fensaddler

He's probably helped by the upcoming fixture. Less likely we'd choose to sack a manager a week before the derby.

Positives: - Terry Antonis - We drew the second half - We've got some decent players back from injury - Victory lost Negatives: - Our defence is a basket case - Arslan out for weeks - The rebuild was supposed to be this season, but it's been deferred until at least next season - We're going to lose some players we have loved - We're struggling to make the six - Next up is the Derby - There's something horribly wrong somewhere

It's an appealing hypothesis. At least they've finally hooked Natel.

Every player on the pitch has forgotten how to play and no one knows each other.

Arslan has likely been papering over the cracks. By far our best and most consistent player this season. Now we've lost him the wheels have absolutely come off.

Natel is utterly woeful. If he never plays for us again it's too soon.

I find it difficult to believe any manager could outlast this appalling performance.

With knobs on. The worst City performance I think I've ever had to sit through.

This is a sacking performance. Seriously fucking useless.

Awful. We were better when we were Heart and had no money.

Cracking start.

Most of our attacking fire-power is on the bench. Midfield is Ugarkovic, Jeggo and Lopane. Natel and Nabbout on the wings. Politidis, Hall, Good and Galloway across the back. Souprayen, Jakolis, Leckie and Tilio all on the bench.

Two things can be true at the same time. Mustafa Amini is an evil little troll who does this every match and usually gets away with it. Referees need to get wiser and punish players like him. And also Arslan should know better and not react in such a way that we lose him for a month or more. He's arguably our best player and certainly the creative pivot of our midfield. He has badly damaged us in an already trying season.

He was being wound up all night by that evil little troll Amini. Who should have been sent off much earlier.

Talbot is injured, which is why Politidis starts, apparently. We are very tight on full back resources just now...

Politidis gets a start. Be interesting to see how he goes.

First chance to see Jeggo. Leckie back in the squad and Nabbout must be close to starting. Lots to watch for. And Cola playing against his childhood team.

He'll be hungry and up for it. On his own he could turn Macca's form around as well.

Indeed. But I suspect has to be addressed for the moment with the squad we already have.

Whatever the weakness, I suspect we address that at the end of season and not now. Reasoning is this. Behich is at present planning to come back next season, so any cover for him is likely to be a loan. No loanee is going to walk into an established dressing room and be, or be expected to be, the leader in the room or on the pitch. They can provide experience and attitude, but they won't be captain or the informal leader of the group. And I doubt we've got cap space for a permanent signing of a really big fish.

Fire in the hole!

I suspect we also don't know how long this has been in the works with Behich. There will be lots of irons in the fire this time of year, and Behich going may just have been one piece in a complex jigsaw that allows other stuff to happen. I'd rather be optimistic as it's better than being miserable, and there's enough in the world to be stressed about already.

The financial logic is that CFG have set us up to deliver a return on investment at least enough to justify their investment in the club. So like any small but well run club we develop and sell on to generate revenue. Tilio, O'Neill, Bos etc are all proof of that strategy. The fee for loaning Aziz is bigger than the sale of each of those players, and yet we retain his registration. However tough for us as fans to lose him it's a no brainer in business terms, especially given the financial strife the ALM is in. And we may well have been stiffed over Sakhi as well. So no issues. Not happy to lose him, but understand.

Gutted to lose Behich on so many levels but yes the financial logic is obvious. Fingers crossed for incoming. It's been a bit of a season for low blows and unexpected setbacks but let's see how we roll. You don't always win in this game and we've got to hang in there. We're not Victory fans. We don't evaporate as soon as it gets a bit tough, even if we grumble.