TRon

yeah very good pro he keeps his head down and works, very limited as a player though Not sure about limited, like. He is. Lets not fool ourselves. I agree with his professionalism, work rate and fitness though. And he is an above average dribbler/carrier of the ball (as pure dribbling, none efficiency involved @ assist/goal) If you're definition of a limited footballer is anyone who's not good enough to play for a top four club then yes, Jonas is limited. If he had CL standard finishing and assist levels he wouldn't be here, he'd be at Chelsea or Inter Milan.

How would you define an Ashley Apologist? Anyone who doesn't instantly and automatically rubbish anything and everything the club has done and is doing? Those that are prepared to give him a chance will do so out of a sense of realism about the club's financial situation, and also can see that some of the initiatives and changes in structure, personnel and strategy may actually have a chance of working. They may even lead to something better than we had when he took over, in fact they may already have led to something better than we had before he took over. But I don't think there are too many people who would try and defend some of his more catastrophic manoeuvres or are blind to some of the crap that still goes on. So yeah by that criteria I'll own up to being gay and out Having inherited such a dire financial mess when he bought the club there have been some tough measures to implement and making bad decisions along the way has made it even harder. It may or may not be that the relative optimism and good feeling we're presently experiencing is justified, but what I am 100% certain of, is that in the next 10 years or so well supported clubs who are self sufficient and debt free will be at the top of the game, while debt laden clubs will be out of it and artificially ran clubs will live under the constant shadow of only being an Arab/Russian/American hissy fit away from oblivion. Well said. It would be interesting to see where we would have been this season if Man City or Chelsea hadn't been flush with cash from foreign owners. The danger for any club which spends daft money trying to break into the top four is your calculations can be blown out of the water by a club being bought by a rich owner. Arsenal and Liverpool looked unassailable a few years ago, now they are struggling to match Man City. Four CL places isn't much when two (probably 3 if you count Man U) of the them can spend whatever they like to buy the best players around the globe. Teams outside of the top 4 have to build sensibly even if it's painful in the short term.

A hotchpotch bunch of shite. He should be in the squad. He should be the first name on their team list. His reputation probably suffered due to our relegation and having Maradona as his manager when he was in the team.

Shola being offered a contract only makes sense if it means Sammy will be happy to stay put. Seeing as that is almost certainly the case it's well worth it.

I think the strength of our bench might see us nicking games like this one. If the first 11 don't get us in the driving seat knowing Ben Arfa and Marveaux are primed and ready on the bench gives you confidence that we can turn a game around at any time with a flash of magic.

I would love for us to still have Enrique, he's the one player who I think will be hard to replace. Yes we have bought what looks like a class replacement, but there are still question marks until he's had a good run of games behind him. Other than that, this is exactly the type of football team I've always wanted us to try and put together, based on passing and movement rather than the lump it hump it style we were sort of stuck with while Nolan was our captain. It's early days and we still need to tweak a few areas but the squad is looking healthy for the most part.

Suddenly there's real hope Colo might also be offered a new deal. One point about Jonas which sometimes gets missed: while Colo has got a reputation for never missing a game through injury, Jonas isn't bad in that regard either. He's worth giving a contract just for that. Even if he's not starting every game in the future you know he's available fit and ready for damn near all of them.

You mean a publicity stunt by the two people who text David Craig and send him bacon sandwiches. The same people who were forced to admit they lied to us via the media. Stop excusing them man, it's beyond embarrassing. There was supposedly a helicopter there, but I think everyone knew there was no chance of it happening and that was probably the idea as Pardew said he knew long before then nobody would be getting signed, much to his annoyance. In what way have I excused them by asking a question? I don't know why you are reading so much into every sentence which doesn't fit your agenda, but I didn't ask it to fuel your rage so simmer down. All I've read from the club itself is they thought they had a deal for Maiga but it fell through on the last day. I don't think there's been any mention of Ruiz other than from Craig from Sky.

Massive statement of intent from the hierarchy. Never saw this coming in a million years. Great news really.

That bit about the McCain microwave chips cracked me up like. I mean why would it even come to your head when posting that? You just know microwave chips and ketchup is the end to a classy night out in swish Sunderland

Did anyone from the club actually acknowledge that we did try and sign Ruiz? There was a few here who thought it was just a publicity stunt by Skt tv.

Yes, I'm sure the dreamboat references were after someone put that photoshop effort in this thread.

Same here. Spurs are one of the higher level teams which will exploit any weak flanks. Ryan Taylor's done just about enough against teams like Blackburn and Fulham but I wouldn't want him in there against the better teams.

Sort of agree, he tends to get a fair amount of abuse as well understandably. Thought his comment in this thread was classic WUM stuff though.

January's a long way off and there'll be some tough games ahead before then. Best and Ba will have to keep scoring goals, and that too against better quality teams before we can say that we don't need a striker. Best has done sterling work since he signed but he still has to prove that he's a premier level striker over a full season. Then there's an argument that we need the option of a pacey striker who can run the channels. Though where he would fit in with Ben Arfa in the team I don't know. But it would be nice to have the option.

Who'd have thought our midfield would look so much better by replacing Nolan with a player who can run, tackle and pass? I also meant we could very well have signed someone and kept Nolan too. Pards said Nolan didn't want to sign as a back-up player, which he clearly would have become this season. We did well selling him. Also think to have had him on the bench, with his stature and reputation, would have meant him being brought on at the expense of arguably better players who could change a game. That said, I really would like to see some defensive 'back-up' on the bench in Jan. We've a lot of players who could win us a game, but very few who could help us see a game out if necessary. I haven't seen him yet but I believe Abeid's going to be given the understudy role for Tiote.

Who'd have thought our midfield would look so much better by replacing Nolan with a player who can run, tackle and pass? It's staggering isn't it?

What I meant by that was unless the team gets good enough to be challenging for CL football there'll always be the chance that the CL clubs will be able to come in and sign our Tiotes and Cabayes. If we can get top dollar for any of our players though we should be able to buy quality replacements similar to what has happened at Spurs, then hopefully we'll be in a strong enough position down the line to be able to rebuff those offers due to our own success.

He pops off some clever first time passes into forward areas as well. He's not like some wingers who have a tendency to hang onto the ball too long.

Brilliant post. I agree with more or less all of it. I find it hard to trust Ashley but deep down I think we are being run along sensible, if over cautious lines. Buying players with a resale value will prove successful over the long run, although it might be difficult to build an established team for a couple of years.

Also, by the time this nightmare run of fixtures comes around we will have had time to hone our best 11, bed in the style of play and re-introduce Ben Arfa and hopefully Santon into the team. We might actually be good enough to get points off these top 4 teams. If Stoke can give Man U a bloody nose who's to say we can't?

You know what? The best thing about that is I really don't know. I can see both players getting goals, I'd have to toss a coin to decide which one gets the first

I think that's probably the most graceful way to end it. I didn't like him being here from day one but he made the most of it and good luck to him.

You have to factor in that some of the people who have are looking for a chance to have a dig at the owners aren't really interested in any other reasons being discussed.

QPR's equaliser was a nice bonus. I'd switched over to a different channel after 90 mins I just couldn't see them hitting the target. Not surprised it took an own goal to break the duck. Another great result for us.