Doomsday: Stoke away

[Prufrock]

Then we are f*cked.

[wanderers_on_tour]

Hopefully now IF Knight knows he's first choice for Sunday then he has the whole week to get his fitness back up and get match sharp.

Looked OK on Sunday but the problem with Zat has always been concentration. 90 minutes in the most important game of our recent history surely isn't too much to ask for from a 20k + a week professional is it?

[Salford Trotter]

Hopefully now IF Knight knows he's first choice for Sunday then he has the whole week to get his fitness back up and get match sharp.

Looked OK on Sunday but the problem with Zat has always been concentration. 90 minutes in the most important game of our recent history surely isn't too much to ask for from a 20k + a week professional is it?

It won't happen I know but I'd be tempted to bring Boyata into the other CB role and have Steinsson (Physioroom has him returning on 13th) as RB

[Lennon'sEleven]

So pleased that we got that hard-earned point on Sunday. To concede 2 and come away with a point only shows how sharp we are in front of goal at the moment. There couldn't be a better time to go into this must-win showdown.

Or.

We are, like St Paul's and the Greenwich Peninsular; well and truly domed.

[officer_dibble]

Knight is tall? Well fook me. 6'6" and jumps to 5'8". I'd back Boyata to beat him in the air every time. Plus he is a coward.

FOOKED.

Just bollocks... Knight easily the best option available for Sunday...

Not bollocks, bob on. Knight is a fanny.

However he is the best available option.

All you brave souls going best man up! Nowt worse than being caught bawling your eyes out on the box!

[jaffka]

Knight is tall? Well fook me. 6'6" and jumps to 5'8". I'd back Boyata to beat him in the air every time. Plus he is a coward.

FOOKED.

Just bollocks... Knight easily the best option available for Sunday...

Not bollocks, bob on. Knight is a fanny.

However he is the best available option.

All you brave souls going best man up! Nowt worse than being caught bawling your eyes out on the box!

Agree with this fully, we are not geordies...thank feck.

[Dr.Karl]

Terrible news about Wheater. The only time Boyata played in the centre he looked fairly solid I thought. So I'd be inclined to go with Boyata in the centre with Alonso out left. Just feel with Knight at centre half its a slip up from disaster. Mind I get the feeling he'd be heading balls all day long at Stoke so might be a decent choice afterall.

I'm dreading and counting down to this. Don't know what emotion I'm feeling about the game. Before WBA scored their second my knees were trembling with nervousness, I just can't imagine what it'll be like on Sunday.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Stoke is one game where I like the thought of Knight being there. I'd be more concerned about them exploiting Ream in the air. I'd play Ricketts and Knight central(th.ey can be very effective as a pair) Didnt someone say Peddant and Etherman are out. In which case Alonso may be ok

[ChrisC]

I think knowing that we need to win is better than going for a draw.. We always concede so we need to go all out and try and get ahead.. If we only needed a draw i could just see a Coyle master plan of trying to keep it 0-0 which would never happen and then heads would drop once we concede..

Take the game by the balls from the first whistle and don't stop until the last.. Stoke won't be on the beach for this one! they will want revenge for the 5-0 earlier this season, just like we did for the cup semi.

COYWM!!

[Puskas]

Well, that's it. All over. Ten years at the top table gone. And, I suppose predictably, to quote (I think) Steve Elliott, "Not with a bang, but a whimper". I am intrigued to know, of those who laughed at Birmingham and Portsmouth when they went down ("They may have won a cup, but we're still in the Premier League"), what the opinion is now? We're not in the premier league, and what do we have to show for it? Debts of £100million-plus. Initial ripples that faded away. A name writ on water. Nowhere in the record books will it say that we won a trophy during the spell we had here.

A shite season, bad luck, perhaps, but badly managed, definitely. An attempt (Gartside inspired, no doubt, and no doubt also necessary) to cut costs, buying cheaper, lesser players. Players that weren't good enough, but that we could afford. We can't keep hemorrhaging £20million a year. It isn't feasilble.

But let's look on the bright side. Exciting trips to new grounds (hopefully Stevenage...). Brighton - beer on the pier, without being threatened with violence by small children, too young to remember the terrible event they're trying to use to justify it. An lack of pretend fans - camp-following glory hunters who congregate around the Emirates or the Theatre of Shite, but who have no connection with the club (Arsenal "fans"who have to google to find out who George Graham is, never mind John Jensen, Rune Hauge, brown paper envelopes in motorway service stations). And, just possibly, some success.
Look at the team, once the out-of-contract mob have cleared off. Assume we get a half-decent offer for the permanently flattering-to-deceive Mark Davies. And assume, reasonably, that no one will take a punt on Lee or Holden without at least watching how they get on for a couple of months (given neither has really played for a year). Bogdan, Mears, Alonso, Wheater, Ream, Lee, Holden, Reo-Coker, Eagles/Wylde, Ngog, Sordell (He scored 12 in the championship, before being consigned to some sort of bench-based purgatory). That team could do alright in the championship. OK, it's 442, but Coyle likes it, and I believe the magazine is popular (I prefer Private Eye, myself. Or Razzle. But only for the articles - the John Updike short story, Alain de Botton interviewing Joan Bakewell. Probably, appropriately, about tarts).
Anyway, that line-up could score a few a division below. I'm even thinking Todd's zenith. 98 points, 100 goals. Imagine that. Promotion on a wave of glory. Coyle rehabilitated (then leaves, to take over somewhere else, before the cold reality of Premier League misery returns - a necessity to play turgid football because we can't afford players to play anything good. Justified in the name of pragmatism, whilst forgetting why we ever wanted to watch football in the first place. Does anyone still enjoy the game, or, like me, do you just think, "Bollocks, I'd best go, it's Wanderers"?).
Obviously, of course, what's far more likely is we'll be 18th at Christmas, and Coyle gets the boot then, to be replaced by Phil Brown. Still, fück it. Who cares? Right? Right. So saith the lord.

[FaninOz]

We have got a chance which is more than Wolves and Blackburn have got. City are on a high and will tonk QPR, so it's a win at Stoke and we stay up anying less and we don't. Hence we have to go for it as I can't see us stopping them scoring if we sit back and hope for a breakaway goal.

I've a feeling that we will just do this, even though it may be 3-2 or something similar. We had more than enough chances to score more goals against WBA and all we need is that bit more luck and a few flukes.

Stoke's home form is nothing to right home about losing 4 and 7 draws but our away form isn't that bad winning 6 so we have a chance and that is all that matters. They have their injuries as well so lets keep praying and hope for a miracle we wouldn't be the first team to survive on the last day against all the odds.

Come on your Whites!!!!

[Prufrock]

We'll win 5-0 and QPR will get a point. Probably in the last minute. Imagine that, relegated and the Rags winning the title. Eurgh.

[newboy]

We are going to get well and truly twated by Stoke the maximum we will achieve is a draw which would have been enough but for Coyles ineptitude on Sunday..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We'll win 5-0 and QPR will get a point. Probably in the last minute. Imagine that, relegated and the Rags winning the title. Eurgh.

Happened in '96 (although not on the same day). What happened next...?

Well, that's it. All over. Ten years at the top table gone. And, I suppose predictably, to quote (I think) Steve Elliott, "Not with a bang, but a whimper". I am intrigued to know, of those who laughed at Birmingham and Portsmouth when they went down ("They may have won a cup, but we're still in the Premier League"), what the opinion is now? We're not in the premier league, and what do we have to show for it? Debts of £100million-plus. Initial ripples that faded away. A name writ on water. Nowhere in the record books will it say that we won a trophy during the spell we had here.

A shite season, bad luck, perhaps, but badly managed, definitely. An attempt (Gartside inspired, no doubt, and no doubt also necessary) to cut costs, buying cheaper, lesser players. Players that weren't good enough, but that we could afford. We can't keep hemorrhaging £20million a year. It isn't feasilble.

But let's look on the bright side. Exciting trips to new grounds (hopefully Stevenage...). Brighton - beer on the pier, without being threatened with violence by small children, too young to remember the terrible event they're trying to use to justify it. An lack of pretend fans - camp-following glory hunters who congregate around the Emirates or the Theatre of Shite, but who have no connection with the club (Arsenal "fans"who have to google to find out who George Graham is, never mind John Jensen, Rune Hauge, brown paper envelopes in motorway service stations). And, just possibly, some success.
Look at the team, once the out-of-contract mob have cleared off. Assume we get a half-decent offer for the permanently flattering-to-deceive Mark Davies. And assume, reasonably, that no one will take a punt on Lee or Holden without at least watching how they get on for a couple of months (given neither has really played for a year). Bogdan, Mears, Alonso, Wheater, Ream, Lee, Holden, Reo-Coker, Eagles/Wylde, Ngog, Sordell (He scored 12 in the championship, before being consigned to some sort of bench-based purgatory). That team could do alright in the championship. OK, it's 442, but Coyle likes it, and I believe the magazine is popular (I prefer Private Eye, myself. Or Razzle. But only for the articles - the John Updike short story, Alain de Botton interviewing Joan Bakewell. Probably, appropriately, about tarts).
Anyway, that line-up could score a few a division below. I'm even thinking Todd's zenith. 98 points, 100 goals. Imagine that. Promotion on a wave of glory. Coyle rehabilitated (then leaves, to take over somewhere else, before the cold reality of Premier League misery returns - a necessity to play turgid football because we can't afford players to play anything good. Justified in the name of pragmatism, whilst forgetting why we ever wanted to watch football in the first place. Does anyone still enjoy the game, or, like me, do you just think, "Bollocks, I'd best go, it's Wanderers"?).
Obviously, of course, what's far more likely is we'll be 18th at Christmas, and Coyle gets the boot then, to be replaced by Phil Brown. Still, fück it. Who cares? Right? Right. So saith the lord.

Welcome back, Puskas; we've missed you.

[bedwetter2]

Well, that's it. All over. Ten years at the top table gone. And, I suppose predictably, to quote (I think) Steve Elliott, "Not with a bang, but a whimper". I am intrigued to know, of those who laughed at Birmingham and Portsmouth when they went down ("They may have won a cup, but we're still in the Premier League"), what the opinion is now? We're not in the premier league, and what do we have to show for it? Debts of £100million-plus. Initial ripples that faded away. A name writ on water. Nowhere in the record books will it say that we won a trophy during the spell we had here.

A shite season, bad luck, perhaps, but badly managed, definitely. An attempt (Gartside inspired, no doubt, and no doubt also necessary) to cut costs, buying cheaper, lesser players. Players that weren't good enough, but that we could afford. We can't keep hemorrhaging £20million a year. It isn't feasilble.

But let's look on the bright side. Exciting trips to new grounds (hopefully Stevenage...). Brighton - beer on the pier, without being threatened with violence by small children, too young to remember the terrible event they're trying to use to justify it. An lack of pretend fans - camp-following glory hunters who congregate around the Emirates or the Theatre of Shite, but who have no connection with the club (Arsenal "fans"who have to google to find out who George Graham is, never mind John Jensen, Rune Hauge, brown paper envelopes in motorway service stations). And, just possibly, some success.
Look at the team, once the out-of-contract mob have cleared off. Assume we get a half-decent offer for the permanently flattering-to-deceive Mark Davies. And assume, reasonably, that no one will take a punt on Lee or Holden without at least watching how they get on for a couple of months (given neither has really played for a year). Bogdan, Mears, Alonso, Wheater, Ream, Lee, Holden, Reo-Coker, Eagles/Wylde, Ngog, Sordell (He scored 12 in the championship, before being consigned to some sort of bench-based purgatory). That team could do alright in the championship. OK, it's 442, but Coyle likes it, and I believe the magazine is popular (I prefer Private Eye, myself. Or Razzle. But only for the articles - the John Updike short story, Alain de Botton interviewing Joan Bakewell. Probably, appropriately, about tarts).
Anyway, that line-up could score a few a division below. I'm even thinking Todd's zenith. 98 points, 100 goals. Imagine that. Promotion on a wave of glory. Coyle rehabilitated (then leaves, to take over somewhere else, before the cold reality of Premier League misery returns - a necessity to play turgid football because we can't afford players to play anything good. Justified in the name of pragmatism, whilst forgetting why we ever wanted to watch football in the first place. Does anyone still enjoy the game, or, like me, do you just think, "Bollocks, I'd best go, it's Wanderers"?).
Obviously, of course, what's far more likely is we'll be 18th at Christmas, and Coyle gets the boot then, to be replaced by Phil Brown. Still, fück it. Who cares? Right? Right. So saith the lord.

I like it! The eternal cycle of misery for a supporter of a non top 6 club. Perhaps ED will put us all out of our misery and bring in the receivers. It would certainly need more than a Golden Gamble to make up the monies needed.

[boltonboris]

Knight is tall? Well fook me. 6'6" and jumps to 5'8". I'd back Boyata to beat him in the air every time. Plus he is a coward.

FOOKED.

Just bollocks... Knight easily the best option available for Sunday...

Not bollocks, bob on. Knight is a fanny.

However he is the best available option.

All you brave souls going best man up! Nowt worse than being caught bawling your eyes out on the box!

Well Knight is better than Ream.. So what does all of this make our new American?

[ohjimmyjimmy]

A bigger fanny.

[Lennon'sEleven]

Any spare away tickets going for this one? - I might be tempted. I'm a stickler for punishment,

Let me know if so via a PM.

[Puskas]

I like it! The eternal cycle of misery for a supporter of a non top 6 club. Perhaps ED will put us all out of our misery and bring in the receivers. It would certainly need more than a Golden Gamble to make up the monies needed.

This is the problem, though. The Premier League is a farce. All the credibility of X-Factor. We know, before the start of the season, that the winner will come from one of three clubs. Pile up the money, count it, award the trophy to the biggest wad.

But the misery - the rest of us, the fans, rather than the dilattentes, pay through the nose to be depressed. I recall a conversation, back in February or March. A few months ago, or an eternity, I'm not sure. Anyway, Friday night. Post-work. In the pub. A woman (non-football fan, not even a pretend Premier League one) asks me what I'm doing over the weekend.
"Being miserable at the football".
A few words on the depressing quality of matches, and then she comes out with the remarkable piece of wisdom - "Well, maybe you ought to change your behaviour"
Wonderful insight. Climb out of the role of psychic self-harmer, carving Saturdays of misery into my soul, leaving scars across the id that will be visible to psychiatrists in thirty years time (should I be unfortunate enough to still be alive then).
But it's not so easy, is it? Addicts, demanding our next fix of despair. Desperate for it, despite knowing the harm it does.
Another conversation. This time with my mate Mick - another misery-junkie. Probably happened last Sunday. Has happened regularly over the past few years. Always started with me saying something like, "Bollocks to this - I'm not going anymore."
"So what will you do instead?"
"I don't know - something fun. Something enjoyable."
At which point he just laughs. Not merely at the absurdity of doing something enjoyable at the weekend, but at the fact that he knows I won't. It's all just bravado. I come snivelling back for more. We all do.

Is there an intervention that can be administered? Some sort of self-help group for us? Some way of stopping this?

[ohjimmyjimmy]

When the dust settles, i may even try and convince myself that i'd rather be relegated and in the championship having a season where we may win more than lose, get some feel-good factor back, and feel like we're actually playing for something, and start to look forward to it and get excited about it. That struggling in the PL every season is dull and depressing and heart-breaking, lit up only by a few isolated moments of happiness, joy and excitement.

And yet i know, i know...that if QPR lose and we score a winner in the last minute, i will jump around and scream and kiss the dog and do about 25 violent Tim Henman-like fist pumps and then walk around with a bit stupid grin on my face for a bout a week afterwards.