Away Toon

Well 10 minutes gone and Scunthorpe well on top.Poor Marv hasn't touched the ball yet I reckon

This transfer window needs to close quickly or we'll lose Colo as Valencia now definitely have the money to buy him having sold Mata to the Russians. I think we overrate Tiote and there is not that much interest at the moment in buying him. Another good season, where he doesn't get booked every other game, he'll be gone as well. I'll always support the players wearing the shirt, but the club I just hate it and will continue to do so until Ashley sells up.

I think that Joey would probably like to stay with us in an ideal world. He obviously likes the fans, the city and the region and is settled here. However he's seen that the club has no real ambitions beyond survival, and most importantly no doubt feels unwanted by the club who will be making him unemployed next summer. I'm sure that like the other players that have been sold recently he seriously dislikes the people running the club. QPR will no doubt offer him similar money to his present salary but on a long term contract. If they get relegated he can leave on a free if he wants, as Ba did, if he wants that in his contract. QPR might be a smaller club than we are but they are certainly no less successful, in fact as we know there is hardly a club in the top two or three divisions that have won less than us over the last 40-50 years. Also they now have a motivated owner, who will invest in the club and try to make them better than they are, something it's very hard to say about our present ownership.

I really hope that they don't fire agent Bruce. this is so much fun.

Erding proche de Rennes Priorité du Stade Rennais, Mevlut Erding a choisi de rejoindre la Bretagne avant la fin du mercato. Pierre Dréossi va rencontrer Leonardo, directeur sportif du PSG, pour finaliser ce transfert. Erding devrait quitter Paris pour rejoindre Rennes.(EQ) Mevlut Erding s'est fait une raison. L'ancien Sochalien a compris qu'à Paris il ne jouerait, cette saison, qu'en cas de blessure de Kevin Gameiro. Or, à 24 ans, l'attaquant aux 47 buts en Ligue 1 (en 144 matches) aspire logiquement à plus de temps de jeu. Voilà pourquoi l'international turc a décidé de quitter le PSG avant la fin du mercato. Joueur le plus convoité de l'effectif parisien à la grande surprise de Leonardo, Erding a reçu ces derniers jours de nombreuses offres (Newcastle, Galatasaray, Rubin Kazan, Lille, Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux...). Désireux de poursuivre sa carrière en France, Erding a finalement choisi de prendre la direction de Rennes, malgré l'insistance de Lille et de Bordeaux ces dernières heures, Francis Gillot, en quête d'un buteur, ayant appelé directement l'ancien Sochalien. Definitely off to Rennes then for around 8 million E. Didn't do a very good job persuading him to join up did we.

Woodgate was class, but we know that already. On a play/pay deal he would have been worth a shout, we need cover at CB and him and Colo would be a serious upgrade on anything we have had at the back for at least a decade

Ratings Krul 7 A little bit uneasy under the high ball but good reflexes and kicking game Simpson 6 Solid, cleared one off the line S. Taylor 7 Excellent defending, good physical presence. Colo 8 Fast, cool and collected R. Taylor 6 Out of position, but stuck to his task Barton 7 Should have left Gevinho on the ground and let the referee book him for diving. Tiote 6 Not at his best but not for want of trying Cabaye 6 Looked better when he pushed forward, will be a good player when he's up to speed Jonas 7 Worked his socks off Ba 5 Doesn't look fit Shola 7 Again worked hard, lots of skill at times Obertan 6 Obviously fast, faded after a good first 20 minutes Best 6 Shola, Ba and Best all look very similar players which is probably not a good thing Lovenkrands 6

Pip will have to go on the wankers list for starters. Support the players, support the team, if you have to criticise, the manager and owners are easy enough targets

great defending by Steven Taylor

Nobody has played that badly, the fact that it's 0-0 against a good looking Arsenal team is the proof of that. Simpson, Taylor and especially Shola have all played well. The speed of the game is passing Cobaye a little but that's half to be expected, Tiote is off the pace a little as well. These are not criticisms of the players, they are both working very hard to close down space.

Well first of all there are some right wankers posting on here as usual. Constantly criticising individual players, why don't you just fuck off and support the mackems, you know who you are.

Arsenal's weak looking midfield (for them anyhow) are all over us. Tiote is off the pace at the moment, and Cabaye nowhere to be seen. Shola is dropping back in to midfield when they have the ball which is pretty much all the time

mackems by far the better team in the second half

14th

Anybody who thinks that Smith won't play this season is kidding themselves. Tiote will get suspended, go to the ACN etc and Smith will replace him. We're still fucked.

I fucking hope not. Losing Barton will weaken the team and the spirit as well. Stoke of all people are building themselves a strong looking squad with some quality players.

I was in the same class as Gary Rowell at school, obviously he was a mackem and I wasn't. Spoke to Rooney at Tahiti Beach in St. Tropez and asked him to go easy on us the next time he played against us.

He's getting his excuses in early any way you want to interpret it.

.com have Pardew down as saying the following; Alan Pardew commented after the deluge: "It’s frustrating but there isn’t a lot you can do about the weather. The rain just wouldn’t stop and we were worried about injuries. “There was a tackle on Cabaye out there which had my heart in my mouth. It was the right decision to call it off. “I hope I can get the club unified again. When the ­ownership of the football club is in the forefront of conversation it is a ­problem. “I want people to be talking about the football team here and what the players do on the football pitch. “The problem is that where we are now financially means that we can never really fulfill the expectations of the fans. They have memories of European football but the gap is ­getting bigger as the years go by. “It is becoming difficult to compete with the top clubs, but that is not to say we can’t compete at the level we are at, but we are always vulnerable to the bigger clubs as Andy Carroll’s move proved. “That makes it very difficult to manage – but not impossible. Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias made it quite clear – the club to a certain extent needs to wipe its nose and therefore we haven’t got ­investment above our income. That is how Mike wants to run the football club. “Some of the other clubs have that ability to spend more than they earn and Manchester City have been able to break into the top four for that reason. “They have a sovereign state ­backing them. We can’t ­compete with that. It is very difficult.” “I am not going to make any predictions about the new ­season until I see what ­players we get in. I am fairly confident that we will get the players in that we need. I would like one or possibly two in before we play Arsenal. “The fans have had so many ­broken promises in the past not just from this ownership but way before that, but we have added two or three very good players to the group ­already and we are going to add to that.” “Once we see the team settle down – and I don’t think it will be in the FIRST THREE OR FOUR GAMES if I am honest – I think we are going to see a very strong side.” I don't like the sound of the last bit, three or four games would have us losing to Arsenal, the mackems, out of the Carling cup and another league game while they settle down. Settling down is what you do in pre-season. Fucking incompetent beyond belief.

Ils ont plein argent ca c'est certain. Mais avec moins que 5 minutes a le fin ils sont mener pas Lorient et jeux comme les etrangers.

Erding has come on in the 80th minute

We should strengthen the squad I think everyone can agree on that, it's lacked depth for years, and this time we know that there is enough money there to buy the players we need. Enrique will leave and will need replacing, and there is no back up unless Ferguson gets counted and as he's injured, tiny and better off playing further forward, he shouldn't be. so that's two players for a start. Campbell has left and should be replaced so we have four centre half's like everyone else. Routledge should be replaced as should Barton if he leaves. Who will cover for Tiote, well unless we buy someone it will be Smith. Up front we have one striker who might get 10 goals and that's Ba if he's not injured. Unless Best has a serious purple patch the rest of the so called strikers we have won't get 10 goals between them. So Ba's out we get Shola. Better start praying unless we do go out and buy a top class striker.

Well you should try asking her, you never know your luck might be in.

I don't think anyone really cares how much the players cost, it's just that most of us thought that the money from selling AC should be used to once and for all strengthen the squad.For the last three or four seasons we have always been a couple of injuries away from fielding a seriously weakened team, once we have 5-6 out, the team we have to select is extremely poor. We need two left backs if Enrique leaves, an upgrade at right back, another Centre-Half, somebody to cover when Tiote can't get a visa, get's suspended, goes to ACN, a right winger, if Barton leaves someone to replace him, and another forward. That's up to 8 players depending on who leaves. We have the money, the owner doesn't want to spend it, so rather than competing for a position between 5-7, which with a strengthened squad we probably could, it will be mid table mediocrity or worse.

Newcastle United were the only club of the 104 surveyed in England, Wales and Scotland not to disclose their matchday prices. Should be in another thread, but at least it will get read in here. It's from a survey of the cost of going to matches throughout all the leagues and on the BBC Sport web site.