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They brought him in from Rennes, ffs. It's not as though he was some established star from Spain or Italy. I genuinely have no idea why they gave him 80,000 pounds a week.

John Utaka is disgracefully bad. I don't want him anywhere near this club or any team that I watch. Peter Utaka is the better player at this point in all seriousness.

He'd fit in perfectly at Everton, imo. Would be a decent target if Pienaar walks.

What happens to Kanu/the rest of their players? Are they released immediately? do they have some form of contract insurance so they collect the money they are owed?

The wording of the statement leads me to wonder if this is a last second ploy to save the club.

So they are gone? This is just depressing. Sad. There is already a thread, btw. On an opportunistic note, there are a few players from the club I wouldn't mind acquiring for free.

If you mean Ben Arfa, he's played in more than 30 games in the league last two seasons for Marseille and saw a lot of time for Lyon the year before. Definitely enough to analyse him. He's not been a solid starter though, given a run of 20 plus consecutive starts. How can he get into a proper rhythm? No, I really don't agree with this at all. It really is incredibly rare for any player to accumulate 20 consecutive starts. You have to realise that this is quite a lot. Over the last three years he's essentially been the twelfth name on the teamsheet. He's had many runs in the first team. He has started a lot of matches, and has been given 20-40 minutes off of the bench in the vast majority of games where he has been fit and not selected to start. It's not as though he has been sitting around and lacking match fitness.

I really don't think Park is much better than Jonas (if at all). I feel like we could stick him in midfield like Man U do against some of the top teams, though. This is a severe underration of our left midfielder.

Definitely. The problem is that he has no work ethic and is lazy. I don't doubt his talent at all. You just don't want to build a team that relies on him to perform because he hasn't shown a willingness to give that kind of effort over time.

He isn't an unknown quantity With this injury he is. It would be a ludicrous risk to sign him right now, as Yorkie said. This is completely dependent on the fee that OM are asking for. If we can acquire with relatively little effect on our accounts, then I believe it would be a risk worth taking. You also have to consider the risk of us losing the player to other teams if he does recover well from the injury.

If you mean Ben Arfa, he's played in more than 30 games in the league last two seasons for Marseille and saw a lot of time for Lyon the year before. Definitely enough to analyse him.

I don't get this thing of him being an unknown quantity. Does the club not have access to video or the ability to send scouts to a country that is twenty miles away? I would more likely trust the ability of someone in a side winning Ligue 1 and competing in the Champions/Europa League than some carthorse from Wolves. I think the ideal situation for Ben Arfa is one like Van der Vaart, Arteta, etc. The talisman for a side that competes for honours, but is not a top, top team. He's not good enough for a team on this level to build around and as VI has said, he's far too volatile to be on the bench (as l'OM and OL both found out).

Comparing prices from the early nineties to prices from 2010, is a stupid and futile exercise imo. So much has changed.

Embarrassing from Shahktar. Just like Rubin Kazan, Spartak, etc. they are a very good size. No one in the world should be beating them in this manner. Nice that Eduardo has scored. Good goal as well.

The title seems to be assuming that Newcastle United Football Club employs two "proper forwards". I'm looking through the squad list right now, and I cannot seem to find them.

It's a shame what happened to Roy, btw. He's gone on far, far too long. It's genuinely sad to see at this point. Kevin Campbell looks a lot like Aiyegbeni in that photo, btw. I actually thought it was him at first. They even have the same figure, which would be alright if not for Yak still being a professional player.

I want Chris Brunt. I know it's probably not going to happen this season, but I want him at some point in his career. Very good player.

Bloody Hell, man. This club is genuinely mad.

Finally seen highlights of the match. The first goal is quite embarrassing for Williamson. I just can't see what prevented him from clearing it out. It's an egregious error, but I'll trust that he can recover after being pretty consistent for us. For the second goal, Barton did poorly to lose the ball after being put in a rather poor position by his teammates, but it's a great goal by Charles. There's little you can do. You'd question where the hell Perch was, but it likely he was providing support up the field, especially as we were already down a goal. I think Carroll could have been sent off for his handball in the box, btw. Very deliberate and blatant attempt to fool the referee. Stupid action from him.

sure bebe will be on very little per week, while vdv will have huge wages, but overall i'd agree. vdv could've been the new scholes for man utd for the next half decade. It's a fair point, when you consider how much they're paying for all that dead space in the same position. How much are Hargreaves, Carrick, and Anderson on?

Still can't believe they spent 8 million on Bebe without addressing their massive issues in the centre of the midfield. That money could have gotten them Rafael VDVaart.

If we are comparing Nigerian strikers with English passports, I would gladly take Carlton Cole over Shola bloody Ameobi. It is barely even a contest. Cole's physicality alone troubles most teams in this league. The ridiculous thing about Obinna is that they've got him on a loan for essentially nothing. No risk, and they'll probably buy him if they stay up. Why weren't we in there? Pretty much exactly what we needed.

West Ham are considered relegation fodder a lot of people here, but Victor Obinna, Piquionne, and Carlton Cole are far better than anything we have here. Carlton Cole can't even get a game at the moment.

Mourinho. He'd relish it. Tbh, I think Rooney might replace Benzema next season.

I remember there were a few games that season where Shola and Femi genuinely looked like being a decent partnership. Like everything else though, it quickly fell apart under the weight of abject failure. Carroll is still the best striker at the club by some distance, imo. He's the only consistently threatening player we have up there. As I've said from the beginning though, he's too inexperienced/not good enough to be leading the line by himself for us in the Premiership.