Eddie

"Shy of players subceptible to injury" and signing those who's careers are constantly plagued by injury so they play only a handful of matches a year isn't quite the same thing. I don't think a "fully fit" Dunn exists.

Wasn't a particularly good game and I don't think you could say anyone played well really. Bellamy had possibly the best chance of the game for Wales and after a good first touch his finish let him down, not that it was easy. Other than that there wasn't too much to talk about.

Love listening to him. His poetic ramblings are great fun and he does know what he is talking about. It will be a sad day when you can no longer hear him on the radio. The last thing on earth I'd want would be people like him being replaced by yet another former footballer struggling to string three words together. He may not always provide some brilliant piece of analysis but he can sum up the game well and always does it in an original and interesting format.

Ah that was sarcasm? I did miss it then.

He's 21 and has shown great potential in my opinion, why cash in on him? I think he's got a lot of ability and in a couple of years time he could be a very good premiership player.

That's a reflection on the public and not on the work going on at the club.

Totally agree with that. Also interesting looking at dillo dillos spreadsheets and table, last year 4th place had 48 points at this stage and only ended up with 61, maybe we aren't really taking into consideration the impact end of season nerves will have on all of the teams involved in the Champions League and UEFA cup chase. The most any team managed in that final run-in was 18 points, and that was Bolton.

Klaxon could actually be quite good, though I don't think you'll get any reward for it, apart from perhaps getting a poll as to whether or not we want you kicked out.

Touché

Impressive...but quite sad really.

Those are his only two goals this season.

If I actually had to make the decision I'm sure I'd go the tried and tested route as well, but it is always nice to speculate.

I actually quite like Emerton and think that recently he has been good when he's come on as a sub, so I for one am hoping he hasn't played his last game.

With Pedersen now out I was thinking to myself that this could be a great opportunity to play a sort of Diamond formation in midfield. Let Tugay sit deep with Reid and Savage in front of him and then Bentley further up in behind a front two if we are feeling adventurous and give the fullbacks full permission to get forward. If not then maybe play Bellamy alone up front with Bentley in behind and a sort of diamond formation with Reid, Savage and Emerton forming the three across the middle and Tugay sitting deep. It will be interesting to see what happens. Can't wait for this game.

Well he's now probably in-line to start in one of our most important games of the season. We'll get to see just how much Hughes thinks of him or if someone like Emerton or Bentley will be stuck out on the left.

Just filled out my results, being generous to all and of course had my blue and white tinted glasses on though tried to be as unbiased as I could. 1. Chelsea 100 2. Man U 88 3. Liverpool 87 4. Blackburn 65 5. Arsenal 64 6. Spurs 57 7. Newcastle 55 8. Man City 54 9. Bolton 54 10. Everton 53 Seems a bit messed up to me so I subtracted 5 points from Blackburn and gave every other team 2 points to try and counter my biased predictions which sees us finishing in 5th though I'm not sure how Spurs and Bolton finished with as few points as they did, especially as I even predicted Spur s to beat us. Oh well, won't complain if that is how the table finishes up.

Bit harsh to say "compare that to under Souness". None of the players we have that can play left wing were signed by Hughes. Also, when Souness had us playing our best stuff we had Duff as first choice with Mahon as a decent back-up.

That would be great, very surprising, but great. Yes, now top 6 make europe.

I've had an odd thought about Emerton and his playing below his ability. If it is confidence causing him to play poorly I don't really understand why it hit him so quickly, so what I've decided is it might not be his individual confidence, but maybe something related to the team. This is probably explained poorly but perhaps he goes into his shell in a struggling side and this has meant he ends up not taking on his man and just trying to keep the ball, which he does very well. Strange as it may be but perhaps with our side flying high at the minute it would be worth sticking him back into the team and seeing what he can do.

I think Peter has shown some talent but yesterday he wasn't poor but didn't bring much to the party. However, to say then that he isn't now good enough or shouldn't be played in games is a bit over the top, as over the top as it was to say that he was already deserving of a regular first team spot. If MGP is injured then for me it is between him and Emerton for the left midfield spot, I'll leave it to Hughes to decide who gets it.

When you say per seat per game do you mean per filled seat or total in the stadium?

I don't buy into that particular extreme either to be honest with you. I think that 20,000 as a core support is more than good enough given our other rather firm financial settings to maintain a premier league team for a good length of time, certainly longer than a lot of those around us. If people really feel that illegal feeds are denying the club a couple hundred fans or more every weekend then I really think we should give the names of the pubs to the authorities, or even just let them know what is going to happen first and then if they don't stop it give their names. Even if you enjoy foreign feeds for the away matches it will still be better for the future of the club and this sites chatroom could more than do with a few more people in there on matchday.

I think the important part of that is the chasing promotion though. Young and exciting team up at the top of the league beating most of the teams we came across, the price helps but it's just a small extra incentive there for people. I think success on the pitch gets people to consider coming and then if they think they can afford it they do, but until we get them to consider us as an option they aren't going to think "hm only 5 pounds to watch Blackburn lose and play poorly...not much money really". Obviously we aren't at that point anymore but I think until we stay in our current position for a bit longer we won't win quite a few over.

The problem is with this argument is that I'm not sure how much dropping the price affects the number who show up. We've seen time and time again that the prices have been very low but then so have the attendances. I'm sure that the club has thought long and hard over it but if we drop the price to a pound and it only brings in an extra 500 then it isn't financially worth it. In economic terms it just comes down to the club working out the price elasticity of demand for tickets. It seems to me that we have a core support that shows up come rain or shine (within reason of course regards to price) and that after that until the club has done something special (which we are on our way to doing) that dropping the price serves to gain us very little.

Liverpool beating City today improves our chances of making Europe even further. We need Bolton to slip up somewhere, though they do have a few tough games to come. Hopefully we can hold our nerve and they won't.