Odear

Grealish.. poor sap. He turned down playing for Ireland after representing them at U21’s thinking he was gonna be some sort of superstar for England. Funny how things work out.

I'm looking up at Everton and Leicester rather than down at those two tbh. Yep. Looking at the remaining fixtures I see Everton and Leicester getting around 4 more points each. (Providing we can win on Monday)

Doesn’t he after Lascelles have the best win / not lose % when he starts? He has really been indispensable this season, so unless there is an option of a significant upgrade he should be a guaranteed starter going into next year. Oh I agree with that. If he’s still our player, he should be starting games for us, but if Rafa decides to sell him it will be because he wants to make a change for the better. He won’t deliberately weaken the side. The club is really starting to get something good together. Everyone can see it. Including our players. They won’t want to walk away from that unless there’s excellent money being offered elsewhere. Or a guaranteed chance at Champions League football. I’d say Perez is on less than 40k, maybe even 25k, his next contract will be for his prime years. He’ll want to be on better money for that. If there’s reported interest from Spain, that will only strengthen his hand with negotiations. I’d be very surprised if he wants to leave.

If Rafa stays, he keeps any player he wants to keep. If Ayoze leaves and the manager is still here it’s because Rafa has bigger plans. Not worried either way. Perez is improving and has played great in the last 4 games, but let’s have a full season of this before we can say he’s indispensable.

It’s a strange one. I wanted half the team replaced around January but now, different questions. Can Diame keep this form into next season? He’s been outstanding. We’d have to spend 30m on a player who’s doing the same job.. (I’m not saying Diame is worth 30m but he’s playing like a player who should cost that) Shelvey, again.. poor for quite a long time. His success now seems to be linked to Diame doing the donkey work for him. Would keep and extend his contract. Dummett has shown he can perform. New contract. He needs decent back up in case he gets injured again. Yedlin could probably be upgraded for someone else but again, would anyone else put the same sort of shift in? Perez finally seems to have found his best position, Ritchie could be upgraded but same as Yedlin, hard to find someone who would make the same sort of effort. Plus Jacob Murphy should hopefully improve. Assuming we can keep Lascelles and Lejeune, all that Rafa has to do this summer is get some better backup for LB & RB and sort out the attack. If he’s looking at a different central midfielder, I think Merino could be sold ? I suspect he’s not settled here and wants away. Gayle should be sold on. As will Mitro and he might sell Joselu as well, similar to how he got rid of Daryl Murphy. Rafa can be cold like that.. So that’s 3 forwards and a left winger we need to sign along with any other squad players that could come in. Chelsea might let Kenedy go for 20m, Slimani could cost the same (seems worth it though) and god knows what we’d have to pay for a pacey forward who can score.. Keeping Lascelles is more important than any other signing we might make.

It’s a case of the right player at the right club. He could undoubtedly do well at other clubs but he’s on to something special here. I think he recognises this. Would love to see Murphy get a run on the right side, that would be serious pace along with Kennedy on the left if they’re playing balls into Slimani (if fit)

Yeah £4 Million That’s outstanding! Little weasels like Jack Colback just being off the wage bill should be more than enough to cover that.

So was a price agreed already for him before the loan deal was done? I would imagine his value has skyrocketed over the last 2 months.

Once bitten twice shy. Am more than happy to leave this until the summer. What’s happening on the pitch is far more enjoyable right now.

Fantastic performance again. A clean sheet would have been nice but overall the defence was on top for 99.9% of the game. This is what’s given us the platform to stay up. Lejeune was top class all game as was Dummett. Diame dominated their midfield until he got tired. Kennedy was lively again, a perfect fit for this team. We should be looking up and not down now, Everton can be caught, maybe even Leicester.

Just goes to show how fragile life is. He’s been a regular on tv and radio and never seemed to be in ill health. Always seemed like a decent bloke. RIP

Ginola running in full flight though.. almost unstoppable if he wasn’t fouled. Probably equal to Robert with crosses but would have to give Robert the nod for being a better striker of the ball. Ginola far more skilful.

I think Gael was a bad buy in fairness. But Pardew is a grade-a cunt. More so than any other manager I can think of. He makes Souness seem like Keegan in comparison.

He won’t get another PL job, surely!? I bet the Carver stunt was orchestrated between them so West Brom had no other option but to get rid.

Huddersfield playing downhill this half too.

Aye hopefully Islam will give us a lift the last 25 mins. Surely he won’t be risked for longer than that.

We should be 2 up. Hope this doesn’t come back to bite us. They’re there for the taking if we don’t get frustrated. Can’t fault anyone but Gayle really. Team playing well, especially at the back and midfield.

stoke and west ham The match at the Olympic stadium today is massive for both clubs. After what happened last time they couldn’t have asked for a better game though. Southampton are turgid.

? oh be nice!

So apart from West Brom, who’s going down then?

Seems a decent bloke and always spoke well of us whenever commentating. Hope he makes a swift recovery. That’s no age at all to be checking out.

Great article that. He seems intelligent and very much a realist. This season has been a total turnaround in my attitudes to certain players, Dummett included along with Diame, Shelvey and a few others.

He had a broadband business for people in rural areas which went belly up last year owing a few million. Highly unlikely he’d get any of his mates to back another bid. Did they even break even when they sold to Short?

Martins goal v Spurs was ridiculous. Still not sure how he managed that sort of power. Alberts chip. Shearer v Leicester. (Free kick from edge if he area, like a bullet into the roof of the net, when we came back to win 4-3)

“Following the move to the Stadium of Light, Roker Park was demolished and in its place was built a housing estate. To commemorate Roker Park, the streets were named Promotion Close, Clockstand Close, Goalmouth Close, Midfield Drive, Turnstile Mews and Roker Park Close.” Promotion Close?!? ?