AyeDubbleYoo

Oh yeah, Bendtner is much better than Shola. His ego is a bit of a worry like, he does believe he's the new Pele.

Who is it offensive to?

I don't know, I know he's been injured and needs to prove his fitness like. Obviously if his back is knackered it wouldn't be a good signing! Edit: according to Wikipedia it was a stress fracture that required surgery - not necessarily chronic.

I would take a chance on O'Hara, might end up being a good signing for someone.

If he's prepared to get a perm, I'm prepared to let him stay at the club.

I think the main reason is that for the 'Olympic Legacy' they need to give the stadium over to something other than one or two athletics meets a year. I would hate to see Spurs leave Tottenham, it's a bad enough area and the football club is pretty much the only thing it has going for it.

£18m for a '1 in 2' striker, proven in the Prem and suited to Houllier's preferred formation, is a decent deal for Villa. Transfer fees for big players have so stupid now it's almost farcical to try and judge anyone's worth. For every £8m Van der Vaart there's a £20m James Milner.

For Sunderland this seems a bad deal, regardless of the money. Similar to Carroll, letting Bent go sends all the wrong signals and will probably damage the team more than help it improve. The only thing I can think is that Bent himself, and his agent etc, have forced this move through and made it clear that he won't play for Sunderland any more. If a player is going to be unhappy or cause trouble, then cashing in is sometimes the lesser of two evils.

Consider me owned.

Nooooooooo! Seriously though, it couldn't, he's not for sale.

I knew I shouldn't have posted that. To be even more clear than I thought I already had been, I'm not saying anyone wouldn't want SWP here 'because he's black'. I was just airing my suspicion that sometimes, probably subconsciously, players like SWP/Routledge/Walcott/Dyer get branded as having 'no footballing brain' and I think that might have a (probably subconscious) racial component.

I should give some more specific examples, you're right, I could probably think of some as I hear the same cliches from commentators and pundits nearly every week. For me Walcott definitely isn't a kick and run merchant, there's much more about him than that. Keiron Dyer was one I used to think was unfairly tarred with that brush too. Anyway, not an argument it's really worth having in this thread, I'm not saying anyone is 'racist' as such. Everyone uses all sorts of cliches and stereotypes to refer to players.

Isn't there direct quotes attributable to him saying he was interested in all 3? If there is I retract the above post! (Although I would still judge him by the actual players that come in)

What role would that be? Hoying drunk people out of Shearer's perhaps.

TBF to Pardew, he hasn't actually signed Bentley, Santa Cruz or Beckham, they're probably just bollocks press links.

I definitely think there's an element of racism in it, probably subconscious. Similar to how Theo Walcott has 'no footballing brain', even though it's no way worse than 90% of other players. For clarity - I was pointing out how wrong that view would be, not agreeing with it!

Surely they've already got enough goalkeepers? (Bah, too slow!)

Ah right, cool. I don't want Routledge to go out, unless we have another wide man coming in. I actually wouldn't mind giving SWP a chance (preferably on loan first) - always thought he's a decent player and mainly gets criticised because he appears to be the streotypical "small, fast, no footballing brain" (possibly also because he's black) which is a load of bollocks in the majority of cases.

Is this actually done?

I always think of Martins' thunderbolt when I think about Spurs games.

Spurs playing in Stratford is a mental idea, and they would definitely have to stop being called Tottenham Hotspur... it would be an MK Dons-style situation.

Aye, wouldn't be too keen on this. We're lacking in depth on the wing as it is and unless we're planning on bringing a winger in, this is going to leave us pretty thin. Plus, Routledge is a decent player to bring on in the final 20 mins of a game against a tired fullback. Totally agree, it's far too soon to write him off.

Good interview I agree, one thing you can say about Pardew is that he seems to really mean what he says about how big the club is, and seems to be quite honoured to have the job. Unlike mongs like Big Sam who thought they were God's gift to football.

I have avatars switched off, so I'm not getting the enjoyment/disgust.