AyeDubbleYoo

I thought Parker would be the perfect example of a player picked on form rather than celebrity.

The only way I would be even remotely satisfied with selling Nolan is if we has already signed enough quality players to suggest a total change in the style/quality of out play. Anyway, no indication he's actually going.

I hope this doesn't turn into one of those transfer windows where we end up with a couple of good signings but a squad that's just as thin as it was beforehand.

Way over the top IMO. Yes he made a few errors, but the pressure was off as we were safe and he was probably getting a bit overconfident. Still hoping against hope that we manage to keep him.

If we're going for a nippy single striker in some sort of 451/433, Ben Arfa could be Nolan's replacement with Cabaye and Tiote behind. That's only the fist time mind, no matter who we bring in we need to be keeping every decent player from this season IMO.

Overall, I'm just disappointed that we're already discussing the departure of two of our most important players, with another almost universally accepted to be going as well. Losing Barton, Nolan and Enrique could be a big gamble unless we're mega-confident of the signings we have lined up.

I'm not sure I agree with this, outside of the now big 4 and Liverpool I don't think you will find many clubs with plenty of players earning this much, maybe 3 or 4 but that's it. I think the majority of football clubs will be rationalising and reducing their wage bills in the next few years. Obviously for the lucky few there are still massive pay days to be had at the top, top clubs.

I don't think Nolan needs to play off a big front man, or needs to be let go if we improve our midfield. He just needs players around him to do running and enough possession for him to get into his goal scoring positions. Would be sad to see him go this summer, and I still don't think it will happen.

Sorry, had to chuckle. Good point though. Personally I would go with the keeping Enrique and hoping we progress enough to keep him. Though I would understand why the actual decision makers can't indulge in that sort of wishful thinking.

I thought it was 1 July as well.

If the mackems are after him it might force us to move earlier than we want - will be interesting if we're still waiting for Gervinho to decide.

I love how we anger everyone's current club by exploiting their contract clauses. Makes a change from being taken for a mug by the entire football world.

Course, don't think anyone actually wants him to leave right now, and there's no reason he will.

Look at these two statements - (1) we used to throw money at players in order to get them to the club - outcome was a continuing decline in the level of performance on the field (2) Unless we start throwing money at players we won't get anywhere. My point is that throwing money at 'top quality' players in order to get them to sign will not lead to success and in many ways leads to a problem where you have a group of players content to put in the minimum effort to get by knwing that they are set for life. What we should be doing is targetting young hungry players who may well see us as a stepping stone, but who have an incentive to perform well in order to get that big move. Get enough of these (and lets be honest £50k a week should be enough to achieve this) and the club will move forward, challenge for Europe and hopefully get us into a position where we can get a higher quality of player without needing to pay vast sums of money to get them here Totally correct. There's no shame in sometimes having to sell a player to a much more successful club, but if you keep progressing you can eventually turn yourself into one of those clubs.

Eff eff ess.

Exactly.

People's set pieces are always criticised far too harshly in individual games though. He only needs to hit one decent corner a game or one free kick every five and he'll be one of the best in the league.

Mackem hating aside, how good is Jordan Henderson?

Because it doesn't involve a release clause. Seems like it's the only actual negotiation we've been involved with under Ashley! Must be new territory for them.

Maybe the club could ask the sun to stop setting at night, or the tide to stop coming in or something? If they can offload Alan Smith then anything is possible.

I had that one with the orange stripe with Barnes 10 on the back!

He's got to be one of the best in the world when a winger is coming at him, unbeatable. If he wants to go to Barca then fair play I suppose.

Absolutely, for a player proven to be one of the most dangerous attackers in the league it's a decent price.

Unless he's Smith-bad, we've got nothing to lose by loaning him our and giving him a chance to prove he isn't shite. The money we would get for him now would be negligible. Although he hasn't played 'well', he's shown he can trouble Premier League defenders. And no kid of his age should be written off based on so few appearances.

Imagine there's no Smudger It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one