[madsteve]

MS ,
That is statto at his best, and has opened my eyes to how bad we really have been this season, I knew we were poor, but not that poor!!, I was never Antonios biggest fan as I thought he was wasteful TBH, but he did excite the crowd, and now we have ..err , nevermind... but to be fair to SG , was it really HIS decision to offload him or did MM make him to buy May ?? , I suspect that depended on the Thai interest at the time too, if MM KNEW it was going to happen then I guess he would have kept Antonio and bankrolled May himself, but as a businessman if he was unsure he would have given SG the option of one or the other , this opinion is based on the premise that Antonio WOULD have stayed at S6, my feeling is he would have gone no matter what given the information in other posts .

I know Antonio's other half. She said that he wanted to stay. He was told that Wednesday had accepted an offer for him & he wasn't part of SG's plans two days before the Brighton match. He was devastated & she was part way through her degree course at Manchester so it has made her travelling worse.

SG was so determined to get May that he was prepared to sacrifice Antonio.

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Undoubtedly SG was told if you want May, someone needs to go to cover the cost and as Antonio was not happy by all accounts with SG anyway, he was the most saleable asset we had that was worth enough.  Wasn't this deal done at the time when the Mammadov deal was in the throws of collapsing??  I doubt DC was even in talks at that stage anyway, so MM was probably in the state of mind that there was likely to be no immediate takeover so the May deal had to be financed through a sale.

For me though, the big question now is whether DC is going to stick with SG, give him a decent transfer and wage budget and let him and PA go about rebuilding the team reading for a push at the top 6??  SG has done a good job with the defence this season, so he is capable in that area, but can he find the right players in midfield or up front, and if he does will we be able to sign them??  Money certainly talks and by all accounts we now have it, so we should be far more optimistic about next season anyway.  Raking over the problems this season are to a certain degree pointless as our circumstances as a club have drastically changed in the last couple of months.

Our defence isn't as great as the early season statistics suggested. We have the best keeper in the division by a mile & WEstwood has saved us about 20 goals compared to Kirkland. Without Westwood, we would be in the bottom four now & SG 's fate would be sorted.