danoafc

Grow up mate. Is it cos he went to Leeds. It would have been worse had he gone to Donny! What's difficult to grasp? We helped his career twice while he was sat in Brum's reserves, particularly this time after his latest falling out with Bruce on their pre season tour of wherever it was. He was wanted here, and we were prepared to break the bank for him. And the thing about other footballers leaving OUR club for the exact same reason and nowt being said. Like who then? Let's think who went for more money and supposedly bigger and better things? Beckett? Nah, he got slagged off. Betsy? Nah, got slagged off. Porter? Oooops. Wellens? Hmmmm. Rachubka? Too good for this level? I suppose he managed in the end with Blackpool! Wijnhard and his phone calls? The only one I can think of is Lee Grant, and lets face it, we never had a snowballs of signing him perm, AND he went back to his own club to fight for his place.

Sorry J, but that comparison is absolute KK was wanted, Holness wasn't. Holness has gone to a side in a lower division to get regular football, as he wasn't getting a sniff here. It's a good move for the lad and I hope it works out for him. KK was guaranteed a start, would have been our highest played player (which might have still been lower than at Leeds he would still most definitely have been on a decent screw). As Lags pointed out we've helped KK's career twice now and we were prepared to break the bank for him and both times he's blown us out for what he perceives to be bigger and better things.

Bang on Lags.

So if he signs for Donny, where does that leave Wellens in view of this 'story' that they hate each others guts? Surely if that the case, SOD wont want to knowingly be driving wedges into his squad morale?

I couldn't agree more Corporal, but if the alternative is to start waving around silly contracts that we can't afford, then I don't want us to have any part of it. If offering silly money guaranteed promotion within a set timescale then fine, but Bristol City and Wigan are both testament to that fact that it simply doesn't work like that. 1 and 2 year deals are obviously a problem as they don't allow enough continuilty to build and develop a squad. Perhaps the answer would be instead of the club offering straightforward 2 or 3 year deals like they did for Ricketts, offer 2 years with the option for us to exercise a third year at a minimum agreed % of uplift in salary for the player?

Pay up or lose them? At any price? I agree you have to speculate to accumulate, but at any price? No thanks. I do not ever want another summer like 2003 in relation to football.

A lot of good sense in there again Gemma. It seems as though most of the squad are now working hard for each other - something they didn't appear to be doing in the first quarter of the season. There are fewer arguments now on the pitch (Kilenny excepted - if he stay he needs to learn to keep his trap shut more often). No matter what anybody thinks, losing players like Porter and Wellens was a huge blow and one which was going to take some considerable time from which to recover. Shez has made a couple of mistakes in the transfer market, but then again, which managers dont? Particularly when they are as inexperienced as he is in management. And just as a final point, for a plan B - we're hardly blessed with many options to change things from the bench at the moment are we? No other creative midfielder, not many striking options (Smalley and Wolfy who are both still inexperienced kids). Somebody like a fit Andy Liddell coming off the bench would give us real scope to change things round, but we don't have that at the minute. Lets see what happens if/when we get one or two more experienced faces in in the window.

Well that's made me feel a little less 'merked'. Thank you chaps.

Is that true Eau Savage or are you just saying it to make me feel better cos you're an all round good egg?!

Mine came this week!! A week after I sent my missus down to BP to spend nearly £200 at the ticket office buying Leeds and Everton tickets for 4 adults!!!

I'd add Paul Mardon to that lkist as well because at the time he came into the squad, he was head and shoulders above what we had available at the time. Think he only played about another 8 or 10 games after he left BP before he retired. He was only about 31 I think though. Did he get injured?

What makes me laugh is that fact that all these fans of clubs like Millwall etc are saying he's showing no remorse and swanning round the pitch and all that stuff. They see him for what, 90 mins or maybe 180 mins in the season. They have no interest in what he's doing in the community etc, it doesn't fit their agenda. Morons.

I'm presuming we don't have THAT much of a problem if these 'faces' haven't turned out in numbers in 23 months?

Shut it Rummy, your great big poof!

Perhaps it should be pointed out to the residents that one of the alternatives could be turning the whole of the car park into a permanent 'traveller' settlement. Wonder how they'd like that?

I suspect they've left it in the drawing to give an idea of scale.

Me too!

We had the same back up to Crossley when Beresford came in as we do now - Josh Bell, and an injured Pogs. Crossley is doing 'ok'. Same as he was only doing 'ok' when he was fit at the start of the season. Can anybody honestly tell me at any point that they've been totally confident in him, right from off? What I don't get on here is this whole attitude of 'well we're in the 3rd division - what do you expect? Permiership players?', like we shouldn't question the abilities of a player and should just lump it with our mouths shut and accept any old guff? And I'm not just talking about Crossley. I'm certainly not gonna boo him during a game - it is simply counter productive to do so, but perhaps the club should come out and say he's still struggling with an injury if that's the case - perhaps that will keep a few of those who DO choose to voice their opinions at the match, off his back. I should just add to all of this that I really do hope he comes good - when we signed him I thought it was an excellent signing - good experience and potentially a good coach for Pogs - now I'm just not convinced anymore.

In fairness J, I think Stam has looked a bit shaky on one or two occassions lately, but he's coming back from a long term injury. However, I think Hazell has been unlucky not to keep his slot in the central pairing. Crossley looks as though he's still injured - he seems slow and not that mobile - and you're right with the uncomfortable thing - I just feel like he's an accident waiting to happen. Still, we're not conceeding too many - let's hope we can build more confidence throughout the whole side so this isn't an issue.

Hmmm?! Or perhaps if the oppo aren't being allowed to create too many decent chances, Crossley is the weakest link in an otherwise excellent backline? Would we be keeping more clean sheets with a different/better/fitter keeper?

He could of course just come out and say he want for the money - people might not like it but at leasty he'd be being honest. However, that's not gonna do him any favours with the Donny fans, so maybe - as you suggest - he should just keep his trap shut.

I think it's more to do with his comments since he left about how they are a better bunch of players, have more ambition etc. I know he has to ingratiate himself with the Donny fans, but we scoffed at the Blackpool fans who were telling us about him and what he was like 2 years ago, yet we seem to be saying exactly the same things about him now.

I love all this 'what do you expect' bolox. Nobody's expecting James or Robinson, but Ronnie managed to get Lee Grant on loan from Derby a couple of seasons back and Grayson seemed to do ok getting Joe Hart in last year from City when Rachubka got injured, both of whom I reckon we'd all have in the side before Crossley. Crossley made a couple of decent saves on Saturday but he looks desperately unfit - doesn't seem very mobile at all. He seemed to badly mis-judge a couple of shots on Saturday and he certainly doesn't give me a great deal of confidence. The other thing which I find very worrying about him at the moment is the amount of times he seems to keep looking over his shoulder to see where the goal is. A keeper of his experience really should know exactly where his sticks are without even looking back. I think it says it all when 'd much rather have Beresford between the sticks right now - it's a shame he got injured.

Agreed JLF - the liner DEFINITELY put his flag across his chest but it was a delayed reaction.

Sorry HTC, but pisspoor defending did NOT cost us 2 points last night. Our inability to find a 2nd goal did. In our last 10 games we have only conceded 7 goals, and we've kept 4 clean sheets. All teams are gonna make mistakes/concede soft goals from time to time, but our inability to get goals -particularly at home when you considered we've lost something like 5 times to a 0-1 scorline is what is costing us.