Shak

What's class about the new Sky Sports News ad is that they've basically filmed and screened an ad that is basically them saying "Look what a bunch of miserable cunts we are!" They're taking Sky Sports News off Freeview, I'm not sure why they're so keen to make a big deal about that.

"Bafra"

Real kick in the balls if this is true. We need two quality additions to the squad before I'll have any confidence in us staying up this year. Ben Arfa certainly would have been one of those, miss out on him and I'm not sure there are going to be comparable players that we can hope to attract. Won't be at all surprised though, will just be another display of incompetence to add to the ever growing list.

He was one of their best players last year, absolutely insane that he's being shipped out and SWP started last weekend when he's half the player Bellamy is.

My older brother announced proudly before the game that he had Valencia as his FF captain this week. Had a chuckle when I told him Enrique would keep him quiet. Back in your box.

Tend to agree with him, Carroll really looks a prospect. Gave Man U problems last night despite being completely isolated up front on his own and never stops working. Not many players would have had more impact on the game than he did last night given his circumstances. Has that Drogba-esque ability to get at least some sort of touch on almost every high ball that comes anywhere near him. He's also tidy enough on the deck for a lad his size. Desperately needs a strike partner that can work off him though, hopefully Hughton realises sooner rather than later that this Kevin Nolan just off the striker experiment is among the worst ideas of all time.

Old post I know, but this interview does lend some credence to a theory I've been working on in which Chris Hughton is actually a robot. Stay tuned. As for Xisco I tend to agree with Ronaldo that there's a good player in there somewhere, I just think if he realises that potential it's going to be at another club. If we could move him on and go back in time and not sign Best then it'd be great to get in a quality strike partner for Carroll. It's going to be a very tough year if we don't add another good striker to the squad.

You're learning.

All African people are massive Dave. Everyone knows that.

This. Midfielder. Badly Striker is a massively bigger need. We've got one striker that offers any real threat whatsoever in our whole squad, we need someone else. The need for a midfielder is bigger, though. Without a good midfield we won't create (m)any chances, and without chances even a top striker won't get goals. (We had Martins, Viduka and Owen here two years ago) You could have Xavi playing in CM and we'd do nothing with our current striking options. We have one striker that'll be of any use to us in the Premiership as a regular starter. Carroll will be a solid target man, but we desperately need someone to work off him. Shola's not good enough, neither is Lovenkrands. Best is rubbish and Xisco is probably a lost cause by now. Barton and Guthrie are both capable of picking out a pass, they're not world class or anything but I'm confident they'd do some sort of job. They both work hard and get involved in the game as well, they're not bad players. Long term we're probably going to need more quality in there, but we at least have passable starters there and some decent depth in Gosling and Smith. But if you've got the likes of Kevin Nolan playing in the hole you're basically pissing up against a wall, no matter who you have in CM. We need movement and a bit of guile up front, someone who can stretch defenses and give the midfielders some room to work in. But up front we've got very little of that. None, some would say. Lovenkrands is the closest thing we have to it, but he hasn't got enough quality on the ball to really worry teams. We very desperately need another striker or it'll be a long season.

Depends how big our fire is. Aye, if we sign another retard like Best I'll go spare.

Guthrie and Lovenkrands in for Nolan and Smith, hopefully. Think we'll do well to get a point though.

This. Midfielder. Badly Striker is a massively bigger need. We've got one striker that offers any real threat whatsoever in our whole squad, we need someone else.

With the current squad we'd go down, no doubt IMO. Sign Ben Arfa and we'll have a fighting chance of staying up, though we'll still be up against it. Ben Arfa and a quality striker and we'd stay up comfortably, I reckon.

Frustrating to see him go to Cardiff when he's exactly the kind of player we need and he could more or less be had for nothing. Hope we've got other irons in the fire.

What is a real pisser is that I don't think we're all that far away from being a pretty decent side, we just desperately lack any sort of quality up front. Carroll is the only striker we have that you can make any real case for as a genuine Premiership quality player. Shola has had plenty of chances, it's obvious at this point he'll never be a consistent player in this or probably any league. He's a passable back-up to Carroll, not much more. Lovenkrands is easy to like and he's handy to have in the squad because he'll give you a bit of movement up top, but he hasn't got much in the way of quality. Best I don't think is good enough, Xisco does have ability but I'll be utterly shocked if he ever achieves anything for us. Ranger isn't ready. One striker, and even then Carroll is hardly proven at this level. Have a feeling he'll do alright though, gave Man United a few problems today even though he was essentially playing up front on his own. Having such poor players up front doesn't just make it hard to score goals, it makes everything else much tougher as well. Man U played the entire game in our half of the field, there was just no threat of anything from us on a counter attack whatsoever so why wouldn't they? Even when we did get the ball back we didn't have much chance of keeping the thing, there was just nowhere for us to play. Their first goal was terrible from Jonas, but we'd been pinned so far back by Man U that when Jonas gets the ball not far outside his own box he's actually our furthest player forward. There's nowhere to go, and you lose the ball. Keep giving Man United the ball in the final third and they'll score eventually. The rest of the side is actually not that bad at all. Harper's alright in goal, does more or less everything in a slightly above average fashion. Enrique is a good young full-back who should keep getting better. Perch looked very nervous out there but I think there's hope for him. Between him Simpson and Taylor we should find someone who can at least be passable back there. Colo and Williamson looked alright tonight, and we've Campbell and Taylor to hopefully come back to add competition. We've an OK gang of CM's. Barton was poor tonight but if he stays clear of injury and himself he'll do OK this year. I like Guthrie, hope he's back for the Villa game, given a run of games together I think he and Barton would do well. Smith is alright for depth, hopefully Gosling can show something and push him down to pecking order though. Ideally we want more quality in CM long term, but it's not our biggest concern right now. We also seem well organised and the players do play for each other, but there's just no quality in the final third. Jonas and Routledge are useful players, but neither will strike fear into teams. Routledge is a bit flakey, while Jonas has more or less no end product at all. Hopefully we sign Ben Arfa, sounds like he'd a big addition. He could fill in on either wing as well as potentially playing just off the striker, in the role that Nolan parodied tonight. Really think we need another striker on top of that though, someone with a bit of pace and mobility who can threaten teams over the top. It'd be really fucking frustrating to see a player like Bellamy go on loan somewhere else when he'd do wonders for our team. We don't get players like that and we could very easily go back down again though. It's no real harm losing to Man United, but if we send that same group of players back out there against Villa next week and I'd be pretty sure we'll lose again, to be honest. I just don't see where our threat is going to come from with the current squad, we need quality recruits or it's going to be a very long, horrible season.

He's meant to be in a free role, in space when we have the ball and assisting the midfield when we don't. Apart from the first few minutes when he did some closing down he's done neither. Hiding. Aye, said before I reckon he'll become a real problem for the team. Offers nothing whatsoever.

To be expected really. You just can't go to teams like Man U and play a pairing of Carroll and Nolan up top and expect anything other than to lose. Man U are playing so high up the pitch because we have absolutely no threat of anything over the top, they're camped in our half and we've not looked like putting five passes together as a result, there's simply no space to play in. It was a matter of when they'd score, and now it's a matter of how many. We need mobility up front soon or this will happen a lot this season. Hopefully the heads don't drop second half, we've given good effort we're just impossibly up against it unfortunately.

Not me, I love a good villain. Bring back evil Yorkie, I say.

More textbook use of the word literally from Redknapp there ten minutes ago. Today's footballs "literally explode off your foot" apparently.

Ah the days when everyone hated Yorkie, what times they were.

Shite game, wish it had gone on longer.

Just ever so slightly OTT there like. He has been s**** to be fair, looked completely off the pace and never got into the game 1st half even when Arsenal were bossing it. Not true, he's had a few decent runs and turned Mascherano inside out nicely. He's still quite young, obviously. Can remember one nice run alright to be fair, but he's been caught in possession a lot and looked a bit lost out there. Gave the ball away for Liverpool's goal and all. As has been said he's still very young and I'm sure he'll be class eventually, but he was definitely rubbish today.

Just ever so slightly OTT there like. He has been shite to be fair, looked completely off the pace and never got into the game 1st half even when Arsenal were bossing it.

Fixed your post, fwap fwap fwap. FYp No you didn't.