Mattoon

Shit! As long as it doesn't rattle us!

Happy with the team and formation, we should really hit them from the off. The difference to a similar line up appearing last year is that we're not going to be playing the same damage limitation/counter attack football that we would play against Manyoo or Chelski. I am seriously shaking my head at Gouffran though, if you have to shoehorn him in, give him a run upfront or just behind Cisse, plenty of fringe players could do with a run out in that position.

Ok so after a bit of Dennis Wise scouting he looks like he has an excellent change of pace and great acceleration but not particularly quick at full tilt. But with his acceleration and tight footwork he's good at out smarting quicker players over distance.

Ah right, I thought this was his chance at the end I think I may be wrong

I'd say 2 changes of direction and a mazy run at the end 90m in 13 seconds is pretty rapid with a ball at your feet.

If he can maintain some kind of form and we get a leftback in, I can cope with that. Another product of the Pardew negativity? With confidence slowly coming back to the team maybe it can help him. Could do with someone better than Ginger Pirlo in front of him though.

Controversial!

That's an amazing story, sounds like he's crackers enough to fit in here.

It's like trying to convince yourself that your fit as fuck ex that dumped you was a munter cuz she didn't know algebra.

How can some f***ing numbskull sit and watch that and proceed to call him s***? Absolutely astounding how thick our fans can be at times. There's not many players in the world that can do that with such ease. But yeah let's slag him off because he "never tracked back enough.". Not to worry Forest Oberwang filled his shoes nicely last year, we'd all prefer him any day of the week wouldn't we, WOULDN'T WE?!??

Looks like the beautiful bastard is back to his old self after that dirty great Pardew shaped weight has been lifted from his neck. Pardew deserves to rot in hell for this alone, fucking egotistical, smarmy, greasy fuckstick!

My Liverpool supporting mate reckons we'll win this, but he supports Liverpool so his opinion is invalid.

There's been far too much damage done in the Pardew era, he alienated the genuine quality we had and stuck with Cloggers. We're now in a position of having a lot of deadwood and it was never going to be fixed overnight. I do think we missed an opportunity to get in a real decent head coach but McClaren is a lot of rungs up the ladder from Pardew and I'll give him a chance. I think we've bought riskily again and it could very well backfire but I'm more concerned at our inability to shift players like Gouffran and Riviere. If we can't trim the fat Ashley won't want to pay wages for decent replacements.

I'd take another Ben Arfa any day of the week!

This is it for me too Yorkie, I'm no longer actively willing us to lose, but I still find myself just shrugging at a goal either end of the pitch. There's a lot more mending to do than bringing in new coaches and throwing £50m at them. If you'd have offered me this at this time last season though I'd have snapped your arm off!

YNWA end of! Fucking hate that song.

Anybody can run well around a cone even with a football at their feet with a bit of basic training so I don't see that as a technical talent at this level unless they're doing it to an opposition player. As it is, the only thing he is capable of doing is kicking a ball past a player (very occasionally when he wants to attack them) and run past them. No skill involved, just raw pace which is a physical benefit, not a technical skill. Mole - from the statement 'technically he is talented' I thought you meant he had technical ability. The way I see it he has no technical ability whatsoever, no heart whatsoever and has nothing to offer but pace. We may as well just sign an olympic sprinter. I'd rather have Bolt than Oberwang any day of the week.

Unfortunately this is how we work, one or two of the ones we'd keep out of those will be the ones that are sold. We'll be left with the dross as per.

Tbf I didn't think nor claim to have invented it, it just came to mind, I have no recollection of hearing it before buy assumed it was said on here at some point. House of Pards should only be a thing if there's a sturdy wind.

The house of pards will come crumbling down soon enough. My anger towards this cretin has subsided, he's long gone from here and now we have no remains of his tenure here it's time to move on. Doesn't mean I won't take extreme pleasure in his demise.

Self perpetuating myth of a man, not crash and die.

Lee Nelson is a cock, but this was sublime, I have to give him kudos for that.

I don't care what he does, it's positive that they're trying to reach out and have some dialect, however I don't feel that the real issues will get spoken about, but it's a start. Right now, it's more important we get the right players in and out of the club, create a footballing philosophy and start winning some matches. He says the right things, let's see them in practice.

I knew you were going to say that... Hard not to when this thread is full of it, nobody has a clue( that includes the media) what is going on but assume anyway. The only thing we know ( or that's been widely reported) is that we have agreed a fee and he's having trouble deciding either himself or his family and that the clubs linked don't want to pay the asking price. The rest is just guesswork. Not so much assumption as frustration, the worst of it being we only seem to be able to conduct one transfer at a time. It seems like we wait for something to go flat or complete until we move onto the next target.

Move on, this is more hassle than its worth now, clearly they're trying to sniff out other prospects with the Chelsea rumours, he wants £60k a week? Never gonna happen!