Parky

i'd put both marveaux and ben arfa in for best and obertan. Same here, and it's not because either have done badly so far. I just think the shape of the team isn't quite right yet and there's still space between midfield and attack. Put HBA and Marveaux in there and I think we'd see a better more fluid midfield. Unlucky on Best particularly and we'd lose a bit of height from the side, but the quality of Ben Arfa and Marveaux would more than compensate. Parfait!!

Mimi where would you play him?

Tbh he isn't the type to hang around if he isn't being played.

Well summarised. Not sure if playing 5 in midfield would of helped that much today as it was being bypassed for most of the game... NO mate they were running straight through the middle of our mf who were a spent force with 20min to go. Bringing LoveK on was like we consulted with Wolves first on whom the worst player to bring on would be.

This whole thing about giving LoveK a 'run out' was almost suicidal today. Needed to pack the mf and get possesion back.

Totally agree. We hardly touched the ball in the second half apart from desperate hoofs into the stands.

Very strange sub regarding that as well. Marv and Bafra would have seen us hold onto the ball better. Tiote has to hoof it sometimes. Obertan was pure shit today. All that said another 3 points!!

Suarez is basically a world class cheat, that tackle was nowhere near him...

What an absolute cunt Suarez is.

Everton put a lot of work into the City game without getting anything, I can see their luck changing today.

Another point for me coming up me thinks.

"Someone" would have funded the club - good to know that. I too have seen some horrendous balance sheets and yes some of these businesses survived. I have never said the club would have gone into any sort of insolvency, but it was technically insolvent and had borrowed against every asset and revenue source. Ashley had to guarantee to fund it to ensure its going concern status - it was in REAL difficulty. So Shepherd said things weren't as bad as made out, he is is of course the man who said the club made a profit every year he was there. Numbers with brackets around them obviously don't count as losses in his world. We needed someone with proper cash resources to come in and fund it. One or two potential buyers had a look and we got Ashley who could fund it but was clueless as to how to run it. And no other f*cker wanted it. Whether you choose to go to games or not is, as you say, your call. Ashley owns it, he runs it how he likes and if you don't like it then you can stay away. For me I know what Ashley is like, I think he's a spiv but there again I don't like the look of quite a few football club owners. I'm more bothered about what happens on the pitch than taking umbrage at what he does. Just about all of us on here have supported the club even when it has been in absolute turmoil. It feels like a life sentence at times. But if the club puts some good entertaining players out there I want to see them play and want them to do well. Each to their own.... Do you think he would have bought the club if he had done due diligence? P Interesting question. He could certainly afford to absorb any unpleasant financial surprises, but I suspect he wouldn't have bought it. It must have tied up way more of his capital than he ever expected. Also I don't think he realised the extent to which his every decision and mistake would be analysed by both fans and media. He ran SD and pretty much did exactly what he liked there without being challenged much. And on the odd occasion when he was challenged by investors he simply berated them. He also totally failed to understand the mentality of footballers and, in particular, football managers. And that led to some of his more costly mistakes. I would think that given his time again he wouldn't have done the deal. Think it's pretty clear he wouldn't have done the deal if he's scrutinised the books and the debts etc... So, people who keep bleeting about how much he's put in need to SHUT THE FUCK UP. It's only to protect AN INSANE BUSINESS DESCISION AND PROTECT HIS INVESTMENT while he tries to figure out how to make his money back. P

"Someone" would have funded the club - good to know that. I too have seen some horrendous balance sheets and yes some of these businesses survived. I have never said the club would have gone into any sort of insolvency, but it was technically insolvent and had borrowed against every asset and revenue source. Ashley had to guarantee to fund it to ensure its going concern status - it was in REAL difficulty. So Shepherd said things weren't as bad as made out, he is is of course the man who said the club made a profit every year he was there. Numbers with brackets around them obviously don't count as losses in his world. We needed someone with proper cash resources to come in and fund it. One or two potential buyers had a look and we got Ashley who could fund it but was clueless as to how to run it. And no other f*cker wanted it. Whether you choose to go to games or not is, as you say, your call. Ashley owns it, he runs it how he likes and if you don't like it then you can stay away. For me I know what Ashley is like, I think he's a spiv but there again I don't like the look of quite a few football club owners. I'm more bothered about what happens on the pitch than taking umbrage at what he does. Just about all of us on here have supported the club even when it has been in absolute turmoil. It feels like a life sentence at times. But if the club puts some good entertaining players out there I want to see them play and want them to do well. Each to their own.... Do you think he would have bought the club if he had done due diligence? P

Although Wenger questioned it and it might be looked into the Etihad sponsorhip of ManC is well over the odds at £200m

Well thought through post Chez. Like it when you put a bit of effort in. I just wonder if you've managed to cover all bases.

1-2 Best, Bafra

Think he's talking the team UP too early so I agree with your last bit. We shouldn't fear Liv or Spurs at our place, that's what I meant....

Think we're looking quite comfortable on the ball and the movement of the midfield is excellent (Tiote coming back to form and the pace of Obertan). There was a jittery 10 min at 2-1 when Blackburn (as shit as they are) started to threaten. However, we've yet to play a good side. Let's see if we can nick one or two results against the top 6 and if we do then I think Pardew will richly deserve some credit.

It turned out to be a disasterous signing, which cost us a fortune and left us with a crocked c*** who didn't care less about us. It was also a case of putting all our eggs in one 'Shearer-replacement'-shaped basket. Even the transfer fee was suspiciously high, IMO purely so it would break our transfer record and I'm pretty certain I posted that on this forum at the time. I'd never deny any of that, it worked out very wrong. You can't get away from the facts that at the time he was 25 years old, England's best striker and fully fit. Nobody could have predicted what happened. Exactly, under the old system, a transfer mistake could have the club losing about £40m on Michael Owen, with the way things are now our only real transfer disaster off the top of my head thus far was James Perch, who's costing the club comparitively nowt, doesn't seem to have a huge ego and could be thrown in the reserves with little worry when it didn't work out. Mike and co have certainly made a lot of mistakes but this absolutely isn't one of them IMO. I'll take a great scouting system, a strong youth academy, sustainability and the type of players we're bringing in now ahead of the old ways of giving uninterested big names a big payday every single time. You'd think Michael Owen was the rule rather than the exception though, like we never brought any excellent bargains in or promoted any youth until Ashley turned up. I was totally against us losing him in the end, but how much money has Joey Barton cost us for what we got? Xisco? Smith? Campbell even? Coloccini was £10m and is apparently on £80,000 per week. Signed, paid and kept at the club by the Ashley regime. He's turned out to be a great signing, but as things stand we wouldn't take that risk and wouldn't get that player. If he'd had a serious career-threatening injury shortly after arriving he could have easily been 'another Owen'. My overall point was never to directly compare and say player X we have now is better/cheaper than player Z we used to have. Ultimately I don't think we're particularly any further forward as club and that's why to me, particular praise of Ashley and his methods is unwarranted. We've yet to play a decent side. QPR nearly killed us.

i'm on a roll here again, who else around us has what you'd deem a PL quality striker, villa? spurs have one on loan but they're a level above us everton have fuck all and liverpool spunked 50m+ on broken bellamy, carroll and suarez...only one of them is top class imo, bellamy will fill in of course until his knees pack up, carroll tbc i'm not making excuses but best is scoring fucking goals, when does his scoring ration make him a PL striker? fine he's never gonna be a drogba or a shearer but he seems to be a very good poacher and have a knack of being in the right place...maybe it's time we got over our number 9 complex? I know you're all tripping on here with regard to Best, but he simply isn't good enough as the mainline striker. End of.

This is where we need to be careful although if everything goes well (big if) then if over a season they do it, they I'd agree with you. But lets just put the koolaid down a moment. Cabaye has had one good game, Jonas for me is still a very unpredictable performer (still doesn't cross when he should or fluffs the cross) and we don't know if Marveux can really do it for us or where he can fit into the side (he's shown some good touches). On the other hand Bafra and Colo injury free will be huge assests.

first part might be proven very wrong or very right this season, on paper we have more talent and pace in the side than any time since SBR's days and it's the most excited and hopeful i've been for quite some time tbh (about the players we have), let's see how they do over the full season though obviously as regards the bit in bold other than manyoo, chelski, man city and possibly spurs you've just described most of the other teams in the league, in fact some of them wouldn't even fit that description We've done some cracking business in the transfer market and picked up some real bargains (Tiote, Cabaye, Bafra and so on..)..Think the jury is still out on Santon and Obertan (they need 6 months before we can tell what is going on with them). But, for me we still don't have a PL quality striker (Best is doing a good job within his limitations). And more importantly the first eleven has very little quality cover..One or more inj to the defence or the forward line and we're suddenly dealing with a very shaky first eleven.

Think tomorrow we'll see a bit more from him. He's getting there albeit slowly.

Surely some sort of wind up?