simonsays

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

Craig Gardner would be no more than a sideways step in terms of ability. He has more to his game than Nolan, also is fairly young. Nolan is hardly old at 28 He turns 29 on 24th June. Oh, my mistake - he's clearly past it then Just saying, man! Sorry, not meaning to have a go, but the idea that only players who are under 25 are worth having, that seems quite common on this forum, really pisses me off. I think we'd all admit that Nolan's game is limited but he has experience and leadership qualities that are already severely lacking in our team.

Craig Gardner would be no more than a sideways step in terms of ability. He has more to his game than Nolan, also is fairly young. Nolan is hardly old at 28 He turns 29 on 24th June. Oh, my mistake - he's clearly past it then

Craig Gardner would be no more than a sideways step in terms of ability. He has more to his game than Nolan, also is fairly young. Nolan is hardly old at 28 looks like he's 35 and plays like a 40 year old though. Imagine that in 2 years time? how many 40 year old midfielders do you know of who have scored 12 goals in the premier league?

Craig Gardner would be no more than a sideways step in terms of ability. He has more to his game than Nolan, also is fairly young. Nolan is hardly old at 28

exactly, people on here are getting so excited about wonder scout Carr going and buying a dozen new Tiote's while not bothering to think about what might happen if they don't all adapt to English football as well as he has

Fits in with the rumours that we want a versatile forward who can play up front as well as wide too

Or Nolan is limited, has spat his dummy out at a new contract and wants away. Nolan wanting away must be a factor in this (if it's true). From Ashley's point of view it's probably going to take more than 4m, or whatever the fee is, to replace him and we all know that he doesn't like big spending to replace players. Anyone fancy Gardner to replace him if he goes? Axel has it in the bag, more money, much longer contract and won't have to fight for a first team place. WHam will be favs to come straight back up as well. It's a good move for Kevin Nolan, if we get back what we paid for him it can be a good move for us as well. Gardner would easily replace him on the pitch, in fact he'd be a vast improvement as he can score all types of goals and isn't just an opportunist. Problem being captaincy, yes he's a good captain, but he can be replaced and Barton is the man to do it, give him the captaincy as part of him signing a new deal. It's said Smith offers a lot to the team spirit, can't see anyone wanting him to hang around just for that, fair enough Nolan scores goals, but in terms of what else they provide on the pitch its very similar and we cannot afford passengers, I think Cabaye would have him benched after a few games and will become much more important to the balance of the team than the odd chance of a Nolan goal. I don't think Barton will be signing a new deal if Nolan leaves

There's no problem with him moving while on loan. He might mature, he might impress, he might up his value, but he might also be s****. It's definitely the best option anyway. Or more likely he won't mature and will show his attitude is s*** wherever he is playing. We will then have missed out on the chance to get rid of him and could be stuck with him for the next five years

Until we know what system Pardew is planning to use it is hard to know what sort of striker would work best. If he plans to play three attacking players who are all capable of scoring around the new striker it may be that a big, strong Target man who can bring other players into the game and contribute 10 or so goals a season might well be more effective than an put and out goal scorer

At least Ashley saved that £500k he was giving to the staff as a reward for finishing in the top 10

At present Caroll is at a similar level as Duncan Ferguson was when he was at Everton - an absolute beast in the air, better on the ground than he is given credit for and unplayable on his day. To compare Carroll with Shearer at the moment though is ridiculous.

Our policy does seem to be to hoover up players who have minimal time left on their contracts. I would be surprised to see us in for anyone who has longer than 12 months left on their current deal come the summer