Hughesy

Absolutely woeful footballer. Always has been, always will be.

Good point made re mbemba - if he's away for a month, we absolutely need 4 centre halves capable of playing at championship level.

Look up Shearer's scoring record upto age 22, compared to Mitrovic. I'm aware of Shearer's less than prolific record prior to signing for Blackburn... That doesn't mean Mitrovic will be just as prolific. Do you think Mitrovic will become a 20 + a season man throughout his career? By the way my post isn't condemning the lad or writing him off, even though I personally think he's average. I just don't think he is a goalscorer and never will be. It doesn't, of course it doesn't. But you can't say, "he'll never be prolific" when he's at a stage of his career where he's more prolific than Shearer was at that age. If he becomes a consistent 15 goal a season striker, that would be superb. I'd agree, 15 goals a season would be fine, damn fine especially if he was to improve his general game. To me he is a 9-10 a season man in the PL and has massive limitations. I'd prefer to not see him starting games for us on a regular basis like, Gayle looks far more dangerous, far more capable in front of goal and a better general fit. He got 9 this season, in a team managed mostly by McClaren at 21 years old. Do you really think his ceiling is just one more goal? He probably had less than 25 starts as well. He will definitely be a 10-15 goals forward, at least. This x 100.

I'm not actually discussing Mitrovic at the moment. I merely wanted to know the statistics behind Cole's conversion rate.

Out of interest, do you have any stats for that (although it was probably in an era before the stats were even kept)? My memory of Cole was that he was a great striker obviously, but he did miss quite a few chances.

Simon Bird's tweet just now - Sunderland have had "3 top half, top flight finishes in 60 years". Wow.

Controversially, I don't think that Bruce is actually that bad a manager. Wouldn't want him to be our manager, but I think he's a bit underrated.

Think he'll go on to do well for Liverpool - there is a quality player in there and he'll benefit from playing in good team. Having said that - £25 million is a fair price and probably best to offload if he wants to leave.

Do slightly worry about the balance of our central midfield - I don't want to buy into the myths about the Championship but it seems imperative to me that we have some energy and dynamism in there - which Shelvey and Colback just don't offer.

Happy for Ronaldo - never get the hate he inspires.

This deserved to be noticed.

Which coach has the initials TM? Is he actually a dwarf?

Absolutely bizarre that on one of those Chronicle polls on what fee we should sell Wjnaldum for, the figure that has the highest number of people voting is 14-16 million.

Used to be good on FM. That's all I know.

Would be ridiculous if we don't get a minimum of at least £40 million for Sissoko and Wijnaldum, given the other prices floating around for other players.

Would be absolutely mad to take only 12 million for sissoko.

Went to the Wales vs Russia game and the atmosphere was electric. Must been even better now. I'm a quarter welsh as well so I'm taking this.

Get in - brilliant performance.

A lot of Bournemouth fans seem pretty disappointed about this - http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=76402&start=81 - which has to be a decent sign.

I realise that this is nothing new, but I'm slightly concerned at the number of players we are going to have to buy and then bed into our team before the season starts. It's quite conceivable that we will lose Cisse, Tiote, Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Janmaat, Coloccini, Townsend, Krul and Thauvin at a bare minimum and might struggle to keep hold of Perez and Mbemba.

Didn't West Ham bid quite a lot for Ritchie recently?

Gayle has got pace which is definitely something we lack upfront - but seems like quite a high fee for someone who hasn't exactly been prolific.

Suspect there'll be a fair few teams who try that. Sounded brilliant when Icelandic fans did it.

Obviously there are many many problems with the England team, but I just think the continued shoe horning of Rooney into that team in a position that he hasn't ever played just epitomises everything wrong with the set up. We obviously have a long and glorious history of trying to fit players into a team even if it is totally inappropriate, but the Rooney decision even surpasses the Scholes on the wing and Lampard/Gerrard crap. Seeing Rooney in midfield was like watching us with Shelvey - everything has to go through him, no matter how much it slows our game down. Was analysing some of his passes last night and he seemed intent on playing those kind of slow sweeping passes (not even Gerrard Hollywood balls) that might get a ripple of applause for 'spreading the play' but in reality reach their target so slowly all options close off and/or are usually hit so poorly that the recipient of the pass has to stop to get the ball. He is not a fucking midfielder and never will be.

How hard is it to go a football match and just have a quiet drink and be respectful of the country you are in?