merlin

Unless the club sign a PROVEN goal-scorer those who have doubts about the coming season are quite correct to do so. We have always struggled to score more than 1 goal a game unless the opposition either has someone sent off or had a bad day and bringing in what look to be decent(but not top-class)midfielders and a replacement RB for Debuchy will not keep the club out if trouble over the whole season. The new players - esp the foreigners - will take a while to adjust to PL pace and there are bound to be injuries. I expect de Jong and Janmaat to settle more quickly but its a lottery. Last season, Remy saved our bacon with vital goals...add up the points we would have lost without his strikes and you see what I mean. Cabaye was also important in his goal contribution. Without a player who can get goals regularly - and under this manager - we are on a wing and a prayer.

Yep - you would expect nothing less from a top player and true fan of the club who knows how the fans think.

Using that logic, we shouldn't do business with the Scots either, seeing as they also have an independence movement going on... There are many unanswered questions about why the situation in Ukraine blew up and who was really behind it. The Russians are not the only bad guys.... However, this is a football matter - and site - and politics shouldn't really enter into it. Any player we wanted from one of the Ukrainian clubs is almost certain to be just as sick of the situation as we are and if he would be an asset to NUFC, so be it.

Find it hard to believe that the club would want to sign Grenier after the signings of Cabella and de Jong...the latter esp would seem to play in Grenier's position. The lad is undoubtedly a good player - other clubs with better status than NUFC wouldn't be interested otherwise - and would have been a good signing if we really needed forward midfielders but the overwhelming need right now is for a proven striker. Only if Ashley has decided to push the boat out could I see both a striker and Grenier arriving. You never know with this club.

We need a proven striker - end of. Without this, we could end up having a struggle even though we have what looks like a decent midfield because without goals, you lose games - even if you have played well.

Or 2 wins away from mid-table while QPR were 2 wins away from safety. It didn't put off the other Internationals we signed that window anyway and none of them got relegated or looked like mercenary frauds. I'm not even that fussed about signing him, but to make this about him being a mercenary is just laughable. How is his attitude any different to the way we run our football club?

As if we needed any proof, Man U will have a good season under Van Gaal - he will make a huge difference to their approach to games. Just imagine what an improvement a decent manager would make to US, let alone them.. As it happens, I will feel less antipathy towards them now that Ferguson has been well and truly buried(I detested him as an opposition manager for his sly manipulation and arrogance)and they have had a season of relative mediocrity and humble pie. We used to be their rivals once, but those days are long gone and will never return.

Shame we didn't get him in while Cabaye was actually at the club.... Exactly, all this talk about Champions League, building towards it. If that was the case, De Jong, Riviere etc would have been bought last season. The crap is so transparent. If there was any real intention of going for a CL place, we would have had a genuine proven goal-scorer signed by now as well as a PL standard CB....maybe even 2 as Colo is getting past it now. Even then, we would be light up front if we had injury to the main man. The current squad will struggle to score more than 1 a game, if that.

Agreed - will not make an instant impact.

I hope the club - under Pardew's requests - have not been basing the new season on being able to sign Carroll as the main striker because if so, a struggle lies ahead. Even though the guy is out of action until December, I wouldn't put it past idiot to keep hanging his hat on Carroll returning. Time to drop all this and get a proper goal-scorer signed and preferably, one who isn't injury prone...

This sums up the whole problem at the club....just one other factor left out of course..

If only the one we got was as good as the first one....one George Robledo esq.....!

I posted on the site yesterday, outlining my grateful thanks for the marvellous gesture by Sunderland fans towards our two lost supporters in the MH17 incident. Somehow, the post has disappeared but I would just like to thank all concerned for what has been a very moving display of NE solidarity by the Sunderland supporters involved. Well done lads - we are rivals on Derby days which we both want to win - but you have been a credit to football.

The Sunderland fans behind this are really genuine, excellent football fans - nobody would have expected such a thing to happen, bearing in mind the bitterness that has crept into the natural rivalry between the clubs and we can do nothing but thank them for their amazing gesture of solidarity for fellow North-Easterners. Let's hope that we can be a bit like Liverpool and Everton now - the Best of Enemies on Derby day but respect each other at other times. Fantastic gesture - well done lads...

http://onbarrackroad.com/ Absolutely spot on and I can't take anyone who thinks differently seriously. Yes, nail on head.. There are still too many weaknesses in the squad - and in the management/coaching dept - for people to get high expectations for the season.

Remy will do well at Liverpool but he won't replace Sturridge as main striker. His pace and movement will always ensure that he will get at least 15 goals a season but their big problem will be keeping him injury-free. A good signing at the price and one we could have done with because he has been the only consistent scorer among NUFCs forwards over the past season. We need a good striker badly now.

Think so too. CF, CB and LB could be much better. Hope Anita over Colback but doubt the King agrees. our left side looks bad defensively. It certainly does - all PL managers of any ability will immediately target Santon in that formation...he is more exposed than the Matterhorn peak on a clear day...

MH 17 has been a tragedy which will have profound effects on the world and on air travel in particular. We travelled via Malaysia Airlines to & from the UK earlier this year(April - June) as we have done in most of the 10 years we have lived in Oz - they are a really decent airline and don't deserve what has befallen them but our first thoughts must be with all the innocent passengers and those 2 lads probably going on the holiday of a lifetime. I did have concerns about flying over Ukraine but things have worsened considerably since then and I wouldn't risk it now if I knew an airline intended to use it as part of a journey. Very, very sorry to hear about all this - may they all RIP.

Now that this has been officially confirmed, I have to say that this should prove a very good signing. I liked the look of Janmaat during the WC, he seems determined, supports the attack well and will only get better. Having said that, it will take him a while to adjust to the PL just as Debuchy did and Debuchy is 4 years older. The fee is decent for an international defender of his age and even if he's here for 3 years, the club should get great value AND a decent fee if he proves successful at PL level. Good luck to the lad and esp so if he did indeed turn down Napoli.

At any well-run ambitious PL club - no, of course not... This is NUFC....!

Won't happen unless we get another tonking from City and the new players all have poor games.... Will take several poor results before the myopic diehards get the message..

We have not yet had the Janmaat deal confirmed and I always get suspicious when these things start dragging on...we have had plenty of experience of other clubs hijacking our transfer targets and those of us over 55 can remember this happening as far back as 1977 when Tommy Docherty took advantage of Richard Dinnis' naivety to grab 2 players from an Irish club we were actually playing in the UEFA Cup that night after it all looked done and dusted. Then we had McMenemy stepping in as McFaul was trying to sign our former LB Alan Kennedy in 1985 and we lost the player again.... More recently, we have seen Remy grabbed by QPR and undoubtedly there have been others but its always worse when the deal looks to have been done and then it comes out that it hasn't. I was pleased we seemed to have got Janmaat when other clubs were obviously going to be interested and he is a player that would have been more of a coup than Riviere..as far as we know, only WBA and Stoke were in competition with us for this player and they are hardly top-drawer attractions. Riviere's scoring record in the French League hardly inspires confidence for what he will do in the PL... If the Janmaat deal HAS failed because the player has decided to join a more ambitious club, we will be once again looking to fill a large hole in the side.

With both Cabella and de Jong needing time to adjust to the PL it would be foolish in the extreme to rely on them for our goals and neither are actual strikers. A decent goalscorer is a must.

Its all very well buying players 'on the cheap'(and 12m, if true, is hardly that although its peanuts compared to the fees Arsenal & Liverpool dish out), but there is NO way you can get a really decent striker on the cheap. Look at Cisse, we paid almost 10m for him and after his first season he has been a flop. If we were able to get Remy for any less than 12m AND avoid paying him 80,000 a week, we would have done as well as could be expected but I can't see it unless Remy has a change of heart or no luck with a CL club. We have always paid top dollar for our best strikers(Andy Cole excepted and he was unproven in the PL at that time)....think Shearer and Supermac(180,000 was a record in the UK at that time and he was only 21) and you have to do that if you want the best. There is no cheap way to sign top quality goal-scorers unless you take a chance with their injury history as we did with Ba. Even Lacazette would probably not be available under 12m, so it will be interesting to see who the club get...if anyone.

He created 2 goals with crosses during the WC, the last one against Brazil....