taxfree

Really?

Why?

Rich, but cheap as fuck. Read somewhere that they had given the manager £10m to spend.

No.

Boring. Nah, guess he could be a good signing, although I am sceptical.

Good luck to them. Guess they could outbid us, but he'll prefer us over them any day.

Surely worth a go. Bryan Ruiz too. My outside guess for the new striker. Ruiz was excellent in Twente's title winning season (Valencia and a couple bigger clubs wanted him) but last season not so good I think......so his value will have gone down I guess. I doubt we're in for him anyway...unless Tiote has had a word with Pardew. He's not my first choice like. He fits quite a few of the cryptic quotes of Mark Douglas though, and is/was rumoured to be close to signing for Benfica for €7m. Around the fee we're supposed to bid. Edit - Not him.

Marca - Surely worth a go. Bryan Ruiz too. My outside guess for the new striker.

Cheeky bastard.

N'Zogbia.

He said it was one or the other IIRC with Gameiro being the clubs top target. Yeah, but it wasn't cast in stone.. it was only his opinion. I guess on this he was wrong, or should I say, I think we're still interested. He's not wrong anyway. The point he was trying to make was that we wouldn't get both of them. So - if we were to buy, it wouldn't be both.

It seemingly was between Gameiro and Gervinho. He never said we would get any of them. Actually he's probably been more negative than any other regarding the possibility of us signing them. Been spot on so far. I didn't say he said we were going to get one of them, I'm pointing out he said that Gervinho was the back up plan to Gameiro yet now he's gone to PSG he claims we're moving on to someone else instead. Obviously, if Gervinho doesn't want to come either, we have to look for other targets. Simple. Logic.

You're on a roll today, Colocho.

It seemingly was between Gameiro and Gervinho. He never said we would get any of them. Actually he's probably been more negative than any other regarding the possibility of us signing them. Been spot on so far.

If Cabaye is alright with him, I am. As most on here I prefer N'Zogbia though.

It probably is, but just guessing still. Mark Douglas will reveal who it is by tomorrow.

The whole "9m to champions league club" was just Del Boy talk. Never trust any chairman who openly talks about prices for their players. He's in the last year of his contract and by all accounts would love a return to the north east, as well as Whelan openingly admitting that he will let him leave, i think 9m is a very fair price. In fact they would be very lucky to get that sort of money but he's certainly worth it IMO.

Spot on. The thought of him and Ba as our strikeforce is worrying (for us) though. He's a canny player, not sure he'd be prolific though. Having said that, it's diffiuclt to say until you see how he fits into the system we'd play. But surely he'd play behind the striker? He's not an attacking midfielder, but I'm not convinced he is a striker either. He's a support striker and if he's supporting Ba ... I'm not sure that will work. If we had a quick, effective finisher to play in front of him, I would be less concerned. He is a good player, but an average striker. Hopefully we'll be looking at someone like El-Arabi to complement his style of play. He is definitely a striker.

Not sure if I'm too happy with that tbh. Obviously an upgrade on our current lot, but big enough to be the top striker we dearly need? Not in my opinion.

£15m is nice to have though.

You think a week is an instant decision? Its simple really, does he want to stay or not. Pretty easy really. A week is nothing. Not sure why people expect these things to go through this quickly. It's the same with some of our transfer targets, people saying 'move on' if we haven't signed someone within a couple of weeks of being linked to them. EDIT: Very naive if you believe it's 'pretty easy'. Its a decision over 6 months or more, even more naive to think its only dawned on him the past 7 days. How can he decide on something he was offered maybe a week ago, six months ago? He may not have been sure what he wanted to do, decided to see what was put on the table and then go from there. Like Dave said, there's also other factors like waiting to see who we sign too.

Again its a simple decision really, one that incredibly enough can be made while lying on a beach. Why is it a simple decision? There's big money and a career on stake. You usually want to relax and not think "work" on holidays.

Is he not on vacation as well? Surely not the time to deal with contracts and basically your future couple of years.

Read the quotes: “We have been asked to make him an offer but there has been no progress since then. I still hope we can do something but at the moment we’re still waiting for Jose. “I don’t think there’s anything more I can really add on that situation at this stage.” Nothing new really.

Nah. We've just "seen him". Mark Douglas didn't think we would be after him.