thenige

Just echoing what everybody else has said, great news - had a feeling he may have been winding down his contract and buggering off but clearly feels he's getting closer and closer to first team football.

Wow that was completely uncalled for. One off the cuff comment clearly equates to me being a chump so fair enough. Guess that's how things work so carry on as you were.

Xisco loves him already. NO NEED. SAFETY FACEPALM! Christ anyone would think I was being serious. Couldn't give a crap if he's gay or not, the fact he looked like the worst footballer I've ever seen last pre-season would be a much better reason to hate him. Hope he becomes a good player for us, but seeing how awful he looked in the few Spanish games I watched last season I'm not holding my breath... Also I'd put Xisco scoring 20 goals next season above Ben Arfa coming here on the plausibility scale.

Xisco loves him already.

Ben Arfa around 50k a week I'd say. L. Diarra around 90k and M. Diarra closer to 50k.

Didn't he lose shedloads during the recession anyway? I doubt this has even got him back to where he was beforehand, so as people have said would be rather surprised if his profits there have anything to do with how much he puts into the club.

Unrelated to this lovely clip, but off to Galatasaray apparently.

I'm pretty certain that was Frazier Campbell and whichever paper originally recorded that got it completely wrong. Not saying he's slow mind, he certainly gave Gareth Bale a good foot race against Spurs last season.

Saw him play live in 'that' epic Leyton Orient friendly last pre-season. He wasn't the only one that day but he was absolutely dreadful. I'm normally a big fan of 'cult' so-called crap players (Maric, Andersson, Luque etc) but got no time for Xisco. Best for both of us if he moves on.

Can't believe some of the Harper hatred on here. Would personally rather keep Harper for a season than get James in. Harper deserves his shot with us and Krul and Forster are waiting in the wings. Anything else seems crazy when we've finally got a settled club with leaders, of which Harper is certainly one.

Perch on £15k a week? You on crack man?

Been speaking to a Watford fan and a Man U fan in the office about Cleverly, neither of them think he's up to Premiership quality. Too slight and although decent on the ball wouldn't be an improvement on what we've got. Personally I've barely seen him play so if he was on the cheap loan-wise then another body in the squad always helps.

Fairly happy with the signing to be honest. He can play a number of positions and should be hungry as opposed to someone like say Samuel who's had many more chances and not done much with them. Actually know one Forest fan who's sad to see him go and when I've ever seen him (fairly infrequently if I'm honest) he's always looked good to me. Let's hope he has a Jenas-esque first season at least

It's a player with Premier League experience who once actually looked a half-decent player - he's clearly lost his way a bit and would be a fairly solid back-up to a position where if Enrique gets injured we're struggling. I'd love to see Kadar come through, but his preferred position is CB and I'd rather he gets his chance slowly than get thrown in a bit like Edgar and Huntington and look out of his depth. Plus he's English (essentially) and it really does look like Hughton's building a very British core to the team.

I'm still bloody confused about why Phil Jagielka wasn't picked. Versatile, came back from injury and looked fresh - most importantly his form was ten times better than Carragher who probably had his worst ever season. Just bizarre.

Steven Taylor is no right back. I'd prefer having Simpson in his natural position than playing Taylor there - unless someone properly coaches him in the art of being a full back. Currently he looks cumbersome on the ball and isn't great reading the line from out wide. I'm not saying it's impossible and I hope he proves me wrong, but with our current squad I'd prefer Simpson or R.Taylor at RB.

Brighton have been told that Lua Lua is not for sale:

Which in turn frees up Jason Roberts? Can't see why we'd sign a 32 year old with a 1 in 3 or 4 games strike rate, would be very surprising especially after all the noises about signing players with 'resale' value.

The thing is, the alternate option is the 'pump it' safety first - and a big problem in regards to our relegation last time was the fact we were just terrible at keeping the ball. Those two help us in that respect more than they hinder us. But yeah, nobody likes seeing risks punished...

Marc Janko, but personally I'd rather Carroll is given a shot.

Glad to see he's improved so much. Had heard good things for a while, but was absolutely shocking in 'that game' pre-season at Leyton Orient. Onwards and upwards sir!

Yeah Kadar's definitely all about himself. I mean, just because after he broke his leg for Newcastle Reserves against Sunderland he came out and said "at least they didn't score" - definitely the wrong kind of attitude for this club...

Larsson is over 24 so there would be no tribunal fee. Wouldn't mind seeing us make a move for Joe Ledley if he's really available for a free. Looking a very decent player before his injury.

Pretty shocking for seventy minutes, Jonas (who I'm a massive fan of) didn't look interested until he scored. Nolan was anonymous, Harper made a pretty poor error, Simpson was disappointing (another player I don't overly criticise), Guthrie's passing and delivery was a bit all over the place and the front two were fed scraps. But yeah, a decent point considering everything. Enrique was probably head and shoulders our best player today in my opinion, and even he didn't look 100% fit.