Shak

Surely a penalty?

Come on you cunts.

Was overcome with passion, hard to keep it down in such circumstances.

Sky saying he only has 40 caps? Fuck me, that's awful. Easily your most talented player (along with Brady) Victim of PFM bullshit. Absolute disgrace that he didn't start today, Austria were there to be hammered today and we went out there with a team built to keep it tight. So much good work undone today.

Long is first choice tbf but he's injured.

70 minutes in and Hoolahan still nowhere to be seen. Absolute joke.

Good goal tbf. O'Neill has absolutely fucked up with the team selection. Moron.

He's absolute fucking garbage, very disappointing that we're even considering this.

That was class.

He was great until a former manager tried to turn him onto something he wasn't. Aye, don't want this to be a Pardew bashing thread but he really ruined him for us. It's somewhat beautiful that THAT goal was the only one he ever scored. Club legend for that.

Doesn't seem real. 30 years old man. Fucking hell. His poor family. RIP.

A goal worthy of the awful second half this has been.

Personally reckon a quality #10 should be the top target. Perez to me just doesn't look cut out for that role and I can only imagine how much of a donkey Diame will look like at a higher level.

How realistic is that really though? Aren't we limited to a squad of 25? How many of those spots are we going to use on strikers when we're probably never going to start more than one of them in any given game? It'll be Gayle, one new big signing (or loan if it's Abraham or someone like him) and one of Murphy/Mitro. Perez can play up top in an emergency too. If we sell both Mitro and Murphy we'll probably get someone else in, but they'll likely be pretty cheap.

I honestly don't know much about Abraham so I'm not saying he's the better option by any means, surely if he's being touted as a future star he'll have some parts of his game where he'll offer us more than Gayle though? Seems to be a big lad for one thing so I'm guessing he'd offer us more in terms of playing with his back to goal than Gayle would? I do believe that a large part of the reason we struggled to take the game to teams at home last year was that Gayle couldn't really offer much in the build up play. He's excellent at getting in behind teams but you can't play that ball every time, especially not when teams are sitting back. Having a proper #10 would improve this of course but so would a striker who can offer a bit more in terms of acting as a focal point. Someone who can do some of the good things Mitro does without the considerable drawbacks ( i.e. slow and no real goal threat ) Again, I don't watch much football outside of NUFC these days so I know fuck all about Abraham. If he's got a bit more physicality about him though I'd be encouraged.

I'm a bit worried about the Brighton factor as well. Not only location wise but because looking at their strikers he will know he is more likely to be top man there. Any footballer with ambition would rather work with Rafa than Hughton. If he chooses Brighton then he's not the type we want anyway as it will be for an easier short term. On the flipside, any footballer with ambition would prefer to be the starting striker for a team than a bit part striker for another team True, but surely he's going to fancy his chances if Gayle is the competition for a starting spot. Dwight's a handy player and I don't imagine he'll be out of his depth in the Premiership but he's not a top player who'll be a gauranteed starter when fit. If we sign Abraham I expect he'll play a lot of football next year.

Sounds like a terrible game.

I agree on all this but all of this could also be said and worked on with Mbemba. That's fair enough like but it would appear Rafa doesn't fancy him and as manager you have to let him make that call.

Delighted if this comes off. Apparently the guy needs some work, not the finished article yet by any means. However, we aren't attractive enough an option nor do we have the resources required to sign top class players. Signing young players and developing them into top class players is the approach we need to be taking and this guy seems to have all the potential in the world. Obviously there needs to be a balance as you can't just start a team of kids but if we're ever going to more than tread water in the PL we need to take risks on guys like this.

The agent doth protest too much, mehopes.

Young, fast, sexy and expensive. Want this guy badly, though admittedly I've never seen him play.

Underwhelming to say the least. Not sure i would call it underwhelming - both Gray and King have had their best seasons and are young enough to improve. They both also seem to have a lot of the attributes that Rafa requires from his forward players. I understand why it is more appealing to go for a potentially exciting player from another league, but i think in our position I would be looking to go for players who have experience of the league. I agree to a extent and I may be in a minority but from what I've seen of Gray, I don't really seen an improvement on what we've already got with Gayle, unless we're taking staying fit into account. It also concerns me that we're targetting Gray to come in as a potential replacement for Gayle, rather than looking at more of a bigger type striker to fill the role that Mitro/Murphy occupy. Why is that a concern? If we have two competent options in Gray and Gayle fighting to start then that means we won't have to start either Mitrovic or Murphy. Don't think Rafa wants a big man in anything other than a 'substitute when we're chasing the game' role and Murphy or Mitro are both perfectly adequate for that.

Blatantly read some articles on Rafa viewing us as a good project and is now using the same expression to make himself sound intelligent.

Did we really give him a six year deal? Hard to envisage anyone buying him off us, doubt we'll be willing to rely on him to be a part of the first team squad either. Another year on loan, trying to survive in this dangerous world, is what awaits him I imagine.