McLeish confident of avoiding the drop

[Ian.]

The problem with giving McLeish money to spend on players isn't the type of players he will bring in, it's that whoever they are he won't be able to use them to create a coherent, winning team.

That to be fair, is difficult to disagree with.

It maybe hard to disagree with on the other hand I can only live in hope that it is not true and he can create a team that is strong at the back, that can score goals and is worth watching.

[mike]

I just can't accept that our manager seems to think that being worse than Norwich and Swansea but staying up is an achievement with what he has at his disposal.

[Ads]

He's had the weakest midfield in living memory. Combine that with his negative outlook and you can see why we are where we are.

[Dave]

How come Keane who was here for 2 months is included, but Agathe, Sutton and Kiraly aren't?

Because all three were signed as there was no alternative. The transfer window was closed and we have to rely on players who weren't contracted to other clubs. O'Neill was hardly flawless in the transfer market, but I don't his biggest critic would say that he would have signed those three players had there a transfer window at the time. I don't think Houllier would have signed Pires had there been other options either.

Keane was signed during a transfer window so the situations aren't really comparable.

Yes, you're right. If you take out O'Neill's crap early signings, his record does look better than McLeish's. While we're changing history, let's ignore Maloney and Bardsley as well, it'll make it look better still!

Now you're just being silly.

[SheffieldVillain]

How come Keane who was here for 2 months is included, but Agathe, Sutton and Kiraly aren't?

Because all three were signed as there was no alternative. The transfer window was closed and we have to rely on players who weren't contracted to other clubs. O'Neill was hardly flawless in the transfer market, but I don't his biggest critic would say that he would have signed those three players had there a transfer window at the time. I don't think Houllier would have signed Pires had there been other options either.

Keane was signed during a transfer window so the situations aren't really comparable.

Yes, you're right. If you take out O'Neill's crap early signings, his record does look better than McLeish's. While we're changing history, let's ignore Maloney and Bardsley as well, it'll make it look better still!

Now you're just being silly.

Me - silly? Never(!)

But if you're going to make up rules as to which signings are allowed in your comparison, then why not?

Do you think if McLeish had been given £20m to spend in January his only signing would have been Keane for 2 months? Yet you say that O'Neill had no alternative to his signings but McLeish did. Using your rules, what was the alternative to Keane? Lashing out £10m on another striker? It clearly wasn't an option.