We probably know very little about many foreign players he might buy, so we might be able to guess only half of Big Sam’s targets.

I’m not sure if I wouldn’t let one of our wingers go if I were Sam. Do we really need NZogbia, Duff, Solano, Milner, Luque, Dyer (who can be a winger) AND O’Brien?! Evem though he’s highly rated, I’d let NZogbia go if Sam can get the best out of Duff and if we could get, say, 5 or 6M plus for Zog. We’re supposed to have about 20M to spend, and that would give us 26 (I’d let Carr go too, on a free, and put Edgar up there as fringe full-back again but keep the rest of the squad). Anyway, I’d personally like any from the following:

defence:

Bale, Bridge, Wes Brown, O’Shea, Sol Campbell, Hyppia, Yobo, Lloyd-Samuel, Barry, Finnan

mf:

Sidwell, Ljungberg, Gravesen, Barnes (Derby), Arteta

strikers:

Crouch (unlikely), Ashton (likewise), Eastwood, Nugent

Though I don’t all mind if B.S signed mostly foreign players from exotic countries with exotic names we’ve never heard of!!

thank god we now have a decent manager,

cnt wait to see what playas big sam gonna bring hopefully will get a decent solid defence and we keep owen and oba an CHARLES N ZOGBIA HAS TO STAY HE IS WORLD CLASS get rid of emre he is useless

its an interesting time thats for sure. some good articles here. i agree that whoever has the privilage to wear OUR colours next season must do their talking on the field. this season has a massive amount of players coming out after yet another shit game and saying ‘we must do better next time’ - ‘we are a massive club’ - we’ve got to move on and pick ourselves up’. Christ, the list of pap they come out with goes on and on. Another thing, i think they are all bonkers, for instance, we could loose four games on the trot then get a win and they all start patting themselves on the back talking about bloody europe. mad man!
i think Tal Ben will come to be honest. i think (and hope) that we get shot of dyer now as he just does not give a fuck if the truth be said. its a bit like a stale marriage. its almost like we dont really want him but we also dont want anyone else too have him either. get rid now while his contract is still long enough and he is fit (miricle) for us to get 6 -8 million out of him. then we can give his berth to milner permenantly. duff is great but fucked, gotta go and give his berth to the zog - that would stop him dripping too. Owen is a major issue that really must be resolved one way or the other but i tell you what though, if he stays i think we need say ‘oi, if you are staying then you re-sign’. lets not forget, he only has two years left and thats not alot for a player like him. All the clubs look at re-signing their top guys by now otherwise the greedy twats just let it run out and move on just to get a higher salary. I see that bellamy might be up for grabs again. no i would rather have him than owen and thats a fact, at least the man’s passion can never be questioned - and he loved us, it was just souness that he hated (and in my mind that says that bellamy is a good judge of character). we could get him for about 7 million and get shot of Owen - what you think?? Oh yeah, solando to go, Carr and Babs to go, Ameobi to go.

I WANT BENNI!

Benni - Martins! :D

THis all seems a bit pointless.

Hasn’t Sam already said we have to get away from the big name mentality?

Hasn’t he already said there are a lot of players out there who want to prove they can play in the premiership (suggesting they are coming in from abroad)?

Hasn’t he already said that we probably haven’t even heard of the players he’s going to bring in?

Makes the majority of the list a waste of space.

I say let Sam get on with it, and have this discussion in August.

We spend so much time speculating - building peoples hopes up, and its all based on nothing.

When these things start someone from the club should step forward and say “That’s completely baseless and we are not looking at that player”

Baseless speculation? Why not just pop down to Ladbrokes and put a tenner on the biggest outsider you can find, and then write and tell us how disappointed you are that it didn’t come off.

The solidarity of out back four will obviously be the key to our season. Will Sam take a Gamble and bring in foreign defenders or will he stick with proven premiership ageing talent? Ideally I would like to see our back four a mixture of foreign and proven premiership talent. Leighton Baines, Campbell/Hypia, Collincini and Ben Haim. If we get both Campbell and Hypia both will not last a full season so rotating these 2 would be good, also the experience would be good for the up and coming Steven Taylor and of course with the right coaching Peter Ramage, Huntington and Edgar are going to be up and coming first team regulars if giving the right coaching.

What about Bolton’s Tal Ben Haim?

His contract expires in June and could fill one of the back slots that Big Sam just cleared out. Allardyce rejected a bid from Mourinho & Chelsea in the winter transfer window for his services.

He offers aerial ability and versatility along the back line. Chelsea along with West Ham, Spurs & Portsmouth will all jockey for his services along with NUFC.

Here are his career stats:
https://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=33100

None on that list is on Big Sam’s list. None match his criteria. I know he did well by sorting out Anelka, but if your a coach you’d rather get someone you don’t have to fix before to get him to play properly.

I expect we’ll have the usual bickering and back-biting from certain elements within the fan base, regardless of who we sign.

Will certainly be an interesting summer.