The end is nigh.

[Chipsticks]

O'Neill is now out of favour with a high percentage of fans.

If I brought a"MON OUT" banner to the holte against West Ham I bet I'd get a load of funny looks.

[Mac]

You also have to take into account that we're in the silly season. Once the transfer window is closed and we get down to playing proper games then   there are more concrete things to worry about instead of all this naval gazing that we get at the moment (where every tiny rumour and soundbite is analysed to the nth degree) is replaced by a proper discussion on football.

How the team do next season will decide the future of the manager anything else is just idle chat.

Like which player he'll play at Right back this week?
Like why does he persist with Heskey?
Why is Reo-Coker no where near the team?
Like why 4-4-2?

Let's face it we're in for a season EXACTLY the same as last year.  Only without the Wembley visits.  If you're happy with that then fair play to you, but I don't think we're going to progress.

Freidel
Cuellar-Dunne-Collins-Shorey
Young Petrov Sidwell Downing
Carew-Agbonlahor

There's aour starting 11 for the opener.  Want to bet against it?

[Mac]

Too right I'm cantankerous, I'm fed up to the back teeth.

If someone had suggested that our 4th season would see us finishing above Liverpool, reaching the FA Cup semi-final and the League Cup final, they woudnt have been believed. People ike to portray it as a symptom of liverpool being unusually poor last season but 64 points and good cup runs was exactly what was needed to catch up with the traditional Sky4.

Now that we've reached that level, it seems the same people who said O'Neil couldn't get us to that level are now insisting that this is as good as it can possibly get and acting as though their opinion is a statement of fact.

Randy is the ony person who is going to make a decision on MON and its clear that he is backing him for next sesson. What is the point of focussing sooooo much attention on it?

How about we try to avoid creating the same poisonous atmosphere for West Ham that we created for Wigan. How about if we actualy go into this season giving the team our full unreserved support and give this ridicuous Martin O'Neill soap opera a fecking rest.

Finishing 6th and winning nothing, with an early European exit?  Yep I could forsee that.

What this arguement boils down to is the opinion of a sizeable number of fans that if only MON changed by 10% we'd be on to a winner.  Sadly we all know that isn't going to happen.  MON's created a rod for his own back. yep.

[Merv]

Hard to argue with that starting X1 - Warnock at LB though. Hopefully NRC centre midfield instead of Sidwell if MON can swallow his pride.

Still... there's a static atmosphere around, it feels. Reading a lot of O'Neill's comments so far this summer, he does seem to be keen to make a point of transfers - he doesn't know the latest, doesn't know why Luke Young's transfer to Liverpool collapsed, all that sort of thing. Could be him being obtuse as always, of course, but there's also a feeling from me that he wants to get this party line across. Almost as if his hands are tied, he'll work with what he's allowed.

I think we'll have this one season with him and then it wouldn't surprise me if there's a change at the end of it.

[Mac]

I don't think that Ellis did talk to Padfield actually.  And as far as I recall, Disco Stu was one of the posters who was most vehemently opposed to padfield.

I think he means exactly that and give Councillor Swann a chance to ridicule again.

Or run back from the North Birmingham drink to tell tales.

[Ad@m]

Finishing 6th and winning nothing, with an early European exit?  Yep I could forsee that.

What this arguement boils down to is the opinion of a sizeable number of fans that if only MON changed by 10% we'd be on to a winner.  Sadly we all know that isn't going to happen.  MON's created a rod for his own back. yep.

But would you want to lose what's good about MON for the 10% you'd stand to gain?

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

Let's say Randy sacks him tomorrow - I genuinely can't see who this wonderful manager is who's going to walk through the door and have us winning the league.  When it comes to signing the players we need to step up to the next level we don't have the money to compete with Man City/Chelsea/Spurs or the history/reputation to compete with Man Utd/Liverpool.

MON's doing a good job with the resources available.  As is standard with some fans, we get a knee-jerk reaction to one bad result.  It's like Chelsea last season again, except this game's even less important!!!

[Chris Smith]

You also have to take into account that we're in the silly season. Once the transfer window is closed and we get down to playing proper games then   there are more concrete things to worry about instead of all this naval gazing that we get at the moment (where every tiny rumour and soundbite is analysed to the nth degree) is replaced by a proper discussion on football.

How the team do next season will decide the future of the manager anything else is just idle chat.

Like which player he'll play at Right back this week?
Like why does he persist with Heskey?
Why is Reo-Coker no where near the team?
Like why 4-4-2?

Let's face it we're in for a season EXACTLY the same as last year.  Only without the Wembley visits.  If you're happy with that then fair play to you, but I don't think we're going to progress.

Freidel
Cuellar-Dunne-Collins-Shorey
Young Petrov Sidwell Downing
Carew-Agbonlahor

There's aour starting 11 for the opener.  Want to bet against it?

Ok, I'll bet you a pint in the J & H the following week that isn't the side.

[Mac]

I'm another who thinks O'Neill won't last the season, however calling for him to go on August 2nd is just nuts. It smacks of a knee-jerk reaction to be honest.

A bit late to respond, but it's not Knee-jerk and it's not too early.

It's like Wigan last year, the booing wasn't about the previous 45 mins.  it was that 45 mins following loads of similar 45 mins and nothing looked like changing.

Didn't we stuff Liverpool 3-1 following the Wigan game ??

Yep and we'll always have a chance to beat te top 4 sides who think they can beat us and therefore are more "open".  We struggle to beat teams who want to park the bus.  And we saw that so many times last year, especially at home because we don't have a plan to break them down.

[Ennis]

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

this is fast becoming a myth.  Who was the last player that he got the "most" out of compared to where they were before?

Shorey? Harewood? Heskey? Sidwell? NRC? Petrov?

[Chris Smith]

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

this is fast becoming a myth.  Who was the last player that he got the "most" out of compared to where they were before?

Shorey? Harewood? Heskey? Sidwell? NRC? Petrov?

Milner, Collins, Warnock, Dunne...

[Olneythelonely]

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

this is fast becoming a myth.  Who was the last player that he got the "most" out of compared to where they were before?

Shorey? Harewood? Heskey? Sidwell? NRC? Petrov?

Milner, Collins, Warnock, Dunne...

Ashley Young? Gabby?

[Ennis]

Milner, Collins, Warnock, Dunne...

All previously performing well at their previous club and highly rated by their fans

hardly a list of strugglers that O'Neil has got the most out of

[dave.woodhall]

I dont remember one person saying we'd challenge for the Champions League. Not that it didn't happen, just that I dont recall it at all. Getting there was a tough ask as far as I was concerned. Still is.
And why wouldn't using contacts at IMG help? How do we know they haven't? They probably helped us score the Nike deal anyway. In fact I'm sure of it.
It was a fair enough assumption at the time.
Maybe MON had access to the World wide web but went shopping at the corner shop down the road instead. I dont recall anybody saying that would happen at the time either.

I remember some saying that we should have sold to Padfield and Co who hasnt been seen or heard of since in Football. Maybe we dodged a fatal bullet on that one? A lot of things are said and dragged up to be ridiculed again at a later date.

I can remember several people saying we'd be regulars in the Champions League and aiming to get " a second star on the badge." I can also remember how IMG were going to help us market the club around the world. They probably did help with the Nike deal, but like a lot of things, that's not exactly awe-inspiring these days.

I don't remember anyone saying we should have been sold to Padfield & co because no-one did. Talk to him, yes. Talk to anyone with a viable plan to buy the club and take it forward, then sell to the best. That would be sound common sense, and it's what happened. Because for all the current less than optimistic mood, Randy has proved to be what we all thought he would be - the best option.

[Ad@m]

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

this is fast becoming a myth.  Who was the last player that he got the "most" out of compared to where they were before?

Shorey? Harewood? Heskey? Sidwell? NRC? Petrov?

How about Milner - wasting his career in Newcastle's squad as a reasonable winger until MON put him centre-mid and turned him into a £20m+ player touted (admittedly on here) as the natural replacement for Gerrard?

Warnock - again, wasting his career until MON picked him up and got him back into the England squad.

Dunne/Collins - both decent players but unspectacular.  MON brings them in to our side and Chelsea away aside we have the best defence in the league.

That's from 5 minutes thought without trying too hard...

[not3bad]

Milner, Collins, Warnock, Dunne...

All previously performing well at their previous club and highly rated by their fans

Hardly the case where Dunne is concerned.  His form was patchy at best in his last season for Man City.  As for Milner, was he rated as one of the brightest future England hopes?  No.