[madsteve]

Last time I looked Westwood was part of our defence!!!  Where we have suffered is the loss of Loovens, which has seen Lees performances drop and the defence has conceded more goals as a result, but I think on the whole the defence has performed very well.

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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.

Yes he was, but also by all accounts he was forced into that decision by MM insisting on selling someone before we could buy May.  It wasn't an ideal situation for any manager to be in and with hindsight it certainly hasn't worked out as anyone hoped it would, but that was where we were at financially at the start of the season, now we start with a different mindset with regards to how we buy and sell players.

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MS, here is something that was posted by you just after Antonio left for Forest.  Not having a dig or anything but I thought it would be interesting to see what we have achieved since then:

1) No new scoreboard  About to happen
2) Tired old ground   Still nothing been said about the ground itself.
3) Star player sold  MAs sale certainly didn't help us and the money was no reivested in the team either
4) Lack of pace throughout the side (just Helan)  Still the case
5) Competing with Rotherham for unproven striker  We beat them to sign May, if thats a positive!!
6) Still haven't received ST when I paid in March  I assume it arrived!!
7) No away kit yet  Got sorted
8) Home kit quality problems  Still stuck with Sondico for now
9) Team lacks quality & depth  I think the January transfer and loan signings we have made have done well, especially McGugan and Keane, but still lacking real depth.
10) MM doesn't know what is happening  MM is on a beach somewhere!!
11) Takeover appears to be falling through  Which it did, only to be replaced by an actual, real takeover!!

I think most would agree that we have basically stood still this season, although never being near relegation was a bonus.  But the last line should see that all change now!!

My point is that our back four wasn't that great early in the season and only Westwood's great saves have prevented us being bottom four. While Westwood is part of the defence, my concern is that we are still conceding as many shots as we were when Llera & Reda were around. We haven't suddenly gone bad since Looven got injured; the signs have been there all season but we got away with it early on (we had seven shots hit our woodwork and two missed penalties in the opening eight matches).

I agree that MM put SG in the position where he had to choose between Antonio & May and much as I think May will come good, it was a bad choice. This puts into question SG's judgement with DC's millions.

The issues relating to the ground will gradually be solved by the new owner. I really cannot include loan signings as part of our squad because come May, they are gone & we are back to where we were. Our squad of players is weaker now than it was back in August when Antonio was sold. Thankfully we have the financial muscle to address this but we will underachieve while SG is in charge.

The SG apologists will say he is an excellent coach. I struggle to see it. Which players at S6 have improved massively under SG? Sure, we have conceded less goals but totally at the expense of scoring. We have the most boring & sterile team since the mid 70s and unfortunately it looks like next season will be sacrificed giving SG a chance.