BrettNUFC

I think Gardner is bang average at best, he's never stood out for me, he's popped up with some cracking strikes but nothing special. Very similar to Gibson. I like Larsson, think he could have offered us a lot in terms of our squad but sure he was after something like 40/50 grand a week when we were first after him which is a stupid amount of money for a squad player. I'd still be trying to go all out to get Charlie back for the Toon. Class act!

Everthing about Puma is turd!

People are just jealous on here of cwarr because he has a good insight on NUFC...

Nout on Wes Brown like I've got a Mackem mate who seriously believes John Mensah is one of the best in the world. Problem is, he's "slightly injury prone".

This is now where Wenger does a turnaround and say's Fab isn't going anywhere.... And Pep pops a 35 million bid over to Mike for Jose

I think Ellen is the fake...Colin is no Pinocchio!

Same as us. Cheers mate

Is Portugal 1 hour ahead or 1 hour behind? Random question but it's just because that's where i will be for the Mackems game.

Im not too dissapointed at not being able to sign Erdinc due to the fact i've never seen him play apart from the odd couple of games. I would like to see Shane Long here and i think he would be the best of our current crop but that's not hard. I would be dissapointed if we couldn't stump up a transfer fee and wages for a player like Long though then it would be worrying times. Personally i still think we need to sign Long and one more striker and flog one or even two of our current lot (Lovenkrands being first out of the door).

I would imagine besides this being the obvious option on the pitch, the club are hoping it can be used as leverage one way or another next summer. He'll be off next summer I reckon. I can't see NUFC investing in him for another few years, even if he would take a pay cut, at 30 years old. He's the type of centre half who could do a job into his thirties imo but he'll have very limited resale value after that, hence my view that he'll be off. Great news like this yet you still try and put a negative spin on it. For all we know he could be agreeing to a contract extension along with being appointed captain. This is a fantastic call from Pardew, even though like previously said there were few contenders for the role. I look forward to seeing Colo walk the Toon out of the tunnel against Arsenal at SJP. All in all a cracking appointment. :colo:

'There's absolutly no way Shola just missed from there, no chance!.....Ohhh my word!'

Definitly the death of the canary....

me too Count me in the gayness for Jonas

Better than Routledge

For most of last season wasn't he? Tipped for a decent career before hand. Wasn't injured all season but he did damage ligaments in his foot i think my brother said and was on crutches for a month or two around the time when Richardson was getting put on the bench for us. Just came back from oz though and newcastle have kept him on to a new contract so must still fancy his chances of significant imporvement. When i've seen him play he's always looked a classy footballer like.

Bendtner talks a good game and speaks out often in regards to how he thinks he should be starting every week for Arsenal. He convinces people he is good and he has a special talent then you actually see him stroll on to the pitch and you suddenly realise you have been fooled by his words and that he isn't what he says he is, he is still in fact the same shambles of a footballer that you orginally thought he was.

If James Perch is 'past it' at the age of 25...well i would have liked to have seen him when he 'had it' or if he ever actually did have it?

Brad Inman...still think he will become a top player....outstanding in games i've seen him...

This genius needs find some answers from his stats to why Arsenal crumble year after year come the run in to the end of the season and come up with a fecking good solution I think you'll find one of the main reasons for that is the human element that statisticians like to pretend doesn't exist.

This genius needs find some answers from his stats to why Arsenal crumble year after year come the run in to the end of the season and come up with a fecking good solution

it's about market value for a player like him entering into the last year of his contract - if our bid is 8m and it'll take 10m to get him then it'd be f***ing stupid not to go the extra mile with the carroll money in the bank still That'll probably happen if this is the situation mid to late August, but there's no reason whatsoever just to splash the cash when there's plenty of time to haggle yet. I wouldn't say this is a deal to be haggling with, i'd be more than happy to throw the 10 million and pinch Charlie now than haggle to get 8 million and the thought of other clubs joining the hunt at the price. Man Utd have done their business well so far for me, name the targets, throw a price and grab them before Liverpool/Arsenal/Chelsea jump in. Although the deals have been slightly overpriced argueably, at least they will be theirs for future years to come rather than at another rival!

100 pages on Wayne Routledge!

On the contrary to your last comment Jordan Henderson is a very non-Moneyball signing. The theory behind Billy Beane's Oakland As as highlighted in Moneyball is that you buy players who are considered for whatever reason to be undervalued. Indeed, I would say we are in fact pursuing a more Moneyball-like theory. Cabaye was clearly "undervalued" at £4.8m and both Marveaux and Ba are both clearly undervalued on free transfers. i don't think it is about finding undervalued players as much as valuing players by a different set of statistical criteria, instead of, or complementing, other ways of rating them. Henderson is a player who doesn't impress observers at all when you watch him play, yet his stats are supposedly very impressive - higher passing completion rate than any liverpool midfielder, 3rd highest key pass rate in the premier league. seems to me like it could be a good example of a stat driven transfer. Like Sam Allardyce buying Kevin Nolan's 80 percent pass completion rate alongside Gerrard and Cesc....

We shouldn't be robbing him off so much, what a steal Mike, what a steal! Stripey jumper and a mask!