Howay

Seen him play a few times in the Bundesliga. Still think Ba is a slighly better instinctive finisher, but Cisse has quicker movement (and pace) and more 'shit your pants' for opp defences. Very good player. Very good. Not erratic either like some African imports. He's a bit like Demba in that he seem confident and 'happy go lucky'. When these two play together some sides are gonna get caned at SJP....And not gentle like last time. Look forward to the two Demba's ripping O'shea and Brown a new one in SJP!

Because its a relegation clause. Aye this is what I reckon it is in all, it seems he likes to include a relegation release clause and Ashley wouldn't have let him go for free if we went down so made sure there was a sum attached.

Very encouraging that he put Ben Arfa in with Cabaye and Demba!

Good post this, exactly what I was saying to my mate in all. I think Mike is a gambler and has seen the great start we've had and the position we're in, particularly with the poor form of Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, now he's seeing a good shot at a European spot with improvements to the team and he's pulled the trigger. We've got a talented young side capable of scoring against anyone as well as closing games out (Man Utd away was a defensive masterclass), I'll always be a bit wary of Mike as you and I have both (I'm sure others have too) stated that no one knows this blokes aims and goals for the club and that will always make people wary of his intentions. IF we sign Aly Cissokho (I don't think we will) our first 11 would be - Krul, Santon, Taylor (ana), Colo, Cissokho, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas, Cisse, Ba, without injuries that's a top 6 side imo I honestly believe that side on paper is better than Liverpool's. We lose out to the 'top' sides because of our depth but again this is the gambler side in Ashley wanting to hit the highs without having much besides youth as cover, which allows us to have a good first 11 and then have back-ups that wont cost much as opposed to say Chelsea who's back-ups are on more money than our 1st teamers. I'm not 'won over' by Ashley but, this is where I apologise to lads like Chez, the guy has been ruthless and smart in his transfer movements recently. I was worried when we lost Enrique, Barton and Nolan (I now don't blame him after hearing all the articles about how they were trying to basically run the team and demand things) but he had no choice with Enrique and to be honest with hindsight the Carroll deal was genius, the team we have now would embarrass the team we had in our 1st season up and whether he's looking to 'cash in' or not doesn't matter if we keep bringing in these very good transfers (I know it's tough to keep finding the Tiote's but he's done it so far which one of us when Enrique went for £5m thought he'd take the £5m and get a player who really isn't too far behind him). It's good to see the team 'buying smart' for instance as much of a wankfest the scousers have over Suarez we have brought in Cisse, Ba, Cabaye, Tiote and Santon for around the same £23m fee (not to mention the comparison we could make with Carroll ). Now I'm still in the camp of sceptics with Ant and Stevie that I worry about this blokes actual intentions but as we keep progressing I'm more and more at ease, we've all said we needed a striker before Carroll went and when he left we wanted two, now we've got two (who,like Stevie says, are a big improvement on Carroll) aye it took a year to get them both but this is Businessman Ashley not wanting to pay over the odds and he's bided his time and when the players his staff have told him they want have come available at a good price he's pulled the trigger. Overall we maybe have 'rode out luck' at times and got lucky with situations (i.e. Ba's release clause from West Ham and Freiburg capitulating) but it's what you need sometimes, it's obvious he trusts Pardew more than any manager we've had under him previously which can only be a good thing. As Alex mentioned earlier the guy has obviously learnt and changed tact from when we had the Wise etc debacles and if the Dekka quotes from a few day ago are true about how they see the Wise, Vetre etc appointments as massive mistakes this is further progress tbh. Sorry for the mental post but it's good to finally be able to look a bit more positively at things (not in your camp just yet CT but I'm more understanding) and be excited for our future once again as it's been quite a while since I was. (p.s this whole post is null and void if we sell Tiote and Colo as the window shuts )

Gerrin, chuffed about this like.

what? I don't understand how this is confusing people, he's actually at the training ground and we've agreed a fee of around £10m it doesn't matter 'what he's worth'.

poor lads, 12 threads on their first page relating to us in some way I just sent one into overdrive on facebook when I told him Gyan has a similar strike rate at Sunderland to Best's Newcastle record.

Tbh they can all fuck off, they were wanking like mad when they signed Gyan and his strike rate isn't even comparable to this lads. If we get this lad on board and keep all our players we're a good team, I'll be watching Senegal's match to see how the two of them link up.

Post of the decade that, sums them lot up brilliantly. Can just see him fully clothed in the fetal position in his shower muttering how he just wants to be better than us. They're all convinced he's shit because this mug's piped up now, the lad's scored 9 in 14 this season for the 18th placed team in Germany, he can't have missed that many chances man Also the German league is probably the closest to ours in terms of physicality and the lad looks canny well built and is at least 6' tall. I'm fairly confident our scouting team know more than this idiot but the mackems seem to be lapping his shit up.

He's flown from Africa to meet us and he's probably had Ba in his ear for the past week, no chance we'll lose him now that'd be like turning down Man utd for Oldham.

Cheer up. Look on the positive side, if something it happens, it happens. No point worrying about speculation in your mind. Aye agreed fuck the negativity for once, the fact is we've signed a very good player for £10m and at this moment haven't sold anyone we can moan if they sell but at the minute lets be happy. None of us are sure of this blokes intentions many, myself included, see him as a bloke who just wants to get money from us but let's be honest nolan and Barton were being cunts, carroll money was mental and Enrique wasn't signing a new deal. Still very unsure of the man but at the moment I'm on cloud 9, speaking of which I wonder if Cisse is getting number 9.

Very interested to watch Senegal now and see how the two Demba's link up!

Very exciting this if it comes off, good strike rate in what is (imo) a very competitive league. Him and Ba getting supplied by Ben Arfa and Cabaye would be something to watch like.

Aye Ryder's a fucking mug, we'd have some defence if this come off but like you and Ant have said it does have a Gervinho feel about it.

That'll explain it, it did seem extremely odd for someone to be so into a very average player.

I'm not sure what's stranger, the fact a woman would want to try and look like Best or that Best is some (I'm assuming) yanks 'favorite ever player'.

http://www.newcastleunited.us/2012/01/ben-arfa-spills-on-very-difficult-situation-at-newcastle.html

probably trying to make him half his wages.

Are Monaco not shite now? near the bottom of ligue 2, maybe a youth player?

the groans is because it's Perch and he's famous for being a liability (the last couple of games aside) not because of the tactics being employed, "Well Played Alan, what do we know " Aye well played, lucky you were forced into dropping that long ball tactic that had us under pressure until cabaye got crippled. Aye, Perch is a player you're hoping doesn't do something to fuck things up for us as opposed to being mildly comfortable with him coming on. We had Gosling and Abeid both on the bench I think another reason people were groaning is because if we're going to put someone on simply to shore up the midfield/put on some fresh legs we'd all rather see some young talent get a few minutes of experience as opposed to a well known clogger running about. I admit he did nowt wrong but I really don't feel Gosling or Abeid would have put a foot wrong either and they've got more of a future here than Perch. I was told by someone that was at the match that Pardew was going to put Gosling on when Cabaye was hurt but the crowd in the dugout area went wild and started chanting for Ben Arfa, can anyone confirm/deny that?

He HAS to start him now, if he doesn't then I'd really start to doubt if he'll ever make him a starter.

Is Dempsey going to miss this one? hope they have low confidence after being embarrassed by 10 man Blackburn rather than raring to prove themselves.

Olly Bernard look-a-like for Swansea!

Aye sadly, Redknapp just stated Henry was better than Shearer and Carragher is one of the best defenders the premierships ever seen.

We're in the big 7 now.