alexthegreat

Based on what exactly? Random negative assumptions like this really annoy me. For some reason they have credibility as well. Based on the fact that buying low then selling high is our stated transfer policy. Pardew has mentioned "value" several times and Tiote clearly isn't worth £20m, yet that is the price constantly quoted. Who is putting that price tag out there? The one player we have signed for any sort of a fee looks like he could be his replacement. The amount of times Pardew says "I hope a bid doesn't come in for one of our players. Theres no way we could say no to the right offer" has started to look like hes advertising them for sale. No other managers go on like that. So hardly a "random" assumption. I also don't see whats negative about it. If we got £20m for Tiote to reinvest in the side that would be excellent business. Arguably pulling a similar trick with Carroll is what has got us such an improved side in the last 18 months

Can't see anyone ever paying more than half that for a 27 year old midfielder who offers so little in the final third. I suspect we have been trying to offload him for big money all summer, but no one has been interested at the price we are looking for, and our failure to complete the move has held up everything else.

worth seeing how we do with 1 up front. Looking like we may need to play that way at times this season.

Cuellar in, Turner out Johnson in, Richardson out Fletcher in, Bendtner out Saha in Think they must have had some money left from Gyan's exit last year. They have definitely improved but it hardly looks like the giant strides required for a team without a win in 9. The annual 'set the transfer window alight' celebrations are as misplaced as ever.

I half suspect that we've been touting Tiote around all summer, and our failure to offload him for big money may have held up everything else.

Was amazing to watch at times v Chelsea. Hes come a long, long way in the last 10 months or so. On top of the balance, pace, acceleration, first touch, and control he also has a hammer of a left foot which we don't yet see enough of. Looks a fairly inventive passer at times as well. How much better is it possible for him to get? Villa have dreadful full backs, can't wait to see him absolutely terrorise them.

I thought we looked alright at times. Chelsea seemed noticably better than they were in the 2 matches we played against them last season. Strikers looked a bit rusty - I thought that by the end we had made enough chances for one of them to get us a goal. A little disappointing but I didn't see anything too worrying in terms of how the season might pan out (save for no strikers on the bench) Villa look absolutely dreadful atm - that game could be a good opportunity to get rid of some cobwebs. If we can get to full time in that match with 6 points from 3, in Europe, and with one or two new players onboard, then everything will be looking very good indeed imo

In europe. Steve Howey was 16 I think Think you mean Steve Watson. Who was also a ginger from North Shields (to be pedantic and trainspotterish at the same time).

Not dropped, rotated This. In the case of the Spurs game we probably would have left Cisse out as the pre match talk of him not being fully fit looked to be accurate. I'm sure Ba could have done with a lot more breaks than he got last season as well. Shola can barely manage more than 3 consecutive games.

I think this might happen in the next few days. £12m is probably close to his value. Do Liverpool think that if they hang onto him for 4 months / 1 year and keep him on the bench someone will come in with a £20m bid? And would Carroll accept it if they did? Surely they need to start recouping some of the money they've been lashing out. Taken in isolation, 12m is a decent price for a player the manager clearly doesn't want. If he hadn't come into their possession for such a ridiculous fee there is no doubt it would have been accepted. Its extremely embarrassing for them but they should just take their medicine really. They appear to have no money, they need a striker, and can get a fair price of £12m for a player they don't want.

15m for Fletcher. I suppose we spent 17m on Owen. They have already signed Gordon for 9m (5th most expensive keeper in history) then released him on a free. He can be their Luque. Wtf are they doing??

4,000 posts and 330,000 views on the possibility of signing Johnson. I think he'll probably go to Spurs. I'm sure that Bruce just had to be a little bit quicker and he would have got Johnson for 6m a couple of years ago.

When he has a few collisions with centre backs early on he invariably has a good game (from the times I've watched him). I reckon its when he has to fanny on in midfield trying to be like Ibrahimovic that he tends to struggle. He can do a bit of that but its far from a strength in his game. One of the only criticisms I would level at a Ba / Cisse pairing is that they can occasionally get bullied by centre backs when the ball is played up from the back - it nullified them in the derby. Carroll solves that right away. Watching Everton take apart a far more expensive Man United team last night by playing directly reminded me of the way we beat them 3-0 in January. Maybe it is worth having that in your locker as a Plan B, and there are few better players for it than Carroll. Also, having Carroll to hit diagonals to is probably a wet dream for Mike Williamson. We do need a striker and he definitely could be an asset for us, but there is a balance to be struck in terms of style of play. I think last season's best manager has a far better chance of finding that balance than last season's worst. I also think 12m is probably a decent valuation for him

We may have to play more games than Man United this season. They have Jones, Smalling, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans as centre backs and still ended up with Carrick at centre back tonight. Not for the first time either. Think Douglas, Taylor, Colo, Williamson, and Perch with the latter two perhaps being pushed by Good and Tavernier would serve us well, and we could well end up needing 5 or 6 players in those 2 positions over the course of a year.

Taylor in the programme: "I have taken it upon myself to act as a bit of a father figure to some of the new players and the younger lads ... Take young Adam Campbell, for example. I'll make sure he gets in amongst it because you don't want him ever feeling left out." Quite like Taylor but there sometimes seems to be something slightly mental about him imo. Wonder what the younger lads think of him.

Saw him having a word with Tiote before the corner when the Spurs player was injured, presumably about what the plan was. Slightly egotistical plan like: "I'll take the corner, you pass it back to me, then I'll run past everyone into the box. If I win a penalty I'm taking it." Not complaining though.

Re: Pardew This is not sour grapes as his record at the mags speaks for it's self BUT... I always get the feeling he is living on his nerves, that he knows he should not be at such a big club, like he always has to brown nose the fans to feel accepted. He seems like a totally unstable person, he lives by his feelings, blows up and shouts abuse at normal people, loses his temper all the time, then when questioned about them he smiles, laughs and becomes a totally changed character who just talks bullshit. I think he is a very scary person, certainly not someone who is in control of himself, he needs help imo. http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=723119&page=16#ixzz23z16KShE

And you had the f***ing gall to pull me up on putting Adam Campbell 5th choice striker? Gutierrez is about as much a fullback as he is a striker. Might as well put him in that list as well. When old Diego's put enough coke up his nose to rival Tony Montana before selecting his teams you can't then use that to back up your arguments that we've got enough fullbacks. If Jonas is playing there, we're screwed. Steven Taylor will be playing DC, so he can't play DR. He's our second best centre back. Likewise, Anita will be in midfield. Last time I checked it's against the rules to clone footballers, so they'll just have to play one position each. Raylor has no pace, and both he and Perch played above themselves last season and can't be relied upon to do the same again this campaign. Maybe they will, but 6 months of good form in otherwise utterly mediocre careers suggests that they just hit a purple patch, not that they suddenly became tremendous assets to the club. Fullback before striker. Though like I say, we do need both. Tavernier made 32 senior appearances last year and played a lot in pre-season. Campbell hasn't even played a single competitive senior match yet has he? Slight difference there. Campbell has only started 1 match for the reserves in addition to 2 sub appearances at that level. Hes not going to be near the first team. Think Pardew was just giving him a taste of what hes aiming for. Tavernier made his first team debut 3 years ago and has played competitive football at League 1 level. Hes well ahead of Campbell in his development at the moment. Unless Campbell turns out to be like Rooney or Fabregas then Tavernier is far more likely to be involved in the 1st team.

He was on the bench for all of the final 9 games of last season and Pardew put him on 5 times. If it was a choice between him and Taylor at left back I think Shane would get the nod now, unlike this time a year ago. Out of that group of Sammy, Vuckic, Abeid, and Ferguson, he seems to be the closest, though Pardew does seem to like Sammy as well.

Appear to have got his little brother signed up for the under 18s (or some other Danquah anyway). Team sheet from match v Clyde under 18s: Team: Woodman, Morgan, Drennan, McKinnon, Desmond, Aarons, Danquah, Smith, Olley, Quinn, Gilliead

Newcastle's Shane Ferguson netted his first senior goal for Northern Ireland after seven minutes of their friendly against Finland at Windsor Park, slamming an 18 yard effort home to put his side ahead. After 81 minutes, the Finns lead 3-2 and Fergie remains on the field. It's his fourth full cap and the first time that Northern Ireland have scored while he's been involved, following previous 0-3 losses to Italy and Norway and a 0-6 howking by the Dutch. In the opposition lineup is striker Njazi Kuqi, the younger brother of former Magpie Shefki Kuqi, who is set to face Newcastle for Atromitos in the Europa League. Sounds a decent strike. Got high hopes for him this year - was very impressed with him when he made a few sub appearances at the back end of last season.

7 days before the start of the season last year: Were in the middle of getting Barton fucked off on a free to the amusement of everyone Enrique had left after Pardew had said he wanted to keep him Ashley appeared to have spent 3 months getting knocked back by about 5 different clubs in his bid to get Carroll's replacement, who unbelievably still hadn't been replaced after leaving in January. We'd still not spent any of the £35m We had the seemingly nightmarish prospect of Taylor at left back v Gervinho on first day of season We had Tiote stuck in Ghana after some fuck up with passports. I seem to recall Ben Arfa got a knock in pre season - putting his comeback even further back. We were tipped for relegation in some quarters Pardew was starting to look like a complete tit by guaranteeing we'd have 'two players over the line' by the start of the season and then nothing happening. We are looking pretty good this year imo.

I reckon his touch is quite good most of the time. Did seem to struggle to pull the ball out of the air now and then though Hes certainly fast at top speed but I really don't think hes fast over 5 yards from a standing start, which is what matters really.

Think Obertan's problems start because he hasn't got either the acceleration or balance required to beat his man. He does have a good first touch though, but has probably wasted too much time trying to become Cristiano Ronaldo when he should have been trying to be James Milner

Thought he would have featured v Hartlepool - only 10 days til Spurs at home and hes not been involved yet.