PRL

All Shola needs to do is score one on his debut for Nigeria and he's set

Stopped reading there. I guess the rest was just as hilariously moronic. You're right, his strike rate of circa 1 in every 4 games is infinitely superior to Shola's 1 in 5. It's not like he gets a lot more chances in his games at Arsenal either...

Bendtner is just a white Shola. His stats are average and he's a tosser of the highest order (going off what he says in the media). I would echo and add to the link here. Would rather have Bothroyd, least he wouldn't cost much http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,13320_6660788,00.html (NB - i don't think we'd be in for him anyway, I just really don't like the guy, as a footballer or a person)

Swindon, just slapped in transfer request, never looked anything special when i've seen him. Would ask my uncle who is a season ticket holder there, but he told me Tozer was a future england captain so i shall not seek his views again.

Isn't there direct quotes attributable to him saying he was interested in all 3?

Hmmm... Not sure I follow that logic. Bothroyd was recently an England centre forward, are you keen for us to sign him up? At least he's shown some form in the last half a decade whereas SWP has been dreadful every time I have seen him without fail. My issue with replacing Routledge with SWP would be that they are essentially the same player, except one is older and would cost a lot more than the other. I've seen absolutely nothing from SWP to suggest his dip in form is temporary. He'd be another Damien Duff. We've got rid of so many of the highly paid mercenaries, adding another to the squad will hinder rather than help. If I was Carroll and he came in on double my wages, I'd be pretty hacked off. Same for Barton, Enrique and the likes who are near the end of their contracts - why should they take a wage cut if some underperforming has been is coming in on more salary. It's not just a player for player comparison, it's the effect on the squad. Taking out someone who is obviously not one of the high earners who didn't seem to expect to start and replacing them with someone who more than likely would (and with the wages he'd expect, I'd imagine Pardew would feel he'd have to play him as Ashley would want to know what the fuck was going on otherwise). I'm not against getting rid of Routledge, but to replace him with SWP would be a pretty huge error in my view, whether loan or permanent. I'm assuming SWP would be prepared to take a significant wage cut which is what is suggested in the Journal. I haven't followed SWP's career lately so if he's lost all his ability for some reason then we should stay away. He's scored some pretty good goals in his time so I think that alone makes him an upgrade on Routledge. Isn't it possible that his acreer stagnated because he went to Chelsea and then City where the managers prefer a more hard working style? Not to mention they can afford the best players? Ah, hadn't seen anything indicating he'd actually be willing to take a significant wage drop, if that's the case a lot of my argument is rendered useless... Certainly could be the case regarding his form as you say, but that does stink of Duff, and he was certainly in better form (or, had spent less time out of form and out the team) at the time we signed him. My gut feeling is just that the one thing I've really liked about the Ashley reign is the move away from players living on past glories who the big clubs wanted rid of and started trying to bring in younger, hungrier players. I fear Pardew's main flaw might be his inability to work with this model / his desire to bring in 'names'. We'll see in time if that's unfounded or not, but the names he seems to mention in the press (Bentley, Roque Santa Cruz, Beckham) don't instill me with particular confidence in his skills in the transfer market. Funnily enough, I'd be quite happy to move to a director of football model as tried under Keegan at this point in time. Pardew seems to be doing alright with the players, just worried about ins / outs. (Would definitely prefer to take a punt on Legear, looking at the newest posts)

Hmmm... Not sure I follow that logic. Bothroyd was recently an England centre forward, are you keen for us to sign him up? At least he's shown some form in the last half a decade whereas SWP has been dreadful every time I have seen him without fail. My issue with replacing Routledge with SWP would be that they are essentially the same player, except one is older and would cost a lot more than the other. I've seen absolutely nothing from SWP to suggest his dip in form is temporary. He'd be another Damien Duff. We've got rid of so many of the highly paid mercenaries, adding another to the squad will hinder rather than help. If I was Carroll and he came in on double my wages, I'd be pretty hacked off. Same for Barton, Enrique and the likes who are near the end of their contracts - why should they take a wage cut if some underperforming has been is coming in on more salary. It's not just a player for player comparison, it's the effect on the squad. Taking out someone who is obviously not one of the high earners who didn't seem to expect to start and replacing them with someone who more than likely would (and with the wages he'd expect, I'd imagine Pardew would feel he'd have to play him as Ashley would want to know what the fuck was going on otherwise). I'm not against getting rid of Routledge, but to replace him with SWP would be a pretty huge error in my view, whether loan or permanent.

Safe to say they've got their own concerns at the minute

I think VdV was the exception as opposed to the rule. Look at the prices Spurs are asking for their squad players - they have a decent pool of talent but they still want big money for Bentley, Keane, etc. not to mention talking towards £50m for Bale who, once again, has only really been showing this form regularly at the tail end of last season / beginning of this.

Eh? He's still young, English and scoring freely. Rightly or wrongly, that guarantees a silly price tag. If he was at a club with a better pool of talent we'd be challenging for Europe and still wouldn't be selling him, let alone for less. It's common sense and it happens all the time, a clubs "prized asset" will allways have an inflated price tag and they will be reluctant to sell for anything other than a silly fee due to his imprortance to the team. If Carroll was at Manchester United there is absolutely no way they would turn down 20 million for him You're f***ing nuts, tbh. I was going to debate the point further but can't be arsed. There is no point, clubs will hold on for a silly fee to keep there prized asset and Man United would sell Andy Carroll if someone stumped up £20 million. City's recent stupidity in the market seems to have warped folks perspective of a players worth massivly tbh Right, so do you think the Mancs would let Hernandez go for under £20m? Bearing in mind he's done nothing to look better than Carroll this season and it's his first full season in the league much like Carroll? I don't think they would.

Really? Just knew that it was Everton next weekend, didn't check for midweeks. Shame

Who's his first tow games against? Manure and? Everton

If he loses the next two he'll already be fucked. There will be scousers everywhere saying he's not up to it and that it was a mistake to bring him back. Couldn't start with a worse two games if you ask me (obviously if he wins them then that changes it entirely!)

glen_johnson

Last two 'tweets' from Johnson: 'He was average at the best of times, the only reason he's on that show is coz he gambled all his money away. The clown! ' less than 5 seconds ago via ÜberTwitter 'Comments from alcoholic drug abusers are not really gonna upset me and who is Paul Merson to jugde players, he was average at the best of times. ' The irony in Johnson calling Merson 'average at the best of times' should not be lost.

Grant, next week

No it isn't. It is. They dropped the Borough last year.

Was rewatching MOTD2 from last week the other night, Liverpool v Bolton match came on and Gerrard played the through ball for the first Torres goal. Listening to Dixon and Warnock afterwards and I'm pretty sure one of them said 'Gerrard is pretty much the only player in the league who could have played that ball'. It's as if the only thing Barton has done all season is punched Pedersen. Bollocks to it though, long may it continue. As for Dalglish, I think it's a disaster waiting to happen. Not quite as bad as Wilkinson to the Mackems but he's done fuck all for over a decade, that's a long time. As someone above mentioned, if they didn't think Hodgson was progressive I reckon they're in for a shock. Still don't think they're out of the woods yet this season. Similar amount of points to what we had at this stage when we got relegated, no? Jonny Hall - Thank you very very much, hadn't even thought about betting on this until you posted odds last week / week before. A nice £170 net profit across the whole bet, much appreciated.

Somewhere in the depths of this thread I'm sure someone suggested this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKNO0qEbIDI Would love to hear the whole of SJP singing that, but realise highly unlikely!

In fairness they're both integral to the team. Wouldn't put either of them 'most important by a distance'

That was my immediate thought. It was just the subsequent conversation that ensued made me doubt myself!

Am I just being an idiot... I thought the article above was fake??

No chance at all that Ashley would pay ANYONE £100k a week! Micah Richards has said he might want out... Would be more interested in him, although Simpson hasn't done anything wrong this season

Yourself and Neesy have put me in a reasonable position. Got in at 15/8 on Roy when you pointed it out last week. £100 plus free £25 from joining Paddy Power, then got in on Grant at 4-1 when Neesy posted the story from SSN at £30 and took Ancelotti at the same price and amount (altho he has since gone longer). So, still hoping for Roy to go, but if Grant or Ancelotti go i've just about covered myself. If someone else goes, I'm fucked.