Hughesy

Gouff is on the fire.

Given the current market, there's no reason why we should be accepting £20m for Sissoko.

Would rather keep rivière and Armstrong and play them to be honest.

7m seems way too low - especially if we have paid 5m for Yedlin.

Couldn't give a shit about Gouffran's perceived level of quality. If Benitez thinks he's good enough to get us promoted, that's fine by me. We can deal with whether he is good enough for the PL if/when we get there.

Got to watch out for Abraham - supposed to be quite highly rated I think.

Do think people go a bit over the top about the level of our players sometimes - in both directions. Gouffran is clearly capable of being a squad player in the Championship ffs.

Yeah - I just scanned through a video of him and he seemed to score a lot of penalties... Now got French football guys on twitter saying he never appears to be as good as his scoring record suggests.

Haller is supposed to be pretty highly rated - was just reading one of those stats analysis pieces in which someone asks who would make the better signing - Haller or Vincent Janssen, and the guy picks Haller. http://statsbomb.com/2016/04/statsbomb-mailbag-who-should-arsenal-buy-in-midfield-more-transfer-shopping/

Said it in another thread - I actually don't think Riviere is 'that' bad. Definitely wouldn't be averse to him being given a chance.

What's weird about Saivet is that he was relatively highly rated by people who know what they are talking about in France. And yet we've decided he isn't good enough to get a game against the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe and Joe Lolley?

Find it really bizarre that we seem to have a massively imbalanced squad that doesn't work on any level currently. Almost impossible to think a midfield set up that is defensively solid and actually offers a genuine attacking threat and our strikers seem completely ill suited to the football we are trying to play. What I find odd about it is that it can't be every other team in the Championship (admittedly we've played two) has an amazing blend of two Rob Lee-esque central midfielders who can scored goals, create and tackle or strikers that are strong, quick, good finishers and can hold the ball up well.

Fully prepared to be shot down on this one - but have we just decided to write off a series of players too early? Take Riviere for example - I fully appreciate that the bloke looked massively out of his depth in the Premier League, but in many ways he seems to fit the bill for what we need in a striker (or at least a back up striker). He's quite quick and mobile, he's got decent enough strength and presence and despite being a very different league has scored the odd goal in Ligue 1. I'd say similar for Saivet whilst fully acknowledging the fact that being a defensive midfielder in Ligue 1 is a very different proposition to the Championship, but we didn't even give the bloke a chance. He might, just might, have the mobility to add something to our central midfield. It's not exactly a high hurdle currently.

Personally I think Tuchel is a better manager than Klopp.

Yep can't log on. Helpful.

I'm behind the flag idea, but it wouldn't necessarily be needed if people turned up, like they used to, earlier than 2 minutes before the game started in their desperation to try and cram in another pint before kick off. No idea why there has been such a shift in when people get to the ground, but it really hinders the atmosphere.

Who is NUFC Leazes on here? He seems hurt.

I'm sure I say this every year... but seems much harder to pick a team this year. Haven't really got much idea as to which teams are going to do well and with a load of new managers, a lot of the expensive choices have question marks over how regularly they'll play.

Find nothing more annoying than the argument that you shouldn't need to rely on certain decisions of the referee going in your favour. Get the penalty we deserved against Fulham and it's a completely different game.

Can't really blame Anichebe for that - it was an horrific tackle. I'd rather just not buy him because he's not very good

Thought his movement looked decent enough and he looks quite quick but complete lack of service. Really think we need Mitrovic back to give us a bit of presence upfront though - especially if we are using Ritchie to deliver crosses into the box.

Needs some options around him though - Fulham worked out pretty quick that he was our real outlet and kept putting two men on him.

Think we need to find a way to utilise him to be honest since, for al his faults, he can pick a pass and play it and our central midfield needs to be more creative.

Looked very good tonight - he can control a football which makes a bit of a difference.

Worried about the lack of ideas in that team - still have a tendency to look like a bunch of strangers.