tmonkey

SSN saying Dereck Wise has called a press conference for tomorrow.

He's signing tomorrow.

Yes and no imo. We look a bit more settled in defence, we look to have a decent pair of wingers this time around, and Carroll may be able to get 10+ goals this year if we're lucky. However, Harper looks too easy to beat, we have a clear problem with the right back slot, our midfielders are all very slow, lacking in creativity, and none of them are good at protecting the back defense, and aside from Carroll, we're probably going to be hopeless in attack. Furthermore, if we get a couple of injuries to the likes of Jonas/Enrique/Carroll, we're probably f***ed. What's also easy to forget is that the year we went down, we had a number of first teamers frequently injured. Martins, Beye, Barton, Enrique, Given/Zog sold mid way through, Viduka rarely fit, etc etc. If you took the same number of first teamers out of this team, for the same periods, how would we fare?

Better analogy would be when we missed out on Carrick because our chairman thought he could hold West Ham to ransom and get the player for half a million, when West Ham were only asking for two. Spurs then came in late and snapped him up, and the rest, as they say, is history...

Jonas was most at fault for the first goal certainly, lost the ball far too easily to Valencia and showed bad awareness in doing so. But why didn't Nolan just pass it into space ffs? Jonas was pointing for Nolan to pass it forwards, two players were closing the ball down from behind it, and there was ample space for Jonas to run on to. So what does Nolan do? Pass it slowly into Jonas' run as opposed to ahead of it, making Jonas check his run briefly to get the ball - which in turn gave Valencia that added bit of momentum he needed to catch up/rob Jonas.

I don't care that it's against us. That's a fantastic goal conjured up by two brilliant players. Great to watch.

Michael Owen warming up.

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Content/081006/News/Todays_News_Our_Take/5_fri/081010southpark.jpg http://www.readjunk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pic_southpark12.jpg http://www.justpressplay.net/images/stories/lucas-oface.jpg

http://freakrevolution.com/images/like-a-flaming-sword-through-butter.png

Would rather have him in charge than Big Al.

Rooney and Hernandez will score at will. 4-0 thrashing.

Wouldn't be suprised if Spurs enter the race again ...

I think we could do with someone who sits in front of the defense and looks to check any runs/mop things up, or at least have the option to play someone who can perform that role competently should we want it. The assumption being of course that this "defensive midfield" would also be a semi-competent footballers with good physique (so not like Nicky Butt during our relegation season basically). The problem we have is that with Guthrie, Nolan, Smith, Barton, et all, is that they're all slow, poor in the tackle, and easily overrun by faster/more energetic midfielders. Furthermore, I don't think any of them have the mentality required to actually do a decent covering/defensive job on top of looking to spread the play/get forward/etc - i.e. tracking opposition runs, blocking players off, being aware of those runs or where to position themselves defensively, so on and so forth. It's not a part of any of their games. Hence, I fear that centrally we'll be vulnerable to opposition midfielders waltzing into the box unmarked every game just like they did the year we went down. I'd go so far as to say that it's a sight we've seen so often for years now that we're just used to it, which is something Hughton shouldn't accept. Even in the Championship there were games where opposition midfielders were running untracked freely into our box with our central midfielders looking on 20 yards further back (and we were lucky that we weren't punished for it in that mediocre league). Maybe that fear isn't justified as it's based on a slightly different team from 2 seasons ago, but the signs are there that the same problems potentially exist, and ultimately those problems have created this situation where it's hard to criticise the defense and supposed bad defending with conviction when you know that there's zero cover being provided by those in front of them. Would a competent defensive midfielder solve this problem, assuming it exists? Possibly. It should at least go some way to plugging some of the gaps we might be seeing every other week.

Alright, just Perch then. Not looking forward to him being up against Nani and Rooney. (Hopefully I'll be told they're injured too).

Comfortable 2-0 win for them. We'll be overrun in midfield. If Fergie has scouted us, and he probably has, they'll probably target Perch/Simpson.

Update from Hughton on SSN as we speak. I'm paraphrasing here: "We are close to agreeing all terms, just a few issues on the size of the offer that is holding the deal up. We've offered a good amount of money for the contract which is basically an annual payment plan, however mcdonalds are saying that they'll only accept bids for medium or large sized meal deals. Kevin is not happy as he wants the super sized deal and the tower burger he's seen on youtube, but mcdonalds are refusing to budge on this. This is all a bit tense, and the lads are hoping we push the deal through quickly as we need more bodies in the squad, and completing this deal would ensure we attract the type of players we're after."

Richard Dunne outpacing him at 0:30. Dennis would never have allowed him to sign for us based on damning evidence like that.

What about...I'm scared to say this...a back three? Colo, Campbell, Williamson. With Enrique and someone else as wing-backs...

Good luck to him. For our sakes too. At his best, he was easily better than Rio Ferdinand. Just a pointless fact that is worth mentioning.

Can't complain on a free. Like many before him, he sounds promising - just hope he's not shit. Can he run fast? If so, that's one bonus that'll be a major help for us. If not, then meh, hopefully he's talented enough for it to not be a problem, although in truth if he's one-paced or slow then I'm not really looking forward to the prospect of him partnering one of Guthrie, Barton, Nolan or Smith. As Sir Bobby put it, we need legs in midfield, and central midfield is no exception (which is why he signed the likes of Dyer and Jenas no doubt).

It's an article for a West Ham fan site in fairness. An NUFC one against Graeme Souness would read similarly I'm sure. Would explain why the article hasn't gone into any detail on Portsmouth and his hand in their downfall.

Would be the perfect foil for Carroll.

Getting fit, and staying fit, is a big enough challenge for him. He's been an utter crock for us. 47 games in 3 years, appalling. Not even sure he's missed that many games due to suspensions/prison, as he always seems to pick up an injury every few weeks that has him out for months. And he's been s*** on average when he has played for us, whilst at best (the few weeks he played under Keegan) he's looked a very average, very slow mid-table Premiership midfielder. A decent first touch and confident passing is nice, but he thinks he's better than he is, which makes him play like a bit of a dick, which in turn makes him look worse as he's constantly losing the ball. Getting into the England squad would be like climbing Mount Everest for him, don't think the FA or Capello would take a risk on someone as f***ed in the head as he has shown himself to be (irrespective of his whining and AA confessions off the pitch).

How does that work? I have a few mates who are arsenal fans who were happy with Campbells performances last season and I think gash said the same. I don't understand how he can be considered good enough for a champions league side but not for one who are just trying to stay up. I completely agree with yorkies sentiments, wages too high no thanks, would prefer younger but they don't come cheap and Campbell has great experience at the very, very top and leadership experience. Long term, no thanks but our first season back his experience and ability (even as a shadow of what it was) could prove invaluable. The problem we'd have is that in the grand scheme of things, we're closer to Notts County than Arsenal. And that's not merely referring to the huge gap in the calibre of the team/players. Things like diet, training, coaching, facilities, the manager, winning competitions, win bonuses, CL football, etc etc, come into play when you take things to the level of Arsenal/Wenger. I'm sure it was alot easier for Arsenal and a genuinely great manager in Wenger to get Campbell fit/motivated (and similarly, for Campbell to motivate himself to play well) than it would have been elsewhere.

This. Must be a real sucker for an underdog putting in the game of their lives to have a big team struggle and scrape their way to a draw in 90 minutes, knowing full well that they'll come back a few weeks later stronger and better prepared.