Hughesy

Has to be bollocks surely? Seems to be a Portuguese journalist who has posted it on twitter and it's been picked up others. Does seem unlikely.

Apologies if already posted but twitter is reporting that we have put in a EUR 12 million bid for Wolfswinkel.

Is there a French player Yo Cab isn't friends with? They all love him. I suppose they are only human.

I'd be tempted depending on where Colo's head is at.

Just offer Laudrup whatever he wants to come here and be done with it.

If we are discussing old 90s managers, surely we should try and prise John Gregory away from whatever club he is at now.

I am now in this camp. Awful.

Cabaye hoofing balls over the top...

I can't ever imagine my dad losing his interest in football and he's 62. I think you just have to accept, as you get older, that everything in life changes and people are more likely to look back on what they remember as being better.

I want to see the reaction when we get to Tony Green...

Not sure if this hornet's nest should be stirred... but on what basis?

2 players (a striker and a centre half) would be sufficient.

On deadline day they appear to be. Why is any other day any different? QPR managed to start and finish the Remy deal in the space of about 24 hours didn't they? QPR didn't do the deal in 24 hours... It doesn't matter - WUllie's point is correct. They got the player and relatively quickly too after he heard their terms.....we used to do deals quickly when SJH and KK were running the club and quietly too in most cases. The current board are all talk and no action...as for Pardew, he's just a puppet in transfer dealings. It's in no way correct. It is perfectly clear to everyone why Remy went to QPR and how it happened quickly. Even then, it wasn't that quick. In relation to why transfers take place so late in the day - again this is pretty obvious. Unless the selling club actually wants to sell the player, it is 100% in their interest to delay the transfer and take as long over it as possible in order to possibly keep the player or extract more money. The January window is a seller's market. Maybe we should have done more in the summer then. Yep - don't disagree with you there. Obviously the point still remains that you have to find a club that is willing to sell first and agree a valuation. Which seems easier said than done under our blueprint.

On deadline day they appear to be. Why is any other day any different? QPR managed to start and finish the Remy deal in the space of about 24 hours didn't they? QPR didn't do the deal in 24 hours... It doesn't matter - WUllie's point is correct. They got the player and relatively quickly too after he heard their terms.....we used to do deals quickly when SJH and KK were running the club and quietly too in most cases. The current board are all talk and no action...as for Pardew, he's just a puppet in transfer dealings. It's in no way correct. It is perfectly clear to everyone why Remy went to QPR and how it happened quickly. Even then, it wasn't that quick. In relation to why transfers take place so late in the day - again this is pretty obvious. Unless the selling club actually wants to sell the player, it is 100% in their interest to delay the transfer and take as long over it as possible in order to possibly keep the player or extract more money. The January window is a seller's market.

On deadline day they appear to be. Why is any other day any different? QPR managed to start and finish the Remy deal in the space of about 24 hours didn't they? QPR didn't do the deal in 24 hours...

I wish transfers were as easy to complete as some people on here think they are.

I agree with that. My point was that Anita's balls were, in the main, attempts to play the ball over the top of the defence for Cisse to run onto and not long balls up to Cisse's head.

Playing a ball over the top of the defence from midfield is now deemed to be bad football? What utter tosh. I agree that the margin for error for a ball played over the top that has no angle on it is small but to dismiss it is ridiculous.

I don't disagree that our movement was appalling and has been for a while. But we have clearly made a concerted effort to play the ball on the ground recently and Norwich was no exception to this.

Are we? I haven't checked, I must admit. Whatever the stats say, there's been a marked improvement in our football recently, and a massive decrease in the amount of hoofs from all over the pitch aimed at noone in particular. This does not take Mike Williamson into account, and he obviously got a rocket up his arse about them at half time against Norwich. Do the stats on long balls differentiate between clearances, set pieces and aimed diagonal or cross field balls? I wonder this too. I've definitely seen a big improvement in our attempts to keep the ball on the deck, yet every game is followed bys us being slagged off on here for hoofing it too much. Which we clearly don't do as much as we have. It's like everyone is waiting to pounce on every long ball, and ignores the rest of the play. It was like the Anita nonsense after the Norwich match - most of his supposed 'hoofs' were 30 yard balls that he was trying to clip in behind the defence for Cisse.

I am aware that there is no perfect system. That much is obvious. My point is that many people had/have advocated the adoption of a 4-2-3-1 formation but seemingly aren't expecting the wide men in that formation to track back, despite articles such as the one I have posted explaining how important it is. I was discussing this with a Spurs season ticket holder the other day and he says that both Bale and Lennon are fantastic at tracking back and do it willingly (admittedly in a 4-4-2 formation). In either a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, every player has to put in a decent shift defensively. It is a not a waste of talent, but just something that is required.

Unfortunate choice of words in that article - Lee Donnelly travels to Newcastle's training ground and players' homes to clean their cars and has serviced former stars including Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan and current players Danny Simpson, Jonas Gutierrez, Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye

People massively overestimate our pulling power at times.

Interesting article on 4-2-3-1. Actually raises some relevant concerns re my post above about how it can be exploited. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/jan/15/the-question-4231-football-tactics

fernandes doesn't have THAT much money. He won't support them in 5 years time. They have to be in the CL with the wages they have within a few years. Exactly - he'll have spent his entire net worth within a year or two at this rate. Can't see them getting much debt from banks. It is a disaster waiting to happen. One of the Mittals owns a third of QPR. Nuff said about where their money will be coming from. The Mittals who as recently as October 2012 were reviewing their position at QPR and were only persuaded to stay on by a desperate Fernandes. Yeah... I'm sure they'll keep spending.