Gallowgate Toon

Isn't Ranger supposed to have a bit of a knock? Pardew's usually spot on with subs, possible reason?

Embarrassing move by the club.

Unreal player, even in the first half I thought he was fantastic. Arse players literally ricocheting off him at one point Wilshere ran away from him. Credit to him and Joey, put in captain like performances driving the team forward even when it looked like all was lost.

Perfect timing to bring him back to training now, seeing him on the training pitch will give the players a massive boost. Probably the best news we could possibly have had considering the latest saga.

I'd say the club was lacking ambition if we hadn't accepted the deal, limiting ourselves to a stupidly overhyped, glorified battering ram of a striker who, if anything limited our style of play. We can get players a on a different level to AC with that cash. Seriously what is with the clamour for Carroll on here, he's not that good and never will be, he wasn't even the best player in our squad. What tools apart from heading does he really have to make it as a great player? His skill is average, as is his pace, intelligence and finishing. People need to give their heads a shake saying he was going to be a PL great (not specifically you Dave), after scoring 11 goals in one of the worst standard seasons in the league's history, a season where Leon Best has scored a hattrick and a newly promoted club has hit 5+ goals in 3 matches and lets not forget Kevin Nolan already has 10 goals as well. We now have a great chance to build a good footballing side with some higher level players, with this money we can get 6/7 Ben Afra/Tiote like signings ffs, If Andy Carroll had stayed we'd have been confined to alot of boring route 1 stuff and i wouldn't want a team to be built around him for long as he can only take you to a certain level as aplayer. Onwards and upwards i say. Good luck with that. Jesus H. Christ. I'm sure that post is all just in our heads, it can't really have happened, can it? Unbelievable. 6 or 7 Ben Arfa/Tiote-style signings? On this day I weep for the tragic passing of reality-based arguments. Firstly buying good players for minimal fees isn't hard like see Dembele, Afellay, VDV and Sessegnon for recent proof. Secondly i wasn't saying that 6/7 was a realistic outcome either, i was saying that in terms of price equivalence you 'CAN' (not will realistically) get that as those deals were around the 5m mark and 7 x 5 = 35. And pay them nothing? Doubt they'll come. Hence why i put 6 as well to allow an extra 5m in wages if that's how it will work.

I'd say the club was lacking ambition if we hadn't accepted the deal, limiting ourselves to a stupidly overhyped, glorified battering ram of a striker who, if anything limited our style of play. We can get players a on a different level to AC with that cash. Seriously what is with the clamour for Carroll on here, he's not that good and never will be, he wasn't even the best player in our squad. What tools apart from heading does he really have to make it as a great player? His skill is average, as is his pace, intelligence and finishing. People need to give their heads a shake saying he was going to be a PL great (not specifically you Dave), after scoring 11 goals in one of the worst standard seasons in the league's history, a season where Leon Best has scored a hattrick and a newly promoted club has hit 5+ goals in 3 matches and lets not forget Kevin Nolan already has 10 goals as well. We now have a great chance to build a good footballing side with some higher level players, with this money we can get 6/7 Ben Afra/Tiote like signings ffs, If Andy Carroll had stayed we'd have been confined to alot of boring route 1 stuff and i wouldn't want a team to be built around him for long as he can only take you to a certain level as aplayer. Onwards and upwards i say. Good luck with that. Jesus H. Christ. I'm sure that post is all just in our heads, it can't really have happened, can it? Unbelievable. 6 or 7 Ben Arfa/Tiote-style signings? On this day I weep for the tragic passing of reality-based arguments. Firstly buying good players for minimal fees isn't hard like see Dembele, Afellay, VDV and Sessegnon for recent proof. Secondly i wasn't saying that 6/7 was a realistic outcome either, i was saying that in terms of price equivalence you 'CAN' (not will realistically) get that as those deals were around the 5m mark and 7 x 5 = 35.

Well the club has a hell of a while to scout a lot of players, hardly impossible is it? Anyway that's only one way to spend the money, there's tons of varieties. I just think this saga doesn't necessaily signal a lack of ambition, fair enough if we'd sold at 20m but we've given ourselves a platform to get a better team, which would show ambition. One door shuts another opens etc. Obviously if they go for someone inferior to what we had then i'll hold my hands up and say yeah we're small time but the club have been giving off great signals with the latest transfers in, so i'd rather wait and see.

A team should sell one of their current best players to open the door for superior ones to come in, surely? AC as aplayer was going to limit our ambitions in the future because he's an average striker who is only suited to a one dimensional style of play. The timing of the sale was shocking to but the opportunity was too big to miss. Te second point is moot tbh but recent windows suggest the club can do smart business. Sorry but Carroll didn't limit our play, rather made the very best of what limited play we are capable off. If we're being truthful, bar the Ben Arfa who's not played 3 full games this season, Barton's been the only bit of creativity in our midfield and Carroll made the most of that. That first sentence pretty much encompasses my point, our team attack wise is terrible, we now have the opportunity to build something better overall. So to become better we need to go back to being s*** again? The only team that has worked out how to do that was Manure as far as I can remember, when RVN left. Surely you do realise that the reason people are pissed is because AC was still improving with every game he played? No people are mainly pissed off because the lack of immediate replacement is stupid but won't be detremental to our survival chances ultimately imo. And we don't have to become shit again, we're already fairly crap but extremely lucky the league is abysmal this year but on top of that all we need to do is ensure survival then we have a great budget to dramatically improve, so 6 more months of playing exactly the same way but with potentially less efficiency. The lad's improved no doubt but his potential is limited, let's just see how he does in a side who prefer to play the ball on the deck.

A team should sell one of their current best players to open the door for superior ones to come in, surely? AC as aplayer was going to limit our ambitions in the future because he's an average striker who is only suited to a one dimensional style of play. The timing of the sale was shocking to but the opportunity was too big to miss. Te second point is moot tbh but recent windows suggest the club can do smart business. Sorry but Carroll didn't limit our play, rather made the very best of what limited play we are capable off. If we're being truthful, bar the Ben Arfa who's not played 3 full games this season, Barton's been the only bit of creativity in our midfield and Carroll made the most of that. That first sentence pretty much encompasses my point, our team attack wise is terrible, we now have the opportunity to build something better overall.

A team should sell one of their current best players to open the door for superior ones to come in, surely? AC as aplayer was going to limit our ambitions in the future because he's an average striker who is only suited to a one dimensional style of play. The timing of the sale was shocking to but the opportunity was too big to miss. Te second point is moot tbh but recent windows suggest the club can do smart business.

I'd say the club was lacking ambition if we hadn't accepted the deal, limiting ourselves to a stupidly overhyped, glorified battering ram of a striker who, if anything limited our style of play. We can get players a on a different level to AC with that cash. Seriously what is with the clamour for Carroll on here, he's not that good and never will be, he wasn't even the best player in our squad. What tools apart from heading does he really have to make it as a great player? His skill is average, as is his pace, intelligence and finishing. People need to give their heads a shake saying he was going to be a PL great (not specifically you Dave), after scoring 11 goals in one of the worst standard seasons in the league's history, a season where Leon Best has scored a hattrick and a newly promoted club has hit 5+ goals in 3 matches and lets not forget Kevin Nolan already has 10 goals as well. We now have a great chance to build a good footballing side with some higher level players, with this money we can get 6/7 Ben Afra/Tiote like signings ffs, If Andy Carroll had stayed we'd have been confined to alot of boring route 1 stuff and i wouldn't want a team to be built around him for long as he can only take you to a certain level as aplayer. Onwards and upwards i say.

Lost due to an awful midfield yesterday. Teams like Fulham are our achilles heel tbh well organised defensively and very hard to break down. Our midfield was so inept, our defenders were forced to punt balls up the pitch which our strikers were never going to get anything out of, due to Hangeland being a monster in the air. With Tiote in the side, he'd have come deeper and sprayed the ball out wide but he wasn't playing forcing Barton to come deep instead, narrowing our play.

Clean leg breaks never affect a player's speed in the slightest, see Cisse who had the same break twice but actually came back quicker than before. Ben Arfa has virtually the same break, he'll be fine and he's not some soft shite mentally either, he's far too cocky to let something like this get him down, if anything it'll work the opposite way with him, making him stronger.

Not going to panic, Fulham have an excellent defensive record this season, Tiote providing the extra option deep would've been vital tonight.

Would really like Sturridge and Hoilett to come in this Summer. Both are young, versatile, good players and would be available at a fairly reasonable price.

@WarrenBarton (I'm on my phone so can't quote) The way we play, we don't need Andy Carroll and we've already proved that this month. He's the best of our striker bunch no doubt but his replacements are carbon copies in terms of style who can do a capable job imo. As I said in my first post we will survive, we're too strong defensively and in the middle to not win 4 more games or so. I'm still optimistic, we've got the likes of Ben Arfa and Ireland to come into the fold yet, who are exciting and productive players when on top form. We'll be fine and the club will move forward.

Why should anyone believe anyone over anything in football, pretty much everyone is dishonest in this industry and Carroll has quite a track record of being a bit of a pleb, he will try and cover his own back in this as will the club, we'll never really know the whole truth so it's pointless debating what really happened. I'm glad we took the money tbh the lad is hugely overrated and we could buy 2-3 far superior players with that cash. It's even more ridiculous when you consider we bought Ben Arfa for a 7th of what we sold Carroll and he has a track record of being a better player. Now we just need to reinvest and I think we will, we could quite easily spend 20m on a really decent striker in the summer and have a fair bit left over to get a couple Tiote-esque players (in terms of price not position) coming in as well, as long as we survive, which we will imo, then this will be a bigger step forward for the club.

Don't really rate him that much tbh and absolutely ecstatic with the fee, i'm just furious at the tiny amount of time we now have to get a replacement.

Is there a more technically gifted CB in the league? This guy is sheer class on the ball, it seems to me that when he gets a bit older a natural progression to DM would suit him a lot, he could pick out some passes from deep that's for sure.

Pleased for Kaka, has been going through the motions for a couple of seasons. Hopefully the Mourinho factor can rejuvinate him a bit, he was impressive in that little spell with some good passes and a great cross for Cronaldo's goal, great pass and take for his own as well.

Barely played at all. Don't think he's stepped onto the pitch this season. He was poor at the end of his Marseille career, so lack of games has only caused further decline, From the sounds of it, the epitome of a confidence player then? I am surprised mind, i watched him against England in the World Cup and he was really decent against us, had only heard bits about him before that but i was always under the impression he was still a good player.

How often does he play for Wolfsburg? Is he a regular starter? or a squad player?

Not necessarily, we're likely to sign another CB when Cahill leaves. Think this is more to replace O'Brien than anything. He can play right-back too, so not necessarily. Anyway, I'd rather have them than Coloccini and Williamson On the contrary, Coloccini is a massive step up on either of those two. Don't be fooled by the game against your lot he's been top class in every other game he's played in this season, putting in excellent performances against the higher opposition as well.

City could quite easily go 4-3-3 tbh with Dzeko the focal point of their attack with Tevez and Balotelli switching as the wing forwards. Mancini would never do this but having De Jong and Toure as DMs could protect Silva who would be the lone playmaker for the front 3. Kinda like this: De Jong Toure Silva Tevez Balotelli Dzeko

It's pretty clear McKay is stirring the shit atm just to get Joey a contract extension as the article states he only has 18 months left.