toontownman

wont make a shred of difference to us bar the fact one team will be finishing higher than us. The lack of fight and interest in the majority of our team would treat the derby like a friendly, Roeder certainly would be able to fire them up, until half time at least. Then if we dont score in the first 10 mins of the second half its back to being uninterested.

His frustrating lack of tactical change when we obviously need it is his biggest downfall, unfortunately thats on of the most important parts of management. He talks the talk well, his vision is absolutely correct but he doesnt deliver as well as he can, completing the coaching badges SHOULD be helping this. Like most I feel (Which is easy to feel) the club deserves a better, more experienced, higher calibre of Manager than Roeder. We need consistency though, Manure fans thought the same about Ferguson, Im of no doubt Ipswich fans were suicidal about SBR nearly relegating them in his early years. Whilst most of us werent inspired by Roeder's appointment, IMO he is far from taking us backwards, he is honest, you know he has the best of the club in his heart and thinking, of all of the slightly better managers we could have appointed I know he has a love for this club to match the support. Its just hard to take the slow, long road when we are losing pace on the other teams who appoint better managers. I believe it is a road that will pay dividens in the end if we stick with it though, its just frustrating. One thing I will be happy to see, which is in the process of being addressed is the appointment of extra staff that will ease the pressure of Roeder in the transfer market and let him concentrate on the coaching. Whether or not coaching is where he is at his best im happy to have Roeder at the club, im just not sure in what role.

Theres alot of people Id like to see take over this club, Strachan isnt one of them, no better than Roeder at best. Good quotes for sure though, if you throw in Ian Holloway as assistand manager I might be interested. We could lose all of the remaining fixtures this season and Roeder will stay on, he is here for until at least the first 6 games of next season.

He will be good here, but he would be better off somewhere else, lets face it we will turn on him and rip him apart before too long.

Brown and Davies would be a great pairing, although I wouldnt discount Anton Ferdinand, I think Davies is number one target, we could see a whole host of other names after that. After losing Moore, Bramble and Gooch this summer our eldest and most experienced Central defender will be Ramage. This under 25's policy is great but we need someone for them to look up to and an experienced leader.

Tuncay, Tuncay and a bit more Tuncay.. is already great friends with Emre and would settle together. Id still take Distin but Roeder wont touch him. Same I think with Viduka as we will more than likely plump for someone alot younger. Sidwell id certainly be talking to already.

He's signing for Macclesfield?

Geez, heather McCartneys false leg would be out the window with the amount of knee jerking going on here. More than likely he has been recommended by Emre, its a puzzling move, surely no-one that can realistically give us anything but back up next season, but yes he certainly has experience. 9/10 we never sign anyone that comes on trial, there is nothing wrong with looking. Gareth Bale is our number one target for LB, id imagine when we dont get him we will look elsewhere for a similar young LB. People thinking if we sign this guy (which we more than likely wont) he will be our number one LB must be mental, or in the same line of thinking we will be selling Owen and Martins and pinning our hopes and number 9 shirt on Sibierski. Its debatable whether Babayaro will be around this time for next season but its not unthinkable we might want to sign more than one LB so we have three players capable of playing there. Baba has more than not been praised by Roeder, but given his injury problems having 3 LB's should give sufficient cover for Baba's injuries, more competition and more experience. Tbh its probably just a mate of Emre's getting a favour off our man, trial aside him being linked with us will interest a few other clubs.

Gooch no contest, he has the hunger and willingness to learn, and is yet to fully settle. Bramble has had chance after chance. The only question marks over choosing gooch would be that when Bramble isnt effing up he can play exceptionally well, we are yet to see an 'outstanding performance' from the goochmeister. I think there is much more to work with though with gooch and for the nominal fee he would command id probably want him over Bramble.

Who is to say this job is a managerial job? maybe its a director of football role somewhere.

I think we are certainly looking to build for the future aswell as now which is good. 2million is alot for someone that is so untested but it could turn out to be a bargain. The team Gray lists is certainly an exciting one for the future. This summers spend will be vital for the club, but its a summer im looking forward too.

Baines everytime for LB.. hugely ignored by the media (which isnt a bad thing for us trying to buy him).. Im sure we will be bidding for Bale though. Matt Taylor is a good shout but he is close friends with Ambrose and will never come here after the way we treated him. Bridge would be great, but Id rather we caught someone on the up rather than the way down. For RB, Luke young, Lucas Neill and Glen Johnson I would all steer as far away as possible. Young is horrendously overated and has been shocking and half hearted for the past two seasons. Neill is clocking on, only there for the money is repeatedly skinned ala Carr has to resort to fouling opponents, he is an improvement on Carr maybe but not by much. Blackburn fans have been praying for someone to take him off their hands. Johnson is just damaged goods, although Roeder might fancy getting him back to his best. As HTT rightly says Hoyte would be a great addition, although im inclined to agree with whomever said Wenger will want to keep hold of him. He has played a pivitol part in Arsenals team this year all across the back, he is calm, young and versatile would be a fantastic addition to our defence, I dont see it happening though. Ryan Taylor looks good aswell, like Glenn says being mates with Steve Taylor would be a pull, not to mention a certain striker that we have been linked too that is close mates with both of them.

about as lucky as normal Id say! The only thing we will miss from an Owen/Martins pairing is height, although both of them are good in the air, Martins in particular has an insane jump on him. Both players are capable of holding the ball up well, Owen is decievingly strong on the ball, they are both great with the ball at their feet but different with their positional play. Whilst Martins should be looking to run into the gaps he tends to hold back and how many times have we seen him pull back to the position he scored from against AZ? Whilst most strikers especially Owen would be running into or across the goal mouth for a cross Martins often prefers to hang back. This is according to the pundits a flaw. I think Martins prefers to play deeper more like Rooney/Tevez, and he certainly likes to shoot from distance. Owen of old would come and collect the ball from deep and run at the defenders but he certainly knows how to ''own'' the box. Flaw or just the game that he plays I think how Martins is playing will enable the partnership with Owen to work. We will add another striker to the mix in the summer which (provided he is half decent) will see our attack looking very strong and versatile. Much like this season depending on the opposition we will mix our strike force up, eg Dyer partnering Martins against Portsmouth and their collective pace ripping portsmouths older defence to shreds, whilst playing Sibbers when we need more height and physical presence.

Is this guy still on trial?

Some of our short passing last night was better than I have seen us play in years. We do have a tendancy to play stupidly adventurous passes instead of the simple one though, resulting in loss of posession. There is a lack of thinking and the easy options should be taken much more often. I think last night it got to a stage where we wanted to showboat rather than play the simple passes though, which is understandable given the position we were in and the excitment the players were probably feeling. However its not fully forgivable as it was ours to finish last night and the door is still open for AZ.

I agree on the full back situation. Whilst an experienced defender or even just a leader playing alongside Bramble is one solution, fullbacks have been the prime suspect in our dodgy defence. Who ever has played in the centre has constantly had to defend twice his normal work load due to the ineptitude of our fullbacks, I cant ever remember us have any great ones. The full backs leave gaping holes or just make mistakes or get out of position that leave the CB's having to cover more ground. A decent LB and RB should have been priority every summer for years.

Thought it was Martins best game for us. Although he saw less of the ball in the second half he dominated everything he had, his passing, strength and hold up play was stunning, he and Owen will make some partnership imo. Brambles tackle was the best ive ever seen him make! Going to be a tough 90 mins over there, but I have confidence and im sure the players certainly will now, to go over there and score and do the job.

He does this trick every year. Plays like a moron the first half of the season then pulls himself together for the finish. He is capable of being a match for anyone when he plays well, we have known that for years. Has he turned the corner? Id guess you could go look up the identical threads this time last season and the season before for your answer. Until he maintains this kind of form for a full season dont even talk about him turning a corner.

Wouldnt be suprised to see us bid silly money for Huntelaar in the summer, especially if he is still at odds with his coach. If emre stays Id like to see us tempting tuncay across.

Take Bent from Charlton Tevez, Ashton and Benayoun from West Ham Bouzza from Watford Realistically I guess either Ashton/Bent and Benayoun. Benny for his versatility would be a great squad player. Either Ashton or Bent would bring different qualities not just from each other but to what we have, either would link up well with what we have imo. Bouzza has looked very impressive everytime i have seen watford play, Id prefer Benayoun for a squad place though.

Considering he was only supposed to be on trial three days, he must be impressing if we have extended it up to playing him tmrw night! Still dont expect much to come of it, but heads must have been turned.

you dont ask, you dont get. Cheeky sods wanting money for OBA!

Viduka would be a good squad replacement for Sibbers, but the latter has won himself a place in Roeders thinking. Would be a decent stop gap but wouldnt be suprised to see him go back to OZ.

The rules state that international clubs can call up any player against the player's or club's wishes, and failure to comply leads to domestic suspensions, fines, or even deducted points. exactly, in that context crumpy's stat of 38 mins in 5 months makes the FA look reckless and strengthens our case. Yes except we more than offered Owen up on a plate for international duty. Infact it could be said we rested him further so he would be fitter for the world cup.

We have no physical presence up front at all, even if we are not playing that way, its nice to be able to mix it up. The only two decent strikers there are Martins and Owen, and there are less than no guarentees Martins and Owen can play together. Carroll is a complete unknown quantity, Le Sib is a year older and still a midfielder. Dyer is unlikely to play a full season and isnt a target man. Provided we bring in a LB, RB and CB or Two Im happy for another striker. We dont need to be spending stupid amounts though.