ohmelads

Maybe he is, I didn't follow his PSG days, but for Man Utd he was brilliant at left back. It was my understanding that he's excellent in both positions, though I'd have thought Man Utd fans were happier with him on the left. Have to ask one of them I suppose.

Deco, Barton and Emre for two AM positions sounds alright to me. If Butt gets injured we can bring Geremi (or Rozehnal, apparently) into DM or play Emre or Barton there. We're lacking proper DM cover but we can't have the perfect squad and we need to keep players happy and fighting for positions. If we did go for a DM it'd have to be someone young who would be happy to wait his turn, because we'll have a shocking number of players challenging for those 5 midfield positions. If we sign Deco every penny after that must go into defence IMO.

There's no chance we'll get Eto'o. Maybe we cheekily asked them if Henry's arrival means they'll listen to offers, but more likely it's journalistic bollocks. I think the Deco story has legs to it for the following reasons: - Shepherd and Allardyce personally flew out to Barcelona to sort a deal, that suggests something big because they don't normally do that. - The local rags have been claiming we have a large pot of money to spend, yet we've hardly touched a penny of it. - The local rags have also claimed their club insiders claim a "big" signing could be on the horizon. - Allardyce disappears from our training camp in Austria all of a sudden for two days just as the Deco stories appear. - There has been no denial from the club on any of the Barca links. Edmilson/Gudjohnsen may have been a smokescreen. Normally with such persistent links to a couple of high profile names, we'd have heard something by now. The local rags are persistently linking us with these Barcelona players at a time when all other rumours have gone quiet. - nufc.com are also quoting their own sources as saying a medical could be done this week. They've been more cautious in recent years and usually only suggest this stuff when they're confident a deal will go through. They've largely ignored the rumours about Gudjohnsen and sneered at the Edmilson rumour, yet they've taken this story on.

I'd say Heinze is perhaps more realistic than Bridge because the club is actually willing to listen to offers by the sounds of it and the player wants out. I haven't seen anything to suggest, this summer, that Bridge wants out or that Chelsea want to sell. In order to get Heinze we'd be relying on the big European clubs snapping up other targets leaving his options limited. IF we did get someone like Deco in then it would severely strengthen our hand. A few have already got their men in place. The main worry would be Real Madrid, who look like missing out on Chivu (set for Inter apparently) and still need a replacement for Roberto Carlos.

Getting back to Heinze, right now I feel like we need three more signings: A LB (preferably two, but let's be realistic) and 2 CB's. However, if we signed Heinze, we could get away with buying just one more CB and still avoid having Ramage as the 4th choice. Once two of Taylor/Rozehnal/Whoever gets injured Heinze comes across and Baba fills in at left back. Ramage would become the emergency 5th. Of course an advantage of buying Heinze and one other, rather than buying three players, is that we can allow for signing a better and more expensive centre back rather than dividing that money between two more signings. It also makes it easier to rotate and keep the players happy. Heinze has lost his way a little bit, but I'm not entirely convinced by the LBs that people are raving about like Baines and Shorey. I like the look of Baines, but he'd cost a fortune and still needs work. Heinze would be a gamble, but the season before last he was one of the best left backs in the world, loved by Man Utd fans. Only 12 months ago just about any team in the world would have had him. Because of the type of left back he is I think he could have another 5 years left in the game. At £4M we'd be getting ourselves a bargain IMO.

Bolton are ugly to watch but so are Liverpool and Chelsea. If it's a routine game then I generally never go out of my way to watch any of those three teams play. Still, there are a couple of positive ways to look at it. If, over Allardyce's reign, that football could get us into the Champions League with the riches and pulling power that brings, then the next person in charge will have a base to start building a team that plays brilliant football. Also, I don't think we're going to be quite as cynical as Bolton were, they had to play like that. If we are indeed targetting players like Deco then I think we will definitely see some guile and flair on the field. Steven Taylor is a centre half, so of course he's going to talk like that and so he should. St James' has never been an easy place to come, but we can make it even harder.

So that's £10M quid on another striker? They spent £10M on Kuyt a year ago and another £25M on Torres just last week. Plus they already have Crouch and Voronin.

Certainly in the case of Gudjohnsen, if we're going for Deco then there's no way we need Guddy. As for Edmilson, I can only hope that's a load of bollocks. I'm hoping the Deco rumour is true, but I'm also hoping we're not about to splash out an obscene amount on what would effectively be a luxury signing. We could do with his creativity to take us up a gear, but given our major needs in defence and his age, it would have to be considered a bit of a luxury. I hope that whatever happens, the defence finally gets some attention.

Why are people suggesting all these diamond midfields and three man defences? Deco has played his whole career in a 3 man central midfield, at Porto, Barcelona and with Portugal. Allardyce has always stuck by this formation as well. So we've got a manager who loves 4-3-3/5-5-1 whose star signing could be a star totally suited to that formation, and suddenly people are going on about formations unfamiliar to both the player and manager. If Deco signs, we'll be playing 4-3-3, I'm sure of that.

Good Championship player, might do a job at one of the promoted clubs one day perhaps. We could have done with him last season like.

.com are rarely left with egg on their face. They've been more cautious the last couple of years and have only quoted their sources when they've been confident a deal will go through. As for formations, signing Deco would point to a 4-3-3 more than ever. He played in that formation for Porto, Barcelona, and Portugal.

We've so far been linked with Edmilson, Gudjohnsen, Giuly, Deco and Eto'o. Seems to me the press got wind of the fact we had representatives in Barcelona, and have been guessing all along. But it also seems that they may have finally figured out Deco is the main target. According to the Austrian lads, Allardyce disappeared from the training camp all day yesterday, and suddenly major rumours are popping up.I don't think that's a coincidence. The Deco story is on Sport, one of the main Catalan sports papers. They're mostly just quoting the English press, but they're not laughing the rumour off by any means.

Where have all these figures come from? Any links?

The down side of Deco are that he's 30, wouldn't come cheap, might not adapt, and might be here for the money. Ability-wise he's a world class player and it speaks volumes that Barca fans don't want to see him go. Because of his style of play I think he could play for another 3 seasons at the top level, and maybe still be useful for another one or two after that, given Allardyce's record with such players. While we have Emre and Barton, this guy is a class act and would lift us to another level in terms of our midfield play. In a 3-man midfield he is very difficult to pick up and I'm sure teams would begin to look at our attacking options and say how do we deal with that, and that's the type of team we want to build. My main concern, as others have highlighted, is whether we are going to neglect defence once again as we have under previous managers. I'd like to see us go all out for an Heinze or a Marquez, because with one of those two plus Deco we would have the tools for an assault on that 4th place which would mean the players would pay for themselves.

The local rags have been fairly spot on this summer. He won't go to Barca, they've bought Abidal and are close to signing Milito and that'll be their defence sorted. Juventus just bought Andrade. Real Madrid are a possibility but they've been chasing Chivu. If we can sign Deco (which is looking possible) it'll be a major statement of intent and may be enough to persuade Heinze we're really going places. At £4M he'd be a superb signing, our defence needs someone like him.

Just been talking to my Spanish friend, a huge Barcelona fan, about all this. He said "please don't buy Raul, I need him at Madrid!". He also said he wants Edmilson out of the club and hopes that one is true. He's not bothered about Gudjohnsen leaving either, which is understandable given all the strikers they have. He's very surprised at the Deco rumours but having seen the links he thinks it's possible. He wears Deco on the back of his shirt and would not be happy if he leaves, but could handle it if Lampard came in. He also believes Deco is "too good" not to adapt to England. The Eto'o rumours are clearly bollocks. I hope the Raul ones are too. However Deco seems very believable as nufc.com rarely quote their 'sources' and then go on to be wrong. This would also explain why Allardyce disappeared from the training camp in Austria all day yesterday. I think Deco would be a fantastic signing, a world class creative midfielder to provide bullets for our forwards and pull the strings in midfield. He's the type of signing I've been talking about, someone to take us to another level. I still believe we need a top defender if we're going to go anywhere, so I hope Allardyce has plans for that area. If we can get Deco on board, attracting a top defender would become far more possible, if indeed the money is there to buy one.

I believe one of the main reason's we haven't won a cup in 38 years is because we've never had a great defence. If you have an absolute b*stard of a defence then you can beat anyone in a one-off knockout game, be it by nicking the only chance that comes your way or taking the game all the way to extra time or penalties. It's the best way for underdogs to lift the trophy, look at Liverpool and Greece in recent years as examples. Liverpool do it in Europe, not by playing silky football (far from it), but by excellent organisation and a mean defence. Greece did the same three years ago to become European Champions. With a defence like that, you level out the playing field and always give yourself a chance against bigger, better teams. Typically, the longer these teams go without scoring the more frustrated they become, the more doubt begins to creep in and the more your own team grows in confidence, because they know and you know you're still in the game and only need a half chance to dump them out. Teams like Chelsea, Juventus and Barcelona have played Liverpool in recent seasons and you could see in the second half the players were beginning to worry when they couldn't find a way through, and as they got more desperate, their passing became sloppy and suddenly the underdogs smell blood and take the initiative. The same happened with Greece's opponents in Euro 2004, as time wore on they began to panic. I feel our best bet is to emulate this if we are to end our trophy dought, build from the back and defend as a team. Much easier said than done, which is why I feel we need to spend big in defence this summer even if it means no signings elsewhere. Playing a 5-man midfield will probably help too. We've got the right manager for this stubborn defensive approach to knockout games.

I think Allardyce's man management skills are one of the biggest assets he'll bring to the club. It won't rub off on everyone, but he likes a challenge and I fancy one of Zoggy/Duff/Luque to come good next season. As with every management change, some players improve while others fall by the wayside. I think he'll do his utmost to get Duff back in form and while he's out he'll be looking to players like Zoggy and Luque to rekindle their form of days gone by as well. It's something he's done with players at Bolton who everybody else had written off, so I fancy him to get it right with one or two of ours. As the Bolton fan on here said, he'll instill hunger into the players and they'll all know what's expected of them. Hell he even got Anelka playing on his own up front with something resembling hunger. When he was referring to Luque and players' personal lives affecting their performances, I suspect he was also talking about N'Zogbia who lost his father early last year and then suffered a major injury at the start of the new season.

I see N'Zogbia as a rough diamond and a player we must hang onto. Duff needs another season here before we write him off. It'd be ridiculous to sell him after one injury-ravaged season. What little we've seen of him has been in an awful side which finished 5 points above relegation, we know he's better than that. He's out until November, so presumably Milner, Martins and Luque will be in direct competition with Zog for the left wing-forward/left-wing spot depending on what formation you see us playing.

Read it again. I wasn't aware Lyon and Valencia were linked with him, haven't been following him this summer. I'd be surprised if he ends up at one of those two considering he hasn't set the world alight at Man City or Fenerbahce and has been decent but nothing amazing at Bolton either.

£5 says that despite that, Owen will still be at Newcastle come September but Anelka won't be at Bolton. Who's going to come in for Anelka now though? The top 4 have all bought their strikers, as have us, Spurs and West Ham. Only really leaves Everton (bit cash-strapped apparently), Villa, Man City or a foreign club.

Watched PSV several times against Liverpool and Arsenal last season and I didn't think Salcido looked good enough at all. Looked a bit out of his depth to me.

Realistically there's a good chance he'll be in the Intertoto Cup soon wearing an Atletico Madrid shirt.

Why not? All the Spanish papers are saying Barca will probably sell Marquez once they get Gabi Milito. Atletico Madrid are the only club linked with Marquez, but they don't exactly blow us out of the water. Marquez got his Spanish passport last November so he'd have no problems playing over here. AS are claiming that Atletico would want Barca to seriously lower their price or even accept a loan deal. They're looking for a ball playing centre back and Marquez is said to be good friends with their coach. But I think if we were to offer something like £8m Barca would definitely listen. Andrade just went for £6.7M and although Depor are really skint, Marquez is about to become 4th choice at the Nou Camp while Andrade was the star player at Depor. To say we would never have a chance is to suggest that someone like Milan would come and snap him up, yet for the moment I only see Atletico putting their name forward.

They have more depth this time around with signings like Ben Haim, Sidwell and Pizarro, who will surely play in the Carling Cup games. That's why it's better if a decent team meets Chelsea in the earlier rounds while they're giving their 'weaker' players like Cudicini, Boulahrouz, Diarra, Ben Haim, Sidwell, Wright-Phillips, Pizarro etc a runout, because when they line up like that, espescially away from home, they are beatable. Get them in the semis or the final and they'll put out all the big guns and it becomes a lot tougher. For us it's a case of consistently getting home draws because at home we can beat anyone. I actually think we might benefit by meeting one or two of the big teams at home in the earlier rounds where we'll be more up for it and can use our home advantage.