tmonkey

Thats pretty much how Freddy Shepherd ran us though. One full time scout - is that what the top sides have?

Top class squad full of quality footballers, to a mediocre bunch of cretins (with the odd decent footballer) who are getting paid the equivalent of CL salaries. Thanks alot Freddie. Wonder why all the other "top clubs" from when Shepherd took over as Chairman are still doing well.

mourinho left because it started to go bad and his way round it was to go all FM08 and just try and buy his way out of trouble. all managers have limited authority in the transfer market (even keegan under the halls, when they wouldn't but him beppe signori). if wenger or ferguson go to their boards and say they want to compete with citeh for kaka....what do you think they'll be told ? But they won't be signed players they didn't want, at all. Nor will players be sold without their permission. That is what is alleged to have happened with Mourinho, particular examples being the Shevchenko transfer and the sale of Gallas. Although Mourinho always maintained that everything was OK, as Keegan did with us, the signs were there that he was being undermined by those above him, which seemed to have started with the arrival of Frank Arnesen.

Our current manager's wikipedia: Pretty similar to Allardyce imo - same style of football, similar sized clubs, similar spending power.

Excellent article, pretty much spot on about Big Sam's tenure here.

yes i've said it all along, he's brought so many problems to nufc , his fee, wages, injuries and the fact people still rate him when he hasn't got the legs any more Needs to be in midfield.

Not nice of him to speak out, but then our managers have treated him like shit ever since Duff's arrival. I think the error lies on both sides in his case - we've treated him badly and unfairly in terms of first team football, and as a result he's shown a lack of respect in his attempts to leave.

Agreed. He's worth alot more.

No. Nothing wrong with a club paying big bucks to a star player. As for the complaints, after years of hearing about how the game was being destroyed by Chelsea's money and the top four would only ever win trophies amongst themselves, Pompey won the FA Cup last year and Villa are currently in the top four with a "nothing special" squad imo. Quite clearly, a decent, settled manager, good squad depth, and a good player or two are all you really need to have a chance of doing well.

Torres' season was much like C.Ronaldo's - scored consistently throughout the season, a number of them were excellent individual goals, and he scored in the big games for both club and country, most notably the Euro 2008 final. Ronaldo scored 40+ from "midfield", an exceptional achievement as we all know. But Torres' 30+ came in a team that is far less creative than that of Manchester United's, added to which Torres was practically playing up front on his own for most of the time.

Butt right now is alot worse than Smith was in midfield when he played for us there.

Well, he had a bit of a stinker in Euro 2008. But thats a mute point as noone else hit the kind of form he did at club level.

First Premiership player to win it. Well deserved.

Class act for a player who isn't going to score or assist heavily. Of all the players in our squad, I think he'd look the best in a top four side, because the opposition couldn't afford to double up on him all game without worrying about the space that would leave for other dangers/talented players in a top four calibre team. Works hard, good touch, decent passing, good movement, beats players consistently, drives the team forward and plays teamates into good positions (not direct goalscoring opportunities, but situations where they can go and provide that for someone else), and will chip in with a moderate number of assists over the course of a season. Thinking about it, he'd actually be a perfect signing for ManU. Good foil for C.Ronaldo on the other flank who provides the end product that Gutierrez doesn't, has the movement/touch/awareness to fit into ManU's system along with the work rate, and would be a big upgrade on Park Ji Sung. Ferguson tends to be a bit slow when it comes to signing established Premiership players from other clubs, he's usually prepared to wait a season or two before any real interest comes out in the open, so although there may be no sign of it right now, I wouldn't be suprised if Fergie has an eye on him, especially after that opening day Old Trafford performance.

Once Martins, Barton and Beye return to the team, we'll be fine, and will probably finish comfortably mid table.

Villa being gifted a win by lady luck for the third time in the past month.

IMO the Ronaldo vs Messi debate bears resemblence to a similarly frequent arguement 4-5 years ago on these boards when the two parties were Lampard (in great form) and Kaka (showing great ability). As with Lampard when he hit peak form, C.Ronaldo's form is bridging that gap between his ability and the higher ability of the likes of Kaka/Messi/etc - if the form dips then although he'll still be recognised as a quality player, there won't even be a deabte as to who's better. Likewise, if someone like Messi hit's top form, he'll walk an award like FIFA's wolrd player of the year, because he's that much more gifted on the ball than Ronaldo is.

Must be great being a Barca fan - as in, far more so than any other fan of a successful CL elite eam. On top of the trophies you have the joy of nearly always watching a true all-time world class attacking/flair/creative player in prime form, season after season with only one or two transitional seasons at most before the last great player is moved on and the next one hits form. Before Messi there was Ronaldinho, before him Rivaldo, Figo, Ronaldo, Romario, Stoichkov stretching all the way back to the early 90's. They got to see them all in their prime, at the peak of their powers - nearly all of them either winners or runner ups for World Player of the Year at one point or another (many of them twice) - in amonst the many other talented and top class players in all of their teams. And now they get to see Messi tearing the league up week in week out.

Martins is like Viagra to the current team. Without him, our attack is limp, slow, and never looks like scoring.

How many more shockingly awful performances is it going to take for you to realise that Butt is finished and needs replacing ASAP?

1) Luque flopped probably because of that initial injury he had after playing one or two games for us (tore his hamstring). Plenty of players over the years have become completely s*** after a serious injury, their confidence goes downhill as does their form and before we know it they've become s*** overnight. We have someone like that in Damien Duff. Maybe Luque was never suited to Premiership football, who knows, but it's hard to come to that judgement when an injury has clearly affected him over the long term. Otherwise, why isn't he back in Spain doing the business for a good side if his failure here was merely down to not being suited to this league? He's quite clearly finished as a footballer. 2) Javier Mascherano is a prime example of how some foreign players merely need to be shown some faith in their ability by their managers, (and maybe need to be surrounded by decent players rather than incompetent s****) rather than be shown the could shoulder with little explanation for it. Five games or so in 6 months for West Ham under Pardew/Curbishley saw Mascherano labelled as a flop, unable to adjust to Premiership football, too weak/small for it, etc etc - as soon as he moves to Liverpool, it took only one game playing for a high calibre manager for us to suddenly see that Mascherano was in fact a fantastic defensive midfielder and was indeed well suited to Premiership football. Granted there are plenty of foreign players not suited to Premiership football (e.g. vast majority of South American players), but maybe it's not always the player who fails to adapt, but the manager who fails to do his job with respect to that player? Or it could even be that the formation/system works against the player, or even unfortunate timing or pressures, e.g. the manager unwilling to give an unproven unknown quantity too many chances when crucial points are at stake, and will prefer to go with what he knows. Maybe Xisco is shit, but I certainly don't trust Joe Kinnear when it comes to seeing talent that might not be obvious to him because he has no track record of it.

We (well I imagine most people) know that. Fact is he's been linked with selling them on before and they would seem likely candidates. Fair enough, although Enrique upped his game after Kinnear's "I could have done something with Enrique" comments, and therefore you would assume isn't one of the 3 that Kinnear will look to ship out. That's assuming Kinnear's head isn't totally up his own arse of course. He'd have to be thick as pig s*** to sell Enrique for £3m or so when the club signed him for £6m the summer before last and hes only recently shown solid signs of adapting to the league/our team/etc.

He didnt actually say Xisco or Enrique in those quotes.

Will be sad to see him go, but he deserves a shot at something better because if he stays with us, noone will ever know if he's truly a top class keeper at the highest levels or, as has frequently been said of him, whether he's a good shot stopper who only really performs when the shots are raining down on his goal.

Only 3.5 more years left till the London Olympics. Only 1.5 years till the World Cup in South Africa. 1 month till Obama comes into power. 6 months of the season left. We could be in the UEFA Cup this time next year , or we could be in the Championship. Happy NY all.