John P

That would be a much needed boost.

Praet's youtube compilations aren't exactly the most exciting. Looks to have a decent touch but doesn't really possess great pace or dribbling ability. Also doesn't have a particularly good goals/assists record considering he was playing for one of the top sides in Belgium.

He did a good throw to the halfway line on his debut and everyone assumed that his distribution was very good. He's done nothing since then to back it up.

He started last night for Sampdoria for the little that it's worth.

We have so much s**** left in the squad that I think it's worth just taking a loss on some of the players and getting them sold for £2-3m each. Riviere, Krul, Saivet, Colback, Lazaar etc clearly aren't going to feature for us so just get them out and reinvest the £15m received (plus freed wages) on someone who can actually contribute to the first team. Surely there must be teams in France and Holland who are willing and could afford to take these guys for £2-3m. The players also have to agree to go, and very likely take a big pay cut. That could be offset by the low fee though. I guess football clubs calculate the entire cost of a transfer by transfer fee plus wages. Surely Saivet, Lazaar and Haidara aren't on much more than 20k per week. The article just posted in the Ashley thread shows that we pay low wages compared to other premier league clubs.

We have so much shite left in the squad that I think it's worth just taking a loss on some of the players and getting them sold for £2-3m each. Riviere, Krul, Saivet, Colback, Lazaar etc clearly aren't going to feature for us so just get them out and reinvest the £15m received (plus freed wages) on someone who can actually contribute to the first team. Surely there must be teams in France and Holland who are willing and could afford to take these guys for £2-3m.

Desperate for Merino to be given a start to show what he can do, but I have a funny feeling that Rafa will put Diame in. Really hope not though, Merino looked more than ready when he came on last week.

Joking aside, you'd hope that we'd be a more attractive proposition than Brighton if it was a straight choice between us.

Forget it then. Bloody sovereign states.

He's Marco van Basten, get him in the team.

Doesn't sound like there's much in it - 'a possible surprise offer' from us, and Southampton also interested.

Moat was never gonna make it happen and that is why I moved on from him as a partner and tried to go it alone. I was making progress twards raising the funds (almost $20K) when MA pulled the team off the market. The funds are in escrow should the opportunity arise for me to bid again. I'm confused. You had 20k sitting there and this indicated you were on your way to matching Ashley's asking price? No joke fellas. That is when I switched to my name "Consortium of one". I used to sit on street corners with a tin cup selling pencils and singing. I raised a lot of cash that way (got some nasty looks too). I hit up family and friends for money too. I had to give a lot of it back when I heard threats about "my Ponzi scheme". That's alright, I can get the money machine cranked up again in no time. I haven't got a pot to p*ss in myself but that's never stopped me before. Well I'm in. Just give me your bank details and I'll send the money over.

Regarding the Barry Moat takeover bid, he never had anywhere near the amount of money required to buy the club for £80m or £100m. My Dad was a financial advisor and was contacted by Barry Moat's team to essentially try and arrange a huge loan so that he could pay Ashley's asking price. For the club to say that the asking price was met was complete nonsense, at no stage could Moat prove that he had the funds or would ever be able to raise the funds. He was essentially a relatively wealthy fan but had nowhere near that amount of money. Oh, and the Moat business plan (called 'Project Magpie' ) was to sell all of our most valuable players, which included Coloccini, Gutierrez and Enrique. They were costed in to the revenue the club would generate in that Championship season. So it was probably for the best he couldn't raise the funds, seeing as they all played a massive part in us coming back up.

Weeks rather than months is fucking great news to be honest (if that's how it actually turns out).

depends on the grade of the tear. Grade 1 is a few weeks. Grade 2 about a month - 2 months. Grade 3 could be upwards of half a year. Come on man, it's guaranteed to be a Grade 4.

How long would ankle ligaments be? Few months? Recovery time isn't as long as it is for knee ligaments is it?

I thought this guy looked great (again) today. Got a feeling he's going to turn out to be a terrific player for us this season.

Nets? Probably better than Blob

On his compilation videos he seems to be popping up all over the place - striker, left back, centre mid, right wing. God knows what position we're signing him for.

Great stuff. We'll have Merino starting plenty of games instead of this guy. An absolutely massive improvement.

Trabzonspor?! Jesus, thought he would be able to do better than Turkey.

That was the first time I've seen Merino and, even though he only touched the ball a handful of times, he looks quality. Broke up the play a few times with well timed tackles and showed some lovely vision, especially that outside of the boot pass to Aarons. Pretty excited by him I have to say. Could turn out to be a great bit of business.

Yep, Atsu looking really good, very sharp

That's never a penalty like. Disgusting bias from the ref

Ah right, thought there had been an announcement or something that I couldn't find. If it sees the light of day it could be glorious