Kanj

Back line should honestly be un-changed -- Colo and MYM need to continue to build that understanding together. he should bring in Dummett in and having either Santon or Debuchy playing RB. Midfield should still be Anita and Sissoko central to further build their partnership, with Marv/Gosling or Vuc playing ACM. I'd also consider starting Cisse and Gouffran with Sammy out wide.

You need to show them you should be here more like the f***ing cretin. I wonder if he'll pick a balanced side to give them half a chance this time? Usually he just chucks them all in together to sink or swim with even less regard given to shape or players natural strengths. Didn't most of them show they didn't have it last year?

Honestly wish Monaco or PSG had come for him earlier in the summer, threw some outlandish cash out and he left so I'd have a better feeling about him - was a player who was one of my favorites for us and now that positive feeling is dwindling by the day/week. Shame.

It'll be nice to see Remy runs at defenders with the ball - something very few of our players do, successfully - esp our strikers.

bein sport play (their online site) has it but you'd have to have a provider who actually carries...AT&T does not.

I think it's a trust problem. When Ashley has left people to their own devices it's come back to bite him in the arse in some way. - Allows Allardyce to sign players he wants, ends up stuck with utter rubbish on high wages - Lets Chris Mort set up a "system", ends up with the manager quitting (rightly) with the others in the system completely despised by the fans and s*** at their jobs - Gets Llambias to run the club, despised by the fans, extremely hesitant in the transfer market to the point that Ashley apparently has to step in to push through purchases in January, fails completely to increase non-football revenues & signs a sponsorship contract that pisses off everyone I don't know if Pardew was Ashley's mate before getting the job or Llambias' mate. If it was the latter then it's another reason that Ashley might not trust people to do their jobs, if it's the former then it's probably why he's still here despite being demonstrably out of his depth. For some bizarre reason it looks like he trusts JFK hence why he keeps turning to him despite him being a lunatic. Ultimately Ashley's either going to have to bite the bullet and find someone to run the club that he doesn't know and initially trust but who can actually do the job and who knows how football works or he's going to have to be a lot more hands-on in running the club. I think you're very close to the mark. Generally in his business dealings he works with people who he has known from the very start, or has known over time and promoted. It's clearly a fkn nightmare getting people in he feels comfortable with, and then when he does they turn out to have gained his trust by basically bullshitting just how good they are in a field he knows practically sod all about. I saw Sir John Hall on TV the other day for the unveiling of the gates & thought he's exactly what the club needs at this point, Ashley should beg him to come in and run things, then I realised that Ashley hates him and Shepherd for not disclosing some of the debts that needed to be repaid when the club was sold, etc. Sir John is 80 now and has Prostate cancer - there is NO way he could run the club now and after he stepped down as Chairman for health reasons in 1997, there were plenty of people who were prepared to rubbish his contribution by saying he only did it for the money..... Would YOU want all that again at 80....?? He was, and remains, the best Chairman/owner that NUFC have ever had and we will be lucky to get anyone similar in the foreseeable future. Remind me, who was it that sold the club to Ashley, and told us he was the best man for the job He like many (all) of us saw a great business opportunity coupled with what he thought was an ambitious owner man. Give the fuck over if you think Sir John would ever have OK' selling the club to Mike Ashley if he was able to forsee how its gone on since then.

The worst part of this summer is the fact we had some renewed optimism at end of season that we'd possibly have a new manager. That didn't happen, we hired Kinnear and all hopes of fixing the errors all but left us. At least last summer we were off bat of 5th place, hopefull of signings, and beat Spurs. This is nightmarish man.

Is he within contention for Fulham? Desperately need him out there.

Oh God, devastating. Then the exact same thing in Euro 2004.

WC 98 was fucking class too man. Brilliant cup. Maybe nostalgia but haven't thought a cup was as good as 94 and 98. I'll mix in 96 Euros and say that was a brilliant era football and my favorite time.

What a cup man. Madness how Enland didn't make it. That Baggio penalty still kills me for some reason. My USA team had those ridiculous uniforms too

Maldini, Shearer, Baggio. Not sure which was the truly first- but I obviously followed Shearer to Newcastle and the rest is history.

Get him a striker capable of trapping and holding up play with good link up skills and his deep runs will pay off. We instantly lose the ball if given to Cisse when he's being covered and opposition counters and we're left exposed because Debuchy and Santon are pushed up as well.

Belgium, Italy, Holland...any country that's not France after this summer

I watched that video way too many times in a row. Dont. Know. Why.

I'd take him for sure. Wish that Cabaye would have gone earlier in the window as I was hoping we would have gone after Belhanda. I'll take Gourcuff and Gomis for sure, but hoping we'd really go after a Sinclair and/or Tom Ince.

Still love beating them/hate losing to them, but during Redknapp's tenure was the pinnacle of my dislike for them. They/We may have had a shit match but we beat them on the opening match of last season as well. Things have changed massively since then.

From what I can gather and hypothesize, he's doing the absolute best hes capable of in terms of operating the scouting within a very strict and confined criteria. His job as scout to research and find talent is top notch, I think the role of the manager has been minimized so much here that at other clubs - a manager would identify if the specific player can adapt and fit into this league and/or team - which is something I'm not sure Pardew has much say in OR has clearly failed and hasn't a clue how to identify that.

I guess I opened up a can of worms calling it "The Graham Carr Experiment" ... Great talent spotter and contact(s) man who's suggestions were not properly filtered by ensuring they'd fit together in a given system or team. This is compounded with a poor manager who has no skill-set to build a team nor does he have that remit as manager of this club. The talent that has eventually been signed have been watered down to region & contract issues that were then poorly managed/developed by Alan Pardew and the coaching staff. I wonder...would be nice to see Graham Carr's FULL list of players - I'd imagine most of them were filtered out as too expensive from transfer fee & wage requests.

Tragedy

Like this idea, but Levy vs Ashley would never work. That could be a goer tbh, he's been underwhelming. Can't see him going for less than what he cost us though... Next! Spurs make me proper jealous - everything about their hire of AVB and moving the club forward has been great. HP as sponsor, excellent signings, young & exciting manager. Hell man. Really think with that cash injection and few more signings they could make a real title challenge. Fucking hell we were neck & neck with Spurs not too long ago.

Pastore + Sakho. No fee needed.

Is there a reason you left out Remy? Or just saying if we sign Gomis now and Remy is still out with his injury?

Well said