VillaChris

Maybe City will actually sign him, they like taking our players every couple of years.

Don't think Benzema will get picked for the euros now, too much trouble there. I did agree with you he is a bit down the pecking order but for the England game they had Gignac who is playing in the mexican league now and also Ben Arfa so there's still hope if he plays every week and scores some goals.

Should he not get his own thread now? Been rumoured for weeks and now our manager has confirmed he's on our list of targets. I don't think he'll keep us up...he couldn't keep QPR up when he joined mid season in 2012-13 despite them being in a better position. He's a good striker but not that good. That said he was what we needed at the start of the season, lots of pace and and can score in 6 yard box. Him and Ayew would be a good combination imo and fun to watch, we might actually win a game before the end of the season. Would still class it as a long shot, I doubt Chelsea will even loan him out just because Bamford has come back as he made little impact at Palace. He'll probably end up here instead. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35198358

Norwich had a Scottish manager and a couple of Internationals in Russell Martin and Whittaker so would imagine that would swing it much like us trying to get Remy however much of a long shot that is.

How many teams can we realistically catch though? A team limited like West Brom is a full 15 points clear of us. If we'd beaten Norwich they'd only have been 6 clear of us and they'd have been a realistic option, instead they're 12 clear and going off to the distance. Good luck trying to catch Chelsea and Swansea as both are stringing together unbeaten runs. Our only target I think now is at least to not finish bottom for club pride.

If Amavi still has his pace when he comes back he'll rip up the championship imo so think we'd get most back for him and make a profit on Ayew. Veretout's playing alright but not sure any French club would pay what we did. Only Gana looks like someone we'd make a massive loss on.

Man. United away the week before, fitting opposition given our dismal record v them.

What happened to their winter break btw, round of La Liga matches over the next two days, thought they had a full two weeks off.

Yes but he's not going to keep us up and no chance would we get anything near 8m back for a player hitting 30 so he'd be another player we'd sign who we'd then make a massive loss on. We've signed too many of those players in last 6 years.

Were Leicester ever as far adrift as us though, they had about 12 points by end of September I think last year and we only had 22 points in February so doubt the gulf was 10 points to 17th although could be wrong of course. With West Ham I don't really see enough a Tevez in our squad tbh. Fair enough on Sunderland, that's a good example. We've never been this far behind though with the outlook so bleak. Never in any of the Lambert seasons or indeed last season. When Sherwood took over think we were 2 or 3 points off 17th. And of course we had Benteke in our squad. We are down.

Plenty of midweek games home and away even if it's not on TV, you have to cram in 46 games somehow.

Who has survived from a worse position out of interest?

Like him as a player but wouldn't pay 8m, isn't he nearly 30?

Westwood and Ayew suspended, Okore injured. Sadly nothing wrong with Richards, Hutton, Richardson, Bacuna, Gana and Gestede,

Any relation?

Watched a bit of Bangladesh-Malaysia on Boxing day if you want MNF style analysis on that.

Just think aswell we need dispensation from the Premier league to push it through as don't think the paperwork was done before the deadline. What a waste of facking time for everyone.

Dreading what sort of 11 Remi will put out for this one with the Ayew suspension....my guess is Gestede upfront on his own and then a 5 man midfield parked on the halfway line. This has 1-0 Sunderland written all over it.

A little bit. We had 10 points from first 4 and then didn't pick up another point until second week of November when surprise surprise Benteke came back from injury and the results started to pick up, no option of that this season so it would've been very marginal.

Without Benteke? That worked well first half of last season.

Double relegation happened to none of them....Wigan made the play offs first season they were down as did Leeds. Both went down the following season. Blackpool also made the play off final the first season aswell. Only team to have a double relegation is Wolves amusingly who were actually in good financial state when they came down but made some idiotic managerial appointments and kept faith with a losing squad....no chance of that happening here...oh!!! More I look at it more we need to come up straight away otherwise I'd worry...other teams like Boro (o.k looking good this season), Fulham, Blackburn, Bolton were in prem for years and years, went down, couldn't come straight up and then the whole club stagnates, squad starts to get worse and crowds drop and now those teams look more likely to get relegated than get promoted.

I think he'll be here until next January at least. How many teams spend big money on players who are crocked, I know we did with Downing but we knew what he could do in the premier league. Teams won't be spending 10m + until he proves his fitness after injury. If he still has the speed he had pre ACL he'll do very well in the championship.

Lambert's already getting a kicking from Blackburn fans I see (they were all so giddy when he was appointed). Somehow lost to Bolton and can't score, sounds familiar. Lambert to me was miles worse than Sherwood, he brought some proper embarrassment to this club on a regular basis Didn't help his reign seemed to go on forever, at least Sherwood was put out of his misery relatively quickly. Edit: 4 games without a goal for Blackburn and that's with Rhodes upfront.

Yeah Roma signed him for something crazy like 16m didn't they, wanted him to go to Watford so Iturbe and Ibarbo could unite again.

Well we won't be premier league anymore so can't be picky about ways of doing things, it's been good enough for other clubs e.g. Brighton and James Wilson currently, Boro had Bamford banging in 20 + last season. Who knows what the state of our finances will be either.