Parky

European clubs and countries simply are more important than African ones, they have the best teams and importantly a lot more money. Yes parts of Africa do get hot in the summer but we've had World Cups in searing heat and we accept it, the WC will be in Africa in July 2010 and players will have to deal with it. There's no reason they can't have it in the summer which would suit them better as they would have more time with their players and would also suit European clubs better who ultimately have the money and the power. It can reach something like 50 degrees in countries like Libya in summer (being June/July), so you want them to never have the opportunity to host the tournament to suit the European football schedule better? The 2010 World Cup is in South Africa, which is the southern hemisphere, so June/July is in the middle of the winter, so that's a non-argument. And surely if "it would suit them better", they would've done it. And surely CAF would want the best players playing in the cup, so they don't really care what European clubs think. The bottom line is - managers know when they sign African players that they will be potentially unavailable for the duration of the African Nations Cup and should cater for it. Exactly. Would these tarts be so quick to have a pop if it was the manager of Brazil or Argentina wanting time to prepare their squads? Thought not. Good tournament to watch lot of fresh open footie normally.

Marginally better than Given at some things and worse at others.

Says the expatriate. of the Gypsies.

Too many foreign players.

Owen is a crock Emre disappears in away matches Martins is a one man band who needs to improve but may not Milner won't ever be better than average I'd be disappointed to see N'Zogiba leave. Agreed. I'd try and keep Martins for another season though. Depends, mate. All we need are replacements who are better and they could go whenever as far as I'm concerned. Fair enough. Just feel with Martins he has some things we can improve and work on. I'd be tempted to give him one more season unless of course a top tier replacement is available and willing. It's an exaggeration but give me a chance to explain.... Martins as a striker is to me like Bramble as a defender. He promises so much. Think about this, Parky. Think about some of the fantastic performances from Bramble, think about the 89 minutes of a solid performance ruined by a single crap decision that cost us a match. Both players have tremendous attributes for their relevant positions but both suffer from poor decision making in my opinion. In the case of Bramble it costs a team goals conceded. In the case of Martins it costs a team chances and goals scored. Ultimately it costs the same thing, football matches. Martins is a one-man band, there's no doubt about it. He lacks awareness of what is going on around him so he makes poor decisions at critical moments. He must improve on this otherwise there will always be that frustration with him as a team player. Individually he needs too many chances to score a goal, something masked by the spectacular. There is bags of potential in Martins but there is also plenty of room for improvement, perhaps he has the right attitude to do it. I hope so. As you're saying he isn't a cohesive striker, there aren't enough well developed other aspects to his game so unless he actually scores he contributes little to the final result. I have seen signs of him picking up though and there have been instances of "gosh was that a through ball (the Butt goal) or cross (Owen against Wigan) from Oba!?" He has this other strange habit of rushing when he doesn't need to when as you rightly point out he could take a moment and look up. The other thing against him atm is that he doesn't have the core football understanding to re-adjust postions with regard to the 433 which really needs (and without being nasty) a football brain. SA doesn't rate him either it seems so I reckon he won't be with us by the end of the summer.

Owen is a crock Emre disappears in away matches Martins is a one man band who needs to improve but may not Milner won't ever be better than average I'd be disappointed to see N'Zogiba leave. Agreed. I'd try and keep Martins for another season though. Depends, mate. All we need are replacements who are better and they could go whenever as far as I'm concerned. Fair enough. Just feel with Martins he has some things we can improve and work on. I'd be tempted to give him one more season unless of course a top tier replacement is available and willing.

See Man City above Liverpool again.

Owen is a crock Emre disappears in away matches Martins is a one man band who needs to improve but may not Milner won't ever be better than average I'd be disappointed to see N'Zogiba leave. Agreed. I'd try and keep Martins for another season though.

Did Arsenal get relegated?

Maybe I should re-do it as Man City finished above Liverpool.

the players had fun under Keegan, and that was transformed onto the pitch. Players trusted eachother and knew eachothers stregths and weaknesses, this in turn led to 1 through 11 being comfortable with how they were being asked to play, even the defence who were often neglected by the midfiled for cover etc etc You can have all the tactical awareness in the world, but if the players aren't comfortable with it they won't perform Totally agree.

Hyypia ffs!

Well, Dave. It is a response to Mick complaining about us buying Owen, I didn't see him predicting what he said was "predictable". Dare I say that its jus a swipe at the board ? Unless Mick says otherwise, and admits it was simply a case of buying a quality player, which the vast majority of people were happy with, in which case I would retract my response. Do you not think my request to name these "trophy" players - assuming they think Owen is one and is not the only one - is relevant to the thread ? I've stated my case. I think the club simply cannot be castigated in any shape or form for buying top class quality players. Who has a problem with this statement ? The problem is that you've stated your case over and over and over and over and over and over again, and frankly, the entire forum is sick of reading the same s*** argument in practically every other thread. The bickering is so f****** tedious that it defies belief, so either keep it in one f****** place or just take it somewhere else altogether. Absolutely, and I seem to remember having seen an Admin giving a last warning yesterday around this time in this very same thread (reactions have (un)fortunately been deleted), so I'm looking forward to a much improved forum shortly where when you open a thread it might actually be about the topic you expected... So. Who do you think we will replace Owen with if he goes ? The way I see it we've already got a better player for Owen's position in Martins. Now we need to find somebody to play alongside him. I had high hopes for a Martins/Owen partnershup but seeing as none of our players bar Emre seem capable to keep the ball down and provide through balls for those two to run onto the new partner will have to be somebody with the ball both in the air and on the ground and somebody we can rely on scoring a good 15 goals a season. These players are obviously hard to come by, but we can´t go too wrong with somebody like Anelka or maybe Crouch. Martins is not in the same class as Owen, or the Owen we bought, and one or two spectacular pot shots won't change that, and neither does it make up for far too many disappearing acts either. Can you enlighten me about the difference in class between Owen and Martins? For me, a big part of this supposed difference is nationality. Owen is horribly overrated, because he is English and you don't have too many class forwards. That's why he is an automatic pick for England, whether he's fit or not. He wouldn't get a look in with France, Brazil, Argentina or Holland, because in the past 3 years he has done nothing to warrant being called world class at all.. Now I can see Martins isn't world class (yet), but with him there is a small chance he will be in the future (which is what counts, isn't it?) given the right coaching. In the meantime he provides us with far more than Owen does (at this point in time).. you're not English ? Martins scores pot shots, he misses easy chances - too many. The best strikers are the best strikers because they score close in ie they have the "dead eye" finishing ability. The best teams are the best teams because they create more opportunities close to goal, so it's all part of the picture. It is nice to see the odd pot shot go in ie away to Spurs last season, but if you want a good team getting consistent results you need players who perform like this, especially in the central positions, or the result is inconsistency. Martins has more pace, that is true, and I like the way he shows desire to win the ball and run at people, but he just goes missing far too often to be a top player. You can talk about ability, and Kieron Dyer has ability, but its how often you produce what counts. The players with talent and ability are the players who produce it consistently. I've yet to see any evidence from Martins that he will do this, ever. I obviously hope I'm wrong and he matures and becomes a consistently high quality player in a black and white shirt. I don't disagree with you saying Crouch would be a good player for us mind, realistically people like Drogba are out of the running, but Crouch is a good player, he brings people into the game, and he will score goals. Martins has been needed mainly cause our midfield is rarely in contact with the attack.

Didn't we just play a lot of 5-a sides under Keegan iirc?

He needs a Dyer type checkup.

...also Enrique will get better.

Not as good as Kuyt according to me Dutch mate. Think again.

Isn't he a converted winger? Converted playmaker/CM I think Parky. That's the baby.

Isn't he a converted winger?

I don't remember saying it guarantee's sucess? Perhaps you can find a quote from me on here where I've said that? (not off your shitty Hoawaythetoon forum where you can edit it) So that's this you've lied about, me not replying to you even though you quoted me, being Leazes Mag on toontastic for months, HTL not being your brother, claiming you always thought Boumsong was shit until a post was found where you thought he was composed, good on the ball and better than you expected. The list goes on and on. Yet when someone finds a post where you claimed Souness was a top boss and better than Keegan after a decent start here you expect everyone to believe it was edited and 3 good lads in Scottish Mag, Shearergol and Craig are all lying for each other, they're lying and we all should believe a serial bullshitter like you? http://www.storyarts.org/library/aesops/stories/boy.html you mean the shitty forum that you agreed to become a mod on mackems.gif Why don't you try and set up a board of your own Baggy, if its so simple, and you're so clever mackems.gif I signed up because I felt sorry for you and thought by doing that I wouldn't have you stalking me on this forum like a lovesick teenager. aah, poor lad. You mean, because I keep reminding you, and you won't admit that you wasted all that time telling us all about that sooper dooper system at Spurs that guaranteed success has all gone pear shaped ? mackems.gif Whats your infatuation with Spurs anyway ? How good a supporter of NUFC are you Baggy ? Low blow imo.

Europeans don't really like the English.

Sounds good.

I can see it in their eyes. Basically Platini is the French version of Anal Oliver making shit up to sound important. Face it, the guy is a legendary prick, sooner he goes the better. Tell me TT what has America touched that it hasn't totally ruined? Those kind of questions and the assumptions of Platini belong in places such as this, not him talking openly about it without cause or substance to anyone who will listen to the cunt. To point the finger at someone who's done nothing wrong is beyond a joke for someone in his power, he's bad at his job, and is trying to strangle football. The Glazers managed to purchase Man U for instance by hocking the club upto its neck....I'm not even sure it's legal. But thats saying a thief is a murderer. If he came out and expressed his concern at the way Manu have been purchased then fine, but to say something totally untrue is abuse of his power. Managers get fined for critisising bad decisions, he wants sacking from his post for spouting lies. I agree he doesn't express himself very well but so far he's tried to redress the monopoly the big clubs are trying to create around the CL (or the breakaway league which I think they are eyeing) and the danger of over commercialisation of football by foreigners with no feel for the game. The French have done a fantastic job in protecting their culture against the American wave and we've failed if you look at our decimated cinema and other media (large chunks now american/foreign owned), I'd like to hear him out in this context he and his country have done a lot better than us in understanding the cultural danger of over Americanisation. Vive la France!

I can see it in their eyes. Basically Platini is the French version of Anal Oliver making shit up to sound important. Face it, the guy is a legendary prick, sooner he goes the better. Tell me TT what has America touched that it hasn't totally ruined? Those kind of questions and the assumptions of Platini belong in places such as this, not him talking openly about it without cause or substance to anyone who will listen to the cunt. To point the finger at someone who's done nothing wrong is beyond a joke for someone in his power, he's bad at his job, and is trying to strangle football. The Glazers managed to purchase Man U for instance by hocking the club upto its neck....I'm not even sure it's legal.