David Kelly

If the reports are right then we'll only see £4m or less from him going. Given that there was talk of one of the promoted clubs paying £7m for Jay Rodriguez from Burnley the other day, replacing him with anything like the same quality is going to seriously dent our kitty! With regards to a replacement, I see the Journal was saying the other day that PSG had been offering us that Gamerio. I've seen very little of him but what I have he looked quality. £10m + I would imagine though!

He scored for France last night. I watched the first twenty minutes or so and I liked the look of him. He was mainly attacking in that period and he looked a lot better than Wilson.

The only FACT is that you're talking shite. Don't know why I bothered trying to have a reasonable discussion with you about it when you're unable to distinguish the world inside your head to the one the rest of us inhabit. My bad.

After watching that shit the Eurovision would have probably been a better bet!

On top of the lack of facts in the Ramadan point, why do you expect a player who showed no signs of injuries at all last season to suddenly go all to shite next? We all know about his knees but he was one of our fittest players! The biggest argument against him is actually the ANC which of course is just as pertinent to Cisse (who has of course had a great start to his career here but could well find it much tougher next season when he's more of a known quantity). But really that says we need more in the squad than it does we need to replace either one of them. We may find that the decision is taken out of our hands but I think it will take some going to do better than what we currently have!

I dont buy that at all. I think in the last few games he played up top a lot more and and did miss a few chances with his confidence looking a bit lacking. But he certainly played off the top for much of his games with Cisse and that's the reason the goals dried up. Whilst I think the idea of looking for a more out and out wide player to compliment the team would benefit us, to disregard a player of Ba's quality would be a massive mistake.

I agree actually and I think over time we're better off finding an English team to fit together and play the English way rather than look to just our best players like we have done in the past (such as the whole Lampard/Gerrard farce). But I still think our pool of players at the moment is the poorest I have ever seen since I've been into football.

Don't see where you get that from. Seven million (even if we were to get that all to spend which according to reports when the release clause was first mentioned, we wouldn't) isn't a lot of money to spend on replacing a player who has done so well for us last season. I don't really know anything of De Jong or anyone else we've been linked with but I think it will be difficult for them to have a similar impact as Ba and I doubt we'll get them for that money.

That England team is piss poor like, after the season they've just had, we're expecting Gerrard, Downing and Carroll to lead our line! It's a pathetic state to be in.

I see that Birminghams's keeper that has yet to have a game for them has been called up to replace Ruddy in goal for England. Seems strange that a kid who's been playing in the forth tier of English football is called up before the first choice for the Scottish champions!

Im not so sure Gerrard needs shipping out but they do need to realise they can't build their team around a player who's so often injured and no longer capable of putting in the consistent performances they need from him. The rest of their midfield (Speering/Shelvy/the makem/Adam) are all pretty average to say the lease too. So much so that Lucas is now probably their best player there!

He's managed about fifteen decent performances for us in his time here (all either this season or in the championship) so I can't say I'm desperately disapointed to see him leave. He's certainly not worth anything more than a place on the bench so we aren't going be able to persuade him to stay and it's good to see a player being more concerned with trying to get a game than just being at a bigger club or picking up his wages. I worry though that none of our other midfield backup (Gosling, Vukic, Abeid) is strong enough to come in and cover whenever any of the first team are out so I think we do need to strengthen.

That's exactly why Martinez would fail there for me. Those ridiculous scouse cunts all expect them to bring in Guardiola or Mourinho because they think they are up there with Barca and Madrid and cant contemplate their true position in world football. Their expectations would make it almost impossible for Martinez to build a team without big money spent straight away. I think it would be a poor move for him as it would almost certainly set him back (possibly destroy his career).

That's about as good as we can muster tbh. I'd take Richards over Johnson and I'm not keen on Wellbeck or Downing but we're short on options. It's a poor squad for me. Lacking in just about every area unless Caroll can make a mark.

Is he even his real agent? It wouldn't be the first time some jokers spoke to the press claiming to represent the player only for said player to then turn around and say he's never heard of him. The standard of reporting and editing these days is staggerinly poor. That said, it wouldn't suprise me at all if this is true. Footballers in the top leagues in particular are pretty much all mercinaries anyway and with a club like Citeh who don't have a history amonst the elite and a buying any top players they can, they are going to find they have a good few years of players acting like cunts to them. As Gemmil says though, I can't see many clubs jumping to pay those wages to anyone so he's probably stuck there regardless.

Simpson has been reliable up to a level but really that level isn't quite good enough. Yes he's cleared a few off the line but he's been caught out of position a lot too and he really doesn't offer a great deal going forward (he gets up there but I can't think of many occasions where delivered anything of any use into the box). I'd happily keep him as a squad player but he clearly sees himself as more and wants to be paid accordingly. I think we're right as a club to make a stance on how far we'll go in paying squad players although I hope we won't be trying to do it so cheaply that are squad players are only up to the standard they are now which we all agree isn't good enough. Getting the likes of Smith and Xisco off the payroll would no doubt help this. For their combined weekly wage you could have four players on around the £25k mark which you would think would be attractive enough for the type of squad player we would be looking at. Best on the other hand is garbage and the sooner we get rid the better. I cringe everytime I see him on the pitch. His effort is there but quite simply his ability and brain don't match up to it which means that the runs he does make end up being either to nowhere or offside. I am more than convinced that had Shola started as many games as him he would have comfortably beaten the four goals best has scored and provided a few for others along the way. And Shola's no great shakes either. For some reason though I think we might be able to get a bit of cash for Best which we could put to much better use on a young striker who has the chance to improve and provide a bit of backup/competition going forward for Ba and Cisse.

Oh and fuck you John Terry you odious cunt!!!

What a fucking strike that was, must be goal of the season. Great away performance from the lads and some of the worst refereeing of a bad season for refs. How he missed such a clear elbow after booking Cabaye for nothing is beyond me! Thought Perch was class btw, a better performance than Simpson has managed in two years.

We looked tired today but showed that extra bit class again where it mattered through Krul, Shola, Cisse and particularly Ben Arfa. Glad we've got a bit of time off now before Stoke because we look like we need it.

What a fucking finish for the second goal. Might not be goal but must be finish of the season. Hard going, especially without Tiote second half but a great result and what a position to be in at this stage!

Carr had nothing to do with the signing of Ba, so that doesn't really work. That's my point. We all know he wasn't involved in that deal but we still managed to sign a quality player. I'm sure equally we'll sign a failure or two on his recommendation. Fwiw I think he's doing a very good job so far but the overreaction is ridiculous. The way some people are on here, Carr could recommend Kris Boyd to us and they'd be all "well he knows more than us like so I have every faith he's going to come in and score bucket loads"!

This bumming of Carr is really quite funny. He's managed to find a couple of players no one has heard of in the past two seasons (one of them being the captain of the current French champions and a current French international so he hardly plucked him out of obscurity) and suddenly he can do no wrong. Any good player we sign is down to him and anyone who doesn't make the grade he had nothing to do with. It's nearly as bad as the bin dippers claiming Dogshit had nothing to do with signing AC now that he's struggling. Let's see if he can consistently produce the goods season after season before hailing him as our saviour eh?

I was very critical about Pardew a few weeks ago after dropping points against the scum and Wolves at home when he started the games too negatively with Ben Arfa on the bench. But fair play to him hes not been afraid to change things round and its paying off. Like others have said, he's getting some very good performances from some very average players but more importantly he seems to have played a blinder with Ben Arfa. I still think he could have made better use of him earlier (the Swansea game immediately springs to mind) but what he has done is something that we've failed at a few times in the past and that's getting a player who's came here from another league who wasn't immediately suited, and got him playing well and fitting in with our style. That can only be a positive thing for the future.

That fuckwit on talksport tonight was saying that Perch's actions were worse than Carrolls because he got a fellow professional sent off and caused him to miss the semi final! It's difficult to think of how much more wrong he could be in that assertion. Carrolls blatant dive could have resulted in his own former team mate getting sent off, which would have most likely meant we were having to try and pull back to level terms a player down for almost ninety minutes. Reina actually committed the offence he was rightly sent off for. It was totally his fault. All Perch did was to exagerate the pain which was suffered by Reinas offence. Yes it's not a part of the game that anyone wants to see but you see players acting in one form or another countless times in ever professional game in the world these days so if you're getting former referees saying that a player is perfectly within his rights to make the most of any contact in the box to win penalty you can't have a go at Perch for doing nothing different.

It's amazing what some confidence can do for a player, he had none at the start of the season and he was frighteningly bad but now he's got the confidence he looks like a proper premiership footballer. Good on the lad for turning it round.