If we dont’t score against Ipswich….

Shades of the 2014-15 season however this team is poorer than that in my opinion.
A total lack of ambition will send this club into oblivion if some serious team investment is not made in the new year.
The rot set in in 2009 when we went from an established premier league outfit in the top ten to a club fighting relegation each season.
Yes we won a major trophy in that time but the club has most certainly been in decline since then regardless of that
Last night was like watching schoolboys play their teachers and I realised then that regardless of manager ( ridiculous decision sacking caldwelll btw )we have had it unless changes in playing personnel are made in January and the war chest brought out !.

First post on here in a long time, but Joyce has driven me back!

No going to vent just yet, but from his comments on Sky last it didn’t sound like he was planning much for the January window and/or that there was any money knocking around.

That did start me wondering whether he has any recent transfer market experience? As I’m guessing at Utd he was just a coach and got his players handed to him? If so we are well and truly fooked.

We have just got in a new head of player recruitment, who I suspect has a fair bit of experience. A meeting last week between him, Joyce and Jonathan Jackson to identify requirements for January. (source – last night’s programme)

i think there’s a bit of misty eyed recollection of facts there Vince
I would hardly have called Latics an “established premier league outfit” – we’d been in the top flight 3-4 years at that point, had a good first season, escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth in the 2nd, fought a relegation battle in the 3rd (though finished strongly) & were doing well up till Jan in the 4th. We hadn’t really been in the top 10 since our first season until late 2008

Now at that point I agree the focus shifted to survival but the club could not continue to lose money at the rate that it was doing. I’d question why it had to happen so suddenly in the January of that season as opposed to at the end of the season but it had to happen at some point regardless or else pretty soon the club would have become unsustainable.

On to last night, Newcastle are a far richer club than Latics with far greater resources & fanbase. Player for player they are better than Latics in every single position on the pitch so I’m not quite sure what you were expecting & Latics can’t hope to compete for a sustained period of time against them unless you’re prepared to risk bankrupting the club. Thankfully the Whelan’s aren’t

People didnt like Paul Jewell at the start as the squad he inherited was poor, look how that turned out.

Totally agree Vince. When you know who arrived with his tippy tappy stuff and one up front malarky the club has been in a near permanent state of crisis. People laughed at Bruce, but for me we had our strongest Prem side under him 2008-9….Heskey, Zaki (for a while :ohmy:), Palacios, Valencia etc…

Then El Clueless arrived trying to play Champions League football with Championship players on a non-league pitch :silly:[/quote]
[/size]Bloody foreigners, coming over here with their silly tactics and formations, winning an FA Cup and keeping us in the Premier League against all odds three times.

Bobby won the cup brilliantly with the most un Bob like formation and performance. Espinoza on one flank and Macca on the other tore City apart in the first half and they simply didn’t have the answer. It has to go down as one of the most complete performances ever by the Latics. I’ll never tire of watching the game over and over. Greatest day of my life still get goosebumps thinking about it.