303 thoughts on “Chancel Mbemba arrival imminent

  1. Stuart: why wouldn’t you sell Sissoko for 18 mil? He’s not that good and as Shamrock said he is very inconsistent. We haven’t even decided whare he plays yet! Central midfield, right-wing? How many goals and assists did he have last year??? Three of each? I am not a statistician, but if he can’t shoot, can’t pass and can’t score I would take the 18 million quid.

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  2. Sham – that’s what I was thinking mate. Townsend and £8-10m I would go with. That £8-10m could pay for someone like Leroy Fer if we wanted someone in that central role as well. But really we Colback, Gini, Tiote, Abied, Bigi and Kemen (at the moment) so were covered centrally.
    The £8-10m would as good as pay for that much needed CB.

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  3. On his day Sissoko has been an excellent player for the toon, and as such would want to hang on. But if we playing 4-2-3-1 his place is not nailed on and he is replaceable.

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  4. Shamrock: I didn’t look up the stats but I knew he hadn’t done that much scoring and assisting.

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  5. SHAMROCK
    caybeye was about 29 or 29 when we sold him it was time to cash in sissiko aint even hit his peak yet hes only 25

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  6. Furthermore what planet are you on saying he took free kicks so his stats don’t count?! That’s part of what made him valuable to the team. Another skill Sissy does not have…

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  7. about caybeye heres a question for ya did psg get there money back,how many goals did caybeye score last year 1 wasnt it

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  8. Eric @ 225 Agree but would add can@t tackle. For a big man he is poor in the air usually and is easily knocked off the ball. Looks exciting when running with the ball at opponents but usually ends with nothing.

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  9. Shamrock: isn’t the whole point that Sissoko is not really that good and we should take 18 mil in a heartbeat for him? Give us the money Spurs and we can spend it on somebody else. It is not like he is Gascoigne or Waddle you Cockney bastards.

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  10. ERIC SYKES
    if he aint that good eric answer why top teams are in the hunt for him

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  11. Yes agreed Eric 🙂

    Who cares what Cabayes PSG stats are. He was sat on the bench and it had nothing to do with his contribution to NUFC…

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  12. TAE Clubs have often paid large amounts for rubbish players. Spurs last year for example.

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  13. Are we sure the bids true, Its come from mercato in France who have wrote some utter horseshit about us in the past

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  14. sham you talking out ya **** bud caybeye made 39 apps for psg last season with 1 goal hardly siting on the bench all season was it

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  15. Aussie – I don’t think anyone would want to sell Sissoko if it was just about the money. If he was sold for £18m and that money was reinvested into the squad, it could provide a much needed depth – with our injury problems – it’s that more?.
    Sissoko is a good player, but he’s not irreplaceable – certainly not with £18m in ya pocket to do it.

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  16. He made 24 Lighe 1 appearances averaging 40 minutes per game. But this is still irrelevent to his NUFC contribution…

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  17. £18m would be a good price. But only if we replaced him. My fear would be that we have already replaced him with GW so our squad would be weakened. I think we have 29 in the squad so we could easily get to 25 by selling Williamson, Ferguson, Biggi, Vukic, Obertan and Elliot. Space created for 2 new players.

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  18. TAE @243: Erm…: because Top teams have always made mistakes – do you want me to name some – 50 million for Torres, a boat-load for Shevchenko, and 15 mil for Juan Sebastian Veron – and that’s just Chelsea. Do you want me to explain NUFC and Liverpool mistakes 🙂

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  19. TAE – how many of those apps were actual starts though mate? – if he’s came on with 5mins to go, that counts as an appearance.

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  20. SHAMROCK
    like seeing as he took all our free kicks makes how many goals he scored for us irrelevent how many extra pops at goal per game from the free kicks say 4 or 5 but you started with the stats bud

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  21. Nice Wiki link. What’s the point you are making? I am keeping his stats consistent with my original comparison between Sikh and Cabaye in terms of League appearances only. Not micky mouse cups etc. However if you insist on including them, then his total appearances a st season was 36, from which he scored 2 and assisted 1 still averaging around 40 minutes per game….. And still not relevant to the argument in terms of contribution to NUFC….

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  22. That’s the point TAE he was our kick taker and as a result was more productive, making him MORE VALUBLE than Sissy. He was also a harder worker, more influential and better defensively. What is hard to understand?

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  23. Shamrock: Cabaye was pretty good for us. What the hell happened to him in Paris – too much of the absinthe like you said I was on the neet 🙂

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  24. SHAMROCK
    ya used caybeyes goals he scored against us as a bench mark for sissiko goals is it any surprise he scored more when hes takeing all the blooming free kicks 😯

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  25. he made a lot of apps for a dude sat on the bench 😆 39 in total in a weaker league with a total of 1 goal hardly seting the world alite is he

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  26. and some of our surporters wanted to pay 10 million for him give me a break

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  27. Ha ha ha this is a great debate
    We all know Sissoko wants to play at Chelsea, but atm he aint good enough. Next best thing for him would be spuds or Arsenal.
    His heart really isn’t in it for NUFC, despite the badge kissing tripe.
    If his sale meant funds for a good CB that we desperately need, then fair ’nuff for me.
    But I just have a feeling the cash will be trousered and not re invested.

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  28. Also, I think it might be hard to get the ball off Ibra, Cavani and Lavezzi for a free kick.

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  29. No it’s not a surpise TAE. Did Cabaye contribute more to NUFC than Sissy in terms of goals, assists, influence , consistency and defensive ability?

    Was he sold for just under £20m?

    Is £18m a good price for a player that did not contribute anywhere near as much to NUFC than a player that was sold for £20m?

    Again, he made 36 appearances IN ALL COMPETITIONS, averaging about 40 minutes per game. Where is a player sat if not running about on the pitch for the other 50 minutes per game? Would it be the BENCH by any chance?

    You can’t seriously say free kicks don’t count towards a players stats and ability? If you are saying that, you are mad! Whilst Cabaye would be taking free kicks and corners, Sissy would be free to attack them… The only thing that matters is results and contribution. Sissy has not contributed as much as Cabaye did – but the quoted sell price is similar for both players. If the sale goes ahead at that price, it’s good value. End of story. I am moving on from this argument now 🙂

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  30. Sharpy @261: they are from different teams – Fer is at QPR and Townsend is at Spurs 😕

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  31. TAE Maybe Cabaye has regressed since leaving us. He isn’t getting any younger. However if you compare Cabaye’s performances whilst at NUFC with Sissoko’s there is surely only one winner. Cabaye wins every time.

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  32. ERIC SYKES
    so when hes not takeing all the free kick sissiko scores more than him 😉

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  33. I can’t find anything anywhere linking Sissoko with a move away. Irrelevant arguments. Cabaye was a good player and PSG have too much money. I’d keep Sissoko and either play him in the two with Colback or out wide in the 3 with Wini and Aarons.

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  34. Debates like this is what this blog is all about.
    Sissoko clearly divides opinions.

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  35. TAE said: “so when he’s not taking all the free kick sissoko scores more than him?”

    You confused me there man. I have no clue what you mean.

    Did you see that I corrected your grammar, spelling and apostrophes as well 🙂

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  36. Villa have £12m bid accepted for striker Jordan Ayew. Also heavily linked with striker Rudy Gestede. Another club out of running for Charlie Austin?

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  37. It’s funny seeing something resembling sanity breaking out on here! 😆

    On the reported bid for Sissoko…I don’t at all believe that he thinks he needs to play in Europe to get into the France team. Cabaye left a CL club to play regularly for a PL club with the specific goal of getting into the France team. What Sissoko needs to do is play 30+ games at a high level for decent PL team and he should be in the France team. He’s capable of doing that with us. Why rock the boat? Especially for a club with only marginally more chance of being in the CL than us. i.e. we have about 0.1%, Spurs have about 1%…

    He is only 25 too so I can’t believe we’d let him go for anything other than a huge bid unless McClaren doesn’t fancy him for some reason.

    Hope he stays.

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  38. Villa are going this time; Since surviving by the skin of their teeth again, They have lost their best centre half, Midfield pair & only genuine goal threat

    Reading French football experts are saying about Ayew is like de ja Vu from last year RE Riviere

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  39. Eric – I know mate. What I meant was, if Sissoko was sold & we could bring those 2 players in with the money his sale generated – would we go for that?. I’m using those 2 players as just an example though. Fer would essentially replace Sissoko, with Townsend improving our wide right options.
    That would allow us to get rid Bigi, Abied, Obertan without even having to worry about replacing them.

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  40. I want us to have options in the squad. Not too many first team players to totally stifle the youth, but enough to drive everyone to a high level.

    Colback. Anita, Sissoko, Tiote in the centre. WJ, Sissoko, SDJ, Cabella, Aarons providing the attacking and/or width.

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  41. TDS: you miss the point completely. Sissoko is not very good man. If we can get 18 million for a player who contributes very little then we should take it, run away and have a big party and then buy someone else with the 17 million left over.

    If you have seen a different Sissiko than the one I have seen then you should set up your own team and buy him, Amdy Faye and Alessandro Pistone.

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  42. ERIC

    Last season mate…who was good? Other than flashes from Aarons and SDJ, most of the team was *****.

    Before that though, he was excellent and we were talking about £30m bids for him.

    I never want to see good players leave. I’d rather have Sissoko than £18m sitting in the bank. That £18m may or may not get reinvested…that’s one of my issues.

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  43. Sharpy: I am not taking the p about you. I find your comments very interesting. I only get annoyed by the *****-merchants from down under.

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  44. TDS: Sissoko was good? He showed potential but he is a full French international and is 25 so he should have more than potential. He had a great game against West Ham and made some very impressive runs up field but had no end product. How many goals and assists did he have?

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  45. CC, yep, hope Villa drop, hate them.

    On Sissy bid, take it I say, he’s not that arsed about us, you can tell.

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  46. I doubt we would get two in for Sissokos money(if he really is being sold) it is not our style.. the money will sit in the bank till January I reckon!

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  47. TDS said @ 284 about Sissoko:

    “Before that though, he was excellent and we were talking about £30m bids for him.”

    What planet are you from?

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  48. ERIC

    Last season, 4 goals, 2 assists in the PL. Previous season, 3 goals, 6 assists. Previous season, 3 goals and 1 assist in 12 games. It’s not bad…but with his ability, I’d like to see him getting 8+

    But then the whole team hasn’t exactly been firing. Look at Krul last year.

    I’d like to keep our better players and have McClaren get the most out of them.

    And the maths is poor if people think we could get Fer and Townsend for £18m. Even if the transfer fees would cover it, when you consider signing on fees, wages etc. it would be a lot more. And if Spurs are willing to sign Sissoko to replace Townsend, why do we want to do the opposite?

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  49. KimToon: we seem to be spending and the Fat Man loves the net spend. If we can get 18 million for Sissoko then it frees up that much more. I don’t rate Sissoko that highly so he can ****** off for all I care 🙂

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  50. ERIC

    He was often the dangerman in our team. Full of energy and bursting forward. We haven’t really had a class act in our team, other than Cabaye, for years and he never scored more than 7 PL goals in a season despite taking the free kicks.

    A decent player trumps money every time for me. A bird in the hand and all that…

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  51. ERIC

    No no no…I’m with Kim. We’ve been spending but that doesn’t mean that we’d sell Sissoko and then invest that money back. It could be considered that WJ replaces him, or maybe we try to sign a few players but don’t manage to get any over the line.

    I quite like our squad with these 3 additions and happy to get shot of Elliott, Willo, Obertan, Marv and Goofy at least.

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  52. GEORGIO

    I thought he looked class when he’s been playing! Just didn’t play very often at all…

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  53. TDS said to me below. If you have a point I think you made it: 4 goals, 2 assists for 18 million 🙂 Give me the 18 mil and send him packing.

    It is not as much about ability and potential (at 25), it is about what he does for the team. 4 goals, 2 assists. 3 goals, 6 assists says everything.

    “ERIC
    Last season, 4 goals, 2 assists in the PL. Previous season, 3 goals, 6 assists. Previous season, 3 goals and 1 assist in 12 games. It’s not bad…but with his ability, I’d like to see him getting 8+”

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  54. TDS says about Sissoko:

    “He was often the dangerman in our team. Full of energy and bursting forward.”

    He blasted it over the bar just about every time he “burst” upfield. 4 goals and 2 assists last season. Do I really have to give a clearer picture than that? Sell him, Spurs are idiots if they give us 18 million for a racehorse who cannot find the net.

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  55. Would like to see an article from somebody who has been watching the academy as they getting results abroad and this Kemen youngster.

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  56. TDS said Seim seemed good when he wasn’t injured and played a total of about 20 minutes. Sissoko with his 4 goals and 2 assists in a whole f-cking season cannot be judged though 🙂

    @296 🙂

    ” thought he looked class when he’s been playing! Just didn’t play very often at all…”

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