The College Dropout

How many league goals in 2013?

bad patch vs. sub-standard 18 months

Yep.

If we where to sign Long would we need Gomis? We would need someone capable of getting 20 goals but I don't think Gomis is that man. We need the option of at least one big striker who can hold the ball up. Apart from Shola we haven't got any other strikers who can do that. As I understand it, Gomis has those sort of attributes. Obviously there are no guarantees we will get Gomis. If we don't get Gomis we need a striker similar to him. In theory it shouldn't be too difficult to replace Shola with someone better. Long's not big but he's good at holding the ball up and challenging in the air. I like his all round game, link-up play, can play up top by himself.. not prolific but knows where the goal is.. However I feel Gouff has most of those attributes and could do it upfront. Would like us to sign an Ince type and try Gouff up top.

A more under appreciated player would be Totti. Who a lot of people would have behind Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and probably Zlatan too.

Best player ever on the counter from what i've seen. Flat track, playground bully it maybe but it's awesome to watch.

If he's the best player in our side, Deschamps has to take notes. Remy has forced his way in. Debuchy is now the confirmed first choice RB.

Tbf to Cisse. A lot of our goals come from outside the box. With HBA, Remy & Cabaye - they are very useful just outside the box, even if it's breaking the offside trap like Remy. Cisse doesn't understand the offside rule and is only decent outside the box on the volley.

Kevin Phillips had similar moments in the sun.

Remy seems to manage..... These excuses are getting boring now. Tbf the same people bemoaning chances now are the same people that bemoaned chance creation when Ba was scoring, when Ba left, when nobody was scoring. These people have made excuses for the lad close to 18 months. They will not stop now.

Disagree. Most football fans talk Maradona, Zidane, Cruyff in the same bracket if they've seen them play. Even in my own lifetime. Zlatan doesn't break into the top bracket for me. Zidane, Messi, Ronaldo, Cronaldo. IMO Zlatan's in the Ronaldinho, Rivaldo bracket for me.

Inexperienced mostly at top levels.

They are lacking a CB and ST. However, Cabaye is more talented than Arteta at least. Flamini too. But since they have both of them he's not really needed when they have bigger issues.

Yep. Braveheart performance again. Yellow card again. I like this Debuchy.

Not on tonights performance. Ronaldo is electrifying.

HBA & Marv missed a number of games due to injury and some of the younger lads went on loan. I remember Pardew saying he was going to drop Jonas against Villa then Marv got injured and Jonas made an excellent goal line block. I don't see Jonas coming into the first team when he's back at all.

No he's not man. Tiote, Santon & Sissoko are probably the players currently who have had a prolonged spell of poor form in recentish times who haven't been dropped. Everyone else (except Colo & Krul) gets dropped for poor form.

If you don't know why a side 20th in the Premier league wouldn't want to sign a 20 year old midfielder on loan that won't be there next season, then I have nothing more to say.

Was thinking that, not sure who their CMs are but he would surely get games. They need some strong characters who will be there next season.

If we where to sign Long would we need Gomis? We would need someone capable og getting 20 goals but I don't think Gomis is that man.

He's not a poacher. He gets very involved in the game. For a short lad he's pretty good in the air and holding it up. Runs the channels very well. Basically is great for a team and keeps the opposition CB's busy. Can play uptop on his own but ideally he would be next to someone capable of 15-25 goals. Although tbh we have Gouff who can do something similar.

Really like Shane Long, reminds me of Bellamy. His contract running out? He was signed for £5m only a couple years back.

That one is plain old hate expressed in racist language.

I'll tell you now. There not a friend of my that could post that type of thing about me and not receive a swift blow to the jaw. The lads not taking offence doesn't matter to me at all. They could be as dumb as Saylor for all I know. Or they could be great mates and have offensive banter between themselves.

I'm not saying Saylor is a racist. But some of the images in the picture kinda harken back to some of those sentiments (the gollywog-esque face, the random African). Now I don't believe for a second Saylor intentionally put it all together like that's not an excuse. People on here are attempting to excuse Saylor because he's an idiot and doesn't realise what he's done (and he clearly hasn't/doesn't realise).