colinh9

Let me tell you though, I'm just pleased to have had that 45 minutes of pleasurable football under our belts. Been a while since I've smiled and clapped so much watching our match.

Agree on that

Gouffran by the way has been the 2nd best player on the pitch behind Cabaye for us. Omnipresent, causing trouble, playing smart football. Pleasure to watch

French taxes are mental, maybe he made an agreement where 100% of the wages would go to charity and they wouldn't touch his endorsements

It's a good point, absolutely mental that when you think about it.

Cabaye is a player of the utmost quality. I've literally been laughing at some of the stuff he's done. World class and we are a totally different team with him in the first XI. Cisse should have 2 by now, really. And the much-maligned (by me) Jonas with a great finish. Fantastic first 45. Hope Ba is alright- that was some nasty shit- at least a concussion I'm sure

Fair

N'Gog? FFS

There are people out there genuinely bothered by that and it's staggering. Not a single English player on this squad that is indespensible. And frankly, not a single one out there that has the value we are looking for either. Ashleys business model makes sense- but more money should be spent because it would make sense in the long run. I think he is starting to realize that with this window but I've thought that before and won't hold my breath

Don't see why anyone would have a problem signing a 20 year old LB for 2-3 million pounds, whether he is ready now or in a few years. That's exactly what we should be doing- these young players who create competition immediately on otehrwise comfortable starters (Santon). No reason this kid can't get a game ahead of Santon who is in awful form the last 2-3 months. Only issue is if that's the ONLY signing we make as we obviously need others. But we need increased competition, and I'd love to sign Haidara.

Why all the struggles this season?

Only loss is Simmo and it's not that big of a loss if they get a replacement (actually two outside backs needed). But they won't. Getting Xisco's wages off the books is a good thing

YEAH BUT LOYALTY GUIZZZZ

Yep- instant success demanded. It's a tough culture for managers and players and patience is rarely provided. That's why for me, investment is a long term thing. Though Tiote looks worse now than he did when he first signed!

It really is Agree with all of this really. We really need some sort of momentum as well. I doubt it's a coincidence that our two irreplacable players have picked up "slight knocks" for this one.

We'd be better off playing Papiss Cisse at CB than bringing in Ben-Haim. Fucking hell what a shit player

Try to avoid the discussion about the clause in hindsight simply because how can we know what the negotiations were like? 7 million to Ashley might have seemed like decent profit on a free transfer so they didn't put up much of a fight....or it could have been something they fought to push UP to 7 million from a lower fee....who knows? Of course Demba negotiated the contract to his advantage (or his agents did, however you want to look at it) You don't think Mike Ashley negotiated it to his advantage? We could have tried to tie him up on a 4 year contract and given him higher wages/no release clause...but what sense would that make with a guy that has a dodgy knee? Hindsight is always 20/20 friends. Even with all the things I've said a few pages back- I can't possibly know what they offered in a new contract or when they did it- but I do know we can expect players to leave if we don't show intent. Intent now is signing a striker and CB. When you look back on it- Demba was one of the best signings we've had in a long time. Sure it was only 18 months but what a great job he did in that period and all on a free transfer. Sure there were agent fees and the like- but even when you spend 10 million on a player there are agent fees and wages to deal with.

Ehhh, 5 minute appearances are going to convince someone to buy him? Maybe it's just a reminder to the rest of the world that he still exists?

Why don't we go one further and ask him what tactics would have worked with this bare squad Pardew has to deal with? There were literally matches where NONE of the plaers on the bench deserved to be on the bench, let alone in the first team. Sacking Pardew calls are absolutely laughable

Ugh Does not sound promising to me

Ranger seeing action is all you need to know about the current state of affairs.

Yeah, this all goes into it as well. My last few posts are taking a look at the larger picture- but honestly as much as I'm disappointed in the Demba Ba situation I get it from both ends of the spectrum. I just wish we already HAD another striker and were looking for another. Not behind the 8 ball and totally fucked

Yeah, to a certain extent that's true. I'd certainly love to be making that money and think I'd invest/save wisely- but it's difficult given the culture surrounding professional athletes. They should save- but I also don't begrudge them trying to make as much money as possible in a short career. Most of us are in the early part of our careers at 27. He's looking at the back-end of it. It's not an easy call on whether to break the bank to pay him, or to break a wage structure. I think it's intelligent to keep that in place and you have to be reasonable, no matter how important the player is. However, the club could have invested over the summer- showed Ba some intent and offered him a new contract. If he didn't accept it, all well and good- they did their best....but they didn't invest and I have no hard feelings against Demba Ba whatsoever. Nobody is expecting us to compete against Manchester City for players or for titles at this point. Our objective has to be long-term goals. Incremental improvements. There will absolutely be blips along the way, bad runs etc. I don't expect to be in the Champions League overnight. However, I do think it makes good business sense to put investment into the first-team. 10-15 million would have easily been doable for Mike Ashley this summer. We could have gotten 3-4 more quality/young players in to challenge for places where we are sorely lacking. RB/LB, CB, AM/winger (least of the prority), Striker. And there were areas to try to improve- possibly moving on Jonas or Simpson in the off-season. Anyway, I'm getting off topic- but the point is that even 5 million of investment would have been better than -3 million. Also, we are going to lose players to the big boys- these things are going to happen. What we need to avoid is losing 5-6 players in our first-team because of massive dip in form/squad. Cabaye may eventually get a 20 million pound bid from Manchester United- we have to accept that. Just a matter of the way things are set up. That's fine- because that will allow us to go out and buy 3-4 more players and improve the overall squad. It will be a loss, but one we can actually improve upon. But if you are moving backwards as a club, you start to lose everything. Potentially Cisse, Ben Arfa, Tiote (eh I'd be fine if he left), Colo, Krul etc want to leave if they don't see ambition. If the club shows a long-term plan- invests properly etc- it will get better and better aside from those minor blips.

Just lazy journalism probably.

Right then, I only believe we are going to sign someone when it's completed. Absolutely expecting them to say we had our targers but they didn't come through, same excuse as every other window... I don't have fears that this squad, when healthy, is good enough to be top ten. However, I do have fears that when you play midweek games and have a very thin squad, you end up on the wrong side of the table. This has happened to a million teams who "overachieved" and got into Europe. That's why I say/said investment was crucial. This club shouldn't even be in the relegation discussion at this point