ohmelads

I feel the same way. But with each passing injury, it looks more and more like clutching at straws. We're in a difficult predicament, if we take the money then we must spend it well, and it's worth remembering that £15M doesn't go very far on a striker. We won't get someone of his individual class, but we might get one or even two players who strengthen the team and will help us to pick up points week-in, week-out.

Gallas has always been particularly underrated. Chelsea's defence never looked the same after he left. He's slightly forgotten about nowadays because of all his injuries.

Which they won't have to pay unless they breach a two year probation order. I'm relieved that they've been treated leniently but I don't see why Milan have been treated as the more guilty party given that it wasn't a situation of their making Some would say it was a situation of their making. If Dida hadn't reacted (and I'm sure he didn't need to) then we wouldn't even be talking about it now.

Wow, UEFA actually gave it some thought before they handed out their punishments. Incredible.

Owen will ultimately be judged by what he does for Newcastle, not what he says. If he comes through these international fixtures and features regularly for the rest of the season, all of this will be forgotten about. If he breaks down in Russia or a couple of games later for Newcastle and needs further treatment, you get the feeling it'll be the last straw.

How many teams do this successfully though? Pretty much all the successful teams have found their preferred centre back partnership and stick with it. Carragher/Agger, Terry/Carvalho, Ferdinand/Vidic.

Fair enough about Bale, when they signed him I didn't know he would be playing left wing. Think how far that money could have gone in other areas of the team though. Up front was arguably where they were already strongest. It's not like we're all talking with the benefit of hindsight either, the signing seemed mad at the time and still does.

Darren Bent has to be the worst surely, and the most baffling. Not just that he's come in for a massive fee and done nothing, but when you consider the opportunity cost. They already had Berbatov, Keane and Defoe, something most teams in the league would be jealous of, yet their midfield of Zokora and Jenas needed improvement, as did other areas (left wing, defence, goalkeeper). But no, they spunked it all on a forward they didn't need. £17m! I think that could go down not just as one of the worst of this season, but one of the most needless signings and biggest waste of money the Premiership has seen.

We have a good enough squad in place to see us through the season, it's all about the first team now, as that's where we'll be picking up points week in week out. I agree about the right wing, we need to have a threat down both sides. I think Milner will come good again, he just badly needs a rest given that he played with England over the summer and played through all of last season. With the squad the way it is though, it looks like Milner is in for another long, hard season. If he gets a serious injury we have a big problem. Some competition and options (ie pace) on that right side would make a difference, certainly.

I think the "period of adapting" is an interesting one. I can see it from both sides. Often, people form opinions of how the OF would do in the Premiership based on their current squad. If they had guaranteed Premiership revenue and exposure then i'm pretty sure their squads would be considerably stronger than they currently are. But, on the other hand, would they get crowds of 60,000 if they weren't virtually guaranteed a victory every week? History would suggest not. this is the deeper reason for their delusions of grandeur. The simple fact is that if they played down here they would just be 2 more clubs with potential big support and could just as easily be floundering like sheff Wed and Leeds as playing in europe regularly. In fact, in recent times, this would no doubt have been the case, when the mighty Green machine finished 4th in their crappy league under the managership of Liam Brady etc and lost at home to Inverness Cally when they were a 3rd division team or something, in front of a sub 20,000 crowd. In fact, for the benefit of a lad I used to know quite well, I produced some attendance figures which showed they have numerous crowds below 20,000 during these years. 2 or 3 seasons without a trophy and they all buggered off. Anybody would get good crowds if they won trophies non stop for a hundred years, even against pub teams. They have no divine right to start anywhere else other than the conference - or lower - if the sad day ever arrives when they join us down here. Anyway, they hate the English, so why do they want to ? Very true. Celtic and Rangers are about status. If they enter, say, the Premier League, their status disappears overnight. They become just another two clubs, struggling for any kind of silverware. 5, 10, 20 or 40 years without a single trophy, suddenly they don't offer anything like the same appeal. With the revenue they'd receive I'm sure either could hold their own in the Premier League, but they would instantly lose their huge status which they currently enjoy in their own league and which a lot of their support depends on. Also, a huge number of Irish fans who support Celtic also support an English side.

He doesn't speak English though. It's not the end of the world but it's a pretty significant disadvantage if your captain can't speak for the team on or off the pitch.

Too early to tell really. Cacapa has stood out for me, but even he has made errors, they just haven't been punished yet. None of them look outstanding to be honest, but none look bad either. I still wouldn't rule out Taylor, I think people are bigging up the shiny new players a lot and glossing over their errors while Taylor's getting hammered for similar stuff. That'll soon pass, but I think it'll be a while yet before a consistent partnership is found.

Of course shooting is a crucial part of the game, but a speedy player isn't so crucial, contrary to popular opinion. Indeed a speedy player will very rarely get to utilize that pace as these stats show. Indeed, but those few times when he can use his pace it can be the difference between winning and drawing or losing. Petrov outsprinting Taylor last week was probably the most significant moment of the game. Trying to prove that sort of point with statistics is ludicrous to be honest. Even if that player doesn't get the opportunity to use his pace, it might often be because a sensible defence isn't holding such a high line (as we did to our cost). As a result of them sitting deeper, space opens up for your midfielders. So there's a bigger picture, having pace can force the opposition to adjust their tactics accordingly. We didn't do that and got punished for it. Of course pace doesn't get you anywhere on its own, otherwise Vassell and the like would be scoring for fun. However, it can give you the advantage in tight games, certainly. You're mostly talking about pacy players as individuals, but with regards to the dynamics of a team and a football game, I think pace is very important.

That's a desperately bitchy article, that writer has some serious issues

I don't think Viduka has been all that good so far, but his performances have steadily got better (perhaps a fitness issue?). He has blown hot and cold, when he's on form like against West Ham or at times against City his hold up play is very clever and he showed against Boro he can carve a goal out of nothing, if you give him service in the box he will usually make things happen. He is ridiculously slow though and sometimes entire games can just pass him by. I've read one or two people saying he could have a couple more years left in him but personally I think that's extremely optimistic. We'll be lucky to get this season and next out of him as a reliable first-team player. I don't want to tempt fate but with age his fitness issues will become a greater concern.

Good to hear. Like Emre or not, there has to be a place for him against Everton (assuming he's fit to play). This is a massive game with the international break coming up, we can't afford to mess about. We will need to get the ball down and start playing some one-touch passing football because we haven't been doing that much at all lately.

These people are just crap footballers. It can be great to play with someone who skins people for fun, but there's not much worse than playing with someone who gives the ball away most times he gets it, trying to pull off tricks that he can't. All you can really do is not pass to him, but then it feels like you're playing with 10 men because these types of people seldom do a lot of running off the ball to close people down and win it back. I'm sure we all know people like this, they get right up my nose.

It's incredible that it's got to the point that the club don't even explain his absence any more, and most fans are past caring. To be honest, until I saw this thread, I had forgotten all about him.

Not much of an award in all honesty.

I agree. You get these people who wear white boots etc yet have very little skill on the ball, I tend to offer them the meg, knowing they won't have the strength or pace to get around me and they've just lost the ball. They might say 'meg' but they've made themselves look stupid and they know it. Just laugh at them, it'll get under their skin. Obviously if someone is running at you at pace, you know they might pull it off in which case you don't leave them that option, but a lot of charvas try to meg people at walking pace and it's pretty embarrassing.

I guess he means because the season started just 5 days after that, meaning anyone signed then would have missed the whole of pre-season. I think it's very difficult to get all of the players in early, but he is right that it's something every club should strive to do and getting them in for most or all of pre-season can be a big advantage. I think Man Utd had their new boys in very early this summer but then they would have had those targets in place long beforehand and had the money to strike deals early on. We have to haggle and play the market and we've gone through plenty of managers in recent years, none of which helps us.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7021588.stm There isn't a great deal of room for patience in football, it's a sport where emotions run very high and you must buy your own time through success, or at the very least show promise of success. There was once a time when Man Utd fans wanted rid of Alex Ferguson, in spite of his success in defeating the Old Firm in Scotland. Many on this board would have you believe we're a unique set of fans because we want success soon, many on here felt embarrassed that 20,000 (mostly kids) welcomed Owen to the club, yet you never hear them highlighting stories like this or when thousands of Barca fans arrived at the Nou Camp to welcome Henry. Just goes to show that football fans are basically the same the world over, and we are no different. Anyway, back to the original topic, I think one of the reasons we have tended to buy players later in the window in recent years is that we have been buying cast-offs from bigger clubs and have had to wait until these players are surplus to requirements.

I don't understand this mentality. I think not having the right players is a decent kick in the teeth for all of us.