Slugsy

Every game he looks better and better, even at left back which is not his best position. He's going to be a real class performer! Great news!

I think Shola is the classic example of where you can be tall and still sh*t at heading the ball!

I'm delighted that we have finally addressed our defence properly, dissappointed in nobby going though as he was a very creative player and would have been excellent to have on the bench to bring on if we were struggling to break a team down. But all in all, its a day to celebrate as finally Carr is not our first choice right back!

Totally agree

What a pathetic comment. Man City have rode their luck and I'm sure that SGE wouldn't say that they're the finished article. It takes time to build a squad, a team, for the players to learn what the manager wants of them, and for the manager to get to know the capabilities of his squad. Totally disagree, they look very good to me but where did I say they are the finished article? They have a load of new, foreign players who are playing very well together and plaudits have to be given to the manager - my comment was a FACT - 3 wins out of 3 - not supposition - unlike your comment that they have rode their luck.

I think we will get there and its not a bad start. However, I don't buy into the excuse that there are new players needing time to gel - Man City have a load of new folk and they don't seem to have any problems.

Solid but distinct lack of pace and flair. We will do well away from home with that type of football but more creativity is needed and two full backs are critical im my opinion - on the left to allow Zoggy to play in his best role and on the right to give some attacking support to Milner/an.other as Carr offers no attacking presence. We will get better but I don't buy the fact that some folk are making the excuse that players haven't played together - hasn't stopped Man City for example. Got to win our home games, that is the bread and butter for a good league place.

Play your wilcard pal I've played mine already,had a shocking team. Im now chuffed with: Milner Fabregas Bentley Malouda Arteta Van Persie Martins Think I will, I'll look into it tonight, that or I'll get about 4 points for the next 3 weeks, particulalry as Darren Bent, my main striker is having a mare!

Disaster, I have Dawson (doubtful), Carvahlo (injured), Essien (doubtful) and Ronaldo (suspended) in my bl**dy squad! This is worse than our injury record!

I'm still on the direct debit scheme for cup games, you know that is going to be a total circus!!

This

Bloody Essien being injured combined with us and Liverpool not playing is a total disaster!!!

Where are people coming up with the idea that the £6m for Smith comprises our entire transfer fund? I don't think it's that tbh. It's just that £6m can be spent better elsewhere, regardless of how big the budget is. It's entirely possible that they have other targets identified and would still like to spend £6m on Smith. Just because we need defenders doesn't mean that every penny in the kitty has to be devoted to them. Nor does it mean that if we spend £6m on Smith and then fail to attract the defenders that we wanted to, that we blew all of our money on Smith. Allardyce isn't Roeder. He's harped on all summer about the necessity to bring defenders in, so he's not about to think "Ah f*** it, let's have Alan Smith instead" is he? Perhaps I'm being pessimistic and starting to believe that we don't have very much cash. If it is the case that we are signing Smith plus a load of defenders then brilliant but the noises so far from Allardyce haven't given me any confidence that this is the case.

Doesn't make sense unless its the following: Sell Martins for £13m Buy Smith for £6m Buy defenders for £7m Not sure I agree with that but its the only way I can make sense of buying Smith.

TBH I think they found loads of unpaid gregg invoices stuffed down the sofa in the chairmans office! That probably amounts to the the debt of a third world country!

Didn't he do the deal to buy the club overnight or something? Not a chance, have you seen Mort's CV? The guy is a top class M&A advisor, there is absolutely no way he would have advised Ashely to spend £133m without getting access to the books and being able to ascertain the debt position of the business. Given that it was an all cash deal, there wouldn't have been the pressure from a bank to get DD done but it would be truly amazing if he hadn't ascertained what the enterprise value of the business was before purchasing it. Totally agree, the club was a PLC for heavens sake, there could be nothing "hidden" that wasn't in the accounts and therefore available for Ashley's team to see before he swooped. The strategic review is probably more about restructuring debt etc. rather than discovering more invisible debt. Indeed, I was chatting to a contact at the incumbent bank who was working on the re-financing of the core debt of the business before Ashley took it over. At that time, he estimated that it would free up about £30m of cash which was supposedly going to be given to the manager. This re-financing was shelved when Ashley took over and I believe the debt is going to be 'auctioned' which will take some time to beauty parade banks and may be affecting our ability to deal in the transfer market. I have heard that pretty much everything is being reviewed and put out to 'tender', all of which takes time - time we clearly don't have at the moment.

Didn't he do the deal to buy the club overnight or something? Not a chance, have you seen Mort's CV? The guy is a top class M&A advisor, there is absolutely no way he would have advised Ashely to spend £133m without getting access to the books and being able to ascertain the debt position of the business. Given that it was an all cash deal, there wouldn't have been the pressure from a bank to get DD done but it would be truly amazing if he hadn't ascertained what the enterprise value of the business was before purchasing it.

What a load of bollocks, Mort and Ashley have bought businesses before, they clearly had due diligence performed on the business, if they didn't know what the debt position was of the business before they bought it then they are not fit to be running a hot dog stand let alone a PLC or a football club!

Ginola was superb for at least one season at Tottenham, arguably his best year in England. Won Player of the Year. Beat me to it!

Fair point, but he's one I have a lot of hope for under better management. Hopefully, I still feel this is the perfect time to find a more 'playmaker' type midfielder - if there is one of course and I'm not sure there is. Emre's final ball has been very poor since he came here, Barton is more a box to box type player, Butt is a defensive midlfielder and I'm not quite sure what Geremi would be in the centre. I don't think its the end of the world but I still feel with our injury record that we will end up being short of quality if we don't get someone else in.

Carr should only play if we've got nothing else for that position. This

People seem to forget how ineffective Emre has been since he came here - I would say with the Barton injury in particular, we desperately need another midfielder.

Ameobi was at the cinema on Monday night and the guy looked in a serious amount of discomfort, he could hardly walk, I aint kidding - don't know what his injury is but it didn't look like something he will bounce back from quickly.

From the Manchester Evening News report of Wigan's friendly at Blackpool on Wednesday: "...confusion in defence saw new signing Titus Bramble hand Blackpool an equaliser."

Sorry if this sounds negative but just because Shepherd has left doesn't mean I am celebrating just yet. Mr Mort is a M&A lawyer, with no actual experience or running any business whatesoever let alone a football club which is infinetely different from anything he has done in the past. So far since Ashley took over full control and placed Mort in charge we have spent zero in the transfer market, which could be for many reasons, but clearly one of them as Allardyce has stated is that the new Board have been too slow. I'm not saying we won't spend any money or it won't turn out well, I do think the whoo ha and celebrations for this guy coming in are a little premature as so far he has said little and delivered nowt. You could argue that he hasn't had much time but that's one of the dynamics of running a football club, you don't have much time, particularly in the transfer market. We may be run far more efficiently and prudently in the future but whether that actually means we have a improved playing squad remains very much to be seen. So far any improvements in this football club have come by way of Allardyce, I await some actual tangible action from Mort and Co with baited breath.....