steve_69

f*** me, totally forgot he existed. Aye, apart from a few crappy adverts I hadn't seen him since Hell's Kitchen.

There's a surprise!

Aye, thats why i said being a bit flexible with it. Scary just how daft they are thinking that 11 is enough. It's a system that relies on every purple player performing to the best of their ability all the time, otherwise it's just a wasted purple slot. Look at the situation with Jonas now - he offers f*** all but is still one of our purple players. Assuming these are the 11 purple players there's not much room for juggling the pack at all. Krul S Taylor Colo Santon Jonas Cabaye Tiote Anita Ba Cisse Ben Arfa At a push, and taking into consideration the improved form of Anita, i'd say the only ones we could afford to lose are Jonas and Tiote.

I don't even mind the purple player thing, it seems like a pretty sensible approach but they have to increase the number of purple players from 11 to 13/14 if we want a competitive squad. They also need to significantly improve the quality of some of our fringe players because they are quite simply not good enough.

Given our current plight I would be inclined to sell one of our current midfield crop to fund moves for a decent CB and a right back. If sell-to-buy is how it has to be then get selling.

I'd definitely knock a couple out if we signed a decent CB. I'd probably rip my cock off right if we signed a left winger/striker as well.

It seems to be out of our hands unfortunately. If Ba goes it's because he wants to go - all we can do if offer him improved terms (which we have done). If he chooses not to sign the new deal then I don't think other first team players will blame that on Pardew or the board. If we didn't replace him with someone decent or not at all, that's when I think we'd see some serious discontent from other players.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8341347/A-host-of-Premier-League-clubs-are-chasing-Dutch-international-Stefan-De-Vrij

I'm always amused when I read this, as if the previous 73326526763348 trasfer windows hadn't seen all of our expectations be miserably crushed Why are you ignoring all our good signings? I'm not, but to be honest that happened only once since Ashley took over, and it was 2 years ago. All the other windows were abysmal, we followed the same few targets for weeks /months and always ended up with nothing, even when we desperately needed someone and even when we "couldn't believe" that the board wouldn't do anything. We splashed £9m on a world class? striker last January and that surpassed my expectations. As usual I expected fuck all

He probably said 'we'll be bringing in at least one player' and the journalist has written what the fuck he wants. It's not often i'm optimistic but I can't believe they're not looking at bringing in a CB - Pardew already said there are 7 CBs on the list a couple of weeks back.

It wouldn't be a honour to see him play for one at all, but you can't begrudge any footballer wanting to try his hand at Champions League football. We might have been able to offer him that had we strengthened this summer but we didn't. Anyone who says it would be an honour to see one of their best players turn out for another team is a fucking moron. However, anyone who can't appreciate why the player might want to play somewhere else is also a fucking moron.

Looking at the clubs he's been at throughout his career I wouldn't begrudge him the chance to play Champions League football with one of the big four. We also know we don't pay the biggest wages in the league and he's probably looking to earn as much as he can with what will probably be his last big contract of his career. I do, however, get really pissed off when his agents attempt to put pressure on the club to play him in his favoured position while at the same time trying to hawk him out to the highest bidder. Ba could put a stop to that shit if he wanted to because he employs the people behind it. Good player and i'd like him to stay but not if it means his agents are going to try and orchestrate a move for him every time the window comes around.

Ba quotes to Canal +: "I have nothing to say about those speculations [with Arsenal]. Nothing has happened. Ba added: '"The media know Arsenal need another striker and they know about my release clause. They need to make their own mind up about it" Ba to Canal+: 'Arsenal are one of those teams who makes you dream.'

Get Marveaux on for Guitierrez now and we might get something from this game.

We're just about to watch out very average CB get dry-bummed by 2 world class strikers. Fucking great!

The one from King Shola says "33 crosses away from home and 7 shots on target usually equates to 2 or 3 goals", yours says "34 crosses and 7 shots on target away from home should get you close to a victory."? Are these quotes from the same sentence but being reported differently, or is he repeating himself and getting his stats wrong? either way they're both bullshit! You can put in as many wank crosses as you like, to players who can't head the ball, and you'll still score fuck all. You can also dolly shots at the keeper all day long and you'll get the same result.

Add having no threat from set pieces or crosses to that list and it starts to look pretty bleak. Literally the only creativity we have comes from Ben Arfa and Cabaye, and their threat is often nullified by the opposition doubling up.

The last thing i'll say on this though, is take a look back through the Fulham match thread and have a look at how many comments about long balls and shouts of 'HOOF' there were before and after Shola came on.

alright

Ok, don't cry about it. we'll just have to agree to disagree because I watched the same game and saw something very different.

Righto

shola on the the last 25 mintues and go even longer when we have not won one single header in their penalty area all match. That is how clueless he is. It really nails it for me! We barely hoofed it all game and the hoofing didn't really increase when Shola came on. Some people just make their mind up before the game and with each substitution without even watching the game properly. Sorry mate but that's total bollox!! Credit where it's due, we passed and moved a lot better in that game than in probably any other game this season but when Shola came on, all we did was hoof the ball. Watch it back if you disagree - there was a very definite change of style after the substitution.

I agree that we need to have a modern footballing philosophy that is coached from youth level all the way up. This is the way football clubs are run these days, and not just the top ones. I'm surprised we haven't done it already given the board's wankathon over the 'Arsenal model'. In order to do the above you need a progressive, modern manager who has a very definite way of playing and coaching eg. Rogers, Wenger, Martinez - we are unlikely to be able to attract a manager of this type because they won't work under our current board. IMO Pardew's footballing philosophy could never be coached at every level of the playing staff because it relies to much on studying the opposition. We don't go out to impose our own game on teams like Liverpool, Swansea, Arsenal and Wigan - nothing compromises the playing style of these teams, whereas we seem to chop and change depending on the style of the opposition.

He's cut out the pockets in his peacoat so he can w*** it for 90 minutes. Him and Carver were talking for about 10 minutes last night before coming up with the masterstroke of substituting our most effective player for our least effective player, followed by 10 minutes of lumping the ball from back to front. Demonstrating his tactical genius is clearly what he does on the touchline.