Cerberus

DC,I admire your optimism, but who is the CB that we are busy negotiating with less than 2 hours to go?

PC,Sorry there are obvious gaps in the squad. This may not be in terms of physical gaps but rather quality. We lack PL quality goalscorers and our defense looks leaky. In addition to the need for more than one quality CB, I would argue we are very exposed at RB. At present, we have five players covering 3 positions (2 x CB and RB). If we get injuries or suspensions, we face not having any subs in these positions.

Howson,Understand your logic, but we get one injured/suspended CB and the same at RB, then we have no bench in either of these two positions. That is way too risky!

Neon,Its a forum for opinions! But OK, I agree let''s wait until 6pm. Fingers crossed.

The moan is about our strategy not this player. We have known all summer that we needed to strengthen at CB - ideally more than one player. Yet here we are with just over 6 hours left of the window looking desperate. This is not clever, whatever the underlying reasons. If Wisdom has been brought in as a RB (which seems to be the case), we are down to 3 CBs. With the departures of Miquel, Cuellar and Turner, I had assumed we had a deal confirmed (why else let Turner go especially) and I hope that the club very much has a player waiting to be announced this afternoon. If not, let''s pray that Bassong doesn''t get injured.

MP,I don''t, hence my reference to the club playing a master stroke.But let''s look at the evidence:1. The selling club in Denmark have not announced we have agreed a fee. Indeed, the noise coming out of Denmark is that we are below their valuation (familiar story).2. There is no noise at all about the Danish CB being here locally.3. We are desperately trying to get first choice CBs from our direct competitors (Steve Cook if true).I am gambling man, and I wouldn''t bet anything on this coming off.

DC,Your are correct, but with less than 7 hours to go would you really bet any money on it. Even if we have agreed fees for foreign players, door to door travel time from say Italy is going to be a minimum of 4 hours, then a medical will take at least an hour. Unless the club has played a master stroke, it really does look like we have run out of time, hence the desperate move for Steve Cook (if this is true).

Looking like James Collins or else Wisdom is our 4th CB for cover.

Essentially we are now down to UK based CBs who are not wanted by their clubs (and even then we are very tight on time re medicals etc). Steve Cook is first choice for Bournemouth, so we are now beginning to look a little desperate. Given that we have had all summer to find a CB and we let Turner go a week ago (presumably on the basis that we had a replacement confirmed) I really don''t get why we have boxed ourselves into such a ridiculous corner.

My guess is that we simply run out of time on this one, which makes it all the more frustrating as he is affordable and seems to want to come to England. For us to sign him by 6pm, we would need to have agreed a fee, physically got the player over here for a medical and then agree personal terms. This is a big ask unless he is already here. Welcome James Collins instead?

Keep up all - this was reported as a fake account when it first emerged yesterday (see WOTB for details)

[quote user="westcoastcanary"]There''s real substance in this one; I saw his agent quoted as saying "A lot of clubs have shown interest in Juan, but he''s told me not to give any encouragement to the likes of Arsenal and Southampton. He has his heart set on a move to Norwich City. He can''t explain it, he just feels that''s where he wants to be."[/quote]I heard that he was amazed by our new kit and that he cant wait to try it on.

Can I be the first to make the prediction that this years Quag wont make it to a 100+ pages thread?

Mrs Miggins,Whilst I do concur with you, we cant keep comparing the fact that our players were good enough to stay up three seasons ago with the relative strength of other teams today. With the additional TV money and retaining their PL status, many of the teams who should be our natural competitors (say West Ham, Stoke, West Brom, Swansea, Palace, Southampton) now have better squads than they did when we were last in the PL.Most pundits seem to suggest that there are three leagues in the PL (top 6, the rest and the relegation candidates). It is not just lazy journalism to suggest that we are in a 6/7 team mini league with Bournemouth, Watford, Leicester, Villa, Sunderland and possibly Palace). I would be overjoyed if we were in the top half of this mini-league and feel that breaking into the mid table bunch will be beyond us this season, particularly if we pick up injuries to a few of our really key players. The thought of losing Bassong for anything other than a few matches sends shivers down my spine!

I completely agree with Parma. Whatever Hooper''s merits are, it is so painfully obvious that he cant play to AN''s system. I remember the dire home loss to Wigan last season where he was complexly statuesque and whenever he did receieve the ball, he didn''t have the necessary close control skills to retain the ball. It is going to be a real luxury carrying Hooper for a season when he is destined to get the odd 20 minutes here and there. Assuming that we play one striker up front and that Jermoe and Grabban stay fit, there may be times he doesn''t even make the bench, especially if we keep the more mobile RVW.

[quote user="mrs miggins"]WBA fans think he''s $hit. This will be an acceptable signing if we sign a good CB.[/quote]That''s because WBA played him out of position at RB. Very few players can master playing at CB and RB. In this respect, Russ Martin is a much better RB than CB, which is a position that he has never convinced me he can play. He simply doesn''t have the height, speed or physicality to play this role. Some exceptional players (e.g. Baresi) can play this position because of their reading of the game, but there are few established Premier League CBs that aren''t fairly chunky.Whilst I agree that we need a classy CB, I fear that Wisdom is our summer CB signing.

For those that keep assuming he is competition for Whitts, my trust in AN suggets to me that he has been bought to provide competition for CB places. He doesn''t have the physique, pace or crossing ability to play RB. Read the WBA forums, they are virtually unanimous on this point. Plus if you read the Liverpool forums, they consider him to be very much a CB. The fact that he played RB to get first team experience should not be confused with his best position. He is built like a CB. I hope that AN has the sense to use Martin as the competition for RB.

Whilst Toffolo is exciting going forwards, I dont think he is ready for the PL yet. His positional discipline needs a lot of improvement as there were too many occasions in the second half where there was simply too much space in the LB zone. Personally, I think he needs a season in the Championship where he can learn his craft without being put to the sword by the speed of the PL.

"Wisdom is a right back who can play centre half. Considering Whittaker is the only natural right back we have now I think this is a good signing. Seemed to start well at wba last season then lost his way a bit."Sorry, but you have got this the wrong way round. He is a CB that has been played as a RB, and by all accounts at WBA, he came across as very much an out of position player. Check the Liverpool forums - they were expecting him to be back up to their first choice CBs this season.As for our RB''s, we have two on our books (Martin and Whitts) with the potential for Elliot Bennett to grow into this role. I feel that counter-attacking football in the Prem is going to require us to have pace at both FBs and I for one am hoping that Bennett is very much in the AN''s mind for the RB berth.

Our friend has responded. Fair play to to him.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fZdUMcR5hw

The clamouring for Karl Robinson or Ernie Howe is now a distant memory now that we are looking at a 33 year old. Didnt Mourinho and Brian Clough also start at such young ages.I think this is a risk worth taking relative to the other choices available on the open market.

Who knows whether Sherwood turned down WBA or not? My hunch would be that Peace viewed his erratic behavious whilst at Spurs as too much of a gamble. Even so, I would take some persuading that our Board ever had any intention of appointing either McKay or Adams as manager. Once the smell surrounding McKay became known, this probably only left one option. Of course, pure speculation, but then our Board does have form in this area of sentimentality.

Also the OPs "watch this space" comment was clearly meant to give the impression of being ITK as opposed " I saw this on a Spurs webiste". If it is really something that you have only picked up from a Spurs website, that is poor form for me. Having said this, I would loev it this came true.

He played for Spurs vs City this week, so he is hardly out in the cold, plus Spurs have been saying all day that there are no more ins or outs after Holtby. I was hoping that Mr Carrow actually had heard a whsiper about this. The real issue is that we have known for ages that midfiled neess to be strengthened and yet here we are again on another deadline day in a weak position having not done our deadlings earlier by using the closed period to scout players and get deals provsionally lined up with players agents. For example, Holtby has been telegraphing for some time that he wants to leave. We have cash (the Toivenen/Quag/Toby money that was never spent) so why hadnt we been more proactive?

I would trade the entertainment of Lambert for the clean sheets of Hughton any day. Football is much more than statistics.