OTF

Sounds like we played a high line suicide defense, might have been ok in the first when we were controlling the game, but has been fucked in the second. Just imagining that's part of what went wrong. Between Colo and Willo there's no pace, Santon and Simpson are quicker but nothing special in the speed stakes. Kind of glad I'm not watching this now.

Sounds embarrassing. Time for some damage control.

Come on Pardew, make something happen. Yell at someone, insult Jol's massive face, get under their skin, distract them from their game, something.

Sorry guys.

Hope there's no Jekyl and Hyding going on in the second half. A good start will wring the life out of them from the sounds. Annoyed that I'm missing this, will need to wait until friggen Tuesday to watch it as well.

Not watching this game but he's lost some weight and seems to be generally a lot fitter. He's always been decent in possession and had the ability to pick a pass and score a goal. Now that he can keep pace with the game he can start to show off the skills.

Guthrie has been is fantastic form this season. Can't wait to see this strike. Out at the minute.

That's a great bit, awesome delivery.

As long as both Guthrie and Cabaye aren't out I reckon we'll have a decent side out capable of jagging a win, or getting a respectable draw.

Norwich 1 Chelsea 3 Everton 1 Blackburn 0 Fulham 1 Newcastle 1 QPR 1 Wigan 1 Stoke 1 West Brom 0 Sunderland 2 Swansea 0 Wolves 0 Aston Villa 1 Bolton 0 Liverpool 2 Man City 2 Tottenham 1 Arsenal 2 Man Utd 1

This thread needs more (some) boobs.

Furry muff mate, whatever you say. I prefer to mix it up and use it in place of therefore on occassion. If I use thus or hence will your evaluation of me improve?

Haven't read your post completely (on the phone at the minute), but I'd have thought you were beyond the name calling. The way I see it is the Ben Arfa purchase bears absolutely no relation to the sale of Carroll from which the club received 35m. The club said that the 35m from the sale of Andy Carroll would be used to improve the squad. I don't care what the financial implications are regarding the Ben Arfa purchase going through in the same window as the Carroll sale, it (the sale) was made after the purchase of Ben Arfa had been agreed. Ergo, the 35m from Carroll's sale was not used to purchase Hatem, and the promise from the club to reinvest the money came after the sale. The net assessment of the "finances available to the club for transfers" did not include any money accrued from the sale of Andy Carroll, a player who they stated they did not want to sell, and only sold because the price was so high. Based off the slightly ambiguous statements subsequently made by the club the expectation was set that the regratable sale of Carroll had, at the least, provided 35m for the club to reinvest on improving the playing roster. Why don't you go back and include the dealings from the previous transfer window as they fall within the same financial year and would therefore fall within the same set of "finances available to the club for transfers"? Unlike some others on here I have absolutely no problem in being wrong. My opinion is fluid and dynamic and I take on board anything that becomes apparent to me. So far as I can see, in relation to the sale of Andy Carroll I have not been wrong. Time has lessened the expectations of the supporters in relation to the promised funds. In terms of the squad credit has to go to the scouting team for their recent forays into the market. BarrIng a few duds the signings have been superb and we have the strongest first 11 in quite some time. I'm excited about watching us play each week and looking forward to seeing Cisse line up for us. But, at the same time you can understand the skepticism regarding our signings given the amount of absolute duds that have been signed in recent times. We've paid a lot more for a lot less routinely and it's great to see that we're for the most part really getting some value for our pounds.

If he wastes loads of chances and he has scored 37 in 65 games, how many chances are one of the worst sides in the Bundesliga creating for him like?! Even if the mackem has seen this lad's every match his opinion is as flimsy as any football fan's. Aye I thought the same he claims he's watched every game but he was talking as if they were flying high . The second point is key like if this lad was so knowledgeable why are Sunderland not paying him to scout for them, doesn't stop the mackems lapping it up like. I've never seen the lad play myself and the stats, while impressive, guarantee fuck all. But I'm very much looking forward to seeing him play for us and the meltdown over the water over his signing has already paid back some of the fee. Can you imagine a similar reaction by Newcastle fans if he'd gone to Sunderland? What a bunch of fucking idiots. Aye I agree the stats, although good, don't mean he'll be a success. I trust our scout team enough to be excited by this, agreed that their reaction is absolutely mental I posted a link in another thread to them having a thread all about 'let's find targets that knocked them back for us' and included Gardener (I'd never heard us linked to him) and Larsson (who I thought we'd give up on when Birmingham pulled the deal the window before). Either way I don't understand why that matters to them I guess they're back to looking for other things to pick at us over as the few year blip of them finishing above us is (hopefully) over. We agreed terms with Birmingham for Larsson AFAIK but it broke down due to him wanting too much in wages. Glad we didn't pay overs for him. He's not bad, but he's not particularly good either. He wanted to cash in on the fact that he was available cheaply by securing himself a higher wage, I guess that's now being paid by Sunderland. Edito maximo - Apparently Birmingham pulled the plug on the Larsson deal?

Credit where it is due, Williamson has come back from injury and slotted straight into the side with some very solid performances. I have no doubt that were he available against Norwich we would have won that game. If he played against West Brom and our tactics were changed (ie. no high line) we'd have improved our chances ten fold there.

More important for me is the ability to trust the powers that be. The powers that be who stated that the money (35m) from the Andy Carroll sale would be spent on improving the squad. I'd have less of an issue if they could be honest and upfront with their intentions. Some of the purchases have been wonderful, but I'd enjoy them even more if I could do away with the nagging feeling that the better our players perform the more likely our owners are to cash in on them.

35m in Ben Arfa 5.75m Agent's fee's 7m Cisse 9m? Obertan 3m Cabaye - Nolan 2m 7% increase in wage bil - 4m 5m unaccounted for. That's if you choose to believe the amounts and figures provided by an owner and board who have admitted to lying and misleading the supporters, media etc. Good luck to you if you do. Ben Arfa cannot be feasibly counted towards the costs, regardless of what you attempt to argue when using your criteria because the board have said that the approach for Carroll came at the 11th hour, well after the fee and terms had been agreed for Ben Arfa. So you can't pick and choose when you want to believe what the board have said. Where did you get the agent fees of 7 million from? I don't think I've seen that figure mentioned previously. Why have you included Nolan's departure, but not Enrique's, or Routledge's? And where's the allowance for the freeing up of Barton's wages? Taking the clubs word it's more likely this: + 35m Carroll - 4.3m Cabaye + 4m Nolan + 2m Routledge - 3m Obertan + 6m (+2m) Enrique - 7m agent's fees - 4m mythical wage increase - 5m Santon - 9m Cisse -0.0003m table tennis table Profit 14.6997m I think for the most part the players who have been bought are very good, but let's not forget that the transfer window is not yet closed.

A few weeks before he departs on his next injury break from all accounts.

Hopefully this signing will result in our current available forwards stepping it up a notch to try to improve their position in the pecking order. Some care from Shola would be nice. Lovelyhands will be possibly be a little upset, though I think his contract is up at the end of the season anyway. I don't care how poor Best appears to be, as long as he can keep scoring at a decent rate until the incumbents return. I'll admit to being quite surprised at how well things have worked out in terms of the playing roster that has been assembled here, likely on lower wages, with a younger average age.

If it helped to get the deal acorss the line.... why not? Can't see him being worse/less consistent than Martins.

If signed it should be a very good piece of business, looking forward to seeing him play. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing fans to be exstatic when 7.5M out of a promised 35M was spent.

Unfortunately more along the lines of - "Wow, this is easier than it looks! Lets sell some off and we'll still survive comfortably!"

Lovenkrands is injured I think.

Best speciality there. Well scored and good lead up play.

A win of any description will be good. I'd like to see a clean sheet.