TRon

it is if they can secure a replacement in 4 days, otherwise we'll be throwing lua lua in or relying on geremi/smith We could also play Zog, Duff or Jonas there if pushed. Our best run of form last season was when Milner was out of the team. I don't think he'll be a massive loss.

That's fair enough, but from what KK has said in the past, it seems Ashley's expectations are of challenging for the top 4, which will need some investment. FWIW I'm pretty sure that we will still buy big if the player is right. Selling Milner for £9m is just good business IMO.

He would gladly take the wages Milner is currently on, as he certainly won't be on anythng close to that. So we could potentially get a player who is clearly better and just as good a pro for less money and less wages, who is also prem experienced. Hopefully this is what we have been working on in the last week with Birmingham. Their signing of Owusu-Abeyie gave me huge hope, and thankfully they are going pretty well at the moment. I think it is a very good possibility, and I would be ecstatic. Milner would be an absolute afterthought if we signed Larsson. i don't think it's clear. I think that part you highlighted could be ,but might not be...

Having watched him under-perform for Chelsea and England I have doubts about his desire to step up a level. Big fish in a small pond syndrome seems to suit him nicely.

I don't think we value him highly enough.

SWP moving back to the comfort zone...speaks volumes for his lack of ambition and self belief. Not the type of player we want tbh.

He's a good squad player and I'd like to keep him on that understanding. Can't see him being happy on the bench though so best to get good money for him now and buy a quality player who commands a first team spot on performance week in week out.

No, we needed 6 or 7 before we let Carr, Roz, Faye, Emre, Ramage etc go. OK, they're not very good, but they're numbers. Carr was dogshit and made the team worse. For Ramage see above. Rozehnal was already gone. Emre was always injured. No loss at all. Faye has been replaced by Bassong (though I'd have kept him tbf). I see your point, and I still think we need three, but honestly numbers don't mean anything when the players are that useless. Carr and Ramage are no loss at all. Rozehnal/Diatta needed replacing as 4th choice, together they made something like 23 appearances. I'd assume Bassong is their replacement, not Faye's. Taylor, Bassong and Cacapa should ideally be reserve players for us. Faye was our best centre-half before Coloccini and selling him put us back a step as ideally we still need a partner for the argie. Emre made 14 appearances last season and that was his worst season for us in terms of fitness, and i suspect at the end of the season when he was fit enough to play for Turkey but not for us, that it was simply a case of us knowing he was leaving and his head being elsewhere. the fact he was creative midfielder makes his absense more acute. perhaps Guthrie is seen as his replacement but i'm sure most of us (and Keegan) would like a more experienced creator in midfield. Then there's Milner who is now likely to be on the way out. taking that into account i'd like us to bring in another 4 or 5 players (forward, a replacement for Butt, a creative midfielder/winger, centre-half, left-back). the fact that we still need this many with 5 days left is a bit of a joke to be perfectly honest. It will be a joke if that's still the case in 5 days time. I know it's cutting it fine, but a lot of moves are dependent on others going through and if you look at the other clubs like Everton, Mna U and Spurs for example, many are in the same boat. I'll wait to see what happens next few days before I pass judgement.

I think a couple of people discussed this as an option a while back. Might look better than we think, but Barton needs to look a lot sharper than he has so far in his time here.

KK has already said although he's kept informed of what's going on he's not fully in the loop. So it's quite possible there could be signings getting lined up but he's not aware of what stage we are at.

Oh oh...he lives across the road and Shak's been spying with his ultra-zoom binooculars...

I think Milner will do better for Villa to be fair. MO'N likes to play direct football and he has plenty of big strikers who Milner can float high crosses towards without needing to be especially accurate. Suits him, suits Villa and suits us, as we don't really want to play that way.

SWP could play both roles, although I'm not sure he's a genuine winger. Him or Larsson would both do me.

He usually plays well against Arsenal. Well I'm sure Zog or Jonas can play well against Arsenal, but maybe do it a bit quicker.

They aren't in the best shape either. I fancy us to get a point if Owen starts, which I'm pretty certain he will. We won't miss Milner at all.

Erm it says newcastle asked to keep it quiet ........ not milner Too right. Milner will have been phoning MON nightly to update him on the latest developments.

I've a feeling Pompey might be his preferred choice, dunno why. I wouldn't rule us out, but I think Larsson is the better bet.

I think one or two deals going through is going to start the whole transfer roller-coaster. It will probably be one of the busiest ends to a transfer window in years, and I would think we'll be getting at least two in.

Milner out. Seb Larsson in. Victory for NUFC.

Can't hurt to venture some qualified thoughts - you weren't over the moon, I take it. I was pretty happy with him, myself. Fuck me...I shouldn't have started the thread and waited till I was proved right

Much better than I was expecting. Very composed, quick with good anticipation, quite solid. Looks quite similar to Coloccini without the experience obviously. The only question mark would be how good he is in the air. If he only cost £1.5m that's a steal tbh.

I thought the whole back four played well for the most part, but Enrique was the only one who wasn't directly involved in conceding a goal. Oh, and he made one as well. With a 50 yd pass with the outside of his foot after stopping Coventry's biggest threat in his tracks. Must have been a fluke eh?

No, no it could'nt. Imagine if we did Spuds would be gutted ;Another thought if he is desperate to leave Zenit is it not possible he could end up the WOW signing if we could strike a deal without getting shafted on the transfer fee and the player wants a clean break with no one else coming in for him . With this deal, it's hard to see how you could avoid getting shafted over the transfer fee tbh.

Class. End of.

one who can't defend but can make two good passes maybe?