OTF

A good signing from all accounts.

The six years has little to do with how long they'll be at the club. I'm almost certain that all such signings have effective buy-out clauses that allow them to leave to champions league sides. Anyway, looking forward to him playing for us.

See you in NZ hopefully Remy.

The state of this thread...

In every way it's a shame that I've had the enthusiasm and positivity strangled out of me under the ownership of Ashley or else I'd be embracing these signings with optimism. I will hopefully at least get to see some of them play in the club's Wellington trial match.

Guthrie did have some very good games, and was capable of some great strikes. Lacked pace and often conditioning as well. I thought he would do better than he has at Reading, but then I've not really followed his progress there closely. Had off field problems first season there seems to have played more last year. I'm looking forward to see what Colback can offer. I'm hoping he's somewhat similar to Barton minus the douche baggery (both on.and.off the field).

Can you imagine the quality of that conversation... (no offense Ryan).

Where'd he park his horse?

Where was this said?

I quite like this self referential humour.

They're both at the pinnacle in terms of the quality but I think Broadway has more diversity of content. I'm hardly an authority though. Quality of the source material is generally enough for me - I saw an amateur production of Spamalot a few weeks back and once again loved it.

Also, I preferred the view from Rockefeller over the Empire State as you get a good view of Central Park and the Empire State from it. Will have lesser crowds and you can normally get discounted tickets. It also doesn't feel like you're close to the edge anywhere despite the great views so even with your fear of heights you may be ok.

Twice to New York and both times didn't wait for the ferry. This first time we vowed we would do it for sure the next time. The next time it was the middle of a heat wave and I pulled the plug after 10 minutes in the queue just to buy tickets. I was dripping sweat just standing still in direct sunlight. There was a similar lack of protection in the queue to get on the ferry. We ended up walking up to the Brooklyn Bridge instead and crossing that (we should have taken the subway there given the temp). The makeshift vendors selling iced water part way across were a god send. So, if you're going to go to Ellis island book your tickets in advance to at least save that queue. Also if you're at all into theatre etc then see as much as you can whilst you're there. It's the pinnacle of theatre and there's so much variety that you'll find something for just about every taste. I'd be seeing Book of Mormon there as a priority.

At the end of the day does it matter how much he goes for? It's not as though it will make any difference to the availability of funds for transfers.

Think he wants too much time on the ball to cut it in the premier league, but as you say with the depth of squad we don't have better in than out.

May explain how we managed to sign him (and Cabaye). We all know the long contracts are to inflate their value/protect the club from missing out on sizeable transfer fees. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that they were guaranteed the right to negotiate an exit if the price was right.

And to be fair to us, he's on contract until 2018. So if it wasn't all about coin we'd not even need to entertain the idea of selling him for a few seasons yet.

Welcome to?... where have you been the last 10 years....

Am I mad for actually wanting to see MBiwa given a consistent run in the side at CB? Santon is such a downgrade on Debuchy it's not funny. As much as I want to like the guy across the last season it seemed like he really wasn't interested in defending or generally playing football. Possibly complacency from very little competition to get into the side, may have enjoyed frequently being subbed to avoid being part of our abject performances.

Was out injured most of last season. Apart from the injury concerns what worries me most is that he doesn't have a fixed position in which he excels.

Some undeniably quality technique on display in that video. A little odd to sign the brother of a player who you just had on a pretty miserable loan where the option to buy was rightly not exercised. Scores quite a lot of goals from midfield, but in a highly dominant team in an overall average league he'll need to prove himself in this league. With the players we have he should get a good chance to do just that.

Just got an Xperia Z2 and they have a Sony podcast app which seems ok. Pretty crappy for Google not to have one.

"We can confirm, with utmost sincerity, that Steven Taylor is ever more of a bellend than apparent through his on field demeanour. He showed the promise of an exciting prospect in each of his eleven seasons with the club and his father continues to believe that he will one day form the heart of England's defense."

Good to see we've wrapped up all out incoming transfers prior to the World Cup.

Belgium are interesting, and then... Iran. Iran... so far away.. and Iran so clearly night and day not who I wanted.