toontownman

He is an absolute animal, never stops running either. If Tiote can't get back to form with Cabs, Anita and Sissoko around him he never will. Our options in midfield look great.. not sure what this means for the likes of Bigi and Amalfitano who fancied himself in the centre. Get the feeling the latter will be peddled in the summer. I hope not though, bedding in period must be nearly over though? Abeid has to go out on loan. Don't know what to think of Gosling. He has yet to impress me at all in any of the games he has played. He does have the knack of getting into goal scoring spaces but he has looked slow and off the pace when has played, mainly due to returning from injury maybe. Can see Abeid, Gosling and Amalfitano leaving in the summer.

Blatantly my new avatar if he signs. http://www.ladepeche.fr/content/photo/biz/2009/10/02/200910020525_w350.jpg

This guy is an absolute animal. Pace and power but fantastic skill and technique. If we get Tiote back on track a pairing of those two would make any team fill their underwear. Stunned we look to be getting him at this price he is worth four times this amount at least. Fingers crossed this all goes through.

Fingers crossed looks like he is staying.. but we should know tomorrow. Hopefully we have spent the week assessing targets if that does happen. Either way will need replacing in the summer. If he is playing on Tuesday I hope the fans give him lots of loving.

I think it's unlikely but also not unrealistic. The prices for players in January might be less expensive than the Summer when no doubt they will be inflated because of the new TV deal. Gouffran is more of a replacement for Best/Lovenkrands meaning Ba has still not been replaced. Whether MA agrees with this or opens his wallet yet again is another matter. If the price is right I could see this happening, we scouted him a lot before his move to Portugal. I am sure we are also looking at doing the same with Aubemayeng though who would surely be the preference for his versatility. Obviously we wont get rid of Shola. But we need four decent strikers.. Cisse, Gouffran and two more makes sense for next September. Campbell wont be ready. Ranger and Xisco are done, really you would hope Shola would be too. RVW and Cisse can play similar roles but might also work together, Aubemayeng and Gouffran could fit into the side in several different places. So we would be nicely covered.

Belting news. Exactly what we have been missing. Now all efforts into a Ba replacement, if we can get one! Time for St. Etienne to accept our low ball offer..

His agent has already been on Tyneside for pre-contract talks. It will already be sorted. Was that confirmed or just paper predictions that the agent would be here?

Massive signing if we can pull this off. Will give us exactly what we are missing in the middle.

Like the player exchange idea.. never a goer, but I like it.

Not exactly bothered. There were more cliques before.. if anything this makes things better! Its down to the coaches and staff to ensure English is spoken on the training ground and that players work with each other not within their social groups. It makes little difference imo as long as we are consistent in how everyone works. Obviously I would like more English players but when you can get equal or greater players for less than half of the going English rate why the hell wouldn't you. Its down to the English market to use some common sense if they want to stop choking the development of young English players and the national team. Not helping anyone at the moment.

Just seen the Hazard incident. What a pair of bellends. Kid should be banned from ever being a ball boy and Hazard rightly will get more than a red in terms of suspension. Crazy all round. WWE quality acting there from the ball boy. Why the hell he didn't release the ball I will never know.

Regardless of his exemplary past, walking out on us without coming clean during a relegation fight and whilst he is captain is still 'Owen'ish. If I cheated on my partner especially when she is in poor health, my past loyalty counts for nothing. Why should it be different for footballers and Colo. Appreciate what he has done for us in the past by all means, but if he walks out on us now, call a spade a spade. He'd be leaving us in the s*** and deserves no respect A job is a little bit different to a relationship though..although I can see the parallel to how we view him to us. A job is a job at the end of the day, he is going to be retired in 3 years, his wife and kids are with him for life, there is more to life than football especially now he is in his 30's. I agree it doesn't sound unreasonable for him to stay until the summer, but we also don't know the full details, and until we do its pointless and to be fair a little insulting berating probably our most professional player over the past four years. The club obviously deem it serious enough to have these meetings. If was trivial we wouldn't have gone to all this trouble. Happy enough to call him a cunt like if the rumors are true though!

All a bit FUBAR this situation. Either way, properly shocked at the way some people are reacting to this and talking about Colo. Regardless of what he does now he has been a great servant of the club and I don't begrudge him a move now, especially if there is a decent reason for it. I certainly don't like the fact he wants to go and the timing, but some things are more important than football, he only wants to return home, which puts us in a bad position if the other team can't pay for him. We are certainly entitled to get some kind of compensation as a club but things are obviously a lot less clear cut than anyone on here knows. He isn't going to turn into another Michael Owen or like because Colo stuck with us through relegation and brought us up to fourth last season and has been a role model for everyone. We have no reason to doubt his professionalism on past evidence, deserves better than some of the comments on here imo. A quick question, rant aside. If we have turned down his request to leave, what happens if he just fucks off to Argentina anyway. We can fine him his wages until he returns but can we fine him more for compensation?

For me Sissoko is as important as another striker. We dont have anyone that can surge through the middle or even take the game by the scruff of the neck, which was clearest watching Fellani who was the difference maker when we played Everton. Cabaye was considered a box to box player but I think his preference or at least his instructions have been to sit deeper and create. Sissoko could do either role and is an accomplished box to box player. We could play him deep and push Cabaye forward or vice versa. He is also as strong as an ox so would give us some great physical presence behind the strikers. I think we are still very much in the market for another striker..but only on the proviso that our perceived price is accepted. Otherwise we will limp on to the summer. Not fully convinced we will get Sissoko yet, but fingers crossed, signs look good.

Hopefully.. Would make a fantastic week!

Blatantly grasping at straws, will probably sell both. They don't have any choice but to sell him us at whatever we offer. I'd expect it to drag on a few days or even a week so they can save some face, then it will be an undisclosed fee.

Only revenge if they refuse to let him sign after he has flown over and met up and undergone a medical.

Sissoko if all goes to plan makes four.

Yeah saw it yesterday, good listen that!

High possibility if either side loses it will cost the manager their job.

or today is Wednesday?

Happy for the lad, getting some great experience down there. Good news for us, come the end of the season he and Tavs are going to have to fight it out to the death to replace Williamson.

Has to stay until the end of the season. There is no elegant or graceful way of leaving other than that.

Tbf... Toulouse need to take what they can get right now. They have upset the player and told him he will be benched for the remainder of the season. Either they take the measly sum of money or pay more than that for his wages and have an unhappy player on their hands. They don't have much choice tbh.

Cant wait to see him in the starting line up in March, after Pardew has bedded him in on the bench for a month or so.