captainhaircut

how's that worrying? He's been our best player since he signed for us, Exactly. Anyone giving Martins grief can fuck off. Lets sell him for 10m and buy 4 players for 2m eh? That would be fuckin class. He;s comfortably our best player once Shay goes. I'm talking about the player that will win us the most points. He's absolutely indispensable and he's massively underrated by nearly all our fans.

If Martins is fit, we might have a chance of fielding a decent side. I can't see him starting if he wasn't even on the bench tonight though. Harper Taylor- Colo-Bassong-Enrique Duff Butt NZogbia Lovenkrands Carroll Martins Bit of pace in the above team at least.

Every aspect of that goal was a fuckin disgrace. From the lack of pressure on the defender who raked it forward, to Enrique just letting his man knock it down, to Geremi not tracking his man, to Taylor standing off Bellamy like a twat and finally Harper standing there looking disinterested. No interest in fuckin playing at all. Thanks lads. What an abortion this match has been.

I think this season will shock everyone because your owner helped fuck over the financial system of the country but will still get to keep making money out of your club by selling all your best players.

In response to me asking if any of the trialists are any good, Nile responded 'dere decent'. Sounds promising indeed. The Nile Ranger stamp of approval.

Lol. Thats what Nile just told me!!

He's on facebook at the mo, so he's either not playing or its already done. I would imagine its already been played tbh. Training's usually done by 2 IIRC.

I was thinking that we have an ideal oppurtunity to go big on power and pace this window. If Shay, Smith and Geremi left, you could go big for Mbia, Gomis, Ebondo and a left back of similar ilk. That would leave you with Jonas, Zog, Barton and Mbia in the middle with Gomis and Oba up top. Two quick, powerful full backs would make us a very tough side to play. Pompey did it last year and were very successful.

They'll have cameras here already for the highlights. Commentators and pundits can just work from Southend and watch the game on TV like the rest of us. Surely technology is advanced enough to come up with something!!

Chelsea v Southend called off. Any chance we might get bumped up to live game on ITV?

What the fuck are SSN talking about? Man City have people in Milan but are 'nowhere near making a bid' and are just discussing the possibility of a transfer. How the hell do these discussions go? 'Will you sell Kaka?' 'Yes for £100m?' 'Ok, have £100m' How can they be nowhere near making a bid. Did they fly to Milan to ask if he was available and then fly back to have a think about it if they said he was. They talk so much crap on that channel.

If you could swap Given for Johnson and Onouha, swap Zog for Huddlestone, and then get Driver in for 2m and Riise in on loan, you'd have done decent business. I think a few swaps could be the way forward. No-one has any money, so its everyone is waiting for movement before letting anyone go. Trading players solves this problem.

Riise on loan, Driver for 2m, Onouha and Johnson for Shay, along with a decent right and decent holder and the squad would start to look handy. I would be tempted to swap Shay for Darren Bent. Apparently, they've trained all week with Defoe and Pavlychenko up top.

When we played Martins in that wide left forward role at the end of last season, Enriques distribution was excellent. He often played great balls down the line for Oba's run. If Zog wants off, we should really look to change back to that system. Doubt Kinnear has the balls or nous though.

If Spurs want him, we should possibly look for swap deals. I think we might see a few more of them in todays market. Bale, Gunter, Huddlestone, O'Hara, or Zokora would all improve our squad options and make up for the loss of N'Zogbia. I wouldn't be too bothered about him leaving if we played Jonas wide left and brought in a quality wide right player. Jonas is better on the left anyway.

To be fair, I think Parker is very overrated by most but underrated by us. I can remember some sensational performances by him for us. Arsenal, Bolton, Fulham, Alkmaar, Liverpool (all at home) were all excellent performances where he drove us forward from midfield, broke up play and used the ball well. We certainly need a midfielder with all these attributes now. He also produced a lot of average to poor performances as well but since Bobby left, how many good performances have we seen from our centre midfielders? Excluding the above games from Parker, you could probably count them on one hand.

Lee Ryder suggesting that Xisco doesn't want to play in the reserves. http://www.blogonthetyne.co.uk/2009/01/january-transfer-window-could.html

I really dont know tbh. I've always liked him as a player but this will just push Gunter further down the pecking order. Gunter has looked solid eveytime he's had his chance so i see no reason why we cant rely on him and corluka for this season but i also see why Redknapp is after Pascal. Getting him in will release some pressure on king being fit every week... chimbonda----------corluka-----------------woody----------------ekotto/bale is better then corluka----------------dawson--------woody---------------ekotto/bale btw, a poster on GG who is a journalist in Spain, has posted something pretty interesting regarding a possible transfer target for both us and Newcastle. Usually i'd tarnish these lame itk's with the same brush BUT this guy is always spot on and never bullshits. I can post it here if you want? Go on post it. I could use some crazy Spurs ITK-ness at the moment.

You can play for two sides in one season. If the skysports records are correct, Xisco didn't play for Depor this season so he has only played for us this year.

I was just about to post that. I'm officially excited. No-one burst my bubble please!!! Why are you excited? We're not linked with him in the article - which has no quotes and is by goal.com. So to burst your bubble by the way Damn you. McKay was on SSN talking about us as if he knew what was going on at our place, which suggests he may have had contact with us. We can only hope.

I was just about to post that. I'm officially excited. No-one burst my bubble please!!!

http://www.goal.com/en/news/8/main/2009/01/04/1040997/marseille-pair-mbami-and-givet-heading-towards-england Modeste M'Bami would be an unreal signing for us. A monster in midfield. Perfect foil for Barton or Guthrie. Will never happen like, but we can hope.

Ferguson and Bougherra would for 6m would do me. Bougherra is quick and strong. He can play right back, centre half and centre mid and is very comfortable on the ball. Would be good for the squad. Ferguson is not ideal. But he's a good passer of the ball, combative, chips in with the odd goal and would lead well from midfield. Those who say he failed a Blackburn don't take into account that the manager who bought him left soon after, he had injury problems (I think Speedo broke his foot IIRC) and that Blackburn side were really poor. As far as I'm concerned, if we have Oba and Owen up front with Jonas and Zog on the wings, our centre midfield just needs to be able to pass the ball, break up play and put in a good shift. Ferguson is more than capable of doing that. His performances in Scotlands qualifying campaigns of the last few years and in the UEFA Cup last year prove that. If you added those two along with a quality left back and maybe someone capable of playing right back/ right wing, we'd be pretty much covered for the rest of the season. Then in the summer you can look at replacing Owen, Viduka and possibly Zog and Shay if they still want off.

Fuck me, the way you lot are going on you would think he wouldn't be a huge upgrade on Butt. Ferguson and Barton would be combative and have plenty of quality. Rangers won't sell him anyway, so its a pointless exercise. I'd certainly take him if the price was about £4m.

He's 26. How much better can he get exactly? As a centre half. A lot I would say. I thought he was 24 tbh, but Rio is 30. Has he not improved in the last 4 years? He was good enough for Man Utd and Leeds to pay £18m+ each before he was 26, so there's your answer. What's that got to do with how much he's improved over the last 4 years though? I got the impression the Captain was implying that he felt Ferdinand has massively improved in the last 4 years. I disagree, he was quality before then and the transfer fees reflect that. Just because he was class before 4 years back doesn't mean to say he hasn't improved since then though. You don't say. Of course he's steadily improved as a player over the years, that's to be expected of a regular England and Man Utd player. The fact is that he of immense quality and class before he was Bougherra's age, and has only got better since. It's a strange comparison because Bougherra hasn't had anything close to as good a reputation as Ferdinand had before he was 26. Ferdinand hasn't improve "a lot" in the last 4 years because he didn't need to. I can't see such an average player as Bougherra is making a massive leap in quality any time soon. Apologies for the confusion. I just used Ferdinand as a comparison as I'd previously stated Bougherra reminded me of him somewhat. My point was that players- certainly centre halfs can improve a lot after 26. Its mainly that bit of nous they need. Bougherra was superb at Sheff Wed. If he had been English and produced those performances he would have cost 10m. He was good for Charlton before they went down and then moved to a Champions League club. He's a good player who doesn't need to improve much to be a good Premier League player. Just needs that experience that will come with games in a top league.