murphy

Dele Alli? Going further back, Kevin Keegan, Ian Rush?

I did. And I saw something very different to you. So where's the evidence?

Spot on. Shinji in a nutshell.

So no evidence to support your wild claim that Shinji was responsible for half our goals last year. If they gave out awards for the most ridiculous post of the week, you get my vote. I once handed the ball back to a player who took a throw in from which we eventually scored by the way. I'm claiming an assist for that too.

I simply don't understand why the OP has used words like genius in the title or compared him to Messi at times. Are we watching the same player? A very ordinary but wholehearted player.

Who cares?

Ranieri's winning the league actually bought him more time rather than him getting sacked because of it. Konchesky seems to be forgetting that we had the worst record of all 92 league clubs for 2017, no league goals and hurtling toward the championship like a cannonball.

Must be exhausting being a celeb and having you load of herberts saunter over like you're their best mate and then get branded a knob if your less than ecstatic to meet every time. I'm glad I'm just a pleb.

The truth is that he has already had a good deal of time. We heard the same argument about Shinji last year. Now some people love him cus he smiles a lot, but has he improved at all towards the end of his second season? I would say he is the same player he was last year. I remember when we used to recruit from the lower leagues? Take O'Neill's team. Elliott from Oxford, Lennon & Savage from Crewe, Guppy from Port Vale, Claridge from Birmingham etc. They went straight into a premier league team without having to have years of time to adapt. It's called doing your homework. We have managed to spend 60mn on three players that haven't improved the team. I don't think we can afford to have that much money sitting on the bench whilst we wait and hope that the ugly ducklings become swans. That money needs to be recouped as much as possible and reinvested in players that will improve the team and fit our style.

Remember when we were all gutted that we didn't get him in the January window last season? I'm just grateful it didn't happen then. That could have been our Asprilla moment and ruined everything.

It is the British way - build them up then take great joy in knocking them down. What annoys me is the way that these pundits seem to think that they are privee to the inner sanctum of the dressing room. How the hell do they know what happened? It is all guesswork yet they sit in judgement of the players and owners and now Shakespeare despite the fact that the decision to let CR go, sad as it maybe, was clearly the right one. Who the hell do they think they are to tell us to accept relegation? Would they accept it? Hypocrites! I must say, I quite like us being disliked again. Has the players fired up and I never quite knew how to handle other clubs fans being nice to us.

The argument is that you cannot criticise a player in his first year because Vardy or Drinky made it after poor starts, so in EVERY case we are told to give them time otherwise you are painted as some reactionary moron. Well I prefer to call it as I see it at that time. What's wrong with that? Take Vardy as an example, he deserved criticism when he was not performing and deserved credit when he was tearing up the league. In the case of Musa, he has been very poor. Doesn't mean he won't make it and I will give him credit if he does, but I have seen little to inspire any faith. I agree with you that virtually all of our players with the exception of Schmeichel and Ndidi have been shocking and also deserve criticism but we are discussing Musa.

I'm simply countering the argument that because some players made it after poor starts, then this must be ALWAYS the case. Actually this is often the exception to the rule. This give them time' argument bores the hell out of me. It just shuts down debate. How much time is enough time anyway? Players, especially internationals, must be criticised or praised on merit by what we see in front of us. I do hope Musa makes it but have to say I'm exasperated by what I've seen. Doesn't make me negative, or hard and clever (what?). Just calling it as I see it now. I will also give him the credit he deserves if he makes it.

But the football graveyards are littered with thousands of players that looked as though they weren't going to make it... and never did.

Still too early to say on Musa, however, even if we had signed a quality player like Silva the relentless craposity of the whole squad would have brought him down to their level. No one can shine in this team at the moment. It is a shambling corpse sleepwalking into the championship.

In the case of DA I agree. He is very young and played a handful of games. He is not the finished article by any means. However, with the established players, you simply have to praise or criticise what you see in front of you at the time. This is a discussion forum after all.

True! And that Shkespeare bloke - couldn't write to save his life! Isaac Newton? Thick as two short planks.

This time last year we had 19 points (bottom) - now more than tripled to 60 (top)! Over the last 38 games we have taken 82 points!!