simonsays

isn't Wilshere supposed to be carrying an ankle knock which will keep him out of the England game on Wednesday? Let's hope Capello plays him anyway and he has to miss Saturday

what a lot of sh**te - which young players have come in the last 3 or 4 years and failed massively to live up to their potential? You could just as easily say the same thing of Man Utd who have brought in a number of young prospects who have failed to make the grade recently. It hink our youth development is currently one of the few areas for optimism at the club

I'm would actually be quite pleased with this signing (as long as it isn't the last). He can play on the wings, and up front. he has a lot of pace and is seemingly quite skillful. Fair enough his end product is often dissapointing, but that is the sort of thing that often only comes with getting a run in the first team - very often fringe players (particularly at big clbs) are so desperate to take their chance in the first team they try to score the wonder goal or go for a mazy dribble rather than looking for the simple pass. I think he might do quite well here

People highlight free transfers not because it reduces the quality of the player, but because it hammers home the fact there's no reason we shouldn't be putting the money we've saved towards buying players in the other areas we need strengthening. I think its more that people aren't convinced we are buying the players who are the best fit for the club and that instead we see a player, realise he is free/has a release clause and buy him because it is seen it as a good deal which may result in future profit. I don't have a problem with this approach as long as we are prepared to spend money on players we need when necessary - as of yet I haven't seen much evidence of this.

Perhaps - just seems like a it of a coincidence that he said that a claimed injury would scupper the deal, and now we have heard that due to an injury the player is not currently thinking about moving clubs

# It was his agent who said he was injured? What is this pleb on about? He came out and said that before the agent made his statement, so maybe he knows something

Back to Shane Long guaranteed http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2021248/Shane-Long-tells-Hammers-come-him.html I f***ing hope not if he costs £8m. Why does anyone give a s**t how much we spend on a player. To be honest I couldn't care less why we spend on a striker as long as we get someone in. It's not like any money we save will be spent on other players.anyway

Demba Ba

Why would him being French make a difference to whether he needed a visa or not?

Eh? He could have said weeks ago that we weren't in for N'Zogbia. How is mentioning it in a press conference just before it is being reported that he is signing for Villa sparing us from false hope?

bye bye Baggio

Is he classed as home grown? Can't remember how long he has been at Arsenal.

I actually thought he looked okay on the ball. What would concern me is that, whilst he looks a good all-rounder, I'm not sure that there's any one feature of his game that would really trouble the better Premiership defences. A definite upgrade on Lovenkrands though. He has a lot of pace, which is something we have been sorely lacking. I agree with what seems to be the consensus on here - I'd take him but for a more realistic £4-6 million

Course not, soon as they heard his £90k a week wage demands they buggered off.

You don't rate him or think he's proved himself in the top flight but you are still happy for him to be our first change from the bench? I'm not advocating Ashley's policy of taking our squad to pieces (I wouldn't want to see defenders or midfielders leave), but if he completely replaces our strike force for next season I would be delighted - none of our current strikers are good enough IMO

Exactly - it's not as simple as just saying Shola and Lovenkrands are not good enough, lets palm them off on someone else. Someone actually has to want to buy them. True, but that's irrelevant to whether we should be selling Leon Best. Is it? The management clearly feel he's not good enough and that they might be able to get a reasonable fee for him. I'm not going to get overly worried by the fact that we may soon have two cack strikers in our squad rather than three

Exactly - it's not as simple as just saying Shola and Lovenkrands are not good enough, lets palm them off on someone else. Someone actually has to want to buy them.

Yeah but they're his most recent 9 games, and at the highest level he's ever played at, they're surely the ones that count the most. If people don't rate him then ok, but the idea that he is ahead of Ameobi and Loven (both older, inferior and both surely on more money) in being told to head for the exit, you have to concede, is bizzarre. I'm with you on trying to get rid of Shola and Lovenkrands, but I still think the idea of not selling a below average player for a decent amount of money just because you can't get anyone to take two s**t ones is flawed logic. Not as flawed as selling your best striker and leaving you with the worst ones. If, as expected, Demba Ba signs today surely he will be our best striker? I don't think many would argue that he is a big step up from Leon Best. Yep. A squad of certain quality is not needed. I'm not suggesting we don't need squad depth. I was adamant that we should have kept hold of Nolan as I feel he is of sufficient quality to be a useful squad member. I don't feel that Leon Best is of that quality

Yeah but they're his most recent 9 games, and at the highest level he's ever played at, they're surely the ones that count the most. If people don't rate him then ok, but the idea that he is ahead of Ameobi and Loven (both older, inferior and both surely on more money) in being told to head for the exit, you have to concede, is bizzarre. I'm with you on trying to get rid of Shola and Lovenkrands, but I still think the idea of not selling a below average player for a decent amount of money just because you can't get anyone to take two s**t ones is flawed logic. Not as flawed as selling your best striker and leaving you with the worst ones. If, as expected, Demba Ba signs today surely he will be our best striker? I don't think many would argue that he is a big step up from Leon Best.

Yeah but they're his most recent 9 games, and at the highest level he's ever played at, they're surely the ones that count the most. If people don't rate him then ok, but the idea that he is ahead of Ameobi and Loven (both older, inferior and both surely on more money) in being told to head for the exit, you have to concede, is bizzarre. I'm with you on trying to get rid of Shola and Lovenkrands, but I still think the idea of not selling a below average player for a decent amount of money just because you can't get anyone to take two s**t ones is flawed logic.

Yet Ameobi and Lovenkrands are seemingly staying... I assume that is because the board think someone might be willing to take Best off our hands - who is going to be willing to buy Shola or Lovenkrands?

he had a purple patch of 9 games, the rest of his NUFC career has been terrible, the rest of his entire career has been average at best. I'd be delighted to get £4m for him.

All the players mentioned in the last couple of pages are good and an improvement on what we have, but having a midfield and strike force made up of 90% new players worries me a bit, no matter how good they all are individually.

^ Agree with all of this. Fair enough, but When Keegan did it I was confident it was his decision. This looks a lot more like Ashley's decision that Pardew's