David Kelly

What had have we really got to attract players though these days if it's not money? It's certainly not the lure of coming to play for an ambitious club with top management. We're nowhere near London so that's out too. All we've got is the supporters and the premiership going in our favour and as Gemmil pointed out yesterday, players aren't going to be that arsed when they retire whether or not they have memories of playing in front of 50k. They'll want to look back on trophies or the money in their bank. The way we're operating these days will always put us at a disadvantage if we are going up against other teams for players, especially when as Stevie has said, we don't have people who love the club and the area trying to do the deals.

No one has said they do have they? It's just Ben Arfa getting asked if he would sign for them by the French press as giving a fairly diplomatic answer. Probably the same sort of answer that Danny Graham would give if he was asked about signing for us.

Looks comfortable with both feet and has scored quite a few with his head. Assuming we can get him back to his best it looks like he could be a good signing. Wiki has as number 11 in our squad now!

I enjoyed it when I watched it but I haven't had much interest in re watching since.

I only live about three miles from work so it would take a hell of a lot of snow to stop me from having to come in. But here's hoping!

I'm not convinced Marveaux really fits into that role. He doesn't play as far forward as Ben Arfa and I'm also not that convinced about him wide (I know he's supposedly played there a lot in france but he doesn't get in the game enough there for me). I think he plays a lot better in the middle in front of two players who will do the graft for him.

We mostly lose anyway at the moment so you can't blame CT for that one! I think it's unlikely that Jonas won't play (I thought he had a canny first half at least on Saturday) and if we were to go for a narrow formation with width coming from the fullbacks, I think he'd be very important for covering Santon. Although I think we may well go 4-4-2 for this one. Until HBA is back I don't think we have the players to go for the 4-3-3 that I suspect Remy is being brought in for.

Are you not only allowed one player under that ruling? I'm not certain but I seem to remember when .com had details of that ruling on when Debuchy signed it said something about it only being one player that an exception could be made for. I could be totally wrong there mind.

I went for that purely on the basis that I thought the episodes weren't as long and it was getting late last night and I was cattled. Watched the first episode and quite enjoyed it. I'll probably watch a bit more tonight although I need to get more of Homeland watched too as it's clogging up me V+

Exactly. You can move forward as a club by selling (Spurs have done it) but you need to be willing to invest the money back in. If we sold HBA for £20m or whatever we could possibly buy two £10m players with what we get in. But no doubt we would use wages as an excuse so just spend £5m of it and give Williamson a new contract!

Graham would be a good bet as back up (really don't think we should be considering him as more than that) and him being a fan would be a good thing but I do wonder whether there's not a cheaper option we could get from the championship for that role (and I would think Ashley and co would be thinking the same thing). £4m is reasonably large expense for us these days (well it always has been really, yes we've spent £10m-£15m a few times but if we were spending £4m it would have always been on someone you'd expect to be a regular starter) so I just don't see it happening.

Don't really think there's a massive amount in that tbh but we'd be foolish to think that a player of his ability is going to be happy to be at a club where the owners are happy just to plod along without any great concern what division we're in let alone interested in putting the money in that would be required to go for a champions league place. Especially if a club like PSG who are more than happy to splash money around all over the place! Enjoy him while he's here is all we can do as long as Ashley's in charge. Same goes for all of our players really (well obviously no one enjoys the likes of Williamson and Squidward but you know what I mean!).

The Hobbitt. Thought it was a little less epic than Lord of the Rings but I actually enjoyed it more then the first time I watched Fellowship. I've never read the book so I didn't have any preconceptions (other than from the LOTR films) so that might have helped. Looking forward to the next two. Django Unchained. Not sure it's up there with Tarantino's very best but it was thoroughly enjoyable and I thought a good mix of other westerns such as Leone's Spaghetti Westerns and slightly more classic (although not totally good guys wear white hats types) such as Johnny Guitar.

Finished watching the second series of Game Of Thrones and really loved it cant believe the third series is more than two month away. I'll have to move onto either Breaking Bad, The Wire or Boadwalk Empire next as I've got the first series of each of them lined up.

We'll see about that at the end of the window. And we're mainly in the position we're in now because of his failure to spend in the summer!

Remy tweeted bonjour Newcastle too but its been deleted.

I've found that all they tend to lead to is a good night out but a fucker of a hangover!

I'd be absolutely disgusted with them if they let him go for now nowt just because he's fucked things up with his missus. While I'm sympathetic to any player who has personal problems that make him feel the need to go back to his home country there's no reason at all that we should be the ones to pay for it!

I think Cabaye. I always prefer it to be either central defender or midfielder, someone who's right in the thick of things and Cabaye lead Lille to the title as their captain.

I can't see this being very positive for trying get Debuchy bedded in a playing at his best either!

I agree to a point but there are some things that are more important than your job and if this is to do with such things (we have no idea if it does at this stage mind) he could very well decide just to walk out on his contract in any case.

I think the whole loyalty when we went down is more than a bit overplayed. He was on big wages and his reputation in this country was in tatters after an awful first season so there was no one here going to come in for him. His reputation in Spain would have still been ok but which clubs over there could afford the sort of transfer fee we'd have demanded (given that he'd just cost us £10+ a year before) and his wages. Not many past Barca and Real so really he didn't have that much of an option but to stay with us. Beyond that I can have no complaints about his effort on the pitch and to make sure he is on the pitch (his injury record tells you that he is a player who wants to play) but I wouldn't say that he's been incredibly loyal more than anyone else.

TBH if he has personal problems that is his own business. If it's just home sickness from his family (seems a bit unlikely given previous comments he's made about how happy he is here) he can at least wait two or three months but if it's something deeper he's well within his rights to put his family before his career.

Jesus titty fucking christ. We are so fucked. We all know the club will just bend over and take this!

I don't think it would be at all professional for him to want to bail out now in the position we're in or for his dad to come out and tell everyone! I also can't see San Lorenzo having much cash to spend and given how much it would cost to replace him with a player of similar quality and that everyone would be able to see how desperate a position we'd be in (much worse than the striker situation where at least we have one quality player left in Cisse) there's no way on earth we'd spend the amount required to save us from relegation. If he goes I know I'll be putting money on us going down. It'd be like buying money!