Tiresias

Woooooooooooooooooooooo if it doesn't happen now I will implode

I wouldn't have him as backup as every week he's on the bench cos we don't need a big man up front there;d be a load of articles about him being a flop etc and it could ruin his confidence.

This is when Pards reveals his tika taka plans and we play 6 midfielders no strikers

Pards long ball merchant! Get with the 4-3-3!

Dead serious miserable publicity photos, check this interview http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/12/kyle-walker-tottenham-andre-villas-boas Cheer up Kyle! It's not like you're playing for Liverpool or the Mackems, and old melt-face has p*ssed off! http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2012/7/12/1342117099561/Kyle-Walker-Tottenham-rig-008.jpg

lol no surprise there

Maybe other move fell through? Well anyway I call bollocks most likely

The young players should be given a chance and we have enough games to give them it, Pardew needs to hype them up and know that they need to seize the opportunities they are given.

bloody hell that's awful! He's saying he trusts Hatem more than whatever the french FA says and wants to pick up where they left off, and they turn it into that? Wow.

there fixed

Must win or Pards out!

The Stoke game Cabaye completely dominated in the attacking midfield role, was immense.

I hope he hasn't bulked up too much at the expense of his speed, but he did look bit to scrawny for the premier league, reasonably confident he has the right attitude to make the most out of what talent he has, so just a question of if he's good enough.

So...who's betting on we fail to sign any wide striker and Sammy comes good next season and scores loads? ok I'm not, but think he'll be alright

Playing a more possession game with players like Debuchy should conceed less shots on goal, shouldn't be too strong an issue, Simpson sort of covered up a problem with our game that needed fixing, not that he's not appreciated, he did good last ditch defending for us.

I wonder if perchs good performances second half of season means defensive signings have been pushed back in importance

At least it somewhat takes away the spectre of them coming in for Ba.

Based on squad's I'd expect City to be duking it out with Chelsea for the title if the latter continue their spending spree and shore up their defence, but every year one looks at Man U and thinks mmmmm and they fail to fall away, Kagawa is a good improvement and Vidic will be back so that will probably be the top 3. Next 3 positions are vital for us as essentially it's us, Arsenal spurs and maybe liverpool, all of which would be foolish to dismiss, still can see Rodgers making Liverpool even more likely to draw every game so dunno if they'll really push on. Arsenal could go either way, think without Van Persie they may struggle but Giroud is a decent signing, less sure about Podolski but can see them gaining some traction with a more pragmatic style, if they can get M'Vila they'll be alright but doubt they'll get in top 4 again. Spurs are an unknown quantity atm, good players though, AVB may show why he's rated or be terrible again. Depends on if players sign up to the project.

I hope we pay up, I remember watching Arsenal last season for the few games they had their first choice full backs and contrasting with when they were playing CBs or midfielders there, they were soooooo improved with Sagna it was ridiculous, hopefully Debuchey will add that to us.

think that's fair, point but we did some very poor footy at times and our posession stats weren't great.

£8m doesn't sound too outside the market valuation of an experienced 27 year old right back international tbh, hopefully we can bring it down a bit though.

I think it's about spot on attitude, clubs around us are strengthening and we're going to have a lot of games ahead of us, getting to 5th again is not going to be easy and pushing into the top 4 is hard, not saying we can't do it at all, would be very sad for 8th but we have pushed into that top third of teams and nothing is guaranteed. That said I'd love us to show the same spirit as last season and push on, if we can come back and win a few games after going a goal down would be good. I think we could well get into Europe, but the pressure off attitude helped us so much last season, no reason to lose that now.

It's about having players constantly available to pass to, which means playing more compact. I guess Pards is concentrating on passing in training but playing a passing game with 4-4-2 is harder than with 4-3-3 because of numbers of opposing players in zones compared to number of other team. Wigan destroyed us with midfield numbers in the middle of our run when Pards couldn't quite settle on 4-3-3 so shifted us back to 4-4-2. of course there is 3-5-2...

Oh well. Hope we have a plan c.

This. Nowt wrong with the 4-4-2 when we want two strikers against a weak defence, but we looked better keeping the ball at our feet with 3 in the middle and Ben Arfa pushed further up.