Delima

With bucketloads of goals scored by top club forwards, who do you think would be the 2011/2012 Premierleague Top Scorer ?

Would you have bought Phil Jones for 20M or Chris Smalling for 10M before their transfer to Manchester United, were you Newcastle United manager ?

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/s7J_Lt3YCRWljDR9T9vbEUQ/view.m?id=15&gid=uk/the-northerner/2011/sep/06/newcastle-newcastleunited&cat=football

http://www.rafabenitez.com/web/index.php?act=mostrarContenidos&idioma=in&co=167

Now that we have got many wing players - Obertan, HBA, Raylor, Gutierrez, Dan Gosling ?, Marveaux, I would like to see maybe Gutierrez as RB, Santon as LB.

Sorry I didn't speak clearly, I meant long term views for their respective clubs

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1390662/Premier-League-transfers--2011-summer.html Premierleague signing XI for me (I based more on long term view) David de Gea Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Phil Jones, Per Mertesacker, Jose Enrique Charlie Adam, Yohan Cabaye, Alex Young Demba Ba, Sergio Arguero

Why are people so pessimistic about Everton ? The core of Everton is still there - same defence, same keeper, same central midfielders. Yakubu left - but he was redundant Beckford left - but he wasn't prolific, and he was replaced by someone who looks impressive on paper Arteta left - but he was always injured. Seamus Coleman has proven to be an able deputy, and they got Drenthe in on loan as well This season they have Ross Barkley who seems impressive They are skint, but their squad is hardly compromised.

I think he needs to consistently score >10 goals per season throughout his contract / tenure to justify his transfer fee, and presumably, his presumably not cheap wage. Bearing in mind his recent year records, I seriously doubt he could achieve that.

I can understand that in the first few seasons Stoke would spend their way to secure top flights. But now that they are stabilised, they should start looking at younger players. Jonathan Woodgates and Matthew Upson as free signings are decent. Signing Peter Crouch at long term contract with 10M transfer fee is madness. Maybe this is their last consolidation season that would secure them medium term top flight status.

I hope Stoke is not bracing for financial suicide.

Why is it fat bastard's fault ? I can't believe that Mike is personally involve in negotiating. Surely he allocates a certain amount of money, and let Llambias and Pardew work it out how to use it. It is evident that we have some money to spend, despite not much. If we can identify good players who are young, with potential, and cheap (seems to be around 5M mark) then we would bring them in. It is Llambias and Pardew and the scouting network's fault for not bringing in a striker. Perhaps Llambias for not being swift enough, scouts for not able to identify suitable target, and Pardew for prioritising midfielders over striker.

Very reasonable analysis.

I don't understand why would people seem more interested in a single striker than others. Goal scoring strikers are the most expensive commodities in the market. What chances are there that we could easily find one that is cheap and reliable ? Actually we already found one - Demba Ba! It is also pointless to have a goal scoring striker but a shit midfield support. Matter of fact, we have massively strengthen our midfield with the French triplet. I would not trade these 3 for an overpriced proven striker. As for whether the Carroll money has been reinvested. I think it is important for the club to keep a healthy balance sheet. It is not as if the owner is syphoning the money out of the game. The money is still being reinvested into the club to cut interest, debt. Lastly, one must remember that while Carroll commanded a huge transfer fee, his wages wasn't high (as far as I am aware). Even though we got Cabaye, Ba, and Obertan in with little transfer fee, some of the Carroll's 35M surely would go into their wages. Could we have done better ? Yes, we could always have. But which club (bar top 4 who could throw money around) have done better than us ?

Davide Santon - 5.3M Yohan Cabaye - 5M ? Demba Ba - Free Sylvain Marveaux - Free Gabriel Obertan - 3M ? I think the 35M from Carroll skew people's perspective. We are, falsely, under the impression that we must spend whatever cash we have. If we disregard the Carroll sale, comparing our squad pre and after the summer, I would say we have had an excellent transfer window. All the players we purchase are young with sell on value. Demba ba is free. Could we have done better, maybe we could purchase a new striker ? But look around the strikers being traded this summer, have we missed any trick ? We can't afford expensive players like Aguero, we should not buy Crouch at the price. We could have perhaps loaned Bendtner, but, who else ? We clearly have tried to purchase some strikers from the French market. We did not manage to complete the deal, ultimately. But clearly the club does know and try to address the problem.

Aye, sadly too many different opinions on this issue Anyhow on the Demba Ba topic, the fasting issue is getting way too much attention. He has had a poor start to his time here and people are latching onto Ramadan as it is easy to blame, there are plenty of footballers it does not affect (including Ba in previous seasons) so I think it is fair to accept he is just struggling due to other reasons It is only fair to blame Ramadan. Football is a very result driven industry. You get managers, fans and footballers who moan at every single disadvantage they perceive. If you want to be a devout practising Muslim and you fast steadfastly, it is your right and your right should be respected. But one should accept that Ramadan will be finger pointed at.

Redknappe would rather a bunch of medicore players than a few top quality players. I think they still suffer from hiring redknappe. He hired good but not top strikers like Defoe n crouch to rescue spurs immediately. They achieved that, but now they r suffering from not being able to shift them. They, without a doubt, r still good enough to be best after top 5. But they need to stop hiring so so players like Parker, n concentrate on unearthing rough diamond like bale, sandro etc.

How good is mvila, to worth souch money, by arsenal's standard

Historically top class championship striker hardly achieve success in the Premiership, compared to top class championship central defenders. Shane Long was shite before last season, and he had had experience in the Premiership already. It is easy with hindsight to say we should have bought shane long, but before the season starts he just did not seem a good bet. Credits to Roy Hodgson for having wonderful foresight, but I think he was luck more than anything else.

Is him observing Ramadan ? It's not good for a physically asserting job

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sVDyr6uxBfe3MxFZR-aF8nA/view.m?id=15&gid=football/2011/aug/19/david-moyes-everton-bank&cat=football 2M for yobo is very good price for any midtable club. I think we need to plunder everton

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/aug/10/opta-stats-premier-league Interesting that Henderson, Adams n downing are signed on their stats.

1. Man U completely wiped the floor with City, bar brief periods where City dominated and scored. 2. Anderson, Cleverly, Wellback slotted in ceaselessly and played very well. Both Carrick and Berbatov should really, really worry about their places. 3. David de Gea is excellent. Made costly mistakes, but otherwise every inch a top class keeper should be. 4. Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are top class. Confirmed future England centre back partnership. Given this performance, I can't see past Man U for the Premiership. And it is not as if Man City are shit. They are not. They will do very well this season.

Class indeed. Messi and Romário turned up at a charity match in the other day, playing uptop together. There are some highlights around the web. What are the search keywords ?

I have a nice title too.