Unbelievable

Much too highly rated/hyped over here to be a serious option for our bench.

RTG-esque Pretty sure it's an ironic post about the fact that Otter always says not worthy of a thread whenever a new one is started which could be put elsewhere but could also deserve it's own thread Aye. Got no love though . Also not sure whether unbelievable's post was aimed at me or the OP. OP of course.. It's pretty embarrassing..

RTG-esque

Especially as they're in the Europa League. Weren't when he was there though, were they? But I'm sure you knew that. This poor mackem lad has completely lost the plot - he genuinely seems to think Ba and Cabaye are our only two players who would get in a combined first XI. He must have had shit in his eyes when Ben Arfa tore them a new one a couple of months ago.

I'm sure so would Lyon and Marseille.

Ben Arfa "wouldnt get a game for any champions league club" apparently.. Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=735922&page=15#ixzz29J4a2vMr

I love how their player comparisons are only based on a handful of games this season, like last season never happened. Cisse is completely shit apparently.

Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=735922&page=13#ixzz29IwfuNbO

Bimpy

Some articles about this deal claim our current VM deal was only worth 3 million a year? In short, who the fuck knows. I trust the club to have made a better deal than the one they ended on their own initiative with VM.

That's very populist of you, but if their aim is for the club to be self sufficient it's not irrelevant at all. The same goes for the extra TV money coming in next season. I will give them the benefit of the doubt on this count until proven wrong, although I am well aware they've lied to us before.

Agreed. Wonga is an unknown company over here and the mockup of the shirt some pages back looked a damn sight better than the current one with VM as far as I am concerned. On the other hand I can see why fans living in the UK wouldn't be thrilled about walking around with a replica shirt advertising such a dubious company to be fair. Edit: was on about this: http://i49.tinypic.com/33vyyw3.jpg

The finances of this deal will determine if it's a good deal or a bad deal. I've read figures of 24 million total for the 4 years and 15 million per year. Considering Virgin Money was apparently worth 10 million per year I would find it hard to believe we would have agreed to anything under that amount, especially as we are also changing back the stadium name to SJP as part of the deal, which directly affects Ashley/SD's exposure.

Now that would be good. Also, for those asking what benefit SD brings us financially a few pages back I would imagine not having to pay interest on a 200+ million loan saves us quite a bit of wonga year on year.

Not sure of that excuses it.. I'm not sure if Krul would have done better on the corners, but Harper surely doesn't command his area well enough. He's not the tallest and has lost whatever spring he had, meaning he's not only vulnerable on the ground but also in the air. The only thing still on par for a Premiership goalkeeper is his reflexes. He did make some good saves too, but there's no denying we've lost valuable points in Krul's absence. I'm not sure how you can say he's better than Elliot too. The latter has been fairly solid this season after a shaky start and has age on his side. There's still a chance he could be a reliable back up for years to come.

57 points. Personal best this season..

Who's written him off?

You wish..

To clarify. I'm not writing anybody off, that is such an easy cop out. The fact is we shelled out the majority of our summer spending on a player in a position where we were already very well stocked, at the expense of other, more urgent positions, where a first team player could have made us a stronger team. I remain hopeful that Anita will come good, but we should have never gone for him if it meant we couldn't go for other players we were after..

Almost a fantastic goal from Montoya!

As I said at the time when we got him, he was not what we needed at all.. Ashley seriously needs to reconsider his transfer policy. It's all well and good trying to make every deal the best value for money you can get, but there were weak areas in the team that needed to be strengthened way more than central midfield. He's gambled before with a very small and limited squad in certain areas, but it appears to be catching up with him this time. A team hoping to challenge the top 4 should not have to rely on a player like Mike Williamson unless in an absolute emergency; instead he's been on the pitch nearly every minute of this campaign so far..

The new Messi will be born in 3 weeks apparently. His name will be Tiago.

What the flying fuck was he thinking..?

Messi 2 Ronaldo 2