Theregulars

does nobody have any confidence in Allardyce? I'm sure Bolton fans were as bemused as we are here when they signed people like Kevin Davies and El-Hadji "lack of saliva control" Diouf, but both turned into crucial players for them. Ffs lads, Sam has a talent for bringing the best out of mediocre players. Unlike Roeder, he isn't just going to sing a player based on the name and for the point of it (see Duff), he probably has a conrete plan for Smith. That said I don't quite see how he's a replacement for Dyer...

Talk of the massive clearout in the summer, but with his known ability to seemingly reinvigorate players, does anyone reckon it's an idea to see what he can do? Obviously players of the ilk of Bramble can go (imo past salvage) and anyone with attitude issues, but players like Duff/Dyer etc could become more consistent? Dare I say it 'd like to see if he could work with one Albert Luque......

I think my amazingly insightful point got lost up in this unfortunate incident of handbags!

I think one good reason to play him is the comparatively poorer/inauspicious starts players like Henry, Pires and Reyes had to their Premiership players. If he's kack, and he hasn't looked like a world-beater yet, then shift him off. But what we don't need is to be in a what if situation, as in what if we had given him more time and at his next club he becomes awesome. I DO believe the stuff about the injury and settling, there are many instances of confidence players, maybe he is one and he has every reason to be low on it at the minute. In the last two appearances he made, he looked like he could make a difference- much more so than Chopra in my opinion. I think Roeder has likely marked him down as someone with a bad attitude (I wonder what role Shearer had in this?) or something so is overlooking him, but he might look mank in training, who cares/knows. Point is, we paid a lot of money, he hasn't been given a fair chance- if Ameobi can blossom after looking terrible 90% of the time, I have confidence Luque can. I think a big reason is the fact that he is totally not suited to long-ball football, which we play a lot of the time. With him and Owen up front we'd have to pass it about and then I think he'd excel. I think people who simply dismiss him are missing a trick and overlooking a potential gem- why splash out another big sum for Shearer's replacement and make a loss on Luque, when we can try and nurture/encourage him over 6 months/a season and see if he comes good? His value can't get much lower than what it is now, and besides his reputation in Spain will remain intact for another season at least, in my opinion.