TRon

We'll just have to see what happens in the next 24 hrs then.

Good to see all those with that attitude being fucked off out of the club with their overblown salaries in any case. Enrique's still the only one I'll miss and he's the only one who went to a decent club.

Can we invoke the contract clause if we want to? Because I can't see them selling this late in the day unless they have no choice in the matter.

Brace yourselves everyone. This is looming larger by the hour.

I'm sensing trouble on the horizon.

He won't go anywhere, he's got two years left on a good contract. Let's see... If he fails to make the bench when fully fit I can't see him wanting to hang around for the duration of his contract... Though I agree it will be a good contract... Has anyone any ideas how much a week he's on these days? Guessing he must be at the top end of our new £55k a week pay structure?... I'm sure he'd prefer to move but who's going to pay him what we are? Where will he go? Bear in mind this is a keeper who was happy to sit on the bench for so many years as long as he could stay in Newcastle.

I'm sure Pardew said that he is one that might be ready to be involved this season at a senior level. They must rate him pretty highly.

Blinding insight there from Douglas. Who'd have thought?

Pardew has said quite consistently that we would sign a left back and a striker so it's not like that has changed because the ground wasn't full on Sunday.

He won't go anywhere, he's got two years left on a good contract.

It is probably just a back up in case the Maiga deal falls through. Macheda is probably waiting until the door closes before switching to QPR.

it's just about balance mate, that's all, and especially if you've got jonas ahead of him the other team pretty much know what they need to do to stop us down the left. he looks really comfortable on the ball though, him and ben arfa down the left is potentially incredible. It's not that straight forward at all. You can't just say because they're both left footed the other team knows exactly how to stop them. Disagree completely. the other team knows which way they're gonna go 9 times out of 10, and that they'll be running into traffic rather than space. i'm not saying it wont work, i'm not saying we wont have a good left flank, i'm saying we'll have a more predictable one and that's a bad thing imo. Everything depends on his pace and technique..If you are useless with the ball, like Simpson, it will be a disaster putting him on left back..But from what I've seen from Santon he's fast and is capable of going both ways..It's his skills that makes him unpredictable, not his preferred fot.. have you played much football? as a defender? I have, but at an inferiour level so it's hardly relevant for this discussion..My point is simple, Santon got skills, so he's probably capable of passing and crossing with both feet, although he prefers his right foot..Simpson on the other hand find it difficult to hit a simple pass..Consequently Simpson would be the shittest defender on earth if placed on left back, but not Santon. contrary to what sam allardyce might tell you, the basics of the game are the same at any level. and one of them is if you know which way someone's likely to go, you've got a better chance of stopping them. i'm not even sure why you're talking about simpson to be honest. Because he's a mong who justifies his existence on the board by pretending to get into the 'theory' of football and offer some 'great insight' - it's car-crashingly excruciating to read. Jeesus christ..Theories are propositons about football you ignorant..They're up for discussion...The problem with some supporters is that they're so in love with some players, or have such an fixated view of football, that they refuse to discuss alternatives..And those who propose an alternative view are branded as idiots. . You and Ronaldo are experts in this particular area. We had exactly the same discussion previous season with Nolan (his lack of fitness and incapability of distributing the ball)..I was of course slaughtered for even mentioning this..Even those with minimal brain activity (that excludes you and Ronaldo) now see how much more balanced and better our central midfield is. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me, but you could at least try to argument why instead of polluting the internet with idiotic remarks. Spot on. I was critical of Nolan's signing from day 1 and got slated for it a few times but just seeing Cabaye in there now vindicates everything. Not that Nolan did badly for us but he stopped us moving on.

Seems like it's just depending on Gradel's move to Sochaux going through now. I would be happy enough with this signing. If we prefer him over Roux it must be because our scouting team rate him higher. Sochaux's reluctance to sell also tends to suggest he's pretty good. Hope it gets done and dusted without any hitches.

Weren't Lyon looking to buy him if they sold Cissokho to us?

I don't know about that Dave. I'm fairly sure you were championing Randy Lerner as the ideal chairman a while back. How do you feel about Villa now with Alex MCleish in charge?

Aye. Macheda may turn out to be decent, but it's us cheaping it out and going for the unwanted kid on loan that's the frustrating thing. 1 goal in 12 for Sampdoria. 1 year loan - no option to buy. It's said before, but you couldn't make it up. The fact that there's no option to buy suggests that Man U clearly rate this kid. They had no problem selling us Obertan after all.

Well he wasn't. For a start, he arrived before Nolan left He's playing where Nolan did last season. Quite a few people expressed concer about a "foreigner" with no prem experience replacing Nolan in the team. However, I appreciated the effort to upgrade on Nolan, whose game I wasn't a fan of. Yeah it was a risk, but a very worthy one. Cabaye has not only made us tougher through the middle, but has also added a creative element. Those two qualities ultimately make us better in midfield overall. Not surprised we are currently grinding out results despite not quite clicking offensively yet. Aren't you supposedly an African? Why the hell are you using logic on a football forum when you should be more concerned about avoiding starvation?

Yeah ok.

Right on cue

By selling Nolan for the same amount of money! Coup! I wonder how many of the Nolan fan boys would show up in this thread and admit they were wrong? More than likely they'll just move to other threads where they see the opportunity to bash the current owners.

Earth to Mars: reality calling. Please respond...over Man Utd youngsters are over-rated by the media. Macheda was and isn't actually that good. Not saying that those players I mentioned aren't good players or won't go on to be great players, but the current hype is ridiculous. Last Tuesday you would think Welbeck was the second coming of Jesus watching SSN. All those players you mentioned started in the team that destroyed Arsenal. Get fucking real.

Earth to Mars: reality calling. Please respond...over

Wasn't Macheda rated higher than all of those fairly recently? I suppose that means all of those guys are better than we are giving them credit for

If that's the case how come both ourselves and Rennes were allowed to talk to him with a view to a move?

Have to agree. While Muntari isn't what we need IMO I don't suppose he's anything like as bad as people are making out. Jol usually has an eye for a midfielder so he must see something in him.