And we attempt to combat this by... doing nothing?
Well we don't have the £110m it'd take to catch Chelsea. We go with the team who served us so well last year plus some upgrades on the departures...bar Best (who barely played)
Yeah, just the 21 appearances last year for Leon Best.
How many after Cissé signed? His role became less and less in the second half of the season. He was technically replaced in January
It's highly likely that either Ba or Cisse will be injured at one point during the season. As it stands their deputy is Shola and him alone. Best had a reasonable goal return and played well with Ba. As a player he was limited but better than nothing, incredulous that he's not been replaced because I've seen little in Sameobi or Vuckic to suggest they're ready to step up.
Pardew, who watches him in training most days, violently disagrees with this.