Toon Saint

When are we signing Sean Bean?

Some excellent choices in there, but Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me over Disintegration and The Head on the Door?!

Will be concerned if we haven't signed a CB by the end of the week. Hopefully Celtic's probable CL exit on Wednesday will hasten things on that front...Van Dijk looks to be the kind of ball-playing CB that would flourish under Koeman's guidance.

I'd be happy with a top half finish and would like to think that would be the minimum that the coaching staff expect of the players. We obviously need some more players at CB and in forward positions, but we still do have a lot of talent at the club despite all the sales. Assuming Krueger keeps to his guarantee that J-Rod and Morgan won't be sold and there are no more unexpected exits, then we've still got ample quality to separate us from the dross in the league. Hope to see Pelle bag around 15 goals, and think Tadic will be a fantastic signing for us based on what I have seen so far. Looking at the teams that finished below us I'd say that Newcastle, West Ham, and Stoke appear stronger than they were last season. Problem for West Ham is that they are trying to change their playing style to be more expansive and it's obvious that this doesn't come natural to Fat Sam. Wouldn't be surprised if he was sacked relatively early in the season. Newcastle, for me, have lacked a playing identity for the past couple of seasons. Cabella looks a very good signing, but don't expect Newcastle to become a fluid unit overnight. I think Stoke might be the biggest challengers for 8th spot. Hughes has got them playing some decent stuff and has also bought well, attracting some relatively exotic names to a veritable sh*thole. Sunderland should improve as well, but still think they will end up 12th-14th. Hull have made some decent-ish signings (especially Andrew Robertson) but I think, like a lot of people, that they will really suffer with commitments of the Europa League. Lots of transfer activity still to be done, but we finished so comfortable in 8th position last season that we shouldn't really be aiming for anything lower than a top-half finish IMO.

Good signing. Assuming Krueger honours his guarantee to keep Schneiderlin, we are certainly well stocked in central midfield positions for next season. I'm happy with the four brought in so far, just wish the board would up the pace to something more than a crawl.

Who is the player with the great finish at 3:25 and lovely through ball at 4:38? Sign him up Les!

Player with great potential, but a big risk at that price given his injury history.

EDIT: Beaten to it ^

They signed their contracts last summer. Reed signed a new one a few weeks back! I'd prefer that he was following both Arsenal and Tottenham rather than just one of them...that would look a little suspicious. Hard to draw too strong a conclusion from twitter activity anyway.

The lad's only just signed a new 4 year deal, would be absolutely stunned if we sold him this summer.

Dear, oh dear. What a dreadful signing that would be. Really hope it's not true as it would be proof we are shopping in the bargain bins this summer. Ha, the article also says Samaras is waiting to see how we 'regroup' before deciding whether to join us. Doesn't say a lot for our current rep among players if not even Samaras is convinced to join Ron's Revolution. Hopefully all b*llocks.

Ok, that makes sense reading back. I was a little confused about Guan's response to Batman's question about whether the 2 loans were part of the 2-3 players Koeman mentioned. So Schelotto is the one recently added to our list of targets (and therefore not counted in the 2-3 mentioned by Koeman) and presumably the one being brought in as an improving squad player. Taider, on the other hand, is considered first-team material. Given that Taider & Schelotto are supposed to be being sorted out on Tuesday (according to Italian press), I assume the player we are unveiling tomorrow will have actually commanded a transfer fee.

What I have taken from Guan's comments is that we are only bringing in one loan signing (hopefully Taider) and another player who has only recently been added to our list of targets. Assuming that Taider falls under the description of improving squad member, then the announcement we make tomorrow will be for a player considered as part of the starting XI. Also looks like Morgan will be off in January (or maybe sooner) unless we can land a marquee signing and convince him of our ambition. £70m there to spend but inclusive of transfer fee, wages, signing-on fees, agents fees. Anyone read it differently?

To avoid you revealing any hush-hush information, on a scale of 1-10 how excited should we be for Monday's signing? (10 being bouncing-off-the-walls delirium)

Guan called the loan signing the other night, which is more than anyone else on this board offered in terms of ITK knowledge. We know (according to the Italian press) that Taider and Schelotto are booked in for medicals on Tuesday, and Guan has indicated that another will be unveiled tomorrow. That probably represents the 3 that Koeman was talking about. No drama.

Stetson is a type of hat. Hang on to your hats.

Frustrating to see that Chambers has been deployed at CB by Wenger in his first one-and-a-half games for Arsenal. He could have effectively covered us for two positions (or even three if used as a central midfielder) but Koeman apparently saw the £11m as a 'present' for a second-choice RB. Fair enough, and I guess we just need to trust Koeman's judgement at the moment, but I still don't believe we were powerless to stop him going - especially given Krueger's newly discovered backbone - so have the club missed a trick by not recognizing the value of his versatility?

Could shoot to the CL spots of the ITK league with this info, pal. Or face instant relegation.

Pretty underwhelming if 2 of the 3 signings turn out to be loans. At least the lad won't suffer from the weight of expectation.

Schelotto looks like the faun from Pan's Labyrinth.

Ewww.

Koeman said 2-3 signings this weekend. Hardly a massive call saying someone will sign tomorrow at 8:55 PM on the Saturday.

Very nostalgic but not sure how quality all of those bands were. Typical of the 'indie landfill' that NME would trumpet and then knock them back down again 12 months later. That said, I still absolutely love the Clor album, shame those guys split up. Enjoyed 'Hang them all' by Tapes n' Tapes and 'Adventurers' by Be Your Own Pet as well. Expected both bands to do a lot more than they ever did. My ex-girlfriend once went on a date with that Miles guy from the Little Flames/Last Shadow Puppets. A nice guy by all accounts, but never really dug their sound. The Stills had about 4 decent songs on Logic will break your heart. Bandages by Hot Hot Heat always a staple at indie clubs when I was a UG in Liverpool as well.

Television - Marquee Moon The Smiths - Meat is Murder Wild Beasts - Smother Radiohead - In Rainbows Destroyer - Kaputt Honourable mentions to Gang of Four - Entertainment; LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver; PJ Harvey - Let England Shake; Beach House - Teen Dream; Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man, etc etc....

I love that if Boruc ever does make a high-profile error (such as vs Arsenal and Stoke last year) he can just laugh it off and get on with it. Sign of a great temperament.