TRon

There we go. Rainforest avatar that's absolutely gorgeous daahling.

That's because they didn't want to sell. We'd have been better off chasing a target that was available like Ruiz rather than making fools of ourselves by bidding a few hours before the transfer window closed.

We are concerned. What difference does it make if he says it, not like it's something we don't know.

If I'm honest I'd agree despite the fact I don't particularly like him as a person, that's never been a major concern of mine. Dyer was a shitbag but I loved having him in our side because he would rape teams on the break. Barton for me is simply not good enough for an ambitious side. He's technically very good but needs too much time if he's played in the centre and gets dispossessed easily as a result. Out wide he's too slow. So the only thing he really offers are a load of gobshite opinions on twitter. I honestly think we will do fine without him.

I'll give Joey the finger. Confirmed.

Why, what's wrong with Krul?

Despite his size, I think Ba could potentially play off Best. Ok so he's not the quickest, but he seems to make or at least attempt much more intelligent runs than the others. 3 or 4 times on Sunday Lover could and should have got on the end of a Best flick on, but he was flat on his heels or just not in the same county as his strike partner. Ba after a massive big bowl of spaghetti washed down with 3 powerades could be the answer. There is the possibilty, he makes more intellignet runs than Obertan for instance, who just stands watching the flick ons. I would like to have someone a bit quicker though to hit on the break and pull defenders wide, so maybe Marveaux could be considered. Until we see Ba up to full speed it's hard to assess him really.

I like Best even if he can look ungainly at times. He done Hangelaand over pretty well and consider this was the guy who kept Carroll quiet at St James last year. The problem isn't Ba or Best, it's that we've got no one to play off them while HBA's out. Unless we start throwing Sammy and Vukic in there which is our best bet even if it's a bit early ideally.

They also needed a left back and a winger and didn't get those. That was more down to Sunderland's cock eyed spending policy. They threw enough money at it, just signed the wrong players. We on the other hand bought quite well, just failed to make the all important signing that would have transformed our window. For the person who asked what's wrong with Best and Ba, nothing other than Best is a fairly agricultural footballer. It's the alternative to Ben Arfa we needed. I've seen little evidence that Best and Ba will work together so far.

Not looking forward to this now but I can see us putting in a fired up performance. If only because the players will be burning to prove themselves after the disappointment of the window. I expect a shit first half as usual with maybe one of the subs (Sammy probably) livening us up and us snatching something late on.

Nailed it right there.

I would think more than half will be season ticket holders so they've already paid up front.

The only one who will actually talk is Pardew and he's already absolved himself of the blame by saying it's his job to identify the players then the board's responsibility to get the deals done. Which is true after all. It's Llambias who needs to explain himself and you won't see him for a few weeks is my guess. Lucky for them the next game is away and he'll be praying for a good result otherwise St James might get a bit heated in the next home fixture.

Because if he sells the club for 150 million, its a profit Well, yeah, but only 12m. And so what? He won't sell it for £150m, he'll probably be looking for a lot more.

At the end of the day Sunderland have got two proper strikers and Connor Wickham as back up. When they needed to bring in a goal scorer on the last day they delivered. Wish we could say the same.

Jose's rants were while he was still at the club and angling for a move to a better club. He was entitled to it because he was a quality player who could attract the top clubs. Barton on the other hand is no longer a top player so just sounds like a berk talking about ambition. If we were ambitious you wouldn't be in our plans anyway you tit.

What a great idea, you help Alan clear out his office and I'll get on the phone to Dave Bassett or Colin Todd or even Kinnear. Probably the stupidest post in weeks. short term pain for long term gain How would Ashley appointing a different yes man lead to long term gain? Do tell.

Not really, it's definitely amateurish to try and hijack someone else's deal at the last minute like that. On the other hand if it had come off we would all be saying it was a brilliant transfer window. I believe we were trying to get another striker throughout the summer though, we just maybe weren't prepared to pay what it would have taken to get a high-quality one. We obviously should have signed another striker, but for whatever reason we didn't. I don't really know enough about the available players and what it would have taken to get them to know if that's right or wrong. What we do know is that we spent all summer chasing targets that weren't successful or encouraged. We also know we had the money to buy Brian Ruiz who was available but didn't enquire until it was far too late, when even a bid a few days earlier could have made all the difference. Some would say that was wilful incompetence and sadly I think it's hard to argue any differently after we've seen it happen so many times.

Won't miss him one bit.

Exactly. This could be the weakest PL for a while, and therefore a golden opportunity to progress. It's a shame we haven't taken it. For me, this window was 5/10 - we signed some good players but also sold some of our best and most influential. Our squad hasn't really improved, in my opinion, except in the midfield area. I'm hopeful that some of our signings can push us on, but this depends on whether they settle in quickly. Unfortunately, we've sold many of the 'characters' in our dressing room, so it may take longer to integrate them than it would have otherwise. Hopefully some of our youth - Krul, Sameobi, Vuckic - really come through this season. Yeah, but there is a reason that all those other clubs haven't invested, and those reasons all apply to us as well. Overpriced players, clubs with massive wage bills, banks reducing cheap lending, owners finding their other business interests squeezed in the economy, financial fair play on the horizon. Of course you could argue that when other clubs don't invest then that means we should invest more to overtake them, but that's a bit simplistic IMO. Ian, do you have any conclusions to draw about how we ended up bidding for Bryan Ruiz at the 11th hour rather than negotiating successfully through the summer to land our striker target on time? Bear in mind that someone even posted a thread yesterday predicting we would have a final day transfer failure?

Boo hoo you spoiled child. They say it takes a bigger man to walk away. Dont see why anyone should be abused for not wanting to let Ashley rub shit in his face each week under the pretence of 'supporting the team' I see absolutely nothing wrong with that stance. Ashley has quite cynically calculated that he could spend the bare minimum in the hope that fans will be deluded enough to keep buying season tickets. That attitude doesn't deserve to be rewarded. Even though I hate to see St James looking less than full it's perfectly understandable for people not to buy into his make do and mend crap.

If you look at the quality of the players we now got, I don't think MA is falling on his fat arse yet. HBA, Mav, Sammy, Sparky, Vukic, Ferguson, Colo, Santon, HBA, Cabaye, Taylor, Obertan and Krul. Except colo, all are young players with great potential.. The futre is bright, the future is black and white Let's hope that Sammy and Vukic are up to being thrust into the arena. Until HBA is fit and able to turn out consistently they are the best options for plugging the striker gap which has been left gaping in the first 11.

If HBA isn't playing then who plays off Ba? Lovenkrands? Obertan, Vuckic Obertan isn't likely to get goals IMO. Our best bet is that Vukic or Sammy are given the responsibility and step up to the challenge.

What difference does it make? the fact of the matter is players are choosing Swansea and Fulham over us due more to incompetency and tight fistedness than any genuine football reason. We can't sign the big money players and now we are losing out on the cheapo youngsters as well. It beggars belief.

I don't really care about Shepherd any more. I couldn't stand the fat oaf and no doubt he had us spiralling downwards. But Ashley needs to be judged on his own merits and he's falling on his fat arse big time right now.