Chris_R

I think we'll only be able to establish if Harper's to blame once he finishes getting down for the shot.

My thoughts too. Just doesn't want to be cup tied. Wouldn't be anyway. Not having a go at Chris_R with this but this must be the 50th time i've seen that statement and your correct answer. Now I could well be wrong here but I was under the impression we could only re-register one player who'd played for another team in Europe already this season? Of course that could be Carroll, but we're also in for Debuchy who could end up in a similar predicament.

Did nothing tonight. But then nor did anyone really. Some played with more energy than others and ran about a bit more or got involved more, but nobody really "played" well.

In no way did he play well in the second half. He was just less terrible than in the first half.His crossing is terrible, I keep hearing that he's allegedly super skillful but he only ever runs in a straight line and is incapable of completing anything but the simplest pass. I'm pretty sure he created our 2 best chances with his 'terrible' crossing... Alright, I've had several beers and the wife spent the entire match trying to talk to me about shoes, but from the little I can coherently recall the crosses he put in were s***, but their sunday league defence flapped all over the place and the ball dropped kindly. Against any team with even the merest semblance of competence, his crosses would have yielded nothing apart from jeers. Let's not praise him too highly for what were effectively a couple of floated, lofted chips that broke loose in the box. (I reserve the right to retract the above opinion in the light of any evidence that I wasn't paying proper attention due to excess beer / shoe related discussions. It's been a long day.)

In no way did he play well in the second half. He was just less terrible than in the first half.His crossing is terrible, I keep hearing that he's allegedly super skillful but he only ever runs in a straight line and is incapable of completing anything but the simplest pass.

My thoughts too. Just doesn't want to be cup tied.

The only way he could have been worse is if he spent the entire second half wellying the ball into his own net. In fairness.

If that's true it would be wise of us to improve his contract and also extend it. The likes of spurs and Liverpool would kill for a player like Ben Arfa and if (heaven forbid) we have a poor season we might just end up with another Jose Enrique situation. We should try and tie him down now while his morale's good as we should have done with Enrique when he was waxing lyrical and saying he would stop here for the rest of his career. If at all possible, we should certainly try to get Ben Arfa tied down for 5 years. That said, he's got 3 years left still so it's not like he's in the danger zone yet.

I can answer that: Badly Seems it might actually be celebrity orienteering. I've fucking seen everything now.

Just flicked Setanta on, and they're showing Orienteering? WTF? When did that become a televised sport?

Can't see Cisse getting anything more than 60 minutes at the absolute most. Just there to get him a confidence boost with a goal or 2 against what's hopefully a much weaker team than we're used to facing week in, week out. Ba's already off the mark, so it makes sense IMO.

All of those prices are sensible, obviously apart from the Perch one which is just a joke. £50m is far too low.

Not saying he won't get any games, but I feel that he won't get enough games to justify anyone spending more than £10-12m on him and when he does play he'll look mediocre due to the system that Rodgers plays. Nobody's going to be pinging 40-yard diagonals onto his head, even when they're chasing the game. He'll be playing a hold-up role, but they could buy any half-decent centre-forward to do that for far less than we're offering. Carroll is a one-trick pony. He's the best in the business at that one trick, but that's something Liverpool won't allow him to demonstrate this year and he'll be nothing more than competent at any other role.

His form and fee won't improve, because he won't play. It's f***ing obvious. They can hang onto him until Christmas if they want but by then they'll have paid him about another £1.3m in wages. By next summer they'll have shelled out over £4m extra on wages for him, so even if they sell him for £16m next summer (which they won't, see earlier point about him not getting game time) then they're still worse off than if they sold him tomorrow for £12m. Every year they hang onto him, they need to hope his value increases by more than £4m to make it worthwhile. How the f*** is that going to happen with him rotting on the bench? Or playing s*** when he does play because he's expected to be part of a passing team with the ball on the ground? Rodgers is being a fool. That article above where he quotes the £35m to justify rejecting offers is just hilarious - How can you work out his value based on your predecessor paying WAY too much? That's just silly. His value, Brendan, is what people are willing to pay now. Reject our offer by all means, it's your perogative to do so. Reject it because he's part of your plans for the future and that's actually reasonable enough. But to come out and say he's not part of your plans and that you're basically rejecting it because it's not close enough to the batshit crazy £35m paid by a bumbling, senile old Scottish drunk is frankly laughable. He's worth £10-£12m, especially because he's not wanted. When he was with us he was worth perhaps nearer £20m because he was playing well and an integral part of the team. We took you to the f***ing cleaners, deal with it and move on. Nobody will pay £20m now, and it seems Carroll has his heart set on a return here. All that said, I'm not even 100% sure I want him back. We've moved on from him and he'd not be a guaranteed starter by any means. I'd rather see Debuchy first, though perhaps one deal doesn't depend in the slightest on the other as it's not like Mike's short of a bob or 2. Plus, I trust the club now to do the right thing. I just worry slightly that this is Mike Ashley's idea rather than Pardew or Carr, and that he's just doing it to point-score.

That's fucking ridiculous. How can anyone think that's true? I just don't believe for one single moment that MON will sign a croatian fullback.

Try £23m for a season loan.

Problem is, we had to pay a premium to sign (supposedly) top-whack players that didn't really want to come here. Luque, Owen etc. They then underperformed because they didn't want to be here. Sunderland have to pay a premium just to sign mediocre players who don't really want to go there. They'll then underperform because they don't want to be there.

Too expensive for us means it'll plunge the mackems into financial meltdown. Come on Marty, you know what to do! Only downside is he's young and has resale value. Oh, and he's actually quite good. Would much prefer them to waste their time and money on people the wrong side of 30 who are shit. A few more Sahas, if you would.

How many penalties has Shola taken? Edit: Also, a quick browse through Youtube shows nearly all of them are in the bottom left corner as Shola's looking at them. Can only find one (Vs Cardiff) where he went bottom right.

Jenas has allegedly made 21 appearances for England I knew he'd been capped, but 21 times? Fuck off. Crazily, that's the same number as Rob Lee and Jenas is still in his 20s. Crazy, the world's gone fucking crazy.

Not being daft, but hasn't he always been cowardly and s****? Well indeed, but that game shattered him as a player, IMO. Though it was years ago so maybe I'm just seeing things as I want them to (Disclaimer before Ronaldo stomps in post-google search to pretend he remembers every game since then and can list 3 games where Jenas played well)

More abuse? When he came back for Spurs and was 1-on-1 with Given and fluffed it, he got dogs abuse. Fucking ripped him to shreds. And tbh, I think that was the turning point in his career, he's been shite since then really.

Question is, would Jenas move to an even smaller goldfish bowl than Newcastle?

Oh come on! He's a good player, but Tiote's shooting is fucking terrible. If you gave ME a chance to have 20 shots at goal from 25 yards, at least one or 2 of them would threaten the goalkeeper by luck alone. Anyone half-competent could do the same. His shooting is Sunday League at best. Let's not allow one shot Vs Arsenal and a couple of ones that went close cloud judgement on a player who has played 53 times for us, shoots at least once or twice per match and has threatened the opposition goal about 3 times. Good player: Yes Goal threat: Fuck no Great player though.

It's in English. Just the article was by Steve McLaren.