Shak

If the whole thing starts to drag I would assume at some point they'd agree to release some funds to Allardyce to at least give him some money to spend.

Hadn't heard anything about us beeing after Geremi, he'd be a good squad player but I'd imagine his wages might be a bit of a problem.

Can't believe a couple of people have actually agreed with the original post. If its still like this in mid June then you can maybe start to worry, but the transfer window has only been open for 3 days at the moment.

Its not that, its the fact that the whole "Takeover" thing might effect his budget, the more time Freddy and Ashley drag this on the less time he will have to buy the players he want, also real life is not FM, you don't buy a player overnight and he will definetly need time and money to buy new players, i don't think he will get all the targets he want and we might see Carr or Babayaro (hell even Ramage) in the starting 11 come the first game of the season and that is never good. Give it time, man. Nothing wrong with getting rid of players who he doesn't want. I'm sure Allardyce is working to bring players in but, as you said yourself somewhat ironically, these things don't happen overnight.

Aye, with the season set to start tomorrow its ridiculous to have such a small squad.

Bit disappointed Ranieri won't be in the Prem next year, great character he is.

One of my best mates is a Wigan fan, I'm having a field day with this.

Agreed, Ireland would be fucked for one. Not fair if a team has no worthwhile national league that they should be forced to bring lesser players. This would all just play into the hands of the big nations, which goes against what you're saying about trying to stop the superpowers always winning. My memory of last years World Cup will always be that Argentina v Germany game in the quarters. Never in my life have I seen a manager get it so wrong. Argies take the lead and look like they could easily coast to a 2 or 3 goal victory. Germany are putting absolutely nothing together going forward, struggling to even get the ball near Argentina's box, never mind creating any chances. So what do the Argentinians do? Completely take their foot off the gas and sit back allowing the Germans to go at them. They even take of Riquelme, who'd arguably been their best player in the tournament and replace him with a holding midfielder in Cambiasso. Then with 10 minutes to go they make their final substitution... Cruz on for Crespo. A straight fucking swap, bringing on a worse player at that. Inevitably the Germans get a poxy goal out of nothing and it goes to extra time with the Argentinians having Riquelme no longer on the field and Messi, who'd looked dynamite when he came on as a sub in earlier games, as an unused sub. They go into extra time having somehow raped their entire team of any creative player with the exception of Tevez, and as a result the game goes to penalties and Germany win... obviously. As bad a display of management as I've ever seen in terms of one game.

Can't agree really. I'm not English so I can look at England in a fairly detached manner and I have to say there should be absolutely nothing stopping England from winning the big tournaments. No stand out goalkeepers at the moment but its certainly not a glaring weakness. Incredible talent in defense. One of the best midfielders in the world in Gerrad and countless other top players. Rooney and Owen up front, not fantastic options after that but hardly a real problem. The problem is the manager. You need a strong minded manager who won't just be a yes-man that tries to keep everybody happy rather than playing the best team he can put out. Instead you have McClaren, who's a fucking woefully average Premiership boss, not fit in the least to manage such a talented group of players as what England have. Really missed the boat with Scolari, he'd have been fantastic for you lot. Could do worse though, you could have Steve Staunton in charge. He still persists on playing John O'Shea at right-back and Steve Finnan at left-back for a thus far unexplained reason.

As much as I'd feel sorry for Allardyce, I'd have to agree. The thought of watching us play the football Arsenal do would be too much to resist, he's on a whole other level to Sam tbh.

Depending on how much a team has to spend then it does, surely? Say a club has a value of 300m, and another has value of 100m. Surely the second club would be risking just as much paying 5m for a player as the first would be paying 15?

Anything relevant to say on the matter then? totally irrelevant is it? Not by your usual standards, admittedly. But more or less, yes. Didn't see much about other clubs being after Hargreaves or Anderson, this mean Man U are skewered as well? Barton has been linked quite a bit with West Ham as it happens, though that's not really relevant. comparing the signing of Hargreaves and Barton? excellent And how exactly are they not comparable? the price? the timescale? the circumstances of departure? the buying/selling clubs? The prices are comparable considering the clubs involved. Man U paying 17m is about the same as us paying 5.5m really, as we still don't know Ashley's intentions. Regarding timescale, surely teams have had more time to show interest in Hargreaves? Two players who both wanted to leave, quite comparable circumstances. The buying/selling clubs are a level down in the Barton transfer, just as Barton as a player is a step down from Hargreaves.

Anything relevant to say on the matter then? totally irrelevant is it? Not by your usual standards, admittedly. But more or less, yes. Didn't see much about other clubs being after Hargreaves or Anderson, this mean Man U are skewered as well? Barton has been linked quite a bit with West Ham as it happens, though that's not really relevant. comparing the signing of Hargreaves and Barton? excellent And how exactly are they not comparable?

Anything relevant to say on the matter then? totally irrelevant is it? Not by your usual standards, admittedly. But more or less, yes. Didn't see much about other clubs being after Hargreaves or Anderson, this mean Man U are skewered as well? Barton has been linked quite a bit with West Ham as it happens, though that's not really relevant.

Anything relevant to say on the matter then?

Barton is a significantly better player than Parker, so on the face of it this is brilliant business. However, we all know his off the field problems are a real worry. If he was to sort himself out and start acting in a bit more professional manner, then we could have gotten ourselves a very good signing. Type of player that can drive his side forward from midfield. Sort of like a lesser version of Gerrard IMO. Personally I think the guy is a lunatic and he'll end up having a semi-succesful career here before being peddled in about three years. Hope I'm wrong, cos I really rate him as a player.

And Viduka up top on his own I suppose? We'd be rubbish.

How do you figure? A quality CM who can pass the ball very well has got to be very near the top of our list of needs this summer, if we've a decent transfer kitty I don't see spending 10m on one player as being that unrealistic. Personally don't think it will happen, as I reckon Allardyce will fancy that he can get some good performances out of Emre in that role. If this takeover thing happens, and in time to give us some silly money to play with (which as i've said before I think people are getting slightly carried away with) then spending that on him isn't out of the question I suppose, no. I just don't see why they would sell him, and to us in particular. He's one of their star players now, and we're hardly better than them at this point in time. He's hardly going to put in a transfer request to come to us is he, like he would to go to Man U etc? Can't see it happening. But if we had "silly money" then surely we'd immediately become a much better proposition than Everton at this moment in time, no? For the record I don't see us signing Arteta either.

How do you figure? A quality CM who can pass the ball very well has got to be very near the top of our list of needs this summer, if we've a decent transfer kitty I don't see spending 10m on one player as being that unrealistic. Personally don't think it will happen, as I reckon Allardyce will fancy that he can get some good performances out of Emre in that role.

Thread has turned into bollocks a bit. But Arteta isn't at all an unrealistic target for us if Ashley can gain full control over the club fairly promptly and hand Sam a decent transfer kitty. Whether we'll target him is another matter, but I'd be very happy to see him here, class player.

Shearer was past it for his last two years like. And we got our best production from CM when Parker was absent and Butt and Emre played together. Roeder should get a lot of the blame for it as he was the one who set out the tactics, but to say Parker was anything other than completely useless this season is wrong.

Can't see anything other than people trying to stifle their laughter if Parker goes anywhere near taking a set-piece. Anyway, happy to see him go. I would wish him well as he did always give his best, even if he was mis-used/not good enough for the most part. However, he's going to West Ham. So I wish him nowt but misery, in his professional life at least.

One of the very rare occasions I actually laughed really loudly at the screen, quality AS9.

Agreed, like a better version of Faye tbh. Breaks up play and gets about well but a very limited player. Honestly think that's harsh on the lad, he's a much better player than that. Looks good for Liverpool at times because he has a very basic role, namely to win the ball in midfield. Meanwhile Alonso alongside him has the task of passing it from the middle, while at the same time playing as a ballwinner in midfield himself. They play with two holding midfielders for the most part, think its easier to look good for him in a system like that. His touch can be a shambles at times too.

Agreed, like a better version of Faye tbh. Breaks up play and gets about well but a very limited player.