Apparently he hasn't had an injury for 2 years
Kinda the point I was going to make. People keep banging on about him having dodgy knees, but he's been battered about in a lot of games, limped off but every week he's come back and been either in the starting 11 or on the bench. He's played more games than Shola.
He passed a medical, as did Ben Arfa when people were talking about his fitness problems as did Marveaux. Granted Marveaux is currently out, but its nowt to do with the supposed reasons he failed a medical at the bin dippers. The fact Maiga failed a medical I think is just a smokescreen for the club pulling out, as they've always had Cisse as their No1 target, and they've obviously found out that a deal could likely happen so they pulled the plug on Maiga. Its the easiest explanation where they wouldn't have to come out and explain themselves further.
Read something on a forum today saying that Carr had been watching Tiote for 4 years before he came to the Toon. This guy obviously does his homework, knows what he is looking for and has a very clear remit from whoever he is working for, and I have to say we are reaping the rewards now.
Cisse, Ba, HBA, Santon, Marveaux, Abeid, Cabaye, Tiote all for under £30 million, that is decent business, given the fact that we could easily double that if they were all sold tomorrow (Cisse aside as he's unproven really).
Exciting times ahead, I'll be happy if we finish this window exactly as we are now, with no-one going out. We've brought a striker in which we badly needed I feel, a backup CB would be handy though.
I think we have a real good chance of finishing top 6 now. I think its way to early to even be thinking about CL spots just yet, but we have a good run of fixtures coming up, which if we can replicate the form we showed in the early part of the season are more than winnable. If we can keep within sniffing distance then it might just put a bit of pressure on.
I'll certainly be gutted if we finish behind the likes of Villa and Stoke!