tmonkey

My reading of that is that Shephard is sabotaging larger bids from other investors because he wants to buy the club himself cut-price. "Come on Johnny, noone wants to buy your stake, those investors were all just phony bettimg scams set up by supporter groups. I will, however, pleasantly suprise you by offering you 30p per each of your shares. Its cash on the table, a very good offer indeed".

There also seems to be absolutely no planning or strategy involved in our squad building. For example, we sold Boumsong and released Elliott. 2 centrebacks, both of whom played plenty of games last season combined. Who were their replacements? Noone. Absolutely noone came in. So what was our manager doing? Were the replacements already lined up? Clearly, they werent. The first centreback we made a move for was Woodgate, a player who the manager implied in a radio interview that he didnt want (good player, but too injury prone, good luck to him wherever he goes, etc). Then came the panic bids - Huth, who we must have bidded at least 7mill for, and Zat Knight. Elliott could be replaced by an academy defender if thought to be good enough, thats acceptable, but Boumsong needed to be replaced by a defender who would be comfortably good in the Premiership on a regular basis, ie a first team centreback. Ramage, Moore, Bramble were not going to be adequate partners for Taylor if we had any sort of ambition, thats not a mystery to anyone because even the manager knew it since he felt the need to bid big for the likes of Huth. So why was noone lined up for the impending sale of Boumsong, and big money bids for average players put in during the last few days of the window? Its like the management dont learn. We did this when we sold Woodgate, we didnt bother lining up a replacement and paid the price for half a season when we leaked goals in left, right and centre until we spent big on another centreback in the following window. Granted Boumsong was never good for us, but essentially weve done the same thing again - sold a first team defender (on paper) without getting a replacement lined up, and shipped goals for fun since then. The whole point of having a good manager is that hell prevent things like this happening. A decent manager would have seen this coming, plenty on this board saw it, and theyd have attempted to play the market right to cover these gaps and prevent the club from suffering in the short term simply because he couldnt get his first choice targets. Sir Bobby did this, he signed players who he saw had some talent that the side he wanted could use, he didnt wait around for the perfect candidates to become available, and pretty soon we were a good team. Then again, Sir Bobby was a good manager.

So far, Roeder has: - Stated he would only sign players who would make first team players into squad players, yet signed Bernard, Sibi and Rossi. - Signed Duff for 5mill and 70k per week wages, when we had 3 players capable of playing on the left wing well (NZog, Mliner, Luque) as well as several good backups for that position (Dyer, Emre). Bolllocks was that a position we needed a reinforcement for, it was merely a big name signing that was easy to make because the player wanted to come here (his poker buddies are here, large wages, and a comfy place for someone already on the downslope of their career). - Scouted Kuyt during the world cup and pre season friendlies - Stating hes interested in Kuyt whilst at the same time Kuyt is signing for Pool. He got played by Kuyt and his agent, and publicly so. - Turned down Campbell because hes too old, saying he only wants young players. Sibi is only a kid at 32. - Earlier in the summer stated he wouldnt be interested in Woodgate because of fitness issues, only to attempt to sign him when Boro made a move. - Paniced at the last minute and bidded more for Huth than Boro paid (6mill). Huth turned us down. - Failed deadline day bids for Zat Knight and Mark Viduka. What was he doing all summer again? - Tried to offload Milner at the last second, then had to embarassingly ask for him to come back. Weve been lucky that Roeder failed miserably in the transfer market that day, otherwise wed probably have signed some donkey like Knight/Viduka/Huth and be watching Milner score regularly for someone else. - Signed an unfit Bernard without any clue about his fitness. Or if he did know about his fitness, then thats even worse. - Loaned a kid from a club most of us still remember to be rivals, a useless signing if there ever was one. He had all summer to make his moves, and all summer he talked the talk, but twiddled his thumbs whilst other clubs were signing players left right and centre, then ended up making last ditch panic moves for players he could have gotten ages ago if he wanted. Its not good management to only wait for players who are definately good. It could take years to have the "right" player want to come to us. Look at Sorin for example - im betting we werent interested because we had our sights set on Wayne Bridge, who behind the scenes probably said he would like to come to us. A few months later, Bridge is playing regularly for Chelsea and we end up getting noone and with noone of any quality available.

Theyre getting Diop? How much for?

Shay Given.

Carr was average, but then again he wasnt really tested at all today, in fact considering who he was up against, he had a very comfortable day. West Ham dont play with any wingers, Benayoun was coming infield alot and Cristian Daily was left to raid down their right wing - a player who cant dribble to save his life (centreback) and is certainly slower than Carr.

Milner is frustrating, but little will be said when hes continuing to produce some end product like he is right now. Hes frustrating because alot of the time, hes a poor footballer, bad first touches/ball control, poor at taking his man on, dire crossing. Other times, hes a good footballer - decent first touches, trickey player who can go both ways, quality crossing. The strange thing is he seems to progress from one to the other during a game - starts off looking poor, then 30-40 mins later as the game goes on he becomes a threat and starts getting some joy down the flanks (and then becomes pretty quiet in the latter stages of a game). I think his general play leaves alot to be desired. If he doesnt improve, hell always be the the type of player who given enough time on the pitch, will get a goal or an assist regularly in games, but will also contribute to alot of broken down moves and hence poor team performances. Personally, im not as sure about him as others on here seem to be. At this point in time, I would say hes a good first team player for a mid table Premiership club, which is what we are, but if were looking at top 6, I think we would need a step up in quality for that level in terms of his general play. Im talking about players with good all round play, like a Malbranque, or a Nobby, or a Dyer - thats more the ability level wed need if we were to have higher ambitions than we currently do. Milner's all round play right simply isnt up to that standard. Same thing applies to Butt - good players with good attributes, but too many of them and the overall ability of the team gets lowered considerably, and simple things like ball retention and fluid football become hard. But I really hope he improves in these departments, and that we give him the time to continue improving, since hes young and has plenty of time on his side. Ill be ****ing pissed if someone like Duff comes in and takes the spot in the team that he has earned. Lets develop a good player for once, instead of buying them.

I cant see how hes shit, hes a target man, and a decent one at that. Strong aerially, decent ability, decent shooting, an all round decent Premiership forward. Hed be a significant upgrade over Sibierski, a major one in fact since Sibierski is unfortunately a very poor footballer. Having said that, I hope we dont get an aerial target man in, because were just going to end up being a long ball side whilst the likes of Martins and Owen stand around being anonymous having to feed off scraps from long balls and knock downs. Neither of them are Bellamy, theyre not good at feeding off knock downs all day long like Bellamy was. IMO we need to go down a different route, and finally get a replacement for Beardsley. Why do we have to try and recreate the Shearer-Bellamy, little-n-large partnership? Both Martins and Owen would do well with a Beardo behind them imo, theres nowt stopping us trying to recreate the Beardo-Cole partnership.

Also, the season before Abramovich went to Chelsea, they had the second best defence in the league...with a full-back pairing of Babayaro & Melchiot. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole though. Aye, thats the problem. In a team with great centrebacks, a very strong team overall (ie defense, midfield, attack, etc), average players can look alot better than they are. Weve seen this ourselves, whenever Woody played players like OBrien and Bramble looked like world beaters, whilst most teams struggled to score against us even though we had fullbacks like Hughes, Bernard and Griffin (in terms of the bigger picture, very average fullbacks). Lauren's defensive weaknesses would have been covered to an extent by the strength of Arsenal's backline. So it wouldnt be a guaranteed success story if we were to get Lauren like some are making out on here. He obviously has alot going for him in other departments - fast, good on the ball, athletic, etc, thats not being denied, but it needs to be remembered that without the solid defence and great team around him, his weaknesses which were only slightly apparent when he peaked might be brought to light in a shiite team like ours. I would still take him if the deal was a good one, but we do need a left back far more urgently.

Have never understood this dislike of Emre. Hes a good playmaker with a few faults (free kicks, switching off) but hes still a better player than the majority of our other players in the squad, and without him we just seem a poorer team overall. Consistently plays well or is one of our better players, does seem to pick up a few injuries but hes not done too bad this season since after Milner hes started the most games for us. Expectations also seem to be too high for him. Hes not world class, hes not going to take the game to teams like ManU all on his own and create chances out of nothing on a consistent basis, very few players can do that consistently and none of them would even consider playing for us. For a side with top 4 ambitions, hes good enough as a first teamer, for a title challenging side, hed probably make a good squad player. Same thing applies for Dyer, who likewise could do little against a team like ManU - players of Dyer's and Emre's calibre will only put in good performances against the top sides once in a while. We could certainly do with some competition in central midfield, a Diop or Appiah would be a good addition and we could then rotate Emre and drop him for those games in which we need more protection for the defence, but if anyone needs to be sold from the midfield, it has to be Duff. He adds little to our team, is on large wages, and seems to be injured after every few weeks - and if everyone is fit, im not so sure hes worthy of a place ahead of Zog or Dyer - definately not Milner.

Lauren was considered Arsenal's weak link in their back four defensively by most of their fans, certainly the ones I know. Good going forward, but not a good enough defender. Would be a good addition to our side, although I dont think at this stage of his career hed be much of an improvement over Nobby.

Dont think Roeder would be able to control him, so no. Otherwise, he would be a good addition to our squad. A similar yet better forward than Ashton, and would go for a reasonable fee for someone of his ability level, unlike others.

Ferdinand is dross.

Aye. Ronaldo to Real Madrid after years of being crocked for Inter - all because of his World Cup form. I think one of the big boys could take a gamble on him if he comes back firing on all cylinders and starts scoring bucketloads in the Premiership.

Would be a good signing, can see him partnering any of Owen, Martins or Ameobi effectively because of his attributes and his style of play. Although if funds are limited at this point in time, I think a budget move for Tomasson would be alot wiser, as Tuncay certainly wont come cheap - sort the defence out, get Baines, etc.

Add a few mill extra, and get Baines. Classier, younger player who would add more to our team since his distribution and shooting is significantly better.

Have always hated Ljungberg, so no. Overrated player with limited ability who hit a purple patch a few seasons ago - ignore that purple patch and hes like Bowyer, constantly missing or scuffing good chances. Does nowt except get the ball and pass it away, or play for a foul, although admittedly he has intelligent movement. I think Ljungberg is a very lucky man to have been playing for Arsenal, because its that movement that made him perfect for their system - anywhere else and hed just be an average player. Hes too lightweight to be a central midfielder in the Premiership, the only positions he can play well are on both wings and to a lesser degree, behind the forwards. Might do a decent job here behind the fowards, but I think with Dyer and Emre we dont need that, and with Milner being able to play both wings, as well as Duff, we dont need him as a winger either - not that he ever was a true winger, again Arsenal's style of play helped him here.

I think the majority of those who dont have the English-player bias knew he was being overhyped from the very beginning. Still a quality all round player, but as said before, very doubtful that hes ever going to be a great or even world class. I think at this point in time, he looks like going down the same road as Cantona - an immense player domestically in the Premiership, pulling strings and dominating the opposition, but at a higher level (eg CL) always playing at a level below that and easily kept quiet.

Leighton Baines 8-9 mill.

We offered more for Huth than Boro did (6mill) in the last window in an attempt to hijack the deal at the last minute, so we must have money to spend.

Tevez would be a great partner for either of Martins or Owen since he holds the ball up extremely well and is great at bringing others into the game as hes creative.

ManU had Paul Scholes and Darren effing Fletcher in central midfield. Very little protection for the back four there, poor/weak tackling, moderate athleticism, little pace, little power. So why are these attributes a requirement for us, yet not for them? Because theyre coached alot better than our lot. Movement, sharpness, linkup play - out of our league. They also have superior players around them, both in defence and attack. Quite simply, theyre a much better team with better players and much better movement/tactics/drilling, and thats helping each individual player to play his game well. I think quite a few of those players would struggle if they were here (eg Fletcher, Evra wouldnt have settled, same with Vidic, etc etc). Getting better players is going to make little difference when we come up against ManU next time. Theyll still play us off the park because of the two reasons just stated. If we want to get back to simply competing at that level, being able to live with a side of that calibre in terms of performances, then wed do better to bring better coaches or coaching systems in. If Pearson can make such a big difference to coaching the defence, then I wonder who else is out there that might make an even bigger impact on the midfield/attack from coaching alone.

Edgar's performance pissed me off. Yet another potentially decent/solid defender being wasted in the academy/reserves, only given a chance because the manager had his hands tied behind his back and forced to play him at gunpoint due to injuriues. Imagine if Babayaro and Carr were fit - Edgar would probably have ended up being shipped out within the next year or two without ever kicking a ball for us.

Wish Shephard would do something similar, wed probably still be in and around the top 4 had he done so. :wink:

Watching the West Ham game. Hilarious stuff, West Ham fans were leaving after 30 mins. Getting the Hammering they deserve, small club with overrated players who hit temporary form last season. What Tevez is doing on the bench, with donkeys like the utter shit Zamora and equally crap Harewood in the first team, is baffling to me.