Yanga-Mbiwa eyes summer move to England

Montpellier captain Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
Newcastle United transfer target Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa has admitted that he would prefer to move to England ahead of anywhere else should he be destined to leave Montpellier in the summer.

The Magpies were linked with the Montpellier captain last month as they looked to boost the depth of their defence – a task which they ultimately failed to complete.

Yanga-Mbiwa has been a virtual ever present since breaking onto the scene as a 17-year-old and is now helping his side go toe to toe with oil rich PSG in pursuit of the Ligue 1 title. In total he has made 175 appearances for Montpellier, which is no mean feat for a player that doesn’t turn 23 until later on in the year.

His admission that he would prefer to move to England comes in the midst of interest in the player from Bayern Munich who have been keeping tabs on him for a while. However it would appear that Yanga-Mbiwa has set his eyes on a move to England ahead of anything else.

“Bayern is a very big club. I’m really flattered, but my ambition is to one day play my football in England,” he told Sky Sports.

It is believed that it would take a fee in the region of £5m to persuade Montpellier to do business, and for that price I hope we are at least keeping an eye on the situation. By signing one player it could go a long way to adding some much needed depth to our defence as he can play right across the back four although he is primarily a centre-back.

That would give us cover in both full-back positions and added depth in the middle meaning that we’d probably only need another dedicated right-back (should Danny Simpson leave in the summer – a likely scenario given the reluctance to agree a new deal) and we’d be a lot more prepared than what we are now.

It’s a no brainer in my opinion.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

250 thoughts on “Yanga-Mbiwa eyes summer move to England

  1. Calm it petal.
    Shall i simplify it?
    You say that we didn’t know how these players would perform at the start of the season.
    I’m saying that now that you know, *assuming noone else strengthens either*, do you think we will challenge for 4th again?

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  2. JJ and SOLANOSTRUMPET – You both may have set your own expectations at the start of the season, however, you made them based upon nothing. The current team we have had never played together, therefore your predictions we pulled from fresh air.

    So yes, in comparison to what YOU believe this team is capable of, we may be ‘punching above our own weight’.

    The fact is, though, this season is the first time we have seen this Newcastle team play together. What they achieve this year is then what we have to consider as par.

    The fact that we may not challenge for 4th next year or even this year is irrelevent. It’s our points total that matters. If we were to finish on 60 points this year, then that is what we aim to beat next year.If we finish lower but have improved our points total then that still must be counted as progression.

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  3. So Franky, if you don’t then you clearly believe that this season we are punching above our weight and to stay there we will need to strengthen our squad.
    😯

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  4. Gary and Evilfrank

    Would you agree, that we are punching above our weight in terms of wages being paid to our players/ the amount of investment made in our squads, the original reputations of our players. Being able to attract future quality names? Would you not agree that the other clubs in the top seven (original top six) all have a major advantage over us…

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  5. You can’t make an opinion like that without seeing a full season through…I mean for ***** sake Cisse has played 2 games 🙄

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  6. JJ – I may not expect top 4, however we aren’t currently in the top 4 anyway. I would base our targets for next season upon the total amount of points we achieve this year. Not our final league position, as then you are simply guessing on whether or not other teams improve around us.

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  7. Evil Franky –

    Ah mate… but after 24 games this season were were fourth! 😉 So are you saying we deserved to be there then, but we don’t deserve to be there now?
    If we beat Wolves we could be fourth again? But you wouldn’t put money on us to do it again, with the same squads? Why not ❓ ❗ ❓ 😕

    Could it be because we are perhaps punching above our weight? 😉

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  8. @Gary mate stop answering questions that aren’t asked.
    Obviously if we improved our points tally it is progress, has that been disputed at all?
    Do you think having seen our players that we have the 4/5/6th best squad in the league atm?
    It is a simple enough question, a simple enough answer would be nice.

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  9. SOLANOSTRUMPET – Why is it you say 4/5/6th, when we are in 6th? Why not say do we have the 5/6/7th? Which is one place above and one below our current league position. Because then, my answer would be yes.

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  10. Gary
    Yes Gary, but your summary of your debate makes no sense. I’m still waiting for you to make it make sense… 😀

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  11. Chelsea were 4th, we were 5th joint on points. Of course after 24 games we deserved to be there because we were the 5th best team.

    I never said we wouldn’t be the same next year if everything stayed the same, because football doesn’t work like that. We could be 10th at the same stage but finish the season 4th after going on a fantastic unbeaten run.

    It’s a stupid question to ask.

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  12. JJ says:
    February 20, 2012 at 14:29

    @FSOTC

    Ashley owns the property……………………

    Yes. he owns the building structure but he doesn’t own the site – the land is called St. James’ Park and is owned by the freemen of the city, with the local council acting as landlords. It doesn’t matter what Ashley, or anybody else, decides to name the stadium. The turf they play on has always been, and will always be St James’ Park, and there’s nothing that Ashley can do to change that fact, apart from moving the stadium to a different location.

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  13. Neither me or Gary stated that we would deserved to finish in any specific position this is something you are trying to drag us into to prove a point.

    What we are saying is that we have played to the ability of where we are in the league and will deserve to finish up wherever we finish up.

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  14. Here’s one for you guys Gary/Evil Franky

    You believe so highly that we are going to finish top six?

    The bookies have us at 2/1 to finish top six… So you could make a fine profit if you have that much faith. Go put you house on it because if the team pulls through like you think they will, you increase your standard of living for the rest of your live’s by three fold…

    Me, personally, I think its risky, because like the bookies, I see us punching above our weight, as its more likely we’ll finish around seventh by the end of the season. Which is probably the position we deserve.

    I hope we get higher, but I don’t think we are capable of those standards yet, for a full season anyway…

    But for 2/3rd’s of a season, we are certainly capable of punching above our weight… Its the final rounds we will get a few knock downs though as the level of class tells…

    Don’t ya think? 😉 😆

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  15. Erm because 1 point seperates us from 4th whereas it is 3 points to 7th..?
    Even so for you to believe we have a better squad than Liverpool is daft.
    I mean we aren’t far away and fully deserve to be above them (and i think we will finish above them), but to believe our squad is better is unreal. There’s no reasoning with that.
    I have a number of friends from Nottingham that don’t even think Perch would get in their team now, and they are staring down the abyss to league 1!

    To be honest Gary i think you just like disagreeing with people. Why don’t you reread you post @137, you state that you think we are overachieving, why are we debating with you just because you can’t be find out what ‘punching above your weight’ means (exactly the same thing as overachieving).

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  16. JJ – Your inability to understand doesn’t surprise me mate. You choose to ask questions that suit your argument even though they are irrelevant. For example;

    ‘What you do think the chances of us finishing top five are come the end of the season?’

    Who cares, we aren’t 5th. We are 6th! Do I believe we can finish top 6, YES. In fact, I do believe we can finish within the top 5 also. However, that’s irrelevant.

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  17. Chris G @166
    Ye I see what you’re saying mate, but they are spray painting the walls, not the turf… So it is his property unfortunately.

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  18. FFS Franky,
    Of course if we finish 5th 7th wherever it is because we deserve to be there/
    This is getting tiring now.
    Right this moment do you think we have the 6th best squad in the league?
    One word answer.
    If you do then fair play. If you don’t then you, like me, think we are performing admirably but above what is expected of European titans like Willo and Simpson. I’ve stuck a tenner on us to get 4th, i don’t believe it is impossible, but i’m not stupid, i know we are overperforming atm, it’s why i would be delighted with 7th.

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  19. JJ – I never stated a league position that we would finish in but suspect 7th-4th isn’t impossible, again trying to twist the argument. My argument was that I didn’t believe we had ‘punched above our weight’.

    And the fact is you can’t either because you had no idea what this squad of players were capable off because you had never ever ever seen them play together before.

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  20. Yes because we are 6th after 25 games, what is so hard to comprehend about this? If we finish 10th come the end of the season then that is how good we are.

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  21. Gary
    And your inability to understand how to actually answer my questions to support your arguement doesn’t surprise me mate.
    You ignore questions to suit your argument (or lack there of) because you actually cannot answer them with any logical sense…

    Fine, would you put money on us to finish top six next season if we kept our squads the same for next season?
    Ie. Would you put big money on our current squad, beating Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpools current squad over the season? Or would you say its more likely we wouldn’t finish above them?

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  22. Ahhhhhh got a very good question for tunnel visonists EvilFranky and Gary and then i’m off.

    Do you think our squad underperformed to their capabilities the season we got relegated?

    If you can comprehend that i fail to see how you can’t understand the difference between have the 6th best squad and performing the 6th best in the league.

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  23. JJ – again you cannot ask that question until the end of the season as we have no idea what the squad is fully capable of. There is no benchmark.

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  24. Well Franky/Gary

    If we arn’t currently punching above our weight, then you should be able to say it would be a massive massive disappointment if we were to finish any lower than sixth come the end of the season and we should be fighting for fourth all the way to the end.

    Unless of course we were taking on bigger, better squads in Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea – in which case finishing seventh would be a great achievement that we can be proud of.

    Sixth would be a shock and completely unexpected. 😯 😀

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  25. Anyway Frankie/Gary

    I was enjoying our debate, but your arguement has got so weak now its actually not fun anymore… So I’m off too…

    Later lads. 😉

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  26. Do you think our squad underperformed to their capabilities the season we got relegated?

    If you can comprehend that i fail to see how you can’t understand the difference between have the 6th best squad and performing the 6th best in the league.

    Hahaha, again…we have a benchmark to gauge the relegation team against. We don’t for a team that has only played 2/3rds of a season.

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  27. SOLANOSTRUMPET –

    Punching above your own weight – ‘To do something that is considered to be beyond one’s ability’

    Overachiving – ‘To perform better or achieve more success than expected.’

    BIG DIFFERENCE!

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  28. what a strange argument we have going on. & with little suprise mr watson is in the thick of it all.

    😆

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  29. SOLANOSTRUMPET – Just to clarify…

    Overachieving means you are doing better than EXPECTED.

    Punching above your own weight means you are doing something BEYOND YOUR OWN CAPABILITIES.

    See the difference now?

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  30. The dictionary has proved me to be correct and that is good enough for me.

    See you later lads! If you’d like to continue arguing with fresh air then be my guest and continue. I’m off!

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  31. They never will because they think it’s one and the same Gary.

    They have also passed judgement on a team that they have set no real standards with league position because they haven’t even completed a full season together yet.

    Then when the argument failed they tried to ask stupid questions about league position predictions and some weird alternative premier league where teams remain the same over transfer windows and again asked for NEXT years position lol…which just refers to my previous point that a team that has not completed a full season together cannot be judged either FOR or AGAINST their ability.

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  32. @Gary
    I don’t see the difference no. Punching above your weight is a saying. Of course it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for you to perform beyond your capabilities. Punching above your weight is performing beyond your EXPECTED capabilities.
    Were Stevenage punching above their weight on Sunday? No no course not.

    Are you going to ignore my post at @178?
    I love it when i’m right.
    The problem with blogs is that you will never get someone admitting they were wrong.

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  33. Ones age or talents… hmmm, that would be their abilities no?

    The two might be slightly different, but that doesn’t mean they can’t go hand in hand…

    For example: Newcastle United overachieved through most of the 2012 season fighting above its weight class – amongst the Champions League contenders – but by the end of a hard season had fallen down to finish in a still respectable seventh position. 😉

    And Gary… where did you find: “Punching above his weight class” in the dictionary???? Ha ha ha ha ha… man you crack me up lad, you really crack me up…. ha ha ha ha ha.

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  34. Evil Franky – your post @192 would imply that a team can never have expectations then unless it’s exactly the same as the previous season…….which never happens……..so therefore can a team never have expectations?

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  35. SOLANOTRUMPET –

    “Punching above your weight is performing beyond your EXPECTED capabilities.” – Take it up with the dictionary mate as that’s not what it’s defined as in there. Obviously you know better, though.

    As for your question @178 – You mention us having the 6th best squad. However, our whole squad doesn’t play week in, week out. The lads who have played THIS SEASON have shown they are good enough and warrant their 6th position.

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  36. “How can you have expectations of a team that you have never seen complete a full season then?”

    Oh Frankie… everyone has expectations, whether its with a wider degree of variables or a narrow degree of variables.
    Thats how the bookies get their odds.

    If there were no expectations, you could say we could have finished anywhere from first place till last. Now while that is physically possible… Your expectations and common sense, narrow that factor down.

    I think most of us believed we would finish somewhere between 12th and 6th place this season on expectation. And that would be 100% correct.

    Are you saying you had no expectations… Please don’t kid yourself…

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  37. I never said that. You just can’t judge a team and then place expectations on them without having first observed them thoroughly. This is fact.

    If we finished 7th this year then we are 7th best and next season as long as we lose no body and strengthen accordingly then my expectations the following season would be 7th or more.

    Did we have the same team last season? No.

    At the start of this season taking on board the players who left and the players who came in my expectation was 10th onwards as I wanted to see progression and having come narrowly close to 9th the previous season I thought it was reasonable.

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  38. o·ver·a·chieve (vr–chv)
    intr.v. o·ver·a·chieved, o·ver·a·chiev·ing, o·ver·a·chieves
    To perform better or achieve more success than expected.

    Oh and Gary…
    From the Oxford learners book of idioms:

    “punch above your weight
    to be or try to be more successful than others in doing something that normally requires more skill, experience, money, etc. than you have”

    😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳

    It takes a man to admit when he is wrong, can you do that? 😆

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  39. @Gary
    Did you even read the question @178 Gary?

    It was do you think our squad underperformed, playing below their capabilities in the 08/09 relegation season?

    You seem to distinguish between deserving something and what your ability suggests you will get. The season we got relegated we truly deserved to. It didn’t reflect the ability in our squad though,
    This season we fully deserve to be where we are, but the fact is, our squad isn’t the 6th best in the league, you know that really don’t you?

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  40. This season we fully deserve to be where we are, but the fact is, our squad isn’t the 6th best in the league, you know that really don’t you?

    How can you say that we aren’t when you haven’t been able to observe them for a whole season and have no idea which position we will finish?

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  41. JJ – thefreeonlinedictionary.com

    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/punch+above+weight

    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/overachieving

    There you go mate, two definitions exactly as I stated. You’re right, it does take a man to admit they’re wrong…. Can you do it????

    Feel free not to, of course. Those dictionaries normally talk rubbish!

    Oh, and I bet you look similar to this guy right now…

    http://www.josephdiego.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Online-home-business-monkey_scratching_head-207×300.jpg

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  42. Right, I am really off leaving this time. The wife is going crazy!

    I’ll check this thread later and if any of you manage to prove the dictionary to be wrong then I will hold my hands up and admit defeat. If not, then maybe you lads should consider doing the same.

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  43. Like this fella 175 appearances, has a decent record of being an ever present in the team for 1 so young,so he gets thumbs up from me 😆

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  44. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/punch
    punch above one’s weight
    informal engage in an activity or contest perceived as being beyond one’s abilities:
    there is something about the British that makes them punch above their weight in a number of entertainment industries

    Oxford>”free dictionary”
    I would say Newcastle engaging in a battle for 4th place is percieved as being beyond our capabilities.

    The problem is Gary, you don’t understand that it is a SAYING.
    It is impossible to perform beyond your ability, ie “giving 110%”, as if you are performing to your ability, that is your maximum level.
    It is performing beyond what is expected of you, so for the examply given the British weren’t expected to perform as well as they have in the entertainment industries.

    Reet i’m off to go apply for some English teacher positions.

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  45. JJ says:
    February 20, 2012 at 16:13 “so I’m off too”
    SolanosTrumpet says:
    February 20, 2012 at 16:10
    Ahhhhhh got a very good question for tunnel visonists EvilFranky and Gary and then i’m off.
    Gary Watson says:
    February 20, 2012 at 16:19
    The dictionary has proved me to be correct and that is good enough for me.
    See you later lads! If you’d like to continue arguing with fresh air then be my guest and continue. I’m off!

    Maybe you’d all be better of putting your efforts into the meaning of the phrase “I’m off” 😉 😆

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  46. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/punch
    punch above one’s weight
    informal engage in an activity or contest PERCEIVED/BELIEVED/CONSIDERED as being beyond one’s abilities.

    Did you believe or consider our squad strong enough to to be fighting for fourth, or do you think we have performed beyond the abilities most people and ourselves thought we had???
    If so, we are punching above our weight.

    http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/weight_1
    punch above one’s weight
    to be or try to be more successful than others in doing something that normally requires more skill, experience, money, etc. than you have

    Are we trying to be more successful that Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea despite their squads having more skill, experience and money than our club has???
    If so, we are punching above our weight.

    Answer those two questions, and you shall find the truth you are seeking my son… And you would have learnt a great lesson. 😀 😉

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  47. Richie 😆 😆 😆

    I’m afraid JJ and Solano have the English language on their side though… the rest is incredibly obstinate nitpicking 😉

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  48. Richie @210
    I didn’t say were I was off to did I? Could have been the loo or the next thread! 😉
    Anyways… I’m off…

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  49. ****, if I knew a debate on the meaning of “punching above one’s weight would have caused such debate, I would have written a blog on it long ago!

    Ok, I’m off now…

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  50. Wow what a debate imo jj is correct we are “punching above our weight” any sane person would put our squad 7th or 8th and the bookies are seldom wrong !

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  51. SOLANOSTRUMPET – You are correct in that it is a saying. However, it’s been used wrongly today.

    Imagine this scenario; you are about to have a boxing fight against a man twice your size and with twice your strength. A friend may then say to you, ‘you are punching above your own weight here mate.’ This would be a warning that you shouldn’t do it because he doesn’t believe you are capable of beating your opponent. Yet if you then went ahead with the fight and lasted 25 rounds with your opponent then you have proven you are capable of standing toe to toe with him. Therefore you have overachieved in terms of what your friend expected before the fight.

    This proves the difference between the two! Surely?

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  52. As for my opinion on the grafitti , it was legaly wrong but the many terrible moral and football mistakes ma has made will make people do crazy and illegal things so get used to it , it will keep happening ! He boils my **** 😉

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  53. lol the grafitti wasnt that bad imo. At least we knew it would of been cleaned off straight away unlike the streets in Newcastle.

    I’m glad it was done, brings the controversy to the fore again.

    I remember when ppl used to **** on the terraces at St James’ and everyone use to laugh, ne one complained about the history then..

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  54. Gary.
    The meaning of many words and sayings have been altered in time.
    The fact is they then take on that meaning… So much so that words themselves can come to mean something completely different. In fact the sounds of the words even change.
    What matters is how they are being used in a descriptive sense today… Not 50 years ago…
    Are you honestly now going to make that the basis of your debate now.

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  55. Gary – I suggested yesterday that we wouldnt finish 4th and you immediately questioned why I thought that we weren’t good enough to keep pace, yet today you are saying 6th because that’s where we are now?! 😳

    Ive missed so much of this debate, but I’m surprised it took so long for someone to look up the definition of the 2 phrases.

    I think that you have actually highlighted the wrong word though Gary. You have emphasised EXPECTED, when really I think you should have emphasised the word YOUR.

    For example: At the start of the season I thought we could finish 8-10th, yet we could now finish 4-7th so that would exceed my (your) expectation or over achieve.
    However I can understand why people would see this as punching above our weigh as few of us would have thought we were capable of a 7th or above finish.

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  56. Keith spot on mate sometimes in life you have to do something illegal, to get people to notice that a wrong is being done, or that something needs changed.
    Without people that have the balls to make a stand we wouldn’t have any rights at all, and we’d all be like sheep.

    As for the debate of the day, I would say we are punching above our weight, because I just define the saying as doing better than expected, and getting results that weren’t expected 😉

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  57. Gary
    Read the questions I posed to you at 211 and the definitions… Are you really going to tell me ones’ perception of a football team does not involve expectation? You must have had a perception of our squad at the start of the season? Did you perceive them to have the ability to challenge Chelsea and Arsenal?

    The second definition is a more modern one… But still valid and basically supports Solano and my arguement 100%…

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  58. Gary, just on the spray painting…

    You call them thugs because they committed a crime to try right a wrong

    There have been a lot worse illiegal things done to highlight wrong doings. The greater the wrongness the greater the crime.

    Nelson Mandela is a hero, but he himself planted a bomb which killed someone in order to get the then governments attention…
    Would that make him a thug. Because at the time, to those suffering, it made him a hero…

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  59. @bigdave , exactly if someone winds you up or mocks you over and over again you will eventually react !
    Imo if he continues to show contemp and lack of respect to the fans there will be more of that kind of reaction .

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