Geordie_once_removed

I saw that abomination of a game after braving London transport on a Sunday with a crippling hangover. Moore is Craig Moore no, a shite Aussie defender who we signed on the cheap. Had Parker started discoing in the centre of midfield by then? On paper him and Emre (racist little oik that he was) is a good pairing.

Just how left sided is he? Personally I'd prefer someone to replace Schar over replacing Burn. Burn and Targett struck up a really good understanding and Schar is quite injury prone. So I'd rather we spent big on a right sided centerback this window and a left sided next window.

John Beresford. I was always drawn to the less dramatic option and coming of football age in the early to mid 90s those flowing locks were hard to resist! I met him briefly at a corporate thing on a match day my dad was attending and scored me a free ticket too, in the early noughties at St James' Park (Chris Mort was chairman at the time and I met him too). We lost to Blackburn, but I'll never forget how star struck I felt seeing one of my 'Match' poster heros in real life.

Have the links to that Monaco player, Benoît Badiashile all dried up? Based on Denis Wise scouting he looked a much more impressive player.

This has got a wiff of Boumsong about it. I think we should walk away. We really need someone with pace and that doesn't seem to be him.

Very pleased with this. It's not just his price (which is a bargin) or his character but that we're not going to disrupt what was generally a very solid defensive unit. If we'd signed a new LB, a CB and had Trippier, that's essentially 3 out 4 'new' players in a back 4 and could have been disruptive. Welcome back Sherminator.

I'm excited by this. Particularly as he had the maturity and sense to turn us down in January. It suggests he might have the head on his shoulders needed to succeed.

Richarlson is in a similar bracket to ASM as in his value to his current club, both in terms of his on pitch performance and the symbolism wrapped up in him, means he would cost far more than he's worth. He'd definitely improve our team but we'd pay way over the odds to get him.

I'm all for this. I thought he look pretty good of late. The mini chipped through ball for Wilson that led to the second goal was very nice indeed. I seem to remember a statistic that also showed he's a very active presser of the ball (top 10% in the Premier League I think).

I'm going to pretend it's my head not my heart saying we'll win this. I do think playing at home will give us a huge lift and not of the feral sort that we had against Tottenham when we were first taken over. Our style at the moment suits this game with Arsenal needing to win and us being solid. I can see the fans cheering every tackle like a goal and us hitting them at pace on the break when they are stretched. Key to this is ASM, but he's obviously a liability due to his lack of tracking. So I'd be tempted to switch him and Alimiron so it's Almiron helping out Targett against Saka. I really hope Trippier and Wilson are fit enough to start. A front three of ASM, Wilson and Almiron would cause most defences trouble and Arsenal have a few injuries.

I'd rather not. He's one of those players who really needs a team built around them. He's doing well at Villa as they already had a team semi built/used to playing with a player like him in Grealish. I feel he wouldn't do that well at Newcastle as the players we have wouldn't compliment him so well.

Raffles the Gentleman thug and Drunk Bakers are my two favourite.

I can't see him being here beyond the summer. He's a player, a bit like Grealish and Coutinho, that needs a team built around him to really see his potential. As all plans re:transfers and team shape and strategy left with Benitez and only just came back with Howe he's been screwed over by subsequent transfers so we never bought players that would allow us to play a style and shape that would suit him. We're too invested in a system and shape that doesn't suit him to now start signing players that would, added to this he's just not good enough to justify doing this given where the clubs ambitions are. If he stays he'll continue to be a square pig in a round hole. Best for all parties he leave in the summer. You would imagine we could get close to £15 million for him.

That slip where he some how kicked the ball onto his own head was the most 'Joelinton' thing I've ever seen. He's really coming good for us but that he was ever signed as a striker is outrageous.

Also he can swing in a decent cross on occasion and most of our attackers (Fraser and Tripper aside) are more inverted, so this might be a useful plan C now we have some big lumps to aim for.

I'd actually de-register Dummett. He's injured so much it just seems a waste of a spot, especially when you can see Burn and Targett both signed as people directly ahead of him.

I went for a 7. On the positive side we got someone in Trippier and Bruno G who would get into the starting line up of all but 3 or 4 teams in the league and who will help us play in a different way that is more aligned with Howe's tactics. We also avoided a James Rodriguez/Chris Samba style signing who would disrupt us and prove to be something of an albatross around our neck. Targett and Burn are both solid and will improve a back 4 that as a unit leaked goals like a sieve. On the negative side we didn't get in players that will help us get the goals that would guarantee avoiding relegation. Wood is average, we'll be lucky if he scores 5 before the end of the season, and we signed no one else to take the pressure off him, ASM and (when fit) Wilson. Also CB is still a concern, I wish we had gone for someone attainable like Burn much earlier and perhaps then concentrated on a similarly solid signing rather than spending so much time on trying and failing to sign a transformative CBs like Botman and Diego. Given this you might question my 7 rating, but as we've been told time and again January is a tough window to do business in and this was made all the more difficult by our new status as a hugely wealthy club and the fact that we're sat in the relegation zone. One of the most important things was to avoid signing that would damage us in the long term like signing players on huge fees who aren't interested/suitable and we won't be able to shift (hello Everton and Man U).

It's a solid signing, perhaps one that for all parties should have been made at the start of the month not the end. I do wonder if we set our sights a bit too ambitiously this window. Hopefully he'll become another useful squad player and crowd favourite in the Hughes and Elliott (Robbie not Rob) mold.

Same here. It's got a bit too much of a whiff of James Rodriguez at Everton for me.

I think all the vitriol on here is just internet pantomime stuff. As far as I'm aware his conduct off the pitch is good and he's been a useful player for us. However, he's clearly not good enough to play in the Premiership anymore. That he is and would have been all season if we hadn't been bought is a good concise example of how Ashley was slowly running the club into the ground. He's always had a daft mistake in him. I remember him doing it regularly at Villa, but other aspects of his game made up for this. Now as he ages they don't and he's never developed much footballing intelligence to compensate either. His name should be first OFF the team sheet.

I don't know much about him but he seems like he could be a starter this season and the new Aaron Hughes/Robbie Elliot in a hopefully much improved team next year.

Really? I've always had a lot of time for Everton. For me the ideal 3 to go down are the most likely (besides us). Norwich (no bad blood, I just think I'll impact them the least), Burnley (for the banner and the dodgy way they were bought) and Watford (Southern, sort of London nothing club who fire managers as soon as they change their underpants).

I think we're probably saying the samething in different ways. If we survive I'm sure he'll have played a key role, so will have been a 'good' buy.

When we signed him I thought we'd paid 10 million too much. After two games I'm inclined to think it's more like 15. Not terrible but the definition of limited. I said to a mate when he signed that I thought he'd turn out to be a good, bad signing. As in that he he'll help us belly flop over the line to survival and won't mind warming the bench next year, but by God we were done over on the price!

I'm putting personality aside (though I'm sure as soon as he became our player a lot of the twatishness would suddenly become more palatable).