KaKa

My electric got turned off last night so I couldn't swap Diamanti for bale in my FF team. FMFL

The dog ate my homework etc etc etc

Arsenal game is superb like, great flowing stuff. Started becoming very much an onslaught after the sending off though unfortunately.

Is Walcott upfront with Chamakh, or on the wing?

Hoffenheim 4 - 1 Werder

Yikes!

Both Walcott and Bale with two goals already today. Southampton alumni day. Weird.

Fwiw I have him as well. More for the assists and bonus points. He is our penalty taker afaik though.

Takes corners and most free kicks too. Key guy to have.

If Hughton said he couldn't comment on it then it would be clear we are in for the player. However, with his comments you can't say that for certain. The club clearly are having a hell of a time winding up the press and it's actually quite funny. They blatantly don't want anyone to know who their transfer targets are. They're giving nothing away.

I mean think about it ... Ben Arfa himself has mentioned Hughton's ideas of where to play him as being a huge spur for him to join Newcastle. What reason could he possibly have for making that up?

Nobodys under any illusion that we need a better strikeforce but to suggest we don't need a good defensive midfielder is daft.

 

If we are to create chances, then we need possession, this guy should help us in that area.

 

i do not disagree with this either, but what happens if we only sign this guy, then I bet some people start moaning that we should of spent it on a player in a different position

If and when that happens then it will be discussed then. Why are you in a hurry to moan about it now?! Just 24 hours ago people were 100% certain we wouldn't be bringin any players in and Hughton was a puppet who was being dictated too by Ashley etc etc etc. Just take it easy.

neesy man, do you not realise how s*** our midfielders are? Would you really advocate Smith playing 30+ games this season?

 

This is our most important signing because it's finally addressing the thing that sent us down in the first place!

 

Despite me slagging off the idea in your thread, any upgrade on Smith has to be a massive positive.

 

I agree on the upgrade, but it the lack of goals that sent us down really

 

Bollocks was it. It was the fact we had a midfield who neither kept the ball nor offered any ounce of protection to the back four.

 

Our defence was made out to be our weakness, when really they were the best players in the team.

 

Your f***ing clueless! Goals cost us, our midfield scored around 7 goals all season when you should be around 15 off them!  is that why steven taylor 1 defender scored nearly as many as them all season then?  also the lack of fire power to our strikers also was a major factor

 

Wow ... 

No point discussing this any further after reading that.

I will say this though, Newcastle have been linked to a lot of winger/attacking mid/second striker types such as Jeremies Lens, Yannick Djalo, Mevlut Erding, Ben Arfa and Skjelbred (most of these links being made in the newspapers abroad like the Ben Arfa and Tiote news) so I do think this is a type of player being targetted and will hopefully be added to the squad.

No point having them if we can't get the ball and give it to them consistently though, and Tiote will be absolutely key to that.

neesy man, do you not realise how s*** our midfielders are? Would you really advocate Smith playing 30+ games this season?

 

This is our most important signing because it's finally addressing the thing that sent us down in the first place!

I really don't understand why some people (NEESY!!!) can't appreciate this. Newcastle haven't had a dynamic central midfielder for what seems like an eternity now, and as you correctly state this was indeed our major problem the year of relegation. The midfield towards the end of that season was actually worse than it is now. Butt and Nolan would you believe. Teams just skipped around those two all game, in fact the other teams midfielders would just start bopmbing forward all the time and putting so much pressure on the defence because they knew that neither Nolan or Butt could counter on them and break forward at speed themselves. It was sickening to watch.

Midfield enforcer at last. Pretty sweet.

See what happens when you actually wait till the window closes? Just stay calm people. All of that time and energy wasted on making yourselves angry. 

Happy for Hughton who has been so ice cool about transfers. Actually played this one off just today 

He's like Essien, in the sense that he can play DM but is definitely not just that. Can also be a driving box to box sort also.

If it was left to some on here we would probably have signed someone named Arfa Ben Hatem from the wrong club on the first day of the window for £20 million, judging by how excitable and rubbish your negotiation tactics are.

Hughton has been like a monotone robot this summer. The bloke has said not one word of interest.

Yeah, because they know how everyone over reacts and gets antsy. The Ben Arfa thing would have just been "speculation" too. Were it not for that mad man Dassier. Then there would have been no 200+ page thread and people wanting to committ suicide.

Huhgton has maintained that he will be getting players in before the window closes. Has he not? So sharrrrrrrrrap about that no money stuff!

Harper won't leave.

Imagine if he does and Given comes back!

Maloney would be a decent option if we fail to get Ben Arfa. Well, not really, but he is a professional footballer, so I'd have him here.

 

I used to like Maloney but he hasn't nearly lived up to his potential.

 

I know he isn't at Celtic anymore, but Landry N'Guemo is a good player and available for around £1mil. Celtic didn't want to pay it for some strange reason.

Wasn't Maloney at Villa, but begged to return because he was homesick? Remember being quite shocked by it at the time. Thought he looked pretty good for them at the time too.

That's that, then. We're signing Samaras.

Would likely be Samaras he was watching if he was indeed there, yup.

KD Gio's been looking good though right?! You think he'll get ditched too? I would take him in an instant.

Is he any good? Anyone seen him play before? Seems s*** considering he's unknown to me.

Fingers crossed 

Frimpong out for 6-9 months with a cruciate injury. Shame for the lad, he wasn't going to start weekly but he would have started enough for people to take notice of him and maybe get a decent loan.

What's up with the injury situation at Arsenal? Getting ridiculous now.

I'm sure most of you saw some of the Werder Bremen game yesterday. Aaron Hunt was outstanding in Ozil's former position. Hunt is one of their own who I'm sure they have invested a lot in, and you would think now is his time. They also still have Marin who can play there too apparently. So Why would they spend so much in a transfer fee and wages on Ben Arfa? Especially considering he hasn't exactly achieved much in his career as of yet? I can't see them bringin him in at the expense of both Hunt and Marin.

Having seen Aaron Hunt tonight I doubt Werder are really looking to spend £7 million and £72,000 wages on Ben Arfa. Would be very very surprising.

Speaking of number 10s ...

Tuncay Sanli would be another good option.

Aye, was kinda shitty seeing all the celebrations on the telly all these years and not going to the Camp Nou. When we won the CL in Rome I went to Times Square and there were like a dozen Catalan tourists celebrating

 

But knowing my luck, another barren period is coming (they started winning shitloads as soon as I moved out).

Unfortunately for you, you might be right. Especially because Mourinho is now at Real. Hope not though. Good luck!