geordiemonster

I reckon there'd have been more chance of Carroll being allowed to go there instead of us

Much as it pains me to say it they can be far happier with their transfer window than we can with ours so far.

I'm not disappointed we didn't sign him because I don't know where he would have fitted in but I am disappointed in the way we dealt with it when there were other clubs interested offering more than us.

I'm a bit loath to criticise our transfer policy because up until now it has worked. All that seems to have happened this one though is that we have pissed clubs off to the extend they'd prefer the players to go elsewhere than join us - Carroll being the prime example. I'm all in favour of have a maximum fee and a wage cap, but it's pointless constantly making ridiculous offers and getting clubs backs up. All in all I don't think anyone can say we've strengthened, brought a few promising youngsters in but failed to strengthen in any of the first team areas where we needed strengthening/backup players. If either of Tiote/Cabaye go tomorrow with no quality replacements then I'd go as far as to say this window has been a disaster.

It would be hilarious if we did sign Johnson just to see the reaction of the mackems at work who are convinced Saha is a quality signing and that in the next two weeks they are going to get loads of world class signings and spend loads of money.

Mine arrived today. I am now happy.

Haven't got mine either - two of my mates who I go with have and one other hasn't and he lives not too far away from me, so I am hoping they are doing it by postcode. They like leaving it until the last minute!

£17m for a squad player though?

If I were a west ham fan I'd be concerned that they they were wanting to spend so much money on someone who blatantly doesn't want to be there.

Fair enough, I'll give them another couple of weeks then!

Anyone got theirs yet? Official website says end of July, so they are cutting it fine.

What the fuck? http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=717847

Bringing up an article from 2006 is really hitting new lows. I suppose they can't have much to gloat for now that they've realise we have a better team, more fans and probably a better manager. Its just as well you tube wasn't around when they beat us 9-1....

VILLA! Just a shame we can't play them last game of the season to send the horrible twats down.

To be honest I reckon some of our fans cause just as much bother up there as they do down here - ripped up seats for example. Not excusing it, but both clubs have a significant minority of utter twats who seem intent on causing trouble. That article makes our fans sound like a group of middle aged women on their way to a church picnic, but we all know that there is nearly as much hatred on our side as there is on theirs. Much as I love the toon that article is a wee bit biased

Mike Ashley: Liked him at first, then hated him, now I am fairly neutral about him to be honest. I can see what he is trying to do and I reckon we are doing now what other clubs are going to be forced to do in the future, in terms of sponsorship deals and refusing to be held to ransom on players contracts. On the down side there is the travesty of all the SD logos all over the stadium, but, its his club and he is entitled to do that if he wants. PR is also an issue - Derek is not the man to put a positive spin on things and makes it worse most of the time. I think we could have a lot worse owners - Blackburn's for instance. Pardew: I'm impressed with him so far, not the best tactically, but we are 6th in the table with less than 1/3 of the season to go so he must be doing something right. I don't like his loyalty to certain players who aren't performing and his seeming dislike of HBA, but other than that pretty good.

Crap first half, much better second half. Must give a mention to Sunderlands finest though who cut open the blokes head behind me with their coin throwing antics, the despicable cunts. Also the stewards/police for doing fuck all about it and especially the steward lass who laughed about it.

Can't see us getting owt....but we have been a bit of a bogey team for them in the past....

That save he made right at the end was incredible - not sure how he managed to get to it AND smother the ball to prevent the rebound going in. I reckon he kept us in the game in the first half as well

I don't think Ashley deserves any credit just yet. If we get to the end of the transfer window and don't sell anyone and perhaps bring in a defender then perhaps he deserves a bit of credit, but there's 11 days of the transfer window to go and until it slams shut we are vulnerable to a last minute bid for any of our players.

Very composed today I thought and good going forward. Will be interesting to see what happens if we do sign Cissokho or another left back - I'd like to see how he does as right back instead of Simpson.

2157: Some news from tomorrow's newspapers to bring you here, as the Independent reckon that Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to let Wayne Rooney leave Manchester United due to a breakdown in their relationship. That would be massive. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9672648.stm

I personally thought Best had a fairly decent game last night. He seems to link far better with Ba than Ameobi does and he wins a fair percentage of headers as well.

Absoloutely. I don't think he did much wrong tonight, it was just a shocking defensive performance from the whole team.

Yes it is crazy - I'm not defending the rule, I'm defending the referee for following it Surely there has to be room in the game for a bit of common sense though?