OTF

Need to add another striker to the mix before the window wraps up. None of these recent purchases could be seen as a replacement for missing out on whatsisname to QPR.

Who can tell with you.

Maybe only CT suggesting that. I'd say others are happy that some extra competition may improve Santon who has looked lacklustre in carrying out his defensive duties of late.

Has to be said that I don't think there's many who rate him particularly high for his defensive ability, so to say he's overrated might not be accurate. He does excel at picking the ball up and bringing it out of defense.

Quite possibly true. He was very suspect positionally to begin with, but then seemed to improve. Now it's as though he's a winger getting back to occassionally help up with the defending. As a defender he's excellent at getting forward, but if you wipe off the defending component his end product as a midfielder would be lacking. I think he lacks a bit of agression which is something that helps as a defender, but there's no way I'd write off his ability to become a strong defender at this stage.

Disgusting above. Sammy Ameobi is good valuee on twitter, but hopefully this latest wave of French additions are sufficient to displace him from his position on the bench. Until proven otherwise I'd rather have them there than him.

From everything we've heard positionally and characteristically he's not very similar to Ba, excepting that (in recent times for Gouffran) they both seem to know how to put the ball in the back of the net.

Exactly. An injury to Santon or Debuchy and we'd be back to playing substandard players. Besides that Santon definitely needs some competition as to me it appears he has become complacent with the defending component of his position (which should be the key part).

Here's hoping we can kick them while they are down. Nought to ddo with hurting them, all to do with helping us mind you.

Lovely. Late but still lovely. Let's now hope that the Coloccini business wraps up quickly.

Yes I doubt that no other English clubs would have had an interest. He's playing in France because he carried on like a tit at QPR on multiple occassions and likely fell out with management/the owners.

How would you know that noone came? QPR were willing to pay the most so that's where he went.

Doubt that severely. It's just that QPR were the ones who would pay even more than he was getting here.

Can forsee a post asking if there's a way of having the pages change automatically as pressing the button is too hard.

Completely different circumstances of course, but they previously cut their losses with Barton so I'd not rule it out by any stretch.

The Arsenal rule of fresh legs should ensure that we flog them in the latter stages of the second half. Seriously though, new players through the door ASAP, almost a week to train together then send them out with something to prove.

We've already lost Ba BTW in case you missed it, but for the others Ashley probably looks at it and thinks "Got 50% off on their wages his season" as we plainly should have had these type of signings wrapped in the summer. ...and yeah perhaps they've lined up somewhere for Simpson to go on the cheap before his contract is up.

James Perch FC

And look who's bottom

Or he'd know that coming here, if he's replacing Williamson, the fans are going to absolutely love him. Would know loads about Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Debuchy etc etc. Sure we're in the shit at the minute but the rest of this season is one eighth of a four year contract and you would hope that he'd have the vision to look beyond the immediate dire position.

Think your friend is a little misguided on that last point, he's 6 foot and 80kg (12st 8 - About the weight of Stevie's right thigh or CT's lunch). For a defender he's not particularly big. It doesn't mean he can't make up for it with athelticism and strength though, and it will be a brief welcome relief to havea player come through the door and sign should that actually happen.

The shit that's going on? The 'shit' is a gamble on a thin squad and a group of promising young players, instead of bringing in the requires players earlier. Both have not paid off. Your comment makes no sense.

Our second half performance was so poor that even the forum is going down.

This is going to drive Reading's confidence sky high. How many more must win games can we afford to lose? We're surely now in full crisis mode, with so so many poor decisions having lead us marching headstrong there that it's virtually pointless to point any one of them out as the cause.

Coloccini: "it's just a flesh wound"