alpal78

http://www.nufcblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Ben-Arfa-stretcher.jpg "Thanks Nigel!" (I do get what you mean btw) What a player. Most players when they suffer even a moderate injury would just cover their face on the way out. HBA somehow decided to wave to the fans after a double leg break, that takes character, I have a feeling that unless he gets a crazy offer from the likes Barcelona, Madrid or Man Utd, he will be with us for a good few years.

What happened? I thought Cashley sell all our players at the first sight of cash!

Yup me too, more annoyed than when we sold Nolan or when/if we sell Barton

Yup Birmingham will be a good test to see how good he really is. He did fantastic in the Championship but he was also aided by a fantastic squad (by championship standards). Don't think he is as good a manager as some make him out to be but wish him well.

Love it!

sorry if mentioned before, how good is this lad? Perch like or with potential to challenge for first team place?

How many people expected us to get three very good players in by mid June though? No I don't agree, I think the better move would have been to keep Kuqi, Campbell and Nolan and not even bring in those three players. We'd still have the same size squad, therefore we'd be no worse off obviously as squad size is all that matters. and we'd have saved £1m. We could then leave our transfer moves to the right time, which is surely the last day of the transfer window. That would put us in the enviable position of spending £30m on three desperation signings and we could all celebrate the sense of ambition that comes from spending lots of cash on overpriced flops So what, teams should only sign bosman transfers then? I do think we've gotten better so far this summer, but if you're honestly happy with this as the bulk of our summer activity then I don't know what to tell you. It's a good start, but in terms of showing ambition to challenge for Europe then it's not enough yet, especially given what happened in January. Shak man, think you're conflating the issues. Nobody is content with the signings so far. But the fact that we've got some good signings and by mid June (when most other clubs are doing nothing) does show that we are heading in the right direction and that we are ambitious. Whether that will be enough to get into Europe, nobody knows, in fact given how unpredictable the Premiership is, we won't know till end of the season next year. Now for Jose, as a player who is not just a mercenary (hopefully), he has a moral obligation to the fans and club. If he is waiting for a Drogba/Torres sort of signing, that's just not going to happen and if he waits till last day of the transfer window before declaring that our deals have not been up to his expectations and he is buggering off, then that is unacceptable. At some point he has to either show some faith that we are heading in the right direction and sign on or just declare that he has his heart somewhere else and request for a transfer. This dilly dallying is not doing him, the club or the fans any favor, well maybe it works well for him coz he can wait it out to get a big club to bid whilst holding us to ransom coz he knows we want him to stay, but that is really unfair on the club and the fans. Sure we all like Jose, but I can't understand why anyone would take his side against the club. I want him to tell us straight on his plans by early July (hopefully we'll get 1 or two more deals done by then). Then we either have him on board or get the replacement in.

How many people expected us to get three very good players in by mid June though? No I don't agree, I think the better move would have been to keep Kuqi, Campbell and Nolan and not even bring in those three players. We'd still have the same size squad, therefore we'd be no worse off obviously as squad size is all that matters. and we'd have saved £1m. We could then leave our transfer moves to the right time, which is surely the last day of the transfer window. That would put us in the enviable position of spending £30m on three desperation signings and we could all celebrate the sense of ambition that comes from spending lots of cash on overpriced flops Spot on! I don't get why some (the same usual suspect) insist that we must spend big to show ambition. Somehow getting international players who have played in the CL or players who have proven that they can do well in the Premiership (all by mid June too, way ahead of most other clubs) is not ambitious...weird logic

Why does it matter how much we spend? He wants the club to be fighting for Europe and CL in due time. All our 3 signings have been those that show we are heading in the right direction and there's nothing to say that we won't splash the money we have later on in the transfer window. If Jose wants to see our ambition, then the signing of Cabaye, Ba and Marveaux shows that in spades. If he is still not impressed, then he is either waiting for an impossible or have made up his mind on leaving.

Hope so, for me that will be the test of what we do with the 35M. We don't have to spend it all, but getting in a player in excess of 10M will show that we are reinvesting the 35M back into the team

Honestly I don't think I've seen any player in the Premiership dribble the way he does, not Ronaldo, not Ginola not Henry...he draws players in and then by the faintest of touch take the ball away. Awesome!

That's what you get when you have the Dave's for mods "Delayed due to medical issue" sounds a lot more negative than "set to join". Plus it gives the opportunity for conspiracy theorist idiots to say that the club never had any intention to sign Ba and was just tricking the fans so that the club appears ambitious!

I really don't get it why some have a problem if we get a player on the cheap or even free, surely all that matters is how good the player is. Do we need to blow 35M on one player before some will be happy?

Great now the reports are including the fact that "Barton is fuming" into the mix. I'm sure that's helpful particularly as he mentioned other players, but he has freedom of expression and all, so I guess he can say what he wants!

And since then we've given Tiote a new contract, signed Cabaye, and are in the market for players. We've been over the Tiote contract, it was obvious that was going to happen in hindsight. He was far better than they expected and so they should revise his terms. So we've signed one player, by paying the bare minimum we could. I know nothing of the player and hopefully he's great for us, but I doubt we'd have even been in for him had it not been for this clause. There's ages to go in this transfer window and we'll see. The jury is still out for me, and I'd expect most people including Jose Enrique. Being linked to players means nothing if they don't come. Why does it make a difference whether we've signed Cabaye because of this clause or not? It just makes good financial sense to exploit such situations and hopefully means that we'll have more money to add other players. You seem to insinuate that because we did not blow the 35M with a huge bid, somehow it is not positive. If anything all fans should support the club making the most of whatever finances we have.

"If we can get him (Ba) and another two in before the end of next week I'll still be looking for another two new faces to join us before the start of the season." So plus Cabaye, that will be 6 new players, with most of them probably for the first team? When was the last time we had such an overhaul? Is this a cause to be optimistic or concern?

That's funny as f***. On what basis did he have a better season (or half) than Suarez? Anyone who has watched both of them play cannot in anyway dispute that Suarez is by far the better striker and has played better for Liverpool

Err the counter argument is simple, you can't say a player is amongst the best strikers in the Premiership on the back of of 6 months especially when it was clear that said striker was depending on the team playing in a certain way to do well. I take it you're feeling like one of the idiots hence your response...fair play

Depends what failure means. He'll score around 10-15 goals mostly from set pieces and headers, the main problem for him would be his overall contribution and general play. His first touch and movement are poor compared to the likes of Suarez and Kuyt. Like most English players, Carroll relies too much on physical attributes rather than technique. If Liverpool can get the ball into the box, he'll do ok. Whether they want to play that way is of course another thing. If they want to play fast passing attacking football, then Carroll will always stick out like a sore thumb. Then fans will get on his back and he might get into a vicious cycle where the harder he tries, the more it doesn't work. Even after his 6 brilliant months for us, I always thought he was an above average one dimensional striker, don't see how that is going to suddenly change playing/training with Liverpool. If anything playing in a style not suited to his strength will show him up more. Some idiots on here thought he was better than Suarez and amongst the best strikers in the Premiership and then you have people like Wullie, blinded by Geordie blinkers who will insist that 35M is too low and indeed no price is high enough for Carroll. I've always maintained that 35M was a spanking good business provided that money is well reinvested. The second part of that equation is taking shape but still work in progress.

how much did we sell Zog again? seems kind of foolish to now buy him and give Wigan a tidy profit

Barton may have a got a few assists from set pieces (how many by the way?) but would you consider him as a consistent set piece taker (in both creating goals and having a direct shot) say the way Robert used to? I would even say that quite a few of Barton's assists must have been with Carroll and that does not necessarily reflect the quality of the set piece, if you can get the ball into the six yard box, there's more than 50% chance that Carroll will bludgeon it in. Barton assisted 5 goals this season and created 41 goalscoring chances. Again your post is flawed, it is irrelevant if they were to Carroll. Why thank you for pointing out my flaw Of course it is relevant you numpty. a) because Carroll had physical attributes which made him especially good with headers so even a normal set piece can look good b) we don't have Carroll anymore so Barton will need to do more with his set pieces. Can he do it, based on his performaces during the latter part of the season, I don't think so. I don't know whether 5 asissts from setpieces is the highest for any player in the Premiership (I doubt it), but the standards I was referring to and would want us to have are much higher than that

Barton may have a got a few assists from set pieces (how many by the way?) but would you consider him as a consistent set piece taker (in both creating goals and having a direct shot) say the way Robert used to? I would even say that quite a few of Barton's assists must have been with Carroll and that does not necessarily reflect the quality of the set piece, if you can get the ball into the six yard box, there's more than 50% chance that Carroll will bludgeon it in.

Very average, his set-pieces were worse than I've seen in any Lille match this season. Hopefully he's trying to make himself look s****, because he doesn't want any other clubs to gazump us. I didn't watch the match, but I thought one of his strong points was supposed to be his set pieces. If they were atrocious, then that's not encouraging news at all coz since Robert, we've been dying for someone to do the set pieces!

How can you claim that Wullie made a "classic exaggeration" when you confirm what he said was true in the previous sentence? Err because although Sunderland and Aston Villa are by definition "top 10", using the phrase top 10 the way Wullie did "beat four of the top ten (two on their own patch)" gives an exaggerated impression of those results. They became top 10 on the last day and could have just as easily not been in the top 10 barring one or two last minute goals on the last day (including against us). Pretty basic common sense I would have thought

What? Discounting Liverpool for obvious reasons, Pardew hasn't beaten any team that wasn't still in danger of going down on the final day. Hughton on the other hand beat four of the top ten (two on their own patch) plus Chelsea in the cup, yet he's the one that's tactically inept. How disingenuous, when you say Top 10, you really mean beating Sunderland (10th), Aston Villa (9th), Everton (7th) and Arsenal. They are "top 10" but classic exaggeration on your part. And you of course conveniently ignore the home defeat to relegated Blackpool, the home draw against Wigan and home defeat to Blackburn (who were both in the mix till the very last day). When you say "who were in the mix till the very last day", none of those are factual, just your opinion like.