Ketsbaia

I laughed. This Is The Last Time he'll leave Spurs, surely EDIT: dammit Yorkie!!!

Babel off to West Ham, after all

Ryan Babel in a helicopter now, potential £9m signing for Spurs

no, i felt betrayed when he joined the nWo

So Sunderland have copied the 'bacon sarnies to David Craig' act? Oh, season's greetings to Sky Sports News, as obviously today is their Christmas. STOP SHOUTING!!!!!!!

didn't he have a good pre-season too? they better hope theres no hitches in the gyan deal

Yep, its like the 'Lee Bowyer summer' we had.

Aye. Were saying on SSN there would be a load of loans going on tomorrow - teams trying to get players in for their 25 and trying to get rid of players that won't be in their plans. Reckon we might get one, hopefully two. Yep, paying particular attention to Man City and Spurs. Can definitely see one player coming in.

In hindsight, its turned out ok so far but at the time there was a real danger we'd drop even further. Now we're slightly saner financially and the team spirit has transformed the club. Hughton has blossomed, whereas I doubt he'd be manager if we survived. On 'The Game' podcast, Caulkin said some of Ashley's ideas were arguably ok, its just he picked the wrong personnel for them (Wise, Kinnear etc.). No doubt Ashley has made a howler of things, but as he fades into the background the club seems to benefit. So yes, in hindsight, relegation was good for us. The club has been cleansed.

very dogged

Every time he causes trouble, we can just threaten to send him back to Marseille. Easy.

Leon Best http://www.thegrio.com/assets_c/2009/07/Drake2-thumb-400xauto-3548.jpg Drake http://www.nufcblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/best2.jpg

So who would you drop for Ben Arfa? for the short term, im not sure. imo ben arfa has to play because he is on another level to the others, but nolan still has an important role to play. routledge consistently plays well, barton makes us tick, jonas and jose are wonderful and tiote destroys. i'm excited to see how hughton does it though. in conclusion, i'd sometimes drop nolan, sometimes jonas.

the most important players aren't always the best ones. for all nolan's weaknesses, he has a knack of scoring goals, which justifies his selection. its delicate because nolan is the figurehead of the team spirit that transformed this club and, although its dangerous to let off-pitch popularity affect the teamsheet, nolan is just useful enough to keep around the first team, at least in rotation. the difficulty for hughton is to judge at what point selecting nolan turns into loyalty, rather than quality (because lets face it, ben arfa is much better than him). this is where hughton earns his money.

Jack Wilshere was arrested this morning and then bailed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1307221/Arsenals-Jack-Wilshere-arrested-released-bail-early-Sunday-morning.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

This 2nd half has been crazy.

Harper Perch Williamson Coloccini Enrique Routledge Barton Nolan Jonas Ben Arfa Carroll Bench: Krul, Campbell, R Taylor, Tiote, Smith, Ameobi, Lovenkrands ....as it stands. obviously if keane comes in i'd put him instead of ameobi/lovenkrands. 2 weeks is aaaaaaages away!

Maybe he's reading the forum. Hughton is Dave.

class save by howard. he floated in the air! EDIT: then a fantastic save by friedel

to be fair it was a good win for them. shows that man city are still miles away from being title contenders. dunno why they need asamoah gyan when they already have a penalty taker though!!

Squad too big? Are you serious? The idea of having actual competition and a subs bench with quality on clearly alien to some. It's not happened here for ages so maybe fair enough. Nobody outside the top 8 teams will have such competition. If Smith and Xisco go, and we loan out Vuckic and/or Ranger, then fair enough. I just don't see it happening though.

Its massive man, especially in midfield and up front. CM we have Barton, Ben Arfa, Nolan, Guthrie, Smith, Tiote, Gosling, Vuckic (8) and with Keane there'll be Carroll, Keane, Best, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Xisco, Ranger (7)

Gosling must wonder what he was doing. He'll be well down the pecking order when he recovers.....the squad will just be too big if Keane comes in.

Be hilarious if he goes there. Fulham are so lucky though because he's far too good for them.

Should be introduced from the bench against Blackpool, just so he gets an ovation when he runs on!