De_La_Vega

I think it is total horse:censored:. There is so much cheating, diving, feigning injury, bad tackling and so on, affecting every game, that to my mind these once a season events are a total irrelevance. Besides, with the only other two instances where it would have been applied this tournament the officials got decisions bang on. Waste of energy by a useless governing body. I'd rather see them get offsides right, which would have rendered yesterday's events null and void anyway. While on rant too by the way - both Germany and Spain through on the back of penalties not given? Again I'd look at that rather than cameras in the goal.

Also, I don't remember him keeping us up one season. Maybe we're getting confused with what happened on Champo...

Not seen enough of this superstar Winchester myself. While he seems to have some qualities I can't say that I have seen a game where he's done something special. Good potential, long way to go though.

Very interested to know what some Latics fans think we are going to sign in the summer. Quite apart from the fact that Phil Morris is well worth a place given that he has some outstanding ability on the ball, a consistently good touch, the courage to play when we are struggling, a good shot and excellent dead ball delivery - I would suggest that we're more likely to end up with Josh Parker than Andy Liddle if we go shopping for replacements. Not saying he hasn't got failings and he may throw in awful games every so often, but to compare him to Craig Dudley or Kevin Betsy? Bollocks to that. Similar to the thread about Tonks - I do wonder what some people are looking for in their wanted list.

That was the game he started, but it wasn't his fault. They reorganised and put Nardiello on his shoulder after an hour and Latics never got extra support out to him. Must confess that I don't see the centre-mid angle, I can't see what he really brings to any of the games I've watched. At full-back though, with the game all in front of him, I think he could be a player.

Has Winchester officially become a centre-mid now then? He still looks more like a full-back to me.

Someone must be talking about this, his ears are burning...

Surprised to see any debate on this one - in my opinion he is exactly what the club needs. With him as our target man we were flying high last year, and although he fell away I rather think that the form earlier in the season is a better indication of his potential. Very pleased if we get him in for a year.

Of course this XI would go down, we'd be fielding three keepers... We need to chill and get some perspective. Hopefully Wes will sign up soon and then we will start to get the outline of a first team. I'd like Tonks, Morais and Simpson too - they're all very welcome.

Agree with that last post. As for the winger who can't beat a man, I think that's totally unfair too. Granted he doesn't cut loose like i'd hoped he would when he was younger but he does hit the byline when he stands up against his man. Plus, not that many wingers can really beat a man for skill or pace. Hence why at the top level those that can are so highly prized.

The point surely isn't that Taylor is exempt from criticism, but that a lot of the criticism is unfair. I honestly wonder if some people actually understand that football is a game that has to be won, rather than as a collection of random blokes trying FIFA skills... As has been amply pointer out by other bastions of good sense, if numerous managers have looked at the guy and not just seen fit to keep him in the side, but also to refer to him as out best player, then I would suggest he can play. I've never been moved criticise his effort, workrate or defensive application, while he always looks to play. Ergo, worth a place.

I'd sign Tonks without question - I've always been a fan in spite of his shonky finishing... As for Adayemi - I think having the game in front of him is much more natural at his age. I'd like to see him back too, because he absolutely loved it. Legend

Surely it makes more sense to fit the Furmalowski pairing in behind Simpson as a playmaker and allow wingers to alternate in with him? When we went well last year that was what we played, and until we lost confidence it had some success. A Craig Davies striker, with pace but a bit of height, to lead that out could work well, but most importantly we need to get someone in who can score. Also, anyone else fancy Adayemi at RB?

I dispute fiercely the suggestion that Taylor has been on the decline for years, I am staggered that it is accepted as reasonable fodder for conversation. Has he maybe changed as a player, and gone as far as he can with us? Probably. But I firmly believe that he'll goon to have a good career in the Championship, showing what a good footballer he is when the ball stays on the floor.

Not quite sure how you make average to :censored:e for two years, because whenever I've watched Latics it hac rather seemed to me that he has been one of the only guys with the ability to play the short passing game we have tried, even when under pressure. Hey ho though, because you wrote a dribbling diatribe on the matter I guess I'll take your word on the matter.

Massive exaggeration of this guy on here. He couldn't finish to save his life, and he couldn't sort his attitude out to save his career. Bad rubbish, glad to see the back of him. Interesting that he seems to be getting more sentiment off some than Taylor - a good professional who clocked up over 200 games for us, captained the side and knew how to finish when clean through one-on-one.

No hot lines to the stars, but I did hear that Taylor to Barnsley had legs in January but at some level terms weren't agreed. If so then removing any fees would certainly help... Kuqi poor yesterday, Tonks played well. Any chance that we'll be able to get him?

For guys like Simpson and Taylor the difficulties are the same. Both guys with ability who need the ball on the deck and into feet, both guys who play at their best with runners off and around them and short, high-tempo passing. Our issue is, we get kicked out of playing that way too easily, and after the Sheffield Wednesday game at home this year I've noticed steadily declining confidence throughout the team in their ability to win playing like that. Cue panic if we aren't in front early. Conceding too many soft goals doesn't help matters, and neither does Kuqi's inability to hit a cow's arse with a banjo.

A couple more wins puts us right back in the mixer for the mid-table kudos...

I don't know why we have to be so emphatic about these questions. Dickov is great or :censored:e, never something in between. How's this? I like PD, he took over the job in difficult circumstances after the DP era - its easy to forget how desperate that time was. We try and play proper football, and up to a point in both seasons we have managed it. Where you would criticise PD would be that with good players two years running we have fallen away very badly - usually when our strikers experience a total goal drought. Maybe teams work us out? We have now failed to get out of this league for over a decade, but there will not have been many occasions where we have been so far below my expectations. We have good players who have underperformed. PD has undoubtedly made mistakes that have compounded this. But shouldn't we expect that from a guy in his second year in the job?

This squad should be capable of challenging the play-offs as is, because we have some very good players. Don't exonerate Dickov from any blame for the poor performances we chuck in semi-regularly. Don't expect we'll have the same squad next year, because I think it highly likely that Taylor, Lee, Furman and Cisak will be in the Championship before too long.

Hmmm, fair and square? You did see their penalty award in the first game right? They beat us over two legs, and were the better side in the first game. But in reality we beat ourselves, because they are :censored:e, and if we'd had an ounce of belief we should have put fifteen past them.

It's always tough for clubs like Latics, but this summer we have a realistic chance of losing a lot of players we can't replace. We try and play more football than most teams at our level, which is why we require players who are a bit different to most of the market. If we lost Taylor, Lee and Furman for instance then we would never be able to replace that without spending. We need to keep chins up to give us the ability to get guys like Mvoto, where he joins on loan and then we pick him up on a free.

What a player this boy is. I was deeply aggravated when boo-boys got on his back in his first seasons with us, because he clearly had ability, but never got trusted with the game time until Penney had no other options. I was really afraid that we would hound him out and he'd end up being class somewhere else, and feel vindicated by the last couple of seasons. Best right back in our league by miles, and more than capable of playing in The Championship. Totally agree with Zorrro about full-backs too, I almost feel like he took the words out of my mouth... Probably because I taught him all he knows.

No, ref was on his way to his pocket in a way that screamed red card ahoy the second he left the ground.