Thanks for the memories but it's time to move on!!

His deficiences on the pitch won't be shown up at Preston as they here under NP as there will be a honeymoon period, plus Browny is able to blame Ferguson when they go down anyway thus giving them another year in the job.
Also under Phil 'Ollie Reed' Brown, Ash won't have to worry about breaches of discipline off the field as it is positively encouraged under Phil. (Plus Ash has so much on Brown anyway).

Ash = legend but as Ferguson Snr does, get rid when it suits the club.

 

TWF if you don't like it, Scunthorpe are in need of a few fans...

 

Are you mad?

 

Oh what a surprise, another fan who wants to accept Leeds and QPR have a right to promotion and we have to bide our time. Let me guess, we lost 100 players in the summer and that's a reason to aim low.

Look at the teams in this division and their squads, and look at ours.

 

Lets all accept Ash has been a great servant for the club, however he's not Nigel's player and only got one season left in him at best. There's few players that would have come through the injuries that he has and carried on playing so we should never forget what he achieved for us however the future lies elsewhere , onwards and upwards r

 

Just take QPR then as you think we should be top with our squad. I would have Miller, Routledge, Smith, Ephraim, Derry and Taradat (complete fanny, granted) without even looking at their squad in detail. That is not being disloyal or aiming low, it is simply being realistic about the differences in squad strengths. I am very happy with how we are building gradually and getting rid of the £25k a week older players and replacing them with younger more 'hungrier' types.I have complete faith in NP and AP and feel confident about the future but I don't believe we have some amazing squad as you say. Look at the two benches on Saturday for starters.

 

I'd have Miller and Routledge admittedly, but I think Mannone, Gerrard, Chester, Rosenior, Koren, and Harper (yes i dare to rate Harper against the popular opinion) would get into their XI, and if I'd seen Evand and McLean and Fryatt a bit more than I'd be able to add them to that list too.

It's QPR for god's sake, nobody expected them top at the beginning of the season, but since they are top everybody just jumps on the bandwagon and decides they are the Chelsea of the division. Truth is there are no Chelsea's. The best team I've seen this season is Reading, and even they have that bloody Kebe rolling on the floor all the time, and we played them off the park for 45 minutes.

 

Agree Ash has been a great servant to this Club, but if he feels that another contract will not be forth coming and another club is willing to give him a season or two wor,k then I dont blame him for moving on. He still has bills to pay just like you and me at the end of the day.

 

I'm very well Al thanks for asking, Glad you found your way onto here. This site takes a bit of getting used to but it's pretty good I think.

 

Have you said TWF what you were up to with those multiple usernames which got you banned on HullCityMad? How do we know if your opinions are sincerely felt rather than it being just a case of you being on a colossal wind up?

 

OK, up to the middle of December when Simpson remembered the goal was that big rectangle with a net attached to it our best option up front was Richard Garcia. He was being supported by Caleb Folan who when he's not injured is offside and a kid who now can't make the starting lineup for a side struggling in the bottom half of L2.

Now lets end this rubbish about how we should be top of the league with the squad we've got, without someone capable of sticking the ball in the back of the net we're lucky we were as high as we were when the window opened.

 

We obviously lacked strikers but we had with Ash, Harper, Cairney, Koren and Bullard a midfield which is ridiculous for this division.

Since then we've bought strikers and Simpson has sorted himself out, and we've improved the defence and midfield further.

All I'm saying is that I feel we should be doing better than we are. The top teams in this division are well organised but nothing special, I don't see why we can't compete with that.

 

Yes there's a very simple explanation (not like I owe it to you), basically I share my IP address with about 500 other students, one of whom has been banned from the FootyMad network, as that network is still living in the stone age, they're unwilling to take that as a reason and as such I'm still banned. Not like it matters, there's about 10 posts a day now?

 

When in the first 15 games did we ever have that midfield really available though? Cairney has been terrible this season and seemed to get slower with every appearance. Ashbee was so massively overweight when they came back for preseason that he looked more like Molby, that's not the management's fault. Harper missed the first few months and came back in when we hit form. Bullard has a string of minor 'injuries' like his bad back from picking his wallet up and other things he's picked up whilst out on his nights out.

After Scunthorpe we were 20th with 14 points out of 15 games:
19 points off the top.
18 points off 2nd (Cardiff who had a game in hand).
10 points off the playoffs.
Level with the teams down to 23rd.
3 points off the bottom.

We're now in 12th place with 38 points after 28 games:
15 points off the top
10 points off 2nd (9 off Cardiff who still have a game in hand)
7 points from the playoffs
11 away from the relegation zone
17 points off the bottom

In the last 13 games we've taken 24 points, near enough 2 per game. We've caught the leaders by 4 points, the automatic promotion spots by 8 points (9 if you want to give Cardiff a draw or a win for their game in hand in each case), and the playoffs by 3 points. We've also moved away from the relegation zone by nearly a point a game. Our form has been masked by the teams just above us hitting shorter runs of form at the same time rather than us not doing well.

Alright we might not be playing the most inspiring football, neither are Man U and they're top of the Premierleague. At the end of the season if they win the league do you think they'll care how they've won it? Looking at the sides promoted in previous seasons, West Brom everytime have been the most attacking side and they've looked the least likely to survive the following season. The likes of Stoke and Birmingham who were organised and dull are the ones that have established themselves.

 

Well said Ricardo but it's falling on deaf ears as he won't listen to reason mate. He's too far stuck in his ways. It's like getting blood out of a stone.

I'd like to see his opinions on the season if we finish in the playoffs.

 

No, not to me, there are people who disagree, but I don't expect everybody to have the same opinion on everything. What can I say? I'm tolerant.

Basically he came into a job where he can't fail, for some reason everybody expected us to struggle this season, we've managed to scrape into the top half and people actually think that's an achievement. Unreal.

Childish.

 

If we finish in the playoffs I'll be happy as we all would. Why is it so wrong for me to say that we have a good squad? I'm optimistic and I like my team and the players in it? I think me saying on here that I think we have a good side and should be doing better is a good thing, it's better than everyone moaning about how Harper isn't good enough (when he is). But apparently it's become the in thing amongst our fans to aim low and expect the worst. Whereas Leeds fans who have no more right to promotion than we do (in fact less given where we came form and where they came from), are overly confident in their relatively weak squad. Why do we have to accept that these average teams are above us?

Oh and Ricardo you can't compare us to Man U. They are top because they are scoring goals, we don't look anything like scoring in our last few games unless the other team's defence hands us it. We are very boring and defensive, even though we have a wealth of attacking talent.

 

I'm not talking about you. I'm on about TWF.

Yes our strikers aren't scoring freely but we are keeping clean sheets at the other end. Last time i checked defending was as important in football as attacking. Also as Ricardo states you can't fault what Pearson has done recently. We've gone up in the league quite considerably and there's little threat of relegation as there was before christmas. We had a sticky start but we're heading in the right direction now.

 

Nothing wrong with saying we've got a good squad. It's the saying we should be higher than we are because of it as though we're underperforming. The keeper, 3 of the back 4, and the strikers weren't with us and most of the midfield turned up unable to play at the start of the season. Since they have been available we have been outperforming most if not all of the other sides in the division but we've given them a head start that needs catching.

I know we haven't done it at all, but in their last 12 games Man U have only scored 3 or more twice. One of those is Birmingham were the commentaters were saying they'd been handed goals by the confusion in the backline. The other is Blackpool. And they've not been picking up many points more than we've been.

 

I just don't think we actually look like scoring at all lately. I don't think we're playing poorly. But we've had a bit of an issue all season with getting the ball forward and creating chances, even now we have strikers the ball isnt hitting the net, particularly at home. I certainly don't think this is down to the lack of options in the squad, and I don't really like the theory that a large turnover of players is an excuse. A lot of people are saying next year will be our year, but you can't go up not scoring goals.