David Kelly

The one thing that stood out for me in the first half of that last friendly was our lack of width. Haidara wanted to go forward but Gouffran in front of him was offering nothing and it just didn't work. On the other side Janmaat didn't seem to want to get forward and Sissoko wasn't playing wide enough. In the second half it worked a lot better. Janmaat was going forward more, overlapping Sissoko but actually linkiing up well with him. And when Aarons came on we had genuine threat from both sides (he was looking to put balls in whenever he could and was making a decent fist of it). It will be interesting to see how McClaren manages to develop it. Can we utilise Cabella on the left with Haidara overlapping like Janmaat or is Cabella now completely surpluss?

I agree with those who say it would be a disgrace if Williamson's still here come September (although I'd rather bringing someone new in be a bigger focus than flogging that dead horse. We could just pay up his contract I suppose) but a new striker is equally as important as a new centre half for me. Cisse has been struggling with injuries the last couple of seasons so I wouldn't want to be relying on him to be there every game scoring goals. Perez is a very promising young player but can't lead the line and doesn't look the sort who will ever score a load and SDJ has so far been made of glass. I wouldn't say a striker or centreback are any more of a priorty over the other mind. They both desperately need addressing as there is absolutely no excuse for us to not do that. I'm also with Gloomy on Haidara. He has potential but he hasn't convinced me yet. Of course he's not been helped with what he's had in front of him. A fully fit and progressing Aarons might help him out there as well as not playing with Williamson. Dummett has convinced me that he's certainly not good enough.

A collapse under the pressure of trying to claw back a massive Aussie lead to come from us?

You don't care about strikers with our attack? I can't believe anyone would have that attitude with what we had to suffer last season. Totally agree we need at least one CB. I do think that we might get another year from Colo with someone good next him and then Taylor, Lascelles & Dummett as backup but I'd prefer two new starters. But a striker is just as essential.

Cheers Gloomy

It's going to be hard graft for the bowlers today. The more they help us by giving away daft wickets the better.

Spy is half decent. Statham and Serafinowicz are the best ones in it.

Best birthday present I got that. Cheers Fist.

Exactly.

Aye I'd say Viana is probably a fairly good comparison. He's better than Hugo though.

Ted 2. I really enjoyed the first one but the 2nd isn't really in the same class. Still some very funny bits especially with the donations.

Many thanks. Birthday sicky for me. Shame the 2nd ashes test doesn't start until tomorrow!

I watched it all this morning like. I'm off sick though so I don't have much to do today.

Aye he does sit deep your right there. I can't really ever think of another player in recent years who has played the same way as he does in our league. I guess Carrick would be as close as anyone. I'm assuming Taylor and Colo weren't really ready to play last night because it must be as clear to McClaren as it is to the rest of us, just how bad Williamson is.

The same reasons you didn't agree with when I said. He had quite a canny game last night fwiw. Everything he did was tidy but really that was all he did. He's not creative enough to set anything up and not the sort of player who's going to be a wall in front of his defence. For me the only way he will be able to successfully play is as part of a three man central midfield alongside a playmaker and an anchorman. I think that was why he was originally brought in with the thought that he'd play with Cabaye and Tiote. Unfortunately that never really worked out for him not least because the poor form of the other two in his first season here.

Wouldn't say he's anything like Tiote. Good player whenever I've seen him play although he's never really fulfilled his early promise. I don't think he'd be particularly well suited for the premiership either. And after signing Gini, I really can't believe we're putting any focus on another central midfielder. Striker, centreback and winger have got to be the priority now.

Williamson was pony for both goals and Lascelles's tackle for the pen was a shocker. I thought we were generally awful first half, severely lacking in width with Janmaat not wanting to go too far forward on the right and Gouffran giving Haidara no help on the left. SDJ started off well but faded very quickly. Only really Colback and Anita didn't look well off the pace. I don't know where the Mexicans are with their preparations but we looked miles behind them. I thought the second half was much better. We had them penned back for nearly the whole 45 minutes and Darlow barely saw the ball. We still didn't create many chances until Aarons came on. He looked sharp. The good things were that we did look like we wanted to build from the back (not always successfully) and weren't just punting balls up. We also seem to have thankfully left the set piece to Williamson behind with Carver and Stone. No signs of any injuries either.

Of course we still have some pull by virtue of being in the premier league if nothing else. But you can hardly blame him for hoping Roma or even Porto agree a deal for him. The Portugese league is a lot weaker than ours but they still have big games and get into the champions league group stages. And we've also seen a few players go on from there and get moves to the really top sides in Europe (Falcao, James etc).

I don't know why anyone would expect a player who's just played in the champions league (and can be again this season) to be desperate to come here. Obviously the signing of Gini (no way am I going to attempt to spell his surname after the weekend I've just had) proves we can convince them to come but if they have a possibility to go to massive club over us it makes total sense that they would want to wait and see if that comes off. There's no use taking offense at the player or threatenin to walk away unless we get to the point where we can no longer risk waiting.

It's still a very big if at this stage. This fucker isn't over the line yet!

Could this actually be a good day for us on the transfer front? If we do sign him and other players of this caibre I might actually start looking forward to the season!

I fancy a draw. A lot will depend on Cook and Anderson for us. I don't think we have near the bowling depth of them so we need to out bat them.

So the player you've harped on about for years you see as a bench warmer?

Maybe he could take Krul & CT with him and then the wizard could dish out the lot?