afar

He's not played competitivly only in friendlies. Bit like Wilfred Zaha, but in reverse.

To be fair to the horrible b******, if he genuinely wants to sell he isn't going to get a better opportunity than this. His gamble with spending has paid off, the manager is working wonders and the fans are all pulling in the same direction. It's only going downhill from here. If he does want to sell, this summer is the moment. One could argue he's played it perfectly. Absolutely, surely he sees that too, if he sticks around the fans and manager will expect (and rightly so) that he invests, something he seems very reluctant to do, so why stick around ? The worry as always is his greed and ego, will he accept an offer that is reasonable but doesn't meet his expectations however reasonable or unreasonable they are ?

LOL, that's a fast bite

Love to see him get a call up to the next squad, just to piss off the Welsh The lack of quality English LBs and the form he's in, gives him a chance.

I was only able to see the first 30 mins of the game because I had to take my boys to their footie, in those 30 mins it was all us. Perhaps the game turnaround completely after that but the stats of one shot on target from them, and no evidence of Martin making a save all game suggest that this and the Simpson article the Ronny Gill ran yesterday, where he suggested that it was just us sticking 11 players behind the ball and getting lucky with long balls, are a little of the mark.

Southampton, even in their close defeat against Arsenal, still look for me a relegation side. There's little fight there and to be honest not a great deal of quality. Their one saving grace maybe that Huddersfield are in such woeful form, Stoke are equally bad. Likely to be 2 from those 3 to join Brom, but Palace are an injury to Zaha away from being in the mix too.

Yeah I think they will have no problem bouncing straight back up, the quality in that division is absolutely abysmal, there is a huge drop off. If they go down, not sure it's 100% certain yet.

He's the perfect Ashley type signing, age and potential are right in the zone for him. He's already had a great experience joining us, will appreciate that it's great to be first choice at a club. He'll also know that Rafa is a great manager to develop under and that the move would help restart a career that was stalling a little on Chelsea's bench. If the price is 15 million then we absolutely have to be jumping on that now, getting an agreement in principle in place. I just have a bad feeling though that this one won't come off, because we'll mess something up on our end as per usual.

This sort of crap from Garth Crooks is the reason why he's not getting the England call up he should be: "Certainly England have no-one with his ability in midfield - he just can't be trusted right now.". Can't be trusted how ? Because he's been sent off in the past, which player hasn't ? Maguire and Kane are two England players who've played us this season who should have both been sent off, but it's OK to include them because the referee in both incidents was awful. Crooks's team of the week is a load of absolute un-researched garbage, he just looks at the scorers and assist makers couples them with the big team's best players and that's his team. How the guy is employed beats me. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43691601

If we are talking about players from the bottom three assuming they are relegated. Jay Rodirguez is the only one from WBA that I would consider, but probably shy away from because of his injury record. Shaqiri and Choupu Moting have talent but they seem to have character issues that Rafa won't want to deal with, Choupu Moting seems to be hated by the stoke fans, that's not a good sign. Diouf is a fans favourite, seems to have been played all over the place there, Hughes had him as a wing back and he looked poor against us, seems much more of a forward, may be worth a look at. Shawcross is someone we've been linked with in the past but not had a great season. At Southampton, I like Tadic's ability but not his attitude, Betrand would be a decent pick up but probably will go some place else, I like James Ward Prowse but he's another that's had an off season. There may be talk about Forster returning but rather we stayed clear, he's really not very good. Honestly there is a reason why those teams are at the bottom, slim pickings. Edit: Did some more research on Stoke fans opinion of Diouf, best steer clear, a couple of quotes: "needs 170000 chances to score", "rubbish footballer but can't knock his effort" . Berahino seems to be their version of Jack Rodwell

They had a good run in the Champs league last season, that will have helped finance some of those deals. It looks like a lot of money but I suspect they've spent within their means. Regarding Puel, they are fucking stupid if they want shot, he's done very well with them this season. Southampton thought they were being clever last season by getting rid because they didn't like the style but look how that's worked out.

This is exactly it How great would it be on here if everything goes down exactly as Stifler predicts, just this once

Without too much of a hint of bias, when he's come up against the other England CBs, he's looked the better player. His lack of selection ahead of the likes of Maguire and Mawson, seems a little weird if you ask me.

ando talks shite, man. said perez's goal was easy. Yep all down to Wes Morgan not heading it away, that was his big take on the goal, WTF.

I just watched the highlights on NUFC.co.uk and got to say Ando was adamant it was a penalty and Maguire should not have been sent off, he's supposed to be biased for us ffs. But anyway, never a penalty in a million years for me, there was barely any contact and what there was if any occured after he threw himself to the floor. Dunno what Mahrez was thinking he was in a great position to finish himself, he didn't need to try to cheat his team a penalty.

West ham hold onto this, and honestly they've probably got enough points now to stay up. Like I said before I would be shocked if Stoke and Southampton manage more than 5 more points.

We were safe before, I honestly can't see Southampton and Stoke getting more than 5 more points this season. so Brighton up are safe imo.

He didn't look it at first but he's absolutely one of the main reasons why our form has been so good recently.

Yeah as wonderful a job Rafa has done with us this season, Dyche has Burnley 7th in the table and going for Europe. Guardiola's side have been streets ahead of the rest all season.

I'm not saying he's worth 30 million or he'll go for that, but there has always been a premium on strikers, especially young ones that score goals at international level. Rafa doesn't like him, he's never going to be the player Rafa wants, Rafa is way more valuable to NUFC than Mitro, therefore while Rafa is still here, there is no future at the club for Mitro. Personally wish there was but the evidence points in one direction, we'll sell the moment an offer we deem acceptable comes in, which I think will be the 20 million mark.

If the numbers that they came out with when Ashley broke of talks are true, I would be surprised if they can't push through this purchase unless some of their backers have backed out. They were pretty much there, just the sticking point of the relegation clause. As long as Ashley doesn't move the goalposts surely they'll want to get this done asap, as the competition will grow as we go into the close season as a PL club, if we finish top 10 honestly 350 million will look like a steal.

Really depends on how he does at the world cup, if he gets a few goals, coupled with his performances with Fulham and the fact that he is still very young, he could go for a fair penny in this ridiculous market.

Happy to say I've always been a fan boy, but even I, earlier on in the season thought it was in both ours and his best interests to move on. They always talk about the spine a team being the most important, and we've been superb through the keeper, CB and central midfield, it's just up top were we've lacked that killer touch. Love the way Shelvey has upped his game, he's been vital in this run of form.

Southampton really need to win tomorrow, if not the bottom three look pretty doomed at the moment. Good point today for Huddersfield. Palace will be disappointed not to win, but it seems like Bournemouth make a habit of coming back late on, a point there for them isn't a disaster. Anyone from West Ham down are still in it really, 35 points is the safety point for me right now. So I'm at a 0.00001 right now. To think that on the morning of the Manure game we had dropped into the bottom three and now we are 10 points clear of the relegation zone, absolutely tremendous effort.

That's a pretty friendly run in for them though. Norwich has been awful all season and are on the beach already I think. Reading had been in free fall until the win today, which probably confirms their champo status, so not much to play for. Burton are tragic. Fulham away is a tough one of course. Wolves should have sealed the title by the time they play them and won't have a lot to play for. 4 wins out of that lot is not impossible, extremely unlikely, 3 wins is definately doable though. However 9 points though may not be enough.