rogerbarton

€300k per week?! There are only a few players in the entire world on that kind of money!

Jesus man, did his year six teacher forget to teach him how to use paragraphs? Genuinely impossible to read his pieces.

Shearer's come out and been publically critical of the Kinnear decision. It really wouldn't surprise me if Ashley's ordered it to be renamed. 'The Old Joe'. With Ashley depicted as being so thin skinned, all of this reaction probably really affects him.

It's mad, isn't it? These 8 year contracts were to be a sure sign of stability, we had a formula that we knew could work. It worked for Ashley financially and it was working for the club. I think for that reason alone we all thought Ashley would give the whole team time to get things right. We shouldn't ever be surprised by Ashley though, and basically he's destroyed the whole setup and brought Kinnear in to be the omniscient overseer of the whole club. I just cannot see this ending well.

That's the reason I don't ever bother reading the BBC's online analysis. It's like an A Level History essay without the conclusion.

Ah well, at least it's now confirmed the best we can hope for is avoiding relegation for years on end, barring some miracle. I feel for Pardew and Carr. The only possible positive I can think of is if mad Joe talks Ashley into parting with a bit more cash. Mind you, it'd be for Karl Henry and Paul McShane most likely. Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Carlton Cole came in as this great new striker we need.

What is the point in selling another squad player?! I know he's nowhere near good enough to start every week, but he's not exactly been horrific as a stand in. It seems like they found out Colo was going to stay and we would have four centre backs for the first time in about three years so they acted straight away. We need four centre backs at the highest level. Taylor will be injured for a long period of time next season, that's a given. So now we're relying on Colo and Mapou staying fit. (This is all based on the reasonable assumption he won;t be replaced.)

Colo isn't the type to do a Cabaye and play like his head's not in it. This is a major boost for next season - great news!

I believe we are registering Sissoko, Mbiwa and Haidara so I expect to see a very strong team. We can afford to rotate a little with Anita/Tiote ready to interchange with any of Perch/Sissoko/Cabaye and Jonas/Marv/Obertan/Ben Arfa/Gouffran in the PL vying for the wing roles. We should definitely go out to win this thing, relegation shouldn't be an issue if we actually perform in any reasonable way in the league.

Why's it only unfair on clubs who've already played us twice? Think Colo/Ba - it works both ways.

Thinking about Taylor's threat from set pieces, I think the last time he actually scored was at the back end of the 2010/11 season, twice in quick succession. Although he's spent a fair amount of time since then injured again, he's still played in a decent number of games. Says something about the quality of set pieces in that time.

Presumed he'd be back by now. Never minded Best, even though he clearly had trouble with connecting thought process with what he did with his feet a lot of the time. I certainly think we could do with him now!

Was there a buy back clause in the Leon Best to Blackburn sale?

PS. I have no idea where this Aliadiere business is coming from but I hope to God it isn't true. Would be a completely illogical signing.

Gomis could be a better signing than Remy. And he has better hair. I don't think he'd be well suited to a wing role though.

I'm afraid it does get worse though. Quoting straight from from Crossnan's Twitter: "Alex Ruiz the presenter now throwing club names at #HBA and asking if he'd be interested in them. Brace yourselves...Chelsea? Yes. Arsenal? Yes. Liverpool? Yes. Today those clubs are better than #nufc. But if we sign players we can catch up with them. There was contact with Chelsea and Arsenal last summer but it didn't happen because I wanted to stay at #nufc. I'm still in contact with certain clubs in England today. There's everything you need to be happy in England, even at say QPR or Everton." - that's #HBA picking out 'smaller' clubs BTW - #HBA: "My objective is to stay in England. #PSG is the club of my dreams." Personally I'm not too happy to see our players publically talking about the possibility of joining any other clubs, but to start talking about the likes of Everton or fucking QPR is ridiculous. He might think he's loved at the club but he's clearly very much keeping his options open.

Here's what David Crossnan is saying were Ben Arfa's exact quotes last night: "At the end of the season there'll be talks with the president and the coach, if there's ambition then why not stay? But if there's no ambition then I'd prefer to leave and compete for trophies...However if there's ambition at Newcastle and they sign players, then why not stay? For now what Newcastle are doing is ambitious (in terms of signings). They should have done it earlier and we've spoken about that. There are still a lot of positions in which Newcastle need reinforcements. But the fans there really like French players. They speak a lot about Laurent Robert. I really love Newcastle, it's the only club that's given me this responsibility, this love. I feel really loved by the fans. But I'm abitious and I want to win trophies. I won trophies at Lyon and Marseille. That's why I said if there's no ambition then I'll leave. My best position is number 10. At Newcastle I play on the right but with a lot of freedom. Debuchy will create space for me."

He'd be straight into the first XI at the moment for me.

Shame, 'cos I think he would have fitted in a lot better here than at QPR. He'd work well in a team with Cabaye, Ben Arfa and Cisse and he's the kind of character that the fans here would love. Ah well, money talks and it really is a bloody daft deal from QPR's point of view so it doesn't quite feel as if he's being poached by a rival team. I may not be saying that in May when he scores to send us down and keep them up though...

Step aside, Mario

He doesn't want to leave and he knows that if he plays well he'll be shoved onto the chopper for a megabucks deal to Chelski. I think we'll see him pick up his game when he gets back from the ACN and he's playing with the likes of Cabaye and Ben Arfa back in the side, perhaps with Anita for company as well.

Absolutely no reason why we shouldn't field out strongest XI against Metalist, with the week off in between thanks to our FA Cup exit. I'm hopeful that we should be some way clear of the relegation places by the time we came to a potential last 16 encounter anyway, so I'd like to see us try and win the competition. When are we next going to have a go at a European cup?

I'd love to see Graham come in and offer something a little different up top. Even if/when Remy goes over the line, we're still going to be light up front. As for the man himself, he's as big a Toon fan as we all are from what I've heard so it'd be a no brainer. £4m is a bargain to go a few months outside the Llambias/Ashley blueprint. My one fear is that he could be used as one of Pard's hoofball recipients. At least he'd have a chance of getting onto one of Willo's humps upfield, unlike Cisse.

He must be watching those matches with his head in his hands. At least he's confirmed he's got the decency to help us out of this mess this season, but Ben Arfa really is one of the players we need to try and build this team around.

I say Cabaye. Stevie would injure himself putting the armband on