tmonkey

These stats prove that: 1) Dyer doesnt assist much. 2) Dyer doesnt score much. But we all know this anyway. It doesnt negate the notion/fact that hes a good "footballer" - he has decent to good technical ability, good dribbling, good pace, and when hes bothered, decent work rate. Lacking an end product is what frustrates us the most, but if he had a consistent end product, hed be one of the best midfielders in the league - and thats a pretty unfair standard to set to decide whether or not hes good enough for us. The problems with Dyer lie in his injury proneness, his lack of a natural position, and of course, a poor attittude, both off the pitch and sometimes on it. And also his mammoth wages - hes getting paid at least 20-30k more than hes worth considering hes a crock without a natural position. For these reasons, we should be looking to sell/replace if we can, but in terms of being a footballer, hes one of our better ones and someone who we clearly miss when hes not playing. Unfortunately, stats will never show this side of the equation - those who play football regularly will know the difference a better "footballer" can make to the team as a whole, regardless of their personal statistics.

An overrated, poor man's injury-free Owen.

Fucking hell thats a good avatar.

Main difference is that Terry at that age was learning/playing alongside the likes of Lebouf, Desailly and Gallas.

King is overrated. Never really impressed me for both club and country (wheres hes played mostly in midfield and looked average). As a side debate, present-Woodgate shits on present-King for me.

And if he were to sign for Madrid or Milan instead of Spurs, hed only be doing it for the money.

Pirlo, Seedorf, Gattusso, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo. Would be some team that.

Tbf to Henry, he did all he can to Arsenal, he needed a new challenge and was already told he will NOT be getting a new contract come next season, i can't really blame him for leaving, at the very least Arsenal got some money out of him..beats moving on free next year And neither he f****** should, he just signed one a year ago. He wouldn't be going for free next year. Unless he signed a two year contract last season, which I HIGHLY doubt, but don't actually know. No to be fairs to him at all. I understand the urge for a new challenge, but all his bullshit about Arsenal has left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course he "loves" them, they put him back on the world stage, but he's jumped at the first sign of trouble, a year after reaching the CL final. Awful nice of him. Hes already achieved everything he can at Arsenal. Thats different to Owen, who has done f*** all for us. If he really was a complete mercenary, hed have left Arsenal on a free last summer for a significantly bigger club with significantly better players. He choose not to because as you say, they had just reached the CL final and he thought they were heading in the right direction - he was open about this at the time, that he would consider staying at Arsenal because they looked to be on the up. This season however, Arsenal seem to have stagnated, and taken a small step backwards - success is a long way off, although its reachable, hence the comments a month or so ago about the number of youngsters in the Arsenal side and how its not possible to win anything with them. So hes only leaving now because there is little point in him staying with the team being full of youngsters and there apparently being little transfer funds available (and on top of this, the management being ripped apart with rumours of Wenger following Dein out of the door). At the same time, Arsenal would probably benefit with the transfer funds by replacing him with someone younger who will be improving and peaking more in line with the rest of the squad. By the time the current Arsenal squad hits its peak and starts challenging the big guns again, Henry will probably be well past his best (hes form has already dipped considerably compared to previous years, although hes still a top player). Right time to move, and if the replacement is good, then it should work out well both for the club (longer term) and the player (short term).

The loss on Nugent would be 6 million. A loss of 6mill (assuming Nugent were to die in a car crash whilst uninsured) isnt that bad when compared to a loss of 4mill for Smith. An extra 2 (or 2.5) mill loss is pretty acceptable surely, considering that Nugent is alot younger, more mobile, and if he can adapt to the Premiership, generally has more ability on the ball than Smith. Not that I particularly want us to sign Nugent.

Wed do much better to give someone like Nugent a try. Even if he turned out to be poor at Premiership level, then whats the loss? Smith has proven for consecutive seasons now that hes just that. No pace, strength, skill/flair, creativity, movement, height - nothing. He works hard, chases the ball around like a dog after a frisbie, and has just about average technical/finishing ability. Made his name from scoring a goal against Lazio as a youngster, and has done nowt since then. Its great that he works hard and puts in nice slide tackles, but hes a striker - thats not his job, and if he does have the ability to do that, it should be on top of having the various abilities that make a good forward (ie a bonus attribute, like it is for Tevez or Bellamy), not instead of them.

"Like I did when Gullitt told me I was overrated." :parky:

No more Beckham wankfests, please. Come on Barca!

Namely, Anelka. Kanoute would be a poor signing, as would the likes of Trezeguet and others who are in that mould, despite being good forwards respectively. Wouldnt want us to sell Owen and as a result have two big target forwards with limited mobility (relatively speaking) playing in the same team up front together. Only except would be Huntelaar, who would be worth the big fee as well as the negatives of having two big/similar forwards up front purely to land him whilst we still have the chance to do so, before his value rockets when he starts bagging for fun in competitions like the CL and Euro 2008. Replacing Owen needs to be done with someone who will either drop deep and creative chances whilst linking up with the midfield, ie a Beardo, or someone who will work the flanks and create space/movement for team to work with, ala Bellamy. Particularly the latter if were switching to 4-3-3. Otherwise well just see a repeat of the Shearer/Ferguson partnership - neither player being efficiently used (eg compared to Shearer/Bellamy), they might score a decent number of goals but the strain on the midfield is visible as thats where most of the penetration and movement has to come from.

Where he has never produced anything in 4 years, including a loan spell at Swindon. Biggest pile of s**** I have ever read on this forum, I take it you were washing your hair the ManU 2-1 game and the Chelsea game where he nearly made Ferreria cry? Exactly. I think hes been better down the left flank than the right. Right backs have struggled against him on this flank because hes comfortable and dangerous when coming infield, whilst also having the ability to go down the flank and cross reasonably with his left peg. On the right wing, hes more one dimensional and predictable and can take a while to get into the game as he looks for ways to go past the fullback down the outside, although naturally his crosses will be more effective (when he gets them right). If were playing 4-4-2 next season, then Milner down the left with a good overlapping fullback would be a strong combination. Having SWP down the right to compliment this would be even better.

Comparing Figo to Milner is like comparing Milner to Lee Hendrie.

Essien probably played half a season at centreback for Chelsea. We should move for Bouhlarouz to meet our annual Chelsea-reject quota, who is never a right back anyway. How much do you think they'd sell him for? They signed him for £8mill, hes not done well there, so I would assume itd be slightly cheaper. Chelsea should have Alex back from PSV too if the reports earlier on in the season were true.

Essien probably played half a season at centreback for Chelsea. We should move for Bouhlarouz to meet our annual Chelsea-reject quota, who is never a right back anyway.

Hes like Distin. Average defender who is solid, but his mobility, speed, and being comfortable on the ball, makes him the sort of defender who would be very good for a mid table side.

Flamini on a free. Cover/rotation for midfield, cover for the fullback positions.

The ManU team he scored a hat-trick against back in 04 (ie 3 years ago when some of these players were even worse than they are now): Man Utd: Howard, Phil Neville, Brown (Pique 66), O'Shea, Fortune, Ronaldo, Djemba-Djemba, Fletcher, Richardson (Spector 68), Miller (Eagles 77), Bellion. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Jones, McShane, Ebanks-Blake. Amazing that this hat-trick crops up everytime his name gets mentioned.

Alan Shearer joined us for a world record fee, because we were (according to most people in football) "the next big thing". We were rich, we were 2nd only to Manchester United in income and popularity, we had a charismatic chairman and manager, allied to (what had always been there) a huge fanbase. He (along with Keegan, John Hall, me! and most of the countries football commentators) expected us to take over! He joined to win things. . . . and . . my goodness - it was also his 'home town club' - unbelievable, that it was there!!! (for him). It is "cosy" (and SO MANY people do it AUTOMATICALLY) to look back on it NOW, and only mention the one aspect of it all - the "home town club" aspect! It is revisionist, but cosy and 'easy to assimilate' - it just happens not (in isolation) to be true !! (but who cares about that). So, "here's to the next person" (poster-on-here / reporter in a paper, or whatever) who compares some 'jonny going home' (some Woodgate, or whoever) to Alan Shearer - it will never stop. Spot on. Even Shearer himself has refuted the notion that he turned down the chance to win things to join us, but what does he know?

Pass. Slow, not the player he once was, and his movement isnt anything like as good/sharp as Owen's, hence making him a poor replacement assuming Owen left, considering hes not exactly a suitable partner for Viduka, Ameobi, and to a lesser extent, Martins. Still a good finisher, so hell do well in a team that can provide the pace, movement and service around him, but hes not the right player for us and at an undesirable age too.

Sums him up well. He wants out, he thinks hes better than us, but hes not saying it publicly - sneaking around behind everyone's backs, ready to screw us over if it suits him. As soon as its concrete that noone wants him, hell come out with the "I was never interested in leaving, this is a massive club, I have a contract with Newcastle and I will honour it" bollocks, when its in fact the complete opposite.

I really would like to see what Allardyce can do with Martins. Im not referring to the hope that Allardyce will sort Martins' basic game, or general play, out. Rather, that it may be the case that Martins goes through patches where for a few weeks, his touch is good, hes "on the ball" mentally, hes on the same wavelengths as his teamates, and his shooting is more accurate. Other weeks, he goes through spells where his touch, shooting, movement, linkup play, are all off, and he looks a poor player. Given that Allardyce is supposed to heavily be into the stats side of things, particularly monitoring the stats of his players from training sessions, I think its reasonable to suggest that maybe he could bring the best out of Martins simply by knowing when to play him and when to drop him. That itself would be a major bonus, let alone Allardyce's coaching actually improving Martins' game, because as someone else has mentioned, when Martins is good, hes very good.

Owen out, Huntelaar in. Take the gamble before he has an impressive Euro 2008 and ends up at AC Milan or somewhere similar.