bristol_wanderer

was the moment Cahill decided to join us instead of us instead of Brum. A Meite, O'Brien, Michalik and Fojut defence would have had us relegated a few weeks ago. Having seen their defence recently and ours, I can see why they were so miffed.

I have it on good authority that his last deal was worth 16k pw.

Tyldsley White makes good points. We are not a fashionable club, we try the near impossible task of running the club like a business, meaning we can't run the club at huge losses like Portsmouth, for example have done. So we can't pay managers ?5m a year and give them ?50m to spend on players who demand ?3m a year on salaries. Hence "big name" managers will go to those clubs with money no object glory hunting owners. Crazy current football economics I'm afraid. So given that then there is only Megson, and BSA out there who look worth considering. And given BSA has left the club due to lack of money, then unless there is a regime change at the top, we need to keep Megson. And as for Gartside, he has done nothing wrong, in that he made a logical choice in Sammy Lee, who proved to be clueless, then brought in a manager to repair the damage and keep us up, which Megson has done. He has no or little control over the amount of money we spend, and whilst the team choice for Lisbon was regrettable, we would have almost certainly gone down had we progressed in the UEFA cup.

I would be happy for Jussi to stay but we shouldn't any more than is reasonable (20k max IMO) given Al Habsi appears every bit as good. We should offer him enough for him to sign a 4/5 year deal. Stelios needs to leave IMO, along with Campo, Braaten, Alonso, Vaz Te, Raziak.

He has been a good player for us but if we get ?5m then its good business IMO. He doesn't get enough goals or assists given the amount of games he plays and when you add in his dodgy temperament then I am not that sorry to see him leave.

I agree with that. I don't think we have ever had the 4-5-1 working well from the attacking perspective - the closest being was when we had Diouf and Stelios playing off Davies, with the quality and creativity of Okocha in midfield. Then we had four guys (Stelios, Diouf, Nolan and Davies) who could get 8-10 goals in a season, although we lacked pace. The way we are using it now suggests the manager doesn't understand it - not only have we no pace but we have replaced a quality, intelligent, goalscoring player with a defensive midfielder who has no creativity or finishing instinct. Thus we have limited our ability to create chances and more importantly to take those that do come along. Add to that we have limited quality in the three in midfield, and our defenders are not as good at scoring at set pieces as Jaidi, N'Gotty were then you get consistent nils in the goals for column. If we go down, none of this bodes well for next season when we can expect Davies (if he stays) and Taylor (but no Diouf) to be the cornerstones of our attacking threat.

If the vultures remain as tame as Ipswich and circle over players not up to it such as Meite then bring them on. However if the inevitable happens expect Diouf, Jussi, Cahill, Davies and Nolan to be first out of the door. It would take a good manager to rebuild well enough to get out of the Championship from the remains.

Unless Brum and Fulham implode and get next to no points we are doomed. What does Megson see? He sends sides out each game that have no creative players, and no finishers. Helguson or Stelios should have been starting instead of Taylor for the last few games. I don't expect to see another goal never mind another win.

Taylor is an average defensive midfielder more often than not being asked to play as an attacking up and down midfielder in a 4-5-1. he has no finishing instincts whatsoever. IMO him being picked in that position is the biggest reason why we are going down.

It's not Megson's fault - the Owner and Chairman have no doubt told him that they value staying up over progressing in Europe. Blame the side that played in Lisbon some of whom put in awful performances - not Megson. Not that I am a Megson fan you understand - I also don't see him doing anything here in any division - but not for that reason - more because he can't see that his "best" side cannot score enough goals to win games of football. Taylor ffs

We weren't competing but we should have been. I was saying on the plane on the way out that I liked the look of the team we were about to play with. I saw more goals from Andranik, Vaz Te, Stelios, and Helguson than Nolan, Taylor, Diouf and Davies. However, following reflection on the game last night, many of the reserve squad should hang their heads in shame and be shipped out at the end of the season. Andranik, Vaz Te, Guthrie, Samuel were very poor IMO. Helguson, Meite, Stelios and O'Brien were very average. I don't blame Megson or the club for playing the team they did, Wigan's ploughed field of a pitch is no doubt energy sapping and they are a physical team. But I expected more from those that played last night. As for the dream, it is getting less and less likely for every year - but this year we have had a chance - both the FA cup and UEFA cup more winnable than in previous years. The more I see the less convinced I am about Megson. He sends teams out consistently with very few options to score, with a defensive left sided midfielder as one of the three attackers, and with the emphasis on getting behind the ball. Similar tactics to Allardyce but apparently without a plan to score or win.

Agreed - can't wait. The mental picture of a full and rocking reebok will help me through the M6 struggle. COYW

1-0 Cahill. 77 mins, 18246, 759 away fans.

Not a bad idea. Suppose we could play in Wuhan as we have a partnership with their club. For it to be remotely fair then you would play your mirror image in the league 1v20 2v19 etc. And the highest club would get to choose the location? Would the Premier league organise the locations or the clubs? Questions questions.

Isn't it the case that in our world today, it is actually the thick racist inbreds, or perhaps just the thick, who are more discriminated against/disadvantaged than blacks/browns/yellows/scots/irish or any other "ethnic" minority?

If we are going to bid for a Reading striker in summer, then lets go for Doyle.

The tiny flaw in the plan here is that Allardyce instilled a determination to win games whilst building his wall. Even a front 3 of Hansen, Gardner and Ricketts looked a threat early in 2001-02, and when their deficiencies started to be exploited he brought in Wallace, Djorkaeff and Bobic, and the whole combination managed to score enough to keep us up. Megson appears to focused purely on the wall and has abandoned the idea of creating chances or having a method to socre. Most concerning is that he has "form" for playing this way - i.e. WBA 2002-03. Unless we sign a striker and Megson plays some more attacking minded players we are doomed.

Roberts would be fantastic in the circumstances. Without another striker its hard to see us scoring again this season let alone winning.

First of all well done to all for initiating this. Is this the first step in the formation of Bolton Ultras? North Stand shouting South East Stand Maseille stylee?

This is the first time this season that the 'R' word has entered my thinking, but unless we strengthen we are certainties for the drop. Unless we do strengthen, that team today will be the team for the next few games, which are all winnable, and ones we need to get a decent haul of points from in order to put some distance between us and the relegation zone before the hard games start. That team cannot keep a clean sheet, is not good enough in midfield, is poor at set pieces and cannot score goals (6 Prem goals in total this season from the 11 starters). We need at least one centre half, a quality midfielder, a decent wide man, and at least one golascoring striker. Worryingly Megson appears to be intent on signing a full back. Campo is not up to it judging from the last few games, Gardner is looking more and more like a pub player, Jussi had a nightmare today. The whole team seemed to run of steam mentally and physically in the 2nd half.

Necking my maud - :::::: Perhaps its maud that is doing all the shite tasting... We should agree to differ - you think the ED/PG have run the club badly, I don't. Regardless of that, it is the negativity from some over everything the club does that is annoying at times.

Via his agent LE SULK RETURNS

The problems over the last 12 months are to do with one of our best managers ever leaving, and replacing him with someone, though the logical choice, who proved not to be up to the job. If you are going criticise the owner/chairman for that then you must balance it out with the credit for the 7-8 years beforehand. If we get to 1st Feb and we do have some more players of the standard that Braaten has shown (don't forget he was well rated before he came here), then we are all within our rights to criticise the owner, chairman and manager. To criticsie in this fashion now, as I said previously, IMHO, makes one an utter nob.

Good business at ?15m - It is hard to stop a player leaving if they really want to go, particularly at Anelkas age - he was already starting to sulk. Under Article 17 of the Fifa rules I believe he could have bought himself out of his contract at the end of next season anyway, meaning that his transfer fee would have eroded quickly from now on. However, it will be a challenge now to buy replacements, and use what we have got to stay up. We need to get behind the lads now. Anybody who comes out with "Sack the board", "Sack Gartside", "The club have no ambition so I am not going again" etc. etc. on the back of this (as some are on the BEN website) is an utter nob - IMHO of course.

The (ex) manager of Northern Rock is available......