Minhosa

yup

Of course that is true in the grand scheme of things. But watching us lump it forward to Williamson is a telling sign that nothing is going to change come competitive football time. We'll never have a defined style of play under Pardew and his feckless coaches. He spends every year hoping to find a match winner to bag us enough points to survive. There's nothing proactive about the modern day NUFC.

eh? Getting dropped last season for absolute fucktards and it's in his hands? He's fucked until the daft knacker in charge is fired. Which is basically never. He's finished here man. He'll go out on loan right at the end of the window when they've failed to flog him.

Insight.

Poyet will go to WHU when they go to the Olympic Stadium.

Couldn't manage him any worse. Literally.

Would not be at all surprised if he ends up at QPR or West Ham. Both Managers have a history of taking a punt of 'damaged' players.

Agreed. Think MD will do very well for Arsenal though. He'll have far more midfield options available to him.

Looks nice but there's no way Ashley would authorise Colback and Anita's wages for doing frig all every week.

Great article that and very much sums up my own thoughts. If we'd been making these signings a couple of years ago, then I'd have been over the moon. Now.........just feels all very meh tbqh.

Ah ok - thanks.

If you select someone like Debuchy now before he moves, does he stay a NUFC player or will he switch to an Arsenal player before the season actually starts?

Looks like a cross between Kieron Dyer and Pierre Van Hooijdonk with a little bit of Jason Lee thrown in for good measure.

Grenier was the one I wanted all along. Far more than De Jong that's for sure. I still have us down as majorly strugging next season.

This. Let's not kid ourselves either. It really is only OK It lacks balance but individually it's very good IMO. The prospect of Tiote and Colback playing central midfield is poor imho The prospect of Tiote, Anita, cabella, sissoko and de Jong is quite appealing to me. Tiote has never been the player under Pardew that he was under Hughton. He's very obviously limited now. Anita, I think would look immense in a good team, often finds himself without an option in AP's side. Cabella is a relative unknown. I hope he's not as lightweight as he looks and that he grafts enough for the arsehole to keep him in the side. Sissoko has largely been shite under pardew for all his World Cup fanboys. Out of position with the first touch of a seventies TV Presenter. De Jong. Watch this space. Colback. Shit. Doesn't strike me as all that encouraging.

It's been a massively thin squad for the past two seasons though AND we've lost proven first team bodies. Is it that demanding to expect 7 replacements for 9ish first teamers leaving an already short squad? 9ish first teamers leaving? Remy HBA Debuchy Cabaye Yanga Marveaux Jonas Perch Gosling Shola From a squad of 20dd, that's almost 40% turnover. There's an argument to say we still needed to replace Ba too. We've also got a shit back up goalie too. Under Ashley, we've always had a threadbare squad, I hoped we'd invest some cash this summer to right that wrong and give the charlatan even less of an excuse next season.

It's been a massively thin squad for the past two seasons though AND we've lost proven first team bodies. Is it that demanding to expect 7 replacements for 9ish first teamers leaving an already short squad?

Certainly in agreement with this. For all the Cabella love, we've not exactly excelled at developing all this french talent we buy on the cheap. Cabaye really didn't improve by much of a margin (if any) and then you've got the fucking disasters of HBA, Mbiwa, Marv etc. For that reason I'm not exactly convinced Cabella will be Ginola Mk11 under this dickhead of a manager and shite coaching team.

Also, I really thought we'd need to be signing a minimum of 7 first 16 players this summer. As unrealistic as that perhaps was/is. Cabaye replacement, Shola replacement, Debuchy replacement, Yanga replacement, HBA replacement, Perch replacement, Obertan replacement, Marveaux replacement and then replacements for all the kids that aren't good enough..........Sammy, Ferguson, Dummett etc etc etc. That's without taking into account the widely held view that Williamson, amongst others, isn't good enough.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable or on an NUFC downer but I'd have hoped for far more links/activity to be quite honest. De Jong seems a massive risk to me. I think we'll carry him for many games.

Anyone else just massively underwhelmed with what we've done so far and also what we appear to be doing/players we're linked with? Whilst I get that every signing is a risk, I've got doubts already about De Jong and what he'll mean for our style of play/whether he'll fit. With the departure of Debuchy and possibly Yanga, I'd honestly have expected us to be signing upwards of another 5 players (2 x forwards, 1 x winger, minimum of 1 x CB and I'd have expected us to be in the market for a good LB to give Santon some competition). I've not done the sums but it seems to be me, with last seasons departures and adding in Debuchy et al, we'll break even again at worst. Banking the TV money in the meantime so, in effect, finishing up. Even with the obvious Ashley factor, I think the lack of activity so far is a massive concern.

Can't see past the Germans for this.

Anyone who has seen him live..................is he as lightweight as he looks on youtube?