AyeDubbleYoo

He'll either sign or he won't, we'll find out soon enough. Don't care about rumours beyond that TBH.

He's decent when he's fit but he always seems to have a problem of some kind. He really hit the jackpot with that move to City, same with a few others like Barry and Lescott. All the City players are overpaid but them few in particular are extremely overpaid. Yeah, also left-footers are always going to be in demand.

Very sensible post TT. It wasn't long ago that Willicini was being praised as our best partnership for ages... he has the ability to do fine for us.

I'm worried about affecting his game as well, but maybe he could be more mature in how he shields players and blocks off their space without actually going into tackles and physical contact. If he stays like he is he'll still be brilliant, but I hope he can make his game more varied in future.

I don't remember that!

I love Tiote as much as anyone, but we need to find a way of stopping him getting so many cards. He's too important to get banned every 5 games.

As sensible an addition to this current talk as any. Wages are wages, unless they're going to bankrupt us - unlikely with Ashley in charge - then I couldn't give a shit. Sure, some of them are robbing a living but they would be even if they were on £10k a week and that's classed as nothing these days. People talk about wages like they are playing FM (I bet half of the time that's where they get their 'info' from) and it's embarrassing. Totally correct, it makes absolutely no difference to whether a player is 'worth the wages' if he's on £35k or £60k. It's all a matter of degrees, there's no standard so what's the point in worrying about it?

I think he's our best player by far. Agreed, he's a level above the rest of our squad, except maybe Carroll and Ben Arfa. Closely followed by Tiote, Colo and Barton which all in all gives you the spine a really decent team. Yeah, totally, I like how our first team is taking shape, we need to strengthen the squad with (good quality) backup in key areas.

I think he's our best player by far. Agreed, he's a level above the rest of our squad, except maybe Carroll and Ben Arfa.

I hate the transfer window, the press take the piss.

Krul definitely needs to work on his kicking, it's been terrible recently. Might be down to confidence though, he's still very young for a goalkeeper. Whether or not Pardew is using the media well to motivate a player, or whether he'll piss him off more, is debatable - I don't know what sort of character Krul is.

Pardew just likes to talk about football... he's more comfortable with the press so he's more conversational with them. I don't see how there's anything wrong with that quote, he says we couldn't match Stevenage and that we looked shot, he's just also saying the sending off hurt us.

I'm sure he doesn't think NUFC are going to stop all midfield signings while we find out how good Gosling is.

Cautiously happy with this signing.

French fans probably hate Anelka and Malouda at the moment as well, but I'd certainly take them in a toon shirt.

Any CM who can actually use his legs to move faster than a snail is someone we should be looking at. Ideally with one of our shite ones going out.

Why? Not every potential leg-breaker is because the player is fucking evil or out to kill the opponent. People are clumsy, they're over-eager, etc. The end result of a over-eager tackle which breaks a leg is the same as the Roy Keane leg-breaking type of tackle. So are you saying we should judge the tackle on the intent? Or the outcome? Or all possible potential outcomes?

I don't think we're in any position to mock Liverpool fans for a slightly irrational love for a manager!

His intent was clearly to win the ball, the outcome was that he clearly did win the ball. The opponent wasn't hurt. I would hope an appeal based on that would have a decent chance.

Yeah, but I guess you could argue nullifying a team is a way of outplaying them anyway! I'm probably not wording this well. I was meaning nullifying, is more a way of equalling a team, rather than outplaying them. We looked like we had no ideas, but they didn't exactly look great either, although by their standards, they probably were. Know what you mean. I thought the first half was a write-off basically, the ball spend most of the time in the air, ping-ponging up and down the field. It was hideous to watch. But we weren't able to sort it out and get it down in the second half, so criticism goes to the players and Pardew for not making that happen.

Agreed. This was a big problem. Totally, this is what our midfield is like without Tiote, and has been for years. I spent half the game shouting 'where's the midfield?' at the TV. It's the biggest problem NUFC has ever had, ideally we need another DM who's a more credible replacement for Cheik.

Maybe Barton taking a slightly different role, in the centre passing it about, might have helped. Would have also allowed a left footer (Fergie) to play down the left. Barton's been great out wide, but using him a bit more cleverly in this specific game might have been worth a try.

Yeah, but I guess you could argue nullifying a team is a way of outplaying them anyway!

Fair assessment. I would have liked to see Ferguson on the left to provide some genuine balance to the team, playing Barton out there was bizarre. Also in hindsight playing Ranger might have been a good idea, Loven was invisible against their defence. The Power Ranger also has something to prove after the West Ham game. Nolan had one of those games we know he's capable of, utterly invisible and bossed by more athletic players. The amount of times he was running back towards our goal, chasing a player who had gone straight through his position, was painful to watch.

What's dishonest about Smith? Genuine question.