Memphis

Well, tbh the only kids in that team is Biggie and Tav. And i'm excited about seeing them. I also assume Campbell will be on at some point.

Hope it ends up looking like this... Harper Tav Williamson Perch Raylor Bigi Anita Obertan Gosling Marveaux Cisse Pretty strong lineup, excited about seeing the kids.

It's been written before but I think it's pretty simple. It's not all that difficult to break into the top 10 in the Premier League, we've seen the fact that, generally speaking, 10-12 teams each year are middling at best. We didn't have any problem making that leap over the course of just a season or two. But it gets exponentially harder to go any higher than 7th each year, especially since there's so much money and so much entrenched talent at the clubs above 7th. You can spend 10-20 million and go from 17th to 8th/9th without a problem. But spend that same 10-20 million when you're 7th and it might not even get you into the Europa League spots. Ashley's not a guy that easily takes those sorts of financial risks. There's no guarantee that we'll push on even if we brought in Debuchy, Douglas, Striker X, whoever. It is so hard to get into that closed shop. I suspect Pardew's trying to convince him to spend but he already went unusually large in the spending to bring in Cisse in January. He will see it as a concession to renew Colo's contract considering his age. We bought Anita when it isn't necessarily the position of greatest need. I don't know how many more concessions Pardew can get him to make. I'd be happy with this window if we brought in one more player and kept the existing squad intact. We'd still be short in one area of another but we'd be well-positioned to build on last season's platform, consolidate, and perhaps take advantage of a more consistent situation to bring in players in January or next summer. I would be surprised if we spend big money on anyone (other than Carroll - just as a pisstake) in the next week. But I'd still class us as right there with Arsenal, Spurs, Everton, as teams in that mix for the 4th spot. I'm assuming Manchesters/Chelsea have 1-3 sewn up.

Posted it earlier but think it got lost in the shuffle - On Youtube - search for: "Piero: Anita is een hele goede controlerende middenvelder'" Great 3 min analysis of a match vs Roda where Anita showed a lot of really promising things. I liked the speed and smooth tackle at the :54 mark in particular.

I don't think Andy Carroll would do a good job as Villa manager.

After a nervous first touch or two, I thought he looked very bright. Quick in thought and quick in movement as well, defended well and made a couple of excellent touches. Promising debut.

Amazing result given how generally poor we played. If we can beat Spurs with a performance like that, imagine what we can do with a fully fit squad.

Need changes quickly.

No one's offering any outlets so whoever drops deep to receive the ball from the defenders typically just has to punt it forward in hope. That's the byproduct of being outnumbered in midfield (and not being able to match the energy they're showing by pressing constantly). Anita would be good if for no other reason than he's fully fit and energetic. That injection alone would do wonders for us.

If everyone was fit, I'd say it's crying out for the 4-2-1-3 thing with Anita coming on for Jonas. But everyone's not fit, so Anita and Gosling will likely be on for Cabaye and Tiote. Good shout about Perch moving up and Willo coming on, too. That could well happen.

We look like a team that is trying to use 4 midfielders, only one of whom is 100% fit, to deal with 5 who are. And we look like a team that hasn't really played together much in the preseason. Cabaye won't be on much past 60 minutes, and Tiote might not either. Both look nowhere near their best.

Seriously, West Brom are trolling Liverpool hard now. Could easily have been 7-0. And QPR could not look worse.

WHat a ball from Santi Cazorla and what a miss by Giroud. LOL

QPR 0-5 Swansea Sinclair. Easy.

QPR have been catastrophic in the 2nd half. Very smooth finish from Dyer but an easy counter-attack from Swansea. Early days and all but Swansea look a decent side under Laudrup, more direct than Rodgers but still plenty of flair.

Absolute cracker from Michu there...Routledge pulled the strings aznd it was a first time left footed curler from Michu for his 2nd...

Arsenal look really poor. Couple of chances but seem really out of sorts in the midfield. Lots of poor passes and touches, just seem unsettled. Michu's goal for Swansea was down to shocking goalkeeping from Robert Green. Atrocious.

Dutch MOTD-ish show called Eredivisie Live did a segment on Anita with some good examples of his DM play - search for "Piero: Anita is een hele goede controlerende middenvelder" on youtube. Shows his combative side, some great challenges and some good speed.

Anita would have just turned 6 when Ajax won the Champions League in 1995. I feel old. And also he's probably not that bothered about the rich history of a club that can't pay him what he can make elsewhere.

That 4-2-1-3 with Cabaye in the hole behind Ba/Cisse/Ben Arfa looks pretty sexy to me.

Really optimistic about what this signing could mean in terms of style of play. Pardew has stated time and time again that controlling the midfield is crucial to the possession style he wants to instill. As Anita is presumably one for the first XI (whatever conversation he had with Pards must have gone well), that can only mean he plays alongside Tiote as an anchoring pair. That would be tremendously exciting since it would then allow the front four of Ba/Cisse/Cabaye/HBA to have enormous amounts of freedom and movement knowing the midfield is under control. It also helps with depth in a position requiring lots of energy/exertion in a season hopefully full of games. We shouldn't get overrun in the middle with Anita and Tiote. I'm very encouraged by the move.

He wouldn't be cup-tied even if he played. UEFA allow a player to play for one team in the qualifiers but another in the competition proper.

Van der Wiel with a fabulous goal. SIGN HIM TOO!!!!! Love a good controlling midfielder. Seems absolutely perfect to pair with Tiote. Allows more freedom for Cabaye to get forward and make those brilliant passes he's capable of - I still get hard thinking about that ball to Cisse for his second against Stoke. Get the Debuchy thing resolved and we're flying.

Appell follows Russian football closely, at least. Seems to be followed by some reasonable people, so this might be worth paying a little closer attention to than a usual garbage link.

From ITV reporter James Appell on Twitter - Radio Sport in #Russia say Rubin Kazan close to signing Demba Ba. Club believed to have met his release fee.