KaKa

Glad we're signing a massive CB who knows this league.

Amen. Sick and tired of not having that big tough defender every other team seems to have.

Hanley will come in as the oldest, most physical and most experienced in the Championship.

He's going to be a starter for certain I would think.

Think Mbemba as the youngest, least physical and least experienced in the Championship will likely be brought along slower, and so rotated in.

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce was defrauded out of tens of thousands of pounds by a man he described as a "smart, excellent salesman", a court was told on Tuesday.

 

Stephen Ackerman, 48, is accused of defrauding Allardyce and 12 other players and staff of West Ham United in December 2014.

 

Ackerman, of Loughton, Essex, denies 18 charges of fraud in relation to the sales of hampers of wine and champagne, which were never delivered.

 

The proceeds amount to a total of around £61,560 and Allardyce, who is in contention to be appointed the next England manager, is said to have lost £13, 270.

 

Appearing in Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London via video-link, Allardyce said: "I went and chatted away with Stephen and we talked about champagne and wine, which he said he could get.

 

"I said he could then deal with Anita, my PA, for the payment of those goods. Then I went off training with the lads."

 

Allardyce met the man on December 12 and said he was within "touching distance". The 61-year-old told the court: "He was extremely smart, very well spoken and he set his stall up exceptionally well.

 

"There was a very good array of good quality products for sale. A good salesman; excellent in terms of how he would sell his goods and how good the value was, and obviously they would get delivered to you at a later date."

 

The court was told that Allardyce purchased six bottles of Laurent Perrier rose champagne and six bottles of Sancerre wine, totalling £270, but then he became aware of unauthorised, fraudulent activity totalling £13,000 over the next few days.

Didn't realise Vurn was so hard up.

Are they insinuating Allardyce usually has three 3 course meals to himself? :lol:

Who would we realistically replace him with ? if anybody,

Anyone who actually shows up for games, for both home and away matches.

Costa has been really underwhelming IMO. Such a liability of a human being too.

I'll only going to be happy if we're getting £25m+.

Interesting use of I'll.

One CB will be enough imo, everyone is looking at the worst possible outcome but the reality is most teams don't have 4 recognised CBs.

 

I know we usually have s*** tonnes of injuries but that isn't normal, most clubs don't have both their first choice defenders out for long term periods at a time.

 

Mbemba, Lascelles, new CB, Dummett (who is more of a CB than a fullback anyway)  and who ever else is versatile enough to do a job if necessary is more than enough.

Hayden can play at centre back as well.

Well yeah, but let's move Sissoko on first.

 

And then maybe we tell Gini that we'll TOTALLY accept an offer of £X for him. (and then don't accept it).

I guess we could do that, yes.

I'd much rather we gave them Sissoko. Let's see if we can pull the ol' switcharoo.

 

I still have belief in Wijnaldum, whereas Sissoko has burnt all of my bridges.

Just not sure either of them were realistically going to stay with us in the Championship. I'm excited about who comes in as their replacements. We'll be fine. There'll be money to get some good players in.

Owen comes nowhere near, he started well and then looked really good alongside Viduka and Martins under Keegan but neither periods were to the level of Ba during his 2 purple patches with us. Remy was close like.

Ha! Loic Remy. Tend to forget that guy exists. What a waste of talent.

Should have been leading the line for France in the Euros ahead of Giroud if he actually went somewhere he would get games.

Interesting signing for Liverpool. Klopp has been really good at getting the best out of players, so it may work out nicely for them. He'll certainly need to do a lot more in general play to fit into that team. Will be interesting to see what position they ultimately use him in.

Already looking forward to seeing who we replace him with. Hopefully we can get in someone with pace and directness.

That article is infuriating. Claiming Pardew signed Cabaye and Sissoko. Just piss off man.

Think a full and proper pre-season under Rafa gets him back on track, after having had his ability slowly eroded by Pardew, Carver and McClaren.

Ha! Well look at that. The saga continues. Like I said, just can't see him turning things around here. Seems his body can't handle the intensity of football on these shores.

You know absolutely nothing about his "freshness" or "hunger" ffs. Wish we could f***ing sell you.

I'm just so disappointed in how things worked out for him. Was really excited about the signing. Would be amazing if he did stay and really tore things up, but I just can't see it at this point. Just my opinion anyway. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

If teams are interested and can even match what we paid ... sell.

Much rather bring someone in fresh and hungry.

The guy has been very unlucky and it just hasn't worked out. Sell.

He missed his chance unfortunately. Sell.

Redknapp's as bent as a Samurai sword, gets teams relegated and is even older than Hodgson. Get lost, man.

He would still be a better bet than Allardyce. No doubt about it.

I know this won't be popular but if you are going English, Harry Redknapp should even be way ahead of Sam.

At least Harry showed he can get performance out of top players at Spurs, which he did both in the league, and in the Champions League.

Genuinely don't understand why they are so adverse to Redknapp, but then look at Sam and Bruce. I think it's ridiculous.

Redknapp would do well with England IMO.

I just think it's going to be hilarious to watch, no idea what Sam is going to do. The players will absolutely hate him.

 

This is it for me. The players will be disgusted by him. This won't be the standard try hards he usually signs.

 

Imagine leaving your club where you have been working with the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Wenger, Conte, Klopp, Pochettino, Koeman etc. only to come and start listening to Fat Sam Allardyce scream at you during brief intervals between his gum chewing.

 

It's going to be a massive disaster.

 

Is it really down to Allardyce and Steve Bruce?

Apparently it looks as though Allardyce is odds on. It's an absolutely shocking development.

Would be happy with that. £25 million is great for him. He will be so disinterested in the Championship, there is no way we should keep him.

I just think it's going to be hilarious to watch, no idea what Sam is going to do. The players will absolutely hate him.

This is it for me. The players will be disgusted by him. This won't be the standard try hards he usually signs.

Imagine leaving your club where you have been working with the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Wenger, Conte, Klopp, Pochettino, Koeman etc. only to come and start listening to Fat Sam Allardyce scream at you during brief intervals between his gum chewing.

It's going to be a massive disaster.

Was Crouch really a dud at Liverpool? Cannot really remember tbh but it always seemed he did alright for them.

 

Wasnt on about Crouch specifically. Just pointing that Rafa has it in him.  Ngog, Nunez, Dossena, Voronin, Aquilani etc

 

Liiked Aquilani in Italy but i always thought his eyes were too close together to be a really top player.