Athelwulf

I think it's more about what opposing players think you'll do to them.

Lacked aggression when he first came, which is the reason many don't/ didn't like him. It's not so much that people don't understand tactics, it's that when you're an enforcer opposing players have to believe that you'll go through them. But we missed him against Guedioura, which sickened me because he's the one player I always wish we'd signed that January window. The fact that we missed him should prove the doubters wrong.

And neither does that pool table.

What I mean is that comparing one club to another's form over six games is difficult, because it doesn't take into consideration how good is the opposition. Hence, we won three out of three against poor sides, yet in the last three games against better teams we've taken 4 points from 9.

That's quite true. But I don't think Leeds or especially the Blades are better than us on paper. I'm prettyconfident that had Hecky or Evo still been at Elland Road, then they'd already be behind us. And I'm damned confident that the Blades would be.

Yes, but that table fails to take into consideration the standard of the opposition. I mean, we played some poor sides in the last six games prior to Stoke. I think under Jostle we'll finish where we deserve to be. The snag is that United will probably finish a quarter of a league higher than expected.

I think those who went to Forest might be forgiven for making such comments. Saying that Jos is brilliant after a win is as wide of the mark as saying that he's bob after every defeat. He's neither brilliant nor bob. He's middling, which after all is what his reputation was in Deutschland. Unfortunately for us, there's a manager up the road who seems to be able to turn water into wine, and one across the city who can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. With the emphasis on the word "sow".

There's nothing wrong with being optimistic, and I hope you're right, but in my view we have no chance of the play-offs. I think that there are at least six teams in this division who are better than us. There's one across the city, and one up the M1 for a start. To be honest, to have any hope of a top-six finish we would need a manager of a similar calibre to whom those two have, one who can get significantly better results than expected from the players he has. Unfortunately, Jos doesn't fall into that category. The last one we had who could do that was Gray. And Chansiri sacked him.

He'd be submissive initially, but I think Fred's right. I don't envisage Pearson, Megson, McCarthy etc maintaining such conduct for long. A leopard doesn't change its spots any more than a Blades fan changes his underwear. My only concern with Pearson would be FF. As the latter throws a tantrum every now and again, Pearson would probably thrust his head down a lavatory bowl and attempt to drown him.

The problem is that even if in 5-6 games time we're in the brown stuff, I don't think Chansiri will act. Any more than he acted last season. We were really fortunate that Swansea rescued us, but that happy state of affairs is unlikely to happen with Jos. Chansiri seems to regard sacking a manager as an admission of failure, something which he's loath to stomach. Which is ironic, when you consider that the man is no stranger to failure in the first place. And if Jos ever did go, we wouldn't get a McCarthy. It would be some obscure foreign manager who hadn't got any experience of this league. Bob, bobbery Bob, bobbery Bob, bob, beree ...

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately we're at Chansiri's mercy when it comes to manager recruitment. Even if Jos did get the old heave-ho, we'd simply end up with another manager from over seas. And we're not talking Guardiola here. It's almost as if he, Chansiri, wants an outsider, as he's one himself. The fundamental criterion of anyone wanting to manage this club is that they must have absolutely no experience of this division. No doubt people will point to Tufty and Bielsa not having any, but those two obviously must have much more natural ability than the wallahs Chansiri signs up. Managers matter, and where would the Blades and Leeds be without Pep Wilder and the Pearl of the Pampas? Down the course.

Yes, that's right. A middling manager and a middling team, at least when without the services of Hooper, FF and Lee. And not forgetting captain chaos himself, Mr. Dejphon Chansiri. We're a modest little outfit with much to be modest about.

Well, one huge club which has hardly been outside the top division for forty years, and another not-so-huge one which had a decade of success forty years ago.

If we'd fielded City's outfit we'd probably have lost that game with Karanka in the home dugout. I can't remember our ever beating one of his teams. Our record against Brucie ain't great either.

I guess to Jos it's Morgan de Vos. Or Morgan Fuchs.