Segun Oluwaniyi

I don't think he looked out of place in either the Championship or League 1 at a very young age, which leads me to believe he would have been fine at that level. The guy has finally succeeded in throwing his life away, anyway. I'm always hesitant with these rape charge because so many of them lead to nothing when they involve people who are "known", but Ranger still has a long list of miscreancy. Even if is innocent, no professional club will touch him. The ages of 19-22 are ones where you need to be growing mentally, especially as a footballer, and this guy has regressed sharply. Oh well.

The Iraqis remind of a West African side more than any massive underdog. They horribly underachieve because of circumstance, infrastructure, corruption (and/or war). They have a large, extremely young population and produce a lot of athletic, natural talent that is never cultivated because there is no serious league there and no legitimate player development unless the players go abroad. In terms of potential, I would put them second behind South Korea in Asia, until China becomes world dominant in forty years time.

I'd imagine Bent has been eating well ever since his move to Spurs about 6-7 years ago. This has not stopped him from scoring at a decent rate.

If we were coming off a successful season, people would be content with Bent. The hatred towards it is just negativity for the sake of negativity, as this is the norm at the moment. He'd be a decent option. People keep talking about how compatible he is with Cisse, but Papiss isn't the type of forward that thrives in a two striker system anyway, and he won't be any less compatible with Bent than he was with Ba. If we acquire Bent and an aggressive, pacey wide player this window, I will be happy with our attacking unit.

Good work. I can't see a way around LRD's logic.

Mathematically, what is the maximum number of points a team could need to ensure they were not relegated. Essentially, I am asking what is the the threshold of "absolute safety". I was searching for the answer in my head, but the permutations are too much for me. I believe 42 is the highest that has ever been needed in the Premiership (West Ham's previous relegation), but there must be potential for the number to be substantially higher.

This "big club" thing is irritating. I wonder if the homeless run about the streets in your country screaming about how big they are and substantial their following is. The past is the past and money is money.

I thought Norwich were the worst side in the Premiership last year after the new year, maybe bar Reading. I really think they were worse than NUFC, SAFC, Stoke, and the rest. Horrendous, negative football and poor results. Little quality, no game plan going forward, and just a stark change from the first few months of Hughton's tenure. I would have tipped them to do go down before these signings. They've done well to get in some nice players up front, but I don't think it means anything more than safe lower midtable, assuming they can adapt fairly quickly.

So would Ribery and Lewandowski..... but just like Remy and Ince there is zero chance of it happening. I don't consider two Championship players we've been heavily linked to as an impossibility. I doubt we will sign both, but I could definitely see one (probably Loic Remy) ending up here.

I would have really enjoyed Kone here. Very useful player. I hope this is a sign of our interest in signing that type of forward. We need pace and aggression upfront.

Back at Rennes he was most definitely primarily a wide player. I actually believe we are using him centrally and sparingly to some extent to avoid him getting injured. Different league, different country. Apparently Gouffran survived as a winger over there for almost a decade, which says it all. Gouffran definitely has the capabilities to survive as wide player in any league. I think he is more suited to it despite his good goal record as a centre forward. Not necessarily in a flat 4-4-2, but I doubt he would be deployed that way.

If we plan to use Gouffran mostly as a centre forward, this is more than enough depth. I'd like us to sign another forward leaning player, whose role should be determined by Gouffran's position. I wonder if Pardew has enough input over transfers for this to be the case, though.

The negativity on the football board in terms of transfer has swung far past logicality since the appointment of Kinnear. People are up in arms about stories that have nothing to do with us, rumours that have no foundations, the failure to acquire players they haven't heard or seen (and that the club hasn't shown interest in), and want to castrate themselves every time some team spends more then three or four million on a player. It is very annoying.

Bent would be a perfectly reasonable signing, assuming we sign one more reinforcements. A lot hinges on how Pardew intends to use Gouffran, imo.

You don't feel we've done a good job in getting players here in recent times? Obviously we need more, but I find this constant criticism of our transfer dealings extremely weird. We almost got relegated due to our transfer policy last season. It definitely wasn't our transfer policy that saw up drop 11 places in the league. We could've improved the team more, fair enough, but Guthrie was replaced and it was only Leon Best who we didn't bring in adequate replacement for. All the transfer policy can do is leave the club with adequate personnel to achieve the club's goals and I think this is what it did. It didn't between August and mid January. The forum has been through this a million times now, but the squad was almost identical to the one from the season before. I don't think the clubs around us improved enough to use this as justification for our poor performances. It would have been much better if we had gotten it the players from January earlier and "pushed on", but having the same team as the season before wasn't the reason "we almost got relegated".

You don't feel we've done a good job in getting players here in recent times? Obviously we need more, but I find this constant criticism of our transfer dealings extremely weird. We almost got relegated due to our transfer policy last season. It definitely wasn't our transfer policy that saw up drop 11 places in the league. We could've improved the team more, fair enough, but Guthrie was replaced and it was only Leon Best who we didn't bring in adequate replacement for. All the transfer policy can do is leave the club with adequate personnel to achieve the club's goals and I think this is what it did.

Disagree. He is a liability all over the pitch at this level. Perch is genuinely a great tackler and works hard enough, but these are his only acceptable skills. He's not a good enough footballer to be reliable against the level of teams in this league. He can't pass accurately or shoot at all, and isn't a particularly intelligent player defensively in midfield or defense, either.

This reminds me of the time when Real Madrid sold Makalele.

The whole spine of the team has been exceptional. I don't think I could choose a MoM. The referee has allowed them to foul rather consistently without retribution. You expect them to get decisions in that atmosphere, but it has been a great advantage for their back six, imo.

Been coming all tournament IMO, Spain have looked fragile defensively without Alonso alongside Busquets screening the back 4. Brazil just happened to be the first team who took their chances. We'll see in 2014. This is a bad litmus test. Playing one of the best sides in the world, in a stadium that is rocking to the brim (fans against them every match), against players giving 150 percent effort, when you are probably tired and don't care that much. It's a combination of factors. Spain, Nigeria, and Uruguay just didn't have the quality/execution to do it. La Roja will be an extremely difficult team to beat next year.

Whenever, Spain loses, VI just looks at the league table and starts smiling again. When Barca loses, he probably peeps at the FIFA rankings. The guy is in a cycle of ecstasy. It is the complete opposite for me, both the club and international level compound my deep depression.

That's never a red card, but I am too busy laughing to care.

Missed the goal reading about NBA trades. Mad at myself for it. I am thoroughly enjoying the beating Spain is taking here. Going to soak up every second of it,

Not really, always been a problem position. Arbeloa's by far the weakest player in our starting XI. He usually is still decent, until today. Both Carvajal/Montoya should be able to improve on him in following years. Your best right back is playing in the centre, but Azpilicueta is already much better than Arbeloa. I don't rate the latter as anything more than a average player going forward and defensively.

Feel like none of this s*** counted when it was us up 2-0 at HT in the last final. Now it's Brazil back on top. That tournament was terrible. This one just has more interesting sides (Even the four sides that were eliminated in the first round are interesting ) and more charged atmosphere. The best version of this tournament I can even remember. It has been fantastic.