The College Dropout

Good luck. Good pro. Might miss his ilk in the dressing room imo.

Lescott will not be the player he was. Once you get comfortable on the bench of a big side you never recover top form. Ask Wayne Bridge. SWP.

This.

Pepe. Barton. Catts. Henry. That bald bloke from Brighton. Maybe not hardmen. But violent men.

okay, two. Only other good sides (i.e. that won things) I can think of is Vialli era Chelsea. And that had Wise and Le Saux.

You need some home-grown players man. Not just for the rules. I can't think of many great English sides that didn't have at least 3 English men regularly playing.

Oh dear.

Massively unrealistic expectations? It's a result of lowered expectations.

TBF similar things are used in Brazil, it all depends on the context. In any case to call him a racist is a bit daft really (and so was the 8 match ban tbf), because anything can slip in moments like that, What?

I can see Monaco coming in for over 15m and that would interest them. His true value is around twice what we paid.

Yes. Ba scored from a good few flick-ons from Shola/Best. Apart from Cisse he's looked decent with everyone else at our club.

Anything more than £25m and we've got a great deal. A real replacement would cost around £10m but i'd be scared we wouldn't sign anyone.

This.

While I do think he's right to make a stand and not want to wear it, I do think he's trying to engineer a move. A lot of people commit adultery but they wouldn't want to wear a shirt that promotes it so I don't understand the hypocrisy angle. As a religious person - being a sinner isn't a reason to stand up for what you believe in. I would be more disappointed in Cisse if he's using this as an excuse to leave. If he's honest about his stand - I approve.

'98 first tournament I can recall the majority of the games.

His lack of ability also forces Cabaye too deep. I have no problems with him deep. It's when he's battling too much that he's wasted. I'm not sure Cabaye has had many good games at NUFC without Tiote.

I've said this before. But Tiote is the only player currently, who takes the running burden off Cabaye a bit. His athleticism and physicality mixed with a more defensive nature helps Cabaye out immensely.

Disagree. You'll have Cabaye doing too much donkey work and the whoel team will collapse imo.

Also, it's like the difference between a top-level CM and just a decent one. One of them needs a game of the right pace to operate, and the other one is capable of creating the right pace themselves. Pirlo might be playing in some hectic games, but when the ball gets to him he has all the time in the world. That was Carrick's problem for a few years. Where Scholes could doctate the tempo and slow it down when needed, game's could get too much for Carrick.

Start ahead of who?

i don't disagree tbh. But I do think a slower game suits other leagues better than the PL- couldn't imagine Riqueleme playing well under any manager in the Premiership consistently like he did under Pellegrini. Like-wise quick and direct players are more suited to the Prem. Now someone like Alonso you would think, might struggle in the PL. But not only is he an elite player, he had a manager that understood how to get the best out of him in this league but fully understands what made him special in Spain. Alonso's better than Cabaye and Benitez is more shrewd than Pardew. This man played Hayden Mullins over Mascherano ffs. So yeah, I don't disagree but there's certain mileage in that line. By English football we really mean, "is not suited to kick and rush". It's doesn't matter as much if his team doesn't play kick and rush.

But it's 11 players playing that style. It's different when 10 are playing differently to 1. Like how Cesc isn't a CM in Spanish football anymore.

Scholes spent the last 5 years minimum, playing as a deep playmaker. Until this season, he was far better at it than Carrick. Previously, Carrick's had trouble consistently imposing himself in that regard. Not that he's not excellent at it.

By behind I meant in a normal CM position as James wrote it. Or am I confused?

Why is cabaye unsuitable to playing behind Cisse?