Burst a bubble or two

[Daggers]

With the last vestiges of hope for automatic promotion ebbing away on the forum, let's nail this bugger for once and for all...

Who in the current squad would not make an absolute arse of themselves in the Premiership?

If I'm being generous (because it's Monday) then you have at most: Clemence, Hume, Wesolowski and Fulop.

...And Fulop isn't even ours.

Maybe some of the others will come on this season, maybe we'll sign a few decent players in te Xmas window - but I'd hate to think about the pastings we'd take every week if we ever got up this season.

Would anyone seriously like to spend an entire season being humiliated by every other team in the Premiership?

[The People's Hero]

Would anyone seriously like to spend an entire season being humiliated by every other team in the Premiership?

I'll ask my mate later - he's a Derby fan.

[Fez of Mahrez]

You could have said the same about a few Reading players who played regularly last season, or Wigan players the season before that. The harsh reality is that promotion to the Premiership is the be all and end all of this division and it doesn't matter how you'd perform when you get there, you just need to get there ASAP. The money from the TV deal plus all the extra revenue is far more valuable than "building a team for the Premiership" while still in the Championship. Our better players didn't move on this summer because we didn't really have any Premiership performers. If we're in the top six at the end of the season then at least one of our saleable young players will have done extremely well - the likes of Hume, Wesolowski or someone else yet to emerge. The idea that we can hang onto these players while all the time improving the side to something approaching Premiership calibre is nonsensical.

Look at Watford, a very average Championship side until they got promoted, now they have the readies from their Premiership season to mount promotion campaigns. It can't be nice getting 6-0 hammerings at Anfield but is it really that much better to draw 1-1 at home to QPR? Not in my opinion.

Anyway personal feelings aside, the longer we are stuck in this division, the worse it is for the football club.

[The People's Hero]

Until we find another 10 Levi Porters, I'd say we're going nowhere fast.

[Manwell Pablo]

Never mind this year I personally think all this ****ing about is going to seriously dent Milans three year plan as a whole.

Look at it this way, we have made about what? 15, 16 signings or something, how many actually start on a regular basis for us. We have players like Casion pissing Jimmy and Radostine Kishishev who just aren't going to make our team on anything resembling a regular basis and they're both on 2 year deals!!!

15,16 signings and we're still playing Sheehan Porter and Paul Pissing Henderson!

And players like Kaebi and Ferrira aren't getting a look in, we drop Mark De Vries whilst he is actually playing well. We have far more players than we know what to do with, the place is a mess.

And we've Got GARY MEGSON IN CHARGE!

[Vacamion]

I think the plan is pretty simple. Plenty of clubs (us included) have tried it in the past.

Get promoted.

Invest in a few better players.

Try and stay on the gravy train by scraping home wins against fellow strugglers and being tough but unskillful to earn the occasional away points.

Finish 4th bottom or above, thus keeping our noses in the trough.

Invest in even better players.

Finish higher up the league. Etc etc...

None of us would expect us to sweep all before us in the Prem if we got promoted and nobody would expect a team to try and survive up there with only the players that got promoted.

[Lets Be having You]

Never mind this year I personally think all this ****ing about is going to seriously dent Milans three year plan as a whole.

Look at it this way, we have made about what? 15, 16 signings or something, how many actually start on a regular basis for us. We have players like Casion pissing Jimmy and Radostine Kishishev who just aren't going to make our team on anything resembling a regular basis and they're both on 2 year deals!!!

15,16 signings and we're still playing Sheehan Porter and Paul Pissing Henderson!

And players like Kaebi and Ferrira aren't getting a look in, we drop Mark De Vries whilst he is actually playing well. We have far more players than we know what to do with, the place is a mess.

And we've Got GARY MEGSON IN CHARGE!

Spot On,my god i'm agreeing with you

[wirralsimon]

Until we find another 10 Levi Porters, I'd say we're going nowhere fast.

Wouldn't be the most balanced side we'd ever put put out......

[Master Fox]

Never mind this year I personally think all this ****ing about is going to seriously dent Milans three year plan as a whole.

Look at it this way, we have made about what? 15, 16 signings or something, how many actually start on a regular basis for us. We have players like Casion pissing Jimmy and Radostine Kishishev who just aren't going to make our team on anything resembling a regular basis and they're both on 2 year deals!!!

15,16 signings and we're still playing Sheehan Porter and Paul Pissing Henderson!

And players like Kaebi and Ferrira aren't getting a look in, we drop Mark De Vries whilst he is actually playing well. We have far more players than we know what to do with, the place is a mess.

And we've Got GARY MEGSON IN CHARGE!

Bloody hell,

Now you put it like that.

What a shambles

16 signings!!!! Unbelievable ....

And we're still shit

[Fez of Mahrez]

Wouldn't be the most balanced side we'd ever put put out......

Are you referring to Levi's drunken tumbling in Zanzibar?

[Fez of Mahrez]

Never mind this year I personally think all this ****ing about is going to seriously dent Milans three year plan as a whole.

Look at it this way, we have made about what? 15, 16 signings or something, how many actually start on a regular basis for us. We have players like Casion pissing Jimmy and Radostine Kishishev who just aren't going to make our team on anything resembling a regular basis and they're both on 2 year deals!!!

15,16 signings and we're still playing Sheehan Porter and Paul Pissing Henderson!

And players like Kaebi and Ferrira aren't getting a look in, we drop Mark De Vries whilst he is actually playing well. We have far more players than we know what to do with, the place is a mess.

And we've Got GARY MEGSON IN CHARGE!

I said that on Saturday on the way back to the car. Sheehan and Porter down our left side. It's like Mandaric is reading Thracian's posts for advice.

[Kent Fox]

I think the plan is pretty simple. Plenty of clubs (us included) have tried it in the past.

Get promoted.

Invest in a few better players.

Try and stay on the gravy train by scraping home wins against fellow strugglers and being tough but unskillful to earn the occasional away points.

Finish 4th bottom or above, thus keeping our noses in the trough.

Invest in even better players.

Finish higher up the league. Etc etc...

None of us would expect us to sweep all before us in the Prem if we got promoted and nobody would expect a team to try and survive up there with only the players that got promoted.

I think you are about right there.

It's not we have now, but what we can get when we get there.

However, I think you might have missed new manager..

[Manwell Pablo]

I said that on Saturday on the way back to the car. Sheehan and Porter down our left side. It's like Mandaric is reading Thracian's posts for advice.

And our squad is stupidly big as well, it can't be good for player moral either, we have first team players like Hammond who are failing to get on the bench for the reserves!

<sigh>

Who's out of contract in the summer, obviously we're going to be left with the Hellings's and the Casinos for another year but someone please tell me we can release at least five players.

[The People's Hero]

And our squad is stupidly big as well, it can't be good for player moral either, we have first team players like Hammond who are failing to get on the bench for the reserves!

<sigh>

Who's out of contract in the summer, obviously we're going to be left with the Hellings's and the Casinos for another year but someone please tell me we can release at least five players.

Doesn't ANYONE want Hammond?

Thracian? You're not short on money - you love him. Put your money where your mouth is. He'll do your hoovering and take care of all your drive-by needs.

Seriously.

[Daggers]

You could have said the same about a few Reading players who played regularly last season, or Wigan players the season before that.

To replicate Wigan or Watford we need an average Championship side, we don't have one - we're still below average.

[Fez of Mahrez]

To replicate Wigan or Watford we need an average Championship side, we don't have one - we're still below average.

That wasn't your original point though was it? You asked whether people wanted us to get promoted this season and take beatings every week in the Prem.

[The People's Hero]

It's like the difference between accepting life with Mel B, or gambling on a life with that bint out of girls aloud who is fit, in the knowledge that she's going to beat you up (and the occasional black person just for the hell of it) on occasion.

[Daggers]

That wasn't your original point though was it? You asked whether people wanted us to get promoted this season and take beatings every week in the Prem.

Nope - my point is that we were never going to get promoted and we still aren't. That we have an over-sized squad with a thin veneer of ability.

It is as an aside that I posed the question. Seeing as we have the bulk of last seasons team playing weekly at present it is reasonable to assume that the same would occur next season and, if anyone though Saturday was bad enough (which they seem to) then by fluking it into the Premiership it would become much worse.

To a greater extent the question was rhetorical.

[The People's Hero]

To a greater extent the question was rhetorical.

But you know nothing is rhetorical where Fez, Mablage and I are involved.We're bored at work.

To a greater extent the question was rhetorical.

But you know nothing is rhetorical where Fez, Mablage and I are involved.We're bored at work.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Nope - my point is that we were never going to get promoted and we still aren't. That we have an over-sized squad with a thin veneer of ability.

It is as an aside that I posed the question. Seeing as we have the bulk of last seasons team playing weekly at present it is reasonable to assume that the same would occur next season and, if anyone though Saturday was bad enough (which they seem to) then by fluking it into the Premiership it would become much worse.

To a greater extent the question was rhetorical.

So we're not going to get promoted with these players, but if we did, they wouldn't be good enough in the Premiership either. Well, I agree I suppose, but it's a bit of a weird point.

Anyway, for argument's sake...

On Saturday we only had four players (McAuley, Kisnorbo, Hume and Porter) who played for the majority of last season - plus Weso who had his injuries. We'd need a new centre-back and Porter shouldn't be anywhere near the team at the moment anyway. Other than that, seems fair enough to me. Players like Fulop and Clemence would make the step up and we'd make five or six first-team signings.

[Daggers]

So we're not going to get promoted with these players, but if we did, they wouldn't be good enough in the Premiership either. Well, I agree I suppose, but it's a bit of a weird point.

Anyway, for argument's sake...

On Saturday we only had four players (McAuley, Kisnorbo, Hume and Porter) who played for the majority of last season - plus Weso who had his injuries. We'd need a new centre-back and Porter shouldn't be anywhere near the team at the moment anyway. Other than that, seems fair enough to me. Players like Fulop and Clemence would make the step up and we'd make five or six first-team signings.

Well, for argument's sake...

The squad for Saturday contained Kisnorbo, McAuley, Sheehan, Hume, Wesolowski, Porter, De Vries, Henderson and Newton. And I think nine is a more emotive figure to cite than four.

[The People's Hero]

Well, for argument's sake, I think Porter is sh it and that Weso is about due another injury.

[Daggers]

Well, for arguments sake, I wonder if Ultra has ever had sex?

Exclusions: plastic objects, empty jars, dead poultry, baguettes (warm AND cold), fruit, dreams

[The People's Hero]

Well, for arguments sake, I wonder if Ultra has ever had sex?

Exclusions: plastic objects, empty jars, dead poultry, baguettes (warm AND cold), fruit, dreams

Having read the small print, have any of us?

[koop.]

Hume, N'Gotty, Clemence, Fulop, Clarke and Kisnorbo would all do a service in the top flight imo.

If we' don't promoted within 2 years Hume will be snapped up from above.