What's gone wrong since Jan 2009?

[Mac]

Martin O'Neill not only walking at a time to royally fuck us over, but taking all the first team management with him.

[pauliewalnuts]

MON leaving when he did ensured that, in terms of competing at the level we had previously done, this season was a write off. I think he did this when he did because his main concern was protecting the O'Neill brand.

That set us off on a downer. Then we had the faffing over appointing the new manager, and finally appointing one who has turned out to be something of a disaster.

The fact MON left when he did pretty much ensured that we wouldn't be a top six team this season, but there is also no way we should be in the bottom three, or anywhere near it.

Since he came here, GH has consistently put his foot in it and served up some pretty dire results. Currently, we seem to be getting worse, with the main worry being that, after a plucky performance like Chelsea, we should have built on it and really made something out of it, but we didn't, we turned in a performance so insipid that it made Spurs and Man City away look decent.

Now he needs all the support he can get, and I suspect that had he not alienated the fans so thoroughly, there might be a bit more of it around for him.

I have been firmly behind the board thus far, but having backed Houllier, they now need to back him with actual, proper money in the transfer market, because not to do so would be stupid beyond words.

[ROBBO]

Don't often see an article so condemning, i think Randy has gone past the point of no return, we desperately need new players, good ones at that and any change in management will scuttle that. When Kev was made caretaker most of us thought we were a top six side looking for a top manager to move us up and Kev wouldn't be good enough and for me that still holds good. We have to get through this season then make the decision with planty of time in hand.

[hawkeye]

MON leaving when he did ensured that, in terms of competing at the level we had previously done, this season was a write off. I think he did this when he did because his main concern was protecting the O'Neill brand.

That set us off on a downer. Then we had the faffing over appointing the new manager, and finally appointing one who has turned out to be something of a disaster.

The fact MON left when he did pretty much ensured that we wouldn't be a top six team this season, but there is also no way we should be in the bottom three, or anywhere near it.

Since he came here, GH has consistently put his foot in it and served up some pretty dire results. Currently, we seem to be getting worse, with the main worry being that, after a plucky performance like Chelsea, we should have built on it and really made something out of it, but we didn't, we turned in a performance so insipid that it made Spurs and Man City away look decent.

Now he needs all the support he can get, and I suspect that had he not alienated the fans so thoroughly, there might be a bit more of it around for him.

I have been firmly behind the board thus far, but having backed Houllier, they now need to back him with actual, proper money in the transfer market, because not to do so would be stupid beyond words.

Back him in the transfer market, what player with any ambition would join us now? he is done, he is not in a position to make a difference with transfers, the Sunderland result and reaction sealed that. We are left with this squad to get us out of this shit, it is now a simple decision about who leads them

[pauliewalnuts]

Back him in the transfer market, what player with any ambition would join us now? he is done, he is not in a position to make a difference with transfers, the Sunderland result and reaction sealed that. We are left with this squad to get us out of this shit, it is now a simple decision about who leads them

That's the point.

I personally think he's not going to get us to safety with this squad. The board disagree, and think he's deserving of carrying on in the job.

If that is the case, the way they feel, then they have got to back him, they can't leave him in limbo land, or they as much as Houllier will deserve the rap for a shit season.

We quite plainly need players in certain key positions. I would like to think that a large part of the reasoning behind them backing GH would be regarding transfers we have worked on for a while which are close to coming off. If that's the case, then we need to pull out the plugs and get the transfers through as soon as we possibly can, or we are in big, big shit.

[Irish villain]

Quite an article that.

Randy, time to pull the trigger.

[Irish villain]

He doesn't care about the fans. We are going down with this guy. Listen to that.

[jembob]

Changing from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 when Heskey arrived. We stopped doing what was making us successful.

[hawkeye]

Back him in the transfer market, what player with any ambition would join us now? he is done, he is not in a position to make a difference with transfers, the Sunderland result and reaction sealed that. We are left with this squad to get us out of this shit, it is now a simple decision about who leads them

That's the point.

I personally think he's not going to get us to safety with this squad. The board disagree, and think he's deserving of carrying on in the job.

If that is the case, the way they feel, then they have got to back him, they can't leave him in limbo land, or they as much as Houllier will deserve the rap for a shit season.

We quite plainly need players in certain key positions. I would like to think that a large part of the reasoning behind them backing GH would be regarding transfers we have worked on for a while which are close to coming off. If that's the case, then we need to pull out the plugs and get the transfers through as soon as we possibly can, or we are in big, big shit.

Players and thier agents watch TV read newspapers, our market is now extremely limited, players on thier last hurrah or un knowns with potential, neither of which you need for a relegation fight. The answer is not the January transfer window, it could have been but now it isnt. The issue now is who can make a difference in terms of getting the best out of the existing squad.

[Risso]

If we're going to spend money, we need to buy improvements on the players we have.  You're looking at probably £8m for a player in each of the departments, eg left back, central midfield, and more for a striker.  Can anybody really see that sort of money being spent?  This January will see loan players like Walker, maybe one or two French youngsters, and possibly an old has been if we're lucky.  Nobody who's going to make a big difference in other words.

[hawkeye]

If we're going to spend money, we need to buy improvements on the players we have.  You're looking at probably £8m for a player in each of the departments, eg left back, central midfield, and more for a striker.  Can anybody really see that sort of money being spent?  This January will see loan players like Walker, maybe one or two French youngsters, and possibly an old has been if we're lucky.  Nobody who's going to make a big difference in other words.


as i said above then

[Greg N'Ash]

well we're fucked then. we've needed a striker for donkeys years and one needs to arrive because with only gabby, heskey, a totally gone carew and a kid we're not equipped with a premiership strikeforce. to be fair you wouldn't need 15m to improve on carew 2010-11

[pauliewalnuts]

If we're going to spend money, we need to buy improvements on the players we have.  You're looking at probably £8m for a player in each of the departments, eg left back, central midfield, and more for a striker.  Can anybody really see that sort of money being spent?  This January will see loan players like Walker, maybe one or two French youngsters, and possibly an old has been if we're lucky.  Nobody who's going to make a big difference in other words.

They're saying we're close to signing Makoun for 7 or 8m. He'd be a massive upgrade on NRC, and central midfield is where we looked particularly shite last night.

That'd make a big difference, as a better player there would probably help us keep pressure off the frail defence as well.

I agree, we're in big trouble, and I agree, it is going to be hard to get away from it, but saying there's no point signing players , or we're just going to sign cheap dross, seems to me to be accepting it as inevitable that we're beyond redemption.

[Risso]

Who are "they"?  If we do buy him, then that's presumably whatever budget we have gone.  We're not scoring any goals, is Randy going to go five whole years with out buying a decent striker after Carew?

[TimTheVillain]

He doesn't care about the fans. We are going down with this guy. Listen to that.

I think he means that he doesn't blame the fans.

That said, he is still a liability.