AyeDubbleYoo

Arsenal fan at work is convinced Wenger will rely on Gibbs to step up rather than buy an experienced LB. Probably wrong like, but I hope not.

Not obvious to me exactly, but I'm inclined to believe the same. Or at least his options are filtered to such an extent that his options aren't really his own (which is true to most managers of non-Man City/Chelsea clubs, but more so here). It's just the way modern management works TBH, you have to work with what the scouts can find and what the board will sanction. I'm sure Pardew understands and accepts this situation, I don't think it's anything to be worried about at all.

Are they buying both, or do we just not know which one?

Why does it look that way? Have I missed some form of "We're not signing any more strikers" announcement? If Pardew believes our main striker is an as yet unsigned addition to the 'out-and-out goalscorer' he's expecting 15-25 goals from then I can only assume he also expects us to be going for the top four. So you've managed to turn Pardew's efforts to instill confidence in Ba, into a negative by claiming it means we're not interested in signing another striker as our "main" striker. Eh, where was this? I think it looks like Ba will be our main striker. So fucking what? It's a fucking joke that anyone on here expressing an opinion let alone a concern is automatically accused of panicking, doom-mongering or being overly negative for the sake of it. Not only that but it's seemingly impossible to be optimistic about some things and less so about others. Midds and I just renewed our season ticket, why the hell would I do that if all I wanted to do was criticise the club and be down about everything? I can think of lots of other things I could spend £250 a year on. Well said. I haven't seen everyone who expresses a concern labelled a doom-monger, any more than everyone expressing positivity is labelled an Ashley apologist. Pointless having that meta-debate, just get on with discussing the point. Didn't you just post a suicide smilie in response to somebody's post? Yes, I'm not saying every post on the site is reasonable. I hope you don't think I automatically slate every negative post... certainly don't intend to do that. Seemed reasonable enough to me. Depends on your definition of reasonable - some people on here will defend every single thing that Ashley and his henchmen do, even when it blatantly contradicts what they defended them for last week. The difference is that you'll have scorn poured on you like stupid smilies if you raise the issue. It's not too long ago the same people were posting the same "you doom-mongers just want the team to lose" rubbish before we got relegated, at people who said we were going to get relegated. It's incredibly tedious. I don't get your point, you seem to be agreeing with me. My whole argument was that people shouldn't bother using broad strokes to label everyone this thing or that - they should just concentrate on arguing the point. That's what I was doing with the suicide smilie. Fair enough it wasn't the most constructive response, but I wouldn't be the first person to use a smilie like that. I was replying to an individual post, not criticising the guy's whole point of view, for me that's fair comment. Anyway, as I said this sort of stereotyping is a pointless exercise, just get on with the individual debate.

Why does it look that way? Have I missed some form of "We're not signing any more strikers" announcement? If Pardew believes our main striker is an as yet unsigned addition to the 'out-and-out goalscorer' he's expecting 15-25 goals from then I can only assume he also expects us to be going for the top four. So you've managed to turn Pardew's efforts to instill confidence in Ba, into a negative by claiming it means we're not interested in signing another striker as our "main" striker. Eh, where was this? I think it looks like Ba will be our main striker. So fucking what? It's a fucking joke that anyone on here expressing an opinion let alone a concern is automatically accused of panicking, doom-mongering or being overly negative for the sake of it. Not only that but it's seemingly impossible to be optimistic about some things and less so about others. Midds and I just renewed our season ticket, why the hell would I do that if all I wanted to do was criticise the club and be down about everything? I can think of lots of other things I could spend £250 a year on. Well said. I haven't seen everyone who expresses a concern labelled a doom-monger, any more than everyone expressing positivity is labelled an Ashley apologist. Pointless having that meta-debate, just get on with discussing the point. Didn't you just post a suicide smilie in response to somebody's post? Yes, I'm not saying every post on the site is reasonable. I hope you don't think I automatically slate every negative post... certainly don't intend to do that.

If his fitness holds up I totally agree. His goalscoring record is impressive, and he should get loads of chances.

Why does it look that way? Have I missed some form of "We're not signing any more strikers" announcement? If Pardew believes our main striker is an as yet unsigned addition to the 'out-and-out goalscorer' he's expecting 15-25 goals from then I can only assume he also expects us to be going for the top four. So you've managed to turn Pardew's efforts to instill confidence in Ba, into a negative by claiming it means we're not interested in signing another striker as our "main" striker. Eh, where was this? I think it looks like Ba will be our main striker. So fucking what? It's a fucking joke that anyone on here expressing an opinion let alone a concern is automatically accused of panicking, doom-mongering or being overly negative for the sake of it. Not only that but it's seemingly impossible to be optimistic about some things and less so about others. Midds and I just renewed our season ticket, why the hell would I do that if all I wanted to do was criticise the club and be down about everything? I can think of lots of other things I could spend £250 a year on. Well said. I haven't seen everyone who expresses a concern labelled a doom-monger, any more than everyone expressing positivity is labelled an Ashley apologist. Pointless having that meta-debate, just get on with discussing the point.

He just didn't realise he'd be cleaning the boots for the first few months.

One word:

Never bought into this view TBH, I'm really surprised how people have gone from praising Simpson's improvement to saying he should be replaced. He's a solid enough RB for where we are at the moment IMO, it would also disrupt the back four to replace him. He's young and has enough time to improve more and correct his weaknesses. Simpson should be our first choice RB next season. Though I reckon a little healthy competition will do him some good like! Yeah, I'd like someone to be coming in and challenging him.

If someone did a comic strip like that about the toon I would be lapping it up TBH!

I think Taylor/Willi/Colo/Kadar is just about acceptable for us at the moment.

Think better service is the thing I'm most confident about with the players we've got so far.

If we aren't going to sign a CB better than the current three, I'd rather see Kadar step up than sign anyone else as further backup.

I've not seen enough of him tbh, could be Bellamy, could be Nugent. But you can say that about anyone signed from anywhere really. He's already better than Nugent, obviously the caveat is "in the Championship". Like I say, not guaranteed to become as good as Bellamy but there's a strong possibility he would. His progress in the last couple of years has been dramatic.

Long is the kind of player our fans will warm to if he's given a chance. Quick, runs hard for the team and can finish. Not saying I would be ecstatic if he's the only striker we sign, but I'd be cautiously optimistic that he could do well.

I have no idea, I'm trying to stop asking things like this. The answer is always "because Mike Ashley is in charge" or words to that affect.

My problem at the time was that it seemed a desperate random panic buy, also I was pissed off at Carroll going. If we're still interested in him and we can get him at a decent price I would be happy to have him here.

Completely agree, I'm 99% sure we'll sign another striker though. If we don't we deserve to fail.

My worries about Ba are mainly about fitness. Either way I think we need another striker, our current ones suck and blow simultaneously.

Have I gone back in time to before we signed Marveaux, Ba and Cabaye? I thought this summer was looking very good for us?

Fuckin Hell Man Are you for real. Its not even fuckin July Yet you Ponce!

The fact is we finished 12th. For me, to finish four places better and have a better squad would represent steady progress. If we follow that up with a good summer next year then we're looking at Europe again. To expect anything higher than 8th really seems mental to me for this coming season. That would mean finishing above a number of established teams. I'm not saying I'm happy that NUFC is in a position where we're aiming to finish 8th, the long term we should obviously be looking to do better. But considering where we are now I would be happy with 8th come the end of this season.