First off, yesterday was poor and there are no excuses for the way the team performed. In fact there are no excuses for the last three matches, so can I suggest that we leave the results where they belong; in the past.

Martin O'Neill knows his players were awful and Martin O'Neill knows that he needs to shoulder that responsibility and the club hopefully also know that maybe, they shouldn't start to build up hopes with talk of European football, world class signings and entertaining football.

Posting about the new right back for next season and the fact we need at least two of them got me to thinking about how many players we need for next season and it's actually surprised me quite a bit.

I reckon we need at least ten new players if we're to kick on and compete with the likes of Liverpool and Everton and probably Spurs.

After Manchester United and Chelsea both lost at the weekend there has been a lot of talk about European football next season, so I'm going to do my best to clarify the situation.

This is how it works; the top four get Chumpians League football and there are three places for the UEFA cup, one of those has already gone to Spurs. I can say that with confidence because they wont finish in the top four.

In the first half of the season, there were a few question marks over our style of football. The words 'long ball' and 'scrappy' were, from time to time, bandied about.

Some people may still have their doubts, although I personally have been long since convinced.

Let’s just imagine for a second that we actually did sign Jermain Defoe in the transfer window. Let’s also imagine that he went straight into the team.

Let’s pair him with Gabby at centre forward, with Ashley down the left and Shaun down the right. Or even Ashley down the left and new boy Wayne down the right. Villa would have had quality, no doubt about it, with pace in abundance.

The quotes doing the rounds today, if I'm not mistaken, are taken from quite a while ago and while I can't put a date on it I seem to remember it was about the time when the NFL came to Wembley stadium to play a league game.

What is also important to emphasise is, it's not about the 39th game - it's about playing games overseas.

Hey, if you want to have a pop at the manager for only bringing in one player, go for it - you have every right to say and act however you want, but it's worth remembering where we find ourselves today.

We are fifth in the table and Martin O'Neill has done that with 'the smallest squad' in the league. We know it's the smallest because we've been told enough times.

I'm not going to talk about the impending transfer of Gary Cahill to Bolton or God forbid any other team, or the rumoured interest in Spurs right back Pascal Chimbonda. I'm also not going to talk about us getting a fourth goalkeeper.

It doesn't matter which players come in - Martin O'Neill will get in who he wants to get in and he'll be doing it for whatever reason - long term or short term.

I like listening to Pat Murphy on the radio but every time I read something from him it reminds me of that open letter written by Hyder Jawad to Richard FitzGerald.

That letter was Hyder Jawad throwing his toys out of his pram and I thought quite embarrassing, considering the circumstances and who it came from. This however, isn't the first time Pat Murphy has had a little moan at the expense of Randy Lerner and it was too much the first time.