David Kelly

Could we have done this last weeks business in the summer though? I'm not in anyway defending the lack of investment in the summer but I don't think we could have brought these players in for anything like what we've spent now if we'd went for them then. You could have easily been talking £10m for Sissoko, £5m for Gouffran, £10+ for Mbwia as well as the £7m or so Lille were after for Debuchy. We could have easily been talking more than £30m for the five players we've spend less than £20m on now. I think a big reason for these deals is that the circumstances with their clubs worked out right all at the same time.

Aye you're right. Mind you I've not mentioned attendances so I can only be at about 2/3

I agree with that too but as far as the club is putting out to the public, he's not really done anything wrong so I can't really see how they can. We can all have opinions on what may or may not have happened (for me, his interview today makes it sound like his wife/kids are jus homesick and if that's the case there was absolutely no need to try and force a move at this stage as it could have been done in the summer without any big issue made) but without knowing more than what's been confirmed by him and Pardew it's difficult say what else we can do.

I see where you're coming from with that (and I agree it leaves a bad taste in the mouth) but I really think at this stage it would do more harm than good.

I've not found any help in that recently so I'm doing a 180 and going full on Stevie mode and saying we'll put three past them no problem.

I don't see much to fear tbh. The main problem recently has been confidence. We'd been missing players but most of them were back for the last couple of games. We still all went into the games fearing the worst because there was no confidence and the club as a whole seemed defeated before the games began. This last week of signings and Colo getting sorted out has raised everyone's hopes right up. Combine that with actually having a team that that you're not looking at massive weakness in personnel and even bigger weakness on the bench and you have to be confident that we have more than enough to beat a team that looks weak on paper, has just been knocked out of both cup competitions by lower league opposition, played as recently as Friday and has generally looked awful for the last two seasons. Krul Debuchy Colo Mbiwa Santon Perch Sissoko Cabaye Marveaux Cisse Gouffran Subs Taylor Anita Jonas Elliott Shola Williamson Obertan That looks a squad capable of matching any team in the league on their day and more than capable of beating a team like Villa. I know with us it doesn't often work out so straightforward but fuck it we need to be positive in our attitude going out their tonight. If we are I'm very confident of a good result

Don't talk soft. I predict a win and almost as importantly and certainly more surprisingly a good performance!

To be fair to CT he's wearing Haidara's kit too!

We don't have one of them though. If you're trying to suggest Anita is that man then I would say he can't do the donkey work that is also required for an all rounded defensive midfielder. I think it may well be more important tonight to have those attributes than the ones you name given the other players that will be in the midfield. If we were playing at home with a need to really push the attack then I would have a different view. But we're not, we're away from home playing a relegation 6 pointer on the back of as bad a run of form that I've ever witnessed. We need to win a battle first to allow our better players to impose their own attacking play.

This whole thing with Graham totally baffles me. If he wants to leave he should hand in a transfer request but according to SSN last night he'd told them he wanted to go but hadn't handed a request in. How does that work then? I want to go but I don't want to give up any money I could get so I won't hand an official request in. If I were the club (and this goes for Colo as well actually) the first thing I'd be saying would be you can fuck off until you hand the official request in. There's no chance you're getting any more money off us. I don't care what the personal reasons are and how sympathetic the club are to them, there's no reason they should have to pay the player to leave! The other thing is, if he wants to leave for personal reasons why has he left it so late to put the request in? I'm assuming that something didn't just occur in his personal life yesterday that made it imperative for him to leave now. It makes no sense at all.

Perch isn't any sort of force but he does do a canny job as a holding midfielder. If you're going to play three players up top with basically no defensive responsibility at all you are really going to have to have one of the three midfielders behind them sitting in front of the back four with basically just a defensive responsibility. Sissoko is apparently a player who will look to get forward and join in the with the attack and Cabaye will only play at his best when he's played ahead of our other two players. This leaves Perch or Anita to do that sitting role and from what I've seen of him I don't think Anita's the man for that. Playing Perch isn't a defensive move for me, it just allows the other players the best chance to do their attacking.

I suppose we've had the same thing with Tiote and Cabaye and even Ben Arfa to an extent but I can't remember another time when we've had four players all come in at once that we have next to no first hand knowledge of. If they (particularly Sissoko and Mbiwa) are as good as we're told then it shoudl be very exciting.

I think he needed to do this and I think it's fair enough. I don't really need to know what his problem is but I think anyone can understand that someones family is the most important thing to them. He's said he will give his all for us which is what he's always done (even when he was having a mare in his first season he never hid and was available for almost every game) so I don't think there is any reason to doubt him. Apparently the rest of the team are onside with him so I think it's time to draw a line under this (until the end of the season) and support him while he tries to move us up the table.

He's said Sissoko will start and I don't think that's any surprise given how excited they are to have him and how weak we've looked there at times. Williamson has to come out of the team as he's been dreadful but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Taylor played instead of Mbiwa. Pardew gives himself a selection headache there though if the defense does well. How does he then drop Taylor without pissing him right off. Gouffran I think he has to play because Shola is obviously fucking wank and doesn't fit into a 4-3-3. The only other decisions he has to make are whether or not to play Jonas or Marveaux (I suspect he'll play Marveaux given how he's been bigging him up lately) and Anita or Perch & I wouldn't be surprised to see him go with Perch to make us more solid if he's going to play Marveaux. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to do away from home if you've got three all out attacking players and Cabaye looking to play forward of the other two midfielders. I know Villa are shit but I think winning the battle in midfield and getting the ball to the attackers is what will win us the game.

Unfortunately you're not alone there. And I've watched every match this season!

I thought Pardew said that Sissoko would definitely start and Mbiwa & Gouffran were in contention.

Fuck me I hope not. Taylor should play ahead of him for a start. It would be a downer for everyone from the start.

Aye I've lost count of that happening on a Sunday morning now!

From what memory I have of Bracewell back in his Everton prime, he certainly looks nothing like the player Hoddle was in the video Stevie posted. Maybe more what he was like by the time he went to Chelsea.

I can remember him from Chelsea mainly but I think he was no where near the player he had been by then.

As long as he stays fit. He's not really had an injury since he's been here so he's due one. I'd be more than a little concerned he was out for any number of weeks!

It's difficult to run with both hands holding down your cock though so I suppose it depends on how long the player in question is.

I never bet on us but as you say Villa are there for the taking. But you're right, every time this club builds you up they knock you right back down!

You personally? A finger is all I've considered and I was very pissed then!

It's any part of your body that can legally score (ie not your hands or arms) that count for offside isn't it? If so then your cock could have you offside. What you want is to get a hard on after the ball has been played. Then you'd be fine!