jdckelly

Santons the best defender of the 3 of them and he's had several brain dead moments which have cost us. Haidara's a kid and still learning and Debuchy the seasoned pro the french international rb has demonstrated no knowledge of defending at all. Not even a hint of it. In fact has demonstrated more of an ability to gift the opposition chances or penalties. He should not need a manager to hold his hand and tell him not to lunge or take risky chances near our box. Tiote shouldn't need a manager to tell him not to recklessly tackle the opposition, Cisse shouldn't need someone to teach him the basics of the offside rule. They should know this stuff already, many of them are internationals they're all highly paid professionals they should have the basic desire to learn to cut out these school boy errors without someone needing to hold their hand and tell them exactly what to do.

I'm of the opinion that the squad isn't as good as some like to believe. Theres the basis of a good squad but its sorely lacking in key area's. Our full backs all to one extent or another (excluding dummet from this due to lack of seeing him play yet) can't defend. And aren't all that great at attacking either. This leaves gaping holes side's can exploit to their hearts content (were I West Ham this coming saturday I'd be specifically targeting Debuchy and wait for him to do something stupid) Colo's a very good cb but not a complete one, he struggles badly against really pacey players and really physical frontmen and none of our other cbs really cover that weakness. Taylor's the closest to covering them but he lacks a functional brain while MYM could cope with pace I'd be very hesitant to put him and colo together against the strong strikers of the league. Cabaye is a very good central midfielder and our key creative player, pity he wants to go. Tiote's forgotten how to play football and just picks up yellow cards for a living now. Sissoko hasn't demonstrated much creativity yet and seems mainly to keep things ticking over and win the ball, but thats what Tiote's supposed to do as well (in theory). Anita hasn't coped with the physical side of the prem at all. None of our wingers (or players we assign to play on the wing because we have no one else) have much natural width or the real killer pace to get behind defences, not slow mind you just lacking the real cutting edge of pace. HBA can be unplayable on his day but he keeps getting injured and it takes time to get going at full ability once he's back, or he gets injured again. Marveaux is just kind of there, decent passer could be quite creative but hasn't been able to get a run together of consistent performances and picks up injuries as well. And finally our strike force oh boy our strike force. Cisse, good enough in the box but last season missed several very scorable chances. Also can't stay onside or be useful in any way at all outside the box. Everything has to be completely laid on a plate for him which is not always possible which leaves us with a problem against the top sides. Shola is fucking Shola. Gouffrans been used on the wing (for lack of anyone else to put there) and is no good there. Not seen him as a striker enough to judge. Remy I'm ignoring as he hasn't played for us yet but one point, our one summer signing is a loan of a guy who turned us down for relegation certs 6 months ago and is probably only here because no one else would touch him with the court case hanging over him and he could potentially go to prison half way through the season!

thing is though he is being hung out to dry, everyone here can agree this squad is at best horribly unbalanced at worst downright poor and Pardew is the one who has to take the flak for it. The squads a collection of individuals who in theory are reasonably talented but theres been no clear vision of the type of football thats expected to be played the only consideration taken is: 1 is he cheap 2 does he have massive resale value and thats no way at all to build a squad. The manager has 0 input into what he has to work with every day, the guy who's supposed to have a side which reflects his football value has no say in the players being bought, what was very clear this summer is Pardew wanted a focus on the domestic market and a british core to be restored to a squad which is sorely lacking it. Instead he was ignored, potential bargains go elsewhere while our new glorious transfer guru the best director of football in the world (his words) probably goes out on the piss every night laughing while he counts down the days until he's back in the dugout. So the club right now is a mix and match squad with 0 width, one senior striker we own worth even half a damn (who the club was in dispute for half the summer with) our only bit of creativity in the centre of the park wants to go somewhere else or Ashley wants him to go somewhere else for a large pile of cash, our other creative/potentially creative players both have a tendency to break rather easily, the few domestic players we do have are either kids, braindead or shola and our captain wanted to leave the club for 6 months! And lets not even get into the mess that is the administration of the club (just who the hell is actually running the club now that dekka's gone and how the hell did the one kinda sensible stable bit fall apart so quickly without him). Frankly I'd be shocked if any manager in the world could succeed under these bloody circumstances all created by one guy who really doesn't know what he's doing in football.

or they met him to bow down and worship him and feed him grapes while JFK told untrue anecdotes That is very possible. more likely than anything which will involve ashley spending money-in fact thats why Pards was there to bow and scrape for a something anything so Ashley made him do humiliating things and still won't spend a penny That's my one hope, because they all went, i'm hoping it's been made clear we need players. Not that it will sway him i wouldn't think, he'll spend if he feels like it. I'm still convinced they're deliberately not spending to screw over Pardew and hope he'll walk I'm not convinced of that, if it was so JFK could take over, how does it help him when he'll be left with a squad needing players. Wouldn't put it past them though. never claimed it was that bright an idea

too prone to moan about tiny little things and just seems a rather unpleasant fellow, on the plus side the footballs usually half decent so that makes him better than the likes of Mark Hughes, Tony Pulis and Sam Allerdyce. While on the subject of managers we don't like Roberto Martinez for me, can't stand him

or they met him to bow down and worship him and feed him grapes while JFK told untrue anecdotes That is very possible. more likely than anything which will involve ashley spending money-in fact thats why Pards was there to bow and scrape for a something anything so Ashley made him do humiliating things and still won't spend a penny That's my one hope, because they all went, i'm hoping it's been made clear we need players. Not that it will sway him i wouldn't think, he'll spend if he feels like it. I'm still convinced they're deliberately not spending to screw over Pardew and hope he'll walk

the media agree about the Europa League being a waste of time that will hurt sides.

oh come on it was the late 90's I was young and didn't give half a shit about who owned clubs and probably didn't have a clue who Alan Sugar was anyway

or they met him to bow down and worship him and feed him grapes while JFK told untrue anecdotes That is very possible. more likely than anything which will involve ashley spending money-in fact thats why Pards was there to bow and scrape for a something anything so Ashley made him do humiliating things and still won't spend a penny

or they met him to bow down and worship him and feed him grapes while JFK told untrue anecdotes

better question who's the first player (if there is indeed such a thing) because I find it hard to believe we'd bother with this crap again

only discovered it a few years ago myself in my defense I was young at the time he did own it

not surprising with as unpleasant a character as Mourinhio in charge again

sell mata and stop a rival getting him and possibly being a threat, its all rather unpleasant

Tancredi Palmeri ‏@tancredipalmeri 56s Incredible update on Willian: Sky Italy reports a last-minute Chelsea bid of 37m € while Willian is at Tottenham hq to sign christ basically what we did with Bent last week

They seem to do that a lot recently, don't they? they're following the newcastle transfer model

Not if you already have Oscar, Hazard, Willian, De Bryune and Schürrle. still lunacy. if that is how it turns out Man Utd should bit their hands off for such a deal

what a pleasant fellow I'm sure his parents are very proud

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport 1m Former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini, 29, is in talks with the Gunners over a return to Emirates Stadium reports @bbcsport_david could pretty much end Arsenal's Cabaye interest

yup except rumours all summer said Mourinhio doesn't like mata for some daft reason-probably too much footballing talent not enough eye gouging for his tastes

Wouldn't put it past JFK to instruct Pardew very late that he couldn't select Cabaye for this very reason. does strike me as orders from above, which I can put as part of my conspiracy theory in that JFK will keep him out until post window and he's hoping Pardew will be sacked by then so he can ride in and restore "kebab" to the starting line up and we mere peasants and stare in awe and wonder at this glorious achievement which will be "like a new signing"

only thing I could see for buying him for Chelsea is if they want to use Mata to get Rooney-which would be lunacy

no excuse at all to not be in for him, utterly ridiculous the way we've ignored the domestic market

Not French enough for our board

Take him please