David Kelly

I hate the club but really don't think about them much other than at derby times. I enjoy seeing them get beat and looks on their pathetic faces but unless it benifits us in our league position I don't really care. I care about our results not theirs. They seem to care first about what happens to us. If they won something i'd be pissed off but I'd soon get over it (not that I'm concerned that will ever happen). I do agree that they can be massively obsessed with us (and I worked in and around that shithole for about fifteen years) but of course you don't so much see it when we're doing better than them (which has been the case for most of my life) as they all crawl back into their shells. Most of them aren't the brightest (most of the more intellegent people I've met from there only seem to have a passing interest in football at best) and are very easily put back in their place when they pipe up. But to be fair, most people from Sunderland are fine as long as they aren't talking about football. It's football and their feelings towards us that seems to cloud the rational part of their minds. The town is a fucking dump by the way. I've been across to the bridges many times on my lunch and it's filled with some right fucking tramps. People walking about in pyjamas and slippers with holes in them in the middle of the day. And it's not just the odd one either. Their high street is full of second hand shops or other shitty little non entities and most of the town centre bars are like Mos Eisley. Again there are some nicer areas and there are a couple of decent restaurants but they are the exceptions rather than the rule. My ex's brother lived in a decent enough area near the hospital and he point blank refused to ever set foot in the town centre!

He wasn't like

I think you're right. Bigi while raw looks like he has the confidence from playing a good number of games for Coventry last season. I thik Vukic is another one who needs to go out on loan if he's ever going to contribute.

I think he'll be away once this is finallised. He's a decent enough player for the lower reaches of the division but not good enough for where we are at the minute/where we want to be. He'd be excellent cover but he believes he's better than what he is so he won't hang around for that and tbh I think Raylor and Perch are competent enough for that and Tavernier might be better than both of them.

I don't know about ever, but in the early nineties we had Clark, Watson, Elliott, Howey, Thompson, Alan Neilson, Matty Appleby, David Roache all come through about the same time (with a number of them going on to play for England or the U21's). I think the current lot would do well to emulate them.

Out injured for a couple of months still (after a long term injury) which is a shame since he might have had a chance of a few runs out in the friendlies. Whether he'll get a chance to get elevated into the first team squad when the competitive games start without ever getting tested in friendlies remains to be seen. I was actually talking to the scout that got him in here in the first place and he reckons he's definitely the real deal like. Says Manu were very interested in him so we had to offer him a professional deal early.

Obertan looked fucking wank again.

He's impressed me in the three games so far. I'm not saying hes ready to be in the team yet but he looks like he has the potential. Of all the young/fringe players he's looked easily the best to me.

Anywhere to watch this online?

I think he's been getting a lot of injuries over the last couple of season and playing less and less. I suspect Everton are farily happy to get a big earner off the payrol when he's not offering anywhere near as much anymore. Edit: Although I may be talking shite as a quick check on wiki tells me he played 35 times in the league for them last season (his most ever!).

£8m is a hell of a lot for a fullback like (although from what I've seen he could well be worth it). I suspect £6m is more like what we'll pay.

I'm fairly confident on this one for some reason. I think now they've got a replacement we'll see it progress this week.

I missed the end of the game and I didn't see their goal so I can't coment on Elliot (thought he was steady up to the point I saw but he doesn't look like he comes close to Kruls or Harpers (in the past at least) standard). In terms of the game Simpson did alright. Same as usual really. Fairly steady at the back but offers very little going forward. But in general I think we can all agree he needs replacing. Clearences off the line don't make you a fullback. Goslings looking fairly shite like. He looks a bit clumsy on the ball, he doesn't take up good positions when we don't have the ball and his passing is often poor. He does get forward well though. To dismiss Ba as replaceable is nonsense though. You can't just dismiss the goals he scored last season (not to mention his general play for most of it). And given that with his release clause we'd only see about £4m for him, there's no one we'd be able to bring in close to his quality for that much. You'd struggle to match Shola's ability for that price tbh. On the rest, Obertan is fucking hopeless. When Leroy Rosinior's saying you don't look like a footballer you know there's a problem. Vukic is worrying me too. I know he's not had a massive amount of chances (and pre season games certainly are no judge of abilty) but he's not showing much at all. He looks slow and slow to think when he has the ball. I think he's also lacking in a bit of confidence (his attempt to play Ba in when he should have turned and shot suggests as much) so a loan to the championship seems a must for me. For a positive, obviously Sammi looked sharp and Tavernier looks canny, but I really like the look of this Biggi kid. Yes in the two games I've seen him he's misplaced a few passes but he at least looks like he can spot the pass that he wants to play. He also looks like he has a similar ability to Tiote to know where to position himself. Not saying he's ready to make an impact now but he definitely looks like he has something to him.

They're saying that Maicon is staying at Inter now so it looks like the fee is the only thing that would hold up Debuchy now. I suspect that once he's finished his holiday it'll be sorted though.

If we get Carroll back I can only see it being on our terms. Ashley and Lamearse will love to try and get one over on Liverpool again so they'll drive as hard a bargain as possible. At this stage of close season there is still time for Liverpool to get a better deal elsewhere so I doubt they'll budge. Come August 31st if we're still interested and they haven't moved him on to someone else then I can see us coming away with a bargain.

I'm not saying that we should just stick him in our reserves but surely if he's already proven in the championship, that should be the lowest level we let him play at? League 1 makes no sense at all to me. Especially as we've often sent players to that level and they've never come back and made it with us.

Did Coventry get relegated? If so I see no point in loaning a player who by all accounts, proved himself in the championship, to a team now playing in league 1. Surely that would only stunt his development!

Gomes is 36 now and only managed 6 goals in the Portuguese league last season so I can't really see him making that big a splash and I don't think Best will ever be prolific at any level as his movement is poor and he struggles with the offside rule. They're losing Hoilett and Yakubu so that's a significantly weaker strike force for me. Murphy will do well like but I think their season will depend on which other players they lose.

I'll be glad to be rid of him. Not good enough for the Premier League and didn't particularly impress for the top end of the championship either. I can't really see why we ever bought him in the first place.. He puts the effort in but I can't say that I've ever thought he looked more of a grafter than anyone else and his lack of a footballing brain ususally meant that the effort he was put in was wasted. I've got nothing more than him not being good enough against him though so good luck to him at Blackburn.

Kalou's not an out an out striker either so those goalscoring stats are a bit irrelevant. I think he's a decent player who on a free could be a good bit of business but I really think the days of us going for players like him are over. We've took players like him from clubs playing at the top end of european football in the past and they just don't seem to have the appetite to come in and do well for us. We seem much more set on getting hungry players on the way up now which is definitely a good thing. Of course it does make it likely that if they do well for us, someone with more money and a trophy challenge will come in for them and we'll sell but without megabucks that's just par for the course.

I really can't see Henderson getting much game time at all. I certainly hope not!

Isn't that effectively Wrexhams kit? Can't see that going down well at all. I remember reading about that a couple of weeks ago and their owners spat the dummy out when there was a big backlash from the fans. They basically said if you won't let us do this there won't be any more money.

Whatever the style, Henderson's a bag a shite though!

I would also say that if we were to look at someone like Hoilett or Moses who are more specialised wide players then we are still going to need to sign another striker who can hit double figures.

He's on a free though isn't he? If so that would certainly help! Not sure what De Jong's like but I get the impression he wouldn't be cheap and that could fuck up our other recruitment plans.