steve_69

honest question but which games do you think we needed that option in? The ones we didn't win

Carroll is one of the most physically imposing strikers around at the moment. I reckon he'd be a great re-addition to our squad as long as it doesn't lead to anyone else going. He could give us an extra dimension that was clearly missing at times last season. At times, before we sold him, he was unplayable and we weren't exactly playing Stoke-esque football at the time so the long-ball argument doesn't worry me either. I couldn't give a shit how much we're prepared to pay for him. The only concern I would have is if paying £16m for Carroll means we can't sign another one of our targets, but we still have offers in for Anita, Douglas and Debuchy so that doesn't seem to be the case. Leave the financial decisions to the money men. We've all become tightarses in the last year or so because the club is now being run so well. They're not going to spend money they don't have so fuck it, get him in!

Sell Tiote for £25m, buy Fellaini for £20m?

- Manager tells scouts what positions he needs players for - Scouts identify suitable players - Manager discusses list of players identified with scouts - Manager goes to check them out himself - Manager says yes or no to players, or gives a list of preferred options - Manager/Chief scout meet with top brass to present their list of players - Top brass try to sign players, hammer out financials etc. - Manager meets with players to persuade them to come to the club. Based on what we know and what we can gather, this is how our transfer process operates. Not very difficult to understand. Given that we already know who Andy Carroll is and what he is capable of, I imagine we've been able to bypass 1-4. Pardew has obviously said yes to Andy Carroll, which leaves the last 2 points to be taken care of.

One thing is for certain, Andy Carroll needs to sack his agent. Like most other players who leave Newcastle United, he'd have been better off staying put rather than chasing the money.

Pardew has been quite vocal about wanting to address our lack of goals from set pieces. He said he wants to sign a cb who could get us 7-8 goals per season. Perhaps this is just a different answer to the same problem. Doesn't mean we'll start playing long ball football at all. Can you imagine Cabaye, Santon, Ben Arfa etc playing aimless hoof ball?

No Alan Curbishley?

Ah, now i see what you did. Fucksticks!

I disagree. People watch football to be entertained and if they, like me, don't find the way Spain play entertaining then it is boring. When I watch a game I want to see skill, aggression, physicality and lots of goal scoring opportunities - that, to me, is what makes a game exciting. I respect the way Spain play and I obviously appreciate that they are technically superior to the vast majority of teams but do I find them exciting to watch? No.

Mathieu Flamini released on a free by AC Milan http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11863/7831121/Milan-free-Flamini Still only 28.

Hodgson's commitment to rigidity and defense seems to have paid off thus far. Look at how well the best attacking side in the tournament (Dutch) fared by neglecting their defense. I'm not suggesting we go all-out attack and I agree that Hodgson's selections and tactics have so far worked. Glenn Johnson undoubtedly needs additional cover in front of him so it makes sense. It just pains me to see Milner playing for England because he's so utterly ordinary.

He clearly plays under Hodgson because of the defensive cover he gives in front of Glen Johnson. Unfortunately he offers close to fuck all going forward. Give me pace and skill over plodding workmanlike bilge every time

Was thinking exactly the same. If they value him at £12m and we bid £4m that's laughable. Bidding £2m below the valuation is not. Maybe he just likes to laugh at unfunny shit?

If Jordan Henderson is worth £18m, Ben Arfa is easily worth £26m. In fact, given that Ben Arfa is 10x the player Henderson will ever be he should be worth 10x as much - £180m will do nicely!

True but she's got a face like a pork scratching

Wankers!

Do Talksport actually know anything or are they usually full of shit?

How is this possible? According to the wankings we're better than Argentina and Italy. Eh?!

They both looked thrilled to bits

Can see them replacing him with David Moyes tbh

This is the full Premier League out of contract list: http://www.premierleague.com/content/dam/premierleague/site-content/News/publications/other/premier-league-released-list.pdf

I still can't believe he plays for us, when you see the control in that video...ffs Christ, the link up play between him and Benzema is frightening! The dude who made the video loves his slowmo replays doesn't he?!

There's only a handful of players who have moved on from here and gone on to bigger and better things - Simpson won't be one of them!

Thumb war, best of 3

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/owen-vows-to-continue-top-%C2%ADflight-sitting-2012051827615