Nobody

Clearly transferred his awesomeness over to Best for today. Can't see him leaving this window.

Harper 6? He made two terrific saves and kept a clean sheet man I honestly wouldn't give anyone less than an 8, as a team we were fantastic and no one had bad game.

Probably our worst player that started today

After Nolan

Terrific game again from Joey. This is the player we signed

Lovely finish for his goal, terrific assist for Bests third as well.

Did well

Chelsea :lol:

10/10 all round so far, we've been absolutely brilliant.

Best will score.

Which is why he was such a massive blow (on top of him being our best player). We clearly signed him with the intention of him being able to play in pretty much every attacking role in the team. I even think Hughton said this after he had signed.

Left wing Aye. I actually watched that game yesterday. His run in the 72nd minute when he sets up Carroll is pure

This. If we don't sign anyone else, I'd play him LW a couple of games to give Jonas a kick up his arse, then move him to play off Carroll. If we sign a decent striker (say, Keane on loan), then I'd play him LW for the rest of the season. I do think HIS best position is in the hole, where he can roam and do whatever the fuck he wants, but as our option out left isn't good enough, he'd be most useful out left.

Over the moon with this signing, absolutely fantastic. Still can't quite believe it. Highest rated player we've signed since Michael Owen?

Another brilliant thread.

Why is he still up answering friend requests?

I'm strangely indifferent about this signing, despite rating him very highly when he was at Blackburn. It's probably because Barton is playing so brilliantly out on the wing, and I can see this transfer moving him in and pushing Nolan behind Carroll, which I really don't want. However, if we sign him to play on the left wing, I'd be very happy with that, as if he can rediscover his form, he'd be a massive improvement over Jonas.

Probably be very close to Europa League spot. Where we play him for me is all about whether we get a striker in or not. Get a striker and he plays LW, if we don't we play him off Carroll.

I really don't like how he keeps responding to particular players, or mentioning their names. Much preferred Hughtons way of keeping things quiet.

Fucking hope not. Only seen him in the world cup mind, but he looked a fantastic prospect, good signing for that lot.

And Williamson and Taylor. But, like madras said, we certainly shouldn't look straight to the board if it is a shorter contract, it's very likely that HBA and/or his advisers would not want such a long deal. And 4.5 years is still quite a long deal like.

Splendid "news" (come on, we've known about this for some time now). Really can't wait until it's all finalised though, and I still can't believe we've signed this lad.