Cloughie

It seems that Bunn''s offence of a handball outside the area is worse in the FA''s eyes than McManaman''s at best reckless, aggressive tackle. One is dismissed and banned the other gets away with it.

Well you should be. Simply having thousands of posts does not excuse the continual excrement that you post on this forum.

Came through the Middlesbrough Academy played in their 2004 FA Youth Cup victory partnering David Wheater who has broken through this season.  Initially believed to be the more promising of the two.  The infamous photo was posted by his ex girl friend shortly after she discovered that he had been playing away!!  I haven''t seen the guy play but we need to trust the manager after all his other loanees have been a success.

It was always said that the only reaon for Rangers selling Fleckie to us was that his face spoiled the team photograph!

It shows that Steve Gibson is an outstanding chairman and a good communicator.  He really has put his hand in his pocket and frankly deserves more success than his club has achieved.  Perhaps our board should consider following his example so that the ambition is at least equal to the prudence.

The guy seems quite rational and is not out to cause offence so why bar him.  I find it slightly odd that anyone would want to join a forum to which he has no obvious affiliation but it is a free world.

Rather than name the team I would just prefer to forget the night.  Sat on the rickety seating behind the goal with the most inept display I have ever seen from a Norwich side.  There you go you have just dredged up something that I hoped had gone from the memory banks!

Whether you are optimistic or not a lot has changed.  The inept midfield set up ( Ethuhu and Robinson gone)has changed radically and we now have more options up front.  Whether these are better only time will tell but they cannot be any worse.  At least we have done something about the goalkeeper situation.  I guess I would like to see at least one good central defender, another left back and a new permanent central midfielder before I felt really happy.

Not to worry Mr Doncaster will spend hours in his car trying, sadly in vain, to sign players.  Mr Munby will be trotting out with a cry of we are holding our money for the January window.  Come January we can''t sign anyone as they are overpriced.  The money will disappear into black hole and despite full houses, a small squad and little spent on transfers the debt will go up.  There is no wonder that loyal fans become disspirited!!

Boro were demoted in 1997 for failing to fulfil a fixture at Blackburn.  The original game was cancelled as Boro claimed that they had insufficient players due to illness.  The irony is that they lost the replayed game and were relegated because of the deduction of three points.  The relegation cost them players such as Ravenelli and Juninho. Small wonder on Teesside that there is disbelief that a flagrant breaking of the rules by West Ham gets a relative slap on the wrist whereas the inability to raise a team is punished by points deduction.  Let''s be honest there is one rule for the London teams and one for the others.  As Paul Jewell said yesterday what would have happened if he had played and ineligible player. I believe that promotion and relegation should be decided on the field of play but having set precedents with other clubs Boro, Accrington Stanley etc why should West Ham be treated differently.

A very fair report and in agreement with what most people around me thought.  I sometimes think that people go to games with fixed opinions and it would not matter what certain players do in the course of 90 mins they will already be cast as heroes or villians.  Previously I have castigated Dickson Etuhu but yesterday he was very good.  Similarly Andy Hughes who has looked a plank in midfield had an excellent game at full back.  I do feel positive about next season but as 1st Wizard so correctly says let''s have more ambition from the Board.

The Board does not seem to have realised that this period was a vital one in raising giving some kind of hope to supporters and persuading them that renewing season tickets was a wise move.  A club with a fan base of 20, 000 +, parachute money of several million pounds and profit of two million pounds from summer sales is still fiddling around in the bargain basement looking for someone else''s cast offs.  We have seen that investment in quality players eg Ashton and Earnshaw not only pays dividends on the field but also gives potential future profit.  The money wasted on players like Etuhu, Robinson and Hughes will never be recouped whilst the money wasted on the wages of Thorne and MLJ would have purchased a quality player. We now have had two transfer windows where "everyone is trying hard" and "making lots of phone calls" but yet again nothing happens.  It is all very well investing millions in the infrastructure but if seats are empty then it is all to no avail.  I could have handled all the above if someone had been honest, had admitted they had got things wrong and said they would put their faith in young players but hey presto when the crisis happens all the youngsters are on loan.  To say it beggars belief is a crass understatement. Will I renew my season ticket well probably but it is despite the management not because of it. I now feel better having vented my spleen, thanks for listening.

A fair summation Zippers.  I think a caller to Canary Call summed up Etuhu "he didn''t make many mistakes"; too right he rarely got within 5 yards of the ball and frankly he should be ashamed to collect his substantial wages.  As you correctly say at least Hughes tries hard he makes errors but doesn''t spend 90 minutes hiding.  We have no midfielder who makes runs; roll on January because some major surgery is required.  If the board continue to fail to invest in their team then they could be faced with a much reduced supporter base next season. At least the manager didn''t blame the fans this week for the rubbish on show.  Just as well as I think some supporters expended more energy collecting their half time coffee than some of the players in 90 minutes.

Of course; the supporters were responsible for playing Huckerby on the right, not playing Safri, continuing with a mid field which can only go sideways and/or back to their own goal. I, along with many in the crowd, must admit I missed a lot of passion which the players showed and most of all we saw very little skill.  I guess it makes a change from blaming the players and as it could not possibly be any fault of management then it must have been the mugs who turn up week after week paying good money. Wouldn''t it make a wonderful change for the manager to say I was at fault with wrong tactics, wrong player selection and for not engaging my brain before putting the mouth into gear.

This could have been a good post, your making a good point, which I agree with. Please try talking proper english though, instead of lazy text talk, it makes you posts more credible, understandable and people won''t think your winding them up. Plus ease up on the exclamation marks we will still get the point if you just put one. Anyway yes your correct it far to easy to get carried away with the excitement but we are only 3 games in and need to remain focused and if it continues theres a good chance we will win the league but the question is will it last. Please assure me UEA Canary that you are not reading English!  The words stones and glasshouses spring to mind.