S-Clarke

Aaron Maclean possibly. Pacey, Powerful striker. Exactly the sort of player we need.

ah bull****, boro score.

Cork and Morgan in the middle ran the show, and De Ridder showed alot more promise from the start and what we've all been wanting to see! The front two seemed a little flat, but Guly got himself into the right positions twice....and got us 2 goals, so that'll do for me from today. A pretty bog standard win really. Didn't think Palace offered a great deal, but their RB Clyne was their best player by a mile.

Merry xmas to everyone - let's hope 2012 is as much fun as 2011.

Lambert has been excellent. but in terms of consistency, it has to be Fraser. He's played consistently at the same level all year, he's a great 1st half of the season and has totally surprised me if I'm honest. Looks a quality championship player.

There was a deal that was close in the summer, we were also trying to include Matt Phillips in any deal. That didn't happen and Phillips ended up going on loan to L1. Wouldn't surprise me if we tried the same again.

I think Rhodes is the fine example of a young player that needs to take 2 steps back, in order to move forward. He wasn't getting the game time at Ipswich and needed it as it was hampering his development. The move to Huddersfield made sense to all parties and we're now seeing the true ability of the lad come on. He will score goals in the championship, no doubts about that, some players just need to drop down a level or 2 to grow and gain the confidence before coming back better players.

He's probably realised what an idiot he was, moaning that when with us in L1 it was below his level. We've risen through the leagues quicker than anyone could have imagined and probably attractive for lots of players at the moment, so It would not surprise me if he wants to give it another go here. He was a bit of an idiot, but the fans ganging up on him at the start of last season really didn't help things. On hsi day he is a premiership player as we saw with Blackpool and he'd add that pace and skill down the right hand side that we're missing at the moment.

In exchange for David Silva i've heard.

Who you think is the quality we should be aiming for? What sort of names?

TBF West Hams home record isn't the best. and to be honest, the games that are deemed the hardest, often turn out to be the most straight forward for us. I remember us panicking last year as we still had to go to Brighton away, Bournemouth away etc...yet we won both. Let's see what happens, I reckon we'll win a few people don't expect us to.....and probably loose a few we aren't expected to!

An 8 match ban is mental. Worth bearing in mind that the ban is suspended upon the start of any appeal, which they believe liverpool will start asap.

Crystal Palace for me as well. I think we'll use him as a boost in any deal we go in for.....i.e Clyne. £1m and Puncheon for a player out of contract in 6 months may be just too good to say no to.

If anyone thinks we're top by luck, then they haven't got a clue. winning against Birmingham 4-1, Ipswich 5-2, Forest 3-2, Boro 3-0 isn't luck. That's about having a good team. We're still top, even after our blip, because we had generated such a good lead. That wasn't a lucky lead, it was a lead based on us performing at a consistent and dominant level for months.

We do not urgently need a GK at all. We may well get one in the summer, but we don't need one now. a forward and a pacey winger are the urgent requirements for us. I personally don't want us to get players who are either out of favour, or not playing in their premiership teams. We need to target good, young players who are in good form at the moment and can make the step up. I.e Clyne, Adomah, Maynard, Jay Rod etc.

That's a really nice read. Shows what a great job our coaches have done on him, because he was never a CB before he came to us - he was an AMC.

Failed in this league, and quite clearly has failed in Turkey after making just 2 apps. No thanks.

Swansea signed a reliatvley unknown keeper, going by the name of Michel Vorm in the summer. He has been a revelation for them and looks one hell of a prospect. Just because they are playing in a lower standard of league does not mean they don't have the ability to step up. If you go by that logic then Arsenal should stop signing L1 players from us.

He does have a long term injury at the mo though TBF, his knee injury has never cleared up. I reckon he'll end up retiring before the end of the season.

No thanks. He was a total flop in this league with Boro and Forest, and will want stupid wages.

He does seem to struggle in the away games for sure. Similar to most foreign players I guess, tight, dark, damp grounds in the lower leagues of English football don't set the pulses racing for these foreigners.

To go through the dip we have had recently, which has been a pretty poor haul of points, yet still be clear at the top shows how good we've been. Lambo had it spot on today in his post match interview how he said we've been amazing in the first half of the season, which we have been. Beyond anyone's expectations. All I wanted from this season was a good solid showing and a potential push for a top 6 place, now sitting where we are at Christmas I'd be gutted to miss out on a top 2 place! And even if we don't make it this year, which I'd be gutted if we didn't, everything is in place for us to go again next year. It's not like our championship promotion push under Burley which was just a 1 season wonder, if we don't do it this year we'll be there or there abouts again next year. We'll be back in the premiership before long.

I don't think anyone was saying we didn't need a striker. Most were vocal in august that we could do with another option. Unfortunately we couldn't get one done, but that wasn't down to not trying and why do we want to be forced into paying OTT for average players? Best to wait for a chance to grab a really good player for the same price, or possibly cheaper. Anyway, it's not caused us many problems up until now has it? Top scorrers in the league, Lambo is at home, and we're top of the league at Christmas. Quite some way from 17th I think you'd say? A striker will arrive, but thankfully we've coped quite well up until now without additional firepower. So please stop trying to justify your stupid summer predictions.

I don't get the criticism of Lallana, he was a real spark in our attack today. The problem with him at the mo is that it's not quite happening in the final third, he's not making the right calls as he was at the start and he's lost the confidence to have a pop at goal for some reason, but he's still a joy to watch on the ball.

True. Lambo, Lallana and Conners were a great triangle of attack at the start of the season. Some of the interchanging was fantastic to watch. He should be back for Boxing day hopefully.