MortimerJazz

I thought we should have been in for him when he moved from Portsmouth. I like him as a player although I'm not sure we need him as much now as we did a couple of years ago. Fuck knows how he was worth £6.5m now when Spurs bought him for £2.5 and have only played him a handful of times.

This. So much this. If Roy's going to go - let's bring in someone for the relative long term who can start building the team as he wants it. Absolutely no point bringing in someone (and presumably backing them with transfer funds) and then getting rid of him again a year later.

This probably sounds stupid, but can someone tell me if this is good or news or not?! I can't decide ... On one hand, it's obviously great that it looks like Hicks will finally be heading out of the club and we'll be able clear the debt and re-build under new owners. On the other hand though, we're selling to more Yanks ... and it just doesn't seem like this guy has the kind of cash needed to turn us in to a real force again. I just don't see the sort of investment being made to keep the likes of Torres around. Am I just being a miserable bastard?

I'm just curious who would have been. I didn't want Rafa to go - and I still don't believe he went purely on the basis of the last 8-10 months of his reign. If he did, the board should be shot ... Rafa had earned at least the start of this season to turn things round. There must have been more to it - whether he'd lost the players, fucked off the board I don't know, but for whatever reason he went, and we have to find a new manager. I didn't like the idea of Woy coming, in but I can see why he was the 'safe' choice. No decent manager worth his salt is going to worth his reputation at a club desperately trying to get new owners in and with the finances looking as poor as they are at the moment, so it's not like we had a nice long list to chose from. I thought/hoped that Woy was the safe short term option - someone with a bit of experience in the Premiership who would be able to keep things ticking over until the club was sold and the new owners could appoint someone they wanted ... someone, hopefully of a higher profile. Obviously, things have gone tits up spectacularly, but we sack him now we're in the same situation. Who's going to want to touch the job? And you can fuck off with your "I wanted Mourinho." Open your eyes.

Mascherano Reina Johnson With a tip of the cap to David N'Gog who has come in and done very well in some pretty big games recently

1. Benayoun 2. Lucas 3. Torres

Get the fuck in there! They'll probably come back and win it 3-2, but for now I'm very happy ... P.S. What a ball from Xavi!

FFS - someone put it in the back of the net ...

Couldn't agree more. I'd love Silva in the team, but until I see the picture of him holding up the scarf, it's nothing more than fantasy. As for Tevez, I like him as a player ... but I don't want us spending £30m on him when it could be better spent elsewhere in the squad.

The Stoke game showed us how important Xabi is the team. A thoroughly deserved winner. I'll be absolutely gutted if he leaves.

I wanted us to still be in with a shout of the title with 6 games left. I guess Ive got that

Get. In. All over!! 3 points dropped and Vidic, Rooney and Scholes all suspended :)

Get. In. All over!! 3 points dropped and Vidic, Rooney and Scholes all suspended :)

I'd agree with this - the stat mentioned earlier that we only had 5 shots on target, and scored 4 goals suggests that we weren't just going gung ho. I think this is what it made it such a satisfying performance for me. Even when we were being put under pressure at the beginning of the second half, we were still looking in command around our area. Having said that, the third goal came at a good time for us. Someone made the point about us backing off at the beginning of the second half and I was starting to doubt whether we'd be able to hold out too. You've got to expect a period of play like that though when you go off to somewhere like OT. The red card came pretty much the first time we got our foot on the ball and found a bit of space in the second half. That obviously calmed things down a lot and we were able to get a grip on the game again. A properly decent winger in the summer would add another dimension to the team though ...

I think in answer to the original question, no he didn't get a fair crack of the whip. Yes, he was slightly slow coming out of the blocks but when you've spent over £20m on a player you expect to stand by him as he beds in. Not drop him from the team the game after he scores two goals against Bolton and never really allow him back in. What worries me more though is the effect that this might have on Rafa's contract. It doesn't look particularly great for his negotiations for more control over transfer policy, if his latest big money signing is heading back from whence he came after barely half a season for £5m less than we paid for him.