tmonkey

Heskey is a much better striker than Smith when hes on form. When hes off form, Smith just about shades it, but theres not much in it - and this is when Heskey is in his shell and everything he does looks poor. Emile Heskey hasn't been on form since 2002 though He still has his moments where he looks a decent forward.

Heskey is a much better striker than Smith when hes on form. When hes off form, Smith just about shades it, but theres not much in it - and this is when Heskey is in his shell and everything he does looks poor.

Midfield options: Butt Barton Geremi Emre NZogbia Duff Milner Nobby Striking options: Viduka Martins Luque Owen Caroll Ameobi Why do we need a backup central midfielder/striker? We already have enough. And before it gets pointed out, Pattison will only get games because well be using some of those midfielders in a fullback position.

Why would he even be a first choice CM here? Hes probably going to compete with Butt, Emre, Barton, Geremi, and depending on the formation, possibly the likes of NZogbia and Milner. Maybe even Nobby. I think the first four are without a shadow of a doubt better central midfielders than Smith.

Alan Smith. Fuck me.

Except hes mediocre with limited ability and a cheating, diving cunt to top it off. Arteta is a great player, Cahill is far from that.

Roeder wants hanging by the balls if this is true.

Ideal scenario would be for us to be completely unreliant on Owen's fitness to have a good enough standard of attacking threat, and then to add a fully fit Owen onto that attack, with the option to rest/rotate him when required. I dont think anyone is going to realistically pay £10mill for him. Until he proves his fitness over a length period, theres no reason to believe the "im over my fitness problems, im stronger than ever" lines - too many crocks have used that in the past only to get injured again, and its probably only a small number who actually overcome their problems permanently.

Hope he ends up there.

Played in an anchor midfield role when he came on early in the Copa final against the likes of Riquelme, thought he tackled and closed down quickly/efficiently, which is pretty impressive for a Brazilian attacking player. In all honesty, I would want us to take a gamble on any of those players playing in the Copa final. At first glance, youd think its a typical South American match with players who wouldnt be suitable for the Premiership and top flight European football, then you realise the majority of them already are playing in Europe and doing so pretty well.

I disagree with others on this. In his first season, he looked a potential class act to me, and I remember most message boards at the time being full of praise for him with calls being made for the team to be built around him. Honestly, there were plenty of threads about him, but extremely few criticising him - and why should there be when he was playing well for a youngster in his first season here? Much of the "hes not suited to the Premiership" only came out after his miserable second season. Hes slow, yes, isnt a strong tackler, check, doest dribble, but ultimately his ability on the ball was absolutely first rate when he first came here, and he used the ball very intelligently. He should have been the guy that the team was built around because he could pull all the strings, but with the team being built around Shearer and therefore needing wingers in a 4-4-2 (Shearer at that stage was never going to play a lone role), he was always going to struggle. What killed his career for us was not being unsuitable to the Premiership, but wasting away in the reserves for about 8 months, watching Jenas and Speed having shockingly woeful seasons whilst Viana's personal dreams of playing in Euro 2004 in his homeland were absolutely shattered. The lad's confidence was absolutely destroyed, when he returned to the team he even managed to look a shadow of the player he was in his first season here, thats how bad it was. Shame, but shit happens.

Poor defender in my eyes, masked by pace and a world class partner alongside him (club/country). Hes done alright for ManU in his time there, played at the highest levels against the best players (often poorly imo), but thats more a testament to how great Ferguson is at getting the best out of average players and gelling them in alongside top class ones.

Better winger on the right, better footballer down the left.

An attacking quartet of Viduka, Martins, Owen, Baptista in an AM role, with Barton and Butt behind them - pretty poor imo. Wed be playing very poor football with that lot, the only one with a bit of consistent ability/creativity on the ball would be Barton, and even then were not talking about a significant amount since hes more of an all rounder. Baptista's best form by a country mile has been when used as the main target forward (Sevilla), where he can utilise his strength and running ability to devestating effect. Pushing him back 30 yards just reduces the opportunities for him to use the abilities he excels at, which is why for Real Madrid he was pretty much anonymous in most games and ended up being a flop. For Arsenal, hes shown glimpses of what hes capable of up front. If we do sign him, I hope its as a forward, and not a replacement for Dyer.

S.J. Park. If ever a player had to be signed purely for the name alone, it must be him.

On average, a Premier League game consisted of a 5-page pre-match thread, a 20-page match thread, and a 12-page post match thread. Meaning one uber-thread would consist of around 35 pages. What's the point? It was fine how it was. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Aye. I appreciate that it can be frustrating for mods when newbies come along and add junk to the forum by posting the same things over, and that its easier for them to make things "tidier", but sometimes I think theres a secret plan by some sort of moderator's union for the whole internet to be turned into one giant thread with millions of pages. Youd have the option to start a new thread, but itd be locked within a few replies with the mods linking to the uber thread and asking you to post in there. "So what if you have to browse through hundreds or thousands of pages? Just use the search facility, and if you dont like it, go elsewhere *snigger*". Eg, Channel 4's football italia forum is a horrible board by comparison, with mega threads for each player/manager that can date back several years, and any related topic always going into that thread. Hope this place never becomes like that.

Cynical and not relevant to this injury, but imo all the talk from him of being stronger/fitter than ever was merely an attempt to persuade bigger clubs to take a gamble on him, trying to enhance his chances of a move by playing down the very thing that was putting those clubs off. Unforuntately for us/him, none of them fell for the "ive changed now, honestly" line.

Providing we bring a good enough player in, its worth making a loss on Dyer. Hes a good player, theres no doubting that for me, but hes also a problem player in that he has no position that hes capable of playing in to a suitable degree. No distribution, strength or tackling so cant play in central midfield, cant cross and always wants to come infield so isnt suited to the right wing, no striking instincts and drops too deep into midfield and hence isnt a striker/withdrawn striker in a million years - in all of the positions that he can possibly play, he has a major fault that prevents him from being adequate enough to nail that position in the first team. And the problem then arises of him being on too high a wage, and having too high a reputation/ego, for him to be a utility player - hes thrown several strops in the past when hes moaned about wanting to play in his "best" position (something which only exists in his head), usually culminating in some criminally inept performances - even being handed the captain's armband by Roeder in an effort to appease his unhappiness didnt stop his most recent display of discontent surfacing on the pitch - so how long still he throws the toys out of the pram when Big Sam uses him in various positions and Dyer gets dropped from the England squad for someone better? Its been nearly 8 years since he joined us, yet hes had probably one good half season in that time, coupled with a few strings of half decent performances when returning from a lengthy injury (even then they were all short lived). Like Titus, we should cut loose, because hes had plenty of chances with us, far more than he deserves. We can surely do better, even if its at a financial loss.

Where is Riquelme?

Can you really give captaincy to a new signing though? Would be utterly wrong imo. A couple of people have mentioned this now. I can't see why it matters - give it to the best candidate. Its just not right though. The new player has no history with the club at all, hasnt proven himself with us, wont know most of his teammates and vice versa - the captaincy is more about teammates respecting a player and his contribution to the team, and if that doesnt exist yet then itd be artificial to try to enforce it straight away. If they are the best candidate for it, then theres nothing wrong with them becoming captain say a few months down the line when theyve established themselves as a cornerstone of the team, and when others who have served the club for a long time will be happy to see the armband go to them - but to walk into the role straight away would surely rub some people the wrong way.

Agree with all of that. It just surprises me that Sam's not waiting to see who else he can bring in before deciding. Can you really give captaincy to a new signing though? Would be utterly wrong imo.

45 minutes till kick off. Hope Argentina trounce Brazil.

Maldini. Still a far better player than anyone on that list, we could tempt him here by offering to fund his own line of designer clothes.

Exactly, i would rather play against overweight Kluivert and 'i can't finish' Bellamy, than an aging but still class Shearer As for the arguement that somehow makes me a "nob", Kluivert and Bellamy had just ripped Crystal Palace apart away from home in their first and ultimately only partnership together in a 4-4-2, with Kluivert scoring a class goal and Bellamy being a threat all night. Shearer at the time was pretty useless because of his immobility, even more so away from home, and was being back pocketed practically every match in the Premiership. Absolutely no justification for him coming back from a lengthy injury (10 weeks?) and immediately going straight back into the team. Im sure most Premiership defenders with a bit of strength and height (ie majority) would privately have loved to have marked Shearer at that stage, because he was regularly being dominated and couldnt get a sniff at goal. Even Ameobi was regularly finding himself on the end of chances, a mediocre to average player who is only still at the club because hes a Geordie - thats how bad things had become for Big Al. Battling with defenders means little when you cant get a shot at goal nor get half a yard on them, and thats what was happening, ultimately the defenders go home patting themselves on the back because its a case of job done, regardless of the bruises.

Overall, Andy Cole. Signed for £1.5million, scored bucketloads for fun, sold for £6million plus Gillespie, who was a damn good winger till his injury at Old Trafford. The club benefitted in practically every stage with regards to him, even on his exit - and to top it off, that £6mill bought us Sir Les. Obviously this is an unpopular view, but I dont think Shearer was our "best" signing, although one of the best. We paid £15million for a £15million player, but that £15million player only lasted for one season. Hes had several very poor seasons overall, some due to injuries, others due to aging legs, and quite importantly, towards the end of his career, he was holding the team back due to his reputation, regardless of what he had done for us (prime example, Kluivert Bellamy partnership being broken to accomodate a very poor Shearer). Some good seasons in between those poles under Sir Bobby, but at that point in time he had become a "good" Premiership forward - consistent, good on plenty of occassions, but a shadow of the player we shelled out a world record fee for. In Sir Bobby's team, was he even our best player reputation aside? Debateable, as Bellamy form was as good as his, albeit in a different role, as were the likes of Dyer, Nobby, Robert, etc. He was/is synonymous with the club/area, great servant and stats, but we didnt get true value for money due to the injuries as well as sentimentality in his latter years, and that for me counts against him somewhat, even if its completely not his fault.