for_heaven's_Saint

Yup. His ban is just for domestic games so cue can play tonight but not Sunday.

Shame they don't desperately need a win on Thursday really.

True, but I wonder how many games he went to in those 7 years?

True, I guess it's telling that those 2 are still in the line up two leagues above.

Where was he when we were sh*t? Not a peep for the last 7 years then as soon as there's a chance for some publicity he's number one fan.

Due to our 'evolution not revolution' transfer policy, I think a lot of people still think of our team as being built by Pardew and taken to another level by Adkins. In fact, Adkins' ability to pick and attract the best players is often thought of as inferior to Pardew's. However, on closer inspection, it is perhaps surprising to look at our team and see who was signed by who. Looking at our match day squad from Saturday, i was certainly surprised to see how many were Adkins signings: 12 Gazzaniga Adkins 02 Clyne Adkins 03 Yoshida Adkins 06 Fonte Pardew 23 Shaw Academy 04 Schneiderlin Already here 10 Ramirez Adkins 18 Cork Adkins 20 Lallana Academy 42 Puncheon Pardew 07 Lambert Pardew 01 K Davis Already here 05 Hooiveld Adkins 13 Fox Adkins 08 S Davis Adkins 16 Ward-Prowse Academy 09 Rodriguez Adkins 24 Mayuka Adkins Nevertheless, arguably our two best attackers of the game were signed by Pardew... Whose signings do you feel have been the best over the last 4 years?

Danny Fox- Pompey Guly- Inter Milan

Ben Arfa is good.

Yup. Gazzanigga and Ramirez are leaving too. And all the subs.

I think the 4-2-3-1 formation we're playing (with the right players in the right positions) means that there is not quite as much reliance on Lallana and Puncheon to defend all of the time, because Cork and Schniederlin push across to help the fullbacks.

He's going to have his work cut out next week against Ben Arfa.

Lol.

The thing I like about him is that he both defends really high up the pitch and also offers us protection on the edge of the box. He quite often appears alongside Rickie chasing the ball down and forcing the opposition back, and also sits right in front of the back 4 when the pressure is really on.

We need players who we can get on Jan 1st rather than Jan 31st.

Lol idiot. He did nothing wrong today. Is it better to throw it backwards to one of your own players or forwards to the opposition?

Pretty much sums up how I feel about it all.

Fair play to NC for not cracking.

Please no!!

Yes, but, playing devil's advocate, is that not worse in the big picture? It means there's nothing we can do until January, unless our mistake-prone defenders stop making mistakes!

Was about to say the same.

Indeed. Let's hope that if someone is running through our entire midfield today someone takes one for the team and takes him out.

Long or Clyne?

Adkins confirms Boruc out because of the incident and made it sound like 2 up front...

The pace of Long against our back four is frightening- hope Clyne's got his running boots on (rather than his usual falling over boots)

Not play awfully in his only start?