Hughesy

I agree. The whole 'great team spirit' thing seems to be a bit over the top. Not really sure what Nolan precisely does in the dressing room that is so great, but I can't see it being anywhere near as important as is made out. After all, who do we actually have to confirm that Nolan is a great leader? Barton. And er... Nolan.

Of course it is, man. They can hardly wait to come here, with our impeccable record of treating players well. I didn't realise that to treat a player well you have to give them 5 year contracts until they are 33 years old. Now I see where we are going wrong.

He'll fail his medical when he steps on the scales and they realise that he is clinically obese anyway...

I don't think we are resting our hopes on Ba, are we?

With £35m burning a hole in our pocket? Never seen Erdinc play but I must admit when Carroll left, I expected him to be replaced by more than a free transfer with a history of failing medicals. Didn't you? I always thought buying a quality striker would be the hardest part of the jigsaw. Noticeable that no one is mentioning any credible alternatives to the players we've targeted so far. That's my point - there aren't exactly a wealth of top quality strikers who are available. If there are, no-one seems to be able to name them. Most of them would be as big a punt as Erdinc.

So a big price tag would have kept you happy? From what I have seen of Ba, he would be a good acquisition on a free.

That would be Gameiro that about 0.5% of this forum have actually even seen play... About 15% have probably bought him on FM. Most didn't even know who he was until about 3 weeks ago...

I just want to know who people thought we were going to sign as strikers this year? Who did you think we were going to buy that is much better than Ba and Erdinc?

Whilst I understand this is the usual provocative boring s**** you peddle re: Pardew, I think it's safe to say that Shearer didn't look too far off a circus performer during his brief stint in charge of Newcastle. We scored in 2 out of the 8 games he took charge of, Cardiff will be lucky to stay up at that rate. Say what you like about the circumstances, the likes of Lawrie frigging Sanchez and Paul Hart have come in for similar-length stints at Premier League clubs and kept them up. Why does everyone on this bloody forum have to always nurse such deliberately contrary views. Shearer clearly didn't look like a circus performer. Pardew clearly isn't a clown.

And you know exactly what Dowie's contribution was how? I don't know how he knows but he's right. At the talk in I went to with Nolan, he absolutely hated Dowie and said the majority of the dressing room were the same. Basically called him a prick but in a more polite way. What more evidence could you need....

Just a quick reality check here - who were the people who are writing the likes of Erdinc off already expect we were going to get?

Think I did as well...

Let me know who you go for... mine never wins..

I agree. I thought he looked exceptional a couple of seasons ago and whenever I have seen play this season... he hasn't been as bad as others make out.

So he can give away the ball and then a free-kick soon after? Enough's enough. I'd rather play with 10 men. That's just taking it to extremes. Can't believe I'm actually defending Smith here, but to suggest that you'd rather play with 10 men is just 'forum' exaggeration for effect. He is extremely limited as a player.. but seriously, he is not that bad.

Much as I don't like or rate Smith - people are going massively over the top on this one. There is no merit whatsoever in just paying him £3,000,000 to leave. In an absolute disasterous run of injuries, I would probably rather have him filling in for a few games than a Michael Richardson or Inman.

For what reason? Unless you reach some sort of agreement whereby you give Smith less than his wages, it makes no sense to pay him off in full and lose his services. However limited and awful those services might be.

Same here..

Would probably be one of the few summers where I was actually genuinely excited about the players we brought in. Last time that happened was under Souness when we bought Parker, Emre, Luque, Owen and Solano. Oh well...

N'Zog and Gervinho? Still seems unlikely we will go for both as I assume they must realise we need a striker as well. Unless we are going to for a 4-6-0 formation. The future of football..

Strange how suddenly Henderson isn't very good according to the Sunderland fans...

If he's that great a guy in the dressing room and the model pro most profess him to be, he shouldn't be sulking.

Because Pardew has done such a bad job so far. I despair of this forum sometimes.

Ignoring the fact that he wants three years and you've no idea how much he wants... He gets that all at once does he? And the Sky money stops coming in too does it in the next four years? And the gates dwindle to 0 in the next four years do they? This idea that we have to let key players go because they might have to get paid is absolutely The idea of paying players over their worth and keeping them on big contracts just to keep them happy but to the detriment of the club long term. Is even more laughable tbh. Should we assume he wants a tenner and a packet of crisps then? It is almost certain that the figure requested (assuming the various newpaper reports are even close to being accurate) is north of 40k a week. Are those the only options like? Either big contracts 'over their worth' or f*** all? I always assumed most players settle for something in between. Right - assumption time. Can we agree that Barton is probably on between 55-65k a week? Pretty much every newspaper has reported this and I think this is pretty much accepted? Barton seems to have suggested he is willing to take a paycut. Do you genuinely think that he is going to accept being on 25k to 35k? I don't. Not for England's best midfielder. He needs more than that. I reckon 40k absolute minimum.

Ignoring the fact that he wants three years and you've no idea how much he wants... He gets that all at once does he? And the Sky money stops coming in too does it in the next four years? And the gates dwindle to 0 in the next four years do they? This idea that we have to let key players go because they might have to get paid is absolutely The idea of paying players over their worth and keeping them on big contracts just to keep them happy but to the detriment of the club long term. Is even more laughable tbh. Should we assume he wants a tenner and a packet of crisps then? It is almost certain that the figure requested (assuming the various newpaper reports are even close to being accurate) is north of 40k a week.