GaryWalsh

It's funny and all, but would p*ss me off no end if my seats were behind him.

This. Always was a tricky place for us.

You're right. We haven't really excelled since early season and that's somewhat worrying. The goals have dried up significantly (although pre-signing Torres we banged in 8 in 2 games if I'm not mistaken?) and we're not playing like anything more than a 3rd/4th/5th placed team. I think it's gonna be more challenging than some will admit to come 4th, especially considering we've gotta play United twice. That said, Spurs have been lucky of late, that's gotta run out soon especially when the CL resumes 'cause they're not particularly used to massive mid-week fixtures and then backing up in the PL at the weekend. The top 8 as it stands: Man Utd 26 57 Arsenal 26 53 Man City 27 49 Tottenham 26 47 Chelsea 25 44 Liverpool 27 39 Sunderland 27 37 Bolton 27 36 The four remaining games against Spurs, City and United (2) are of paramount importance, obviously.

Stephen Hunt, El Hadji Diouf, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Joey Barton. All w*nkers.

Just acceptable? We are talking about 3 of the very best creative midfielders in the world, I'd say they're more than "acceptable". How about any of those three would be fantastic? We aint playing football manager, signing one of those would be a massive massive coup.

Personally I think we'll come 4th. Spurs have been extremely lucky of late (Blackburn game in particular) and should/will be dropping points soon. Liverpool are too far back obviously, and Carlo's sights will be firmly set on winning the Champions League now so league games might take a lesser significance. FA Cup would go nicely on the side too. My question is, should we be worried that we've gone from Champions to, say 4th place in one season? Or was this slight (and hopefully temporary) regression inevitable after we let experienced players like Ballack/Deco/Joey leave in favour of blooding youngsters?

:blush: Oh, of course..

Might have to go get a drill mate. Fingers crossed you're wrong WW. I think Aguero would have been better value for money given age/lack of injuries/ability to play in a striker partnership, but by no means is Torres a spent force IMHO. He just needs to be utilized correctly and kept of the physio's table.

Anyone know much about the manager? I.e. whether he gives youngsters a fair crack of the whip? So often these loan moves are ineffectual when the manager signs the player and then fails to trust them enough to have a proper go