Pearson In

[Stuliasz]

Right I was dying to respond to some of the comments that were made on this board yesterday evening but I thought it was best to sleep on it so that this was more objective than emotive.

The first thing to point out is that yesterday's performance was very very poor. The formation and possibly team selection was questionable prior to kick-off and this contributed towards a defeat against an average in quality but very well organised and hard-working Barnsley side who deserve a lot of credit for their progression this season. It was acknowledged after the game by NP that this was not the formation he wanted to play, he admitted explicitly that he's a 4-4-2 fan. So why didn't he use Beckford and play 4-4-2?

One possible explanation for this is that the majority of Beckford's performances could be categorised somewhere between poor and shocking under both Sven and Pearson. The question could also be asked - why the fook does he stick with Gallagher, Wellens and King in midfield then who have probably been just as bad? Well unfortunately and I hate to break it to the people who were ironically cheering when Gally went off and were chanting for Beckford to come on for about 10 minutes (which incidentally was probably the loudest our "supporters" were during the game) but the alternatives are probably not any better.

If I was a City player, I'd never want to play because it seems that almost any player who doesn't play miraculously has a huge increase in ability. The phone-ins and some of the comments made on here are cringeworthy. Beckford would suddenly have been a world-beater if he'd have started. And I wonder how many of those fans chanting for Beckford to come on are the same people who were making sarcastic cheers when he got subbed a few games ago. And no Pearson did not make the decision based on your chanting.

Gelson Fernandes, yes the same Gelson Fernandes who was anonymous for 95% of his pitch-time was our "best midfielder" and should never have been let go. Yuki Abe should have started - he was poor at Forest and we looked better when he went off and Wellens came on last week, sound managerial justification for a change to me. Liam Moore should have started, yes over Peltier who yesterday aside has probably been one of our more consistent performers this season. Tom Kennedy has a decent game at Palace, so naturally he should be starting over Paul Konchesky who has almost without question been our best outfield player this season. I could go on.

It has become increasingly clear as the season has progressed that the summer's recruitment policy was extremely flawed and has resulted in a squad that has not progressed at all. The quality in the squad, even with the players that have been released recently was not and has never been good enough for promotion. We have not been able to string two wins together all season for crying out loud. A squad capable of achieving promotion was the target given to Sven by the owners and he failed comprehensively. Pearson has clearly identified that this is the case and has indicated the need to make major changes to the squad to actually build a team that are capable of working together. With very few exceptions, this is generally impossible and ill-advised in January. I think we could maybe get a few players in that are improvements over what we have but we will be paying over the odds for there possibly to be better options available in the summer so lets see out this season and wait until then.

As for the Pearson out brigade, give me a break. What good could changing the manager possibly do to the players and the club at this stage of the season? We would be seen as even less attractive a proposition as what we currently do and even the one or two decent players that we have now would be looking for a way out. No doubt Pearson has an incredibly difficult job on his hands. Recruiting players in a situation like ours without paying over the odds is near impossible and paying inflated prices has nothing but a negative impact on the club, the team and the player himself (e.g. Mills/Beckford). I don't think it's any co-incidence that our best performing signings are the likes of Nugent and Konchesky who were signed on the cheap.

So I guess the final point would be to simmer down on the expectations for this season. It was doomed from the start, even though it has taken a while for most of us, including me to see it. Of course we should always be aiming as high as possible but you also have to be realistic about what is possible and the fact of the matter is our team is nothing better than a mid-table Championship team, whoever plays. There is too much to change for this to be improved this season so why not back the manager and the players to get us through to the end of this season and then lets look forward to a proper re-build in the summer. Pearson had time to build a team last time he was here and it nearly got us promotion. He had time to build a team at Hull and they are in the top six. Don't assume that Pearson thinks that a promotion-capable team includes his old-boys, if he needs to change it he'll change it but there just might be too much work to do this season so let's be realistic about what we expect and not take our frustrations of the previous mis-management out on what we are stuck with. Pearson in!

[Marmite]

Good read mate and some very good points there.

Letting Fernandes go was a big mistake in my opinion, we are really missing quality midfielders at the moment

[Happy Fox]

Right I was dying to respond to some of the comments that were made on this board yesterday evening but I thought it was best to sleep on it so that this was more objective than emotive.

The first thing to point out is that yesterday's performance was very very poor. The formation and possibly team selection was questionable prior to kick-off and this contributed towards a defeat against an average in quality but very well organised and hard-working Barnsley side who deserve a lot of credit for their progression this season. It was acknowledged after the game by NP that this was not the formation he wanted to play, he admitted explicitly that he's a 4-4-2 fan. So why didn't he use Beckford and play 4-4-2?

One possible explanation for this is that the majority of Beckford's performances could be categorised somewhere between poor and shocking under both Sven and Pearson. The question could also be asked - why the fook does he stick with Gallagher, Wellens and King in midfield then who have probably been just as bad? Well unfortunately and I hate to break it to the people who were ironically cheering when Gally went off and were chanting for Beckford to come on for about 10 minutes (which incidentally was probably the loudest our "supporters" were during the game) but the alternatives are probably not any better.

If I was a City player, I'd never want to play because it seems that almost any player who doesn't play miraculously has a huge increase in ability. The phone-ins and some of the comments made on here are cringeworthy. Beckford would suddenly have been a world-beater if he'd have started. And I wonder how many of those fans chanting for Beckford to come on are the same people who were making sarcastic cheers when he got subbed a few games ago. And no Pearson did not make the decision based on your chanting.

Gelson Fernandes, yes the same Gelson Fernandes who was anonymous for 95% of his pitch-time was our "best midfielder" and should never have been let go. Yuki Abe should have started - he was poor at Forest and we looked better when he went off and Wellens came on last week, sound managerial justification for a change to me. Liam Moore should have started, yes over Peltier who yesterday aside has probably been one of our more consistent performers this season. Tom Kennedy has a decent game at Palace, so naturally he should be starting over Paul Konchesky who has almost without question been our best outfield player this season. I could go on.

It has become increasingly clear as the season has progressed that the summer's recruitment policy was extremely flawed and has resulted in a squad that has not progressed at all. The quality in the squad, even with the players that have been released recently was not and has never been good enough for promotion. We have not been able to string two wins together all season for crying out loud. A squad capable of achieving promotion was the target given to Sven by the owners and he failed comprehensively. Pearson has clearly identified that this is the case and has indicated the need to make major changes to the squad to actually build a team that are capable of working together. With very few exceptions, this is generally impossible and ill-advised in January. I think we could maybe get a few players in that are improvements over what we have but we will be paying over the odds for there possibly to be better options available in the summer so lets see out this season and wait until then.

As for the Pearson out brigade, give me a break. What good could changing the manager possibly do to the players and the club at this stage of the season? We would be seen as even less attractive a proposition as what we currently do and even the one or two decent players that we have now would be looking for a way out. No doubt Pearson has an incredibly difficult job on his hands. Recruiting players in a situation like ours without paying over the odds is near impossible and paying inflated prices has nothing but a negative impact on the club, the team and the player himself (e.g. Mills/Beckford). I don't think it's any co-incidence that our best performing signings are the likes of Nugent and Konchesky who were signed on the cheap.

So I guess the final point would be to simmer down on the expectations for this season. It was doomed from the start, even though it has taken a while for most of us, including me to see it. Of course we should always be aiming as high as possible but you also have to be realistic about what is possible and the fact of the matter is our team is nothing better than a mid-table Championship team, whoever plays. There is too much to change for this to be improved this season so why not back the manager and the players to get us through to the end of this season and then lets look forward to a proper re-build in the summer. Pearson had time to build a team last time he was here and it nearly got us promotion. He had time to build a team at Hull and they are in the top six. Don't assume that Pearson thinks that a promotion-capable team includes his old-boys, if he needs to change it he'll change it but there just might be too much work to do this season so let's be realistic about what we expect and not take our frustrations of the previous mis-management out on what we are stuck with. Pearson in!

What are we supposed to do for the next 20 games see the like of Wellens, Dyer, Gallagher and CO F**k it we will just accept relegation with that lot and I am not joking. Action needs to be taken this January to GET RID OF THE DEADWOOD, and at the very least bring in a couple of loans if we cannot buy permanently fixtures this January.

[Collymore]

I don't get the Pearson in bit! Or is there another Pearson you want in?

[davieG]

That's all very well but can you explain why half the team cannot put in decent pass and most are generally under performing based on their previous known ability?

Sure he's limited with his selections, sure they're mostly not his players, sure the team has an imbalance in it but that does not excuse poor all around performances like we've seen for the past 4/5 game at least.

There must something fundamentally wrong within the club for such wholesale inept displays I have no idea what but as the manager it's Pearson's job to resolve that and get the players performing stronger as a team than they are as individuals, he's not doing that.

I seriously do not want to see another change in management, I didn't want the last one either I do not want to be in a situation where we have to listen to the same excuse rolled out - these are not my players I'm sick of hearing it for the last decade.

Pearson needs to face up to the fact that he is also under performing, whatever his problems are there's no excuse for the poor displays we are paying to witness.

[Stuliasz]

What are we supposed to do for the next 20 games see the like of Wellens, Dyer, Gallagher and CO F**k it we will just accept relegation with that lot and I am not joking. Action needs to be taken this January to GET RID OF THE DEADWOOD, and at the very least bring in a couple of loans if we cannot buy permanently fixtures this January.

I don't think finding better players will be as easy as you think, would you rather we panic bought in January and got players who were not improvements over what we've got? And as bad as we were yesterday, the squad we've got isn't bad enough to go down, it's just inconsistent. We've never been anywhere close to relegation.

[Happy Fox]

That's all very well but can you explain why half the team cannot put in decent pass and most are generally under performing based on their previous known ability?

Sure he's limited with his selections, sure they're mostly not his players, sure the team has an imbalance in it but that does not excuse poor all around performances like we've seen for the past 4/5 game at least.

There must something fundamentally wrong within the club for such wholesale inept displays I have no idea what but as the manager it's Pearson's job to resolve that and get the players performing stronger as a team than they are as individuals, he's not doing that.

I seriously do not want to see another change in management, I didn't want the last one either I do not want to be in a situation where we have to listen to the same excuse rolled out - these are not my players I'm sick of hearing it for the last decade.

Pearson needs to face up to the fact that he is also under performing, whatever his problems are there's no excuse for the poor displays we are paying to witness.

Spot on, NP is f**ked imo, because he won't get rid of the deadwood AKA Wellens, Dyer, Howard etc their is only one place we are going and it isn't up.

[MattyFromLE]

Excellent post. 100% agree, finally somebody is talking sense. My point again to those we want "rid of the deadwood" - who are we going to replace them with in a 4 week transfer window? Better players are going to be in a better position than we are now, so that would be a huge step back for that player as an indevidual.

Stop thinking we're massive and untouchable just because we've got Top. This is EXACTLY why we are in the mess we are in now. Money has gone to our fans heads so much so, that anything less than success is a failure. I understand that's not applicable now as such as 15th is pretty poor, but they were boo'ing players months ago when we were in a decent position.

I get the "I'll boo if I want to, it's my money!" but do so and creative such a negative atmosphere. I've never boo'd my team.

[Happy Fox]

I don't think finding better players will be as easy as you think, would you rather we panic bought in January and got players who were not improvements over what we've got? And as bad as we were yesterday, the squad we've got isn't bad enough to go down, it's just inconsistent. We've never been anywhere close to relegation.

Look mate I SAID loans, we have missed out on at least 3 players on loan who have gone to other championship clubs and who could have made a difference to this shite team, Chris Wood to Brizzle ( a moblile target man), Andros Townsend Leeds ( winger), Josh McEacheran Swansea ( a playmaker) no need for anymore words you should see the reality.

[Tielemans63]

What are we supposed to do for the next 20 games see the like of Wellens, Dyer, Gallagher and CO F**k it we will just accept relegation with that lot and I am not joking. Action needs to be taken this January to GET RID OF THE DEADWOOD, and at the very least bring in a couple of loans if we cannot buy permanently fixtures this January.

Getting rid of the deadwood is much easier said than done though isn't it? I'm sure that's exactly what NP wants to do but he has to bring in replacements first and that's not easy when we're being held to ransom on transfer fees and wages. Secondly, getting rid of a player who is in the middle of his contract is extremely difficult if that player doesn't fancy taking a pay cut to play elsewhere. Take Beckford for example, who's going to buy him and pay him £30k a week - no-one - he's stuck here. Same with John Pantsil and probably Matt Mills.

Another issue we have is that for all the bluster, have we actually had any firm bid for the likes of Dyer, Howard and Wellens? You can't sell someone if no-one wants them.

I admit to being disappointed about our performances under NP but my word did Sven **** up the recruitment over the summer. The performances have been poor under NP but I think it's his desire to get rid of the deadwood which is causing certain players to not even try for him.

[Happy Fox]

Look mate I SAID loans, we have missed out on at least 2 players on loan who have gone to other championship clubs and who could have made a difference to this shite team, Chris Wood to Brizzle ( a moblile target man), Andros Townsend Leeds ( winger), Josh McEacheran Swansea ( a playmaker) no need for anymore words you should see the reality.

[Stuliasz]

That's all very well but can you explain why half the team cannot put in decent pass and most are generally under performing based on their previous known ability?

Sure he's limited with his selections, sure they're mostly not his players, sure the team has an imbalance in it but that does not excuse poor all around performances like we've seen for the past 4/5 game at least.

There must something fundamentally wrong within the club for such wholesale inept displays I have no idea what but as the manager it's Pearson's job to resolve that and get the players performing stronger as a team than they are as individuals, he's not doing that.

I seriously do not want to see another change in management, I didn't want the last one either I do not want to be in a situation where we have to listen to the same excuse rolled out - these are not my players I'm sick of hearing it for the last decade.

Pearson needs to face up to the fact that he is also under performing, whatever his problems are there's no excuse for the poor displays we are paying to witness.

I'd love to know why Wellens (who people were more than happy to see given a new contract about a year ago), King and the various other players who have performed previously under Pearson are no longer performing. To me the fact that the same manager is seeing different levels of performances from players he could previously rely on is a problem with the players themselves. He proved he can get the best out of them in his previous stint, and it was proven that the players enjoyed playing under him by the way they used to. Maybe it's age in the older players, maybe it's confidence (King), maybe they were never that good in the first place and we massively overperformed in his last tenure.

However maybe it's a deeper rooted unhappiness in the players at the way the club itself is being run at a higher level. Money can do strange things to a person and a lot has changed at the club since Pearson left. Depending on the nature of the problem, it may not be solvable by the manager and if this is the case they probably just need moving on. If it is solvable by the manager, then I would entirely agree that he is underperforming in his ability to get the best out them and needs to look at why this is.

[Lee Foxier More]

Look mate I SAID loans, we have missed out on at least 3 players on loan who have gone to other championship clubs and who could have made a difference to this shite team, Chris Wood to Brizzle ( a moblile target man), Andros Townsend Leeds ( winger), Josh McEacheran Swansea ( a playmaker) no need for anymore words you should see the reality.

Don't think Swansea will thank you for labelling them a "Championship Club" But I do agree with your point regarding loan deals, a couple of exciting youngsters or seasoned pros could have made some sort of difference if only to shake the current idle bástards up a bit.

[Stuliasz]

Look mate I SAID loans, we have missed out on at least 3 players on loan who have gone to other championship clubs and who could have made a difference to this shite team, Chris Wood to Brizzle ( a moblile target man), Andros Townsend Leeds ( winger), Josh McEacheran Swansea ( a playmaker) no need for anymore words you should see the reality.

Very good forum spirit there - shut up and agree with me because my opinion is right and yours is wrong, thanks for that. Loans guarantee nothing. We filled our squad with loans this time last year and it took us nowhere and if anything destabilized the team. When it comes to loans, we don't have the financial advantage which generally leaves it down to the player as to where he goes. Josh McEacheran chose a Premiership club over us and you're saying we 'missed out'. Andros Townsend chose to play for a club who have better promotion prospects than us. I'm all for using the loans system to add productively but assuming that just because they are available they would want to come to us is wrong and is part of the delusions of grandieur that Pearson refers to.

[dog_4]

we were playing rubbish under sven too!

[davieG]

I'd love to know why Wellens (who people were more than happy to see given a new contract about a year ago), King and the various other players who have performed previously under Pearson are no longer performing. To me the fact that the same manager is seeing different levels of performances from players he could previously rely on is a problem with the players themselves. He proved he can get the best out of them in his previous stint, and it was proven that the players enjoyed playing under him by the way they used to. Maybe it's age in the older players, maybe it's confidence (King), maybe they were never that good in the first place and we massively overperformed in his last tenure.

However maybe it's a deeper rooted unhappiness in the players at the way the club itself is being run at a higher level. Money can do strange things to a person and a lot has changed at the club since Pearson left. Depending on the nature of the problem, it may not be solvable by the manager and if this is the case they probably just need moving on. If it is solvable by the manager, then I would entirely agree that he is underperforming in his ability to get the best out them and needs to look at why this is.

It's not just his old brigade either to me Nugent and Peltier have gone backwards since Pearson arrived, no one yet seems to have got the best out of Mills (surely he can be better), Danns or Beckford.

Only Kasper, Dyer and Konchesky seem to be showing any sort of form.

Pearson seems to be hiding behind a number of excuses that to me are unacceptable.

[One Arm Babba]

We don't move, we don't chase the ball when we don't have it. That's 2 basic flaws. An under 9's coach can teach that. Our youth team would have done better than the first team yesterday.

[cc_star]

Good read

We don't have the personnel to play 4-4-2

We had a midfield trio of Wellens, Abe & King which Sven generally played (& coached that way) last season, he then quite rightly wanted 2 players for every position & signed Johnson, Fernandes, & Danns.

The 4-3-3 didn't work, it was a disaster, the new players were no doubt good individuals but summer of coaching & signings was effectively wasted as it just didn't work, we got some temporary joy in a diamond, but that too fell apart. We just don't have the personnel to play another way, so we have to persist with something that's not working with personnel who need changing.

Pearson will change the personnel but Jan is tough, we need to ship players out as we don't want their negative energy in the background, this is tough because we're amongst the biggest payers so why would they want to leave.

Secondly clubs will need to replace players we're trying to sign, this is difficult for them & until they can replace our targets we won't be able to sign them.

All this is easy in the summer but tough as shit in Jan, it will happen but it will be expensive to get rid of some & it will be expensive to replace them, they then need to gel & perform well together.

Pearson will do a good job, but it will take time because the summer & pre-season has proved to be a write-off & floating a sinking ship at an adverse time of year will prove difficult. It's made harder by idiots not realising the chain of events that need to happen to resolve the situation.

[Happy Fox]

Very good forum spirit there - shut up and agree with me because my opinion is right and yours is wrong, thanks for that. Loans guarantee nothing. We filled our squad with loans this time last year and it took us nowhere and if anything destabilized the team. When it comes to loans, we don't have the financial advantage which generally leaves it down to the player as to where he goes. Josh McEacheran chose a Premiership club over us and you're saying we 'missed out'. Andros Townsend chose to play for a club who have better promotion prospects than us. I'm all for using the loans system to add productively but assuming that just because they are available they would want to come to us is wrong and is part of the delusions of grandieur that Pearson refers to.

Well if we don't try we will never know, we have had 14 days in the transfer window so far and nothing is coming to fruition, the deadwood are still on the books but they will still be their come next January so I am not getting my hopes up that the likes of Wellens, Gallagher mediocre shit average players, will leave anytime soon. NP looks a forlorn lost man he hasn't got a clue I am afraid.

[louie0316]

a good analysis of the current crop of players and our current fortunes sven added players to the current bunch and in most instances it was just to get 2 players per position which meant bums on seats (the has beens, out of contract) with very few exceptions, nigel illiterates he has a imbalance in the squad ie no wingers which he is trying to address what people need to realise he will not be able to rebuild a squad in jan especially a whole new midfield as creative midfielders do not grow on trees, fernandes didnt want to be here after svens sacking i dont care who we sign as long as they tackle hard have pride in wearing our shirts giving blood sweat and tears every match then we will start to win, why do we need these big named players earning stupid money bleeding our club dry, as for some fans they need to realise that promotion is a long way off all because we spend money on players we dont have a god given right to the premiership, and us as fans of our club keep being negative and conducting our own witch hunts and public shows of chastising our players is sending us further away from what we all want as a collective PROMOTION

these are dark times when we all should be riding high yesterday our team must of thought they were playing away against 20k home fans, yes the performances are woeful but we pay our money to keep going back lets try to be more positive then our team might do aswell or tuesday could end up being our darkest day against a local rival!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stuliasz]

Well if we don't try we will never know, we have had 14 days in the transfer window so far and nothing is coming to fruition, the deadwood are still on the books but they will still be their come next January so I am not getting my hopes up that the likes of Wellens, Gallagher mediocre shit average players, will leave anytime soon. NP looks a forlorn lost man he hasn't got a clue I am afraid.

I'll wholeheartedly agree with you if we start next season with the same underperforming midfield but it's not realistic to expect a whole midfield to be altered in January even using the loans system. As I implied in my opening post the mistake was made in the summer - Sven clearly identified that midfielders were required and brought in a shed load to prove it. Just the ones he did get in weren't any improvement ultimately contributing to his downfall.

Given the same opportunity, hopefully Pearson won't make the same mistakes. He has proven he knows how to build a team but he has to have that opportunity first. I'll happily eat my words if improvements aren't made but I think people are jumping to conclusions that he doesn't want to make changes way too prematurely and to an extent, I'm afraid we are stuck with some of the "mediocre shit average" players for the time being. Yes one or two better players would be nice to see but it's well documented that January is a limited market and we aren't a very attractive proposition. And to say that we aren't trying is wrong as Pearson has stated in almost every interview for the past two or three weeks that they are.

[cardifflee]

There is no point to this at all is there????? Everything you have said we already know!

[Thracian]

I'd love to know why Wellens (who people were more than happy to see given a new contract about a year ago), King and the various other players who have performed previously under Pearson are no longer performing. To me the fact that the same manager is seeing different levels of performances from players he could previously rely on is a problem with the players themselves. He proved he can get the best out of them in his previous stint, and it was proven that the players enjoyed playing under him by the way they used to. Maybe it's age in the older players, maybe it's confidence (King), maybe they were never that good in the first place and we massively overperformed in his last tenure.

However maybe it's a deeper rooted unhappiness in the players at the way the club itself is being run at a higher level. Money can do strange things to a person and a lot has changed at the club since Pearson left. Depending on the nature of the problem, it may not be solvable by the manager and if this is the case they probably just need moving on. If it is solvable by the manager, then I would entirely agree that he is underperforming in his ability to get the best out them and needs to look at why this is.

With King i think the answer is simple. We've stopped being a team that tries to pass and move. Once again he was paired with Wellens who doesn't pass and move and once again King was wasted. King is best when he's treated like Scholes and the play moves through him from back to front.

Tunchev can aid that but who else? Mills (and yes i know he made the goal for Dyer) normally just passes to space rather than players, Konch tends to race by the central midfield, Peltier isn't a natural with pass and move, Wellens is a spray-passer, Danns takes too long to think, Gallagher doesn't show up half the time, Beckford is a waste of space if you want to pass and move and even Nugent is often greedy in possession.

That isn't to pretend that King isn't underperforming. For me he's struggling to cope with the closer attention he gets and all the ground he has to cover is leaving him short of the energy needed to make some space or to drive himself forwards. He's become essentially a defensive midfielder and that is so wasteful, and the more so when Wellens is playing.

The last striker we had who could hold the ball and involve others was Yakubu. Okay, he didn't run much, but he didn't have to. King could hit his feet and know that the Yak would see where he was heading next. We need players everywhere who can see and feed the runners.

[seenitall]

Mostly drivel after the initial post. Svens crap loans resulted in a 38 pts from 22 games run from Jan 1st last year - W 11, D5, L6 - including defeats to both QPR and Norwich and only 2 home defeats. 2 points a game is promotion form and we were on 1.72, an average that would have got us 79 points in a full season. You are totally wrong to suggest that the loans didn't work, they almost pulled off a miracle after being bottom after 9 games with 5 points (or 0.55 points per game). In the summer there was an attempt to replace the loan players with permanent signings - some were right and some were wrong - keeper, spot on, right back, spot on, striker, half right so far, - the numbskulls who were led to believe or just wanted to believe that because we were going forwards automatic promotion was a bolt on (and I include the morons that run the club in this) are responsible for our current situation and it will only get worse now this season. Big mistakes made over and over, and if Nigel Pearson is removed the mistake will be perpetuated. Get behind him, accept that we need to start again - we have demoralised players who have thrown their lot in with Sven to find they are in the cold because Nige prefers what he knows - but changing it again this season - well who would come to Leicester????

[Happy Fox]

I'll wholeheartedly agree with you if we start next season with the same underperforming midfield but it's not realistic to expect a whole midfield to be altered in January even using the loans system. As I implied in my opening post the mistake was made in the summer - Sven clearly identified that midfielders were required and brought in a shed load to prove it. Just the ones he did get in weren't any improvement ultimately contributing to his downfall.

Given the same opportunity, hopefully Pearson won't make the same mistakes. He has proven he knows how to build a team but he has to have that opportunity first. I'll happily eat my words if improvements aren't made but I think people are jumping to conclusions that he doesn't want to make changes way too prematurely and to an extent, I'm afraid we are stuck with some of the "mediocre shit average" players for the time being. Yes one or two better players would be nice to see but it's well documented that January is a limited market and we aren't a very attractive proposition. And to say that we aren't trying is wrong as Pearson has stated in almost every interview for the past two or three weeks that they are.

If we are righting this season off we are condemning ourselves to a relegation battle mark my words this is where we heading at the moment. Do you think the Thais will be happy not a chance they will just get rid of NP but the problems lie and have done so for the past two years in the midfield the WHOLE midfield plus the excess deadwood, the personnel on the books Wellens, Gallagher, Dyer, Howard etc need to removed as quickly as possible and this January should have been the opportunity to have done so.