Sifu

If we (finally) do pull this one off, it'll be a sizeable coup. An attacking RB (or someone who's comfortable with the ball) is what we desperately need. His age is irrelevant btw, we would have a very decent player on our hands and one who could help us to push on in the second half of the season. Good looking lad to join the ranks too.

So much for my post last night. Obviously, Chelsea are one of those clubs who would be willing to pay silly money for a player if they think the player's worth it and they definitely have the means to meet Ba's (and his agents') demands. Ba's knee could yet end up being the stumbling block though. You could even say that Ba's agents could end up asking for too much... So yep, I'm still holding out hope that he stays. Having said that, this has come about rather quickly so it is very plausible that they could sort out everything by the end of next week so it looks like Ba's swansong could be that of the Everton game. If he does go, I won't hold any ill-feelings towards him - he was instrumental to our successful season last year after all. Whilst his attitude recently has been rather questionable, he has still done the job he was paid to do - to score goals. I'll miss him.

Was probably just pissed off that we conceded 7 goals and wanted to get off the pitch as soon as he could.

The talent we saw briefly last season is finally coming into a game of his own this season Was a class act tonight.

The release clause thing isn't as simple as it looks really. If it was the case of a club meeting the £7/7.5 million fee then Ba would have almost certainly been gone during the summer. I don't see how things would be any different next month (that is unless another club is willing to pay him silly money and is confident of looking after that knee). The only thing that's changed is that Ba's attitude towards leaving - it seems to me he's more open to a move now than during the summer.

Not me.

Another somewhat promising (attacking) performance from him. Looks like he's more suited to LW than RW which I think is down to him having less thinking time on the left. Just guessing there but in any case, we're seeing more positives from Obertan these days.

No idea how this is going to go. I'm just going to head to the pub and hope for the best.

It's rather sad to see that he's not the force that he used to be. The signs are still there mind so I'm still going to put my trust into him. All he has to do is to get back to basics and stop trying to do complicated stuff. He has to remember that his job is to protect the defence and to find the simple pass to our attackers, he's been dawdling on the ball a bit too much for my liking this season.

Woop, Gameiro/Erdinç saga all over again, nearly.

His worst performance to date, unfortunately. He has been one of our better players this season but nothing went well for him tonight. I'm sure he'll be fine in his next few games.

True, the second half of 08/09 was an utter shambles. Heads completely dropped then.

My head is firmly in the sand. Don't think we're in that deep of a shit yet.

You better spend some fucking money you cunt.

Might as well have played Tulisa at RB tonight. I can still remember his peformance against Arsenal at the Emirates in the 2010/11 season, he was really good that day. From witnessing that to witnessing tonight's performance, urgh, what a fucking shame. We can do better than him and let's hope we bring a new RB in next month eh?

So just got back from the pub, a group of City fans took pity on me and bought me a couple of pints so stayed longer than I really should have. What can I say about the game then? The last 20 minutes were horrific, embarrassing and humiliating. We capitulated very badly and whilst I am one who likes to look at the positives, I can't really bring myself to do so this time round because of those 20 minutes there. It's all well and good to say that we played well for 70 minutes (which is fair enough, we more than matched them up until their 4th goal) but what we witnessed tonight was another shambolic defensive performance. We're getting there attacking-wise but our defence is progressively getting worse. If tonight doesn't prompt Ashley to spend some fucking money on a defender, then nothing will. A new CB/RB is an absolute must next month. It really is time for the Ashley/Llambias to hold their hands and admit that the transfer policy is massively flawed (I realise that such a statement is worthy of a Yao face). What a demoralising evening.

Lucky you.

It was more of a question tbf...

Many pints will be needed methinks.

The second half of the season was demoralising as fuck. There was only one direction we were going to go like (although that Middlesbrough game, like many others on here, gave me false hope).

Only just caught up with this thread, I see Lee has once again demonstrated his excellent journalistic skills. Chief football writer ftw.

Is that kind in terms of not having a witch hunt to get one of our players banned? Aye, that too

Excluding the Europa League, hasn't ESPN been kind to us this season?

Ferguson literally is a petulant little child

All signs are pointing to him leaving, hope I'm wrong like.