greenTshirt

has happened to a lot a "big" clubs over recent years - Notts Forest are only just bouncing back. Not sure how long it took Man City. Can see Leeds going down. We are certainly not immune and no one is ever too good to go down. I don''t see anything as a kick up the backside to today''s football professional where a complacent, unprofessional attitude prevails. Relegation rarely harms the players. The ones who suffer most as always are the fans.

Can''t sack him yet although serious questions have to be asked about his motivational abilities. If someone can motivate Colchester to score goals week in week out and compare to Norwich where we are struggling in all areas, it begs the question what it will take to motivate our guys. It certainly isn''t money. Grant hasn''t been able to motivate the current group of players. People are asking that he be given a chance until after he''s had a chance to bring some of his own players in. However, you then have an issue with learning curves and team building - so how much time do we give him?

I believe Sam Hammam has got a few quid stashed away now after almost taking Cardiff into receivership. Perhaps we should consider a few mercenary owners - might win us some short term success.

In my heart I''m still confident for a top 6 finish although now ten points behind, my hopes are on the wane. Current betting exchange odds are 20/1 for promotion. That seemed attractive to me until I looked at the stats for the season so far. The numbers are average to say the least and look all too familiar. The only positive is our performance against the teams in the top half of the league where we rank 5th. However, this stat in itself is very encouraging. If we somehow get some consistency back and stop this post 90 minute madness where we have conceded 7 goals,  I really believe we can still turn it round with Croft back and Chadwick hopefully returning soon.18 points against teams in the top half of the league (rank 5th)13 points against teams in the bottom half (rank 21)20% (7) goals conceded in the 90th minute or later. Only 3 for. Only conceded 2 between 80 and 90 minutes and scored 4.Home record ranked 12th in the league (10th at this stage last year)Away record ranked 19th (18th last year)We were 13th at this stage last year.So far for December we are the worst performer in the league (6th in November . We were also worst in September).We''ve scored 6 more goals than last year at the same stage.As pointed out in the thread below, Earnshaw has scored 50% of the goals.We''ve lost 14 points when we lost or drawn games which we''ve been winning. However, we''ve also gained 9 points from games we''ve won or drawn when losing.I still think 20/1 for promotion is a tad on the big side but only just.   A better bet might be to back against Norwich at odds of 4/6 when we play Southend on Tuesday. Local derby ... Southend just coming off a drubbing from the leaders ... Norwich poor record against bottom teams ... has draw written all over it. Let''s hope not.stats courtesy of football365.com

[quote user="king of latvia"]ok croft on fleming for huckerby you havent got a clue sack him now [/quote]Flemming on for huckerby and Dion went up front. Made sense to me.

Who are we comparing our board to here? Is there a good example of similar clubs where their board is performing better. Eg would we prefer to have Ken Bates or perhaps Roman Abramovich?

[quote user="splat"] Well Done Granty, Couldn''t agree more with some of your comments. My advise is if you give it out why should you be imune to receiving some banter back [/quote] possibly because I''m not getting paid upwards of £250k a year for the privilege

The artice is spot on.There are some posters on here who would have us sweep under the carpet the fact the team is, at the moment, a total shambles. They would have us "get behind the club" at a tough time. That''s all very well. But I''m not going to be held ransom by this club while it continues to take the p*** out of its supporters by a complacent, unprofessional attitude from all sections, not only on the pitch.

The KPIs don''t even tell the full story - you would need to compare them over the last 5 seasons. And the sorry story is that we''ve gone backwards.I''m not one of the usual "moaners". I have a very positive outlook. I''m even still thinking we''ll make a top 6 finish. But the simple fact is that we''re going nowhere fast. I''m trying to look for the positives. But for the moment I can''t see any apart from the fact that the rest of the Championship are not much better. That''s the chink of light.

[quote user="cityangel"][quote user="Hardhouse44"] This is an utter disgrace and he should be removed from the post as manager of our football team immediately. To have the audacity to comment on the level of support that we as fans give when his team turn out football of that standard is outrageous. Etuhu, Robinson, McVeigh, no commitment passion or fight what so ever. Hughes and Thorne utter rubbish. and the rest poor to say the least. Grant should offer an apology to the fans now. Instead of giving us that apology of a team.   [/quote]   Where did he query your commitment? He said he didnt expect the fans to be quiet for 90 mins and he wasn''t happy with the level of support. I''d be more worried about him saying that Hull didnt deserve a point and that our team played with passion. [/quote]Angel ... Grant''s quote from the BBC website ... "We needed the fans for the full 90 minutes and we didn''t get that - for me that''s a disgrace. "I''ve got to choose my words carefully but I thought the supporters let us down badly, they never got behind us when we needed them most. "I keep going on about passion and commitment. Does it work only one way?"

[quote user="gareth"]you lot aren''t happy unless you are moaning.admittingly today wasn''t good and it was a poor result , but to judge peter grant at this stage is ridiculous. give him time to bring people in, as we are down to the bare bones and clearly the squad he inherited is not good enough.people moan if hes knocking the players and then moan if he defends them. some people on here are absolute pricks[/quote]Gareth - Keep up mate - read Grant''s comments about the fans.  I''m  am not  a regular moaner about anything. To blame the fans for the p*** poor performance on Staurday is quite disgraceful.

by the way - that wasn''t a death threat ... more a ear bashing from the crowd

I''ve just emailed Neil Doncaster about this.Grant has to apologise for this. He is going to get murdered on Tuesday night unless he doesn''t

I''ve just got home and cannot believe what I just read on the BBC website.I am totally astonished. The man has totally lost any support I mat have had for him for the time being unless he apologises.

[quote user="king of latvia"]how many of you are thinking of giving up your season ticket,next season . ? [/quote]to be honest I''d not even considered it. now I''ve had chance to think about it ... hmmm no.

I would tend to agree - with Etuhu, Robinson and Hughes, supposedly "hard" men, we may as well have a bunch of pensioners in the centre midfield. You cant blame the back 4 for a lazy midfield (although I occaisionally emabarrased with some of Doc''s clumsiness).The midfield is a shambles.

Not sure what to do --- I will be travelling back from London and intended to tune in to listen to commentary once the train gets to Ipswich. Or shall I SKY+ it and avoid the result till I get home ... quandry

here is the linkhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=416339&in_page_id=1951Personnally I hope NCFC are doing all they can within the bounds of the law to get the best players for the club. Surely there is a difference between agents touting players to clubs and asking who might or might not be available. Otherwise there would be no business done at all.

look at the effect of the Curbishley move ... Curbishley moves .. no new job Dowie moves from Palace to Charlton - bottom of the table and sacked after 15 games Peter Taylor moves from Hull to Palace - this has to be their worst run in a few years - his days have to be numbered Phil Parkinson moves from Colchester to Hull - languishing at the bottom of the Championship

Never really rated him that much - has always seemed a bit of journeyman moving from club to club on loan thinking he was better than he was. But time will tell. A settled player is always good news and if he plays well he could be here for some years.

If you''re good enough, I don''t care what sex you are.Mike Newell is wrong. It''s got nothing to do with political correctness. It''s do with ability. It seems that men are allowed to make as many mistakes as they wish. The minute a woman does it, then it''s because of her gender. Quite frankly that''s pathetic. It''s like me saying that i don''t like Dermot Gallagher because he''s bald or Mike Riley because he''s tall and skinny. The fact that they are both inconsistent referees seems to have no bearing on the matter.

[quote user="GazzaTCC"] [quote user="greenTshirt"]Thorpe Area ... what I find unbeliveable is Peter Grant''s attitude after the game. It was he who was laying into the players saying they let us down. If he''d come out and taken some responsibility himself I wouldnt have had so much of a problem. Yes it''s early days and let''s try and remain positive. But Grant has to realise simply slagging the players off after every game is not the thing to do. Otherwise we may have well have got Gary Megson in. [/quote] Why shouldn''t he slag off the players after that performance. They are full time pros for god sake, so they should be able to play more than 4-4-2 and nothing else ??? If it was Worthy, he''d be singing their praises. We were cr*p and the players deserve to be slagged off  [/quote] I agree the players were indeed crap and didn''t do what they''d done in training. However, Grant needs to be big enough to take some of responsibility himself.  

Sir Quinney - you won''t get a more positive person than me and I''m all for giving Grant time to develop his team. But his attitude after the game on Saturday was appalling. He should have shouldered some of the blame himself for a new system. Blaming solely the players for this was out of order. And his previous comments about Ashdown after the Cardiff game and then playing him rather than Gallacher don''t stack up. We don''t want to end up with a Gary Megson.

Thorpe Area ... what I find unbeliveable is Peter Grant''s attitude after the game. It was he who was laying into the players saying they let us down. If he''d come out and taken some responsibility himself I wouldnt have had so much of a problem. Yes it''s early days and let''s try and remain positive. But Grant has to realise simply slagging the players off after every game is not the thing to do. Otherwise we may have well have got Gary Megson in.

Well he didn''t. He blamed the players. This today, in my opinion, was wrong. He should have shouldered some of the blame himself.