AyeDubbleYoo

Think Stoke have already said they can't afford to buy Pennant for £6m

As much as I agree, sacking Big Sam doesn't necessarily mean you're clueless. It's often quite a sensible thing to do.

Any decent premiership striker on loan would be a godsend TBH. Without Carroll we're fizzucked, and with him we might still struggle at times.

Well nobody knows do they, I thought at the time we would have been relegated, but obviously it's impossible to prove.

Wouldn't go that far. I still believe we would have been relegated under him... at the time I was terrified of it.

He would be amazing in the Premier League man, he's like Fabregas X 10.

Well that's not what you said though, you said that he would want money that Ashley wasn't prepared to give him, and that he would be forced to sell his best players. That's totally different from what you just posted, which is that he will have to make tough choices (which I agree with).

Aye, it was awful, one of the worst they've ever done.

It's getting annoying this 'Ashley will sell all the best players' line. There's no evidence for it FFS.

I don't want to lose Taylor, but he has to fit into the new wage structure. If someone else wants to pay him £50k a week, then more fool them TBH.

No, but how does that mean he's not settled?

You would like to think so as Ashley only hired the f***er about week ago. At some point Pargoo will want cash...he will knock on the door and ask for money. Every manager has ambtion and will want to improve the squad. He will be jacked just like the rest. Ashley and his specky gimp need to realise every manager will always want to improve the squad and not sell his best players. Don't know if it's deliberate, but you're taking the argument to stupid extremes here. There's no suggestion that Pardew will be forced to sell his best players, there's no evidence to suggest that at all. Also, signings will continue to be made under the existing criteria... lesser-known, younger players with something to prove who can be obtained at a cheap price. Pardew must have accepted this situation - if he gets sacked for objecting later then it's his own fault IMO.

Classic white on white Air Force 1s, every self-respecting G has a pair.

Also, sounds like Pardew is fully on board with Ashley's plans regarding signings and building slowly with young/bargain players. If that's Ashley's plan, then far better to have a manager who is going to do his best to make it work than one who will cause aggro about signings he's not able to make.

It would be a crazy decision for Barton to go now, just when he's getting back to his best and is settled. Especially to somewhere like West Ham, just can't see it.

Aye, my mate is a doctor there and he asked a nurse why "that family at the end of the ward have so many visitors?". He's really not into football.

Was his trolley just full of chocolate and cakes?

Ashley has made a fuckload of mistakes, obviously, I still put them down to ignorance and/or naivety. Shepherd was a gambler as well, he just preferred to put big money (that he'd borrowed) on the possibility that we would win the league and/or establish ourselves in the top 4. This was something he nearly bankrupted the club to achieve. We're in a new financial situation now, and if anything more clubs are going to need the Ashley approach to transfers and wages. I just hope that he can keep the train wreck decisions to a minimum. FWIW I do think our recent transfer dealings have been good, and I'd much rather watch this cheaper 'bunch of lads' wear the shirt than put the club's future in danger by spunking cash left, right and centre. It might mean slower progress, but a great season from a signing like HBA could easily see us qualify for Europe, then we're looking at a step up a level.

Ranger definitely looks to have more potential than Carroll did a few years ago, obviously that doesn't mean he's going to be better, but he's got a great chance to make a breakthrough.

Crucial that he knows how to use his attributes well. He's a big lad but he still seems to know how and when to jump and when to hold the ball up. Fingers crossed he continues to develop, if he does we've got one of our most exciting players ever.

His passing against Liverpool was proper bo.

no i understand that and fair play Fergie got his tactics right. Its more me being pissed off watching it when i said today at work that i wasn't cos they'll try and cancel each other out and it'll be a shit game but i did end up watching it and just think that two of the best teams in the so called best league should produce a bettter game than that, if a team was going to soak up pressure and hit on the break you expect it to be the away side. Yeah fair enough, if anything they're so worried by results that they put that before anything else. Ironically I think Arsenal could have got something out of it if they had been patient enough and stuck to their game 100%. It seemed as though they lost patience at times and tried to force the through balls too much. Anyway, Arsenal fans should be proud of their style of football and what Wenger has done with the club.

I just call him the Big P.

You know for a fact he punched one of those kids after the photo shoot though, and pointed at a nurse and grabbed his crotch.

There's more than one way to play football though. Fergie got his tactics exactly right for the opposition tonight. Arsenal are great at what they do, but they aren't Barcelona good at it. This means that they can be countered by people like Fergie packing the midfield. When that happens, it's up to Wenger to find an answer.