Wullie

Good question. When does jurisdiction switch from one governing body to the other?

Very good summation of what I think too.

Craig Gardner, while at Villa: “I signed for Villa when I was 15 and since then these have been the best days of my life. I’m a Villa fan. “I’ve come through the ranks and nothing can be better. I used to be on the Holte End. I was there when we beat Tranmere in the League Cup semi-final. "I was at the game when Mark Bosnich saved the penalty and we all ran on to the pitch so it’s come from that. When I was watching Villa as a kid there were people like Garry Parker, Dalian Atkinson and Paul McGrath. "They were all brilliant. I used to sing their names and now I look at the crowd and they’re chanting my name so it’s great.” Craig Gardner upon signing for Birmingham: “Having played for the Villa everyone thinks I’m a Villa fan but I’m a Bluenose. I have been all my life. I was a mascot at John Frain’s testimonial. “But I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. People who know me, my close friends and family, they all know I’m a Blues fan. As they say: ‘once a blue, always a blue’.”

Try to avoid whenever possible. Usually accurate up to when whoever was meticulously logging them got bored. Doesn't differentiate between substitute appearances either.

Good post from TT there, fair points.

There's some similarly aged Turkish players in that squad with low cap counts who would stroll into our starting XI. Nuri Sahin made his debut in 05 (3 years before Erding opted for Turkey) and has only played 26 times. He's just joined Real Madrid. Fair play.

Not at all, but I can only go on what I hear. I've never seen Joe from the Dog and Duck either but I wouldn't want us signing him to play up front. My main worry about Ba is his knee, not his ability, and putting stuff in his contract about appearances won't help us one bit if he breaks down in September. We've had enough crocks but I hope he plays every minute. I absolutely love having an ultra-dependable physical specimen like Coloccini, it makes for a much more solid team. I'd be more than happy if these two were complimented by a striker with a proven track record and yet potential to improve.

Assuming they all perform and Ba's knee doesn't pop after a week... You could say that first bit about just about any signing ffs. What are you expecting us to get, a 20 goal a season striker? They're few and far between and cost about £25 million a pop - at a bare minimum. Well yeah, but you can say it with a bit more authority if his knee is dodgy to the point it'll fail a medical. Might as well table a double bid for King and Woodgate on that logic (see what I did there?). Even Dan Gosling passed a medical. We should be looking to improve on Andy Carroll imo. And he cost us nowt.

Assuming they all perform and Ba's knee doesn't pop after a week...

Have to wonder why he doesn't get in a pretty poor Turkish squad.

Still passed his medical though. It takes a pretty big problem to fail a medical like, given the players we've signed (and sold) that have subsequently barely managed to get on a football pitch. I can only assume those who say they aren't even slightly concerned about resting our main goal hopes on a player with a very dodgy knee (Ba himself admits it is not 100% and never will be and typically only plays half the games in a season in recent years) are just being deliberately obtuse. What about Erdinc? Wouldn't know him if he slapped me in the face tbh. His statistical record doesn't look fantastic in a relatively poor league and it's a bit worrying that he doesn't seem to get in the Turkish side (or even the bench) ahead of Colin Kazim Richards or Tuncay but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Fairly uninspiring though, would you not agree, given the money at our disposal and our current striking options?

Still passed his medical though. It takes a pretty big problem to fail a medical like, given the players we've signed (and sold) that have subsequently barely managed to get on a football pitch. I can only assume those who say they aren't even slightly concerned about resting our main goal hopes on a player with a very dodgy knee (Ba himself admits it is not 100% and never will be and typically only plays half the games in a season in recent years) are just being deliberately obtuse.

With £35m burning a hole in our pocket? Never seen Erdinc play but I must admit when Carroll left, I expected him to be replaced by more than a free transfer with a history of failing medicals. Didn't you? I always thought buying a quality striker would be the hardest part of the jigsaw. Noticeable that no one is mentioning any credible alternatives to the players we've targeted so far. Not really seeing as nobody on here, to my knowledge, is a highly paid scout.

I agree. But not as a replacement for a £35m player, and not if he has a chronic knee injury as has been suggested by two clubs who have examined him.

The only team Shearer managed to beat was a team still in danger of going down on the final day. Sounds very familiar to me, apart from the fact Shearer had about 7 games rather than more than half a season.

With £35m burning a hole in our pocket? Never seen Erdinc play but I must admit when Carroll left, I expected him to be replaced by more than a free transfer with a history of failing medicals. Didn't you?

If we're being honest he actually has very little respect, hence being bombed out at shit clubs like West Ham, Charlton and Southampton.

Honestly man. God forbid anyone should have an opinion on our manager. There's enough of you quick enough to slag off Alan fucking Shearer like he's just taken a shit on your car, and Chris Hughton, and Kevin Keegan. When did this prick become sacrosanct?

That's not a sensible way to conduct transfer activity imo. I'd rather just get the best now rather than hoping a second best turns up on the off chance after three games. And I thought Pardew wasn't anything to do with transfers?

I think he'll do a sterling job. Hope he does and can eventually come back here instead of that clown we've ended up with.

Let's buy Darren Bent tbh.

This is a false dichotomy though Jonny. Nobody has ever said we should spend money for the sake of it but if you get your targets for £10m cheaper than you originally planned, the attitude should be "What can we improve with this extra £10m?", not "Get in, saved a few quid there". By the same token, we shouldn't settle for second best. If Ba is the very best we can do, fair enough. Is he? With that money? With his knees? Happy for him to come in but not as our big hope. I also don't agree that we should be "pushing for a top 8/10 place" given that if the season had finished five minutes earlier, we would have been 9th. If we're going to target anything but winning the league (don't laugh), it should be Liverpool and Spurs, certainly Everton. With £35m + the money that a Premiership club of 50k attendances turns over and should be using for transfers on a regular basis, I don't see that as an unrealistic achievement.

Getting good players in for free or cheap is not an excuse not to spend money, it should be the catalyst to get even better players than them and improve the squad greatly, rather than marginally improve the first team. My prediction: Shola, Best and Lovenkrands will still play at least ten games each.

Things don't look good to me. If we are replacing an England number 9 from Tyneside with a free transfer from the worst team in the division then that is very concerning. I'm all for Ba coming in but we also need a genuine top class striker. A 20 goal guarantee.

Absolutely hate seeing Man United, Liverpool etc shirts round Newcastle, especially on kids. Social services issue tbh.