ohmelads

He put himself and his ego above the club and its fans and ultimately, when he knew noone wanted him to stay after he had made a total hash of things, he refused to leave, banking several million pounds in the process. His relationship with Willie McKay also seems a bit dodgy as a large sum of the clubs money was spent on his players.

Have we become a feeder club or something? This lad has no Premiership experience yet we're going to bring him in and remove experienced players such as Butt, Parker or Emre so he can gain experience and learn from his errors before going back to Chelsea a better player? Let some other club do that. Besides, aren't you only allowed to loan in 2 players at once during a season? We should be looking at defenders and strikers if that's the case.

Happy enough with that draw, we're playing at home and we'll be favourites. When I saw Chelsea pop up I feared the worst. Of course it won't be easy, but if we can't beat Reading or Burnley at home we don't deserve to be in the cup anyway.

The Spanish press are saying Coloccini wants to leave Deportivo and claim there are several offers on the table. For those who don't know he's a versatile defender and Argentina international.

Butt's not getting any younger, and Emre and Parker are our only other senior centre mids. I don't see why everyone feels Emre is about to leave, Roeder has rarely ever dropped him when fit.

If one of the huge European clubs was going to come in for him you get the feeling they'd have done it by now. He's 25 already and has been doing the business for a while. Certainly with Emre here I think we'd have a good chance. Edit: Having said that if he's going for free in summer we will have some competition in trying to get him.

I'll be very surprised if he leaves for a few reasons. We would be very reluctant to sell after waiting so patiently for him to return, and clubs would be unwilling to risk much money on a guy who has effectively been out of the game for 18 months. I also think, as naive as it sounds in today's football, that he feels obliged to stay at least a season after costing the club so much money. How long he stays after that depends on a number of factors, most importantly how good he is (after his injury) and how good Newcastle are.

I'm a bit divided on this one. This would be a bit of a trophy signing (even on loan) and certainly wouldn't be the answer to our problems. If we got him it could prove to be the inspired deal of the season, but probably wouldn't. I always felt SWP was a bit overrated even during his best season at Man City and I said so at the time. It's not a big surprise that he's failed at Chelsea, because he does lose the ball a lot and Mourinho doesn't tolerate this. There are some players who have a couple of big seasons and never recover that form. Look at James Beattie. SWP made a name for himself as a talented youngster quite late on in his career, at about 23 if I remember correctly he was suddenly on fire. That's not normal and after two excellent seasons his form has suddenly nosedived, probably due to a lack of games but possibly because he's not as good as everyone thought he was. He has the makings of another James Beattie, people forget Shaun is 25 now and it is important we do our research on this one and are strong enough to say no if we feel he's not worth it. SWP is an out-of-form big name who would be coming here to get games above all else. To give him games we'd have to drop an in-form youngster who has become popular with the fans recently and deserves his place in the team. That said he's a body and with our extremely limited squad (and probably money too) it's hard to pass up the opportunity of loaning a player of SWP's calibre. I wouldn't be disappointed with his signature, but I'd see it as a gamble. Perhaps with our problems lying in different areas we would do better to concentrate on other positions and keep the wingers we have.

I believe the majority of our money simply must be spent on defence. The fact that Huntington and Edgar are now regular first-teamers highlights that there is a desperate need for funding in this area. If any more drop out we could be turning to the youth team and throwing 16 year old kids in. If we go and blow all our money on a striker we will be in big problems at the back come May. Even our best available back four isn't anywhere near good enough, but in Solano, Taylor and Given I believe we have the makings of a good defence. What we need is an experienced top drawer defender to play alongside Taylor and a decent LB. That doesn't mean we can afford not to bring in a striker. But if we're prioritising, then defence must come first and then a cheap/loan striker. I believe the lion's share of money (be it now or in summer) should go on a centre back, followed by a left back and then a striker.

Wow sure its the sort of lad you would want here. after reading that im a lil scared whether a good thing to get him. Hear he is quite rated, admittedately aint seen alot of him but not the typical centre half would expect especially EPL in my eyes anyhoo. Though not generally injury prone, he's been injured during all but the last of those games. Although that didn't stop them getting hammered 4-0 by Sevilla. He's a rock of a defender, a leader and he can play the ball out of defence, and at 28 a good age in terms of experience. He's just one suggestion and he wouldn't be cheap but I believe he's the type of defender we need right now.

Statistics can be used to prove anything, 62% of all people know that.

Thing is Blackburn are also looking after their own interests and may decide to cash in on Neill now before he walks away for nothing. If we sit around waiting for summer there's a very high chance someone will buy these players this month, leaving us empty handed. If he is available in summer he'll be expecting a signing on fee and his agent will play clubs off against each other. My guess is that would be a six figure sum, not far off what we'd pay to buy him now. In August we played a game of brinkmanship and lost spectacularly, I don't see this month as the time for pissing about and I would hope we get our targets signed up this time.

We took that chance in August and look where it got us, we began the season with 6 senior defenders and now we're fielding untried kids. It's not a chance we can afford to take again in my book. Three and a half months has left our defence in tatters. This season doesn't end until May. Players on free contracts usually command higher fees and wages because there is a glut of clubs negotiating for them. Can you imagine Ballack's bank account after his move to Chelsea. Yet if you lay your money on the table and bid for them in January you are competing with far fewer clubs and in some cases you can even steal a march on your rivals. I would hazard a guess that there are players we can poach now who we couldn't poach in summer.

My understanding of it is that players on pre-contract agreements usually command a hefty signing on fee and hefty wages because they have the pick of quite a few clubs. Liverpool and others would be after Neill and Distin would also have quite a few suitors. There's also the possibility, of course, that somebody else snaps them up in the last few days of January leaving us with nothing once more. We played that waiting game in August and it blew up in our faces, let's not do it again...

If this season leaves us little to play for then we have an opportunity to get new signings accustomed by giving them 10, 12, 15 Premiership games. That's a hell of a lot better than a few pre-season friendlies, and stands them in much better stead for next season. I can't name players because I don't watch much football outside of the Premiership, and even within the Premiership I'd be lying if I said I watched many non-Newcastle games other than highlights. Who would have suggested Vidic a year ago? I know I knew nothing about him. It is up to our scouts to find this sort of player. I'd rather we got a quality left back and/or centre back in now and give them half a season to adjust, I'd feel a lot more confident about them succeeding next season.

Vidic too, forgot about that. What a bargain. If we're serious about making next season one to remember then we would do well to get the players in now, while they're fully fit, and give them games.

I don't believe this season is a write off by any means but the need for a defender is urgent, and if we're going to strenghten then we should do it properly. Players are a bit more expensive in January but we're going to have to bite the bullet at some point. Sometimes you face more competition for a player in summer because others have thought along the same lines as you and have earmarked more money for the summer window. We can't compete with the biggest clubs anyway but sometimes you can steal a march by putting up the money in January. Also, as Optimistic Nut has pointed out, a player bought in January has time to settle with his teammates, ready for the new season (such as Evra for Man Utd). I'd like to see us test Depor with a bid for Andrade. They are in a bit of a crisis now, in their last 5 games they have conceded 14 goals and scored 1.

Notice they've released this story on his birthday. Even if it were true I'd be very annoyed if we were to sell a bright young prospect and current first-teamer for a 25-year old who isn't doing anything at the moment and shortchange ourselves severely in the process. SWP may be the bigger name but he's overvalued because of his status as a Chelsea and England squad player. Milner has 4 years on him and this season he is the player putting in decent performances. As for Milner's lack of goals, SWP hasn't scored a league goal in his last 40 appearances, all while playing for the league champions.

Sounds like a nonsense article.

Beattie or Viduka, who would you choose? Neither. There are plenty of strikers out there. Before everyone asks me to name them, I'm not paid to find these people, but I do know that every year other clubs find them.

Beattie is as much a proven failure as he is a proven success. He's one who could go either way and for the money it would take to bring him here I'm not sure it's worth it. I've even seen one or two people on here suggest he has time to improve, yet he turns 29 next month! I think his best days are definitely behind him. You have to ask yourself why he's just not getting games for Everton. If we go for Beattie I get the feeling it is because he is available and English, rather than as a result of careful scouting to find someone who would slot nicely into our gameplay. Let's face it, we've unearthed very few gems and made very few inspired buys in recent years.

None of us knows what has gone on behind the scenes or even how they really ended up at West Ham but I find it a bit suspicious the lack of opportunities either player has had, particularly Mascherano who doesn't even make the bench these days. There is definitely more to this than meets the eye.

there is only one south american that springs to mind that havent been a failure! There's been a few, but you could probably count them on one hand. Juninho, Solano, Heinze, Asprilla spring to mind as players who have excelled here.

I had a feeling they may fail spectacularly simply because south americans have a very poor record in England. However, I think they also haven't been given a fair chance either. My mate is a big west ham fan and is very frustrated at the lack of opportunities. It may have something to do with the complicated nature of their transfer and the fact the club was then bought out by a different owner.

Ever since he got a few meaningless caps for England people have started talking about Luke Young as if he's a decent player. He's not. Zat Knight and numerous others got caps under Eriksson, it doesn't mean anything.