Hughesy

Just wow - went from the pits of despair when it was 1-3 and I was stuck in the office dealing with a difficult client to absolute elation. Don't even care that I'm still working. Amazing.

Get the fuck in!!!!!

Would be hilarious if he goes - everything he hoped for just gone in an instant of greed.

Never really got why people thought he was any good - he's never been anything more than mediocre at best. As for his hard man image - the bloke is a coward as far as I'm concerned.

Can't think of two more reprehensible characters to have blighted our club to be honest.

Brilliant!

Decent point, as I never saw Pele except on old vids, and Maradona was past it by the time I paid attention to football. He was a hasbeen playing against Australia in 1993 and a drug cheat at the 94 World Cup. But to use this notion and go back to HTT's point that Shearer was a better CF than Ronaldo (!), I'd suggest that there were half a dozen or more strikers in my lifetime better than Wor Al. Apart from Ronaldo, there's Van Basten, Gullit, Weah (admittedly only for 2-3 seasons), Batistuta, Henry - and that's before getting to the debatable ones. Think Guillit is debatable given that they are very different types of forward. I wouldn't say peak Weah is better than peak Shearer and I reckon Batistuta and Shearer are about the same level.

Yep.

I know it means virtually nothing in a game, but it was interesting to see that he was easily our best striker of the ball in the shooting warm up drills they were doing.

Very weird feeling - absolutely loving winning matches again and the general optimism that having Rafa generates, but at the same time part of me just wants the season to end and make sure we get up.

This guy is an absolute revelation - he's really intelligent player and should probably be one of the first names of the teamsheet.

Very direct and not afraid to run at a full back - which makes a refreshing change.

Really hope we have a good cup run this season - I know the priority is getting back up but would be great to get far in one of the cups.

Might be a bit small time - but it really annoys me that West Ham, Man City and Liverpool have bigger stadiums than us now. Came to terms with Arsenal, but don't like this new turn of events.

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?