James

We are safe. We were minutes away from a Europe-o-meter, but now it will just be midtableness

I hope Coloccini and Enrique both have two sons who go on to play for us. Coloccini Coloccini Enrique Enrique

Coming back from the injury he had he's only going to get better, so can't really judge him based on a few minutes. I look forward to seeing how he develops in the future, but have no expectations on him for this season. If he's shit this season, I'll accept the situation and then I'll wait to see what he is like next season after getting a good pre-season and run of games under his belt.

I think we just got consigned to mid table mediocrity today. We were minutes away from starting our challenge for a UEFA Cup place.

Two hours ago I'd be happy with it, but the circumstances are disappointing. Still, we can be more positive about it all than them once it settles down.

Kind of, he got injured, physio said he had to come off, he then tried to come back on but Pardew stopped him.

Yeah two mins later Bent runs across and shouts at the linesman and Webb does nothing.

This game definitely has a Dabizas feel to it.

Frenetic.

Coloccini has been fantastic.

Smith had admitted that he stopped playing up front because he couldn't turn around on his ankle. Well he needs to turn around in defensive midfield too. Basically putting him there means the defence can't pass to him as he can't turn around quickly so they are just going to hoof it.

I think many will echo this view with the concern about the money being re-invested in the squad. If it was under a different board, with the fee likely to be re-invested, would your view differ at all? In this window, no. There is simply no time.

As there would be less than two weeks left to find a goalscorer to replace him for the remainder of this season, I'd value him at £80m. That is the cost of us going down and struggling to get back up again.

I actually left Carroll in my Fantasy Football team imagining a scenario of it turning out that he was fit after all.

James Troisi?

We won't sell Carroll this month. There is no time to get a replacement for our goals and we would get relegated which would cost us more than we'd get from the sale of Carroll.

I am channelling all my positive thoughts into Shola.

Leon Best's full Premier League debut.

If Southampton is turning into a production line, we'd be better off just signing all their scouts and youth coaches and constructing a replica of their training complex.

I suspect the problem is this: All players we are interested in for the long term with the exception of Ben Arfa are good players who their clubs won't let go of unless they can get an adequate replacement which isn't likely to happen. We can put in a mega high transfer bid but we'd be better waiting until the summer for a better price. So we look at squad players, who we can get on the cheap. These are the Larssons and the Bothroyds. However because we don't want to blow the wage bill on squad players we are offering less than these players think they can get in the summer. So we are stuck in the middle really, unable to get what we want, and not in such a precarious position that we have to overspend for it.

I know this post will offend posters of a weak disposition, but I really hope that Shola sees out his entire career at the club, making the odd cameo here and there until he is 35. Would feel proud of him knowing he was with us from start to finish. We may have been great, we may have been shit, we may have been mediocre, but we always had Shola. Sending Shola on loan to Stoke City was probably one of the low points of KK's career, makes me sick seeing Shola in that strip. He may be shit, but he will always be and should always be our shit.

Suspect it is a panic buy. No-one good is usually available in January (although I'd have gone for Yakubu, we need another striker and Bothroyd is the best going. We will then sell Xisco, Lovenkrands and Best in the summer and bring in a couple of decent strikers. So next season: Carroll Van Wolfswinkel? Carlton Cole? Shola Bothroyd

I'm expecting a completely illogical performance.

They basically need the clear out we had when we got relegated. The mentality isn't there.