Cronky

So many times, we had five men in our own half, passing the ball between them, without getting anywhere. We need players who can take and give the ball under pressure so that we carry some sort of threat going down the middle. Tiote is holding us back. When he isn't giving the ball away, he's giving a nothing pass that doesn't begin to eliminate defenders.

Marv will do them.

Same side, same issues. We don't have the confidence or the ability to work the ball forward through the midfield when put under pressure. The ball goes backwards and we hit it long to a lone striker. Pointless. We also look very static in our positions.

I know you don't like Jonas but that's going too far. He does a lot of good defensive work, he's a reasonable stand-in left back, he holds on to the ball and gets us some free kicks, and he puts his heart into the cause. Obertan has been known to knock the ball past a second-rate full back in the Europa League and beat him for pace, but that's about all.

I wouldn't assume that Cisse has the support of the other players. The other Muslim players aren't raising the same objection, and I would imagine a large part of the squad feel that Cisse is being hypocritical, for the same reasons as several on here. Is that scenario any better? Well if most of the squad are generally understanding of the Club's stance, morale and unity won't be affected as much. Obviously the players know Cisse better than any of us on here. I just think you're making an assumption about their attitudes to the overall situation.

I wouldn't assume that Cisse has the support of the other players. The other Muslim players aren't raising the same objection, and I would imagine a large part of the squad feel that Cisse is being hypocritical, for the same reasons as several on here.

thanks looks like vuckic has gained some speed That would solve a lot of problems. Just from the clips, he looked like he'd shed a few pounds of puppy fat.

Not at all, he was a very adequate squad player. Well yeah. I just don't know why some people are talking about an adequate squad player as a way forward in our current predicament, or as a great missed opportunity. We've got to aim for better. To be fair on him, he looked like a player who had worked very hard on his fitness and technique, but he couldn't quite overcome his inbuilt limitations. Bit too slow and a bit too clumsy.

Things are getting really bad if we're starting to pine for Leon Best.

A good point. The way some people talk, you'd have thought we were a successful club until Ashley came along and messed it all up.

If he'd objected to wearing the Virgin Money logo on religious grounds, that might have some credibility, given the Muslim beliefs around usury. But if he wears the Virgin Money logo but not Wonga, he's singling them out on moral grounds. If he's allowed not to wear their logo, it gives the message that Wonga are a morally dodgy organisation, and I can see the objection on Wonga and the club's part. The religious objection, in his particular case, lacks credibility, given his previous behaviour. TBH, I think he wants to move.

Eh ? Lambert spent £22m in the summer. The bigger picture is that in the three seasons since O'Neill left, there was a net spend of minus £3m. They were a club forced to economise and Lambert did have a very young squad. And they spent hardly anything in the January window even though they were in deep trouble. Lambert did a very good job in keeping them up.

Villa were in trouble because they were forced to play a very inexperienced side, due to financial issues. He got the Bent issue dead right. With strikers, it's all about the right combination and Bent didn't feature in that.

I hope we don't see Bent and Cisse in tandem, but I'm not very confident. Pardew does seem to favour tall-ish strikers, and has a history of trying to get them to play together. A Bellamy-Beardsley type can make a big difference, but we don't seem to get linked with that sort very often.

The video proves.....? ....very quick feet which enable him to get past an opponent in tight spaces, despite his gangly physique. Nothing we shouldn't know already. In order not to become a novelty turn, he just needs to add a bit of nous to his game and improve his first touch. Like his big bro, he struggles a bit when the ball comes at him at speed, but once it's under his control, he can use it well.

That's a good point. Owen was also probably a casualty of playing too much too early. I've been reading Craig Bellamy's book, and it's striking how many times he ended up playing with longer-term injuries not completely resolved, or not able to train properly. That has to take its toll.

Yep. Guess we'll see just how provoked JFK is by Pardew's early manoeuvring when he gets back. If he feels only slightly shafted, or that Pardew has downplayed his new DOF role too much, he's unlikely to be able to contain himself. It's a dodgy situation, though on reflection Pardew is in a more powerful position than Kinnear, in reality. If Pardew walks, the club will be in chaos again. If Kinnear walks, it'll make next to no difference.

A few years ago, the top division was only drawing talent from Britain. Now it's from all over Europe and indeed the world. The standard has gone up and it's consequently a lot tougher for young British players to break into the top sides. Having said that, I think the raising of standards has inspired a select band of young players to really hard work on their skills in order to break through. The likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere and Barkley are as good as any young talent I've seen emerge in this country.

He's a bit like Robbie Keane. A number of clubs have paid big money but ended up disappointed. The article doesn't address the difficult areas - whether a specialist finisher is the best bet for a team with our aims, and whether Bent would be a replacement for Cisse, a cover for him, or a partner.

You might not rate him, but to say he has 'nothing' is ridiculous. He's shown a fair bit of skill and an ability to beat an opponent in tight spaces. His weakest areas seem to be his decision-making and his temperament, but those can be worked on through coaching and experience. At the moment, he plays too much off the cuff. I'm also not convinced that his best position is wide in a 4-4-2. My impression is that in his youth and reserve team days, he played further forward and more centrally. It also didn't help that last year he was playing in a struggling side. A number of scouts have spotted something about him, and I think we've seen glimpses of it. He can produce exceptional moments that can turn a game, so IMO he's well worth persisting with.

Why would you conclude that, when we scouted and tried to buy Remy in the past? IIRC, he was top of our list when we ended up with Gouffran. Yeah, but since then he's got a police investigation hanging over him. With that uncertainty, we ought to be looking elsewhere. The worry at the back of my mind is that the Kinnear appointment has publicly raised doubts about Pardew's future. Whether or not that's a fair reflection of the situation of the club is another matter, but things still look uncertain. It might be very difficult to persuade a player to choose us against some competition in that situation, and we might get forced into looking at players who are a bit of a gamble.

If this is true, I can only think it's a mixture of missing out on all our other targets, combined with Ashley's love of a gamble. I'm not bothered what happened in January. We've hijacked other club's transfers in the past, and Remy had a can't-lose opportunity at QPR. It's the possible criminal trial that's the worry. I'm not worried about Taylor either. I don't see him as better than Williamson, but we will need some cover if he goes, in the event of injuries.

It still feels like a power struggle. Kinnear's version of his job description isn't quite the same as Pardew's. Kinnear says he's the boss, Pardew says he's a go-between.

It strikes me that now that his playing days are gone, he's been unable to find a new role and purpose in his life. A job to get him up in the morning, basically. There's treatment that can stop him drinking, but if he then goes back to boredom and depression, soon or later he'll be tempted again. It's a bit like Best. Trouble is, apart from playing football, I don't know what else he's good at. He's tried coaching and punditry, and that hasn't worked out.

I can see the sense of a loan move but at the same time we don't have another striker quite like him. He looks a useful option to have around.