LooneyToonArmy

I don't care about Arsenal. Wenger is a one off. Like I said, manu and chelsea don't do it, you show me Wenger, and I will show you Ferguson and Mourhinho and tell you they buy the best players. Before them, Liverpool bought the best players. Clough broke transfer records. Revie broke transfer records. Keegan the first time bought the best players. Its a signing that is hoped to be a "bargain" buy. Like it or not, this is the truth. Coming on the back of losing top targets to the likes of Spurs, if you think this sort of standard is good enough for NUFC, its your problem. They won't succeed if they throw all their eggs into this ridiculous "bargain" idea. And they won't succeed if they operate tight financial restraints when trying to sign the best players. Money talks in any walk of life. I understand why people are rejecting this, but at the end of the day, they are paranoid, clueless and should apply common sense and look at these other clubs and accordingly observe how they get success. Why don't you think we can't buy World Cup winners ? We have signed a few of those over the last 16 years or so, so why not now ? Cos like John Carver pointed out, our global standing has since plummented. Top and recognised/famous players will not join us. Diane could jolly turn out to be as successful as Wenger's African contingent That`s what I was thinking until I saw Andrea Barzagli (Italian international who won the 2006 World Cup) signing for a below average German side (Wolfsburg) a few days ago.....I wish we had signed the lad.........but I know what you mean

Fat Sam wanted players with EPL experience (see link) so probably did not even bid for him (even though we ended up with Cacapa and Enrique).........I don`t think Wolfsburg paid alot either.......so that`s another one lost who we could realistically could have signed considering even a very average German team managed to get him http://origin.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11678_2610106,00.html

German side Wolfsburg managed to sign Andrea Barzagli from Palermo........class defender who was one of the Italy 2006 World Cup winners. Quite a coup

concerning players who have been linked to us recently ------ Dean Ashton has agreed a new five-year contract at West Ham and will almost treble his salary. (Daily Star) Chelsea's England wide-man Shaun Wright-Phillips is a £10m target for Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp. (The Sun) Sunderland manager Roy Keane wants to sign Newcastle's Damien Duff, Reading's Stephen Hunt and Aiden McGeady of Celtic. (Daily Mail) Arsenal are leading the race to sign Wolves's highly rated goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy. (Daily Mirror) Everton, Newcastle and Middlesbrough are also in the chase to capture the keeper. (Daily Star) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/7424960.stm

I'm sure if Arsenal were interested he'd get one based on being an 'exceptional prospect' they`d just send them to their feeder club in Belgium for a few years until they qualify for a visa or Belgian passport as they did the likes of Eboue . I know what you mean though

don`t see how you think he might be out of our league. Feyenoord haven`t played in the CL for a good number of years and barely scrape it in to the UEFA Cup in recent seasons. He has been linked with a few big clubs I know but they`re not exactly clamouring over his signature

The anticipated arrival of Jo and Giovani would probably signal the end of City's interest in Andrei Arshavin and Daniel Carvalho, the Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow playmakers respectively, would be happy to have either

that`s what I thought he`d be more suited to Serie A than the EPL due to the slower pace and physicality (more so than La Liga too). I reckon if he had a proper defensive midfielder alongside him in the Batty mould, doing all the donkey work he might`ve been more of a success but not many teams can afford to have one of those luxury number 10 players (that float between the midfield/attack) as you might call it. Can`t think of any EPL teams that play 3-5-1-2 formation. He was certainly not suited to the 4-4-2 that we mostly played Maybe if Juve won the signature to sign him at the time ahead of us things would have turned out better for Hugo.

So some 21 year old FM geek from Spain is doing our continental scouting? Used to know all the players in my Champ Man days (for a good 3 editions).......wish I`d thought about applying for a scouting position at NUFC that time

Yes he was. Believe we were looking at Ronaldo too at the time, but we went for Hugo. Ahh well. Aye, and I remember we beat alot of big clubs to sign Viana in particular Juventus at the time As for Ronaldo, I don`t think Ronaldo would have developed the way he has at Man u if he came here especially with the managers we`ve had. And even if he did I don`t think he would`ve stayed long with the likes of Real Madrid etc sniffing around all the time.

Keegan had already said he wont sign South Americans....well those that haven`t proven themselves in the EPL unfortounately

the Brazilian league is very physical, perhaps moreso than the EPL believe it or not. I`ve watched a lot of Brazilian games and some of the fouls and tackles that are committed in that league make the EPL like a ballerina league

I like the Mexican footy shirts even though they can go a bit over the top with the sponsors

I doubt it. What salary is Shola on here? 20k+ a week? this is the salaries Toronto players on in Dollars (from a Toronto FC forum)

underrated!

the other Diarra who play the same position(Alou Diarra) looks a very good player but now that Bordeaux have got in to the CL I don`t think he`d be looking to leave unfortunately (not that we`ve shown any interest in him anyway)

Keegan has already said he wont buy players direct from the South American leagues unfortunately but I agree with you. There are some hidden gems out there but the main issue is the work permits unless you happen to be a Man Utd or Chelsea (who seem to be able to bend the rules like Man U did with Tim Howard who had few caps for USA but miraculously got a permit while Spurs were turned down for Bobby Convey that same season).......... Apparently clubs can buy `a player of outstanding talent` to get around the rule as Man U did with Anderson,Rodrigo Possebon and 2 others. Chelsea did with Nigerian John Obi Mikel, Arsenal with Denilson etc) But a lot of the players have European passports, in particular the Argentines. even our Solano had a greek one (tempoarily )........ I think of all the South American countries the Argentines in theory should be best suited to the EPL because their climate can be like ours and they`re used to the more physical side of the game. Some people of course will bring up the likes of Bassedas and Cordone but they were hardly top class in the first place in their native countries (the latter was brought in on loan). Tevez, Mascherano, Crespo ,D`allesandro and Arca have done well here but there haven`t been many to make a fair judgement. I`d like to see a Zarate or a D`allesandro (the latter has an Italian passport and can leave for next to nowt especially as Zaragoza have been relegated and he`s out of favour. He`s been playing great for San Lorenzo). In the Brazilian league that Marcelo Moreno has been getting rave reviews. 43 goals in 68 games and 2 in 4 for the national side and he`s Berbatov esque IMO and I think would do well here But as the work permit is such an issue all the best South American talent will continue to go to Italy, Spain and even Germany. On top of that coaches here have the mentality that South Americans wont fit in here and don`t take a chance. Wigan did and reaped the benefits with Valencia and Palacios who they bought for peanuts and could sell for a combined 15m plus reportedly now (I`d have them both here too) IMO South American players are no more of a `gamble` than eastern europeans and even spaniards/italians

is that one of the no frills carriers? I take it the airports are nowhere near Madrid? Ryanair are the worst......I once flew to Frankfurt Hahn.....but the airport was 2 hours outside Frankfurt near the luxembourg border! (my fault for not researching it beforehand but to call their airport `Frankfurt` was taking the pi$$ on top of having to pay 30 euro return for the bus trip to get to Frankfurt - would`ve been almost the same price taking a proper airline )

Martin O`Neill doesn`t rate him at all! remember MON going on about how overrated he was during the 2006 world cup tournament?

paid 5 euros to watch Real at the Bernebau a few seasons or so back.............probably cuz they rarely sell out their lower profile Champions League games. Saying that, I wouldn`t call the game I watched that low profile - Real Madrid - Porto. Apparently the CL tickets still go for as low as that according to some people I know. Seats can be up in the heavens of course but if it`s not a sell out you simply move further down and find a good seat which is what I did (in my case a couple tiers down ) I don`t think the foreign fans are as stupid as us paying through the nose to watch some CL games

Jimmy Crawford.....didn`t leave until he was 26 years old or something

Wiki'd him 'cos I didn't know who he was and found cuz wikipedia is gospel

well Tymoschuk wont come cheap. Zenit paid a record 20m euros for him from Shaktar Donetsk and his performances haven`t exactly nosedived to affect his transfer value

didn`t stop other eastern europeans from failing miserably in the epl though

certainly a KK type of player too.........however he did mention something about not being keen on South Americans recently (or south americans who have not played in the epl?)