John P

From a bit of Dennis Wise scouting he certainly looks a good finisher with either foot and his head. A few examples of him beating a man with a bit of pace before scoring, and also a few where he basically makes a goal for himself from a long ball punted towards him, something which will probably serve him well here! If it goes through I'll be glad to just have another striker with a decent record in the squad to be honest. It's a much less riskier deal than spunking £12m on Enner Valencia that's for sure.

That is quite honestly the worst written article I think I've ever seen from a 'professional' journalist. It's just scandalously bad, I would have been disappointed to write something like that when I was 12.

I was there yesterday. Thought the first hour or so was pretty decent especially being the first game. But like often happens in friendlies it degenerated after both teams made multiple substitutions (Oldhams was like an ice hockey line change with 6 subs lined up to come on at once ) Bit worrying that de Jong, the only first teamer not to have been coached by Pardew, stood out to the extent he did, but the team that starts vs man city will be very different to last nights. Is everything going to go perfect and we'll give city a hiding? No. Is Pardew an incompetent baboon? Undoubtedly yes. But I can't bring myself to get all negative or upset about a friendly- I've got the next 9 months for that!!! Did De Jong stand out other than the goal? Any other notable performances?

Would be interesting if player stats were divided into stats under each manager they worked with. Would reflect the ability of the manager to get performances out of certain players, and also the style of play where the player fits in best

Good point

For those of you criticising his record, the same could have been said of Diego Costa a couple of years ago and Craig Bellamy when we signed him. Bellamy didn't score many goals for us but what he added to the team was immense. If Riviere has pace and power then he will add a hell of a lot more to the side than Cisse and Shola did last season. If (and I know it's a big if) we can get another striker in then we will hopefully have De Jong, Cabella, Riviere and another who are all capable of chipping in with a few goals. I would add Hatem to that list but it seems pretty unlikely given the situation with The King, which is such a shame when you think of what he could do with some of these attacking players we're bringing in at the moment.

Because he had a foot-long meatball marinara at 2am

Definitely remember his name being brought up whilst at brugge. Shame as it looks like he's kicked on in Spain. Absolutely no chance of getting him now, especially not at a price we'd be willing to pay

Weren't we linked with him when he was at brugge? Could have had him nice and cheap before he moved to Sevilla

I think everyone other than Souness realised what a massive mistake it was, he was a great squad player and a very good defender

Commentators who say 'it hit his hand but it wasn't deliberate'. No-one ever (apart from in Suarez vs Ghana situations) deliberately handles the ball in the box, the ref basically just has to judge whether the player gained an advantage from the handball or if his arm was well away from his body. Yet every time it happens Lee fucking Dixon or some other 'expert' will bleat on about how it wasn't deliberate. It boils my piss

Really liked the look of Perisic, looks like an excellent player

Cannavaro said after the game that 'FIFA rules' say that you can't touch the keeper in the 6-yard box? In which case it is a foul but it's a fucking stupid rule

Willo, Steven Taylor, Gosling, Shola and De Jong not in the matchday squad, he knows what he's doing

Early Dennis Wise scouting - looks great. Transfer-listed by Marseille, available for ~£8m - bid £2m.

Sickening if we sell this lad, someone will get an absolute bargain and he'll go on to be a top centre half. Meanwhile, we'll be stuck with Steven Taylor heading the ball on the ground and celebrating with a puffed out chest, a fist pump and a kiss of the club crest. On a side note, is Obertan expected to be sold too? Haven't seen much about him leaving, but have obviously seen lots about Marveaux and Hatem. Would be similar to the Mapou situation if we sell those two and keep Obertan.

He spoke English for part of one post match interview last season when he was really angry because the referee had had a shit game. He just sort of slipped into English to slag the ref off and then went back to Spanish once he'd calmed down. You can see that he talks to the players on the pitch in English too

Also Willow and Tails - should be Willo and Tayls surely? Just when I thought I couldn't hate the man any more he goes and does this

The inconsistent use of upper and lower case letters infuriates me far more than it should

Improved them each season he's managed them: 2009-10 - 17th (40 points, -18 GD) 2010-11 - 10th (49 points, -1 GD) 2011-12 - 7th (57 points, +4 GD) 2012-13 - 5th (63 points, +28 GD) 2013-14 - 4th (63 points, +18 GD) with 2 games to go. So yeah, definitely not going to get him

They've had this system in Germany for a while and they are now getting rid of it. Decent article here about it: http://www.espnfc.com/blog/_/name/bundesliga/id/647?cc=5739 Think it's a shit idea, will just give the big teams another excuse to not play youth players in the 1st team

It's certainly getting a lot of coverage. Front page of the local paper, highlighted by the BBC, re-tweets by top sports journalists on Twitter is pretty good going!

Radio 4 editor tweeted the Chronicle front page and it was re-tweeted by Gabriel Marcotti, just came up on my twitter feed

Probably already mentioned but the BBC have put it in their Sportsday breaking news covergae (9:45am if anyone wants to see it - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/26436709) Great work everyone by the way!

Saving our legs for the last home game of the season after a completely normal build-up in terms of no extra games. What planet is he on? He's gone bonkers