[HarryJAllstarWBA]

In terms of feeling embarrassed, I feel far more embarrassed that we managed one shot on target in the first half against a division one team and having them sing "Premier League your having a laugh" (embarrassed because I agreed with them).  I also feel embassed when our HC says in a interview "its been very entertaining for the supporters"  might have been if those supporter were from Port Vale!!!

Yes we looked fair against the 10 men of Chelsea in the second half, would we have looked so good if they had 11 men on the pitch? I doubt it.  I feel embarrassed when our own fans constantly boo one of our own players.

But do I feel embarrassed when one of my fellow posters posts something with which I disagree, not at all, they are entitled to their opinion just as I am entitled to mine and without differing opinions these boards would become very boring very quickly.  Differing views and the opportunity to discuss is what makes these boards worthwhile.

Fans tweeting the club and players abuse to the extent that they are forced to leave twitter is embarrassing. 

[Salopbaggie]

In terms of feeling embarrassed, I feel far more embarrassed that we managed one shot on target in the first half against a division one team and having them sing "Premier League your having a laugh" (embarrassed because I agreed with them).  I also feel embassed when our HC says in a interview "its been very entertaining for the supporters"  might have been if those supporter were from Port Vale!!!

Yes we looked fair against the 10 men of Chelsea in the second half, would we have looked so good if they had 11 men on the pitch? I doubt it.  I feel embarrassed when our own fans constantly boo one of our own players.

But do I feel embarrassed when one of my fellow posters posts something with which I disagree, not at all, they are entitled to their opinion just as I am entitled to mine and without differing opinions these boards would become very boring very quickly.  Differing views and the opportunity to discuss is what makes these boards worthwhile.

Fans tweeting the club and players abuse to the extent that they are forced to leave twitter is embarrassing. 

Absolutely right abuse is abuse and no kind should be tolerated, including the abuse our own fans give to McClean it seems at every match now.

[wba_1996]

In terms of feeling embarrassed, I feel far more embarrassed that we managed one shot on target in the first half against a division one team and having them sing "Premier League your having a laugh" (embarrassed because I agreed with them).  I also feel embassed when our HC says in a interview "its been very entertaining for the supporters"  might have been if those supporter were from Port Vale!!!

Yes we looked fair against the 10 men of Chelsea in the second half, would we have looked so good if they had 11 men on the pitch? I doubt it.  I feel embarrassed when our own fans constantly boo one of our own players.

But do I feel embarrassed when one of my fellow posters posts something with which I disagree, not at all, they are entitled to their opinion just as I am entitled to mine and without differing opinions these boards would become very boring very quickly.  Differing views and the opportunity to discuss is what makes these boards worthwhile.

Fans tweeting the club and players abuse to the extent that they are forced to leave twitter is embarrassing. 

What was that all about, Harry? I haven't heard anything.

[HarryJAllstarWBA]

Gardner closed his account because wba fans were sending him abuse. Brunt and Dorrans have too in the past, and Foster stopped for a bit at one point. I don't know what fans expect to achieve by doing it tbh, were supposed to be the 'supporters'

[wba_1996]

Gardner closed his account because wba fans were sending him abuse. Brunt and Dorrans have too  in the past, and Foster stopped for a bit at one point. I don't know what fans expect to achieve by doing it tbh, were supposed to be the 'supporters'

Didn't notice that about Gardner  

The problem we have is that social media makes the knuckle-draggers amongst our support, and there are some absolute morons, think that they can say whatever they want and there won't be any consequences.

There is no way Gardner should be starting in an established PL side, but he doesn't pick himself. His attitude is great, its just a shame he is a very very average footballer, but he doesn't deserve fans sending him abuse on Twitter.

[talkSAFT]

If that's what 'fans' do on Twitter, it probably happens at every single Club, probably including Chelsea.

If that's what's upset Berahino he should get used to it, or spend pleasurable afternoons driving around sniffing hippy crack.

[Salopbaggie]

If that's what 'fans' do on Twitter, it probably happens at every single Club, probably including Chelsea.

If that's what's upset Berahino he should get used to it, or spend pleasurable afternoons driving around sniffing hippy crack.

I don't think SB has cut the fans off its the official club he has cut off

[HarryJAllstarWBA]

If that's what 'fans' do on Twitter, it probably happens at every single Club, probably including Chelsea.

If that's what's upset Berahino he should get used to it, or spend pleasurable afternoons driving around sniffing hippy crack.

I don't see what this has to do with Berahino

[aries22]

Good luck to Tim Sherwood, and I don't particularly want Villa to go down, but it'd be funny if they did, and then we could watch the banter between world champions Wolverhampton Wanderers and European champions Aston Villa as they both wonder how it's all come to this. But Sherwood's skating on very thin ice if he thinks his spell as head coach of Spurs will bring him long-term success in the Villa job. We'll see.

[Latecomer]

I think we were sinking rapidly under RDM. I remember reading (think it may have been from Chris Lepkovski) that RDM wasn't even turning up to training most of the time and was letting his assistant do the work, as he was down in London looking after his restaurant. I think RDM benefited from taking over a team that had just got relegated playing nice football, and had managed to keep most of its Prem-class players to get it out of the Champ.

Latecomer I think you make some good points about Irvine. He definitely had some terrible luck (we seemed to be conceding from flukey deflected goals every week) and the style of play under him was not half as bad as some on this forum have made out. The problem was we were not very good without the ball under Irvine. As I remember it, we seemed to be stuck halfway between a pressing game and a sitting back game, and the players didn't look like they knew what to do without the ball. At least TP sorted that out (although so far this season we have looked far from solid on that front).

Yep, agree with all that May

---

Good football under Irvine? Am I missing something?

The football started going down the day that numpty came in.

We went to a poor Leicester side and didn't have a shot on target. 1 shot on target against a mid table Newcastle side in a 2-0 loss AT HOME in what was possibly the worst home performance I've ever seen from us given the quality of our squad (At least in the Megson era, we had a poor squad). Lets not forget the home games against West Ham and Everton in the league where they bossed us.

He played dull boring dross but didn't even pick the right players to do the job.

In my opinion we were LUCKY to pick up the points we did under him. Lucky Leicester scored an own goal in the game against them. Lucky Clattenberg missed an obvious pen when Palace were 2-0 up and bossing us on our own patch.

Pulis was a massive improvement on the basis that we at least showed some pride in all of our home games, even the ones we lost. The performances against West Ham in the cup, Chelsea, Southampton were actually exciting. I don't remember any exciting games under Irvine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm far from happy with the signings and direction of the team so far this season BUT that doesn't make me forget what Irvine served up. The decision to employ him in the first place is ultimately what has caused his mess.

That's one way of looking at it Slick although I will politely disagree. For me it all started going wrong a couple of years before that though - we failed to move with the times when clubs like Swansea and Southampton were on the rise. We had done well to establish ourselves there but we didn't look at how the game was evolving, where the Prem was going and we didn't set our ambitions high enough. Our mantra became all about maintaining Prem status and multiple calls were made to achieve that at all costs, to the detriment of the long-term. We brought in a different mould of player and manager, all in the name of securing the next 6 months. Not once - until recently - have we begun to look at the longer term again. It feels like we a need a 5 year plan and I think Pulis has one... its just not the one I agree with. 

I go from despair to optimism on almost a daily basis at the moment but I want something to be proud about again, whether that is our integrity as a club, our style of football, our academy, our on-the-pitch effort, our scouting and transfer system... whatever it is, I just want something to cheer about. For too long now it just seems like we're a bit of a mess on and off the field. 

My point re: Irvine was that I think he did have potential as a HC and he was building team spirit. Although he would almost certainly have got us relegated, at least it felt like we were building something for the longer term. I appreciate that most won't agree with that, just my feeling at the moment.