buzza

favourite line up & boxing day present from Percy would be this: ----------------------Krul---------------------------- Debuchy-------Willo------Collo----------Santon BenArfa-----Sissoko------Anita--------Gouff --------------------Cabaye----------------- -----------------Remy------------------

1.5 to 2M tops. No way fatty genga puss is going to shell out more

How much do you reckon they'll splurge in jan? They need a creative centre midfielder, left back and centre back desperately... 40M?

Health & Happiness to everyone!

When Gnasher gets injured/suspended/shot they will suffer incredibly... Super dependant on him and he really is a class above everyone else in the league at the moment.

Thats the key caveat, we need to sign someone. 2 would probably do it, with no departures. If we do that I genuinely think that we can challenge for a CL place. Spurs will be dicked now, Chelsea not looking formiddable. Everton will be the key one Totally agree with the above. If we were a bit more positive and made three purchases in the window, the most important being a decent striker (shane long/Gomis/D Jong) we could surely challenge. Would make a hell of a statement to the players, really would gee them up. For me: Shane long (2m), Ince (3m), young centre back.

Would gut me if he left now! Ashley must know that if he "stars" in the world cup it will add an extra 10 million to his price tag...

I think it's clear for all that Pardew has improved significantly this season compared to last: A more positive outset in games, taking it to the opposition whilst harbouring enough caution not to lose easily The substitutions have won us games and have made sense instead of infuriating us (see last season) Not picking the "experienced" or favourites this term but picking the winning "team" With a decent target man or an upgrade on shola and we could actually have a scarily good team... Only downside is Ben-Arfa, but whilst we are winning and are looking so hard to beat you cannot exactly bring him too much to fault (except for us utopia lovers )

Anybody else on 4 yellows for this game? Would really like a full squad to face arsenal...

But again, with Shola as the alternative, what is there to lose? That's my thinking exactly! It's not as though Shola is tracking back and defending like there's no tomorrow... Why not try Hatem in that 10 role. Although it's a silly comparison: You don't see Barcelona moaning that they need a real target man or Nº9 do you? :whistle:

Hear hear!! Agree completely. The only way I see possible for him to break into the team and make a difference is that Nº10 role. You could work on the role that he and Remy carry out up front and as long as the ball is played on the deck and the team has confidence in itself I think we could be magical. With all due respect Shola wouldn't get into may prem league teams and his contribution is aerial only tbf, Ben Arfa could be our attacking fulcrum if we had the management team with the vision to realize this. I would rather see one moment of brilliance from Hatem than 5 headers won from Shola. Would rather see the team set up to play through a number ten who could drift all over the pitch and be involved in play, again I can see that Ben Arfa would need to be more disciplined as every ball cannot be a defense splitter and every dribble will not be won... In essence, that is why I watch football, to come away with one moment of the match etched in your mind which gives you a little "high" all week after. N.B. I still remember a Ginola moment like that from about 20 years ago, still smirk at the audacity!

I am intrigued to see if January really is when "Nufc do business". It seems to fit well with our transfer modus operandi? If we sign two "purples" I will be mightily pleased, a striker being the first and foremost...

Well said! If you look at the net spends to get into the top four every year it is far superior to the 25-35M outlay we and the likes of southampton dream about. Oops! forgot, we can't compete with the likes of Southampton can we (Copyright - Percy)?

Good article, right mindset. Just makes you wonder what our players and staff really think? is their a common objective, something for all of the staff to strive for? I think not, just a case of maintain our place and the gravy train for ashley's debt and SD exposure to be fulfilled and that's it! Depressing thread actually, now I think about it!

Luuk de Jong should be easy to thrash out (low price or cisse in other direction) Remy for Saylor is a fair swap (he he he) Gomis should be available for around 2M? if that tw** of a chairman (or tw** agents) doesn't start to mess things up Do we have another 5-6M for Ince?

As for managers? I will stick with percival on this count...

I think the argument should simply be: On paper we have far superior players to theirs... hence a win for the Toon! The only fault in the argument is that when we all think something is a dead cert at NUFC we are unpleasantly surprised. Easy eh?

I certainly don't think we can come to the conclusion that Haidara's a better defender yet, but one terrible game doesn't mean much either way at this point. My own view on these two is that Haidara looks promising (does show some very good promise defensively) but is as yet still an unknown quantity overall. Santon on the other hand has played plenty and IMO he just isn't a good defender, he can still improve since he's only 22, but right now he's weak defensively. I'd love an explanation as to how he's poor defensively, as opposed to the oft-used argument of "he just isn't a good defender but I'm not really going to back that up with anything of substance". His positional sense, tackling and heading are usually fine to good. There's the occasional error in him but no more so than most other full-backs outside of the genuine top players - it's something that typically comes as a trade-off with the expectation that modern full-backs should play further up the pitch, and you see these errors every single week... I get the argument that he isn't left footed, but he's fine at leading into a tackle with his weaker foot and it's rare that he takes the wrong body shape as a result of being on the "wrong" side (something which often happens when full-backs play out of position); I also fully understand and agree with the argument that it affects his contribution in the attacking half of the pitch and that it makes us imbalanced slightly, but that would be massively aided if we actually had a left footed winger, and isn't reason enough to justify dropping him for our two left footed defenders who IMO aren't as good defensively at this moment in time. There are limitations to his game without question but I think they're massively over-inflated, especially in a defensive sense. My beef with Santon is down to two things; The first is his penchant to stay put further up the field and when he is in reach of tracking back/getting close to the man who he is supposed to be marking, ony for him to give up and "walk/trot" back (really boils my pish, happens at least 4 or 5 times a game cos' I am always screaming at him). This leaves someone to be pulled out of position and the rest of the defence stretched and hence opportunity for the other team. The second is his attitude in games when we are against the run of play, many times you can see him sulking and not showing for the ball as he does in other games (again screams from me to "get in and play"). On the whole, I suppose we are nit picking and he is a great deal better than the Simpsons of this world, probably the fact you know he could be a consistently great defender instead of consitently good... Annoying really. The argument for Haidara for me is because he shows a hell of a lot more energy and will to cover ground and is technically a good player. Would say he is about par with Santon but we would all go for experience as does Percy. It is nice to have competition for once and I like Percy now changing them when they are playing crap or making mistakes. P.S. I play left back also (being a right footer), so probably the only position on the field I can comment upon with some depth of understanding. Just so you know, when you play on your opposite foot it opens up a huge range of passes to you and doesn't limit you to "down the line" balls which is the norm when you're on your good side. I don't think it makes a bit of difference to your tackling ability, in fact, would say it makes you better as you're less easily turned "inside"...

I think they are right to sack him, he has just spent over 100m quid and the team looks awful! It is him who has asked for those players, if he can't get them to work or for him to adapt a system that works well for them then get someone in who can... Would like to see Hiddink back in the prem.

I would deffo change Santon for Haidara, also one who thinks he is just going through the motions and is not giving 100%. I often shout at him during a game to get his ass back into position. Would also like Pards to mix it up a bit with our forwards i.e. Benarfa for shola, keep opposition teams guessing and also to give the lad some game time, we know what he's capable of and he did very well at Manu. Keep benny on for 60 and bring shola on to bully for the last 30?

The only place I think we'd have a slim chance of selling him would be to a German team, as they know him well from his time over there... If any manager watched his playing time of recent they would be very hard pushed to offer anything over 5 million, he really is that poor... As Ron quoted earlier his touch and perpetual offsides are ridiculous atm. Maybee a swap and some cash for Luuk de Jong (is that his name?), seems to be having a similar mare???

Not a chance in hell! Yes, he's had a run of games where he has defended well but a top class centre back knows how to pass a ball and should be able to contribute transitioning from defence to attack... Come on ffs, he's playing well but this England stuff is ridiculous! P.S. or is this some big whoosh that I'm currently caught in?

I would like to see Ben-Arfa get a start. Give him a chance to play a strategic technical game like what he did at Manu. Like the thought of that roaming 10 position for him and he did look sharp and oozed confidence. I know we may give up some of our steel by doing so but just to see him take on a man, drop a should or make a deft pass is the cream that would top off perfectly how we have been playing lately.... Would be top banana if it all clicked!

Purposeful

Crazy isn't it? Dropping one of Colo or Mapou for Willo... A few months ago we would all have sold him for a pittance with the claim that he was not good enough for fourth place central defender... Hhhhmmm