Shak

Wonder will Martin Jol (the poster on here) keep the same username? Someone change it to Juande Ramos.

I am. Still not forgiven me for the 'Gullit Incident' then?

What are you talking about? Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady? Two best teams in the NFL head to head? It'd be cracking.

Don't forget Fulham... I certainly haven't. You're banned from home games. We're on a roll at the moment, last thing we need is you turning up. I'm genuinely worried about my next home game, I can see Paul Mosley taking me out if we lose. You'll be glad to know I'm struggling to afford any more trips this year though.

Don't forget Fulham... I certainly haven't.

If it happens I hope they make a better choice than the NFL have with the Giants vs Dolphins. I'm actually going to it and am not arsed in the slightest, the Dolphins are fucking woeful. Would it have been so much to ask to wait a week and get Indy and New England over?

Thank you Captain Obvious.

If ever an avatar intermingled nicely with a post, this is that instance.

There's little room for error with the style Allardyce plays. When it works, as it did on Monday night for instance, it's great as it comes accross as an organised, efficient style that will win you games. When you lose, however, it just looks like flat out ugly and uninspired stuff. The Man City game for instance. You'll get a bit more slack from fans if you're really trying your best to play eye-catching, "sexy" football as even in defeat the team will generally be showing glimpses of the good stuff they're capable of with a bit more work. But at the end of the day the main thing for fans is results and, sadly in my opinion, the style Sam plays is growing more and more popular in the game today as it gets results.

The only time Owen would be good on the shoulder of the last man is if their defence was no further out than the 18 yard box. Martins should be starting every away game as far as I'm concerned. Agree with the second point, not the first though. You act like pace is the be all and end all of it. Timing of the runs and passes is far more important and a lot harder to defend against than just blind pace. And he's not exactly shit-slow either tbh. He won't just purely outpace and go go bounding away from players anymore but once he gets in the space you'll have a hard time getting to him before he gets the shot away which, given his finishing quality, still makes him very dangerous.

You're really wasting Owen when they play as a partnership, as he has to play as the link up man a lot more as Martins is abysmal at linking the play tbh. Owen's all-round game is good enough to be effective there, but ideally you want him playing on the shoulder of the last defender. He may not have the pace anymore, but he times his runs and reads the game so well that he doesn't need it to still be top quality. Good to see them do alright together, though Spurs are awful at the back and I think against other teams the partnership would struggle. I'd not want them as the front 2 too often.

you're missing my point. he's not as good now as he was. You can say that about most players as they reach their early 30's though surely? yeah, but not many players have the reputation scholes has. Yes, but do people generally believe he's as good now as he used to be? I don't think so. No way he's over-rated at all, still absolute quality tbh.

Good to see Owen getting a run out, should be fit and ready for the World Cup with a bit of luck.

All about the money at the end of the day. Outside of the likes of the Milans and Juve in Italy and Barca and Real in Spain there simply aren't any clubs that can offer a manager the wages teams like Spurs or ourselves can, regardless of the lack of CL football. Same with players, which is why I always laugh when we're linked with foreign players playing for Porto or Werder Bremen or some other club of such standing and we have hordes of people on the forum going "OMG, he'd never come here!!" The Premiership is the place to be these days, which can only be good for us as fans.

Xavi is only 27?

He'll never consistently be able to bring the ball under control and give it to a team-mate with a couple of neat touches, you can see he just lacks the natural composure on the ball. So he'll always be a frustrating player to some extent. But he's got enough ability to do something with the ball from nothing at any given time, and his pace is simply frightening, so he's a tremendous weapon. It's all about minimizing his flaws and accentuating his positives. He has to play to his strengths more, he doesn't just knock the ball by the defender and try to skin him for me. He should be doing that or else playing a very simple pass then looking to make a run, cos with the ball at his feet and with time to look up he's pretty shabby tbh. But with someone like a Viduka to build the play through up front he can be a very good striker for us, and with good coaching I believe he can learn to be very effective out wide in a 4-3-3, where you want your wingers to be very direct. Plays with a lot of passion, hopefully he has that work ethic to push himself to be better. He's still a very rough talent, but I really hope we stick with him.

And the latter? Anyway, delighted with that. Faye and Cacapa looked quality, and Beye and Enrique seem very solid defensively. We're a more solid team than we have been for a very long time. Emre helped our ball retention immensely in midfield, and Barton got a run out which is nice. I don't think they're a suitable partnership or ever will be, but Owen and Martins both did well I thought. Owen's build up play is so underrated. Jenas had an absolute shocker. Loved Ashley shouting "Whey" along with the rest of the crowd when Kaboul ballooned that shot late on. Great result, well done.

No surprise after seeing his myspace page tbh, seems a twat.

Moot point really, due to the impossibility of the scenario.

I'd take that swap in an absolute heartbeat. Owen's great, on the extreme odd occasion that he actually plays regularly. You can be an eternal optimist and hope that his injury problems are just gonna magically disappear, but they just aren't. Anelka is also a lot better suited to the system our manager seems intent on playing and won't simply drain wages from our club for the next 18 months before leaving on a free, like Owen. Yeah thats right I forgot Anelka is well renowned for his loyality and has never moved on for financial gain. So what's the point? We swap one selfish twat for another? Did you miss the parts about him suiting our system and not being an absolute crock?

I'd take that swap in an absolute heartbeat. Owen's great, on the extreme odd occasion that he actually plays regularly. You can be an eternal optimist and hope that his injury problems are just gonna magically disappear, but they just aren't. Anelka is also a lot better suited to the system our manager seems intent on playing and won't simply drain wages from our club for the next 18 months before leaving on a free, like Owen.

15m for Owen would be absolutely brilliant money tbh, I'd accept well below that as well.

Agree with that, I actually rate Mascherano above Alonso. He's top notch. I know it's supposed to be Premiership only but I think Andres Iniesta at Barcelona has blossomed into one of the best CM's around over the past two years. He'll be a cornerstone of their team for years to come, the heir to Xavi. Always thought Barca would be after Fabregas sooner rather than later, but with Iniesta there I doubt they'll feel the need.

Aye, but he's been blatantly eyeing up his secretary for months now.

He's not ever gonna be the player to link up midfield and attack IMO, but I reckon he'd do a passable job if we had Barton in the team and Smith was one of the more deep lying CM's, particularly in away games where you're setting up with defense in mind a bit more. I'm leaving for the evening nowso you'll have to forgive me for not responding to any reply you make to this.