The College Dropout

I can see Aulas POV - clubs have bid 10m for him this summer and he doesn't want to give into "player power". Even if Gomis leaves in January for £3m he has shown to everyone, if nobody meets our evaluation you can rot in the reserves for 4 months. I am the boss, and I decide who leaves and for what price. Him accepting a lower offer is a sign of weakness. It's like Cabaye refusing to go to Anzhi or something for 25m and wanting to go to PSG for Man Utd for 20m. Even if Cabaye ended up leaving for £10m the following summer i'd respect the move. Levy would do the same.

As lon as Wenger is Arsenal manager, I don't see Spurs finishing above them.

If this was a month earlier, with Benteke's situation up in the air, Higuain not sold off and generally some mroe time to do some player hunting - they would be stupid not to sell. Now... the league just around the corner.. they don't have the time to adjust their budgets and targets.

Do we need Cabaye to be a Gattuso like shuttler though? those 3 in midfield are setup different than the usual 4-3-1-2 is and thus need different things. I think he does have the legs to do it btw, the main problem with Cabaye isn't his lack of work rate which is great its how deep how is. I wouldn't mind him in that role if he's doing it higher up the pitch, Anita is perfectly suited to the player at the base of the diamond and Sissoko in theory at least should suit the role you mentioned to a tee. Also the Tiote and Cabaye partnership simply doesn't work as they seemingly have no understanding in possession.... defensively they understand each other but in possession its a disaster. Something needs to change for sure. The phrase "legs" has nothing to do with work rate really. We mean speed, stamina, fitness. He's not naturally blessed in this department and it reminds me of Xabi Alonso. Ideally, you want someone doing Alonso's running or your team gets 80% possession. Tiote-Cabaye midfield is a solid combination, gives the defence protection, both put a foot in, Tiote runs, Cabaye does the passing.

Although the game is moving toward 2 shuttlers, Rafa's L'pool showed you can have a holder, a passer and a shuttler.

They've got a good team and spine. Lloris, Vertonghnen, Paulinho, Sandro, Bale.

The team is built around Bale but it is a good team. Without him, others would step up. There's no coincidence that when Bale's form went into over drive Defoe stopped scoring.

Or Vuckic? IMO he's more of a supporting forward than an AM. More about goals than creating from what i've seen. But aye, they can play in that same position but the roles are different.

S'hampton, Crystal Palace even Middlesbrough. Great academy's by English standards. Wham had a Golden Generation but have produced little since.

If Cisse has another shocker, we are certain to be in a real struggle again if things stay the same.

Don';t know how much he's improved by but Altidore looked terrible when he played for Hull or whoever that season on loan.

Two unproven fullbacks in this division. Slow and injury prone first choice CB. No wingers. Not a lot of pacy players. I'm not sure we have a 15 goal a season striker and i'm certain we don't have a good all-rounder. What is Pardew's fault is we have a number of central midfielders that have some quality within them and Pardew hasn't found the correct balance at all.

Disagree. There's a lack of pace, power, aerial ability and strength within our side. Any team with this combination that aren't vastly superior in their style is going to struggle with that.

His long passing is great but not short, intricate stuff. Marv is much better at that. When facing a deep defence he doesn't the quick feet to engineer a yard of space to pass it through on goal. Counter attacking like against WBA or Swanswea and he's great because there's space for the holywood balls but at home against lesser sides.. nah. There's only one player who should play a role similar to AM in our squad and it's Sylvain.

Would keep Shola as 4th choice. Suck it.

Hhmm, I think he looks very average when he plays that position for us. Sits far too deep and does not dictate play at all. He looked much better for us when he was pushed further up and was roaming behind Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa a couple of season's ago. I hate seeing him so deep for us as he brings absolutely nothing from that position. Agreed he was great there but I don't think such a slow, with a lack of skill or quick feet can sustain in that position unless we play counter-attacking football. I don't think he should be the furthest CM back but fairly deep yes. I like the balance of DM-Passer-B2B/AM midfield. The less running Cabaye is forced to do the better, so I think a fairly deep role should suit him with the ability to get forward a few times. Too deep and he does too much running.

Norwich could create a fair bit last season. Just utterly toothless. Us on the other hand barely create anything.

I do think Cabaye's future in football lies in a deeper midfield passing role and that#s where his best football will come. Speed/Lee more B2B.

A petulant Frenchman we are probably hoping to sell anyway.

He can be banned for violent conduct. Debuchy is from the Cabaye school of petulance.

He also had the most assists in the PL during that time. Daft point tbh. Interpret as you please. 2005/06 is part of that time to be fair which he did point out the following post. Not that it really matters to anyone other than TCD This is the comment I am referring to. He scored 10 goals and had 5 assists in his first season, they won the league at a canter. They'll win it again imo.

Giggs you know. But in his first season with 5 assists was that top? Of course not. Then Ronaldo is wrong. Again.

Giggs you know. But in his first season with 5 assists was that top?

He also had the most assists in the PL during that time. Daft point tbh. I'm Drogba's biggest fan. This is just a direct reply to Mole saying Chelsea lack fire power up front. Drogba can't have had the most assists either in those years. He had 5 and 11. Mata has had 16 and 17. He 100% had the most PL assists in one of his first two seasons. Total across the 2 years... maybe. He didn't top it the first season with 5.

Agreed. Should help in the old humility stakes too As much of a decent pro I thought Simpson was - his off field antics lead me to believe he was distracted in some way. The shit app, the WAG girlfriend et al.,