The College Dropout

Reminds me of the comments of another one of your former players: "In countries like Spain, a player of my talent would have the team built around them," said LuaLua, who scored two goals last season. For Portsmouth. One of them was a penalty against Watford. "I could be a real No10, when I watch Ronaldinho, I say to myself, 'I can do what he's doing'. And it is annoying because people don't see that I am as talented as him." I don't remember these comments... would piss myself laughing if they were true... I still like Sibbers....pretty shit as we all expected but tried hard and seemed like a nice lad.

Don't want him... not least because I spent 2 weeks laughing at Pool fans that he started in the CL final.

Maldini has played in 5 Champions League winning teams so even though he has stayed with one team, he easily can be called a true European "Great" Gerrard is going to have to something similar or else he is only going to be a "great" in the Premiership and wont have anywhere near the same recognition in Europe Was just going to point that out, Maldini got the same number of Champions Leagues as Liverpool had in their whole history Or that Maldini has won more CL winners medals than all the English teams together excluding scousers.

Spanish or Italian players don't need to go abroad to confirm themselves as greats so I don't see why an English player should. Gerrard would be loved anywhere he went simply for the ammount of effort he puts in not too mention his knack of scoring late wonder goals. The Italian league is piss poor imo, I believe that Italian players more-so than English need to go abroad to really prove themselves...

How long is Barton likely to spend in prison if things take that path? I think it might even be good for him.

How is his fitness? Didn't seem too miss large chunks of the season to me through injuries.

Money talks thats why. I doubt they will offer much more in wages than what Parker is currently earning for us....

Nah mate it's a slide. Dyer rarely. Milner Occassionally. Oba Often you know nowt mate!

Would be a better appointment than Big Sam.

I said that a while back but got rightfully lambasted considering Dyer can't tackle.

Aye...the Roman Polanski effect.

No not really, it's a fair and valid point...**shrugs**

Ranieri is very overrated.

Enjoy it while it lasts then. It wouldn't happen if your idea about the players coming from their national leagues were actualised. Stupid idea...hmmm....Ghana or the Premiership??? Tough choice there. Would only result in more African born and raised Frenchmen.

The Ivory Coast was one of the highlights of the tournament for me... playing constant attacking football.

Good move... Barton is better than Parker and he'll be cheaper. He will probably be on lower wages as well.

Depending on how much a team has to spend then it does, surely? Say a club has a value of 300m, and another has value of 100m. Surely the second club would be risking just as much paying 5m for a player as the first would be paying 15? You're arguing Black is white. Barton and Hargreaves can not be compared as Vic said, Hargreaves was courted only by Man U for ages now. Barton is a troublesome player who has a get-out clause and we have an interest / signed him. Vic was bang on in that they are incomparable situations and you are wrong to argue against that. For the record for the others piping up, Vic said that no other clubs seemed to be in for Barton. If the petulant kids on here cant read it like that then address the point instead of going on about something that has more to do with other threads, then they are the wums, not Vic. Argumentative? Yes but seeing as this place relies on the dynamic of 'making a point, then making a counter-point' it seems thats a good characterisitic imo. Unless (not aimed at you shak just cant be arsed to start a new post) you prefer it when everyone says exactly the same thing all the f****** time. Often Vic doesn't even debate and he becomes embroiled in exchanges where his point is obviously hollow and he nit-picks others posts..

Of course he contributed but the difference between Everton and Newcastle was lot more than just Arteta. Arteta is also very good from set-pieces but Everton also have more aerial prowess than our team of midgets as well.

Stats are fairly useless when talking about central midfielders. Jermaine Jenas rarely looses the ball because he often passes to the player next to him whilst someone like Nicky Butt will try and switch the player 3 or 4 times a match..it doesn't mean Jenas is a better passer. Parker or Reo Coker may make more tackles than Makelele or Essien but that doesn't make them more effective. Positioning and knowing when it's best to keep the team shape is as important as lunging into tackles... Parker might make a crowd pleasing tackle and take the ball out for a corner whilst Makelele might wait for the opposing player to kick it against his legs. You also have to consider that Everton finished 6th and WestHam/Newcastle/ManCity all finished below 13th place so it is only natural that Arteta would have more assists than the others.

Being involved in that battle between a lowly 4th and 10th is where I want us too be.

Dyer is a very handy substitute for England and is atleast more effective than Smith although I reckon Crouch or Bent would work better with Owen and are more likely to score.

Owen's legs have gone imo....still looks slow as Shola. Frank shouldn't be in the starting XI but he isn't a bad player and doesn't deserve all the stick he gets. He's starting to become a scapegoat for much larger problems.

That being the key they dont, that is why Bramble has no club atm & Heskey played for a club that went down last year & another club that just stayed up this year. A few threads/posts away there are pages going on about how poor Scott Parker is & yet here we have people posting saying Bramble & Heskey are good IF..... That's because we no longer have to withstand Bramble and are about to make a great deal with Parker.

Bramble and Heskey are brilliant when full of confidence, they would be great assets if they could play like that week-in week-out....

Seemed a canny player last season. Wonder why O'Neill doesn't fancy him.