Dr Venkman

Considering three of those were brought in by Allardyce (and they weren't exactly cheap), do you think trusting him with more money will see him change targets to something more exotic? General question, not really owt to do with the thread as such. I know you've advocated giving him time. Would of been my secondpoint to Chez! Dave, i'm not sure, thats the biggest question facing the club (as i said after City ). Fruitbat, my point was that the midfielders we have dont have the attributes to match the attributes of our strikers. Both departments are lacking and neither can make up for the inadequacies of the other. So, yes, i think the players are just about playing to their potential which is why we arent any higher up the league. Blame last summer if you want. I tend not to over analyse things so forgive me for not understanding this, but why exactly do we have the wrong kind of strikers for our midfield? We've got tall ones, short one's, fat one's, skinny one's, strong one's and weak one's. Is it the midfield that's wrong? What attributes do the midfield lack when playing at potential. Duff in Blackburn form is an excellent provider and occasssional scorer. As are Milner, Smith and Zoggy on Villa, Leeds and previous form. Butt, Geremi, and Faye are solid as a rock on Man U, Chelsea and current form, while Barton always looked a classy* box to box player at Man City. Sounds like British Rail excuse like the wrong kind of snow on the track. *EDIT: Of course by classy I mean in a working class scumbag, thugish charver, blood and guts way. Not sure if you actually seriously asking me or not.... Viduka and Owen are immobile and slow, Martins is unpredictable. The midfield has no pace or creativity. You can have one or the other but both at the same time means neither makes up for the inadequacies of the other. If the midfield had class and pace, they would pull defenders out of position, allowing the strikers to find space. If the attack had more class and a lot of pace, a hardworking midfield would be able to support them. The lack of mobility up front (and the spatial spackaness of Martins) places greater emphasis on creativity behind them. So you dont think there would be a single manager in the world who could put us in a better position with the squad we have at present? 9 players currently on the books have been brought to the club by Allardyce, with the deals sanctioned by Mort/Ashley. If the vast majority of them aren't good enough, who are you going to blame. Before you reply, consider the transfer fees involved and the competition we had to sign most of them ........ Still. I'm sure that you appear to be happy with the season so far. The books are balanced, and we have a long term "plan". Shame every other club also has a long term "plan", part of which will be to have a better "plan" than our "plan". mate you shouldnt keep putting plan in inverted commas like that, it makes you look mental, planning in business is always beneficial, doesn't matter who's in charge Well, I think people who infer that "plans" bring automatic success in football, are pretty stupid. It makes you look like you are saying the only teams who have "plans" are those who win the league, FA Cup and League Cup. Clearly bollocks, as you clearly had a flawed "plan" for not winning one of these trophies. Thats one hell of a lot of teams without a "plan" by the way. ok, and what about what i actually said? it's quite clear to me that if you qualify for europe more than every team bar 4 over the course of a decade, you must have some sort of "plan" which is a better "plan" than most of your rivals "plans". I realise you won't agree this because you have some sort of silly agenda with the fat b******, but hey, thats your prerogative. Ignore the facts as long as you like, its your problem. i'm gonna try not get dragged into this again,but, i was just pointing something out, doing that sort of stuff very definitely makes you look mental and very definitely makes YOU look like the one with the agenda i'm not disagreeing with you on the first part, credit where credit's due and regarding it being my problem, ironic, considering you've taken it on yourself to be the one true voice in defense of one man, it would seem that you continually make people 'ignoring the facts', your problem to sum up pretty much my last year of posting, it seems you have a policy towards people that suggests if they've done something right they cant do much wrong, and its so out of sync with reality that you end up fighting with everyone on here, anyway i still think you're good craic, keep up the good work

Considering three of those were brought in by Allardyce (and they weren't exactly cheap), do you think trusting him with more money will see him change targets to something more exotic? General question, not really owt to do with the thread as such. I know you've advocated giving him time. Would of been my secondpoint to Chez! Dave, i'm not sure, thats the biggest question facing the club (as i said after City ). Fruitbat, my point was that the midfielders we have dont have the attributes to match the attributes of our strikers. Both departments are lacking and neither can make up for the inadequacies of the other. So, yes, i think the players are just about playing to their potential which is why we arent any higher up the league. Blame last summer if you want. I tend not to over analyse things so forgive me for not understanding this, but why exactly do we have the wrong kind of strikers for our midfield? We've got tall ones, short one's, fat one's, skinny one's, strong one's and weak one's. Is it the midfield that's wrong? What attributes do the midfield lack when playing at potential. Duff in Blackburn form is an excellent provider and occasssional scorer. As are Milner, Smith and Zoggy on Villa, Leeds and previous form. Butt, Geremi, and Faye are solid as a rock on Man U, Chelsea and current form, while Barton always looked a classy* box to box player at Man City. Sounds like British Rail excuse like the wrong kind of snow on the track. *EDIT: Of course by classy I mean in a working class scumbag, thugish charver, blood and guts way. Not sure if you actually seriously asking me or not.... Viduka and Owen are immobile and slow, Martins is unpredictable. The midfield has no pace or creativity. You can have one or the other but both at the same time means neither makes up for the inadequacies of the other. If the midfield had class and pace, they would pull defenders out of position, allowing the strikers to find space. If the attack had more class and a lot of pace, a hardworking midfield would be able to support them. The lack of mobility up front (and the spatial spackaness of Martins) places greater emphasis on creativity behind them. So you dont think there would be a single manager in the world who could put us in a better position with the squad we have at present? 9 players currently on the books have been brought to the club by Allardyce, with the deals sanctioned by Mort/Ashley. If the vast majority of them aren't good enough, who are you going to blame. Before you reply, consider the transfer fees involved and the competition we had to sign most of them ........ Still. I'm sure that you appear to be happy with the season so far. The books are balanced, and we have a long term "plan". Shame every other club also has a long term "plan", part of which will be to have a better "plan" than our "plan". mate you shouldnt keep putting plan in inverted commas like that, it makes you look mental, planning in business is always beneficial, doesn't matter who's in charge Well, I think people who infer that "plans" bring automatic success in football, are pretty stupid. It makes you look like you are saying the only teams who have "plans" are those who win the league, FA Cup and League Cup. Clearly bollocks, as you clearly had a flawed "plan" for not winning one of these trophies. Thats one hell of a lot of teams without a "plan" by the way. ok, and what about what i actually said?

Considering three of those were brought in by Allardyce (and they weren't exactly cheap), do you think trusting him with more money will see him change targets to something more exotic? General question, not really owt to do with the thread as such. I know you've advocated giving him time. Would of been my secondpoint to Chez! Dave, i'm not sure, thats the biggest question facing the club (as i said after City ). Fruitbat, my point was that the midfielders we have dont have the attributes to match the attributes of our strikers. Both departments are lacking and neither can make up for the inadequacies of the other. So, yes, i think the players are just about playing to their potential which is why we arent any higher up the league. Blame last summer if you want. I tend not to over analyse things so forgive me for not understanding this, but why exactly do we have the wrong kind of strikers for our midfield? We've got tall ones, short one's, fat one's, skinny one's, strong one's and weak one's. Is it the midfield that's wrong? What attributes do the midfield lack when playing at potential. Duff in Blackburn form is an excellent provider and occasssional scorer. As are Milner, Smith and Zoggy on Villa, Leeds and previous form. Butt, Geremi, and Faye are solid as a rock on Man U, Chelsea and current form, while Barton always looked a classy* box to box player at Man City. Sounds like British Rail excuse like the wrong kind of snow on the track. *EDIT: Of course by classy I mean in a working class scumbag, thugish charver, blood and guts way. Not sure if you actually seriously asking me or not.... Viduka and Owen are immobile and slow, Martins is unpredictable. The midfield has no pace or creativity. You can have one or the other but both at the same time means neither makes up for the inadequacies of the other. If the midfield had class and pace, they would pull defenders out of position, allowing the strikers to find space. If the attack had more class and a lot of pace, a hardworking midfield would be able to support them. The lack of mobility up front (and the spatial spackaness of Martins) places greater emphasis on creativity behind them. So you dont think there would be a single manager in the world who could put us in a better position with the squad we have at present? 9 players currently on the books have been brought to the club by Allardyce, with the deals sanctioned by Mort/Ashley. If the vast majority of them aren't good enough, who are you going to blame. Before you reply, consider the transfer fees involved and the competition we had to sign most of them ........ Still. I'm sure that you appear to be happy with the season so far. The books are balanced, and we have a long term "plan". Shame every other club also has a long term "plan", part of which will be to have a better "plan" than our "plan". mate you shouldnt keep putting plan in inverted commas like that, it makes you look mental, planning in business is always beneficial, doesn't matter who's in charge

i'd keep these in the first team given, beye, faye, enrique, n'zogbia

With signings like that it could take fat Sam £100 million to get us into the top 10. I thought that was Parky's original point. Not taking what Parky says completely literally, i wholeheartedly agree with the principle. I knew you would. But I was hoping for a deeper insight from you. There are still a few deluded souls who think we could get more out of our players but most recognise that, on the whole, the squad is where it ought to be in the prem. We need 2 defenders, 3 midfielders and 2 strikers of higher quality than anyone already at the club to be where Ashley said he wanted the club to be in the next few years. I think over the next 18 months, £100m (spent not net spend) isnt far off. Are you categorically saying that the current pefomrances of our individuals are the best we'll ever see of them? Scratch that, not even "best" but a true reflection of what they genreally capable of? No. He's saying that we need 2 defenders, 3 midfielders and 2 strikers of high quality if we are to seriously challenge the top clubs. at least

haha, yeah, you're right alan, we should give taylor whatever he wants because he's a geordie and he answers your phone calls

We can get 3 players for the best part of £50m as Souey proved. That was years ago, we were a champions league chasing side, in the UEFA cup. We could then, we can't now. What? We'd finished 14th in the Premiership the season before we signed those players and we weren't in Europe in any form. We're a premiership side, that's enough to attract big players if you're willing to spend the cash. Of course it also doesn't hurt that we've at least been in Europe plenty of times unlike most of the rest of the Premiership.. i know a man with a stat that could help you out with the last part of that post

surely he'll choose arsenal given the choice

134 reasons

But he dosent. He does nothing apart from wait for a chance laid on a plate. common myth tbh, he's lost his pace but he's effective dropping deep and linking up play, very rarely wastes the ball Obviously when all he does is lay the ball off 5 yards. What exactly does he do thats effective when dropping deep, what link up play do you mean? I dont see any clever passes, one-two's, any skill. He can be neat & tidy and thats where it ends really, like a lot of strikers in the league. i see retaining posession, by whatever means he does it he always does it, its not THAT easy mate, it cant be, look at the rest of our team! the problem of course is that once he does drop deep it takes him half an hour to get back up top, all i'm saying is he's not this hands on hips on the edge of the area player that some people try and make him out to be, i'm not saying he's thierry henry

But he dosent. He does nothing apart from wait for a chance laid on a plate. common myth tbh, he's lost his pace but he's effective dropping deep and linking up play, very rarely wastes the ball

If one is a relative then they both are but they like people to think they hold the same views independently so they can back up each other without anybody knowing why they both share the same views. Could you be less cryptic please?!! Do you mean, you think that thay may be relatvies of old board memebers? NE5 is Shepherd and HTL is his mam

even if it was really cold?

at the minute his best attribute seems to be receiving to feet and bringing others into the game, which i think he's very good at, but lack of pace and us not creating is just making him pretty sterile as an attacking force

chron says 'ten days time' which makes it wednesday, i think

from what i can see we need a creative central midfielder or two, a right winger, a centre half as good as faye, and an entirely new set of attacking options the players we have for these positions at the minute are either too old, too injured, too crap, or all three, and thats just the players we NEED to replace, nevermind backup and squad strengthening

I said this when he bought him. Nice to see him hopefully coming good at last, after being labelled unnecessary etc. Load of bollocks really if you examine the fact that Solano was getting older, and it was a good price for a good player. haha, you have to get something like that in every thread dont you, good on you

he really, really isnt

If Allardyce has anything to spend then it should be on two creative midfielders, it doesn't matter how good your forwards are if you can't use them. indeed, shame is they're not THAT good are they?

I flicked Five Live on a few times when away from my television, now that was complete and utter tripe. And 6-0-6 is hosted by Steve Claridge tonight. i was getting so in infuriated by how many times the camera cut to sam throughout the whole game, especially the minute long close up on his eye, let us watch the match man!

I'm not entirely convinced that the manager has that much say over the style of football/way the game pans out once the players cross the white line. It's not like it's just Allardyce who has overseen second halves like that after decent enough openings here recently. The players aren't good enough for one, the conditions were terrible, everything else was against us. I don't believe for a second that he's told our lot to go "more direct" at half-time. If anything, it was plainly obvious that if we played some football then we might win it. If it wasn't the manager who told them to play direct, it wasn't the players. i'm confused, who was it then, god?

faye and taylor were great, enrique looked promising but made a few mistakes, typical foreign youngster smith was rubbish, butt was defensively better but creatively rubbish zoggy, not as effective as when playing from deep, duff looked dangerous but still looks like he needs more speed, whether its there or not i dont know owen looked good first half, didnt waste a ball, faded second half, viduka was average lua lua looks very promising pleased we're still in the draw, now can we buy some creative players please?

For unless they genuinely wanted the publicity, a top agent wouldn't need to go through Oliver or the switchboard. YOU'RE alan oliver!

commentator in the arsenal match has just introduced our game later on as 'big sams big banana skin' oo er

depends on the transfer fee, he's a decent enough player i suppose and already suited to sams methods, but we do dearly need some better players than him