ohmelads

You can't build the perfect squad in one window. Look at the trouble we've had just bringing in some defenders, our squad is even smaller than last year. Ideally with a big pot of money and all the time in the world we would get shot of someone with Emre's injuries and inconsistency, but we don't have the time nor the money to do that. Instead we must make do with a player who is brilliant on his day, who can't be too relied upon but may improve under new management and better fitness techniques. We need another midfielder anyway, espescially if Dyer leaves, leaving us with 4 centre-mids (Butt-Barton-Emre-Other) and therefore once Barton's back we'll have competition for places and won't be reliant on Emre's form/fitness all the time.

Soccerbase only have him down as scoring 3 in the league for them. Yes I think they're probably right actually. Wikipedia's record for him is messed up now I take a better look at the whole thing (the League, Cup and Europe goals don't add up to the totals at the end...). Ten goals in 35 games seems to have been his total record, so not so good then.. 4 of them came in one game against Liverpool in the cup! Tbf to him though alot of those appearances were from the bench. Didn't he play some games in midfield for Arsenal as well?

I don't think Fletcher is as bad as some are making out. He's just very average IMO. But I agree the weaknesses in his game will stand out a lot more if/when he steps into a much inferior side where bigger questions will be asked of him individually. Look what happened to Butt/Parker when they were expected to lead rather than tag along for the ride.

This was what I was getting at in the other thread but I didn't express it too well. It doesn't seem to occur too often in football but it's a possibility that he has short term plans. I haven't read up on him too much but I seem to recall that he's done this sort of thing before. I'm very surprised Ashley to date hasn't invested on the transfer side though because his competitors are all spending heavily. The strategic review is understandable but as Allardyce says we are getting left behind.

Exactly. People are talking as if this £140M has disappeared down a black hole and he must now invest heavily to try and claw it back. No, invest heavily just to stay afloat. Without matching your competitors in terms of investment you will get left behind and the risk of relegation is too high for such tiny margins overall in football above alternative uses of his money. We're not making money, he is £140m in cash down and acquired £80m in debt. Ticking along is not an option for that level of investment. Well that's reason for this strategic review, the business isn't making money and probably hasn't been run as well as it should. I agree it isn't an option, but so far Ashley's competitors have spent a fortune and he still hasn't shown his hand. The £80m debt is a very valid point, he clearly has plans to make serious money with this club or he wouldn't have taken that on. How much he plans to invest this summer is open to conjecture though, I'm growing increasingly concerned that the pool of targets is getting smaller by the day regardless of the size of the kitty. There may be 5 weeks left, but clubs tend to get very arsy around the last couple of weeks because it's so close to the deadline and they don't have time themselves to find replacements. It can be a very messy time to do business because you leave yourself at the mercy of the selling club. Most of us and the manager agree that we need 4 more players, when you need that many signings 5 weeks suddenly doesn't sound like such a long time

Exactly. People are talking as if this £140M has disappeared down a black hole and he must now invest heavily to try and claw it back. It may well be this strategic review that's holding everything up, which is a bit of a concern because none of us knows when that review will be concluded. The positive news is that it sounds like Allardyce has at least been putting bids in for players, so he's not just sat on his arse waiting for the thumbs up. We don't just want to sign players for the sake of it, but equally we can't afford to wait around trying to find the next Maradona. As they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I agree mate. Three of our rivals are happy to take him off us, does that not say something? If we're going to sell him then let's see some serious offers on the table. West Ham and Spurs offered crazy money for Bent and we know Man City have money. Any other England international would cost a fortune, just look at Bent's market value.

Does anyone seriously expect he'll be replaced this year though? It doesn't sound like Allardyce has been prepared for this one, and he really must concentrate all his efforts on signing several defenders. If we lose him and sign Baptista or someone then fair enough, but if we lose him and don't bring any midfielders in we're weaker. I don't see how that's possibly good news.

Maybe there's something in that, but his performances for Brazil show he certainly isn't frightened by the big stage or big expectations.

It's silly the way he gets criticised for his set-pieces. The solution is simple, get someone else to take them! We have Solano and Geremi now so it shouldn't be a problem.

Sums it up, though I think he was poor last year as much due to Roeder's awful tactics as much as Parker's awful football. If we're going to be playing 4-3-3 then selling Emre would be absolute madness, as he's a perfect 4-3-3 player. In a 2-man midfield he can't really play DM (not good enough defensively) or AM (doesn't get up to support the strikers well enough) but he's the type of player you need in a 4-3-3. Technically brilliant, great vision and covers a lot of ground. With a proper DM beside him to protect the back 4 and someone like Barton who will get forward and get goals, Emre can be our deep-lying playmaker. With someone like Viduka who we can play the ball into feet to, coupled with full-backs who won't hoof the ball aimlessly forward under even the slightest pressure, we'll see Emre's game improve immensely this season. I've gone into more depth on this a number of times, can't be arsed again. I remember him playing very well when we played 4-3-3 against Arsenal and Man Utd (before coming off injured) under Souness. Definitely think he could perform in that formation.

Sam seems to like a team full of hard workers with one or two players given the creative licence. It may well be that Emre would be one of those players, and it's a role he could revel in. You can see he wants to be the playmaker, yet Souness had this mad idea which he said to the press that he was a defensive midfielder and asked Parker to push up. Parker and Emre never worked together, but Emre and Butt produced our best football. Allardyce's first move was to sell Parker and he's already come out and said he likes Emre.

If we really do have faith in Allardyce to improve the injuries and improve results then surely one player who deserves a chance under the new regime is Emre? He's quite clearly one of the most gifted players in the squad. It's no coincidence we've played our best football with him in the side.

We need another central midfielder on top of the ones we've got. It's not the time to be selling anybody.

I would have thought recovery times and trying to stop the injury recurring would be a part of their job. The people we've sent to specialists outside the club have often recovered very well. Bellamy's knees were sorted out in the states, Shearer was sorted over there as well. Both returned fine. Real Madrid seem to have sorted Woodgate's fitness out. I really think the club should take a good look at its medical staff, because the likes of Derek Wright have been there since Bobby's days and we had some serious injuries back then (we lost the UEFA Cup semis to Marseille because we put out a load of kids). If we keep getting these sorts of injuries we'll go down eventually. No club can sustain losing up to 15 players for a game (that's how many we had out against Chelsea), we only survived relegation by 5 points last season and we had more jammy victories than unlucky defeats. If we don't sort it out we'll never get anywhere. I don't believe that much "bad luck" can happen to one club, something's not right and until we sort it out it'll keep happening.

Chelsea lost the league title because of key injuries (Cech, Terry, Robben, Cole) and the fact a better team came along and picked up more points. It had nowt to do with the formation change, they started dropping points when they had to put Essien and Ferreira in central defence, Hilario in goal and try out half a dozen different right backs. I actually think that some of their best football since Abramovich arrived was with a 4-4-2 formation and from Mourinho's own comments he seems to be coming around to this idea. 4-3-3 does have its place but I'm not sure we have the players to pull it off yet. It generally makes you a lot stronger defensively because you're sacrificing a striker for a midfielder, which is something we may need if we don't get some defenders through the door.

I agree, Ramage doesn't have any outstanding abilities as a footballer. I see Babayaro as a poor to average Premiership full back with serious injury problems, whereas I don't even see Ramage as a Premiership quality player at all.

I think Barton's injury has given us all a jerk of reality and shown just how thin we are in several areas. As things stand with injuries and low numbers, I honestly believe our defence would barely be above relegation standard with Ramage and Huntington possibly walking straight into the team. The only positions we have "sorted" are goalkeeper, the wings and up front, everywhere else needs work. In central midfield I have more faith in Emre than most but he does have injuries and I'm not convinced Butt is as good as many here make out, he's had one 'decent' season on the back of two awful seasons and he's prone to the odd injury himself. That should be our engine room, where we control games - I honestly thought Barton would be the mainstay but he hasn't lasted two games. Defence simply must be the first priority but someone like Baptista would be such a useful addition. We can move people into unfamiliar positions, but then problems can pop up in the gaps they leave. It's a problem that'll only be solved by bringing more bodies in, but to see Big Sam trying to juggle players around doesn't fill me with confidence that the numbers we need will make it through the door. Taking a look at our squad and Sam's comments over the last couple of weeks I'm a bit concerned at the way things are going.

Being lightweight doesn't matter a great deal. Gael Clichy is weaker than N'Zogbia, Lee Young Pyo is pretty lightweight as well. But it does help if you can knock people off the ball. Someone gave the example of Roberto Carlos but he's actually very powerful despite his lack of height. It's not the be all and end all though, IMO. What's more important defensively is reading the game and not getting caught out of position. Pace and stamina help a great deal too. For someone who has grown up as a winger it may take a while to instil the defensive side of the game into him, because his natural urge will be to get forward. I think he could potentially be moulded into a LB but it would be a waste of his talents IMO. I hope Zoggy isn't our 'new left back'

Quotes from Sam: ------------------------------ "Charles N'Zogbia arguably could be the best left back this club has on its books at the moment playing like that. "For him, and me, it was an opportunity to see him give a terrific performance in that position. "He did everything the right way. He made fewer mistakes than a lot of his team-mates, he created a lot of great opportunities for us coming from deep and defensively where I thought he might get caught out - and perhaps might in the Premiership - he did not get caught out. "I think it could be a good position for him if he wants to play there. "Some people have said he may not be comfortable with it but he should be comfortable with any position as long as it's 1-11 playing for Newcastle United." ----------------------------- Sounds like our left back hunt is not going well at all. I wouldn't be too surprised to see Zoggy there against Bolton. I always thought Zoggy could make a good attacking full back, but the few times he's played there he's been awful, so I'mnot really sure of that one any more. His attacking instincts seem too great, but who knows with coaching he may learn the role. I think he's best suited to left wing though.

“In the last couple of weeks we haven’t got one single face in and I certainly hope in the next week it’s going to be at least one or two,” said Allardyce. “We need another three or four before August 11 (the first day of the Premier League season) – that’s a certainty. “Everything has hampered our progress – maybe players don’t want to come, maybe the terms aren’t good enough, maybe clubs want too much money, maybe another club’s nipped in ahead of us. “Until you get pen to paper you never think you’ve clinched it. We just have to keep moving on.” Glad to hear a sense of urgency from the manager. I remember when Roeder was patronising us this time last year saying that everything was fine and it'd all work out in the end. We seem to be entering a critical period of the transfer window, compounded by the injury to Barton. We simply need a breakthrough this week because as things stand Ramage and Huntington would walk into the first team.

Good post that. I'd only be happy to see him go if there was a quality replacement lined up.

No thanks. Far too many injuries, far too unprofessional.

Well we agree on some things, we won't stay where we are without investment and he obviously bought the club in order to invest and ultimately make profit through a team which performs better on the pitch. My original point is that we'll have to wait and see just how ambitious Ashley actually is. Assuming we do progress which, with investment I think we will, it's inevitable we'll reach a plateau beyond which we'll need serious investment and good management to go further. I'm talking about breaking the stranglehold of the top 4 and whether Ashley is prepared to try and fund that further down the line. I do believe that with regular top 6 football and a well run business he could gradually be onto a tidy profit with the growth of worldwide merchandising and TV rights. He's clearly not alone in thinking this is a good time to be investing in football, plenty of other owners are doing it. My gut feeling is this takeover is good news if for no other reason than the fact his personal wealth blows Shepherd out of the water, but I'd describe myself as cautiously optimistic as I have no idea what his long term plans are or just how far he's prepared to risk in order to take this club up a level and compete with the big boys.

Sounds like they gave him a 12 minute cameo to get the fanfare out the way. Lalas has already spoken about the disrupting affect it's all had.