Sifu

It's a refreshing change!

Annoying mong.

He wants to come back

Aye, this sounds like a good plan.

Touché.

Like someone said last night Dave, he could do a "Bassong"........

Definitely.

I don't approve of this rumour being turned into a thread.

Fantastic signing for Arsenal though. And, finally, a sensible one.

Maybe the agent is implying that Macheda is preferring a move to us but we're not actively trying to get him in?

As someone has said, we're probably bringing Macheda in to keep Santon company............

:omg: But in all seriousness, guess he is the back up plan to Maiga.

Harper is getting a lot of injuries and would you be happy if we had to rely on a kid who has barely played reserves games for an extended period? If Forster was still here this would be pointless but you can't expect Soderberg to step up if required. Guess not, especially when it seems Soderberg is constantly on the p*ss. I'd still prefer Harper over Elliot and should be on the bench (when fit). This signing does make sense having thought about it now.

Eh?

Sochaux too with Maiga (hopefully).

Elliot can

Bye Nile.

tbh. Looks as though we have no confidence in Soderberg (or Harper for that matter......).

Sounds like it's a goer. But won't believe it until we know he's on Tyneside......

it's just about balance mate, that's all, and especially if you've got jonas ahead of him the other team pretty much know what they need to do to stop us down the left. he looks really comfortable on the ball though, him and ben arfa down the left is potentially incredible. It's not that straight forward at all. You can't just say because they're both left footed the other team knows exactly how to stop them. Disagree completely. the other team knows which way they're gonna go 9 times out of 10, and that they'll be running into traffic rather than space. i'm not saying it wont work, i'm not saying we wont have a good left flank, i'm saying we'll have a more predictable one and that's a bad thing imo. Everything depends on his pace and technique..If you are useless with the ball, like Simpson, it will be a disaster putting him on left back..But from what I've seen from Santon he's fast and is capable of going both ways..It's his skills that makes him unpredictable, not his preferred fot.. have you played much football? as a defender? I have, but at an inferiour level so it's hardly relevant for this discussion..My point is simple, Santon got skills, so he's probably capable of passing and crossing with both feet, although he prefers his right foot..Simpson on the other hand find it difficult to hit a simple pass..Consequently Simpson would be the shittest defender on earth if placed on left back, but not Santon. contrary to what sam allardyce might tell you, the basics of the game are the same at any level. and one of them is if you know which way someone's likely to go, you've got a better chance of stopping them. i'm not even sure why you're talking about simpson to be honest. Surely it's exactly the same problem if you had two left footed players on the left side? They are both more like to try and go on the outside? it's a good point, but there's a couple of things i'd mention. the main one being that if you're beaten on the outside as a fullback the winger's running into space and can get the cross in, also the centre half is on the way over to cover you and he's left his man in a very dangerous position in the middle. it also means the defence are turned and facing their own goal which is a harder position to defend from than if someone cuts inside and delivers it, in which case defenders are facing away from goal and it's easier to clear. if you're cutting inside a lot as a winger you're running into more traffic, cm's can come across and help without leaving too much space in dangerous areas. all imo, of course. Nah all good points, I am still very happy even if at left back as he has done it for a better club than us.

Oh yes, this is good. This is very good. In fact, this is beyond good. at the prospect of Santon being the next Maldini/Zanetti. A LB at last (well a versatile fullback rather).

Aye, massive ask really. Although Bassong more-or-less came from nowhere as far as most of us were concerned I'm fairly sure he had a decent number of first-team games under his belt with Metz. I've been harping on about centre-back since Campbell went, so apologies if it's boring people, but I was pleased to see a tidbit in one of the local rags this week that suggested Pardew had similar concerns now Williamson had been injured. Better late than never. However that's reminded me I also saw quotes from him earlier in the week stating Perch was an option to cover there when he got back to fitness... Ironically enough the Williamson injury is probably helping Pardew to 'convince' them to buy a full back. If it was Pieters he could have gone to centre back if needed with Ferguson or Ryan Taylor at left back; if Santon comes in then Simpson could go to centre back with Ferguson at left back and Ryan Taylor at right back. There are a couple of other options too. All too much square pegs/round holes for my liking though. Good god I hope not, he was atrocious the last time he played CB.

Well at least we'll have a CB in......