AyeDubbleYoo

Never seen him play like?

Pretty sure I saw Ahmed Elmohomady in Newcastle yesterday, about to Google to find out if it was him. Edit: it was him! (he was wandering around Boots checking out young girls).

Aye, punching people in the stomach, terrible.

The amazing joke is that he's actually called Matt. (I hope!)

That is absolute shit. And how is the 4-4 even related to Goodfellas in any way?

I can't see that level of spending. Maybe one of those with the rest being obscure bargain buys.

It's hard to say, isn't it? Until he gets a chance any talk about whether or not he's up to it is pure guesswork. I would be tempted to give him a go, but with us not actually safe yet I can see why Pardew would be cautious.

I want Reading as well. I want to know if Shane Long is actually any good... he looked like he would never make it when I used to go a couple of years ago. Was young I guess.

If I was Harper I would have been off somewhere else years ago, and probably picked up a few England caps in the process. But I can't criticise him for staying with the club he loves, that's a valid choice as well. He's earned good money and lived where he wants - probably had a much more stable and happy life than most footballers.

I haven't watched a Championship game since we got promoted, but QPR are quite near me and I have a mate who supports Forest, so those two would be good. I really want Reading back in the Prem as well, but unlikely I guess.

We really need to keep both for as long as possible. Harper could be finished any time. They're both still young for goalkeepers, I would hope we could manage them with loans and cup appearances for another couple of seasons if necessary.

I dread to think how much this report cost to come up with the above, bloody idiots. To be fair, if the Football Supporter's Federation didn't look into issues around football supporting they would be a bit pointless.

Course they do, the problem is that fans aren't customers in the normal sense. They will continue to provide business no matter what... meaning very little incentive for good customer service.

Based on your posts so far I imagine this is how you approach every game.

We do miss him, though. If you mean we would be better off if he was fit, I agree. But he was injured when we brought him in, seems mental to me to complain he isn't fit now.

I don't understand how this is bad or worth whinging about in any way. We signed him hoping he might get fit, he hasn't got fit yet. That's it - it's a non-issue - it would be nice to have him but we hardly miss a player we've never had.

It really doesn't matter when HBA is fit now, as long as he gets a good long pre-season under his belt. And if you expect quotations from the manager on when a player will be fit to always be 100% accurate, you're living in dreamland.

Wasn't Ireland injured when he arrived? Yes. Don't really see what that has to do with what I said. If you weren't talking about Ireland's injury then you're in the wrong thread.

At the moment we're only 12th in the Premier League injury table on physioroom.com.

Wasn't Ireland injured when he arrived?

But you could say the same about Ireland to an extent. When fit and on form and starring for a City side with a decent number of £20m+ players, he was undoubtedly a good player. And his injury (in theory) isn't a serious one that'll damage him physically. Not saying I believe this is the case, but I don't think it's too stretched to imagine Ashley looking at Ireland as a worthy gamble. Good age, of good calibre/talent, was performing well a few years ago, but is cheap now due to a drop in form in recent seasons (bit like Nolan when we signed him). If he turns things around then we get a valuable player who normally wouldn't be an option for us in for a low price. Yeah, I don't really disagree with that, I've no idea what is going on in Mike Ashley's head. I just think that bearing in mind Ireland's mental personality, it would be a gamble too far to sign him without him playing at all. That said, if he's cheap enough and Pardew thinks he is ready to knuckle down and regain his past form, he is potentially a great player... so who knows.

Just facebooked it as well, this needs to be shared with the world.

I think Ben Arfa is likely to be an exception. The chance to sign a player of his ability for that money is too good to turn down, especially since his leg break seems to have been pretty clean. Even Gosling was a pretty unique situation... a chance to pick up a good young player for almost nothing.

Harsh, Lovenkrands has a lot of experience, even though he's shit now.