TRon

Remember when we went down his agent delayed signing a contract here because he was convinced a premier league club would come in for him, then we sent him a letter telling him his services wouldn't be required. Puts his salary demands in perspective now if Rangers don't want him either.

He's a good lad no doubt but I wish he'd just fuck off to Rangers tbh.

Pardew have often stated definitely one, maybe two strikers in. If we manage to offload Loven as well, there is no reason we can't buy a cheap Maynard as one of two. I see a flaw in that plan

It looks like we are having a go but I still think we will be priced out and will settle for the cheaper option which will likely be Pieters.

Based on what? On what I know about both teams, obviously. I just can't see us scoring, man. What makes you think they'll find it any less hard going? They don't seem to have a lot of goals in them either.

Larsson's always done fairly shite against us, although that was when we had Jose it should be said. As he's one of the few players I think pose a danger I hope we get a real left back in by Saturday.

That's about right for me. If we lower to £8m I want a really good sell on. That would be ok as long as there was a clause if he flopped Arsenal would give 50% of the money back.

Just got back in since this morning and with the topic going into overdrive I thought that we must have agreed a deal. Instead I open the thread and am overwhelmed by reams of piss weak punnery

Yep. Once again this strikes me as more opportunism than carefully coordinated planning. Irrespective of whether or not he's a good player, I just think it's ridiculous that we could once again be facing a winter of Shola-Loven-and Best, who, whilst I think is decent, hasn't exactly got a perfect fitness record. I don't see the ANC being a big factor here as we also have Marveaux, Obertan and HBA who can play that position. We can do without him for one month, it will be far harder to replace Tiote.

Bingo. While it's early days, I have to say I liked the look of him yesterday against Man U. He did look a good prospect on YT as well and I was all for signing him based on that.

I wouldn't be too concerned if these players have been scouted properly and we know what we are getting. I'm not too confident that's the case though. It smacks a bit of opportunist gambling and hoping one will come off. Just read Shayno's assessment of the player and it makes you wonder what are we doing? I sincerely hope he knows fuck all about the game and it's just another fan who thinks he's an armchair expert (no offence Shayno!) Oh I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. It's just an observation. If as you say we're confident through scouting that any such player will make the transition then great. I just find it all a bit mixed up, £7m is a hell of a lot of money for this board to spend if a player like this Maiga with one good season and seemingly questionable attitude fails to score goals in a superior league. Seems to me the board have quite a lot of confidence in their scouts in France because these bids might not be massive in premier terms but they aren't money we can afford to chuck down the drain either. I might be wrong in this but I also feel they are players who are being brought in and Pardew has to work with them whether he knows them or not. That's a plus in my book as I doubt his knowledge of European players is that extensive.

I wouldn't be too concerned if these players have been scouted properly and we know what we are getting. I'm not too confident that's the case though. It smacks a bit of opportunist gambling and hoping one will come off. Just read Shayno's assessment of the player and it makes you wonder what are we doing? I sincerely hope he knows fuck all about the game and it's just another fan who thinks he's an armchair expert (no offence Shayno!)

The first half was played at a pretty slow pace I thought, at least by us. We were content to sit back and didn't press the ball at all.

It's another strange one. Quite a lot of money for us to be offering for a relatively unknown player on these shores, but then it was similar for Erdinc, yet they wouldn't sell. The reasoning is it would probably cost three times as much for an equivalent player in the premier league.

From what I can recall Liverpool had agreed terms with Marveaux but after the medical they tried to change these in their favour. They probably didn't reckon on Marveaux contacting us and switching to Newcastle in such a short space of time and were expecting his agent to haggle for a bit longer.

Same here. I don't have many doubts on Ba's qualities, I even saw glimpses of them yesterday, I just want to see Pardew utilise him better. He's been played alongside Shola quite a bit even in pre-season games and I just don't see that working.

I wish I could say that it's ludicrous that Pardew wouldn't know what type of forward Ba is but that went through my mind as well.

No, he's powerful but more of a fast striker who gets down the channels from what I've seen.

I think Rodallega will come at a premium price which will be far more than he's worth. Whelan will screw us over big time so I think that's a no goer. I'm hopeful that we'll still strike Erdinc tbh. At least that's a player who Carr clearly rates and has been following.

I thought he criticised the play acting when Barton went down like he'd been shot, but maybe he didn't. He definitely thought it was a pen in any case.

This. I'm sure he was a lot more critical on the tv commentary yesterday.

Watched Shane Long today and he really put himself about as well as get the goal against top premier opposition. While one swallow doesn't make a summer, there's something to be said for buying players you've scouted and really want rather than run down a list of free transfers/clause releases etc. I hope we've done our homework on the next striker coming in because we definitely need a pacy forward who'll work the channels rather than another big lad to fight for the high balls without particularly holding the ball up well.

Long has looked lively tbf, although I think he was lucky to get a goal with that strike.

Yeah I saw that, he was definitely looking to be played in a few times but we didn't have the bodies in there and we never really got the ball far enough forward to put those passes through.

Hopefully. I think yesterday we reaped the rewards of a shambles of a pre season. What annoyed me was that one of the few positives of the pre season was Vuckic and he was nowhere to be seen. It annoys me that Vukic isn't more invloved tbh. Even in the Carling Cup game against Arsenal last year he looked one of our best players on the day yet he constantly gets overlooked despite being one of the few players in the current squad with a eye for goal.