midds

Indeed. Neil Taylor will be his replacement at about £2million. I dont buy this nonsense that we-want- Taylor-but-not-as-first-choice fairy tale for a second. He'll be coming as Jose's replacement and the majority of the money will disappear into the all consuming black hole where the Carroll money went. Buy low, sell high. Quite how low we'll buy when we sell low too remains to be seen...

We may as well get some players involved in the deal because I don't believe we'll spend even half the cash we get for him on his replacement.

Thought it was common knowledge. That's the figure that's been bandied about or the last few years. My point wouldn't change if it was only £30k a week tbh.

How do you arrive at that conclusion? He does nothing to earn his money. He does nothing to suggest he's prepared to sacrifice his massive wage to actually further his career. The fact he's on about £50k a week isn't his fault but he appears to be milking the cub for every penny he can whilst foregoing his career. What about asking for a transfer? Making money appears to be far more important than playing football for him.

Need to bite the bullet and get him out of the club. Clearly got no future here and is taking the piss. Move him on to whoever is daft enough to take him.

One in, one out. If Bridge comes in then I'd be 99% certain Enrique is on the way out.

Bellamy also broke his leg whilst at Norwich and for £6m he was a bit of a gamble at the time. 6 goals at Coventry the season before we bought him.

We shouldn't be going anywhere near Bridge. He's the exact signing we shouldn't be making.

After having trawled through the last few pages I'm going to suggest a few people put Wearside on their 'ignore' list. He's clearly getting under the skin of a few of you, whether he means to or not. Just a thought...

Can't see the logic of us bringing Bridge up here or him wanting to come up here tbh.

So he did. My mistake.

20 bites.

The number 9 should go to the primary striker at the club. At the moment, even though he's not kicked a ball for us, I'd give it to Ba.

Joey Pie-ton.

Honestly think the length of the contract is more important than the actual wedge. Not that the contract (if there is one?) will get signed due to general stubbornness and a lack of compromise.

I reckon it's a genuine 3 horse race next season. Mancini had just about cracked it in the second half of last season and a lot of the players (Dzeko and Ballotelli for example) are surely going to be stronger this time out. How they'd get round, set up another company to pay the wages or something like that? He mentioned it a while ago, I'll try to dig it out but they've basically found a loophole. Can't remember what thread it was though. I asked him to expand a bit at the time but I'm not sure he did.

Why would Larsson and Gardner ensure that when they were part of a Birmingham side that went on a similarly dismal run? I'd love for somebody on here to put together a genuine explanation as to why Larsson and Gardner are well rated on this board. I particularly went out of my way to watch more of Larsson in the backend of last season and I simply don't understand why he is highly rated. One paced, not the best technically and his set-piece crossing ability is so overstated it is untrue. Gardner on the other hand is even more confusing to me. What the hell do people see in him? He's not got great technique, not got any real vision or passing range. His apparent quality is that he has a good goalscoring record, but before last season it was nothing special. He scores goals because he picks up the ball and shoots as often as possible without much thought or intelligence. He's worse than average. This going to come across like even more anti-Sunderland bias but it really isn't. I was hostile in another thread towards re-signing Ireland, yet I'd much, much, MUCH rather sign Stephen Ireland than either of these players. That's how little I rate them. I'm not saying they'll be outstanding or anything like but they're decent payers. They've bulked out their squad and will have a decent season with their decent, solid, unspectacular, workmanlike players. If they can keep Gyan fit and supply him then they'll do ok. If he breaks a leg or snaps an Achilles then they're fucked though.

Yup, the signings scream of consolidation but not major progress. It is quite depressing though, taking away the fact they're your enemies, that the realistic 'best' a team can aim for is 9th. Things just seem like more and more of a closed shop as days go by. Man. U Chelsea Man. City Arsenal (looking dodgy though if they lose Fab & Nasri etc) Spurs Liverpool The rest of the pack from here on. 7th is the best the rest can hope for currently. Everton would be a decent bet for 7th, ourselves, Sunderland, Bolton, Fulham Stoke and Villa will make up 7th to 13th with the order completely up in the air. The rest will be battling to stay up from the first game.

Another decent player tbh. Their signings aren't good enough to push them on to the next level but they definitely are good enough to make sure they don't go for 3 or 4 months without a win during a season like has happened last season. And the one before that. They've got 9th written all over them.

Got a feeling that City are going to have a real go at both the League and the Champions League this season. They've won their first pot and they'll want to push on and make an impact in Europe too. Signing players like Nasri to bulk out the top end with quality is exactly what they need to do to be able to rest players to keep them fresh for when they're needed. I'm sure Village Idiot mentioned a few weeks ago that Barca had already found a way around the new turnover legislation stuff coming in and I'm sure City will somehow manage to wangle things so they can still pay top dollar for new players. Their bubble isn't bursting just yet so we may as well get used to it...

Someone said that. There isn't one, he says. I that case he'll walk next May. Wonder where he washes up?

#signthefuckingdealthen

JIDONGWON Fine. They're relying on Gyan, Wickham, the Korean lad and Sessegnon. They've got about 40 PL starts between them! How many do ours have? That's a fair point. I think Ba will do ok though. Ameobi has generally chipped in (somehow) with 6 or 7. Best will get a few as will Lovenkrands. I also think we've got more goals in our midfield, particularly Ben Arfa, than them.

JIDONGWON Fine. They're relying on Gyan, Wickham, the Korean lad and Sessegnon. They've got about 40 PL starts between them!

He's a good player and will get better with experience. His value is only going one way but I still don't think he's what they need right now. It's more of an investment than anything else. They've only got one fit striker - Gyan and now Wickham. Sessegnon could fill in I suppose but after that it's the kids. That's a hell of a gamble to rely on those 3 to score the goals.