Parky

This is a poss aye.

There are two ways of looking at this. Either we have no money or GR and FF have shambolically mishandled yet another transfer window. *Normally when I say stuff like this we sign a player for millions a few days later*. 8)

*Kieron leaves only to find his diamond bracelet missing.*

I blame the father, he needs to instill some history and affection for the club into this wippersnapper.

"His son wants to go to the Emirates to see his heroes (Fabregas) play and the poor father said next season he's planning on taking him as he goes to away games, he'll be there cheering on the Toon while his son will be there cheering on Arsenal. I thought fuck me, but the bloke says he's taken him to loads of matches and the kid isn't interested because we play crap football and have no good players apparently." HTT Kids are like this, but they grow out of it.

Do you seriously think he should drop Drogba? He's been there best player this season and has saved them in games on many occasions. And Boula isn't a right back at any stretch of the imagination.

Hopefully this will be the end of 'the Spanish influence' at Liverpool. I have maintained from day one that Rafa was clueless. tongue.gif

The other thing of course is the the other teams are getting wise to Mourinho's ways and play accordingly.

I wonder who will come out on top in the ego stakes between Drogba and Ballack. Drogba is perhpas a little too street smart for him and just his experience in doing coffee commercials to fall back on. bluedead.gif

It was in the Morgen Post a local Hamburg paper. Perhaps as you say a re-hash of the other story. My German isn't that good but it did come across like Ballack was having a proper whine. There was another article a couple of weeks ago saying the English game wasn't good for him.

Nice post fella. As you're probably aware there were plenty of rumours that Schev was an Abramovich buy and I can well imagine as you have illustrated that Kenyon had a hard on for Ballack. Tbf I think Chelsea are also missing Robben with these niggling injuries and dips in form. Robben is one that is actually very comfortable with the 433 as he likes to roam inside from either flank in the old Dutch style. The diamond is too defensive, you can get away with it if you have a creative maestro who knows exactly when to cut out a man or up the tempo. Schev for me is a little past his best and Drogba being on fire isn't helping as Schev like Ballack have had teams built around them in the past. I think Schev will leave. There is still time for Kalou who is very graceful on the ball, but just at the minute missing that killer touch.

This is also one of my contentions, Geremi isn't flexible enough for the 433. He has average ball skills and little pace. Mourinho has made tactical blunders this year and big names can't fix a stuttering system. I agree he should have stuck to the 433 and with a different RB. Agree with Bluf too in that it has been somewhat of a shock for th star of German football finding there are other big ego's in the dressing room. It is said that him and Lampard are no longer on speaking terms.

Two mind boggling obvious purchases gone wrong? Ballack is back in Deutschland and been interviewed in some of the papers. He say that Makalele and Drogba have been complaining about his performances directly to Mourinho. Ballack is also none too happy that the fans are getting on his back. One of the papers quoted Prozone stats showing that he is the least productive mf and Schev hasn't been that much better. We go on about Luque, but this does show that even for the best in the world it takes time to adapt. Buying players is more of a gamble than most managers would like to admit. I think these two are typical in showing how much more dynamic and faster the English game really is. With the Jan window a case in point, perhaps it is better to stick to proven PL players. What's the thinking on this?

Each has its drawbacks. On a snowy winter night I know which one I'd choose.

It won't happen.

Agreed.

Wenger is very good at getting rid of players before they become a burden.

Ok, given the circumstances thrown up during the game, can we not agree at least that it was NOT a good result then? That said, as Roeder notes, "It gives our supporters a night out and they love the cup as everyone knows in Newcastle". :celb2: They are top of the Championship and at home. We are 6 places above them and away and decimated by injuries. In that context, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It is disappointing seeing as we were so much on top in the second half, but there were quite a lot of our mob playing today who would struggle to get into Birmingham's first team. And ps, O'Brien was far more effective on the left in the second half than Luque would have been imo. Fair enough if you think Luque's shite, but I don't see how you could possibly say O'Brien was "far more effective" than he would have been. Even if Luque lost the ball with every touch, O'Brien simply ballooned it into the crowd every time he got it. That's not "far more effective" than anyone would have been, it was just very poor. A draw at the start of play would have been annoying, but a draw under the circumstances is unacceptable imo. If we'd had even the slightest idea of how to hold onto a lead this season, we'd be knocking on the Champions League door, and to throw it away yet again - at the last against ten men against an understrength Birmingham - is not on. Agreed. There seems to be very little organisation when we don't have the ball. A lot of players don't seem to know where their core postions are hence our play a lot of the time seems ragged. This is one of the reasons Dyer has been such a breath of fresh air as he papers over a lot of this with his availability, runs and pace. Also his quick one two's with anyone who is paying attention.

5 less. He doesn't play the out and out striker role and is often linking play running from deep or developing the second attacking phase. He is without doubt one of the best players in the world imo. There is more to come as well I'm sure of it.

Us and Spurs, out of the four main interested clubs (Man Utd and Arsenal aswell), are the two clubs which would be best for him. But he probably won't come to either of us, because the other two are in the Champions League. He'll be wasted at Man Utd, simple as, unless they sell Heinze. And at Arsenal, he's just be another youngster. If Gareth Bale wants the big-time: enormous wages, San Siros and Nou Camps, guaranteed trophies, and four or five starts a season - he'll go to United or Arsenal. If he wants to play regular football and fight for trophies - he'll go to either us or Tottenham. It's in his hands tbh. Definately going to Manure.

Cavenghi and Upson.

They've only just bought him and they are really happy with him. Great prospect and v talented.

Some good observations yes.

Yeah but Roeder is the right man at this point for our club. bluesleep.gif

Yes this is the rhyme and the reason. Not getting any reasonable def in when we had the chance is why we will lose games to the likes of Bolton. One slightly older head would have vastly increased our chances of sneaking the 0-1. You can only really point the finger at Roeder for that, leaving it all till the last 2 days of the transfer window and then blowing it.