Chaser

its not the money that bugs me, infact its nice to see MA putting his hand in his pockets, its the fact that deportivo have hung us out to dry a second time by bumping the price at the last second - wankers Yeh well I suppose Deportivo are a bunch of sods and they normally are but who can blame them when they are dealing with an English club when they see the way some Premier League teams spend? I suppose it's a signal of intention to spend £10m on a defender too. He can play all across the defence IIRC and recently we haven't been doing too well on that front true and I pray to god that this fella is good and not another boumsong Same here! thirded! Thank God we've finally signed him though, was getting sick of not seeing any updates

FT

I don't doubt that one more striker would benefit the squad, but then I'm an advocate of strength in depth. I just don't see a striker as our priority. There's no point in buying a back up striker when we're lacking a starting creative midfielder. Knowing how injury prone Owen & Viduka are though, that leaves just Oba up front with the possibility of Smith supporting him in attack. Owens clearly a starter when fit as is Oba but I would say any other place is up for grabs and particularly when one is so injury prone there has to be a reasonable replacement so stand in/threaten a starting place. You're basing the need for a striker on "what if we lose x & y", I'm saying an AMC (forgive the FM parlance) is our first and most pressing priority because we haven't got anyone at all. There is nobody ahead in the queue for the new lad, we desperately need an AMC, otherwise there's no point in having strikers at all. We're not going to create enough chances for the three of them anyway. I agree, first and foremost something creative has to come from Centre Midfield, but im saying that nights like tonight highlight how "light" we are upfront. Amoeba should be below Carroll in the pecking order.

We can hope

I don't doubt that one more striker would benefit the squad, but then I'm an advocate of strength in depth. I just don't see a striker as our priority. There's no point in buying a back up striker when we're lacking a starting creative midfielder. Knowing how injury prone Owen & Viduka are though, that leaves just Oba up front with the possibility of Smith supporting him in attack. Owens clearly a starter when fit as is Oba but I would say any other place is up for grabs and particularly when one is so injury prone there has to be a reasonable replacement so stand in/threaten a starting place.

2-2 Enrique put it back into the area.

Thats just it though, we bought Vids & Smith last year in the belief that having 4 quality strikers at the club would serve us well however Smith hasnt scored for us and Viduka was playing a deeper role last season along with Owen. Personally if we could get 1 more striker in and get shot of Smith & Ameobi, I think we would be better served, as we could then call upon the attacking midfielders to provide support rather than to have them both up front.

4-4-2. Duff and Milner up front. Fuckinghell talking about clutching at straws. If there was ever a clear indication that we desperately need strikers. If the first 3 are crocked and the 2nd 2 who masquerade as Strikers arent fit or arent picked, then we opt for 2 wingers up top. fucking hell man rob if 5 players from two positions aren't fit from any squad you'd probably find a lack of decent cover. If Man U lost there first five strikers, who're they left with? Rooney, Tevez, Saha... then who? Same for Arsenal, same for Liverpool. Calm down man. I wouldnt be saying it if we had 5 Strikers though Fish, the fact of the matter is we have 3 and 2 others that couldnt hit a fucking barn door with their backside.

Thanks Ta. On the point of Milner, I always thought he'd be better linking the midfield and frontmen personally, as it doesnt take pace, just an ability to pick out a pass and see an attacking option

any chance of a PM before we start the 2nd half?

4-4-2. Duff and Milner up front. Fuckinghell talking about clutching at straws. If there was ever a clear indication that we desperately need strikers. If the first 3 are crocked and the 2nd 2 who masquerade as Strikers arent fit or arent picked, then we opt for 2 wingers up top.

Who's up front?! 4-5-1? Any chance of a PM Gents?

Wouldnt anyone fancy a punt on Saha? I know its old boys club with Keano, but Saha's played here before and he's still a canny player. Him and Smudge could play up front again

5-3? We can only dream of scoring that many goals..

Shola without a shadow of a doubt. I have always said on here that I backed Shola, season after season and gave him his last opportunity once Shearer retired. He was always woeful alongside Shearer but did manage a few goals once partnered with a quicker striker. Since then though, he has failed to make any impression and now looks even worse than he did a few years back. He is probably worried about the Michael Bridges or Paul Robinson scenario of falling down the league however if he has that little faith about his own ability, he should do the decent thing as a Newcastle fan and disappear. Smith on the other hand disappoints massively. He was genuinely a decent player whilst at Leeds and I disagree about the better players ideology; he was an integral part of the team during the O'Leary years. It was disappointing seeing him go to Man Utd as I was surprised being such a big Leeds fan that he would step across to the dark side. Im not sure what Ferguson saw in him to play him in Midfield but I have quite a few Utd mates and they always rated Smith and said he would do well coming here. Sadly I dont know what has happened but he looks a shadow of his former ability. Id like to keep on giving him chances but when its so blindingly obvious that he's not anywhere near to scoring, you cant put a chance on him. I'd be interested to see how he fares in training to see if he is producing it there because if he trains like he plays, he shouldnt be anywhere near the first team. As far as the others go, we'll get little for Cacapa, Geremi or Vids so would therefore keep them until their contracts expire, unless theyre not performing by January and a daft offer comes in.

Bassong was head and shoulders above anyone else purely because he did what was asked of him. Because of the lack of fans, you could clearly hear Geremi shouting orders at everyone which explains why Keegan gave him the armband. I hadnt seen Smith finish a full 90 for some time and on the back of that, it really is embarrassing to see him play up front. On the basis that we've signed Collocini, I think we're still 2 players short for going into the new season. We really need another midfielder and ideally a striker who can be called upon to score goals. Smith & Ameobi should be sold off to the highest bidder which means we'll probably generate about £3m from them together if we're lucky.

I agree that defence might just be our strongest and most competitive position if Collocini signs. Midfield and up front pretty much pick themselves at the moment which leaves us wide open to the tacticians in the league. Why is Smith not scoring goals? We all know that Stroller should have gone years ago and it seems crazy that someone in the Championship isnt prepared to take him on (When you look at how good Ade Akinbiyi was once he dropped down) and we can get him off the wage bill. The guy is deluded if he thinks he is worth a place in the team. How about Carroll up front? Where are all the young promising British based players? Whats worrying is that we are still lighter on numbers than what we were last year. Granted some that left were just fringe players but if injuries bite hard we'll struggle again, particularly with the likes of Owen out.

If we could only get rid of Shola or Smith (Both if possible) and sign 1 striker worth his money that would be better than 2 who cant score goals. I would definitely look towards Bullard as an option. We know that Spurs like to sell strikers so couldnt we get Bent on the cheap? At least he likes to play up top on his lonesome

Excellent post and I agree with pretty much all of that however dont think any of the albums after BHN are a patch on their first 3. Interestingly the clip for the new song sounds promising and hopefully the rest of album will be much better. On the subject of Weller, I was a massive of fan of his first 3 albums to the point where I could sit and listen to an album all day on repeat without getting bored however, since Heliocentric, things seem to have changed a lot and he's only shown glimpses of the stuff which got me into his music. He is oustanding Live though.

Funniest thing on here for quite a while

Anyone got a figure of how many games he played up front last season? (whole match not just 10 minutes)

Im not one for giving people 3rd chances but KK is obviously doing so, and we are desperately short. This time, he better buck his ideas up, perform like the player he was tipped to be and to keep himself out of trouble. Any less than that and he should go in January.

Didnt Ferdinand mention something about worrying about Spurs in Satda's Mirror?

Does Kev include Spear in that "couple"?

How can you be happy with stockpiling players in the hope that one or two come good? Unfortunately its European football which secures the signings of proven quality as they want to play on the big stage. We are never going to win the league or even challenge at the top for honours but the purpose of this window should be to sign enough quality to see us get that European slot.