Delima

Village Idiot what do you think about the quality of Spanish second tier football (equivalent to the Championship in England where Newcastle United are this season) ? I always thought that the second tier of other countries are an untapped reservoir. If the gulf between Spanish second tier and La Liga is not bigger than Championship and Premiership then we should really explore the market there. Mohamed Diamé and Jordi Gómez for example, clearly have the potential to be a rather decent player in the Premiership. We should be scouting and scouring the second tiers of Italian, French, Spanish and French football. I remember that Watford bought Rinaldi from Brazilian second tier. Rinaldi clearly had the potential and talent. But for some reason unknown to me he rarely appeared for Watford. Maybe there are some attitude issues, maybe there are some adaptation and acclimatisation issues. But it takes only 1 in 3 Rinaldis to succeed to make the risk taking worthwhile.

Please refresh my memory as to why Bernd Schuster left Real Madrid ? Very good to see this. This proves that Athletic Bilbao are a nationalisitic / regionalistic club instead of a racist club.

Do you really think so ? They both obviously have undeniable talents - just need to be in the right team.

Nee chance during January. But during summer, we should definitely try our best to sign Rafael Van Der Vaart or Fernando Gago, and make them the main stars of the team.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1234001/The-Real-Madrid-rejects-Yours-45m--Sportsmails-guide-whos-offer-Bernabeu-January.html The Real Madrid rejects (yours for £45m): Sportsmail's guide to who's on offer at the Bernabeu in January

I happen to hold a totally opposite viewpoint. If you are a Premiership club, while you are more attractive towards players, you will also have to pay more. If you are a Championship club, you get away with paying less, but obviously you have to work harder to portray yourself as a desirable destination to the players. If we are confident that we will be going to the premiership (I am confident), I think we must sign as many players as possible with premiership potential, and with premiership in mind. We will be held ransom less, and there will be more time for new players to acclimatise. The drawback is the club must be promoted and the players recruited must not disrupt the promotion momentum. Otherwise it is loads of money/energy wasted. It is a very delicate line to walk but a risk well worth taking.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/fulham-potential-transfer-targets-1835952.html?action=Popup&ino=2 Paul Scharner - would be a very good free signing

We bought Abdoulaye Faye for £2.5M - so it can be done. Ryan Shawcross would be a good investment - however I doubt he will be cheap. In the past young top Championship centre backs always seem to do decently in the Premiership. Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Scott Dann, Roger Johnson, Curtis Davies, Danny Gabbidon, Michael Dawson are all living proves Richard Stearman should be decent - but Mick M prefers Jody Craddock. Ibrahima Sonko I thought he is Okayish Tom Huddlestone flourishes in a different role Darren Moore, Gary Breen, Malky Mackay were not young enough. Fitz Hall, Danny Shittu are the obvious failures. Steven Taylor will do very fine int he Premiership next year. And Collocini would have improved. I just do not think that we need to spend 9M on a central defender. We cn't afford to concentrate so much on just 1 player anywqay.

Spurs never sell player cheaply. Crouch, Defoe, Johnson didn't go cheaply despite Portsmouth being financially fucked. Milijas may have a clause in his contract, it means he can go, but dones't mean he will go cheaply. But whatever.

Common sense. Prince Boateng and Dos Santos aren't nobody. They were well reputed - it is unlikely they will be cheaply available to raiders. Wolves purchased Milijas for undisclosed fee which was estimated by press to be 3M. I don't think Wolves will be happy to sell Milijas without any profit. And Milijas has made his name in the Premiership - so he won't be cheap.

The realistic target would be simply to stay up. Promoted sides which have stayed up in recent seasons 2005/2006 - Wigan, West Ham 2006/2008 - Reading, (Sheffield) 2007/2008 - Sunderland 2008/2009 - Hull, Stoke I am lazy to dig further, and I know the pool size is too small to be meaningful. However I believe from my experience that the best way to survive a relegation scalp is to have a large pool of players, and a solid back 5. With all the players come the dead woods and toss. However we could also sift out quality players by probability. A good manager with a good eye for player will do well here. Concentrate on loans, discarded quality players, players with potential etc. BTW Kezman Simpson isn't free, Prince Boateng will cost more than 4.5m, Dos Santos more than 2.5m, Milijas will cost more than 3m, the rest I am unsure.

Good points I have totally forgotten. Let's just say Wolves, Bolton and Portsmouth go down. Nenad Milijas, Christophe Berra, kevin doyle Gary Cahill, Fabrice Muamba, Tamir Cohen - very good little player worth a gamber Jamie O'Hara (tottenham), Kevin-Prince Boateng, Nadir Belhadj, Younes Kaboul We should try to get the above players - provided they are priced reasonably. History have also suggested that members of Championship team of the season quite often perform decently in the Premiership.

All of the above are part of there teams 1st squad bar Tosic & Cleverley so there is no chance of them getting dished out. As for Cleverley looked nowt special yesteday so would have to see more of him. Tosic saw him play in a international junior comp, a few times for Man Utd & once V Liverpool 2nd XI & he has yet to impress. Appreciate what you are saying thespence, however you don't get if you don't ask. And Tosic and Cleverley have potentials, so at the very least better than other proven shites.

Harper Simpson, Colo, Taylor, Enrique Pancrate, Barton, Jonas Sell Nolan - 5M Sell Smith - 5M Sell Ameobi - 2M Sell Barton 22M for 1 starting central midfielders, 2 starting strikers, and quite a few back ups ? I would raid Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea for loan players. Premiership and our status as a "big club" - I think Newcastle United are very appealing loan destinations for promising youngsters. Zoran Tošić, Danny Welbeck, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson, Tom Cleverley Jack Wilshere, Fran Merida Michael Mancienne, Miroslav Stoch etc I can't instantly think of any 10M rated players who have got me thinking "that's what we need"

QUOTED FOR TRUTH ! A matured Song + Denilson partnership will be similar to Alonso + Mascherano. And a matured Song + Denilson partnership would be so important to Arsenal perennially weak back 4. A matured Song + Denilson partnership would be devastating. Both more than capable to thread a killer ball and both very competent in destroying play.

Cesc Fàbregas, Esteban Granero, Diego Capel go on to become class players Mark Noble, Richard Stearman, David Wheater, Mark Davies become solid players at best. The comparison is telling.

Vermaelen is meant to be the Mertesacker Eduardo is meant to be the Gilardino If Song can be a little bit more consistent and aggressive he would be better than Hargreaves I still think they need a trully world class keeper before anything else. Almunia does not inspire confidence. As someone mentions they need another more established CB - if either Gallas or Vermaelen is injured they would have no trusted cover, unless you count Senderous or Djourou, or unless Song matures.

Owen, Michael - 2005 £16M, 70app 26g Ferguson, Duncan - 1998 £7M, 30app 8g Luque, Albert - 2005 £9.5M, 21app 1g Boumsong, Jean-Alain - 2005 £8M, 47app 0g Marcelino, Elena - 1999 £6.7M, 17app 0g Objectively, Michael Owen contributes significantly more, pound by pound, compared to Duncan Ferguson or Albert Luque. And in football finance £16M in 2005 probably equals to £7M in 1998. Duncan Ferguson contributes more than Elena Marcelino. In conclusion, Elena Marcelino is the biggest waste of money.

2 lots of tosh from the man who prefers Cesar Millan post-watershed show: Dog shagger. Them signings are a bunch of misfits, past it or players with ? marks above them regarding can they preform at PL level. It was Paul Hart tactics last year that got Pompey out of the s*** & upto 14th. They will need to do better dealing in Jan to get them out of the s*** than they did in the summer. Indeed it was down to Paul Hart last season. However then Paul Hart had a better squad. The squad still contained Peter Crouch, Sylvain Distin, Niko Kranjčar and Glen Johnson, all proven good players. During the summer these players were sold. Hart had very little money to play with. And he had to carry out all the transfers in the last few days (if I remember correctly) of the window. Under these circumstances, I think Paul Hart had done very well in terms of transfer. Misfits, pass it, or with ? on their heads maybe. They definitely have the potential, and all they need is a very tactically astute manager who could organise around the player resource he has.

Sorry Roger. Didn't read Pilko's post.

Paul Hart has bought / loaned extremely well I thought 4 South Africa MF Aaron Mokoena 5 England MF Jamie O'Hara (on loan from Tottenham Hotspur) 9 France FW Frédéric Piquionne (on loan from Lyon) 11 England MF Michael Brown 14 England DF Mike Williamson 16 Republic of Ireland DF Steve Finnan 18 Belgium DF Anthony Vanden Borre (on loan from Genoa) 19 England FW Danny Webber 20 England FW Tommy Smith 23 Germany MF Kevin-Prince Boateng 24 Côte d'Ivoire FW Aruna Dindane (on loan from RC Lens) 26 Israel DF Tal Ben Haim 32 Algeria MF Hassan Yebda If a good tactical manager inherits the position I think Portsmouth will easily survive relegation.

Brazil is the hot favourite, and rightly so. Going forward they are as usual terrific. What is more unusual about, is in Lucio and Luisao they have solid defensive unit. Spain is also rightly favourite. I personally think that Portugal, despite that struggle during the qualification, is a serious contender. Netherland, if they can compensate their defensive frailty with a couple of steely defensive midfielders in Nigel De Jong & Orlando Engelaar, can have a good chance. Ivory Coast should never be underestimated either. Emmanuel Eboué, Kolo Touré, Arthur Boka, Yaya Touré, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Didier Zokora

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/22/alex-ferguson-england-wont-win-world-cup Sure, Celtics and Rangers inflated the no. of Scots in the Champions League. But it is highly ironic that England have so few players in the CL, not even enough to form a squad to go to the world cup. I don't blame the Premiership for hiring foreign players. I am for free trade, free movement, and general non discrimination of nationality of players on national league levels. However, why, oh why, are so few British players playing outside the Britain ? Maybe they are just not good enough ? I still maintain that the top English players (Rooney, Owen, Lampard, Gerard, Hargreaves, Terry, Ferdinand, Coles) are a match to the top foreign players. But the depth is simply not there.

You have to admit that Henry has behaved impeccably int his issue.