David Kelly

I know Oz used Charva in the second series of Auf Wiedersehen so it's been around for that long. Coming from Wallsend it's a term I've known for years and I have to say I've never heard of Scotchies.

I'm sure Pardew's made reference before about us having been in for Cisse before we eventually got him. Centreback is an obvious one, Taylor's a good enough player with Colo but he regularly gets injured and the other two simply aren't good enough to fill in for any length of time. We need a first choice who we can rely on to stay fit and then Taylor should be back up. I would imagine that given his contract situation we might be able to get a good deal on Douglas come January but I've no idea of how good he is. I'd love to see us sign Debuchy but I have doubts about whether that deal can be resurected. I can't see us paying any more for him so we'd be hoping Lille get knocked out of Europe (could easily happen given their start) and/or them losing a bit of faith in him (if his mind isn't in it and it's effecting his game then this could be a possibility). But I still feel left back is more of an issue with us. I like Santon and I think he's done ok there but I still feel he would do better on the right due to him being right footed. If we could get a good attacking leftback and then move Santon to the right, I think it would add much more balance. If we could do this, I'd happily see Simpson moved on and Gosling would be another that wouldn't be a loss to the team. Marveaux could also go without weakening us much from what he's shown so far, but I'm still hoping we can get something out of him.

I didn't mean to suggest a desire for all standing stadia, just as you say standing sections.

I don't see anything wrong with season tickets. I've had one since the mid eighties and me dad's had his since the mid seventies. Standing is a miss like and I think it would be universally welcomed back.

Fuck me, can't we keep anyone fit! If we were playing a decent team in any other match I'd say how much we need Colo, Taylor and Krul back (and obviously the make us far stronger) but the truth of the matter is these things aren't necessarily won by your best players just who's up for it on the day.

There are plenty of things wrong with football today (agents, player power, players getting paid a fortune off the back of the very people who are having to use services like Wonga etc) as there was in the eighties (racism, unsafe stadia, hooliganism, Pat Herd and Rambo Riley!) but just like then you can't let these things spoil your enjoyment of the sport. If you do then you'll end up like Gemmil turning your back on something you love. Personally I won't let that happen but I suppose I can understand those that do. But it's the matches and match days that make it what it is for me and the reality is that in that area the game has moved forward. The rest is all politics and that's not what I'm here for.

You can't compare any sponsorship deal of today with anything like the WBA no smoking thing. The amount of money in football these days make comparison irrelevant.

Distasteful in the extreme as always with this lot. All you can do is try and just concentrate on the football!

Luke warm more like it!

He was a lot better last night but I think if he's been given MOM it's a bit of a sympathy vote. But I hope he can build on that performance because it would be handy to have him as a useful memeber of the squad rather than him being the waste of oxygen he's been for most of his time here. No way would I be starting him on Sunday though (for one I don't think it would be a popular decision and any early struggling would see the crowd get on his back).

I think had, Colo, Tiote and Cabaye played a lot more this season then those figures would be quite different.

Of course but my point is would it be better for us fans that one of our best players was turning down the chance to play for another team because he wanted to stay or that the club turned down offers because of his importance to us. At the end of the day if a player wants a move he will ultimately get it but showing the ambition to keep our best players sends a signal out to the rest of the team and potential targets that we want to actually do something. On the flip side if a player digs his heels in to stay it's great for the fans who see a player they love desperate to stay but if the club are trying to sell him behind is back what does that say about our ambittion? Of course it's very possible that neither of these scenarios are the case and the reality was that either there was no offer or no acceptable offer.

Forsters never impressed me much when I've seen him play for Norwich or Celtic. Always seems to either fuck up, give a pen away or get sent off. Of course I'm not saying that he's shite or anything as I've not seen him much and the jock league is mickey mouse anyway so you can't really tell. I did find it odd that Butland got a call up ahead of him when he hadn't even played for Birmingham at that time!

Pardew seems to be suggesting that we'll play a decent team tonight and there is a lot of talk that Cabaye will start. I fully expect Shola to start along with Cisse, probably Cabaye alongside Anita in the middle with Ferguson and Obertan wide. The defence will be pretty much whoever is fit, so Williamson and Perch in the middle with Santon left and Tavernier/Simpson right. I can't see us risking Colo ahead of Sunday. I think that Obertan aside, it's pretty much as strong a team as we could expect to put out given our injuries.

Not sure which would be the best for us. Cabaye making the decision to stay or the club taking it out of his hands!

When we've missed one or more key players in every game this season it makes it almost impossible to produce anywhere near our best form. Tiote and Cabaye have only started together in one game and that was after Cabaye had basically no pre season and Colo wasn't behind them. You can't blame our left wing for our poor performances when the core of our team really hasn't been there. I'm comfortable with the thought that when we get our key players back we will look a lot more of an attacking threat from both sides. That said I do think if we're going to stick to a 4-4-2 then we need to have at least one of our wide players able to put some quality balls into the box and it has to be said that Jonas has never managed that in his four seasons here. Ferguson has had limited opportunity to show he is the man to do this but he has in the last two games taken his chance. Now surely is the time to give him more playing time to see if he can really be a part of the first team. The next two league games are far too big a risk imo but tomorrow night surely is the time, especially as it sounds as if we will be putting out a stronger team for him to play alongside.

I think the people in the know would have had a pretty good idea of how good they were going to be. Some players really flourish later on in their careers and they are mostly the ones who there was no expectations of when they were young. The ones who are really highly thought of usually break through pretty quickly. If you look at the top England players over the last few years as an example, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Terry, Lampard, Beckham, Owen, Shearer, Rooney etc all had very high expectation of them from a very young age.

Not if the £10m was put into the transfer fund it wouldn't. Admittedly if someone were to come in and pay a sizeable chunk you would get near blanket approval and very positive advertising that goes with it. But anything that people can see as putting any money and in turn getting rid of all the Sports Direct crap will be fairly easily accepted imo.

But Ashley's already done that and took the stick for it. I think anyone that came in now and put some money into the club to buy these rights would be looked upon favourably by the majority so someone might see it as a good idea now.

We really need to be doing everything we can to tie him down to a new contract without a release clause. There's no way we could replace him for the £7m fee that's been reported and even less chance when you consider we'd only have about half of that to actually spend. We can't afford to be splashing about £100k a week contracts but when you consider what we would have to spend on a replacement you have think it makes financial sense to look at increasing his wage if it means we don't have to then go and spend on a replacement!

You have to remember that we have had a lot of key players missing every game this season so we've not hit anywhere near top gear. As Ben Arfa has been one of our few bright spots on the left it's making it look a lot worse on the left than it probably is. If everyone was firing then I don't think there'd be this big worry and it would just be CT's anti Jonas feelings. That said, Ferguson has come on and produced in the last two games. Yes it's nowhere near enough match time to suggest he's ready to set the league alight but all he can do is produce in the time he's given and go from there. Surely the next stage is now to give him a start and see how well he does for a full game. He might prove he's not ready or he might have a blinder and set up a hatfull. But we'll never know unless we give him a go. The next two league games are massive mind you and I really do think it's fair on him to throw him in under that sort of pressure. Bordeaux is the time to give him a go for me.

I don't think we've had a game yet this season where all of our key players (Cabaye, Tiote, Colo, Ben Arfa and the Dembas) have been available. I'm afraid that until we get them all on the pitch at the same time we're going to struggle to find any sort of performance. Hopefully Cabaye and Colo will be fit for next Sunday and we can kick on from there.

Pardews quoted as saying he's definitely out in the journal.

Not good news that. Finally in the last couple of games he's started to pull a few strings. We are very pedestrian in midfield without him. Hopefully alongside Tiote, Anita can can show his real worth.

That's bollocks like. I bet even with their shambolic owners they are able to find themselves an experienced manager now and at the time they appointed him it would have been even easier! But they still have a good squad for the championship so plenty of managers will see it as a chance to go and get a team promoted which is a big attraction.