tmonkey

Some tough choices. Is Huntelaar going to be in front of Van Nistelrooy? Will Gomis feature regularly? Is Gomez a first teamer for Germany? etc etc.

He's a goodish centreback, but hes slow, and that lack of mobility alongside Taylor/Faye would be asking for trouble. Would be interesting to see what the case would be if Woody picked up an injury and Spurs were playing Dawson/Dunne every week.

Im pissed at this. Not the sale, but because I think Emre may be another player who has f***ing shafted us. Came here for the money, gave a few decent performances but generally couldnt be bothered to play often. Probably his plan from day 1, i.e. decided hed have a lucrative move before eventually going back to Turkey. It wont be the first, nor the last time, a footballer will have joined a club purely for monetary reasons and then pissed about with supposed injuries and underperforming. But im getting sick of these c***s joining us in particular and taking us for a ride. We need to stop buying rejects from the CL elites imo, and buy players who are wanting to make a career for themselves. In hindsight, that was a s*** transfer policy from the previous board, and although I dont blame them for having ambition, its quite clear that tempting big name players from better places by offering them more cash then everyone else leaves you with a big chance of attracting those wasters and has-beens who havent been found out yet looking for a big pay day to ensure they dont have to worry once they hit their 28s or so.

we thought the same about dyer and it nearly got us relegated though. if we sell emre we need to sign 2 good quality creative midfielders this summer, and i'd want a top draw def mid as well tbh. at least that's one of the mega rich on more money than their worth out of the way now though. now we only need to shift smith, viduka (somehow) and duff and we'll be in much better financial shape. Spot on. Dyer/Emre may have been crocks, but the few times they did play they often added an extral level of ability to an otherwise mediocre/workman like team. Not necessarily end product, but just some good basic ability that plenty of others in our squad didnt/dont possess. We cant go into next season with a midfield of Butt, Geremi and the mediocre clone of Barton (jail term aside). We need something significantly better than that lot. the need to replace them with better of a similar type is obvious. Hope he has gone. The club has all summer to strengthen the midfield, and basically if they don't, somebody wants shooting. We should sell Emre, then sign another right back to oust Beye from the team. Ie, ignore the gaping holes in the team/squad and just sign someone supposedly good simply because theyre available who just happens to play in the same position as our prior season's best performer. Similar to the Duff debacle. indeed. Just like last summer, when we didnt' replace Solano and Dyer, and brought in 3 centre backs when we have a promising centre half who has came through from the clubs youth and reserve teams. Was someone else eating all those pies ? Did that have something to do with the transfer policy of a certain inept, clueless, bitter manager who was appointed by - wait for it - the previous board/chairman? And why should we need direct replacements for Nobby and Dyer when we had signed, according to you, one good player in Smith and another top class player in Duff?

we thought the same about dyer and it nearly got us relegated though. if we sell emre we need to sign 2 good quality creative midfielders this summer, and i'd want a top draw def mid as well tbh. at least that's one of the mega rich on more money than their worth out of the way now though. now we only need to shift smith, viduka (somehow) and duff and we'll be in much better financial shape. Spot on. Dyer/Emre may have been crocks, but the few times they did play they often added an extral level of ability to an otherwise mediocre/workman like team. Not necessarily end product, but just some good basic ability that plenty of others in our squad didnt/dont possess. We cant go into next season with a midfield of Butt, Geremi and the mediocre clone of Barton (jail term aside). We need something significantly better than that lot. the need to replace them with better of a similar type is obvious. Hope he has gone. The club has all summer to strengthen the midfield, and basically if they don't, somebody wants shooting. We should sell Emre, then sign another right back to oust Beye from the team. Ie, ignore the gaping holes in the team/squad and just sign someone supposedly good simply because theyre available who just happens to play in the same position as our prior season's best performer. Similar to the Duff debacle.

we thought the same about dyer and it nearly got us relegated though. if we sell emre we need to sign 2 good quality creative midfielders this summer, and i'd want a top draw def mid as well tbh. at least that's one of the mega rich on more money than their worth out of the way now though. now we only need to shift smith, viduka (somehow) and duff and we'll be in much better financial shape. Spot on. Dyer/Emre may have been crocks, but the few times they did play they often added an extral level of ability to an otherwise mediocre/workman like team. Not necessarily end product, but just some good basic ability that plenty of others in our squad didnt/dont possess. We cant go into next season with a midfield of Butt, Geremi and the mediocre clone of Barton (jail term aside). We need something significantly better than that lot.

Best summary of his career with us. Could have been a good player for us had he stayed fit consistently, but hes been a waste of space because of injuries.

His value could go down if he does a Ginola, i.e. France get knocked out after he refuses to play a simple pass and then becomes the nation's scapegoat. Fingers crossed.

Seems to have that Speed/Shearer mentality about him, ie a truly dedicated professional, and hes very slim whilst still being athletic, so could be around for a long while yet. Dont think hes had any major injury problems either, which is one of the main factors in some players sliding badly one they near or go past the 30-32 mark.

Worth signing Crouch for the robot dance alone. Wouldnt know whether to celebrate a goal or hold your stomach when it cringes at the sight of that gangly beanpole dancing away like theres no tomorrow.

He'll have to take 5 if hes going to be sat in one of them. /Crap

All shit at the time we signed them though. Duff had been shit for at least a year before we came sniffing along, at the time it was hard to undestand why a player who was as bad for Chelsea as he has been for us was constantly being referred to as a top player. Was simply a case of few people taking any notice of his dire performances purely because it was well hidden in a championship winning side. SWP at least has had some good form in the past 1-2 years for Chelsea, and merely losing his place in the team due to other players or formations being preferred isnt quite the same as turning into a complete waste of a player as Duff did. Naturally theres still a big gamble with SWP, as mentioned hes not the youngish player who burst onto the scene a few years ago and tore the Premiership up single handedly at times, so we wont know until hes getting regular first team football whether hes had his peak/purple patch and is now an average player, or if hes still a major threat from midfield.

Best club level centreback in the country, alongside Vidic.

If we had both him and Viduka on our books, there'd be a big probabilty that we'd end up having to play someone like Smith or Ameobi (assuming theyre both still here) up top on a regular basis. On top of this, Owen hasnt the best of injury records either, if the worst happens, we would probably struggle like we did this season if we sign someone who'll be on the treatment table more often than not. And im sure most of us dont want to go through the same s*** again now that we have a good manager and good financial backing. Ashton has looked a better footballer since returning from injury imo, and is a considerably better player than Viduka, but he'd not be a step forward due to his injury problems. A Peter Crouch or Santa Cruz would be, purely because they can be relied upon to stay fit.

Wouldnt say no to Naldo.

IMO Anelka was purchased purely to cover for Drogba during the ANC. He must have been totally stupid to believe that Chelsea would switch to 4-4-2 or that he wouldnt be playing on the wings once Drogba returned.

Yes. For the system that we're currently playing, I think we'd be able to get a better footballer, but without that added ability to score goals out of nothing.

Avram looks liek a man going to the gallows.

It would be hard to win the CL had someone stopped them. If you dont mean "beat", then IMO Barcelona molested them in all areas except for the final ball, and this was a Barca team that was struggling badly with the coach eventually being sacked.

No, that was Scholes's dad.

Nani. Biggest cunt on the pitch after Ashley Cole. Talentless fucker, how dare he win a CL medal.

Was Van der Sar speaking English? And on that note, can Rio Ferdinand speak English?

We're going to hear about this win for the next 10 years. "That" famous night in Moscow.

Erm... Our Viduka replacement has just become available!

Uh oh, its Le Sulk.