Cronky

That's true. However, star players coming in do need to treat the others with tact and respect, particularly in this situation where players who fought to get us up are being displaced and there's already a well-established team identity. I'm not confident that Bellamy has the adaptability to do that. This larger than life, stroppy persona seems to be an important part of his make-up. He's a great player for sure, but it's all about the right signing at the right time.

I suspect the Mackems pay better.

Until very recently, I'd have said yes. Now, I'd worry that he'd affect team morale. It would all be too much like the return of the hero, and Bellamy would play up to that role. That wouldn't sit well with the players who have worked hard to get us back up after relegation. Timing is wrong, basically.

I'd argue against that point quite strongly to be honest. I think Barton's very open and honest about his past mis-givings and why right now he doesn't deserve to be near the squad. I'd also go to say he speaks a lot of sense when it comes to the game as a whole, his interview on Norwegian television showed he is a very intelligent person. I think Capello and England do just pick the big names. The talk of form being picked was bollocks. There's a lot of flannel in that statement of Barton's, but the substance is that he thinks he can do better than one or two of the players who were picked, and that they got their places on reputation rather than ability. He's said something similar in the past. Whether or not that's true, it's not sensible for him to say so. If he can get back to full fitness, he's an international player, but Capello has had enough trouble with friction in the squad already, and might not want to add another opinionated character who thinks he knows what the manager should be doing.

Joey does seem to carry around this sense of injustice, which keeps spilling out. I don't think his comments about Capello selecting the 'big names' are very sensible.

There's a risk, but CB is a weak area. We lack leadership and composure in defence and he could provide that.

Thats just scaremongering. We could have balanced the operating costs and taken a slower route back to the PL. Instead we increased the debt by £25m and returned to the PL seeming unable to afford any player who costs more than £1m. For club with 40,000 plus crowds and £35m of extra TV money coming in its not really a very clever position to be in. Are you sure you're not getting yourself into a bit of an NE5 state here? - Digging yourself deeper into a weaker position out of stubbornness?

Compared to the average centre back how quick would you say he was? He really hasn't looked as slow to me as some people seem to think but maybe he has been made to look quick by incredibly slow opposition. looked reasonably pacey to me when i saw him last season hardly the quickest ever but not geremi slow as has been implied by some Yeah, I can remember watching him in a game against Spurs last season. It was one of those situations where he had to turn and make up ground after a ball had been played past him. He got to the ball after just a few strides and cleared it. I'd trust him in that situation far more than Colo, and probably more than Taylor and Williamson. If I have a worry, it's about his mental state. He seems to have lost his direction a bit. Hopefully, we can provide it.

I'm not so pessimistic about the longer term future. We've got some good young players coming through, and the new rules about spending in excess of income will level the playing field when they kick in. How we play this season depends on who comes in. At the moment, we'll have no choice but to defend and try and nick goals from set pieces. We need more pace and energy in the midfield. I don't know Gosling, but Cleverley would be a good signing.

The obstacle to Campbell signing previously has been his wage demands. If that can be sorted, then he'd be a good signing. In fact, he'd be our best central defender. Despite his age, I don't think he's lost much pace, although that can go at any time.

If we go down, I can't imagine that you're going to be saying, 'Well we may have lost, but it's been great entertainment'. Hughton's first job is to keep us up, and his first priority is to make us hard to beat.

Skilful. Not convinced he's a defender.

There were glaring weaknesses in his game, but when he left - or I'd say was hounded out - he wasn't replaced and we missed him. The rot really set in from that point on.

I wasn't that impressed with Van Aanholt. He seemed skilful but not particularly strong defensively, which is what we're going to need.

Both of them are. Both of them did well in a cameo appearance for one of the League's best sides, with the rest of the team making them look good. Both scored a 'wonder' goal (as proclaimed by Sky Sports Hype Machine Directors Andy Grey and Richard Keys) and are still living off that. No one cares they never showed up when they were given a full game. No one cares that Welbeck didn't exactly set the Championship alight in 8 games (I'm aware its only 8 games and he did score 2 goals). However, you point this out and people go 'Yeah, but that goal against Sunderland.' 'They play for Man U...' Welbeck looks nowt special. In fact, I'm surprised he's been given the chances that he has. Macheda though is different. He looks like the complete package. He'd be a very good signing for someone that was prepared to give him a run of games.

The standard of punditry on TV generally isn't good. You look to these professionals to give you insights and opinions that reflect their superior experience in the game, but all too often they talk in obvious cliches or exaggerate in the way that most fans do - eg Worst England performance I've ever seen, the Dutch are a disgrace. The only pundit that seemed to be coming out with anything original was Southgate, and that wasn't all the time. The lesser known figures like Marcotti and Ballague are usually more interesting.

I've enjoyed it, apart from the England games, which were unbelievably frustrating.

That Dutch side of the Seventies could get stuck in as well, with players like Neeskens and Van Hanegem. The total football is what's remembered, but they were also a hard bunch, particularly the 1978 lot. I actually think Webb handled the game last night as well as anyone reasonably could. I've seen suggestions that he 'lost control', but I actually don't think he did. A ref loses control when the players start to take the law into their own hands and I don't think it reached that point.

I'll only know where my heart is when the game starts. Spain deserve it, but Holland have produced so many good sides over the years, and have made a big contribution to modern football.

Interesting article, thanks for that, though I think sometimes our obsession with numbers and lines can hamper our understanding of how a team is organised. (I'm also a bit surprised that you said that Spain don't play like Barca, because to me they look very similar.) Just observe the amount of players Barça breaks with, instead of the 3-4 Spain usually puts forward, which frustrates the hell out of me. Barça play with only one deep lying midfielder (Busquets), instead of two (Busquets/Alonso). This allows one extra central midfielder pushing into attacking positions and drawing defenders and thus creating space for others. To compensate for the relative lack of men in the defensive area of midfield, our defence line also pushes higher to help press the opposition and give more quick transitions to attack since we win the ball back closer to their goal. Of course, we are much more vulnerable to counterattacks than this Spanish side, but at the same time more incisive. I take your point, though it sounds more like a question of emphasis rather than style. Where I think the challenge lies for that intricate passing style is when it comes to the main striker. He's got to be technically good enough to join in those sorts of movements, but ideally would also have the physical presence to put all sorts of chances away in the box. There's not many who fulfil both criteria, though Torres is one. Barca were hoping that Ibrahimovic would be the answer, but it looks like he's been a disappointment. Likewise, I don't think Bendtner or even Van Persie can solve the problem for Arsenal. It's interesting that despite your quality throughout the side, you've won the last three games only 1-0. Although there's no question that you're the best side, that still leaves you a bit vulnerable.

Interesting article, thanks for that, though I think sometimes our obsession with numbers and lines can hamper our understanding of how a team is organised. (I'm also a bit surprised that you said that Spain don't play like Barca, because to me they look very similar.) It's certainly true that the top teams don't really play with two strikers side by side, as would be suggested in a classic 4-4-2. That's been a development over many years, and it's what's made a striker like Owen increasingly redundant. In practice, one striker is withdrawn to link with the midfield, or you have advanced midfield players who try to get up to support the lone man. Whatever, you end up effectively with 5 midfield players, and how the various jobs (defensive-attacking, wide-central) get divided up is a matter for the coach and his assessment of what he's got in his squad. One thing that seems clear though, is that the more flexible those players can be, in terms of interchanging positions and improvising, the more effective the team is, and that's where English players still lag behind. We still have a bit of an obsession with specialist wingers, waiting for the ball out wide, and then getting past the full back to put a cross in. We lack the equivelent of Messi and Iniesta, who are just as comfortable going round the back of the defence out wide, as going through the middle. It's interesting that Lennon, the most specialist winger, didn't last the tournament, and we ended up playing with Gerrard and Milner, who are players who you usually see down the middle. Also interesting that SWP went to the tournament, but Walcott was left at home. It was like Capello was trying to get a bit of flexibility, but either didn't quite have the nerve or the players weren't up to it. Lampard is great at what he does, but he's too slow to go wide and has to stick to the middle. The higher the level of opponent he plays, the more static the team looks. Joe Cole can go down the middle or wide, and I think we would have looked better with him and Gerrard, rather than Gerrard and Lampard. Basically, we only had two players who truly looked comfortable when roaming into unorthodox positions, and they were the only two who really seemed able on occasion to improvise together in a way that threatened defences - Gerrard and Rooney. We had a third in Joe Cole, but for some reason didn't use him. Maybe there's still a problem with his fitness. The stranger decision was to play Defoe. He kept his position because of the goal against Slovenia, but he's not good enough at holding the ball to play that modern advanced role. Capello should either have tried that Rooney - Gerrard combination that everyone's talked about, or brought in Crouch, who has done okay in the past for us. Sorry, I've ended up talking about England, but that article did push those buttons for me. Hopefully, Wenger will be able to develop a few young English players who can play in the more modern way. The likes of Eastmond and Wilshere look very promising.

No point in Holland turning up now.

Not really. It looks like what it is, somebody who is exploring the possibility of offering supporters a way of wearing their teams colours whilst raising some money for a good cause while theyre at it. Any confusion is all in your head. The Newcastle replica kit was poorly designed and overpriced long before Ashley arrived - symbolic of the exploitation of supporters loyalty. The contempt of Pumas design team may be the catalyst of for this idea, but football clubs have been taking the piss for years. Sticking the club crest on any old bit of tat and saying thatll be fifty quid. Whether he succeds or not, I applaud Kaizero for taking the initiative - and fart in the general direction of those who nitpick instead of getting behind a worthwhile idea. You've proved my point. First you say it's in aid of the SBR foundation and then you say it's a protest against the way owners exploit the fans through replica shirts. You obviously think you can do both, but I don't think the foundation are going to want to get involved in something which is designed to be in competition with the club's own commercial activities. Can we get a bit realistic here about replica shirts? Virtually every professional club in every country in the developed world, in every sport, is doing this. Do we seriously expect our owners - whoever they might be - to slash the price and lose out on income while our rivals rake it in?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1VnWQLgzUaM/Su8lBZ7r3gI/AAAAAAAABGg/UN08lCvpxQs/s320/graham-poll-with-cards.jpg .......generally speaking.

Why don't we try to identify what is currently the worst full-time professional club in the world, and get behind them?