Shak

Are you in the squad at the moment or hoping to play your way in? My real name is Stephen Kelly, to be fair.

Hope Ireland get France. Can't wait until they expand the tournament to 24 teams, be nice to go to one of these things while I'm still at a good age for it.

He's Irish, yeah? No, but he does have a number of caps for them nonetheless.

Thought Best did pretty well for a guy who'd obviously never been involved in a game of football before. Ah yes now I remember this guy. Seriously, fans are going to hate this guy. He's probably quicker than Ameobi and Carroll, but being fast is no use if you don't have a clue how to use that speed. What we desperately need is a guy who is quick, but who also is comfortable on the ball and has some sort of intelligence to his play.

I can only assume that although we have plenty of big target men, Hughton doesn't actually rate them that highly at doing that job. Ameobi and Carroll are big, but neither of them really hold the ball up well. Probably the best in this regard is Ranger, but he's not fantastic in the air and is still very inexperienced. But yeah, I wish we had got in a Moses or Beckford rather than go the target man route. If we get promotion though, there's nothing to stop us from having another go for Beckford. More likely he'd rather stick two targetmen up front and launch balls at them all day, IMO.

Ah well, another body in I guess. He'll fit in well with our long ball style as well, which is a plus. Most frustrating part of this signing, for me. We have plenty of big, target men types in the squad, no need whatsoever for another one. Lovenkrands isn't actually that good, but he's absolutely crucial to us if we're going to even attempt to play anything other than route 1, bullshit, Sam Allardyce football. We're crying out for someone who can play off the CF, a player who can pick up the ball in front of the defense and go at the defenders, someone who'll give them something different to worry about with their pace. Moses would have been great, but he's not the only player in the country who could have filled that need. Instead we go out and get this guy. It's depressing.

Seriously man, I can only assume this guy has fortuitously wandered onto the end of 5 or 6 unmissable chances this season, hence his decent record this year. A three and a half year contract seems insane, because he'll basically be a waste of a squad number if we do go up barring some sort of miracle.

Maybe the guy who comes on for Ireland and stands there trying to get used to the offside rule for 60 minutes before being mercifully taken off is an imposter?

He's absolutely shite. Just a terrible, terrible signing if this is true. I'd easily rate every one of our current strikers above him.

I'm not sure it's fitness with Guthrie, he doesn't seem to run out of steam from what I've seen. He's just a very poor natural athlete, no burst to him whatsoever. Which makes it all the more ridiculous having him on the wing.

Four games, mid-Feb. Indeed.

Sure that's miles away.

When's he actually supposed to be back, like?

Needs to be some exclamation marks in the thread title tbh.

Arshavin channeling the spirit of Andy Carroll today.

OG from the keeper that tbh.

Wahey.

Damn you Gallas, keep it down!! (Optimistic, but I've stuck a fiver on him to get the first goal.)

Shola and Lovenkrands. Madness that some people are voting for Ranger over Shola.

It's no surprise really though. A shit owner and a shit manager is rarely the best combination for making good signings. Really hope there's some sort of back-up plan, I doubt it though.

I'll bet Nolan, Smith and Butt were there, coughing really loudly while Hughton was trying to talk.

Wait till you live with your girlfriend. You'll get to watch one of those if you're lucky. I was going to say exactly the same thing. How on earth do you lot manage to watch so much football? I've lived with my Mrs ten years now, and if i want to watch a match, i need to start dropping hints and being nice around the house at least 10 days in advance. Been doing the same with the Arsenal match tomorrow. All I got was "for fuck's sake I've let you watch it tonight haven't I?" Way to wear them pants, lads.

Just shouted "Blobby!!" really loudly reading that post for some reason.

Agree with all of it apart from the fact that I have a feeling MA will change manager in the summer if we go up. Really? Where does any such faith in Ashley come from? I really, really can't see it. The first signs that he is beginning to get it is the decent window we're having. Good solid purchases and in Routledge an inspired one. The other thing is if he doesn;t change it in the summer a run of losses will make him act. Whichever way it goes hughton won't be in charge next Christmas. It'll be the latter, I reckon. We'll end up with someone coming in at the halfway point of the season trying to save our bacon. If he does, great. If not, it'll basically have been a complete waste of two years (Butt will probably be gone though, on the plus side). I just don't think Ashley has a clue how to run a football club, and he never will. Judging by Llambias' contributions thus far, he's not particularly good at selecting people to do it for him either. Bit early to call Routledge an inspired signing.

It's an away game. He can't go criticising them or they'll beat him up on the bus home.