Parsley

Really hope there's something in that Benteke link. Reckon he's exactly what we need.

Club might be holding out for a double announcement with Riviere.

Daily Star reckon he'll be on 50k a week.

Reckon it might end up being a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth imo.

Gouffran was bought as a squad player to fill in until we bought a premier class striker to replace Ba, which we still haven't done. We could play him up front but more than likely we'd still find ourselves needing that premier class striker if we want one who scores 15 goals plus a season. Oh yeah, obviously Gouffran is by no means the definitive answer, but it's worth remembering that he's a valid option.

I disagree that Brazil's squad wasn't good enough to win this World Cup. Up there with the best imho in terms of individual players' quality, and certainly much better than ours. It wasn't good enough. This team was a lot weaker than the one in 2002. No strikers (Ronaldo). No magician except Neymar (Ronaldinho and Rivaldo). No reliable holding midfielders (Kleberson and Gilberto Silva). No reliable full backs (Carlos and Cafu). While Thiago and Luiz are the strongest CB partnership in the world, they have no backups. Whether it is "good enough" depends on your opponent as well. Germany is the strongest in the planet right now, no question. This Brazil will never be able to beat this Germany. Netherlands got Robben, the best player in this World Cup. That's enough. He can win you all matches as long as you don't concede much at the back. Not sure I agree. Ronaldo came into that World Cup on the back of 2 injury-ridden seasons in which he was well out of favour at Inter. Easy to cite Ronaldinho with hindsight but he was still at PSG at this stage - Oscar, for one, has accomplished more at the same stage of his career. Kleberson is fucking shit, as his stint at Man Utd proved, and I'd argue that Luiz Gustavo is as good as Gilberto was. Fernandinho is an integral part of a great Man City side; Ramires a regular starter for Chelsea. Full-backs, fair enough, but Marcelo is still a Champions' League Winner and Dani Alves arguably the best right back of his generation. As you say, Brazil's current defence is strong but to say that Dante, a regular at Bayern, isn't an adequate backup is unfair. I'm with Unbelievable - on paper at least, Brazil have one of the best teams in the World Cup and all this chat of them being a terrible side is something of a fallacy. Which, imo, makes their collapse last night all the more tragic.

To be fair, Gouffran can play up front. Will probably never happen under Pardew mind, but I'd much rather see him in his natural position than shunted out onto the left.

I think what the article is saying is that according to Sports Tonight, Cabella's signature is imminent. According to Mercato's own information however, Newcastle have gone in with a new bid but nothing's been finalised.

It's not too uncommon for former internationals like Wilmots to get into international management without having had a stellar career at club level. Niko Kovac, Maradona, even Klinsmann when he was managing Germany came into their jobs with little to no experience. Obviously Wilmots wasn't on the same level as a player as some of those names, but it's all relative I guess.

£7 million is far too much money though. We'd have to sell half the squad to make that back up.

Lucky bastards.

Inexplicably retarded being offside there.

Great pen. Nerves of steel

How is that not a red?

10 million Euros is fucking peanuts. Fuck that man. Joke.

He's superb going forward imo. Delivery might not be exceptional but he always offers an option on the overlap at the very least. Would be gutted to see him go but can hardly blame him either. Watch him thrive at Arsenal.

That 5-0 was absolutely amazing but that was a couple of years later. Think it was the 2010/11 season (same year they beat Man Utd in the Champions League final), best football I've ever seen over a season from any team. They were so dominant and brilliant, but I still think that the more exciting football was when they had Eto'o as their centre forward. It might have been because it was new and had more of an impact because of it, but 08/09 was the year that they won everything as well. Even though it was so simplistic putting Eto'o out wide and Messi in the middle in that final has pretty much changed the dynamics of football over the last couple of years. Guardiola doesn't get near enough credit from a lot of people who just lazily think that anybody could do what he did with that Barca team. In footballing terms the guy's a genius imo. There's being a world class manager and then there's being a world class manager and changing the way that the sport is played. Even if it's arguably only been within the 'unstoppable' category for a few years, it forced other teams to learn and play football in a way that hadn't been done previously. This whole Tika Taka RIP thing because Spain are out is bollocks as well, they don't even play that way anymore. Bayern are the nearest team to playing in that way now imo, but it's still not Barca 08-12 level. It's not solely because Spain went out so dismally. Real Madrid's absolute trouncing of Bayern in the CL has quite a bit to do with it as well I think.

I agree, I think the European teams left in the tournament have shown a bit more than the South American big guns. Argentina play too slowly and Brazil are playing long ball when it's not natural to their game. Columbia are the exception, they've been the best team from that part of the world IMO. Don't see what Belgium have shown. They were average in the group and struggled to beat USA They flattered to deceive in the groups but were impressive last night imo, created a ton of chances. From an attacking perspective, Argentina haven't shown that sort of penetrative quality yet - imo it's mostly been hopeful give and go's just outside the penalty area that lead to nothing more often than not.

The fact that he's only excited about the next 'couple of years' rather than the full duration of his contract says quite a lot imo.

I agree but from Ashley's perspective it sort of makes sense. If the signing's a success ala Ba, Cabaye then the club stands to make a healthier profit if the player's tied to a longer contract. If, as seems to be the norm these days, the signings under-perform or outright bomb then at least Ashley can hope that another club will take a punt on the basis of the player's reputation, in which case the lengthy contract will surely push the fee up a bit more.

Yeah, however, I think I'm more comfortable with Siem, because he is a bit more gritty, and so it is extremely unlikely he's going to be left out of the team, or faffed about with, due to Pardew thinking he isn't hard enough. Cabella would just be HBA all over again imo.

Danny Murphy, don't know who the shitty regular commentator is though. Steve Wilson. He's actually one of the better ones on the Beeb

Neymar an injury doubt for the quarter finals according to the BBC.

Suarez is going to get away with this isn't he?

They've been the better side so far to be fair.