***Official Deadline Day Thread***

[Alioune DVToure]

Because there is 3 of Carroll and they will all sign with him?

£30M is a joke and Newcastle are beyond fools to reject that amount for a player who has been good for 6 months and has potential. Potentially he could end up being more like Carlton Cole than Andy, I would say it's more likely when you look at the percentage of players who fail vs those who succeed at this level.

Carroll is a different proposition to Carlton Cole. He's a different proposition to Drogba or Dzeko too. He is what he is; a proper old school centre forward. The only one of his kind who's any good. Some of you have probably never seen one. He doesn't have the class touch of a Drogba or a Dzeko but he's a good footballer & just as difficult, if not worse to play against & in his own way, just as effective. It may be that he'll stop scoring & become nothing more than a battering ram or a Kevin Davies. I'll be very surprised if that happens however. I recon the only thing that can stop Carroll is his stupid Geordie mentality. If he can rise above that & not get 'homesick' , pissed, etc then if he signs for a top club, he'll be scaring the fucking shit out of big lads like Vinny K, for years to come. It's all up to him being dedicated enough.

I'd love to have him at City & would swap half our squad for him but we wouldn't have a clue how to use him.

Duncan Ferguson.

Carroll's good but not in that top class bracket of forwards. Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Dzeko, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, Adebayor, Klose etc have bridged the gap between quick feet and upper body strength. That's where the game's at these days. At a top side Carroll would be a dangerous option from the bench when reverting to longabll and set-pieces in need of a late goal. He's not sharp enough to lead the line of a fluid attack in my opinion (though I agree he is a good player and wouldn't mind us signing him.)

[Ted Hughes]

Good move for Sturridge.

[Fesan]

Because there is 3 of Carroll and they will all sign with him?

£30M is a joke and Newcastle are beyond fools to reject that amount for a player who has been good for 6 months and has potential. Potentially he could end up being more like Carlton Cole than Andy, I would say it's more likely when you look at the percentage of players who fail vs those who succeed at this level.

Carroll is a different proposition to Carlton Cole. He's a different proposition to Drogba or Dzeko too. He is what he is; a proper old school centre forward. The only one of his kind who's any good. Some of you have probably never seen one. He doesn't have the class touch of a Drogba or a Dzeko but he's a good footballer & just as difficult, if not worse to play against & in his own way, just as effective. It may be that he'll stop scoring & become nothing more than a battering ram or a Kevin Davies. I'll be very surprised if that happens however. I recon the only thing that can stop Carroll is his stupid Geordie mentality. If he can rise above that & not get 'homesick' , pissed, etc then if he signs for a top club, he'll be scaring the fucking shit out of big lads like Vinny K, for years to come. It's all up to him being dedicated enough.

I'd love to have him at City & would swap half our squad for him but we wouldn't have a clue how to use him.

Duncan Ferguson.

Carroll's good but not in that top class bracket of forwards. Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Dzeko, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, Adebayor, Klose etc have bridged the gap between quick feet and upper body strength. That's where the game's at these days. At a top side Carroll would be a dangerous option from the bench when reverting to longabll and set-pieces in need of a late goal. He's not sharp enough to lead the line of a fluid attack in my opinion (though I agree he is a good player and wouldn't mind us signing him.)

Sounds like the perfect Big-Sam signing, maybe 'pool got him lined up to take over before next season?:-)

[leewonpen]

We need someone with electric pace I agree on Ashley Young. Cant understand why we went for milner instead of him. I would like luiz now. Are we going to lose Tevez in the summer? If so we should get Torres now. We will be lucky if Jo scores a goal for the rest of the season so we shouldn't count him as one our forwards.

[Ted Hughes]

Because there is 3 of Carroll and they will all sign with him?

£30M is a joke and Newcastle are beyond fools to reject that amount for a player who has been good for 6 months and has potential. Potentially he could end up being more like Carlton Cole than Andy, I would say it's more likely when you look at the percentage of players who fail vs those who succeed at this level.

Carroll is a different proposition to Carlton Cole. He's a different proposition to Drogba or Dzeko too. He is what he is; a proper old school centre forward. The only one of his kind who's any good. Some of you have probably never seen one. He doesn't have the class touch of a Drogba or a Dzeko but he's a good footballer & just as difficult, if not worse to play against & in his own way, just as effective. It may be that he'll stop scoring & become nothing more than a battering ram or a Kevin Davies. I'll be very surprised if that happens however. I recon the only thing that can stop Carroll is his stupid Geordie mentality. If he can rise above that & not get 'homesick' , pissed, etc then if he signs for a top club, he'll be scaring the fucking shit out of big lads like Vinny K, for years to come. It's all up to him being dedicated enough.

I'd love to have him at City & would swap half our squad for him but we wouldn't have a clue how to use him.

Duncan Ferguson.

Carroll's good but not in that top class bracket of forwards. Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Dzeko, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, Adebayor, Klose etc have bridged the gap between quick feet and upper body strength. That's where the game's at these days. At a top side Carroll would be a dangerous option from the bench when reverting to longabll and set-pieces in need of a late goal. He's not sharp enough to lead the line of a fluid attack in my opinion (though I agree he is a good player and wouldn't mind us signing him.)

It's the reverting to longball thing that I mean when I say we wouldn't know how to use him. That's what we'd do & it would fuck us up because he'd keep winning them so we'd do it more. What we should do is just let him play football. He's as good at it as most of our squad. Then put the odd cross in & watch Dzeko score as Carrol takes three men out of the game.

[Mike J]

sturridge will do well at bolton. i certainly think he will be a better signing for them than vela would have been.

[blues2win]

Dzeko hasn't got the brute strength of Carroll, nor his mobility. However, he's far more skilfull and, for Wolfsburg at least, was absolutely clinical quite apart from his great record on assists. I'm convinced we'll be able to say for years to come:

FEED THE DZEK AND HE'LL SCORE

My worry at the moment is whether we will feed him often enough. Kolarov at the end and Richards yesterday gave encouragement and there's Silva of course. However, like Ted I have worried for some time about the lack of pace and guile on our flanks to change a game if the wing back strategy isn't working. I still hope we'll get a decent winger in today but is the City hierarchy starting to draw its horns in because of FFP? Is that why the obvious need for creative back up with pace hasn't been addressed and why we've turned our back on Luiz, surely one of the best young defenders in the world? Frankly I don't know but our wages were 120% of turnover and that presumably had to be, and is being, addressed.

[Fesan]

Bidding 30m for Carrol must be the best way to get yourself into unmanageable dept again? If a business outside football made a move like that just after being rescued from bankrupcy people would go crazy!

[Alioune DVToure]

Because there is 3 of Carroll and they will all sign with him?

£30M is a joke and Newcastle are beyond fools to reject that amount for a player who has been good for 6 months and has potential. Potentially he could end up being more like Carlton Cole than Andy, I would say it's more likely when you look at the percentage of players who fail vs those who succeed at this level.

Carroll is a different proposition to Carlton Cole. He's a different proposition to Drogba or Dzeko too. He is what he is; a proper old school centre forward. The only one of his kind who's any good. Some of you have probably never seen one. He doesn't have the class touch of a Drogba or a Dzeko but he's a good footballer & just as difficult, if not worse to play against & in his own way, just as effective. It may be that he'll stop scoring & become nothing more than a battering ram or a Kevin Davies. I'll be very surprised if that happens however. I recon the only thing that can stop Carroll is his stupid Geordie mentality. If he can rise above that & not get 'homesick' , pissed, etc then if he signs for a top club, he'll be scaring the fucking shit out of big lads like Vinny K, for years to come. It's all up to him being dedicated enough.

I'd love to have him at City & would swap half our squad for him but we wouldn't have a clue how to use him.

Duncan Ferguson.

Carroll's good but not in that top class bracket of forwards. Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Dzeko, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, Adebayor, Klose etc have bridged the gap between quick feet and upper body strength. That's where the game's at these days. At a top side Carroll would be a dangerous option from the bench when reverting to longabll and set-pieces in need of a late goal. He's not sharp enough to lead the line of a fluid attack in my opinion (though I agree he is a good player and wouldn't mind us signing him.)

It's the reverting to longball thing that I mean when I say we wouldn't know how to use him. That's what we'd do & it would fuck us up because he'd keep winning them so we'd do it more. What we should do is just let him play football. He's as good at it as most of our squad. Then put the odd cross in & watch Dzeko score as Carrol takes three men out of the game.

I might be mistaken, but are you suggesting he's good/effective enough for us to build a team/attack around? Our best option, in my opinion, is to play through a central Silva with Kolarov and Richards/Zab bombing on down the flanks and Barry and De Jong providing cover for them. Playing with wingers would make us less fluid, more rigid, more predictable.

[Ted Hughes]

Dzeko hasn't got the brute strength of Carroll, nor his mobility. However, he's far more skilfull and, for Wolfsburg at least, was absolutely clinical quite apart from his great record on assists. I'm convinced we'll be able to say for years to come:

FEED THE DZEK AND HE'LL SCORE

My worry at the moment is whether we will feed him often enough. Kolarov at the end and Richards yesterday gave encouragement and there's Silva of course. However, like Ted I have worried for some time about the lack of pace and guile on our flanks to change a game if the wing back strategy isn't working. I still hope we'll get a decent winger in today but is the City hierarchy starting to draw its horns in because of FFP? Is that why the obvious need for creative back up with pace hasn't been addressed and why we've turned our back on Luiz, surely one of the best young defenders in the world? Frankly I don't know but our wages were 120% of turnover and that presumably had to be, and is being, addressed.

If you look at Kolarov & Micah's contributions, I think there's evidence we're working on it.

Re Luiz, we probably don't think he's worth the money. He's the sort of bloke the afformentioned Carroll would have for breakfast if he played right now. £30 mil for a CB who could take a year to get used to the Prem, is a lot of money even for City.

[avoidconfusion]

Chelsea deal for Torres almost done, £42.8m

Also reported on 5Live.

I have no interest in following football anymore now. Will cancel my Sky Subscription too.... they're ruining football... they're fucking ruining it!!

[Slim]

RUMOUR:Leroy Lita to Stoke for £2M.

[Original Dub]

We should boycott the Premier League from here on in. Over 100m being spent in the fucking JANUARY transfer window by only TWO clubs.

The game is officially DEAD.

[Original Dub]

Spanish media are reporting that City have come in at the last minute to hijack the Torres deal.

[OliverHardy]

Chelsea deal for Torres almost done, £42.8m

Also reported on 5Live.

I have no interest in following football anymore now. Will cancel my Sky Subscription too.... they're ruining football... they're fucking ruining it!!

Anyone hearing the rumours that we are trying to hijack the Torres deal!?!!?!

[Alioune DVToure]

I'm trying to think who I'd go for as an emergency replacement for Torres were I Kenny Dalglish. He's really dropped them in it here. They might as well write off trying to get into Europe and save their money until the summer to get better value.

[Alioune DVToure]

Spanish media are reporting that City have come in at the last minute to hijack the Torres deal.

Tell me the source and I'll knock a translation together.

[Ted Hughes]

Because there is 3 of Carroll and they will all sign with him?

£30M is a joke and Newcastle are beyond fools to reject that amount for a player who has been good for 6 months and has potential. Potentially he could end up being more like Carlton Cole than Andy, I would say it's more likely when you look at the percentage of players who fail vs those who succeed at this level.

Carroll is a different proposition to Carlton Cole. He's a different proposition to Drogba or Dzeko too. He is what he is; a proper old school centre forward. The only one of his kind who's any good. Some of you have probably never seen one. He doesn't have the class touch of a Drogba or a Dzeko but he's a good footballer & just as difficult, if not worse to play against & in his own way, just as effective. It may be that he'll stop scoring & become nothing more than a battering ram or a Kevin Davies. I'll be very surprised if that happens however. I recon the only thing that can stop Carroll is his stupid Geordie mentality. If he can rise above that & not get 'homesick' , pissed, etc then if he signs for a top club, he'll be scaring the fucking shit out of big lads like Vinny K, for years to come. It's all up to him being dedicated enough.

I'd love to have him at City & would swap half our squad for him but we wouldn't have a clue how to use him.

Duncan Ferguson.

Carroll's good but not in that top class bracket of forwards. Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Dzeko, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, Adebayor, Klose etc have bridged the gap between quick feet and upper body strength. That's where the game's at these days. At a top side Carroll would be a dangerous option from the bench when reverting to longabll and set-pieces in need of a late goal. He's not sharp enough to lead the line of a fluid attack in my opinion (though I agree he is a good player and wouldn't mind us signing him.)

It's the reverting to longball thing that I mean when I say we wouldn't know how to use him. That's what we'd do & it would fuck us up because he'd keep winning them so we'd do it more. What we should do is just let him play football. He's as good at it as most of our squad. Then put the odd cross in & watch Dzeko score as Carrol takes three men out of the game.

I might be mistaken, but are you suggesting he's good/effective enough for us to build a team/attack around? Our best option, in my opinion, is to play through a central Silva with Kolarov and Richards/Zab bombing on down the flanks and Barry and De Jong providing cover for them. Playing with wingers would make us less fluid, more rigid, more predictable.

I think we should play with variety. I think the best teams I've seen in the Prem have mostly had the ability to play with attacking wide players as well as fullbacks & have had players who cause the opponents different problems, so if they solve one, they are presented with another. Everything down the middle is a piece of piss for decent teams to stop unless you have Lionel Messi. If you're rich, you can have options of all kinds & play all kinds of football. Dzeko is a good enough footballer to play off a player like Carroll, so in 4 competitions, a strikeforce of Tevez, Balotelli, Dzeko & Carroll is a great strting point to cause all kinds of shit to just about everyone & with a variety of creative service; to win everything.

[Original Dub]

Spanish media are reporting that City have come in at the last minute to hijack the Torres deal.

Tell me the source and I'll knock a translation together.

Sorry mate, it was on some site on newsnow that said spanish media are reporting it, so not sure which media it actually is. Marca maybe?

[Alioune DVToure]

Marca are saying that Spurs have made a bid for Dayglo Foreskin. Getting on, but i still rate him more highly than I do Agüero.