TRon

Or the knee might be more serious than we were led to believe.

He's probably driving him home. Maybe it's north west from the training ground.

according to who?

The latest twitter says Nolan is part of a joint double bid with Nolan valued at £15million.

There are plenty of updates flying round on twitter but most of them are shite/guess-timates at best.

He himself says he wants to stay here. Anyone can spout crap though, hardly surprising the bbc is pitching in.

Most people would have thought Ashley would sell at £25m a couple of days ago. The fact is we haven't yet accepted this new bid of £35m. So stop committing suicide everyone and hold your horses.

i'm sorry but name a club owner in the country who would reject 35m Could be Ashley yet.

I said this on the last page. David Craig and all the twitter twats know fuck all tbh.

who says we are going to? Liverpool can bid 35 million doesn't mean we are definitely going to sell does it?

Yeah...if you say so.

Doubt it. I still think we'll not sell Carroll tbh.

£35m is daft money but how many top class strikers will we be able to buy who will want to come here unless we pay them stupid wages? This isn't a straightforward deal.

"and we can reveal that Andy Carroll IS staying with the toon for now..." that's a big development for those plebs tbh.

Embarrassing. or bollocks. delete as appropriate.

It's probably a whoosh, but if you're serious then £35m is only going about cos it's last day of transfers. No way is Carroll worth £35m. Wasn't David Villa a lot less? He was, but apparently Carroll is worth more than the world's best striker, despite being unproven at Premier League level, because he's "local". Still doesn't understand. Obviously not. Explain. I've already done it. I don't recall, can you sum it up for me because I'm struggling to get my head around any reason why someone who has 11 PL goals is worth more than Villa, Rooney, Drogba, Tevez etc..... Why don't you ask Redknapp or Dalglish?

It's probably a whoosh, but if you're serious then £35m is only going about cos it's last day of transfers. No way is Carroll worth £35m. Wasn't David Villa a lot less? He was, but apparently Carroll is worth more than the world's best striker, despite being unproven at Premier League level, because he's "local". That's the point though, he pretty much is proven at the premier league level, whereas all the big names from abroad aren't necessarily going to adapt or like playing in it. Yes Carroll's only had half a season but any premier manager knows he is pretty much unstoppable whether he scores 10 goals in a season or 20. He causes havoc and that is priceless.

Quite funny that at this time last year we had just bought Best and Carroll was fighting him for the right to wear the no 9 shirt.

Why not put a goal scorer on the left wing and see how that works?

# Ireland is not a striker and Pardew wants to play with two strikers. # He hasn't played well in a 4-4-2 as a central midfielder before and is more an attacking midfielder. # It won't do him any good playing him on the wing. He's a central attacking midfielder in a 4-5-1 formation. I hope he can adapt well here. To play with two strikers you need two strikers. We've got one who's not fit and the rest are substandard. So 4-5-1 won't necessarily be a bad thing.

Don't know why so many are concerned where we will fit him into the team. Our strikers are mediocre so if he replaces one of them it won't be the end of the world. I'd also be quite happy to see him challenge Nolan for the central midfield role. Nolan gets goals but Ireland's overall game is much better potentially. He could also be used on the right if Barton was out, so a very good signing IMO.

Good point. We should pick a team of eleven strikers, then we'd score lots of goals. As opposed to? Picking a balanced team? Ludicrous I know but there are some who push this daft notion.

I think he actually does a lot in central midfield that goes un-noticed. True, he doesn't have any pace and you won't see him playing Hollywood balls, but he is often a hub for play to go through when we are building on possession. He has a good first touch and can play an accurate pass when he has little time to do so. I'm a lot more confident of us retaining the ball when a dodgy pass is sent to him than someone like Guthrie for example. He does do a plenty of work in midfield and when he has got possession he's not too bad with it other than like a lot of players with limited ability he can't carry the ball. But he uses the ball well enough when he has it. The problem is more when he doesn't. He doesn't have the pace to close down players so when he makes a tackle it's usually a month late. For the same reason you won't see him hitting quick one-two's and darting beyond defenders. His goals come through good positioning from dead ball situations for the most part.

There's no reason to drop Nolan if Ireland is signed, to begin with at least, Ireland would have to prove his form and fitness. If he did then there would be a very strong argument to put him in ahead of Nolan. He can score goals like Nolan, but as an additional bonus he can also provide a midfield engine and creative ability. Assuming he can re-discover his form of course.

reads really harshly as well. Not dissimilar to what Keegan said about Milner though. I just hope Pardew will be backed this time and everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. It does appear to be so. Keegan said he didn't want to lose Milner. he also expressed doubts whether he'd become a top player. Seemed quite happy to let him go on the understanding someone else would be coming in.