S-Clarke

If I remember correctly, he went away at a similar time last year and things went dead. He does seem a 'do it my way and no one else's.' sort of guy. But he gets success with it so you cannot complain really.

He was hit and miss. A bit like a l1 Steve de ridder I guess. Pace merchant. I think he's now in the 4th division of Italy Antonio had more of a positive impact though.

Antonio wasn't bad for most of the season. He changed games for us regularly. Pace at league 1 level males a huge difference. It's totally ignorant to rate his contribution as bad for most of the season

Dale Stephens was decent. So were papa and Antonio. All 3 hits in my opinion. The fact of the matter is that you need to have a pretty decent transfer policy to achieve back to back promotions.

I don't think he's ****e, just a decent player who is lost in a squad of crapness with a clown in charge. Anyone half decent would struggle there.

Please stop quoting him. Ignore him, he's just on a windup. Anyway, everything has gone pretty quiet at most clubs hasn't it? Sunderland's manager has openly admitted that they are finding it very hard to secure anyone, so I can imagine we're finding it just as tricky - but we have managed to attract some real quality here already, so if that's the level we're looking at then our remaining 2 or 3 should be very good indeed. Good things come to those who wait.

Why are people getting their knickers in a twist over WHU signings though? They're average.com. From their fans views, they are frustrated and worried at their lack of notable activity. And are envious at our ''clever'' and shrewd additions so far. We need a CB and RW, we will get them, and then we can stop worrying. Adkins has confirmed as much. We had similar threads last season, notably people commenting on Leicester. But we did it the right way, by evolving what we had and not going for a mass change which some (not everyone) is suggesting. I think our management and scouts have earned our trust for what they've done over the past few years, so let's just let them get on with it and stop bickering regarding the lack of quality activity, when in fact from a neutrals point of view, we've made very good additions to the squad. If they continue to be of that standard then I'll be happy.

Henderson and McCartney were already there as loans with an agreement to buy, don't class them as new additions in this window. Other than that I'm not too excited by their additions, we've got better.

I have no problem with people having an opinion and raising fair points, but when they try to conclude their argument by stating made up facts it does my head in. Name the 6 new players WHU have. I bet you can't. WHU have only brought in 4 new players. Diame, Collins, Mgbia(?) and Jasskalinen. Excellent. I'm sure we'd all be enthralled with those additions. WHU are a good expmaple of how not to go about it actually. As fans it ''sounds'' like they're busy, being linked with a big bid for a guy in Europe, attempting to bring in Andy Caroll - but they're wasting their time, and to the frustration of their fans, making it public. So the fans can see them failing to get additions. I know for a fact that WHU fans are ****ed so far with this transfer window. They've not added anyone of note, and replaced Green with a keeper who is long past it. They are very, very envious of our signing of Clyne as they needed a right back and were frustrated they didn't go for him. At this stage Sunderland are also much weaker than they were last season, and a quick glance on their forum shows a similar state of panic threads as they've publicly admitted that their targets have not materialized. So have an opinion by all means, but back it up with facts and don't make up the numbers just to suit your argument.

The thing he lacks is the what stops him being a useful player. You can have all the speed and skilll in the world, but if you can't do anything with it you are pretty useless. I've stuck up for the guy numerous times, over Christmas I thought he had 2 games where he took his chance and looked really lively - but he never pushed on again from there and just went back to the frustrating winger we all know and love. Seems a nice enough lad, but lacks any sort of final product to make him a valuable PL option.

From what I've heard he frustrates Adkins as much as he does to us. The only reason I think he's still in contention is because we haven't got another pacey sided player. Once we get him I expect Steves days to be numbered.

Would imagine we've given him permission to train whilst we thrash out a deal with Bournemouth. Expect it's only a loan.

Reports suggest around 500-600k. The sad thing is that we could have got Tom ince and Phillips for much less before they joined blackpool. A little too much money wasted on Sdr methinks.

Keep him. If he can keep his head down and carry on working hard. Much more effective than sdr

He's done my head in pretty much from word go, give or take the opening few weeks when he showed some promise. He looked to be bright, intelligent and took up good positions. UUnfortunately that seems to have been a false dawn as he's nothing of the sort. Lots of pace which gets the crowd up, but that's it. For a winger his end product and decision making is horrendous, Adkins has even said as much as he tried to play him through the middle, but he was equally ineffective there. Hes been a real disappointment for me and pretty much underwhelms in every game he plays. His lack of appearances suggests Adkins thinks the same. We need to replace him as a priority.

Well they've not made a very good job of making it pubic, as there isn't anything, anywhere.

I see people are snapshoting a single performance again, and deciding that's that. You cannot do that, you need to look at the bigger picture. Both are very good young keepers, they will both make absolute howlers and bad decisions. Both are probably at the same level at the moment, but it'll be Interesting to see who goes further.

On twitter Nixon has responded to someone pretty much saying ''Don't rule it out, NC wants a sexy signing''

It's 15m euro's, and apparently he will sign for L'Pool over the weekend. Out of our league anyway. He was one of the few decent players in the GB game the other night, he was the one that smashed that rocket against the bar from 30 yards.

He's a bit too good for us in our current stance. Give us a few more years in the PL then maybe...

that would be an insane signing.

Interesting post, because I thought it sounded slightly different at the Ajax game - maybe affected by the crowd (But it's always sounded worse with less people before...). But it sounded clearer, and more full from what I coudl tell. It wouldn't surprise me if they've gone the whole hog and as well as the new screens, have also purchased a new sound system (which dacktronics also bundle in with the screens). I thought the new screens looked absolutely superb btw, not many comments on them so far, but the quality was top notch.

He's pretty **** IMO. Slow, with the turning rate of a tanker. He wasn't even that great for them in their promotion season from the NPC.

Great way to add to the debate.

Would agree with that. It only takes a quick watch back at our season videos from Aug > Nov to see how bloody influential Guly actually was, he was class during those opening months. Chaplow was also good in those opening months, but what people seem to forget is that he started as a substitute and only really started to make people sit up with his substitute appearances. Guly was key in every one of our 4 wins on the bounce. His performances against Boro stand out, but he didn't feature enough for me after that.