Monroe Transfer

Love a bit of rage.

They've also had their strikers out injured for long periods, to be fair. At least they've got more than decent options up front, regardless of whether they've been injured or not. I wouldn't say no to Johnson, Zamora and Dembele.

Time for Shearer to return tbh.

I see what you did there.

We are going to crawl over the finish line, as it were.

Now that's just being petty and cynical.

2 months!? You couldn't make this up.

Not sure why anyone would want to watch that. I'll be avoiding Liverpool games in the future just so I don't have to see him wearing that horrible red shirt. I'm as bitter as I was when Ferdinand (and Ginola) left to go to Spurs. I've hated Spurs ever since even though they didn't do anything wrong as such.

I agree with all of those apart from Keane who had some stupid demands for going to other clubs. Only West 'ammmm were stupid enough to pay it! keane scores goals man, unlike our current crop of fit strikers. Keane + OTT wage = goals goals > no goals no goals = relegation Something like that. I'm basically saying I'd rather pay over the odds for someone even if it's just their wages, if it guaranteed goals and stability. Any of those strikers would have strengthened us significantly. In fact we should have been in for 2 of them on loan, as I believe PL clubs are allowed to borrow a maximum of 2 players from other PL clubs.

It's the missed opportunity in regards to loan strikers that annoys me the most at the moment. Vela, Keane, Martins, Sturridge etc all would have improved us. Instead they've gone to clubs around us who already had a better strikeforce.

I see this mythical figure being constantly referred to as enough to stay up. Now firstly I'm not sure that that's the case - didn't West Ham go down one season after passing the 40 point barrier? My main worry is that the sides below us are capable of picking up points. Sides like West Ham for example have strengthened signifcantly by bringing in players like Keane. Picking up 10 points with 14 points to go should be doable, don't get me wrong. I just think it might not be as simple as that. We're looking behind us now.

I own, and am very happy with, an Acer 5XXX series laptop that I got late last year. Well built, quiet, not too heavy, decent components, and good value for money at around £600. What's more, I got it from Acer Direct who I believe are Laptops Direct's Acer-only outlet. Again can't fault the service.

Again, this. Can't understand why all the blame gets leveled at him. I get the impression some people don't like him because of his attitude or style off the pitch, or stuff like this - Leon Best is older and was probably even worse last night, as Pardew pointed out funnily enough (not sure doing that in public was a great idea).

Does 40 points guarantee safety or something? Is that just the mythical line you need to cross to stay up or has someone done the maths and worked out it would be enough?

Agreed that there are others more deserving of scathing criticism who seem to avoid it more than the likes of Ranger.

Going to quote NUFC.com here. Sums it up perfectly. On the evidence of tonight, we're completely fucked.

I don't think our record since Carroll got injured shows that we have enough to be honest. It's all about form and that was some good form. Good form isn't permanent and 6 points isn't much at all. The sides below us are all capable of picking up points - there is no Portsmouth, Burnley or Derby this season who look destined for the drop. We lose a few matches and we're in serious trouble, and if it's anything like the last time this happened we'll do well to recover. Relying on our forward line as it is - and goalscorers from midfield like Nolan - is potential suicide. Several strikers went out on loan to clubs during the window. Any one of them would have improved us significantly and we should have been in for them regardless of whether Carroll was fit or still our player.

At 29 he is young enough to adapt to his new role.

Didn't we ask this exact question the season we actually did go down?

Ranger puts himself about a lot but is not good enough when it comes to finishing. To be fair, as Tyler said he is very raw. At 19 he can still improve.

Cringing at CT here. I'll make a compromise with you, you get a dose of realism, and I'll also start hailing Shane Ferguson as our saviour.

Oh fuck right off.

Can't blame Pardew for toeing the party line.

Ben Arfa, Gosling, Ireland. What good is their creative play when you've got such a poor forward line to create chances (chances, not goals, I imagine) for? Time to convert Nolan into a CF.

Thought about this the other day but didn't post it. We all said we needed more strike options before the window even opened. We brought in no-one and got rid of 2 more strikers. Incredible! What make this even more ridiculous is that Pardew himself thought the same thing. Then we had the West Ham 5-0 and suddenly Pardew is making noises about how "Nile, Peter, Shola and Besty" might have changed his mind about us needing another striker. To further reinforce this - and I've said this so much that I don't want to sound like a broken record - a second goal at the SOL and against Spurs would have almost certainly netted us all 3 points in both games. Games I might add that a midfielder and a defender respectively scored in, not a striker. Best is suddenly adequate because he put 3 past a woeful West Ham defence. Ranger is far too raw to be thrown in the deep end like this and Lovenkrands isn't an out and out striker. You couldn't make this up. It was as clear as day that this transfer window was massively important for us, and we've somehow managed to come out of it even weaker. Just about every other club around has strengthened significantly. An injured, mentally troubled midfielder is all we have to show for it. Ireland's position is not even one we're struggling with, although if his presence keeps Guthrie out of the team then that can only be a good thing.