TRon

It would have been nice to get Nasri or Modric, but it's hardly surprising they chose other options. But yes, I am quietly confident we are aiming for the right players.

I'm pretty sure we could get him for 12m...seing as Spurs would probably sell for half that.

Agree 100% Me too. I don't think he sees it like this though. I think he'll just wait and see if anyone comes in like last summer with the buy-out clause. If he gets a better offer he will leave if it's a club he likes. Otherwise he'll re-sign and claim he wanted to be here all along. Either way, I'm not really arsed.

I expect us to be challenging for a UEFA cup spot. I'm not saying we should get one but our expectations should at least be aimed at competing for a place.

Wow.

That's it in a nutshell. No it isn't, pretty fucking far off even. He's said countless times he would be very disappointed if there were no new signings of the required quality. He wants the best for the club he supports, as we all do. He just expresses his concerns whereas others are willing to have blind faith in Keegan's magic and Ashley's intentions for us to challenge the top 4. I respect both stances, but the realistic part in me says that we have so far failed to strengthen to the extend that we needed to and I seriously doubt that they will be able to complete the transfers on the very last day of the transfer window where they have apparently failed to do so in a number of cases up until this point. stand by for all those who said "I'll judge Ashley after the deadline" to start saying "I'll judge Ashley in January" Nice to see that people still think that shelling out 3 seasons ticket money = hoping for failure. You could't make it up. How do you know these signings won't turn out to be good ones?

Forgot to mention....looks like he strikes a good free kick as well

Just saw the Youtube video (you have to search for Nacho Danubio, otherwise you get some left back video) and he looks quite lively. Decent in the air and quite quick. From what I saw on there he looks like he could add something to our squad.

Good move by the club if it's true. Everyone should be satisfied that we've put a good offer on the table, and if he doesn't sign it, fine go elsewhere at the end of the season and we can look to get someone else in. I wouldn't be surprised if Saviola isn't already lined up as insurance in any case.

Tit for tat in defence of Taylor mostly.

Precisely which is why I said I thought they were as poor as each other today Well we might need to look at which two central defenders gel the best then. I'm not convinced by this pair tbh, they don't look on the same wavelength but it's early days. They looked good as a pair last weekend IMO, and have played Man United & Arsenal in their other two games, playing well against Arsenal. A decent start, certainly nothing to be "not convinced by" I'm not asking you to be convinced or not convinced, I'm just saying how I saw it. They seem to end up a fair way apart and don't look like they are reading each other's play as a unit at times. But then it's only three matches in so that's maybe why.

Doesn't look fit at all. I said earlier on he's been abysmal today but I don't think he's over-rated. He was very good last season, but he doesn't look right at the moment. He was walking around by the end, don't know if he was injured or what?

The difference between the two today from what I saw anyway, was that Fabregas took chances in terms of playing the ball forward, making runs and joining up with the attack. I've seen a good range of passing from Guthrie and he can clearly pass the ball well, short and long under pressure and with time and space, but where are the killer balls? I'd rather see a player attempt 5 such balls even if they all failed than 20 tippy-tappy square passes because it only takes one killer ball and we have the player in Owen to make the most of such a ball. To his credit he did ping one such ball which Owen badly miscontrolled. Had he not he could have shot first time, controlled and dragged it to his left to shoot or squared. Hard to gauge a midfielder's final ball when there's no effective strikers up front, that applies to Jonas too who looks like he can pick a pass given half a chance.

Precisely which is why I said I thought they were as poor as each other today Well we might need to look at which two central defenders gel the best then. I'm not convinced by this pair tbh, they don't look on the same wavelength but it's early days.

i didn't think taylor was that bad. he made quite a few good contributions. Precisely, I can't understand how Butt's poor performance only let Colocinni down of the two centre halves? No surprise to see you jumping to Taylor's defence again. he's right though, and i've been pretty critical of taylor recently. colo didn't perform any worse than he did in our first 3 games imo, and taylor played a lot better than he did against manure imo, but arsenal were just better than us. But Coloccini was better than both Taylor and Beye today without doubt, even if he wasn't at his best. I really can't be bothered with the "he was better this week" which is as bad as the Martins vs Owen shite, but people seem to be running Colo down as a way of deflecting criticism from what was a worse performance by Taylor. I'd say its exactly the other way around. No one wants to say that Colo was just as poor as Taylor when that really is the case. It does get tedious though when people draw battle lines over certain players.

Maybe I like Colo because he's one of those defenders who takes the ball off forwards or intercepts. Enrique does it and funnily enough, Bassong looks like he can do it as well. Colo loooks like a decent tackler as well, maybe there is a question mark over his heading, but in general looks a good defender to me.

sad thing is, that's how an awful lot of people seem to see it. He was no better than anyone else in our back four today, but is saved criticism because he is the new boy. Most new boys will get some slack, especially if they come from a foreign league because it takes time to adjust to the Premier. That said, I think he's done ok, and should get better.

Pretty much word perfect

The tackle on Nasri was clean, but I'm pretty sure he's going to miss a few of those and they will end up looking pretty nasty. If he's off the pace like last season in any case. At least he looked a bit more lively today.

I don't mind being out-classed. I don't like being out-run and out-fought which we were mostly. They looked much hungrier.

Sounds like a head case.

I see Taylor making those blocks which in one way show great commitment and bravery, but in another way make you wonder why he's not closer to a striker and is looking like "last man standing" so often. Taylor isn't good at man-marking IMO, for a CB that's not a weakness you can carry. The blocks he made were when nasri, fabregas and vela when he dropped off were runing at the defence from deep. You can't manmark CMs as a centre back, it's not right. truth be told Guthrie and Butt should have been chasing back making tackles but htey weren't. I'm not saying Taylor's perfect, or even good (i think Bassong's going to be better at CB than him, but given 5 yeasr of further education his best footballing years from 27-32 will be good ones i feel, very good ones). I'm saying Taylor did at least as well as Colo today, who stepped out to make so many challenges and missed them. If you go high up the park to win a tackle, you have to make it. Colo didn't plenty of times and left holes in behind. But he's new, and he'll learn. He was clearly tired and stretched his calf out on the 78 min mark. Also, Colo daudled on the ball at one point and adebayor almost got in when it needed a quick pass back to shay or a clearance. I'd love to have heard the comments on here if taylor or (dare i say it) bramble would have done that. Colo does step out to make challenges, and that takes anticipaion and a good reading of the game. I wouldn't say he missed many, but he has looked like getting caught a couple of times when he thinks he has more time than is safe. I would agree with HTT though, that the defence was probably exposed a bit today, the Arsenal midfield were allowed far too much room. They certainly didn't allow us much.

ON the plus side, it's the last time we'll be seeing him in an NUFC shirt. No, he's not going anywhere, I just can't believe KK will ever let him start a match again.

He's not that bad up to a certain level. I think in games against the best teams he just isn't going to be able to cope with their speed and athleticism. Aresenal were running rings round our midfield today, Guthrie just about started to catch up by the end, Butt was chasing shadows all evening. He wasn't the only one though.

I see Taylor making those blocks which in one way show great commitment and bravery, but in another way make you wonder why he's not closer to a striker and is looking like "last man standing" so often. Taylor isn't good at man-marking IMO, for a CB that's not a weakness you can carry.