The College Dropout

It is a bit worrying that S'hampton/Norwich/Swansea/L'pool are dropping big figures on players to improve their squads. I know a number of ours are on decent wages. But Cisse was the last player we spent 10m+ to sign. I don't want us to waste money but we do need to invest. Everybody else is stepping it up.

They aren't getting rid of Ade

i also think they get the chance to develop in the top divisions as much as they did, even 10 years ago. You need the opportunity. Look at Sturridge - he should have spent the last 3 seasons at least playing for a midtable Premiership club (well he is now). His game would've been a better player than he is today. I don't even think he's particularly talented but James Milner has benefited plenty by being given the opportunity to just play in this division from a young age.

Colo already does that.

Agreed. But we also need a more physical CB to prevent us getting beaten in the first place. Any defence with someone as slow as Colo in the centre is going to have trouble playing a high lline.

The strikers of today are far better athletes; stronger and quicker. It's not about who likes elbowing defenders. If any league should be known for its atheltic forwards it is Ligue 1, and Yanga-Mbiwa is our most athletic centreback by far. I don't think Taylor provides anything more physically than Yanga-Mbiwa offers. He is however, a much more experienced player in this league and a better pure defender. I'm fairly confident in all three of our centrebacks when they are fit. In fact, I quite like the players we have in defence. We really need both of our fullbacks to perform consistently next season though, because neither did last season despite all of their talent. MBiwa has proven nothing thus far that suggests him to be our most athletic centreback in terms of strength and jumping ability. He has really not shown to be very strong and has been outmuscled everytime he has played a physically bigger player than him.

Amazing how that has been forgotten about tbh It was a massive complaint from the majority before we signed Mapou that it was so easy to get in behind the back 4 with Taylor/Williamson and Colo with Mbiwa and Debuchy to some extent we have better recovery pace and positional sense. I understand where people are coming from but i do feel it could work well none the less. Colo's slow as owt himself, he's slower than Taylor. I love Colo but he's not the best with a high line because 1. not great in the air 2. slow

A £20-25m bid would seriously test Villa's resolve.

Defoe doesn't need much service tbh. He's just a greedy player.

S. Sinclair & Remy would be great work.

From the little i've seen, Leroy Fer looks like the kind of B2B midfielder who is good in the air I had hoped Sissoko was. Early days yet for both though.

Needs a year in the Championship. Maybe two. If he hasn't looked a top Championship player in that time, he probably won't make it for us.

25 man you can only have 2 specialists for each place in the team. Man Utd. only have one specialist RB.

What are his strengths? Pace, athleticism, comfortable on the ball, beats a man, loves to get forward. Aye, he's defensive side could improve but he's a young lad and I can't believe anyone isn't ecstatic to have him on our books. Ecstatic is pushing it but there is no reason why he can't become a very good player for us for years to come. A good coach would sort him defensively too. It's predominately the mental side he struggles with IMO, nowt that can't be fixed you'd assume. He'll be better this coming season. Agreed fully.

People just lying to themselves. Chelsea are far worse, a more odious club and I would swap with them in a heart beat. For the footballers alone.

but IMO he wasn't starting at the great height many people are giving him credit for. I don't think him playing every game helped his cause like as he looked totally done in around Christmas time. In theory it shouldn't happen this year as we have some cover currently at FB. Fully agree.

Never looked like a decent defender to me. Never. He's a tidy footballer, pretty quick, good height but what are his strengths? Looked best when deployed a wing-back/winger at Wigan.

Especially after Debuchy signed. Simpson was impressive.

No he wasn't. At least not in my view. Like the whole team he started off decent. And like the majority of the team, was poor defensively from November onwards. His season was worse than Simpson's. Who was defensively decent to great for the vast majority of the season.

Santon was poor pretty much all season.

I think the goalscoring MF is a bit excited. We signed 2 first team CM's last season and another impressive youngster. I'd be happy with a striker with a different style to Cisse. One others can play off whether it's AC style or Berba style. And another attacking wide man. Doesn't have to necessarily be a winger, just someone interested in scoring and assisting primarily. A Maloney type.

Happy for Williamson to be 4th choice tbh.

Would take a 29 year old Viduka all day.

Not sure about creating wage space for decent signings but we won't replace any of those players and rightly so IMO. None of them play in positions where we need strengthening. As said before i want a striker, winger, attacking midfielder and centre back but we'll be lucky if we get half that. Agreed with everything except the last point. Think we need a striker and another forward who can play wide. I'd be happy with just Remy and a more target man like striker.

We signed a first teamer from Ajax. Always in Europe, mostly in the Champions League. We've also signed a Ligue 1 championship winning captain. ££££ Being a bigger club just means we should be spending more money than Norwich et al. That's all.