Would you swap Demba Ba for Andy Carroll?

[Park Life 70]

Not pressing the 'wank' button till I see who we keep hold off in the summer.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Not pressing the 'wank' button till I see who we keep hold off in the summer.

 

Or who we upgrade

[Park Life 70]

Not pressing the 'wank' button till I see who we keep hold off in the summer.

 

Or who we upgrade

 

Don't get me wrong IMO we potentially have the best striker partnership in the league.

[JonTheMag 4]

Not pressing the 'wank' button till I see who we keep hold off in the summer.

 

Or who we upgrade

 

Don't get me wrong IMO we potentially have the best striker partnership in the league.

 

As far as two out and out strikers I'd agree, definitely.

 

 

City don't really operate in that manner, so its hard to compare. Aguero and Dzeko/Balotelli is quite formidable though.

Man U have got Rooney and Hernandez/Berbatov/Welbeck, and as Rooneys been fairly 'meh' this season I think we've got the better of them there.

Chelsea have Drogba and Sturridge, which is quite good, although Drogba doesn't have many years left in him, if at all.

Arsenal have got RVP and fuck all else.

Liverpool have Suarez and Carroll. Rubbish.

And the rest are all certainly below us I'd say.

 

 

So we're not definitively the best, but I think our front two can be mentioned in the upper echelons along with City and Chelsea, which is a phenomenal achievement. Hopefully they can become as prolific as the best partnership in the league, which is clearly Holt and Morrison

[sniffer 0]

Also the standard of the sides is better now I think, maybe not at the top cos Man Utd and Arsenal were so much better than anyone else, but genuinely 2nd to 7th there's not a vast chasm. Even Man Utd have scored 1 goal in 3 games against us, they hold no fear for us at this moment in time. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to be accused of being deluded, but this kid we've signed in my opinion will be our greatest buy for over a decade.

 

Hardly a kid as he's 27 in June. He's in the prime of his career.

 

I do hope you are right though.

[Toonpack 6846]

Also the standard of the sides is better now I think, maybe not at the top cos Man Utd and Arsenal were so much better than anyone else, but genuinely 2nd to 7th there's not a vast chasm. Even Man Utd have scored 1 goal in 3 games against us, they hold no fear for us at this moment in time. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to be accused of being deluded, but this kid we've signed in my opinion will be our greatest buy for over a decade.

Good post this, exactly what I was saying to my mate in all. I think Mike is a gambler and has seen the great start we've had and the position we're in, particularly with the poor form of Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, now he's seeing a good shot at a European spot with improvements to the team and he's pulled the trigger.

We've got a talented young side capable of scoring against anyone as well as closing games out (Man Utd away was a defensive masterclass), I'll always be a bit wary of Mike as you and I have both (I'm sure others have too) stated that no one knows this blokes aims and goals for the club and that will always make people wary of his intentions.

IF we sign Aly Cissokho (I don't think we will) our first 11 would be - Krul, Santon, Taylor (ana), Colo, Cissokho, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas, Cisse, Ba, without injuries that's a top 6 side imo I honestly believe that side on paper is better than Liverpool's. We lose out to the 'top' sides because of our depth but again this is the gambler side in Ashley wanting to hit the highs without having much besides youth as cover, which allows us to have a good first 11 and then have back-ups that wont cost much as opposed to say Chelsea who's back-ups are on more money than our 1st teamers.

I'm not 'won over' by Ashley but, this is where I apologise to lads like Chez, the guy has been ruthless and smart in his transfer movements recently. I was worried when we lost Enrique, Barton and Nolan (I now don't blame him after hearing all the articles about how they were trying to basically run the team and demand things) but he had no choice with Enrique and to be honest with hindsight the Carroll deal was genius, the team we have now would embarrass the team we had in our 1st season up and whether he's looking to 'cash in' or not doesn't matter if we keep bringing in these very good transfers (I know it's tough to keep finding the Tiote's but he's done it so far which one of us when Enrique went for £5m thought he'd take the £5m and get a player who really isn't too far behind him). It's good to see the team 'buying smart' for instance as much of a wankfest the scousers have over Suarez we have brought in Cisse, Ba, Cabaye, Tiote and Santon for around the same £23m fee (not to mention the comparison we could make with Carroll ).

Now I'm still in the camp of sceptics with Ant and Stevie that I worry about this blokes actual intentions but as we keep progressing I'm more and more at ease, we've all said we needed a striker before Carroll went and when he left we wanted two, now we've got two (who,like Stevie says, are a big improvement on Carroll) aye it took a year to get them both but this is Businessman Ashley not wanting to pay over the odds and he's bided his time and when the players his staff have told him they want have come available at a good price he's pulled the trigger. Overall we maybe have 'rode out luck' at times and got lucky with situations (i.e. Ba's release clause from West Ham and Freiburg capitulating) but it's what you need sometimes, it's obvious he trusts Pardew more than any manager we've had under him previously which can only be a good thing. As Alex mentioned earlier the guy has obviously learnt and changed tact from when we had the Wise etc debacles and if the Dekka quotes from a few day ago are true about how they see the Wise, Vetre etc appointments as massive mistakes this is further progress tbh.

Sorry for the mental post but it's good to finally be able to look a bit more positively at things (not in your camp just yet CT but I'm more understanding) and be excited for our future once again as it's been quite a while since I was.

(p.s this whole post is null and void if we sell Tiote and Colo as the window shuts )

 

I do think he’s a gambler, but in this instance I think the purchase simply fell in line with the budget/finance model he has in place in the club, if it hadn’t I doubt we’d have bought. I’ll be amazed if he’s dipped into his own pocket (gambled) for this window.

 

If we get top end offers from teams our players will be sold (we are no different to anyone else in this) I do not believe however, unlike some, that sell them asap when a profit is available is the club (MA’s) policy. He’ll want top wedge if he’s in control of the sale (as in player in early part of contract etc).

 

Your later point about Wise/Vetere brought something back to me from some time ago. There was an interview with Pardew, was in an interview on t’radio and I think branched off from talking about Carr’s influence, and he stated (paraphrased), - “MA was shocked by the football business (he thought business was business was business) and in his first couple of years he got some really bad advice, and made some huge mistakes which cost him a lot of money. He’s woken up to the game and he has brought in more “football people” and won’t be burned twice”

 

MA is a scarily successful business man, he is not used to failure and to avoid that he’ll trample on anyone at anytime, fans to players to managers and he will absolutely do it “his way”.

 

I totally approve of the “model” of living within the means of the club, because I believe that’s the way to long term sustainable growth (because of our size) BUT I am under no illusions that players will be sold if the offer is right and that MA would sell the club tomorrow if there was margin in it for him. The consolation is in what I said above – he doesn’t like failure and he has little track record of it, which is good.

 

He will never be a “nice” owner.

[Howay 12452]

I do think he’s a gambler, but in this instance I think the purchase simply fell in line with the budget/finance model he has in place in the club, if it hadn’t I doubt we’d have bought. I’ll be amazed if he’s dipped into his own pocket (gambled) for this window.

 

If we get top end offers from teams our players will be sold (we are no different to anyone else in this) I do not believe however, unlike some, that sell them asap when a profit is available is the club (MA’s) policy. He’ll want top wedge if he’s in control of the sale (as in player in early part of contract etc).

 

Your later point about Wise/Vetere brought something back to me from some time ago. There was an interview with Pardew, was in an interview on t’radio and I think branched off from talking about Carr’s influence, and he stated (paraphrased), - “MA was shocked by the football business (he thought business was business was business) and in his first couple of years he got some really bad advice, and made some huge mistakes which cost him a lot of money. He’s woken up to the game and he has brought in more “football people” and won’t be burned twice”

 

MA is a scarily successful business man, he is not used to failure and to avoid that he’ll trample on anyone at anytime, fans to players to managers and he will absolutely do it “his way”.

 

I totally approve of the “model” of living within the means of the club, because I believe that’s the way to long term sustainable growth (because of our size) BUT I am under no illusions that players will be sold if the offer is right and that MA would sell the club tomorrow if there was margin in it for him. The consolation is in what I said above – he doesn’t like failure and he has little track record of it, which is good.

 

He will never be a “nice” owner.

Agree with that, good post.