LoveItIfWeBeatU

Apparently he's willing to stay at Everton if they qualify for the Champions League. I can't see them having £25m to pay for him. The trouble with loaning players who are way out of your club's price range is that you've loaned them for e.g. £3m and had a seasons benefit out of them. Actually paying to buy the player doesn't look like good business, especially when your club has just helped boost the player's asking price. If they bought him for £25m on a 5 year contract that would be £5m a year before wages. I doubt he's cost them £5m for 1 season. The transfer of Romelu Lukaku to NUFC always sounded like a very unlikely transfer to happen. Now we know with 100% certainty that it won't happen. Apparently Lukaku also wants Champions League football next season so there's another nail in the coffin. 'Very unlikely'? I should have said "incredibly" unlikely. I only mentioned it as Pardew said NUFC would be interested in him a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-paul-lambert-believes-6916173

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/5548304/Chelsea-boss-Jose-Mourinho-slaps-25million-tag-on-Spurs-target-Romelu-Lukaku.html The transfer of Romelu Lukaku to NUFC always sounded like a very unlikely transfer to happen. Now we know with 100% certainty that it won't happen. Apparently Lukaku also wants Champions League football next season so there's another nail in the coffin.

Some people think Sissoko has let a big secret out by revealing he is injured. It was obvious to anyone who saw Sissoko come off injured against Southampton that he'd picked up an injury that would be keeping him out for a while.

He probably said Ben Arfa gets to go to France every time he is injured so I want to. Also, Coloccini goes to Argentina every time he is injured. Tiote has even been allowed to visit his witch doctor in the past. NUFC certainly let our players sort out their own injuries how they want.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-add-right-back-serge-6911520

Obertan hasn't even made the bench for quite a few games. According to http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php he has a knee injury with "no return date". Sammy Ameobi is listed as having a Ankle/Foot Injury with "no return date". I think Santon will be playing right back until Debuchy is fit to return.

Now try to come up with a starting 11 without Debuchy and Remy who could both be out injured for the Man U game.

If Sissoko is out injured who else other than Ben Arfa can play on the right? If Gouffran was moved to the right who would replace him on the left? Remy if fit. Marveaux, Sammy Ameobi and Obertan are all injured and/or completely out of favour.

Amongst Pardew's drivel about players being tired he said he would look to rotate the team a bit. Santon, Elliot, Haidara and Ben Arfa all played against Southampton but they hadn't played much (if at all in some cases) before that. Cissé hasn't played much this season. Luuk De Jong hasn't played much this season. The only first team players who have played most games are Krul, Coloccini (who was out injured for a few months), Williamson, Sissoko, Anita (who didn't play much until Cabaye was sold), Tiote, Debuchy (until his recent injury) Gouffran and Remy (who has had a few spells out injured). The only players who could be considered "fresh" and aren't injured are Gosling, S.Taylor and Marveaux. Our squad is paper thin on quality and quantity. Sissoko limped off against Southampton. If he isn't fit you'd think we'd play Ben Arfa on the right but there's no guarantee of that after he was subbed at half time in the last game. Having said that, I can't think of anyone else we could play on the right. Apart from Armstrong which of the rest of our younger players deserves a chance this season?

When setting up the thread it asks you how many days do you want to run the poll for. I didn't know if it counted whole days from the second I press "post" or what so I put 5 days to make sure it ran to Saturday. I only included a poll because all the previous match threads had one. It's just a poll.

The option for how long to run a poll is in "days" only. The poll would have ended half an hour before kick off if I'd selected one less day. These threads are locked at kick off so I assume people can't vote once the thread is locked.

Andy "'Och Aye the Noo" Townsend. Please stop saying "a wee bit".

Townsend says "a wee bit" more times than someone from Scotland.

Tim Krul out injured. Sissoko got subbed off injured (holding the back of his leg) against Southampton. Pardew said Loic Remy was due back in training on Monday. Mathieu Debuchy probably not due back until the next week.

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/revealed-the-chelsea-players-set-to-leave-the-club-in-mass-summer-clearout-9225743.html

West Ham spent around £15m on Andy Carroll at the start of this season. I wouldn't want NUFC to pay anything like that for Andy Carroll. For one thing his fitness record is not good.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/southampton-4-newcastle-united-0-6896139

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26813363

Still think he was bought that summer in the event someone made a big bid for Cabaye. Yep. Not exactly like-for-like but he was bought with the intention of drafting him into Cabaye's place in the first XI when he inevitably moved on. If that was the intention then I hope the person who thought he was a possible replacement for Cabaye was sacked. Anita doesn't really have any of Cabaye's attributes. He doesn't score or create goals, he can't take a dangerous free kick and he doesn't have a crunching tackle on him.

I don't really know why NUFC bought Anita. Anita is neat and tidy and a trier but but due to his lack of height he struggles to win physical battles against opposition players. He also wasn't cheap at €8.5 million (£6.7 million) so he didn't really fit the NUFC transfer policy, especially when he was our only purchase that transfer window.

If we drop out the top 10 will he be sacked? I doubt it.

Bullshit. The only people this season who ever sung "give us a wave" was the singing corner. They haven't sung it for ages either.

Considering we usually win 1 - 0 or get hammered by 3 or more goals to nil it definitely was "us" today. It was a "Mr. Hyde" performance today from the team's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" split personality.

Is he playing at right back? He's a defender but he has scored quite a few more than Vučkić.