tmonkey

Tempted to put Hatem back in after that performance against Norwich. Which wasn't his best, but having not featured much at all to being thrown in and very nearly splitting Norwich apart on several occasions - he's bound to be getting goals and assists aplenty if Pardew sticks with him.

Remy free kick please. Come on.

Remy takes all free kicks from now on please.

Debuchy trying to emulate Rob Schneider's dolphin impression from The Animal.

By the way Hatem was loitering in the number 10 position there. That's where he should play imo, at least try it for some time - if he's down the right he spends too much of the game playing too deep because he has to track back.

Hatem

Remy's playacting is getting a bit too much.

I think Tom Huddlestone would be a "best fit" replacement if we are to stick with Pardew and his "just get da fackin ball in da box" strategy. Pinpoint accurate direct passes pinged into Cisse/Shola/De Jong's head, as opposed to Cabaye's floated balls which are less accurate and more difficult to knock down/win.

Whilst I fully understand the doom and gloom on here, I'm personally happy with the sale. Cabaye is naturally a class act and very much underrated given his pretty unique passing/shooting technique, but at the same time he does have flaws that render him far from ideal in this AM position (one paced, can't dribble, tends to rush things when pressed, the consistency in execution doesn't match the ability, questionable stamina at times). Anything above £20m is a good price for a player who could well throw another strop in the summer in a bid to leave, and I think he's hit a purple patch in the past 2 months as at least a couple of his goals have taken decisive deflections to bounce past the keeper. It's a good time to sell too in terms of the bigger picture. Virtually zero risk of relegation, if the team flops badly because Cabaye isn't there to pull the strings then we'll be able to try to remedy that in the summer (you'd hope). If someone else steps up, then it's good money we can invest in other positions. If we were to sell in the summer and then find out in 14/15 that we're utter s*** without Cabaye, we'd be potentially looking at another panic buy in January amid another relegation dogfight under Pardew. A sale now buys us more time. And on the "stepping up" note, I think Marveaux in the little we've seen of him could well be a more effective player in the same position, as could Ben Arfa (especially given that the latter has frequently drifted into that area of the pitch in games where he isn't getting the ball on the wing - and has often had his dribbles down the middle). This should be an opportunity to utilize a flair player in Cabaye's role, especially if we're going to have that position surrounded by defensive/workmanlike players. If we don't, then the problem lies with the infuriatingly incompetent manager we have - not the transfer policy. With or without Cabaye we should be absolutely trouncing Norwich and the Mackems, and in style too.

I'm the same but had two saved up transfers, used them but dont want a -4 to replace Cabaye I forgot about this oh ffs, f*ck off Ashley you mug. Almost makes you want Manchester United to get him. Cabaye would be a cast iron starter for them and probably get another 5-10 goals play as many in assists. At £6.5m that'd be a bargain FF first teamer, so fingers crossed Moyes sees some sense in this.

Why would we do that? Selling on the last day or so means no time for a replacement (fake bids will placate the majority of fans most likely), which in turn means £25m gets to sit in a Swiss bank somewhere earning interest for 6+ months without Ashley & Co having to account for it (which is good since they'll be siphoning some of it into their own accounts).

That assumes though that Cabaye values his place in the national team above which club he plays for and the wages he's receiving. I.e. if the choices are: A) Stay at NUFC, retain place in French squad, play a few games in World Cup 2014, move in summer or afterwards; or B) Move to PSG for £20m+, get a 5 year contract paying 2-3 times what NUFC are paying, play with some of the best players in the world in the CL in his home country in one of the worlds great cities but with the risk of possibly losing his place in the French squad/team should he become a bench player for them. You're assuming he's short sighted enough to think 'option A' is the best for him. I'd argue there's alot more going for him with 'option B', especially if he's arrogant/confident enough to believe he can force his way into being the main man in central midfield for them - he'll be thinking he could have a starring role in the remainder of PSG's CL campaign, which would pretty much guarantee his place in the French team. And for £20m+, I highly doubt PSG are just going to bench him within a few games (I think he's highly likely to get in ahead of Matuidi and Verratti). Motta, Matiudi and Verratti have 3 goals between them in a weak league whilst being in by far the best team - Cabaye has 7 in the Premiership in an Alan Pardew mid table side. Added to which, 'option A' might only be attractive purely to get to 'option B', which would be his ultimate goal (i.e. use NUFC and the World Cup to get that lucrative transfer to an elite CL side). If that's the case, he'd be insane to turn down the opportunity to get there sooner, especially since there's a risk that he's in the middle of a purple patch right now and could well tank in Brazil (assuming he gets there with us), or the entire French team do shit (as is more likely to be the case), meaning the chance to move to an elite CL club might not crop up anytime soon.

Rooney's management company/agent must be the best in the business. Every other year he's on the verge of leaving because he's unhappy at Old Trafford, and before you know it he's signed a new contract with a bumper pay rise.

"We have an agreement with the leaders of Newcastle that I will not reveal," Nicollin told Midi Libre. What a cock teasing b******.

IIRC we sold Cabaye the idea that he could use NUFC as a stepping stone, which is entirely why he came here. We got in early (along with Villa supposedly) and offered him the opportunity to come to the Premiership, get guaranteed first team football, and prove himself worthy of the big transfer he ultimately desires, as opposed to him playing the waiting game at Lille in the hope that a concrete offer from one of the big clubs materialized (after which he'd then have to be content trying to make a name for himself from the bench). It explains why he went on strike with the Arsenal interest because it's what he was promised. We're living up to our side of the bargain by selling him to PSG assuming any truth in this, so no complaints here. Truth be told, part of me wants to see Cabaye sold because there's a possibility (even if a completely remote one because of Pardew) that Cabaye's direct replacement might be Ben Arfa. I know many folk think Ben Arfa doesn't have the right traits to play in the number 10 role, but we've rarely ever seen him in a deeper AM role (certainly not in the current team), and it's an area of the pitch that he often naturally drifts to to get on the ball. Plus there's no real need for a defensive shift to be put in with Tiote and Anita behind him.

Fernandinho £30m. Fellaini £28m. Erik Lamella £25m. James Milner £20m + Ireland. Carrick £18m. Anderson £20m. Alberto Aquilani £18m. Joe Allen £15m. Paulinho £17m. James McCarthy £13m. Jack Rodwell £15m. Dembele £15m. Just a bit of context should the debate about what he's "worth" crop up.

Spot on.

Life is so much better when we're winning.

3-0 win for us. Expecting us to pass the ball around alot in between defense and midfield, then show zero patience when we move the ball forward as we play to Pardew's philosophy of lumping it forward aimlessly. Difference between both teams will be superior finishing plus a jammy goal from us giving us the lead (and relaxing the players).

Serious question - so far do you think he's made money out of owning the club? And if so how? He's getting millions of pounds' worth of worldwide exposure for his main interest (which coincidentally has increased in value by over 700% in the last five years) via probably the world's most popular sporting event, for free. Just that. Can such a thing be estimated? Would be interesting if so, given how much prime time advertising can cost (I've read up to £1 million for 30 second adverts during the biggest prime time audiences, >£250k for normal prime time events). It could be worth tens of millions in the UK alone if one were to argue that the "indirect" advertising through sponsorship is equivalent to a 30 second television advert.

I realize our transfer policy is tremendously frustrating, and we've had some horrendous windows where serious gaps haven't been addressed leaving us seriously short in areas,, missed out on good players because of a million or two, etc etc, but I genuinely think our transfer policy is bang on for the current climate and for a club our size operating without CL funds (or owner backed transfer funds, aka "cheating"), and probably the only positive of Ashley's reign as owner. Value a player who is at the right age and stage in their career (i.e. looking to step up, not down), who wants reasonable wages, attempt to sign that player within our valuation, if the selling club then starts a bidding war or refuses to budge from their bloated valuation or starts moving the goalposts in an attempt to delay things, we move on to other targets. We can't attract those talented players who look certain to be superstars because the elites always get to them first, we don't want to go back down the Shepherd route of signing CL rejects for big fees and/or big wages, and we don't want to be drawn into bidding wars instigated by clubs who don't really want to sell their prized assets in the hope that a Man City or PSG decides to offer them a windfall for that player. The market we're in is very much attempting to find "hidden" talent that isn't obvious, players who've gone under the radar, but that inherently means we'll be looking at players where it's difficult to tell if they're actually worth their asking price - flawed talent if you will. Whilst on the surface the "our valuation or no deal" policy may seem one that results in us eventually signing inferior players because we go from preferred option 1 on the list to alternative bargain basement options 3/4/5, I think the policy works because at its premise is one fundamental principle that has always been the case in this sport imo given how big and widespread it is - that is, that there's "plenty more fish in the sea". There are a shitload of talented players who we don't know much about out there, ones who've been overlooked by the elite clubs. If we can scout them well and know who those talented players are (as Mr Carr seems to be doing wonderfully) then this transfer policy is spot on because it's then becomes reasonable to have lists where anyone from option 1 to option 10 could turn out to be a gem signed for peanuts (as many of our signings have been). Sometimes it will work out, sometimes it won't. And going back to the pre-Ashley periods, where would Sir Bobby's team have been if we had signed Zenden and Jeffers (preferred options) instead of Robert and Bellamy (backup choices)? Or alternatively, who would we have signed if we had missed out on preferred option Jean Alain Boumsong? Distin? Luuk de Jong has, by all accounts, been shit since his move to Germany. I've never seen him play, but he could very well be overrated because of how week the Dutch league is, which is where he's made his name, and looking at his stats he's only had one season where he's hit 20+ in Holland, though that might mean little depending on the type of player he is. But the point here is that if we think he's worth £6m and no more, and Borussia decide he's worth alot more than that, or start to try to squeeze more money out of us despite him being worthless to them at present, then yes, we should move on and see where our next option lies, even if that means waiting until the summer. Whilst that might mean missing out on de Jong who then goes on to be a world beater, the alternative options might be better, and that's the benefit of our transfer policy and setup. The real issue for me is that we don't have the manager who can make best use of what we currently have, and is creating these issues where signing player X is of paramount importance purely because of his refusal (and inability) to use what we do have appropriately. Last summer this manager's complaint was that we didn't have enough 6 foot 3 players. Thank fuck we have the policy we have, otherwise it's anyone's guess as to how badly we'd be struggling right now if we had decided to match West Ham's offer of £15m for Andy Carroll (possibly meaning no room in the budget for Remy).

Cabaye, that £30m Walcott replacement...

Remy is an upgraded version of Ba imo. Both good goalscorers with good movement and the ability to hit a ball cleanly, but Remy is a tad more useful outside of the box, dribbles a bit better, has better stamina, and can play wide left without throwing the toys out of the pram. Both ultimately lacking as all-round footballers, and annoying to see Remy has an inconsistent touch that is often unnecessarily heavy, though I thought Ba's was generally worse when he was here.

Cisse high again.

Navas proving that there's a correlation between pace and stupidity.