Shak

Aye, hard to imagine them getting overrun very often. Cabaye's no pushover either, he's a nasty little fucker out there. Think that'll end up being our first choice trio, perhaps with Anita coming in for Tiote in home games against the so-called "weaker" teams. With Debuchy and Santon as full backs if we can get the front three sorted out it could be exciting to watch.

Fuck sake, just seen this letter. Should have this sign stuck in his locker at the training ground. http://images.wikia.com/unanything/images/8/80/Don't_forget_you're_here_forever.jpg

Aye Shak posted the wordier version of what I said - get in Fucking hell, I've basically just padded out your post. Anyway, would prefer someone who can play wide of a front three but there's more than one effective formation out there. The flirting between Cabaye and Debuchy in the 4-3-1-2 would be outrageous though.

Anyway, if we were to sign this chap I wonder if it'd mean trying a sort of 4-3-1-2 system. Cisse can't play out wide and this lad doesn't seem like he could either. Krul Debuchy MYM Colo Santon Cabaye Anita Sissoko Ben Arfa Cisse Bony Something like that as our strongest eleven? Tiote in for Anita in the tougher games where we need more bite in midfield. The obvious problem that jumps out is the lack of width. Santon and Debuchy are both very offensively minded though and both have great engines so if we gave them license to play as wing backs maybe they could provide enough width to stop us becoming too narrow. Santon being right footed isn't ideal though. Cabaye and Sissoko given license to get forward either side of the holding player, Ben Arfa given license to drift. Hopefully Bony and Cisse as a duo would work better than Cisse and Ba did. How good is this chap with his back to goal? Seems like an absolute tank from his Youtube videos, if he could be more of an effective target man than Ba was maybe he and Cisse would work well together.

I'm going to give neesy the benefit of the doubt as it's 2am on a Sunday morning. As an English language teacher I find him thoroughly fascinating, I'd love to do experiments on him with my class.

I'm not too concerned about Colo. As long as he's still here I expect him to turn in good performances. If/when he goes in the summer then yeah, we need someone else in. Ideally get rid of Williamson and bring in a talented youngster to be 4th choice on top of that. I'm hoping Streete or Good could fill that role personally. That'd be great if they could, with Taylor's injury history we might need our 4th choice CB to play quite a few games though so they'd better be ready.

I'm not too concerned about Colo. As long as he's still here I expect him to turn in good performances. If/when he goes in the summer then yeah, we need someone else in. Ideally get rid of Williamson and bring in a talented youngster to be 4th choice on top of that.

Did you miss the Yanga-Mbiwa signing? No. We could still do with another one. Just like we could still do with another striker. We've got Colo and Mapou as the likely first choice pair with Taylor 3rd choice. We could do with a better 4th choice than Williamson I suppose, but CB is nowhere near as big a need as another option up front.

Nah, it's one or the other surely. It's been a strange week though... Wouldn't describe Cisse as a target man either.

Anyway, this lad would seem a more logical signing than Bony to be quite frank. Seems like he could play out wide as part of a front three while at the same time being able to play centrally should Cisse get injured. Two birds with one stone this, gives us a quality player to complete our front three while also hopefully pushing Shola down the pecking order in terms of starting games. Ben Arfa Aubameyang Cisse

Body too skinny. 2/10. WOULD NOT SIGN.

Genuinely tempted to get some heroin in and space out for the day just to see what's next.

Jesus, this useless gimp possibly on his way out forever? Class.

What in the absolute fuck is going on? Every day I wake up to find some new mad shit we're up to. Wonder what I'll get tomorrow. "Das Bild: £40m Gotze bid to be accepted" is my conservative guess.

That's a pretty high level of vitriol there. I am pretty drunk, tbf.

I actually hope he's guilty. Obviously I'd prefer if nobody has been raped, but if someone has then I do hope that it was this horrible wanker who was the offender. Be class if he ended up spending the rest of his life in abject misery.

I do expect Jonas will start ahead of Gouffran tbh, it's still Pardew picking the team afterall.

Rings a bell.

Everything I've seen of Marveaux suggests that's a bit like saying Santon will start above Tiote in some games. Completely different positions. True, except people were listing Marveaux wide in a 4-3-3. IMO he's better in midfield. Very much so. He's no wide forward. I'd agree that he's looked better in CM, but it may just be a case that he'll have more of a chance of getting a game out wide than he does through the middle with how our squad is shaping up. Can he force his way into a CM role when he's got Cabaye, Tiote, Anita and Sissoko to compete with? Maybe, but it won't be easy. Our options out wide aren't great though, especially with Ben Arfa out at the minute. His competition basically boils down to Gouffran, Obertan, and Jonas at the minute. I'd have him ahead of Jonas or Obertan every time for sure. It's also worth noting that he hasn't exactly had a lot of opportunities in a wide role for us, and as far as I'm aware that was where he played most of his football in France. I'd be interested in seeing him get a game out on the left now that he seems properly fit again and is playing with some confidence.

Fucking hell, we do have a way of signing very highly rated players for absolutely fuck all don't we? If Colo stays this will have been a stunning window. You have to figure that three men in central midfield is pretty much a no-brainer from here on. Tiote, Cabaye, Anita and Sissoko... genuine competition for places... gonna be fucking weird having players on the bench who aren't completely hopeless.

Delighted this has gone through. Sounds like he's a very good fit to play out wide in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 which with our squad really is what we should be using almost exclusively. Even if we do go 4-4-2 he does seem like a player who'll work the flanks a bit, which was the problem with Ba and Cisse as a partnership. Neither seemed to drift out wide and find space, they both generally just stood beside each other and made us very narrow as a result. Looking forward to seeing him in action.

Hopefully this is the end of it for January, with a bit of luck San Lorenzo will go bankrupt in the next four months. Still want to hear from Colo on this, this whole episode has been extremely suspect. If he really just has been trying to force a move home then he's let himself down badly IMO, especially if he's tried to feign some family problems in an attempt to get out.

Depends on what's really going on behind the scenes tbh. If there are legit family reasons then I wouldn't strip him of it now. However if this is just a scummy attempt to force a move to San Lorenzo then I'd strip him of it in a flash. Have a bunch of the French lads jump him at a press conference and beat him down and take the armband off him. Then Cabaye can stand over Colo and hold it aloft. That'd send a pretty clear message I reckon.

Should be an easy adjustment for Yohan, he's had Pardew shouting "Thou shall not pass" at him for almost two seasons now.