AyeDubbleYoo

If we think N'Zogbia is set on coming here, we might not decide to move until someone else meets the fee. If they don't, we can open negotiations in January and get him on a free at the end of his contract. Not saying I would do that, I would rather he joined now, but I could see that being the club's strategy.

Sits it out til Christmas, opens talks with Barca to toddle off on a freebie. I would accept that TBH.

This is starting to get silly. These are things you will never find out. No. No we really don't. If we have a better team next season. If not. Simples! Fuck me, finally.

I'm sure they just sit down in front of the computer and write whatever sounds plausible at the time.

There's no reason to be frustrated though, that's the thing I don't understand. We've made some good moves and are obviously working on others. There's no way our squad could be described as threadbare at the moment IMO. We obviously lack quality up front, but not numbers. I don't know what kind of summer people were expecting, if what has happened so far seems negative to them. It just baffles me. It happens at every club during every transfer window. We're never totally happy Yeah of course, that's fine. And I know Ashley has earned his fair share of doubt/negativity. Just seems like we've done well so far from any objective point of view.

For some reason I get more hopeful the longer he sticks around. I know I'm setting myself up for a big disappointment like.

that was a case of Redknapp getting his media mates on it (hell even the Christmas day thing at Spurs training ground SSN had where they asked about Carroll was disgusting) But then NUFC were touting Carroll around to different clubs and I wouldn't be surprised if Spurs thought they would get him until Liverpool got involved.

Think the good think about Long is that he could play up front on his own, off another striker or even potentially in a wide position. Anyway, I've sucked him off enough in this thread, suffice to say I think he would be a good signing!

How many strikers did you think we were going to sign this summer, 3? Think that's a bit optimistic for one transfer window. If we get one more to go with Ba I'll be satisified with that. Obviously I'd rather have more, but come on, it was never likely we'd sign 3 strikers. Well I wanted us to sign two, was hoping for more quality than Ba & Long but there is point us signing two strikers if it means we get rid of one we already have. But how many strikers can we realistically have on the books at once? New Player, Ba, Best, Shola, Lovenkrands - that's 5 first team forwards. As well as a winger purchased and HBA coming back. I'm not saying they're any good, but there's only so many signings we can realistically expect. Well yeah but it looks as though Best will be sold so say we end up with Ba Long Shola Loven thats just not good enough Fair point, that list doesn't look amazing, although the top two are better than anything we've had for ages. Guess it depends a bit on the system we're planning to play. Fingers crossed for some more quality anyway, but I don't think there's any chance that more than one striker will be coming in. Hope to be wrong.

Can you though? Who? And what don't you see in Long? Not saying he's world class, but he has the attributes and the potential to do very well for us. Whether £7m is fair or not is a bit hard to say. I haven't seen a huge number of games in the championship but when I watched Reading last season he's never stood out. If you look at the caliber of players we've got in for less, 7 million seems like a huge amount. I'd rather have DJ Campbell here for example. He's proved himself to be a decent option at this level and would complement Ba well as a poacher. IMO Long is far superior to DJ Campbell, although more expensive. I can imagine the reaction on here if the next striker we sign is Campbell, it would be meltdown. It's going to be difficult for the club to win here isn't it? If they sign someone decent for a low fee they'll be slammed for penny pinching, if they pay any money for someone who's not world class they'll be criticised for that as well. Narrows down the list of acceptable targets quite a lot. I'm ignoring net spend and focusing on the players brought in. We need a striker, a fast one at that. Shane long doesn't have that sort of pace from what I've seen. If we are unwilling to spend in the region of 10-15 million to get a bit of a marquee singing in this position, then I would be happier singing Campbell from what I've seen of the two players. Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree. FWIW one of Long's biggest strengths is his pace... that's exactly why I think he would be good.

Not sure why I'm so sure that Long would be a good signing, it just seems obvious that he has all the abilities to complement the players we already have. If we're playing one up front we'll probabaly be starting Ba anyway, and if we play two then a nippy player like Long is a good match for our existing forwards.

How many strikers did you think we were going to sign this summer, 3? Think that's a bit optimistic for one transfer window. If we get one more to go with Ba I'll be satisified with that. Obviously I'd rather have more, but come on, it was never likely we'd sign 3 strikers. Well I wanted us to sign two, was hoping for more quality than Ba & Long but there is point us signing two strikers if it means we get rid of one we already have. But how many strikers can we realistically have on the books at once? New Player, Ba, Best, Shola, Lovenkrands - that's 5 first team forwards. As well as a winger purchased and HBA coming back. I'm not saying they're any good, but there's only so many signings we can realistically expect.

Can you though? Who? And what don't you see in Long? Not saying he's world class, but he has the attributes and the potential to do very well for us. Whether £7m is fair or not is a bit hard to say. I haven't seen a huge number of games in the championship but when I watched Reading last season he's never stood out. If you look at the caliber of players we've got in for less, 7 million seems like a huge amount. I'd rather have DJ Campbell here for example. He's proved himself to be a decent option at this level and would complement Ba well as a poacher. IMO Long is far superior to DJ Campbell, although more expensive. I can imagine the reaction on here if the next striker we sign is Campbell, it would be meltdown. It's going to be difficult for the club to win here isn't it? If they sign someone decent for a low fee they'll be slammed for penny pinching, if they pay any money for someone who's not world class they'll be criticised for that as well. Narrows down the list of acceptable targets quite a lot.

I don't think he is desperate to sell the club, personally think that he is here for the long-haul. Same, it's extremely unlikely that he'll get a buyer at a price he'd be happy with. I think he's just trying to make the club self-sustaining so he doesn't have to subsidise it, I don't think it's much to do with selling.

Exactly.

How many strikers did you think we were going to sign this summer, 3? Think that's a bit optimistic for one transfer window. If we get one more to go with Ba I'll be satisified with that. Obviously I'd rather have more, but come on, it was never likely we'd sign 3 strikers.

I'm sure he'd rather settle for second-choice players than pay over the odds for the first choices.

There's no reason to be frustrated though, that's the thing I don't understand. We've made some good moves and are obviously working on others. There's no way our squad could be described as threadbare at the moment IMO. We obviously lack quality up front, but not numbers. I don't know what kind of summer people were expecting, if what has happened so far seems negative to them. It just baffles me.

The media just want something to talk about, so it's easy for people to plant stories to unsettle players. I wouldn't say it's a campaign by the media, more like they just get all excited about the possibility of a big move.

Can you though? Who? And what don't you see in Long? Not saying he's world class, but he has the attributes and the potential to do very well for us. Whether £7m is fair or not is a bit hard to say.

Slightly contradicts what Pardew has said... shame they don't have any quotes. Anyway, like I said, we can't judge the club based on press speculation, let's see what happens.

There was that season when John Barnes was our top scorer.

Yep, £7m is a price I could be in favour of. £10m sounds a bit much, but in reality he is worth at least 5 or 6.

Same, it is depressing but I'll wait and judge them on what actually happens.

Ah totally, he's got nobody to blame but himself about buying us without due diligence. I don't know the details of all these deals, but it wouldn't surprise me if moving quickly and recklessly like he does has got him some bargains in the past. He is a gambler like, obviously, as we found out to our cost in the relegation season.