TRon

Just been reading the ESPN article on Ashley and apparently Cabaye gets a few goals as well. Not sure if that's through dead ball situations or free play but I suppose they all count.

So where will our goals come from this season? When Nolan left there was the prospect of Zog arriving who would get his share. Once we decided he wasn't for us, Barnetta seemed a good choice as he also has looks like a player who finds the net regularly. Cabaye, Marveaux and Obertan might be fine players but I'm not sure any of them are goal getters and it seems we are going to be relying a lot on the forwards to get the goals this season. A legitemate concern?

I think Pardew really needs to earn his money in the next week. Transfer dealings, potential transfer dealings, boardroom antics and fan opinion aside, he needs to do one thing - unite the team for the start of their Premier League campaign in 1 week's time in front of 50,000+ of their own. If he can do that and get you something against Arsenal after what has been a seemingly very trying few days for one reason or another, then he deserves some credit. Equally, for your sake, I hope fans don't turn on him completely if you don't do well in the first 2 games. It could get messy if you're on 0 points after the derby. It will be interesting to see how Pardew manages a team full of French players, most of whom have little experience of British football. I've quite grown to like Pards since my early hostile reaction. I just wonder if these guys are being brought in with his blessing because it won't be easy managing a foreign dressing room.

Ah ok gotcha. You were talking about Interpolic then

I was wondering who would have pushed for this deal? Is it a Carr one or did Pardew fancy him? You'd like to think we've done our homework if he hasn't shown much at Man U?

I like the diversity on these boards, you get to hear a broader range of views. There are plenty of other boards where you can get the "Joey is a legend" mantra which you might feel is more representative.

I sense a few are saying that because you had your hopes set on N'Zogbia, and Obertan doesn't appear to be as good as him. He's another body in and for all anyone knows, he could flourish a bit more if he's given more of a chance than he was at Man Utd, which he surely would be. People are free to air their opinions about him as a player but you'd think you were buying an inanimate object if you look at some of the comments on here. I think there will be a few worried that while all of these signings are potentially exciting, there is an unknown factor with a lot of them. Most are unproven in the premier league and that's reflected in the fees. It could turn out to be very canny business or it could go horribly wrong. People are nervous I guess.

Ok I should add "unless we are about to flog Simpson".

There's no way we'll spend that much on a right sided defender. Left back, striker and that's it IMO.

I wouldn't be too bothered about losing Barton as I think his days here are numbered anyway. I would rather have had Barnetta in though as I think he would contribute goals, whereas Obertan might turn out to be a flashy younger version of Jonas. But at least he's young and has some exciting qualities, hopefully playing in a French forward line up will bring out the best in him.

It would be funny as hell if he blossomed this season and banged in a few with the papers calling him the new Thierry. hahahahahhahahahahahaahahhhahahahahhahahahahhahha in your reply would be quite appropriate if his value rocketed to £15m.

I was going to say that but I thought I'd get slammed. Well said. It's a bit much £20 though. Otherwise I would quite fancy getting an early look at Ba, Cabaye and Marveaux.

To be fair, the Man U fan on here reckons he's turboshit, that's the only reason I'm concerned as he seems to have seen a fair bit of him. If I was just going off YT I'd say he looks a hell of a prospect. I hope he does well but the fact Fergie's letting him go suggests he might turn out to be an Ali Aliadere type, all fart and no shit.

He is Barton's replacement! I've decided L like this lad after all. The huge professor forehead and 10 step overs for every yard moved forward has made me warm to him. With him and Ben Arfa it will take us twenty minutes to get the ball from the centre circle to the penalty spot.

Our new striker. Foil for Ba. Strikers who don't score goals...you can't have enough of them for me

Just did a bit of youtubing - fucking hell he looks like Thierry Henry when he's not in front of goal. The lad has serious talent, although from what people are saying a brain the size of a pea.

He's replacing Barnetta as far as I'm concerned. I hope he does well but we've had enough pacey headless chickens down the years to know by now that it rarely works. Saying players are replacing people we haven't signed is taking logic to a whole other place like. It's not really though is it? I said the same about Zog when we signed Marveaux.

I said that in the other transfer thread when we were first linked. It just seems senseless.

He's replacing Barnetta as far as I'm concerned. I hope he does well but we've had enough pacey headless chickens down the years to know by now that it rarely works.

Last one out please turn out the lights.

4 goals in his entire career. it figures.

What's his goals record like? I'm concerned because Barnetta scores goals and as we already have a team that is short on goal scorers we really needed someone who can find the net either up front or from wide positions. Fast and skilful is nice but it doesn't mean much without end product. EDIT: btw anyone who thinks we'll still sign Barnetta needs medical help.

I'd love to be able to say he's underrated or that he's shit, unfortunately I've just seen nothing of him. If he can't challenge Shola and Lovenkrands for a bench spot there's got to be something seriously wrong with his attitude.

It's like QPR. Richest owners you could possibly hope for, and Warnock is bleating on today that Routledge wanted to go to them but the couldn't afford a deal. Seriously? Why did they buy the club? To make a profit clearly. I know the only reason people get that rich is because all they care about is the profit etc. But fuck me, if I was in my dotage and 2 other multi billionaire lads said fuck it, lets buy QPR, I like to think I'd have a bit of fun. Christ, we can reasonably complain about Ashley, yet they could buy Ashley a few hundred times over and not even wince, but they can't even buy their manager a Championship winger? That's the point though. QPR clearly can afford to buy players, the fact they won't is because they are in the football business because they can see there's profit in it if you look at it as purely a business. I'm not sure Ashley started out this way, but where we are now i don't see too much difference. The thought we might be run on a similar basis as QPR isn't a happy one. At the time, it could have been argued they were only talking about developing academy players and selling off the ones not fit for the first team, and that's probably how Keegan took it. Looking back at that statement with hindsight, I think it's hard to argue that running the club the way he is now wasn't the plan all along. I was thinking about the signing of players like Smith, Geremi, Barton and Viduka on big wages, and sizeable fees in some cases. Then the following year Coloccini and Xisco. You could argue that we sold players to fund those deals but they were still fairly large outlays which I don't think we will see the likes of again in a hurry.