Tuesday, January 25

Raising the Ba


We've signed Gary O'Neil from Middlesbrough for either £1.5 million or £3 million, depending on what papers you believe. Not an earth-shattering signing but probably decent value in the current market. O'Neil did well for a time under Redknapp at Portsmouth and Southgate at Boro and presumably he's going to play wide right.

Meanwhile we also seem to have got Demba Ba on loan. It's worrying that he's failed a medical at Stoke, but at least we can shift him if necessary. With Cole seemingly permanently injured and Obinna erratic we certainly need a striker.

Meanwhile we have to shift a few. Behrami could by going to Fiorentina soon, and we could do worse than get Ben Haim back and shift Dyer, Ilunga, Faubert and McCarthy.

2 comments:

matt said...

The board could have avoided all that aggro if when it leaked that they wanted to get O'Neil in, they explained they meant Gary, not Martin....Grant has said he is specifically to replace Behrami, who is off to Fiorentina for family reasons (although why his wife would be happier in Florence than Forest Gate I can't imagine). I saw O'Neil score against us at Fratton Park one Boxing Day, I think, and he's a decent player who began at the Academy. The Demba Ba signing is not confirmed, and with his injury record even a loan looks a bit dubious. Someone else would have to go to make way for him, and allegedly Ilunga, Dyer, Jacobsen and the rest of the missing in action brigade are all training normally.

Enjoy your trip to Birmingham - remember the distance between London and there is about 100 miles, and around 35 years so take your flares and platform shoes...

Pete May said...

Good point well made. All that grief over a spelling error of O'Neil's name.

O'Neil was captain of Pompey during their Great Escape under Harry Houdini. Might be a good omen.

hope I can escape the neanderthal elements who wanted a ruck after relegating us on my way to the Holiday Inn after the game... Irons!