Shak

Really hate the back, should be stripes at the top of it. Might look better with names above the numbers...

Who is this co-commentator?

Jonas at LB

Aye. Cracking save.

Santon.

Tough viewing.

15m seems about right to me like.

"problem is that if you buy young players from other clubs academies, who does the developing?"

Simpson is useless man.

Shola's gonna absolutely hammer some shots into that forest in the second half.

Post!

The back of our jersey looks terrible.

That stadium.

Especially one of our own academy products. Money recouped from letting Shearer get away for nowt.

About what I expected as a fee, would have concerns about signing him permanently though.

Lock the most relevant thread on the forum right now.

Anybody else read deuce's posts with 'Born in the USA' booming in their head?

After thinking about it I'd be supportive of signing him on loan with an option to buy somewhere in the 15m region. He was never going to be worth 35m but there's definitely a very good player in there somewhere. If he comes back and looks like the player we had for six months before he moved then 15m would be a tremendously good deal. I think Pardew would be great for him. A big reason he struggled at Liverpool was Dalglish in my opinion, Carroll's a confidence player and you just didn't get the sense that he or any of the Liverpool players were ever happy playing under that dour looking cunt. We seem to have a great dressing room and a manager that our players enjoy playing under, I'd be confident that if Carroll came back with the right attitude then we'd see a much better player than the one Liverpool had. Also think it's rubbish to suggest that Ba and Cisse are much better players and that Carroll would be clear third choice if he was signed. When he was here he was an absolute beast of a striker. He physically dominated defenders in a way that I've seen very few players do. He was a beast in the air and much, much better on the deck than a lot of people seem to be giving him credit for. Rarely did anything spectacular but he had a good first touch and could strike the ball cleanly. Ba and Cisse are quality players, but I think Carroll can be too. Honestly would prefer to bring in a striker/winger type but from with the bids for De Jong and now Carroll it seems like Pardew wants more of a traditional centre forward. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, he earned it last year. I'd be much more uncomfortable with this if we bought him outright btw. I'd want to see how he beds in for a year first before committing to having him back. Not only on the field, but in the dressing room. He's always been a bit of a "personality", I'd want to see how he gets on with the rest of the squad for a season before deciding if he's worth having back for good.

What? He would still be third choice, like Best was. It would be an upgrade to our third choice striker - a potentially expensive one at that. How hard is that to understand? Surely the point is he could be much more than a 3rd choice striker though. The Carroll we had for half a season was nigh on unplayable at times, as good a striker as I've ever seen in tha air and by no means bad on the deck either. It'd be a very competitive battle for spots.

You are massively overplaying the long ball we played when Carroll was here and massively overplaying the lack of it since he went IMO. Aye, I have concerns about how we'll play with Carroll but some people are being very simplistic about this.

Be class if we had a 25% sell-on clause, bought him for 12m and then demanded 3m back from our clause.

I'd be surprised if they get anything over 12m for him.

The prospect of him coming back and returning to form is a very tempting proposition. Teams (even stupid ones like Liverpool) don't pay 35m for players who are just battering rams. He's well able to play it on the deck as well as being one of the most dominant aerial CF's I've ever seen. Ba, Cisse and an on form Carroll would be some set of options to choose from. I'll be expecting some serious grovelling from the cunt if he does come back though.

I'd expect we'll see a mix of the two Dave. My point was more that signing Carroll would give us less versatility to use a 4-3-3 than signing (purely as an example) a Bellamy type who can play either as part of a front two or on the flank in a 4-3-3.

Think we'd have to play 4-4-2 primarily if we brought him back, think Ba and Cisse would both work well off him but most of our squad are better equipped to play in a 4-3-3. Just don't think he's a good fit.