Shak

Be a good signing as long as he's not the lad we're bringing in and expecting to turn us around or anything. Tidy player who can play a few different positions. Technically very good which is something we lack badly in midfield, I'd be happier seeing him on the pitch than Geremi or Milner.

Rozenhal looks composed on the ball alright, but under any pressure he tends to panic and hoof it aimlessly, or that's what it seemed like when he played for us, could easily have been Big Sam's instructions though I suppose. His passing is quite overrated by some on here, it's not really much to get excited about at all.

He's useless though Jon. Can't cross, his passing is s****, set-pieces are worse than his passing, slow as f*** and ugly as original sin. Useless.

http://videodetective.com/photos/060/00255324_.jpg "JonE5 is alive!!!"

So why are Barca selling him for £4 million? If he's got so much potential then why not develop him and sell for a massive fee, or even keep him and reap the rewards? Last year of his contract and he wanted to leave Also the fact that Bojan and Messi are vastly better prospects so Dos Santos likely won't see enough first team football to be worth keeping around.

To be fair to Dos Santos, he's only just turned 19, still can go on to be a very, very good player you would think. He may not be at Messi or Bojan's level, but he's a very exciting prospect and I'd be delighted if it was us signing him, and I suspect many others here would too.

Only 12 grand, eh? Even with club authorisation it'd be a waste of £435. I mean who can't find the fixtures if they want to anyway?

Potential to be better than Carrick?!?! Sign him up FFS.

I say keep him. He's on his way to being absolutely world class in a year or two. His stepovers and twists are amazing, and he works hard as a motherfucker too.

I don't see your point. I think people can't or won't seperate the man from the job he did in Shepherd and Halls case. I've said it often enough, I judge a chairman primarily by how they back their managers, and in this instance Mort has came acros to me as being completely out of touch and knowing nothing about football. Why do people think he's been such a good chairman, he's done nothing except ironically make some stupid statements to the press. He's also had 2 managers complaing about the clubs ineffiency to complete transfer deals. To me, this is as worrying as it gets Fair enough, I don't think he's done a particularly good job either if I'm being honest but he's hardly been a disaster either. It would appear that he was only ever here on a short-term basis and that he was always going to be replaced this summer, so it's unlikely he was ever going to come in and do anything radical or be particularly knowledgeable about football. Stop-gap chairman that did pretty much what you'd expect him to do IYAM. More interested to see who is replacement is and how much Ashley is willing to put into transfers, which is his call at the end of the day and not Mort's. Anyway, best duck and cover before I end up arguing about the board with you, a prospect that terrifies me to my very core.

Where's anyone said that doing the conga makes him a good chairman anyway? People seem to think it's funny, and I'd tend to agree with that tbh. But I can't see where anyone has used it as any sort of indicator as to how he's done as a chairman, unless you count Jonny Hall's original post that first brought the incident to people's attention, which was clearly in jest. Why can't you seperate the man from the job he's done NE5? Because I really don't see the need for going off on a wobbler here at all.

Yeah, one of my Man U fan friends reaction was "Yeah, f*** him anyway" Yeah, you're welcome.

Looks to me like he means that our fans, expectations and chairman are a lot harder to deal with, for one reason or another. Blackburn is an easier job than Newcastle or City, no doubt. Expectations aren't high, big money isn't dished out therefore vast improvements on the pitch aren't demanded to the same extent. But if Hughes has real ambition he'll take the City job IMO, because he knows that there's more he can do at City than he ever could at Blackburn. It'll be harder, for sure, but he'll believe he can do it, as any manager worth his balls would.

What else could possibly define a poor decision? As I said, in football there's always an element of risk with any signing. Duff has worked out badly, but so do thousands of player purchases every single year throughout the world. It's the nature of the beast. Sitting back 2 years after the event and saying something was a poor decision and we should never have done it is hindsight at its best. If you were saying Duff was a bad signing at the time then you have a case, but not everyone was at all.

I'll agree with UV in principle here. You can't look back and say decisions were poor ones simply because they haven't worked out. In football there's always an element of risk with every signing, things may not work out for one reason or another. That said, plenty of people said the Duff signing was a stupid one at the time. I do remember myself and Wullie going to war in a few threads to defend The Zog.

Solano's goal against Everton a couple of years ago got nowhere near enough love at the time. Lovely build up play, ball finally makes its way out to Nobby. Dummies past a defender then bends one with the outside of the boot into the far corner. Cambiasso's goal in the last world cup was immense.

Crouch may not have that pace and physical presence, can't deny that. But what you lose by not having the pace and power, you're gaining in close control. The bigger, more physically impressive target men we could go for aren't likely to have the touch and technique that Crouch has. Given that Martins figures to be his strike partner, Crouch could be the way to go. Martins has enough pace and physicality about him to pressure the opposition, but recieving the ball to feet with his back to goal certainly isn't his strong point. If we're going to play the ball on the deck then we need someone who can link the play nicely to allow Martins to do what he does best.

Can he not offer something height wise when he starts, no? Very good first touch, quick feet, good awareness of his teammates runs, handful in the air due to his sheer size. All useful talents in a target man, which is what we need. Not a great finisher but he'll chip in with goals here and there. Again, not world class or anything but I think he'd be a solid signing.

And calling him 4th choice at Liverpool is harsh. Just can't get a game because they play one up top with Gerrard just off. Kuyt, Babel, Voronin and the others all play primarily as wide men really, which Crouch isn't suited to. If they switched to a flat 4-4-2 he'd be playing up front with Torres, IMO. Better than Kuyt for me.

Agreed. x2 x3 Why? Ridiculous just quoting Dave's preference. Why don't you want him? Wages? Style of play? Why do you think he will not fit in with Owen and Martins up front? Does he not score enough goals? Is £8m too expensive? No Pace. Can't drift deep. No tricks. One dimensional. Don't want to pay silly money. Don't want to give Liverpool a way of ditching their 4th choice striker. £8m is hardly silly money for a guy who's proved he can be a real handful against some of the best defenses in the Premiership.

Agreed. x2 x3 Why? Ridiculous just quoting Dave's preference. Why don't you want him? Wages? Style of play? Why do you think he will not fit in with Owen and Martins up front? Does he not score enough goals? Is £8m too expensive? It's because he looks gammy, innit. Crouch wouldn't be absolutely ideal, but he certainly fits the mold of the type of player we need to bring in to lead the line. Ideally we'd bring in a guy with a bit more of a physical presence, and more mobile. But at least with Crouch we know we'd be getting a guy who's proven in the Premiership and who seems keen to play as much football as he can. His ability generally gets overlooked due to his ungainly appearance, but he's actually a very tidy player with the ball at his feet, and would be very useful as a focal point in a pass and move type of game. Be quite happy with him, all things considered.