Ex Lion Tamer

I was having a dig, Dig Dig, at those who wet themselves when we refused to pay Brandon's loan fee

I wonder if City's form will nosedive like Utd's did when Fergie announced he was leaving. They could end up with Pep leaving well earlier than planned. I also wonder if Pep is suited to international football when he won't be able to hammer home his system day to day with the players

I'm gutted that we didn't get Brandon Williams in

If you buy into the view that we have spent all the money we have available, then Walcott for free and Lyanco to cover for centre back and Romeu was about as good as we could do

Who played the ball to Ely? Lovely pass

Don't believe everything that comes out of the club. If you did that, you'd think we were still rotating our keepers this season and Djenepo was playing left back

Presumably we have money set aside to fire Hasenhuttl if we need to, as well

We only had him on loan and Reading didn't want to sell at that time

We've looked so weak in the air defensively

1 point from 4 games for Adkins' Charlton now

He still looked well off the pace in the first couple of games and got written off here

I suppose the positive is that if he can learn to defend, then his ability on the ball will make him one of the best in the world. Big if though

Bear in mind that lots of people thought Mane, Pelle, Ings were poor signings early in their times with us so it's never exactly been a case of signing ready made replacements. That said we do seem to be spending less this summer and that's reflected in the players

I have reservations too but Watford saw something in him as well

If he's good enough, he's old enough, though. Personally I've never seen the kid play.

If we want established back up then that means we need a first teamer, a senior backup and an up and coming youngster, which is not only more expensive but means we probably won't get such a promising young player as they'll be third in line. Going with just two players is more risky for first team quality but increases our chances of making a big sale in the future, which is essential for us financially

I think it sounds like a good transfer for back up at left back but obviously we still need a high quality centre back

Given that we're no doubt paying him a lot more and only getting an extra year added on, I can't imagine we've agreed to a particularly low release clause as well. Otherwise it's not in our interest to give the contract

Good lad

McCarthy Livra Bedna Salisu Perraud JWP Romeu Armstrong Tella Armstrong Adams KWP on for Livra after an hour

I'm not totally convinced that selecting a young kid out of position on his second start for the club, against man utd, is a great idea, but it could work out

Seven Premier League clubs have had less owner investment than us over the last 10 years apparently. Shows how lucky we were to have Markus really - these figures are from the period after he died although I guess it was perhaps still his money. Plus we've spent more on club infrastructure than 10 other clubs which I guess is where some of our potential transfer money has gone.

Not sure Ashley has put any of his own money into the club though. Aside from the (unrealistic?) expectation that an owner's job is to pump money into a club, the disillusionment has a lot to do with them being relegated twice under his ownership, some woeful managerial appointments, and unpopular moves like renaming the stadium. Plus the Geordies' inflated sense of where their club should be challenging in the league, and some spells where the club didn't spend any money, possibly because they were paying off the debts built up under Freddy Shepherd

It's basically a badly worded survey. I don't have confidence in Gao to invest and take us to the next level. I do have confidence in him to oversee a decently well run club which makes the most of its limited resources