AllyM

I watch Gillingham from time to time and their manager, Martin "Mad Dog" Allen, just bellows out at the top of his voice every now and then when something occurs to him. Not any coherent words, just a bellow - a bit like the noise made by the Germans before the battle at the start of Gladiator. It seemed to work last season (championees), but not so much this season (relegation beckons). Also, the team developed a habit of channeling most of their play down the far side of the pitch from the dug out, as the season went on last year. He's a scary guy, but seems to command respect where ever he goes.

Nah, it's already dark by then. If we don't want midges and moths in, it'll need to shut before dusk.

Indeed. Since 27th February we've only played another 5 home league games, drawing at home with Dundee Utd, Celtic, Aberdeen and Killie and losing to Dundee after going down to 10 men. That is not too much better either, but it is not like 10 losses in a row or some such.

"wee". You missed out "wee". Just out of interest, if we were to appoint, say, Terry Butcher as our next manager, would he be "big clueless"?

Then you've either had a short life or have a short memory.

You too, apparently.

On the plus side, it's the strongest bench we've had this season by some distance

Had a look at the Dagenham and Redbridge forum where he played on loan for a couple of months last season. The concensus is that he is pacy, tricky, can beat a man but "puts his shooting boots on the wrong way around". They played him as an attacking wide player, but some of their fans said he was better suited to playing right back. To be honest, if he is notably pacy at league 2 level where there are dozens of players just like him trying to break through, then he'll be electric up here. He isn't the answer to our striking problems, then, but may provide something different with his pace either as a wide attacking player or a full back who gets forward. Get in one (or even two strikers) and, together with Caprice, we might look a bit more balanced.

No worries, easily altered. "Malik" --------> "whata-Malik"

Almost every team that I've known of at our sort of level in recent times has had a minimum of 4 strikers that they can regard as "first team" strikers. Last year for example, we had Thompson, Guy, Parkin and Reilly before Reilly's injury and added Goncalves in January. You could make a good case, though, that even last year we went into the season a bit light as Reilly was an unknown quantity this time last year. This year, we have Thompson, Reilly and Brady. Reilly and Brady are really both still unknown quantities. You could argue, for tactical reasons that Harkins is our "4th" striker, but that is pushing it a bit. You could only really get away with that if you had 3 other recognised strikers and not just 1 and two possibles. I cannot see any possibility that the club is not planning to add another recognised striker before the transfer window closes. Even then, Thompson, new striker and any two from Reilly, Brady and Harkins is at the very minimum end of a reasonable roster. For me, it is really straightforward. The club WILL add another recognised striker before the window closes. If it doesn't, serious questions then needed to be asked about our direction and management. Even if it does, however, there are pertinent questions to be asked about why we have delayed so long in doing this. There may be reasonable answers to these questions, but as supporters I would venture that we have the right to hear them, when the time is right.

Whe you say "we" I presume you mean us, the contributors to the virtual west bank. Certainly the club has never identified any of these wasters as targets. If so, it is no wonder the terms were crap. A couple of pints in the Bull and a "free" taxi ride home from Shull, just isn't going to cut it, these days.

Just for you LS (from the Leicester City song book, complete with actions): When You're Smiling When you're smiling, when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you, When you're laughing, when you're laughing, the sun comes shining through, But when you're crying, you bring out the rain, So stop you're sighing, be happy again, Cause when you're smiling, when you're smiling, The whole world smiles with you, Ahhhh, (wiggle hands in the air) The whole world smiles with you, Ahhhh, (wiggle hands in the air) THE - (hands open for each word) WHOLE - WORLD - SMILES - WITH - (wiggle hands in the air) YOOOOOOOOOOOU! Oh LEICESTER (Clap clap clap), Oh LEICESTER (Clap clap clap), Oh LEICESTER (Clap clap clap), Or how about the more succint: "f**k off Mark McGhee" to the tune of Daydream Believer. I believe you can substitute almost any manager, either our own or the opposition's.

Colin the Fish? Doesn't sound right to me. Didn't even realise he was a keeper.

Well, only if the regular season lasts for 3 and 5/11 quarters. Given a 38 game regular season, a quarter is 9 and a half games, so I guess Elvis is talking about league placings at half time during our 5th game.

Ah yes. (Gordon) Bank's Bar and Grill in the KP. Never been - but isn't it the slightly oil-slicked River Soar you can see from it? And maybe Lex's Holiday Inn Express out the corner of your eye?

Nah - Jesus saves. It'll be Campbell that nets the rebounds

Did he play in midfield or did he play right back with Robertson moving into mid? If we were really trialing Robertson as a right back, he should have stayed there for the full 90 mins.

Yup. If that works out it would be an unexpected bonus.

We have indeed. I remember 1997 & 2000: Steve Claridge, Emile Heskey, Stevie Walsh, Mark Robins, Muzzy Izzett, Matt Elliott, Martin O'Neil .................. Robbie Savage , Neil Lennon ,

Unless they can't stand each other.

Ach, just put him up in a flat in Johnstone and tell him he's playing for the Saints. He'll be none the wiser until half way through the season, anyway.

In fact, the more I think about it, developing our young players is our only plausible strategy unless we find big money from somewhere (McGinn and McLean transfers?). Our squad is threadbare enough at the moment, but it is hard to imagine many of Thompson, Teale, Goodwin, Mair, McGregor, Van Zanten, Barron and McGowan being around this time next year (for lots of different reasons). And we'll have trouble holding McLean and McGinn, too, if they develop as planned. Whatever happens, we'll have a full scale rebuilding job on our hands next season. We need some of our young players to break through this season.

It is, but it paid off big time last season. We wouldn't have won the cup without Goncalves, Newton and Dummett. It shouldn't be our only strategy, though. Presumably DL genuinely believes that the way forward is to bring through young players like Reilly, Brady, Kelly and others now, so that they are a bit more seasoned come the business end of the season and can be supplemented by two or three careful additions, including loans, in January to carry us home this season. If it works, we could have a really promising side in 12 months or so. Amongst these are goalkeepers (Cornell, Dilo, Hughes) , defenders (Kelly, Naismith, Yaqub) and strikers (Reilly, Brady and, at a pinch Dillon). If even one in three of these guys pan out, we'll have addressed most of our problem positions. The flaw in all this is that he isn't actually giving players like Brady, Kelly, Naismith, Yaqub and Dillon a start, or in some cases, even a touch of the ball. If the strategy is to play young players - then play them and let's see. If it isn't, then bring other more experienced players in to give us some depth. At the moment it is neither one nor the other.

Perhaps it is because most of them haven't actually joined the club yet?

These numbers are all fair points but I think things go back much longer than that. A couple of years ago, I worked out that since promotion in 2005-2006, we'd won less games in the league than any other club in the Scotland, by some considerable distance. Worse than Clyde, worse than East Stirling. The situation certainly hasn't improved in the last couple of seasons. For almost all of that time, we've been only just good enough to survive each season. Question is - Is this our level? Should we expect better? Might it be better to get relegated every now and again, just so we get a clear out and a chance of a winning season? Will the new relegation play-off actually help us? I think I enjoyed 1999-2000 and 2005-2006 much more than some of the turgid shite of the last few years, despite the more recent teams being stronger, player for player. On the other hand, I've really enjoyed the vital "relegation" games at Motherwell and Falkirk too, and much prefer seeing us taking our place in the top Scottish league at the beginning of each season. There is an argument, also, that if you are not in the top league, there is little chance of building a team strong enough to win one of the two major cups - as we have done.