pi_D

Quit sucking all the joy out of life. Jeez. We clearly have a structure where we feel we can assign a certain amount of the budget to those on higher wages, and like every club it is difficult to justify having highly paid players sitting on the bench (or even in the reserves ala Xisco). Llambias just tried to simplify things in answer to a question. Of course we're flexible. Of course things change.

Ffs

Colo does not deserve some of the criticism in the last few pages! Talk about OTT

Interesting point, I wonder how you could offset said problem.... Perhaps have an assists bonus? :D

Wtf is a phantom club?

Got to wonder what some of the bigger pros are going to think- the likes of Krul, Colo, Ben Arfa, Cabaye. Well, we are losing a brilliant striker and definitely one of the best in the league That's my biggest worry about him leaving tbh. Alas this is reality for clubs without CL football or mega money. We will get there eventually

To be fair Cisse is a proven goal scorer.

Not totally true on two fronts. First - His blueprint is for the club to be self sufficient, if a players cost fits within the clubs affordability he’ll be bought irrespective of fee. The other “condition” is that he has resale value, that does not have to be more than he was bought for, just more than his value “on the books” at the time of sale (due to amortisation). Second – “competitive wages” are paid already (daft wages are not) and will continue to be so, so long as it fits with the % of turnover for wages that’s been laid down. It really is quite simple, players will be bought if it fits the model. If they don’t they won’t. In hindsight, he made a mistake in the summer, there was a case for a little speculate to accumulate, especially given the explosion in PL dosh next season. Hopefully he’s learned from that, but it doesn’t need a daft or never ending splash of cash. In fact if we hadn’t had so many injuries (way more than you could possibly reasonably expect) the apparent summer non-spend likely wouldn’t have been a factor.

Fixed. God dammit

in fairness it's arguably one of the few times pardew might be faulted for that like, assuming he is this time he's been excellent at letting our players have enough recovery time, the best bar none since i've been watching us imo Agree here, we actually manage our injuries now rather than rush every fecker back asap

L'Equipe's Ligue 1 team of 2012: Sirigu; Debuchy, Silva, Yanga-Mbiwa, Tremoulinas; Mavuba, Matuidi; Nene, Valbuena, Hazard; Ibrahimovic.

'Come on Mike, we're leaving!' :lol:

it's been evident throughout his career. it's not like last season was a blip. QFT

Well that doesn't inspire confidence

Why do people always result to using words like 'magic' and 'automatically' when it comes to stuff like this? What does suggest that Cisse will be every bit as good as competent as Ba if he's deployed in his correct position, is his scoring record. Magic's got nowt to do with it. Exactly, we've even had half a season witnessing it with our own eyes!

The silver lining is that we'll get to see more of Stroller.

I thought we were over trying to add 20+20 to get 40 goals a season. If only it were that simple... Have we not yet arrived at the conclusion that Ba and Cisse aren't comparable as a strike partnership? How often do wingers and strikers form an effective striker partnership? The only reason they're not playing together is because our dear manager doesn't know how to make it work so he throws one out wide. Correct me if I'm wrong, but i understand they rarely play together for Senegal either.

I thought we were over trying to add 20+20 to get 40 goals a season. If only it were that simple... Have we not yet arrived at the conclusion that Ba and Cisse aren't compatible as a strike partnership?

The better all-round player is going, don't think there's any doubt about that at all. However, I've personally got no doubt that if it's down to Cisse to take the central role on his shoulders and be the "main man" again he'll come up trumps for us. He's a special player in his own right. Agreed. Think Ba is the better all-round footballer but Cisse is the better out-and-out striker. Completely disagree like.

Has it occured to you that Cisse played on the right wing because our first choice right wing player has been out injured? Of course. I thought it was obvious that Ba and Cisse can't play in a front two and that one would eventually lose out? What is your solution?

I'm not really sure if Cisse is a better player though. The fact is Ba outscored anyone in our team by a country mile. Yes it's not a fair statistic on Cisse because he was playing outwide but numbers are numbers. Considering last season and all I'd say in terms of finishing ability Cisse and Ba are quite similar. Cisse has better link up with the team but Ba is much more intimidating due to his physical prowess. It's hard to say who the better player is really. I know we all want to believe Cisse is the better player since he's the one that's staying and because Ba is the seemingly more sefish one, but I'd say they are around the same though they offer something different. Well from watching the two play i'd feel Cisse is the better player - all things considered.

Not saying it would but it'd be hard to keep Cisse happy playing on the right wing. Never mind that he is ineffective there and can't play as part of a front two. Eventually one had to go imo