AyeDubbleYoo

That's actually probably the most likely to be sung.

Ah right, fair enough.

The Villa one looks like it's inside out.

Is that two-line article from an anonymous daily mail writer the only reason for this whole discussion?

I thought he was right at the time like.

Exactly - it's not as simple as just saying Shola and Lovenkrands are not good enough, lets palm them off on someone else. Someone actually has to want to buy them. True, but that's irrelevant to whether we should be selling Leon Best.

Top players generally impact games, athleticism or not. I don't understand what that means.

Totally, Best is the last of our strikers we should be getting rid of.

Yeah but they're his most recent 9 games, and at the highest level he's ever played at, they're surely the ones that count the most. If people don't rate him then ok, but the idea that he is ahead of Ameobi and Loven (both older, inferior and both surely on more money) in being told to head for the exit, you have to concede, is bizzarre. I'm with you on trying to get rid of Shola and Lovenkrands, but I still think the idea of not selling a below average player for a decent amount of money just because you can't get anyone to take two s**t ones is flawed logic. Not as flawed as selling your best striker and leaving you with the worst ones.

lol

We should all just baa like a sheep.

Long would have a lot of uncertainty around him, but then I suppose Erdinc would as well.

Demba Ba, my lord, Demba Ba Oh Lord, Demba Ba

Aye, that's one of mine actually, hilarious. There's probably about 5 players in the league on deals like that, if that.

To be fair to McLeish, he's got balls taking this on.

Surely there must be some latitude in the 'reducing costs' aspect of Pardew's remit though? Frankly, if 'reducing costs' means bringing in players like Ba, Cabeye for £4mil and selling Nolan when he's after 5 years at 55k, then Ashley is on the right track, surely? If people take this 'reducing costs' at face value, why is the club just not bringining in cheap shite to replace Carroll, Nolan, etc. 'Reducing costs' could mean a number of things and not all of them negative. Precisely. If we are reducing costs by bringing in players like Ba, Ben Arfa and Cabaye then please keep reducing them. That's without even factoring in that costs might actually need to be reduced.

I would like to see him on the bench for the majority of our games next season, and starting in the cups. Seems a shame to lose him without really giving him a chance.

If they don't get promoted next year, it could get very interesting for them. If ever there was a situation where someone could "do a Leeds", it's this.

Definitely, a goal every game would do nicely.

Nobody knows that.

I agree with all that, except the Ba deal should be judged to be good on its own merits. He's an upgrade on our current forwards and he was free. I want other signings too obviously, I just won't go back and re-judge this deal in hindsight.

I know what you mean, [b[i just don't see why everything positive has to have a massive caveat tagged onto the end.[/b] Ba is a good signing, he's better than all our other strikers. Let's judge the other business on its own merits. it doesn't, but it absolutely must be judged with reference to selling a player for 35m and then promising to invest that money into the squad publicly ian, i'm sorry like but it fucking does Fair enough. I just think Ba is a good signing and there's no reason to be down on it because he didn't cost £20m. aaaaaargh which part of "criticising the Ba deal is stupid 'cause it makes good sense on every level" is me being down on the ba signing? Sorry, I didn't see you say that and I wasn't really talking about you solely anyway. My personal view is that the Ba deal is a good deal. It won't become a bad deal even if we fail to make other signings. That's it really.

that's totally fair enough, then they should go the other route and invest in a Whickham for the future - someone who might cost a bit but might turn out great the alternative is chasing gameiro's and then the club sitting back on 1st september and saying "we tried but no-one wanted to come" if we can't buy very players then let's buy one's we can make very good players at least ffs They haven't done that though, they done exactly the opposite. They got the pursuit of Gamerio out of the way very early, leaving plenty of time for other targets. One of which they've just got for free.