ExiledGeordie

To be honest I'd care more if we were higher up the league and there was zero risk of going down. Then there might be more of an interest to progress in the competition as it'd still be a fantastic cup to win. As it is the focus is squarely on keeping players fit and what type of team we'll turn out for Norwich away.

Probably lose but not that fussed in all honesty.

Same here. His attitude may have been good on the pitch but it can't be good for a team with that hanging over them.

Yeah even if he was pretty set on leaving for family reasons or whatever and was honest with Pardew you'd hope Pardew would say to him "just give me everything until the end of the season"

Problem is even with Debuchy at the back which will sure things up a bit in terms of defending and keeping the ball Saylor could quite easily re-injure himself as proved before and then you're back to square one relying on Williamson. Goals win matches so I suppose if you had to choose one or the other we have to bring in a striker to cover Ba's departure. But that's still russion roulette leaving the centre back position hideously exposed. But BOTH ffs

Feel the same Beren

Christ if they could get him attacking one side of Cisse with his pace and HBA tearing it up on the other side

Admittedly I think Cabaye's attitude could've been questioned at the start of the season considering his lacklustre performances. From what I've heard though the op or rather two ops he had in the groin may have affecting his play before he had the surgery. I get the impression they were seeing if he could play through it but it got to the point where surgery was the only option.

The Chelsea match just seems to fit as a target. Would obviously like to see him make an appearance as a sub before then maybe at Villa but his injury has clearly been far worse than they first thought so they need to be extra cautious. If he's back for Chelsea it massively increases the chances of getting something out of that game.

Krul Debuchy Saylor Colo Santon Anita Cabaye Jonas/Tiote HBA Cisse Marveaux (new striker - Remi?) If we can field a team like that or close to it regularly for much of the 2nd half of the season maybe with the additional strength of a new CB recruited then I think we'll be ok. We've been utter dogshite but we can't really get much worse especially with the names we've had out and still to come back into the side plus new signings. Reading and QPR have it all to do to get out of it and with a team like the one above we should have enough to pull away from the likes of S'ampton, Villa, Wigan etc

I'm hedging my bets that he'll be in the squad and on the bench for the Chelsea game at home on Feb 2nd

Well Saylor and Cabaye could both be back for Norwich away. Add Debuchy into the mix and the side has a much more solid look to it

Just heard Pardew talking on the radio. Given the financial ramifications of going down it would be absurd if they deemed it too expensive to bring in both a striker and centre back this windown.

I'd say it's a toss up between Cabaye and Saylor but given just how utter dogshit our defence is at the minute I'd say Saylor is the biggest miss. Getting him back in the lineup for Norwich would be a massive positive because we need to start being much harder to beat at the back. While Colo is out of form Williamson is just an utter car crash of a player right now and the sooner we get him out the side the better.

If we can get HBA linking up with Debuchy on the right and Marveaux on the left of a 3 (or someone like a Remy) with Cabaye spreading balls about and putting in through balls from his central forward positon for runners on both sides we might have some really good balance for the first time. Plus as you say Cisse would get plenty of chances from this set up.

When it's all done and dusted and he's playing teams will find it very hard to contain Ben Arfa on the right with the extra threat of Debuchy. It'll be hard to double team HBA when there's a marauding full back who can attack/cross to keep an eye on too.

I think the next 3 league games will tell us a lot about what the near future holds. Injured players are returning, we should have atleast one signing playing and maybe more. If we're still pissing about and in a rut after those games then we really are completely screwed and Pardew will have nowhere else to look but in the mirror to find answers.

Couldn't believe that he started on the right even WITHOUT Ba anywhere in sight.

Yeah it's fucking criminal if we don't sing a centre half. My only thing (hope) is that the other teams around us are playing with what they have and what they'll probably have for rest of the season whereas we have potentially 4-5 startes our injured to come back

I've moved up from a 3 to a 5/6

Massive lift to have a quality player like this coming in. Well certainly an immense upgrade on Simpson.

Obviously I don't know the exact details, I'm only going off the endless speculation in the papers about the various add ons. More to the point I'm simply saying it's far from a straightforward 7.5m transfer when everything is finally tallied up. I don't have any problem with the situation to be honest, Ba or his agents. It's all part of the modern game. The only problem I'll have is if we don't bring in a solid replacement

He'll certainly be playing with a point to prove tonight that's for sure

It is a good buy for Chelsea but it's not a straight up 7.5m is it, once you throw in the ludcrious agent fees and everything else it's more like 15m. Still that's nowt for Chelsea really is it