Wallace

It is all about having some flexibility. If a player is going to seriously improve our squad then is it really disastrous to offer another £500k and especially if a player is of the potential where we expect to make a profit if he sold on. We were supposedly outbid by Wigan for Moses when the player wanted to come here by about £500k and Wigan sold him for £10m. I would have thought that the fact we are supposed to pay the full amount up front to hold some sway (perhaps the reason for the lower bids) as I cannot imagine clubs like West Ham doing that.

If we do sign a quality centre half then it may allow more flexibility with Colo. We are going to have some free weekends having been knocked out of the cup so the club may allow him to take a couple of breaks in Argentina to help him through the rest of the season.

We would end up with a far weaker squad than last time and few if any of those left have the mentality of Nolan and co. Mind you the wage bill would plummet!! If we went down, unless we recruited well, I doubt we would come straight back up.

That's what Allardyce does though - signs loads of players - a couple will work out and the others will be moved on fairly quickly.

It always seems as if there is a bit of gap between an offer being accepted before we move on to the next stage. I would have thought that once the selling club accepts an offer that we would try and sort things out with the agent/player immediately. The gap seems to give other teams the opportunity to step in and then wrap up a deal quite quickly.

Well at least there is a manager out there that is available (no compo) and should be cheap. Whether he would be willing to kowtow to the board in they way they seem to require is another matter although the Southampton chairman doesn't seem to be an easy man to work for.

I think it would TBH, not many people outside of this forum are even talking about sacking Pardew. Although Adkins is widely liked as was Hughton so the surprised and sympathetic reactions are understandable whereas Pardew seems to be disliked by a lot of other fans so I think a lot would think he had it coming.

Showing my ignorance here but I have not heard of the new guy. Any good?

Always liked Adkins. Took a while for him to get to grips with the Premier League but their recent record is very good which seemed to indicate that he was learning quickly.

I hope he is being more positive with the players because everything he says in the media these days is very negative. I get that he is probably sending messages to the board but it is a sharp contrast to the other struggling clubs whose managers are being much more positive in th press and in the way they are playing. Fans of those clubs also seem to be confident of survival whereas here the negativity is increasing as each day passes. And Pardew is unwittingly encouraging it. We have got one of the best first teams outside the elite clubs - comfortablty top 10. OK the quality of the squad overall and its depth are questionable but the players should be picking up more points than they are. Pardew just doesn't seem to understand how to get out of a rut. At all his previous clubs, once things have started to go wrong, he has not managed to turn it around (allthough maybe he wasn't given enough time). The board may have failed him in the Summer with their transfer dealings but he should still have been able to get the players to put on some good team performances and picked up more points.

Malcolm Macdonald on Talksport at 12pm. Will probably interesting when talking about his career but who knows what will he come out with if asked to comment on the current situation at the club.

Pre-season was weird. We seem to give a lot of playing time to the fringe players to get them up to speed for the Europa League but neglected the first team who seemed to just get a few minutes here or there.

Well QPR have set themselves a precedent now. Players will want deals similar to that given to Remy.

Agreed, the externals could do with a wash too. I have thought for some time that it needs some sprucing up as the stadium is starting to look a little tired. There are also quite a few repair jobs in toilets etc that have needed doing for at least 3-4 years.

Tim Vickery said that we should ask for about 5 of their players if they could not afford a fee for Colo as there were a few with potential.

When stories about an Italian club being interested in Krul and Santon gets reported in the British media has "more news of Newcastle players wanting to leave".

That's the problem with us - we seem to spend ages working on a deal and then QPR jump in and sort it out at their end in 48 hours. They are going to have to speed up if they want several more players in this window.

Should the club be prepared to cancel his contract, then would it not be reasonable to ask him to stay until we are safe from relegation and the sooner that happens, then the sooner he can leave. Obviously we don't know the reasons behind this (and Colo has always come across as very honourable) but you don't want to set a precedent where players start to come up with reasons to walk out on a contract when they feel like it especially if they are still a valuable asset to the club.

Vive la toon. I remember when we played Marseilles, some fans had a big flag with that on. I keep hoping it makes a reappearance.

Surely he will waive loyalty payments etc if he is that desperate to go because the club are going to be losing a lot of money on him so it would only be fair for him to make some concessions as well. If he is the one who has cocked things up, I don't see why the club should lose out because of that.

I think you need a club captain and a team captain. Club captain would have to be either Saylor, Krul or Shola as they are the only players who really seem to have a strong attachment to the club and seem to get more involved in community functions and are also happy to do the press side. On the pitch, it would have to be Cabaye - he has experience and the other players respect him and he is supposedly very influential in the dressing room. I always get the impression that the other players think of Taylor as a daft lad and don't take him too seriously although I think he is probably the most wholehearted player we have. Downside of Cabaye being captain is that recently, they tend to move on fairly soon.

Considering he used to be NUFC's press officer, his lack of knowledge about the club is astounding. I am convinced he does no research and makes everything up on the spot as he is factually incorrect more often than not.

Was Cabaye captain at Lille?

Poor man management I think. Deserves a lot of praise for last season but early this season we had decent teamsheets available and the tactics just weren't working. I still think most of our problems this season have been out of Pardew's hands though and I give him the benefit of the doubt right now for that reason. I think any manager would have struggled this season with the problems we've had. His comments are aimed more at protecting himself and also seem to be a subtle swipe at the boardroom. There have been a few swipes directed at the boardroom in recent weeks by Pardew and he is getting less subtle as the weeks go by. I don't think they will be impressed with that as surely his job description says he has to protect them and praise them at all times.

Well if it is going to happen, let's hope he puts in some performances in the next few games as picking up a decent number of points in the next 3 games will ease a little of the pressure and give the team the morale boost it needs.