sellyoakvilla

Makoun is class, anyone who disagrees is obviously anti Houllier. You can tell he is a lot better than anything else we have in midfield, some of the one touch through balls into space he made yesterday were quality and it's not his fault Petrov is so slow and negative minded that he has to track back just incase. If we had a CDM in midfield who could work next to him, similar to NRC, he would be allowed to play the game he wants, not sit back and protect Petrov.

Preferably Adidas. Wouldn't mind Hummel or Puma, they do a decent retro range. Hate Nike.

Not seen the game... but 85 successful passes... **** me. Just got in from work and have been reading some reports and getting feedback from some of my mates and they're all saying he was class. In my opinion this is a better signing than Darren Bent.

100000000000000000% yes

No, he's coming back in Summer and will be given a chance to feature in our first team. In a better squad with Makoun now signed he will be a lot better in my opinion. Remember he was playing with alot of reserves and injured players in the side - compare that to his best season at Man City when he had some class players around him. With everyone fully fit and some new signings he will, IMO, be a great player, and like a new signing.

To be fair heystally I could have drank 12 small whiskeys in 4 minutes

Theoretically I'm on a 0 hour contract. Get called in to work whenever they need me which was never over end of December/Early Jan as there was nothing on - but work is starting to pick up again now as there's gigs and clubnights on almost every night for the next few months (£££££££££). If you didn't guess I work on the bar at a venue, more specifically the O2 Academy in town.

Man Utd 0-2 Aston Villa (Young, Bent) Friedel Cuellar Collins Dunne Clark Downing Makoun Reo Coker Albrighton Young Bent

Hi General, me again, bet you are bored of me now. Just another question about the attendances. Have the club considered adding a new ticket category for say the first 15 rows of the Lower Holte? When I get back and rewatch some games on the TV it looks half empty which isn't great. I know you'll say you can't lower ticket prices but how about for example a £2 decrease in tickets in the bottom half and an increase in tickets in the top half? People would still pay the extra couple of quid at the back of the Lower Holte as it's a great view and believe me a lot of people (particularly families) would rather sit in the bottom half if they are buying a bunch of tickets and can save £8-10. Thanks

Can I just add the words of top 8 haven't come from his mouth, I'm just saying the club are aware we will need to finish top 8 or realistically no lower than 7th to keep him... this also hinges on how quick we make moves in Summer and who we buy. anyway this is Stephen Ireland thread... sorry for taking it off topic

Top 8 and he signs? ouch... thats going to be tough, definitely do-able... but tough. Sunderland 6th and 7 points ahead of the closest rival (atleast from what i remember) With Liverpools hefty investments, I'd expect them and Sunderland to fight over 6th and 7th. Which leaves us needing to overtake Blackpool, Bolton, Blackburn, Everton, NEwcastle.. Yes we are a better team and tbh we cant still get into that top 6 or 7. I'm not sure the relevance of finishing 8th? If he'd said Europe I would understand (and maybe start planning for his departure), but 8th? Why? I think it's doable, but if we happen to finish 9th whilst showing the sort of form we have done and he still left, I'd be annoyed. Shows progress and a strong finish, realistically no lower than 7th.

No I mean in general, we just need top 8

There we go, done deal with no option to buy and will be back in summer to start again in a better team where he will be more suited. Oh and RMB, Young isn't going.

It hasn't leaked yet, but it was all done a few hours ago.

Gone through now

So GH still thinks SI has a future with us? Does Ireland still think the same? Yes and yes, he's just unsettled and needs some playing time elsewhere while we sort the team out

No just a loan, we want him back for next season

Ireland deal back on

In the same way that teams are playing hardball with us since we popped up with 19m out of nowhere, we have the right to say to Newcastle now:"You have 35m + 30k wages a week off your books, you pay Ireland's wages for the rest of the season".

Shame really. Feel sorry for him.

clicky you can listen to a track by them on the link.

As I said before good move for both parties involved. Will help Newcastle out a bit if they can get him playing plus will give him some playing time for when he returns. He's keen to play but is just competing with Young for the one position in the hole. Infact there's a short clip on SSN at the minute when they talk about him going off on loan where it looks like he's talking to Ash where he points at himself and says twice "Get the ball to me".

Why bring a new manager in if we finish strongly? It'd make no sense.I'd just rather us have a manager that will be here for the long hall, I don't see GH being here for 3 or 4 years. beside me not liking him, i'd rather us not have to start all over again in a few short years.. He will be though that's the thing .He is building for the next manager to come in to a seriously talented mix of British youth and foreign imports to take us from top four challenging to title challengers... and if you think that's a little far fetched now come back in 4-5 years when we're in the Champions League for the second successive year. It's a long process but if MON had bought a bit more youth instead of old players who lost interest after the cup final we wouldn't be in this situation now. But that story is for another day.

If we beat Man Utd I think there will be a dramatic increase on fans willing to change their mind. I know a fair few who are still in the "Houllier out" camp but a victory at Old Trafford will sway them across. It's just about keeping momentum up at the minute, we need to win as many games as we possibly can to make up for such a shit start to the season. I still stand by what I originally said that injuries are the main cause of our first half of season decline.