Forum | General Discussion

So here we are, as Bloc Party sang (one for the kids).
Teetering on the brink of joining Handel’s classical piece (apparently Tony Britten wrote it but we know the truth), it’s been difficult to take stock this season. It been tumultuous, surprising, rubbish, brilliant, bewildering. The bookies have had a whale of a time (therefore Japanese bookies must be living the dream).
Such a strange set of results, let alone title contenders, tipped into a melting pot of “last seasonism”, the Black Friday style rush for OS season tickets, Slaven kissing men and half n half scarfs for the Tottenham (really, I mean WTAF?).
A measure of the drama is that I’ve literally not been able to write a Monty. The gift that keeps on given has dried up and presented me with an awful dilemma. A wonderful young, charismatic and tactically astute manager, leading a team of similar characteristics. B*stards.
Of course, we have regained some sense of old West Ham with at least ¾ of our available centre halves being injured in time for an FA Cup Q-F. My worry is Slav will merely introduce promising youngsters into an already confident side, or formulate a system of such intelligence and creativity even commentators notebooks cannot fathom the code. Next thing you know he’ll have us at Wembley in the sunshine. What sort of monster is he?
Signing these foreigners has particularly annoyed me (old ones at that – 28 year old Frenchman, where’s the sell on value?). Stopping our talented youngsters from coming through. As if to rub our noses in it, one of them then takes a London POTY award from a genuine English talent (Dele Ali) – and we are happy with this? Bet Slav is…..git.
What’s the betting the Frenchie win HOTY too? Next thing you know our anthem will be La Marseillaise and it’ll be snails and onion soup on the concourse at the OS (careful what you wish for).
Of course this could all be a flash in the pan too. We had 35% possession against Tottenham (champions elect don’t you know?). So technically they played us off the park. Their loud raucous fans will tell you so. Of course our manager was too busy kissing his star striker (as a warm up for hairier men later no doubt).
I guess your all too busy crying about Nobles non-inclusion in the England squad (come on, he’s no Drinkwater or Cleverly, man up) to notice, or laughing at Antonio’s dance routines – which, by the way, is completely ungentlemanly act and one the FA should come down hard on.
In fairness all of our wins against the top 6 have been more by luck than judgement. At one point all of these teams have missed key players, or had to play 3 games in a week, not to mention the alignment of the planets being wildly out of kilter for each of these fixtures, causing a gravitational pull away from our goal. You can argue with science.
So as you all regale in your claret specs, smiling and riding on your wave of crests, just think of the car crash our esteemed leader is leading us toward. Big Sam continue to lead Sunderland with authority and respect. We can only admire from afar now.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Paul Ince of all players has labelled Woy Hogdsons continued omission of Mark noble from the England Squad as "An absolute joke".
Following yet another passion fuelled, energetic, in your face performance from the Captain the the defeat of Spurs, the clamour for including Mark in the squad for Euro 16 is getting louder with every passing game.
Now no one more than Mark splits opinion on the Org and those debates are well documented throughout, however, from a personal POV his omission would probably see the final nail in the coffin for me watching England in major tournaments.

I gave up many years ago watching England friendlies and qualifiers. The continued baffling decisions by a succession of overpaid numpty's to include players not fit to lace the boots of past and many present quality players did it for me.
But the continued failure of England in major competitions, no more so than our woeful performance in the last WC really is sucking the last of the passion out of International football for me. The ridiculous, continued comments by the press and players that they could actually win one of these is nothing short of hilarious given our almost guaranteed failings. Yet the manager and previous managers continued with the same players game after game, qualification campaign after qualification campaign, tournament after tournament almost defied logic.

With the Euro's just around the corner and after a Premier League campaign that has had me jumping out of bed in the early hours more than most in recent years, I was actually looking at the Euro summer as the perfect opportunity to catch up on some sleep. The clash with Wales is probably the only game that may have me waking in the early hours, UNLESS, one of our own is finally included. And he's earned a shot I feel. I can't think of too many English midfielder's who drive on their teams more than Mark. Sure he's got his shortcomings but sometimes the difference between winning and losing is passion.
It's time for Roy to wake up and smell the coffee on this one and if he doesn't well, I'll be sleeping like a baby and not worrying how Engerrrland will be going.

Just got in from work and flicking through the channels, caught part of an interview by Slav on Barclays Premier League World on Sky. The programme is being repeated later tonight at 11.15pm, Sky Sports 1. He continues to impress with his candid honesty and I hope he gets the backing from SUGO to continue to improve us and we become a major force to be reckoned with.

We really are a bunch bar stewards aren't we! Ha ha.

Imagine the scene, spuds coming to our place on a decent run thinking they are unbeatable. "We will go top here tonight lads, bring it on champions" thrashed in the first game no worries. Deluded supporters saying their "firms" are gona take us. The statue is at threat, people's lives are and so is the old girl we sit in every week. Nobody at West Ham took this serious, but spuds fans the council and police did.
Council boarded up bobbys eyes, police arrived in force on horses, helicopters over heard! The team arrived and they swaggered in like it was a formality.
But they were ambushed like a nerd at a frat party! We got into them early pulled their pants down slapped their arse and tied them to a lamp post for the night!

In return the media, fans and manager have been desperately looking for straws to clutch at. We all heard of lasagne gate and boy have we laughed for years at that ,this time Spurs have improved by giving us more excuses than we can handle! The pitch was poor and they struggled with our direct style says the ponch. A couple of injuries say motd dembele and alli. Tiredness say their supporters! Kane's form is hampered by his mask.

Oh please yawn give us a break, maybe even some credit. Firstly the pitch yes it's poor but it shouldn't be beneficial to us either and of course we have all seen worse! Injuries? We they had no dembele but Ali was on the bench and they have largely escaped injuries all season plus we had Reid, Valencia, byram, Tonka, obrian, Moses, out and sakho not match fit in this game alone. Tiredness? Well I'm sure they have played a lot of games but our season started in July! They have had options to rotate due to lack of injuries whereas we don't really know our best 11 as we have never had a full squad! As for that mask well Costa does ok in his, plus if he is struggling play another option. It makes him look better anyway.

We really are a bunch of bar stewards aren't we