TRon

Except mope around and put in half-hearted performances perhaps? Win-win either way

It's a fantastic deal if it means they won't want Enrique as a result.

The black joke was one thing but to follow it up with the usual "I have loads of black friends" qualifier... I don't know mate. I would ban you just for that

blah blah blah. Just fuck off man, he's coming here.

Well we are signing a key player in Cabaye, and possibly M'Bengue. Even though we will probably miss out on Gervinho and Gameiro we have shown serious intent so the article is well justified.

Maybe it is Chelsea pricing that is the main problem & not the number of followers they have. http://www.chelseafc.com/staticFiles/b8/72/0,,10268~160440,00.pdf Chelsea aren't a big club though. They were a mid table club struggling to get 30,000 gates before Abramovich decided he wanted to live in London.

Even if they sell enough players in time to put in an offer for him I don't think Zog would pick Everton over us. Too many if's and buts in there t be worried about it.

Ok, I expect Spurs and Liverpool to enter the bidding at the 11th hour. That make you feel better?

So far a championship club and a small town premier team are reported to be in for him. Sounds about right he could definitely do a job for these type of clubs - win promotion or ensure top flight safety with a few handy goals.

Dalglish did the same at Newcastle IIRC. Our starting 11 in his first full year had Speed, Batty, Hamman and Lee across the middle. All good players in their own right but no natural width or flair. It was a team built to stifle the opposition first and then worry about the football second.

make sure to give them a good soak first then. And use fairy liquid, it's kinder on the hands.

There's no way it's true. Smith's wages alone for a season are reportedly £3m, effectively making it an £8m deal. Ashley would snatch their hands off I reckon.

Does Long actually score goals? On the YT vid he goes on lots of runs and gets hacked down a lot but there's not so many actual goals in there.

Strange that. I had assumed that Liverpool would have sounded Enrique's people out by now if there was interest.

On the other hand he could end up doing what he did at Newcastle and assemble too many hard working players who aren't any better than most other teams have got. It will be interesting to see how they get on next season once Kenny starts building his own team.

On top of that we sold him too cheaply. I know someone said people here were delighted to get £6m at the time. I know I wasn't.

When Carroll left there were a fair few who said at the time Nolan's goals would dry up and that's how it's panned out. He's still a very effective player but a team like Stoke will get far more out of him than we will if we are going to play quick passing football.

I always remeber Zog's end product to be as equally as bad as Jonas when he was here. Twice the attacking player ? come off it man. Rubbish man. He whips in a mean cross and hits the ball like an exocet. There's no comparison.

Give me a better player any day over that sentimental crap tbh It's the sentimental crap as you put it, that has shaped this club into what it is. And it's signing better players that will only take us up to the next level. Very true, and that's what we did when Jonas replaced duff. But is the zog a better player overall than Jonas ? and can he bring the next level required to improve on Jonas. Over the last 2 seasons Jonas has been instrumental to the promotion and good a season back in the prem. His pace and attacking play have been great. He also has won us a ton of free kicks. Yes his end product is rubbish. Zog on his day is fantastic, but i know first had from a wigan season ticket holder that his attitude has changed very little and has been doing the same with Wigan that he did with us (always making noise to the press). Is he a 12m improvemnt on Jonas ? personally i don't think he is He's got much more end product but despite all the talk he's improved at Wigan I still see the same player. Fantastic ability but not so much a team player. I don't think anyone will pay £12m for a player in the final year of his contract, there'll probably be a compromise.

With this twat still around, there's always a danger he'll make it on to the pitch. Get shot, I say, and do it quickly! Bringing him on the pitch cost us 3 league places in the final game of the season. That cost us a few million on top of the money we are already chucking down the drain by paying his wages.

He'll stay and pick up his cash more like it. At least it's only one more year.

Pardew is pretty much irrelevant in all of this imo It's fashionable to say so but he will have some input on transfer targets imo. But he'll have no say when it comes to handing out contract extensions or offering financial terms to any player, on that I'll agree. I am not convinced he is a upgrade on CH but still looks like a YES man to me. You would like think he has some input but it is no surprise to me that Del & Mike got the guy in that got players dumped on him by Egget. He's an employee of Ashley, in most scenarios employees will say "YES BOSS" at the end of the day. That's how it works in most any work place. Not the one's with serious cash in the bank like the Bartons, Shearers & KKs. Look at Real Madrid where Pellegrini was a "YES BOSS" sort of guy & he did what Real Madrid Sporting Director Jorge Valdano told him. Next up Mourhino who has serious wedge in the bank & it is Valdano who has been dumped because Jose is not going to have anyone tell him what to do. Of course about £20+ million ago when Jose was at Chelsea he had to accept Roman wanting Sheva, do you think if he went back to Chelsea he would accept Roman buying players he did not want? I don't. I'm glad you mentioned cash in the bank as it's the over-riding factor in most football matters these days. Mike and Del are seen to be greedy but for some reason Nolan and Barton aren't, despite the fact they employ agents to get them the best wedge possible. Even if it's in the Championship it would seem.

Pardew is pretty much irrelevant in all of this imo It's fashionable to say so but he will have some input on transfer targets imo. But he'll have no say when it comes to handing out contract extensions or offering financial terms to any player, on that I'll agree. I am not convinced he is a upgrade on CH but still looks like a YES man to me. You would like think he has some input but it is no surprise to me that Del & Mike got the guy in that got players dumped on him by Egget. He's an employee of Ashley, in most scenarios employees will say "YES BOSS" at the end of the day. That's how it works in most any work place.