Ashley17

We bid £8m on a midfielder. Two £500k loan deals wouldn't have gone a miss Fair point, we did mess up trying to get in real quality and not taking the safe option. Can't decide if you're being sarcastic or not but surely Johnson, who I admit is quality, was a huge risk for a threadbare squad missing central midfielders, we need players who are fit now. Granted I don't know what happened with the loans or if there was anybody suitable available but if Father Jack is gonig to talk about them being available then it's his own fault.

We bid £8m on a midfielder. Two £500k loan deals wouldn't have gone a miss

I was just pointing out you'd missed out the only 2 players those two teams have signed that strengthen them at all (granted I know nothing of WBA's random loanee's) Personally I agree with Mowen, Portsmouth are on a slippery slope and they give me great hope of us staying up.

thomas' post is too big to quote but from that list: Portsmouth plus Pennant WBA plus Simpson Pace will help any side, neither of those two are bad players

Positives: Nolan is Prem experienced with captain qualities, been there and done it in relegation scraps. Taylor takes a decent set piece Taylor can cover several positions. Lovenkrands adds some pace to the squad, though I admit to knowing very little about his general play. Negatives: Still no "door opener" in midfield Losing Guthrie and Barton for the rest of the season and Nicky Butt being old and terrible necessitates more than buying one central midfielder. What happened to the loans? Losing N'Zogbia took away pace from the squad, though he didn't want to be here. There is no back-up for Martins, if he doesn't make a full recovery soon we are stuck with 2 big men up front and that will only work against Arsenal [/cheap shot] However, this doesn't make us any weaker as there never was a replacement anyway. Conclusion: Slightly weaker, but enough reason for us to stay up (Portsmouth, Boro and the like being part of the reason)

I would assume Viduka or Smith would be on the bench aswell.

Wouldn't get too excited about Martins' supposed return. First line of the article: JOE Kinnear is hoping to welcome back Obafemi Martins from a seven-week hernia layoff ahead of this weekend's trip to basement boys West Brom. Hoping being the key word. Joe Kinnear was hoping to tie up 4 deals today. Joe Kinnear was hoping to have Oba Martins back for the Spurs game Joe Kinnear was hoping to have Oba Martins back for the West Ham game. I could go on...

The several things in the air are snowflakes you moron Craigy

All of our deals are quiet. If something happens it won't have been rumoured elsewhere, or at least that's my optimistic guess.

From BBC Live Text: 1413: "Anybody know if Westwood has signed for Newcastle United yet? I know he was having a medical earlier, but have heard no further reports." CUFC_Mike on 606 No keepers, please.

Thing is, hardly any clubs have completed deals today so far. Think we'll just have to wait and see.

Sunderland have signed Tal Ben Haim on loan. They've done tremendous. Everything else is rumour. If every rumour came true for other clubs and not us, then I could see your point. Also, Portsmouth have signed a load of crap and taken some gambles. We'll see. so better than us yeah? Hayden Mullins. A Portugese kid who Adams said he might not play because he doesn't know how good he is. Angelos Basinas That Gekas fella Pennant (good player, but an idiot) Sold: Diarra Defoe No, not better than us to be honest. i was speaking about incomings only to be fair, sorry I didn't make that clear. Pennant, Mullins, Gekas, Basinas and possibly Dos Santos represents much better business than Lovenkrands, Nolan and possibly Taylor It's the old quality vs quantity argument. Imagine if we'd signed Hayden Mullins? People would be dead.

Sunderland have signed Tal Ben Haim on loan. They've done tremendous. Everything else is rumour. If every rumour came true for other clubs and not us, then I could see your point. Also, Portsmouth have signed a load of crap and taken some gambles. We'll see. so better than us yeah? Hayden Mullins. A Portugese kid who Adams said he might not play because he doesn't know how good he is. Angelos Basinas That Gekas fella Pennant (good player, but an idiot) Sold: Diarra Defoe No, not better than us to be honest.

Sunderland have signed Tal Ben Haim on loan. They've done tremendous. Everything else is rumour. If every rumour came true for other clubs and not us, then I could see your point. Also, Portsmouth have signed a load of crap and taken some gambles. We'll see.

anyone got a pic? Enrique (the poster from here) got one of Beye and Taylor, I couldn't be bothered to get my phone out to take a picture, how bad is that?

Would love to know what the France U21 coach thinks of him at the moment. Probably, "Fuck, I wish he was 21"

Was a decent game, they're filthy as fuck and I'm amazed they finished with all 11 on the park. We looked blunt as out up front but I should have expected as much. Lots of endeavour second half but a draw is probably the right result. Sat about 10 yards in front of Habib Beye and Ryan Taylor (in full NUFC tracksuit) so he's either signed or a bit keen. Thank fuck Chopra is shit.

Tomorrow is massive. It doesn't really need to be said, but a win would do us so much good on so many levels. Don't let us down boys.

I imagine that Bardsley would play centre back if that Kay guy has to play, or maybe McCartney. In all honesty I don't know but you would expect the youth guy to be played at right back. Ferdinand will probably make it anyway, they must know we're down to the bare bones up front anyway. I think Duff, Lovenkrands and Jonas will be rotated between the wigns and just off the front man, mainly because JFK doesn't know who's best where.

There's an ITK on their forum who says Ferdinand is 50/50, some youth kid in as potential cover. Reading through a few pages of the thread it seems this guy has been reliable in the past. Shame we don't have some more potent strikers fit to test them.

Come on Villa, Arsenal, everything else stay the same

Fulham 1 - 0 Portsmouth

Wigan have essentially replaced Kevin Kilbane with Charles N'Zogbia, which is a bit of a bonus for them. Taylor is very useful, versatile, and I imagine will be the fill in for Beye for the time being. Then he'll move into whatever position we have the most injuries in.

All agreed. Scan on Monday to ascertain the damage, won't be able to tell with the bruising whether it's broken or not. At least we do have money to buy someone, whether there will be enough time is another question Surely it would be better to get the scan done tomorrow so you can look at a potential replacement. I assume the bruising will stop that.

It's all up to whether the staff'll work weekends. There's nothing realistically stopping us signing players on Saturday or Sunday. I'm sure Duff signed on a Saturday or Sunday, didn't he? With the deadline being this Monday, clubs wont want to lose two days of negotiating/Medicals, etc. The whole point of the deadline being extended to the Monday is that there wouldn't be any days lost.