Icecream Snow

To be honest I don''t really care. Hoolahan won''t be sold. The dumb thing is, if he''d suggested to Hughton that he''d like to leave in the summer of 2014, if he wasn''t going to be extended past 2015, I think Hughton would have agreed. Unless he knows that Villa have a limited budget now, and that this may change in the summer. Given his antics, he''ll be pushed out in the summer regardless.

Bridcutt -> SunderlandWonder if the rumours will start up againCattermole -> Stoke Whelan -> Norwich

I think the reality is that McNally won''t sell, Hoolahan will have a change of heart rather than rot in the reserves, with a view to moving on in the summer, when we have plenty of time to get a replacement.

52 pages on that Villa thread. I think they''ve gone mad. Granted Hoolahan has been a fringe player recently, but he still offers us something different on the bench. With 18 months to go, we''re not forced to sell. Given Wes''s quality we were never going to sell.

Bassong''s stated multiple times that he made the decision to come here because Hughton was in charge, and that QPR had offered him more money.

There''s utterly zero chance of McNally selling Hoolahan to Villa. He was obviously tapped up weeks ago, and I bet McNally''s fuming.

Unless Hughton drops us into the bottom three, I can''t see McNally sacking him.I can see him quietly sounding out people to see if they''d be interested the job though. Neil Lennon is unlikely to get any further investment at Celtic, and after being in the Champions League two years running, may want to cut his teeth in the premiership.But like Michael Laudrup, no serious manager is going to move mid-season.

[quote user="djc"]Eventually all sick animals need to be put out of their misery....[/quote]There''s way too many fans for that. Maybe we could give them Binner season tickets instead.

My concern is that I could write Steve Bruce''s teamtalk for him "Frustrate them for the first 30 minutes, and then the crowd will get on their backs....."

But if you sacked him today, and Mackay''s lawyers have hypothetically told him not to accept any work until Cardiff have paid him off, who do you go for?

The problem with Fox is that whilst he''s a magnificent passer of the ball, he''s just too easy to shut down. In the Luton game last season, it wasn''t that he played badly, it was just that he was completely nullified by Luton''s tactics. Because of his lack of physical presence, and the fact he can''t run with the ball, you just need to shut his space off.

Having been told unceremoniously that he had no future at Sunderland, probably had a point to prove ;)

Yeah, the owner is saying Mackay was given a budget of £35million and ended up spending £50 million, so they won''t be spending anymore in January

The interesting thing is that Lambert''s approach doesn''t seem that different from Hughton''s now.

[quote user="First Wizard"][quote user="Herman "]Will you ever be happy?[/quote]   I am Herman, a great win.   But for complete happiness, I''d like CH out, asap   [/quote].......and you''d replace him with?

Who would you even consider replacing him with? Mackay aside (who admittedly started well in the Premiership) I can''t think of another quality candidate

[quote user="Andrew Spanton"]Completely agree CUSDP. Fantastic win and desperately needed three points. However there is no doubt that a bit a fortune and individual brilliance won the game, not managerial brilliance.[/quote]So when we do badly it''s Hughton''s fault.When we do well, it has nothing do with Hughton and the players decided to mutiny against him?

To be fair he''s hardly been ripping up trees in the Championship. 1 goal so far.

[quote user="djc"]"Row D Seat 7" I do think we will struggle badly these season. Our squad is a good Premier League standard. Our management team isn''t. [/quote]How many times has Bassong gone on record, and said the only reason he signed was because Hughton was manager, it was unlikely he''d have signed if he wasn''t, and that he made the decision to sign for Hughton in 10 minutes!

The difference was that when we agreed the transfer fee, PSV were still in the Champions League qualifiers, and Ola probably thought he could do better. I don''t see much difference between him and Toby in terms of approach, the difference being that Atletico Madrid came in for Toby. Maybe Ola was just holding out for a better offer that never came, and when he realised that, we were no longer interested. 

A new poster, joined today, called "newsbringer" ..... 1/10

When Hughton was quizzed about it by the Pinkun, he said there had been no mention of the specific positions that they were looking to strengthen.

I thought Elmander looked good last night, easily my man of the match. Granted it was only Bury, but he really looked to get stuck it, and bring other players into the game.

Hope we can snatch a draw. Going to be tough with no Bassong, Fer or Hooper.

To be honest it was a good move for him. He''s 32, got a three year contract out of it and get''s to play in the Europa league. He''s also closer to Carlisle. This season he was going to be a bit part player at best, and he needs regular football to keep him fit.