 995,000, that was before we somehow managed to offload Kuqi for 2.5m. We've only signed three bluechip PROVEN Premiership performers Two, Savage and Bellamy, have been roaring successes. The third Roberts hasn't been great but it's too early to say as he's been blighted by injury. I think it was Den who made the point some time ago that we're signing too many gambles McCarthy 28 - no Premiership experience Nonda similar age - no Premiership experience, serious knee injury Ooijer 32 - no Premiership experience Jeffers - another who's had a serious injury - career shipwrecked a long time ago - waste of a wage and squad place imo. Henchoz 32 - offloaded by Wigan and at the end of his career Now we're on about signing Okkas, yet another player at 29 entering the final phase of his career with no previous Premiership experience. OK - he might turn out to be ok but you wouldn't want to stake our Premiership lives on it. We face a very tricky dilemma in January imo. Do we just go for a couple of judicious loan signings and hope that they along with the returning Reid, Nelsen and Roberts (if they return in time) are enough to keep us up? Or do we splash some serious cash on proven talent to try and ensure our extra 10m p.a. as from next season? Will there be anyone decent available at this stage of the season? Not really a situation we should have got our selves in but one that has been several years in the making. Since Duff left we've got by for quite a while by periodically flogging off the crown jewels and reinvesting part of the proceeds but we've got to the stage now where only three or four of our players have any significant resale value and two of those are currently injured. So either now, or at worst in the summer, the Trustees are finally going to have to provide the manager with some decent funding which doesn't involve flogging someone else off first if they want us to have a realistic chance of retaining our Premiership status in the short to medium term.

Seeing as Dickov has yet to score for Citeh this season we're well rid there imo. Can't disagree with your analysis of Messrs McCarthy and Nonda though.

Only saw the second half Sky highlights but on that basis it appeared as though Friedel gifted Charlton the easiest goal they're ever likely to score. The free kick didn't seem to do much just went round the side of the wall and into a completely unguarded net, which is ultimately the keeper's responsibility. Completely unacceptable at this level. That said it also appeared from the highlights as though he kept us in the game prior to that with several excellent saves. It also appeared from the brief highlights I saw that Charlton looked far the hungrier of the two sides and we created next to nothing. Which should come as no great surprise as it's the way we've played most of the season in the League. All's not quite lost though - there's no reason at all why we can't beat Newcastle on Saturday IF we have our A game in tow and the front two decide to show up.

The home kits all look virtually indistinguishable to me, and not really different enough from this years to justify buying the new one. Three is the best of the bunch, although one reminds me a bit of the 95 Premiership winning shirt. As for the away kits, only one choice for me - three- and the red and black halves should be a permanent feature imo. For what it's worth I think the black and blue and orange options are awful.

I think it's really surprising that Mokoena has been offered a new contract. Since doing a sterling job when Hughes first arrived as the 5th man in midfield he has consistently shown since that he is not up to Premiership standard playing in any other position. We don't have the players to play 4-5-1 imo so why retain Mokoena? The only real reason I can think of is to keep his mate Benni happy. :ph34r: In footballing terms there must be better options out there.

Looking forward to that one. Should be a cracking traditional good old day out if it's not moved from 3 p.m Saturday.

I know what you're saying, but I think we and they need each other equally as badly. Take the "big four" out of the Premiership and what's it's attraction? You'd merely be left with an extended Championship. I think we're kidding ourselves if we think Charlton v Fulham or Blackburn v Bolton is any more attractive to the neutral than say Sothampton v Leicester or Derby v Wolves. By the same token if the "big four" were thinking of breaking away I can't believe there's any real appetite amongst the vast majority of football fans for playing European football every week as opposed to their more local rivals.

John Williams is whistling into the wind if he expects a more equal distribution of TV money. The only pressure from the big clubs is likely to be for an adjustment the other way.

Not for me, I miss Kuqi about as much as Ashley Ward. Stead is a different matter and I was pleased to see he'd scored three goals in consecutive games recently having gone on loan to Derby.

A bit harsh that, I've been as critical as anyone about the front two recently but thought they were both much improved yesterday. Nonda's goal was an exceptional piece of skill, one of the best I've seen, every time I see the replay I still can't work out how he got it in. The question is, it's no good doing it once, can they both keep it up? Elsewhere, it was also an excellent performance all over the pitch with just about everyone right on top of their games, MGP excluded. I also thought Bentley was fairly anonymous in the centre. We looked enthusiastic and like we wanted it when we had the ball which hasn't generally been the case this season. If the crowd was indeed 16,700 and something (it looked far less) then that was actually quite a good turn out considering the time of year, the form we've been in, the following of about 100 from Fulham and the fact the corresponding fixture drew a lower crowd back in sunny August on the opening home game of last year. All in all a very satisfactory day's work (vital in view of the fact Sheff Utd won again) but two absolutely crucial fixtures to be successfully negotiated next before we can start feeling too pleased with ourselves.

Yep definitely that one, never experienced a feeling like after a football match. After that, similar to Philip, it would probably be nicking a goal in one of the three consecutive 0-0 draws we had at the end of the season in 1981 when under Howard Kendall we failed to get a second successive promotion to the top flight on goal difference.

Maybe if he was going to be here for the remainder of the season, but if he's definitely moving in January it's surely better to give players who are actually going to be here more time to develelop an understanding. How committed is he really going to be going into challenges as well?

The reviews were excellent when they started and are getting better and better Bob, hope they carry on for a while yet. Why are you thinking of stopping, are you eloping with your Oriental bride to be with shoulders like a navvy?

Spot on quote from a chap called Simon Smith in the LT's fans jury today "the man who I think looks in the mirror and sees Franz Beckenbaur while the rest of us see a reasonably competent right back"

It was always going to be a a coin flip in summer whether to take 2m for him or keep him in the hope he would play out the season. As it looks like he's leaving in January anyway, he's now injured and we only got nine or ten decent games out of him before he seemingly lost interest in the three games prior to injury I would say it clearly backfired. Unless we still get 2m in the transfer window which I can't see happening. It was a very marginal decision in the summer though. Less tax though - hardly worth having.

In this instance can't see it would make any difference at all to his value because of the contract situation. We'll get a million in January or nothing in summer.

True to an extent Gordon, but what's really better, - Neill earning 30k p.w here and commanding a regular starting slot or 40k p.w. somewhere else and never seeing the light of day again? (as will almost certainly happen if he goes to Liverpool) Either way with the benefit of hindsight making him captain and trying to make him feel even more important than he already obviously thinks he is backfired on us big time, sticking him in the reserves in August might have been the better option.

Interesting to see the near unanimous consensus is "too good to go down". That might prove to be the case eventually but I'm surprised that many people don't even consider us to be part of the relegation mix up. That goes without saying, after one third of the season we're fourth from bottom , three points above the drop zone, having gained one point per game. If that form is replicated in the remaining two thirds of the season it will be touch and go if we survive. The importance of winning against Fulham can't be understated, Watford play Sheff Utd tonight and the Blades play Charlton at the weekend so the teams below us are bound to pick up some points over the next few days.

The attendance won't be great SG but there'll surely be more than one there! Who cares how many there are there, as philip says it's an absolute must win three points. The players have to start displaying a win at all costs mentality.

Admirable optimism but I hope the management and players aren't treating our situation that lightly.