OTF

He has a good scoring record across his relatively short career. He was more or less talked into being out of form in the latter part of the season. He does appear to have hot and cold periods though, early on here he looked very poor. Towards the end of the year he was very good at holding the ball up. Scoring wise he came close on a lot of occassions, the difference being good keeping or a few inches. The mounting pressure on him to score is where we saw some of his very few poor performances where he took the wrong option trying to score speculators from distance instead of making the pass. IMO certainly makes sense for us to keep him at least the rest of this season.

Ba has just turned 27. In his time with us he has shown absolutely no signs of having any injury issues. In theory he cost us nothing, in practise that figure is 3-4M. In practise then selling him for 7M would have turned a profit of 3-4 million, or slightly more than we got for Best who was frequently injured for us and is now injured and out for months. So for 3-4 we would need to replace a goal scorer with a proven record across multiple leagues and teams who put us in the position to kick on and have an excellent season in the first half of the year by scoring more than a dozen goals.

Because they could have had him for free 12 months ago.

Down to what? £3mil?

Not odd if they didn't actually want him and just want to make it look like they are willing to spend to their supporters?

Worse than the 19M would be the wages that he would expect. I don't think you can force a player to go out on loan, so if he ultimately doesn't want to go to West Ham then they won't be able to send him and he'll stay at Liverpool. They could try to force him out by not playing him but that would surely just lower his price on the market. Ultimately I wouldn't want him to go to West Ham because I think that he will make them a vastly superior side compared to what they are now. Price wise it's crazy that West Ham aren't scoffing at the asking price AND the wages.

Have seen him play in 5 or 6 games. Not a lot granted, but it's the seeds that were planted in those games. Despite what I've said I've not entirely written him off, as as you've noted he has not has a consistent run of games and that could really improve his decision making. I think in our side though that type of player could be a bit of a luxury as he's not a good tackler and doesn't appear to have a great engine. Happy for him to show otherwise.

Dawson is shite, Cisse and Ba should be able to exploit that if there's space around.

They're a top side, let's have no confusion about that. This is no easy game. A win would be fantastic but I wouldn't be overly disappointed with a draw as long as we play our own game.

Talented for certain, but his demeanour, professionalism and focus look like being his biggest stumbling blocks. The price he went to Liverpool for, couplded with the fact that he was injured at the time heaped too much pressure on him. As others have said the move he makes next will be a telling one in his career. If he was serious about football he could well make West Ham work for him as they would be willing to build their attack around him which would give him ample opportunity to re-prove himself, but all said and done I don't think he'll go there and will end up still at Liverpool at the end of the window.

It's definitely the first time in a long time that we've had such a plethora of talented players who look like they could have an impact at the top level. Disappointingly, since he had such a bright start and received glowing praise, has been the development of Vuckic. He's big and he can hit a ball, but he's clumsy, is horribly slow to get moving and most worryingly seems to take far too long to make decisions and even then gets them wrong a fair bit. Because of this I'm not setting my hopes too high for any of our other young players. I'm sure they're all chomping at the bit to get out there and prove themselves but short of injuries, cup runs or a selling spree I think they'll be at most bit players through this season. That's fine if it means that our superior first team are out on the pitch, because as yet none of these youngsters have done enough to unseat any of our first eleven.

Hopefully then they've agreed a fee and it's all pending personal terms and a medical. Certainly not holding my breath.

Shame the Brown Ale logo is the only thing decent on the entire shirt. The Spurs one look like a 60s lamp shade.

...and 'update' as opposed to 'news'. Update indicates that the saga will continue, news would have at least hinted that there was an end. Camping this one for the time being.

It won't hurt Spanish football too badly I would say. If the same happened in English football there would be a much greater impact simply because of the volume of foreign players in the league for money. Spain has so much national depth at the moment and that looks as though it will continue for years to come with them dominating the world stage in youth completion as well.

Wish this saga would come to a positive end already...

One can only imagine that they've more of less decided to keep him. This is the first leg of qualifier for them, and they drew at home 1-1, so there is a chance that they may not qualify. If they don't then maybe they'll chnage their mind on Douglas. Either way you'd hope that we'll be moving on to other targets. Even if Twente were knowcked out we wouldn;t be able to use him until the group stages. And the actual rule itself: 18.07 As a rule, a player may not play in a UEFA club competition (i.e. UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, but not UEFA Super Cup) for more than one club in the course of the same season. Exceptionally, however, a player who has been fielded in the first, second or third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League is entitled to play in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League for another club as from the group stage, provided that his former club did not qualify for the group stage of either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League; moreover, as from the start of the round of 32 (round of 16 for UEFA Champions League), a player can be registered in accordance with paragraphs 18.18 to 18.21 below. A substitute player who has not been fielded is entitled to play for another club competing in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League in the course of the same season, provided that he is registered with the UEFA administration in accordance with the present regulations.

They're quite small. Get a large unless you have short arms.

The back is shite and equates to having to get a name and number for it to not look crap. That and the collar aside it's decent looking, though still no need for the spikes/paling effect.

Well said. Hope Ferdinand doesn't cop any vitriol over this. The outcome will already ensure that anyone else who is the target of racial abuse will be reluctant to come forward.

Equality. First OJ, now Terry.

CT not even a lightning charged deloreon could take you to an alternate past where you're a good judge of player's readiness for the first team.

IMO at 10 million he'd be good value. But not for us.

He can score goals and runs good lines. Isn't finished, will be handy.

Some amazing stuff comes out of America, some absolute shit as well. Tis a good place to holiday not sure I'd want to live there.