Newcastle close in on striker deal

Maiga lined up for Toon move.
Newcastle are closing in on Sochaux striker Modibo Maiga, if reports is the Sunday press are to be believed.

The People claims that Derek Llambias has been out in France since Thursday trying to tie up a deal having watched Maiga play in a 4-0 home Europe League defeat by Ukrainian outfit Metalist Kharkiv.

Maiga had been on strike in the hope of getting his move to Newcastle in a move which annoyed the French club enough to report Newcastle to UEFA. It seems though that Maiga played in that game to earn his move away from the French club according to his agent Karim Aklil.

“He played on condition that the club allowed him to leave this month, providing they find a replacement,” said Aklil.

I’m assuming that, should we sign him, the complaint to UEFA will be dropped? I mean we would have met Sochaux’s demands so they won’t have anything essentially to be unhappy about. They’ll have an unhappy player of their books and will have a replacement in according to Maiga’s agent so hopefully the complaint will just subside.

As for the player, well it’s fair to say that he still has his mind set on Newcastle.

Maiga said: “I want it to be done with Newcastle. England is a dream. I want to go.”

That has been the rhetoric of Maiga since day one. In fact it was his words that set the rabbit away on the first place when he spoke about how he’d met people from Newcastle. Most definitely an own goal from the striker but I guess you can’t knock his desire to play for us.

Nolan Roux and Papiss Demba Cisse remain linked with us although it seems as though Maiga is the preferred choice. Who we’ll get is up for debate but we only have a maximum of four days to wait and find out. It’s quite conceivable that we could end up with nobody though, which is worrying.

So four days to bring in at least a left-back and a striker. Can it be done? Will it be done done? Are you nervous about it?

I know my nerves are starting to jangle…

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

205 thoughts on “Newcastle close in on striker deal

  1. Not fussed Troy, I stand corrected but I’m not the one harping on about being “right” all the time. You’ve had your fair share of wrong calls, although I’m sure you’ll be quick to gloss over them 😉

    If I remember correctly you said “they’ll put in a bid on the last day”. We’ll see how that pans out eh?

    You would have been golden right about now if you’d just left it at “he won’t sign in 72 hours”.

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  2. @Richie

    Before I compliment you on your funny post about him preparing his team.

    Who you telling to get a life @60?

    I’m on the mobile site with no numbers.

    If it’s toonyarmy I’m laughing !

    If it’s me I’m howling 😛

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  3. ” personally fully agree that we need a striker and a left back at least, but i wouldnt do it at any cost – would only do it if the right deal is available”

    Toonpipes said this on the last thread. He and some of the Crazy Gang often repeat this mantra, usually before using the straw man argument about fans who want some more players brought in wanting to spunk loads of money on a trophy signing.
    Perhaps some folk of an analytical persuasion could get them to pin down what ‘the right deal’ actually means.
    Some examples maybe?
    Explain what they feel ‘the right deal’ would be for Pieters or Maiga for example?
    Otherwise it just sounds like a lame excuse to cover for when we don’t offer clubs and players enough cash.

    I’m off to bed now, i’ll check later to see if they can elaborate on this nebulous quantification.
    Or maybe I won’t, it will depend if I can get the ‘right deal’.

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  4. For the record Pootle, I never “bet” that Pieters was going to be in within 72 hours. If you read the original post, I said that it’s broken on Soccernet that Pieters is about to sign. That normally indicates that a signing should happen within the next 72 hours.

    Obviously Troy being his normal obnoxious self jumped all over that and made it a lot bigger than it actually was. I’m happy to play along as always, because I don’t stake my entire reputation on the “fact” that I’m “always right”. I’m just here to chip in with my views as are most other people with a life.

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  5. @Thad

    There you go, Grandma Baba warned me you would wriggle like a worm on a hook.

    I would advise you to return to the posts we had and see exactly what I said.
    Or I may have to embarrass you again and repost them. You are wrong. 😛

    Also, if you can kindly provide a prediction I have got wrong then I’m willing to laugh at myself. However, there are none but I will laugh at you for now. 😳

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  6. Bobby…..Article critic
    August 28, 2011 at 09:23
    How many typos do you want?! Terrible article!!

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  7. Good to see Troy/Bobby has taken over on here again… 90% sh*t 10% actual football craic…. Very tiresome….

    Looking forward to the game… Shown live on fox… already told the missus that she is relegated to the second (smaller) TV tonight..
    2-1 to the Toon….

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  8. toonsy@33… there is a bigger picture though isnt there. We still had a fair while left of window when we played **** and first game of season. Then in between the **** game and sunderland we had AP saying that we would have a LB and forward in place for that (sunderland game) so all bouyant. The game came and went and not even a sniff… other than in the next week we get reported to FA and UEFA for dodgy underhanded tactics and then when we are all still waitng for the two long since promised players… Joey leaves. We are also now two weeks closer to the end o f the window, its bank holiday monday tmrw so we have in all reality 2 working days left to get in the players that even stevie wonder knows we glaringly need. Optimisum went to neutral, from nuetral to now.. oho.. here we go again… end of window excuses will be getting practiced and learnt by AP, as they did with him last season and every other nufc window under ashley. i may be wrong and i hope i am.. but fuk, how many times have we been here at the end of a window and when all the talking stops… we do not get the players in and always make profit. Profit is great.. ashley deserves it, i want him to have it… but not at the extent he is on player sales if it means we do not even have one single LB at our club ffs..or a forward who can score any goals. if it was not so sad i would find it all rather funny.. simple fact is though… we have had two games that have papered over some deep cracks and we will suffer alot with this thin squad. if truth be said we also need a central defender as no way will colo and taylor make it through entire season.

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  9. Any of you boys having trouble logging onto the fantasy league site?…

    Been trying for a bit and haven’t been able to log on, it keeps saying my log on details are incorrect? 👿

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  10. Craig – I do see your point believe me, but I don’t agree with the bit about team spirit. It survived with the last lot despite taking the hammerings you’ve described, so what is to say these new lads won’t find their own way of dealing with things?

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  11. I can’t understand why all the fuss about stats. We have played well when we play from the back, start to move the ball on the ground and take players on. It is all about movement. In the first half against Scunthorpe we kept lumping it up, which lost us possession. I think we will win today, if we get that movement, so that is why Sammy Ameobi will play. We need to make sure Cabaye gets into those dangerous places and can thread a pass through. I am not sure if Vučkić will get in. But I think he will be the replacement for Nolan eventually. So adding Tiote to the team we finished with…
    Krul
    Simpson STaylor Colloccini OvertheWall
    Tiote
    Cabaye
    Marveaux (might be knackered) Vučkić Sammyeobi
    Best (or any of the others)

    It is raw, it use Haris as a Nolan. But plenty pace, movement and people who attack.
    Guitierrez would have been in, but he seems way off since Enrique left.

    On transfers, for a change it looks like we are finally learning not to put all our eggs in one basket. I like the idea of multiple bids, finally a fallback plan. So lets see on Thursday morning how we have done. HWTL

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  12. @Troy

    I happen to remember you being very firm about Saylor “never been on the transfer list” the other day. Good one.

    Another one, was that Enrique would be sold on the last day of the window.

    Generally I tend to skip over your posts, unless you mention me by name or someone else refers to a post you made rather angrily. Either way it’s not nice reading.

    Anyway, you’ve used the “I stand corrected” line many times before, so am I right to say that you’re no stranger to “wriggling like a little worm on a hook”? Your own words, not mine.

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  13. Cwarr tweeting Pieters will be unveiled at the game today

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  14. Aussie – There was something wrong with it right at the start. It happened for everyone. They released a statement about saying how they have fixed it and how to get around it. I’ll see if I can dig it out 🙂

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  15. Thanks Toonsy, I saw that press release but I can’t get on today at all… No real stress, hopefully it sorts it self out… I just want to see how my mid table wonders are doing (I have a thing for mid table teams 😀 )

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  16. My nerves are not jangling because we won’t be bringing anyone else in,fcb is taking the **** out of us all and having a good laugh at our expense along the way

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  17. team spirit is one thing toonsy and i dont question that is eroding too bad yet.. it will though if the window slams shut and we do not have a LB and a person who can score any goals. We have sold Carroll, nolan and barton. we have not yet – three games in – scored a goal from open play. where will the goals come from.. i just have no idea. we can have the best team spirit in the world but we have a lop sided team at the minute. i just hope that this window is the one that bucks the trend and we do fill our gaps. the noises that arecoming from AP are very clear he wants these players, two as a minimum and he has said today that now joey has gone he wants to look at a third. i kid you not, i could see AP jacking over this window if the players dont come in he wants. Thank fuk Wise is not here still ffs!

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  18. @ Aussie Magpie Fan

    Wholeheartedly agree, although you’re being rather generous with 10%. As I have said time and time again, I’ve got nothing against free speech and lighthearted banter but when someone is being a troll it’s got to be dealt with.

    I’ve run a few websites myself over the years, and participated in a lot of communities. The one thing I see happening time and time again is that one inbred fellow who comes along and tries to spoil it for everyone else.

    From there either one of two things happens:

    1. The webmaster bans the sod, and lays down a marker for everyone else as to what’s what.

    2. It festers, spreads like a cancer and before you know it all hell breaks loose and everyone sane ups sticks and goes somewhere else. And there’s always somewhere else.

    It’s an irrefutable law of nature. Like attracts like, and that little black spot on your skin that you continue to put off bringing in to the doctors for a look grows into a nasty festering stinking rotting piece of flesh that ends up killing you. Happens sure as the sun comes up from the east and sets in the west.

    @ Toonsy

    Frankly, there’s nothing on the web like this site right now in terms of quality and community, and that’s very much down to your hard work. Kudos for that, hope you’re making a shitload from advertising and whatever other income streams you’ve got set up here because you deserve it.

    I hope that you know that the reason why I carry on about this issue is that I genuinely care about this site and that it continues to attract the kind of people that has made it what it is today. If you keep letting Troy/Bobby/whatever he chooses to call himself to continue to do what he does, it won’t end well. It’s as easy as a permanent IP ban.

    Perhaps you’re conflicted because there are some people on here who defend him and say that it’s no harm no foul, if you don’t like it you just skim over it and read the comments you like. I don’t know about you, but as a person who generally tries to fill his mind with positive thoughts, I’d rather just ignore the comments altogether. There’s enough **** happening in life as it is. I’m sure I’m not the only one, so it doesn’t take a Joey Barton to realise that sooner or later the only ones left commenting will be the Troys of this world. There’s no waking up from the nightmare then.

    Sooner rather than later you need to lay down a marker and stand for what you want this blog to be.

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  19. Fulham don’t do much away from home. I reckon a 1-0 home win or 0-0 draw.

    I will be more interested in the performance though. This will be our first real opportunity to get the ball down and play our own game.

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  20. Thad

    The whole IP address thing doesn’t actually work. It takes 2mins to download a proxy and use a different IP address from anywhere around the world.

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  21. Surely the point is that team spirit, whilst good, isn’t enough.
    We have been dreadful for long periods in pretty much all our matches so far. It is a good job we do have a seemingly strong team spirit because that appears to be what’s got us through so far.
    It would be reckless to assume that will be good enough to carry us all season.
    We have large defecits in quality in some areas of the team and they need addressing. We need a LB, a Striker, a RB and a CB. The chances of getting all these players are non-existant, but filling the first two positions are an absolute necessity. The only ‘right deal’ there is available is the one that fills these positions before the window closes.

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  22. TOONSY why dont you just do a worky and remove these “dicks” comments@60 not only does it insult you but other bloggers too, who needs this type of so called fan,would save wear on your new laptop keys 😀 😀

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  23. whataloadarubbish
    unbeaten in six games
    best start for ages
    beat 5under1and – again – away
    still in the cup
    whatthe hellareyouallwhingingaboutman?
    itsonlyfulhamforfekssake

    areyoufootballsuportersonamatchdayorwhat?

    2-0 – HWTL

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  24. Pootle

    I believe we are close to signing the young French CB, Situ. He was apparently very impressive during his trial.

    Quite confident LB and ST will be filled. However, I share your concerns with RB. Simpson needs competition and we need a RB who will contribute more going forward when we the emphasis is on us to attack.

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  25. I’m glad people can see we don’t ESSENTIALLY need to replace Barton though.

    He was never a RM to begin with and although he did well there, it really did unbalance the side. Simpson and Barton on the right just saw endless balls floated over the top.

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  26. El Toro: totally agree with you, Barton always kept drifting in whenever the opposition attacked leaving that flank very bare. No that he’s gone whoever is on the right may be able to offer a bit of protection to Simmo.

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  27. @Thad

    I didn’t realise a statement about Taylor being on the list was a prediction? 😛

    If you had followed the same thread on Enrique you would have realised that I quickly changed my prediction that he would be sold for the start of the season as it was pointed out the window closes a full month later. That was on the same thread or day. I was right . 😛

    Keep trying fella. For someone who doesn’t read my posts you’ve tried your very best to get me banned.

    Probably cos I’m always correcting you 😛

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  28. Zoe: Exactly; or even a RM that will attack more on the wing and lessen the need for Simpson to do so.

    Would like to see us play a 4-5-1/4-3-3 today with Best up front and Marveaux-Tiote-Cabaye making up the central three. Good mix of combativeness and technical ability there.

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  29. Toro: Yeah when Simpson attacks, he leaves a big gap which he never seems to get back quick enough.

    Yeah that would sound like a good formation. I was really impressed with Marveaux against scunthorpe thought he passed the ball very well. I couldn’t believe some were writing him off after one game, I thought he played really well considering that was his first game in a long time.

    I would possibly go for Vuckic maybe in the starting lineup, would add something different to the side if he started.

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  30. Troy, you’ve done enough to get yourself banned many times over. I’m just restating the obvious. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, and you can point to the higher intentions of your comments but it doesn’t change the fact that you are on here to big yourself up by putting others down. That’s a FACT.

    RE: Proving you wrong. Sorry to say that my sense of self esteem isn’t wrapped up in proving others wrong to prove myself right. Try again son.

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  31. ICE: I’ve heard nothing today but I don’t think he’ll be playing for PSV today. Just the impression I get from all the people who have spoken about this deal possibly going ahead.

    If the deal is going ahead it is possible that Pieters could be at the match

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  32. Dust??? Your predictions? fluke, so going to catch up today!!!

    On the fantasy league side had Howard in goal who got me a penalty save!!

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  33. ” I hope that you know that the reason why I carry on about this issue is that I genuinely care about this site and that it continues to attract the kind of people that has made it what it is today”

    No Thad, what boils your wee wee is the fact Troy disagrees with your views, and will have a bit poke at them.

    If you really, really just cared about people being abusive and trolling, winding people up and all those issues, you would also be calling for Stardust, Toonpipes, CT, JJ, Aussie others to be banned but you won’t because they often take broadly similar postions to you.

    On the other side you would also call for Big Dave, Army, Michael Laudrup, myself and several others to be banned as we’ve all been involved in occasional dust-ups.

    Yourself excluded Thad, admittedly, I think many of the people who should the loudest about banning Troy or tell people they disagree with that their opinions should be ‘removed’ or silenced, tend to use far more abusive language and be far more derogatory than anything Troy says.
    And most of them come from the other side of the argument to him.

    I still can’t think of one of them I would ask to be banned even when they are abusive to me.

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  34. THAD what has troy bobby realy done wrong 😕 just because you dont agree with what he says you want him banned ❓ i dont agree with the ***** what you gan on aboot but never tryed too get you banned ,and yes i know i write ***** at times just before you mention it

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  35. What a bitchfest this thread is eh? has anyone got anything half decent to say? all i’ve read is bitches venting pretendy intelligence and vague football knowledge. Please post something interesting for once. My view is NUFC will sign pieters tomorrow and he will be at the match today. Don’t think we will get a striker and all hell will break loose on sept. 1st 2011.

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  36. Richie: haha, I’m still second so I haven’t dropped to far down so I’m happy 😀

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  37. Thad your like a little school boy snitching on the others, you seem to have a real problem with Troy and I have seen you direct abuse at him, but only ever see Troy playing along with you 72hr prediction. but still its you that goes running to Toonsy crying ban him.

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  38. Thad – I appreciate your concerns and share them to an extent, but I don’t think banning Bobby is the way. I mean he is as entitled to an opinion as everyone else, and contrary to what a certain other site says I don’t actually censor peoples views. I don’t the the way he goes about it (this “I’m right” and mocking people for having a different opinion bollocks is not on and this “Baba Vanga” stuff is pure boring) but I just skip over it.

    The end of the day is I made this place because we all want what is best for NUFC but we all have different ways of going about it and different ideas of what we’re up to and so on and so forth and I think that removing one side of the argument is harsh.

    Let’s face it, the fans are split. They are split in the ground, they are split on the street, they are split on the internet. It’s not a recent things and has been going on since I was a twitch in my dad’s ******** aside from about three years under Keegan and two years under Bobby. It will no doubt continue.

    What I will say is to just ignore it. I’ve pulled Bobby about for not letting people have a say without jumping on it before. He knows the score. All opinions are welcome.

    As for the revenue,not a penny thus far although hopefully that will be changing. You’ll know when it does as the first thing you’ll notice is that the site won’t keep falling over at busy times 😆

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  39. Alreet lads and lasses!! Been a long absence for me from the blog since June, had to move hoose and switched jobs in the space of a week! 😯 Finally settled in to both new job and hoose, got internet sorted and got the footy on telly sorted last week. Crackin start to the season so far and hopefully a few more signings to come …gannin for 2-1 the toon today HWTL!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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  40. Ice @ 102 – Contrary to popular belief I don’t actually delete posts (sorry Craig and others 😆 ) so I’ll leave it up there as there is nothing insulting in it really. if somebody thinks it’s clever to take the **** out of dyslexic people then it says more about them by leaving it there does it not? 🙂

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  41. Pootle,

    Sorry mate, but I take special exception to Troy because of the way he does it. The reasons why have been well documented over the past 2 months, and Toonsy is well aware of them. Fact is, he’s been banned countless times, only to be let back on here to make the same mistakes yet again.

    You rightly point to the fact that I don’t call for anyone else to be banned, even though there have been many occasions where others have disagreed, and quite vocally I might add. That’s not down to the fact that Troy has taken an opposing view to mine, after all if that was the motivating factor as you said, wouldn’t I call for many others to be banned as well?

    I have nothing against lighthearted banter, things escalating as emotions run high and what not. You have proved that yourself with your comments. I have nothing against people disagreeing vehemently with me and even calling me names for it. You have again proved that yourself with your comments.

    If you go back and look closely, I voiced very strong views against him when he began abusing many others on this forum. And using very strong abuse, like nothing else I’ve seen on this blog I might add. People who subsequently dropped off the radar because most likely they’d rather not take the abuse instead of voicing out. Perhaps they are wiser than I am, but what really boils my wee wee is the fact that someone like Troy kills the community spirit, unlike how Big Dave, Army, Laudrup and you contribute to it.

    That’s where I draw the line for what I am willing to stand for.

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  42. GeordieQatar – How you doing fella? Wondered where you’d been. Next time you go away you need to make sure you check out so I can put a cross in the register next to your name :mrgreen:

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  43. Prediction: if Modric goes to Chelsea over the next 2 days there will be a large offer winging its way from spurs for Tiote which Mike Ashley will accept saying it was too good to turn down. This prediction comes from the agent acting on Behalf of Tottenham in any deal who is primed and waiting to do the business. This agent is good friends with a meber of my family in the midlands who also happens to be a football agent all be it at a much lower level.This is my prediction for the next 72 hours.

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  44. ICE: This is only on twitter, not sure how true it is
    @BPLTransferNews
    TransferNews
    Am hearing Pieters could well be at SJP this afternoon to witness them take on Fulham #NUFC

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  45. 2nd Prediction… NUFC are trying to buy a striker but only want to pay up to 25k per week with add ons for performance and goalscoring. No striker in europe will go so low at the standard of player we require for PL. result …NO STRIKER!

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  46. Richie: haha, 2-1 I’ve gone for 😀

    Also re Pieters it sounds like he won’t play today for PSV the coach is saying he has a hamstring strain, not sure if that is to cover that he is on his way out

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  47. would like us to win today of coarse,but think its wrong to judge players/team at this stage,ill wait till 8/10 games are played always found early form or lack of it brings false dawns imo

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  48. @ Toonsy

    Fair enough, respect where you are coming from ideologically, guess you’re on the dreamers side of the fence with that stance 😉

    My problem has and always will be that while you and just about everyone else respects the right of everyone on here to have their own opinion, Troy with his sly digs communicates a gross lack or respect in that regard. So while I tolerate his opinions about the regime, he doesn’t show any of the kind for mine. Call it semantics, but is respecting someone’s opinion that everyone else’s opinion is lesser than his a true respect for people’s right to have opinions? Anyway, that’s all I will say about that for now.

    Looking forward to the Fulham game! As much as our football looks disjointed as our new players bed in, I still hope for a cracking game and a win every time we put a team out. And until the window slams shut

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  49. ” Ice @ 102 – Contrary to popular belief I don’t actually delete posts (sorry Craig and others ) so I’ll leave it up there as there is nothing insulting in it really. if somebody thinks it’s clever to take the **** out of dyslexic people then it says more about them by leaving it there does it not?”

    Spot on Toonsy. His post was cack. Leave it there so people can see how cack it was.
    I don’t think your dyslexia shows in your articles at all to be honest, bud.
    I’m not dyslexic but I get loads of grammatical mistakes in my posts cos me Friggin smartphone keeps autocorrecting words.
    Dyslexia or not, its what you say in the articles that’s important (whether we agree or not 😉 ) and what keeps us all coming back and arguing like cat and dog.
    😆

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  50. 1-0 or 0-0 today. Fulham is a very hard team to score against and they are not really frightning going forward. Think it all comes down to us being able to take our chances, unlike at scunny where werent that great in front of goal.

    Re troy stavers/Bobby – keep him on. Yeah sure he can be obnoxious with his additude, but he brings something different to the discussion and stand by his word, for that I applaud you Troy! and all that babaganoush thing he has going on cracks me up 😆

    Re Pieters – really hope some of the tweet you guys have been referring to is right, and that he is at the game. He will slot in nicely me thinks.

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  51. Haha Batty as I’ve said, the only one on here I have a problem with is Troy. And if you’ve followed my “cries to ban him”, it’s been going on long before he directed any of his sly digs at me.

    What I have a problem with is as I said to toonsy, someone who abuses others in a way that blatantly derides their own opinion because it is vastly different from his own. I maintain that I stand up for people who can’t or are unwilling to stand up for themselves. And I will continue to do so.

    Bullies like Troy will only keep being a bully until someone stands up to him and shows him up for what he actually is.

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  52. Pootle – I’ve learned to deal with it all mainly although obviously I can never be word perfect and occasionally make mistakes. I do proofread articles though but obviously sometime I just don’t see anything wrong with them, which is kind of the point haha

    Besides, 150 comments near on and only one saying something bad and not making a contribution isn’t too bad IMO 😆

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  53. Big Dave,

    As you said the other day, we seldom agree but I have never abused you or called your intelligence into question for disagreeing with me.

    Frankly I know where people come from when they voice their frustrations about the current regime. As I said I was just as gutted as anyone when Judas flashed his ugly smile at the bindippers while signing his contract. I just tend to see things more optimistically. I have no problems with the realists point of view.

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  54. Thad – I find ignoring him works really well. Gloss over his posts and chat about footy or the article instead or what not. Then he doesn’t get the attention he craves but still gets his say 😉

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