Blue Monday

I agree with this, it is a significant problem, but if Drenthe did have a better footballing brain he could be an unbelievable player. I suppose this failing is why he is at Everton rather than still at Madrid. There is so much potential there though, and I would love for him to sign on permanently.

Stracqualursi was an absolute monster tonight, I think he set the tone for the whole team performance with his sheer effort. I thought Heitinga and Hibbert were fantastic, and Fellaini had another good game as well, but Dennis deserves the MOM.

Genuinely can't understand this move, what is Redknapp thinking? Would be surprised to see Pienaar coming back, but I wouldn't have believed Saha to Spurs either!

Went with Fellaini as well, thought he bossed the midfield - have to say Fulham were atrocious tonight though!

I'm doubting myself now! I'm sure there are people who watch much more La Liga than me - maybe this was something I read on a forum and has somehow become a 'fact' in my mind. Having said that though, they spent £9m on him in summer 2008 and sold him for £6m a year later, so maybe there is some truth in there somewhere!

Heitinga had a nightmare in Spain, I can't see him wanting to go back there if there were possibilities in Germany or Italy. Also we can't afford to let him go - this window at least.

Maybe Moyes thinks the physios need more practice?

We're only a point off 10th - I think a top half finish is more realistic than going down, even allowing for how poorly we have been playing. If we are able to actually spend a bit of cash for once to bring in a striker capable of scoring goals, I don't think moving ahead of Stoke (we would need to pull back 4 points in 16 games) is an impossibility, given our tendency to improve a bit in the second half of the season. That would leave us in 8th, which would be a creditable performance overall considering the financial restraints on the club in comparison to a lot of the clubs in the league. Obviously this is a bit optimistic, but in fairness we have done a similar thing in the last two seasons!! I think 6th is a bit of an unrealistic expectation - if the RS finish there for example, Dogleash has spent a similar amount on Carroll and Downing to the cost of our entire playing squad!* *Disclaimer - based on figures from the papers and allowing for my shite maths, but hopefully close enough to illustrate my point assuming Bily has gone

Apologies if said above and I missed it, but has any of Barkley's absence been a result of injuries? I say this because looking through the reserve fixtures I noticed Barkley has missed a few this season... I hadn't been aware of any injury but I imagine he would make the ressies line up!

I thought that as well - maybe he got the Neville brothers mixed up Edit as I didn't see above!

With regard to the board, it's obviously difficult to speculate as to the exact reason for selling so many players recently. I can accept that they (comparatively) don't have any money, and I can accept that we might need to reduce the overdraft, but by this much? If the situation is as we have been told over the last few years, then we must be trying to reduce the debt in anticipation of a sale. If we are in worse financial trouble than was communicated then you have to question the initial business plan which in hindsight would seem flawed. If they know what they are doing and this is being done to encourage a sale and subsequent investment, then that should be communicated. If they have hamstrung us with too many expensive contracts etc. then it is right to question whether the prior strategy was flawed. That's the way I see it anyway.

I agree with that to a point as Baines and Pienaar obviously played well together, but I think Baines is still doing pretty well, just that most of the time we don't have enough up front to make it count. Baines has put in 178 crosses so far this season, second to Nani in the league (according to http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/2935/Stages/5476/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2011-2012), so I think he is still getting into dangerous areas, but we are playing too deep to get anyone on the end of them I think.

Bit harsh - Cahill scored 9 in his first 20 games last season. Crap for a year I can agree with though I agree that you are right to be worried, but what is to blame? Obviously the manager has to take responsibility, but the main cause of our decline seems to me to be the lack of money, and the responsibility for that has to lie with the board. In my opinion at least.

Good post Hafnia, but regarding Moyes, how much better should we be expecting from the team considering the lack of players we have? We went into the season with the smallest squad in the league, with 18 senior players (I think), so having sold most of our creativity in Pienaar and Arteta. I would agree that we have been poor in a lot of our games this season, but our side is much worse now than it was a couple of years ago. I wonder about the subs Moyes makes, and I wish we would attack more in games, but if we had the players to do it, then we wouldn't have needed to rely on Saha (who doesn't look remotely like scoring at all) all season. As for the lack of reinvestment, I absolutely agree, and I can't imagine many people would be comfortable with what seems to have been a fire sale over the last year or so. I can only imagine that the plan is to pay down a lot of our debt to make the club easier to sell? If not, and we are being forced to sell just to survive, then all we have been told over the last few years about living within our means and being prudent with our spending has been shown up as a lie. In either scenario, we need new owners and fast, as it's the only way I can see for us to compete even for a place in the top half of the table, let alone challenge for trophies, which is what we all want.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying as well Shukes, certainly about Moyes, who I think deserves loyalty and patience from the fans. I think we need to rebuild a lot, as we have a core of older players whose replacements we will need in the next couple of years. It might be a bit of transitional period over the next year or so, but I think Moyes can build another good team in time. I also agree about the stick some of the players have been getting, to me it is just a symptom of the lack of depth in our squad - Cahill has needed a spell out of the side to recharge his batteries but have had to keep playing as we haven't had the quality to bring into the team. I disagree about Saha by the way, I think he just looks completely devoid of confidence and his legs are starting to go as well. If we get another player in this window, please let it be a striker who looks like he at least might score a goal!