toontownman

Luque off carroll on??

Riding on the seat of our pants a bit in defence.. fullbacks the main problem, heaping extra pressure on the centre. Rosehnal looks impressive, Ramage hasnt done badly. Look very good passing. Midfield working well coming forward, working hard but not 100% effective on the defensive side, still quite physical which is nice to see. Luque is obviously way short of fitness but looks suprisingly good, some nice tackles-(yes tackles) still the odd dodgy control, same with Martins. Sam has been on the phone for 45mins. Dyer sitting with Owen in the crowd. Im loving it, watching at work! woo.

well fuck me sideways, its actually working. Touch wood.

un-suprisingly world not looking likely to show the match as promised.

MJ has been talking up having him in the bag for months, maybe even before christmas! Rose will be good for them in a couple of years, until then, theres always Kewell! or maybe they can play Dyer there.

Will Dyer be on the bench or on the train daan saath?

Nice, tasty starting line up about what I was expecting. Wasnt likely to play 4-3-3 at home although he might switch to it during the match. Suprised to see N'Zog ommitted?

Yes and also Yes. Regardless of Dyer, I think we were looking to bring another Central midfielder in anyways, albeit probably a defensive one. Appiah really would be ideal for me, he is as creative and driving forward as he is a great defensive midfielder. SWP's would be ideal, especially for replacing pace with pace. But you could argue we are already well stocked on the Right with Geremi, Milner and Solano. SWP would give us something different, but could he fit into the team anywhere else?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=471093&in_page_id=1779&ito=newsnow More ramblings from our new chairman. Good to see they are backing off Allardyce.

It's only pre-season mate. Is Milner expected to play? If so I'd be interested to see him playing from the middle if we go for a 4-3-3. Definately a better option than Geremi and Solano for me in a 4-4-2, he has always been tipped to find his mark and establis himself in the centre eventually, looked best for the U21's there a year or so back. Geremi Butt Milner (4-3-3) Wouldnt be so bad from what we have got, with Martins, Carroll and Luque up top. A little off topic, but does anyone know if Troisi left or right footed?

Luque is fit enough to take part according to Allardyce. Of course doesnt mean he will.

Allardyce said Ameobi and Given wouldnt be risked either. .co.uk better be up for match time! Especially now they have hyped watching it live.

Doing what?... ....it never happened.

West ham were happy wapping out 8m for Upson who is almost as injury prone as Dyer. Im not upset if he goes, provided we replace him. But there is no reason for us to accept anything under 5m in this current market and especially from freakin West Ham. England International, Experience at every level, and somehow aside from ourselves highly rated. Hes not worth anything above 4m, but compared to the current market we should be looking at nearer double that.

Where did you read that? I'd have thought it'll just run in WMP with DRM before loading, requiring your login. Just have to download a player or something to the work computer because it doesnt have it.. should be fine for you if it already works.

Thats pretty sweet for me, I can watch it at work! although I shouldnt.. Hope this is a tester for possibly showing more live matches in the future, reserve and academy games especially, obviously it will be a few years before any first team games can be shown. Good signs though. Just have to download some software.

Would be suprised if that comment would include the likes of Curtis Davies. Pearson would more than likely have been banging on about him, but maybe Sam actually knows little about him, but is prepared to give him a shot with the options dwindling down. I think his confidence has taken a bit of a knock over the past couple of weeks, but maybe he was setting his hopes a little bit too high? who knows.

extended quotes from earlier articles in the Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/newcastle/article2141441.ece Will be interesting to see where the money goes. And what type of player we buy to replace Dyer. The pace is the only thing we shall miss from him, in which case SWP is an obvious replacement if you think of Dyer as a right winger. but we are stocked with Geremi, Milner and Solano. So maybe we look for a Central Midfielder, or do we look for a ulitily player with pace and skill to match what Dyer potentially has.

To be fair, we cant offer him much more than City can anyway. Sideways step, not worth the hastle, he is happy at city.

tbh

Think Fulham will be giving the Brum a run for their money tbh. Big years for Southgate, Coppell and Sammy Lee too.. could see any of those three of them going tits up.

Big up and coming talent from Leeds. Hailed for big things, MJ has been harping on and off about him signing for you guys, although I think we had an interest in him at one point.

Video Interview with Harps on BBC defending Sheps reign. Cant listen to it at work and my lip reading is shite, so no idea what he is saying. http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_6910000/newsid_6916200/6916275.stm?

Solano would be better a bit deeper threading balls through and creating. If he is to play in the centre it would be competing with Emre for that deeper spot. The engine room should be constantly running and working though, and Im not sure Solano can do that consistently across a season. There are a number of positions Solano can fill for us this season, but most of them will be coming of the bench.

Wary is a better reflection. We have become too used to big money "highly rated" players coming here and flopping. I think the buying young can only work if you have coaching staff capable of taking them to the next level and on the whole have experience with coaching youth, its too easy for the younger players to get lost in the senior squad. I dont think buying young says much for the academy, and certainly doesnt send out the right messages to the players in it or players attracted to it. Too much potential doesnt work IMO, you need the right mix of potential and experience. I think we are just about right as we are. We have plenty coming through, I think we are limited on who they can learn from though.