Delima

Quick question here - not sure if it is worth its own thread. In Setanta's puppet satire show "I am on Setanta Sports", who does this Dave refer to? Example: Dave appears in this clip Sorry if I am too slow / out of date, but who is this Dave? Thanks in advance.

Kevin Keegan said, "I've got seven-and-a-half good players here and some maybes and could-bes". Which seven-and-a-half? For me: Owen N'Zogbia, Jonas Enrique, Collocini, Beye Given, Harper(half) What do you think? The Guardian

10 millions. If we look around the transfer window I think we could have done better rather easily than getting Valencia. Carlos Villanueva - Loan Gilberto Silva - £1M Abdoulaye Faye - £2.5M Steven Pienaar - £2.5 Olivier Kapo - £2.5M El Hadji Diouf - ? Marvin Emnes - £3.2M Giovani dos Santos - £4.7M Jonás Gutiérrez - ?M Tal Ben Haim - £5.5M Steed Malbranque - ?M Peter Crouch - 9M Aliaksandr Hleb - £11M Samir Nasri - £12M Sulley Muntari - £12.7M I am not convinced spending £10M on Valencia is the answer. I would rather spend £5M on some scouted FM-tastic player. Moreover, Spiderman can play on the right. Ok we are a bit light on the wings with Charles N'Zogbia, Spidermand and Duff as specialist wingers only. We still have Geremi who could do a decent job there. We are however extremely light in central midfield. It is evident that Nicky Butt's legs are not there anymore. Either Joey Barton or Danny Guthrie will have to replace Butt as specialist DM sooner ather than later. That leaves us just 1 player available as attacking midfield. I would prefer to spend that £10M on a central midfielder. I am not convinced that we are financially capable, or that it is financially sound for us to spend £10M on Valencia and another £10M on a CM.

I am one of the owners of Ebbsfleet United but I never bother voting for anything ! Never watch any game too.

Desperate moves indeed - good yet cheap desperate moves !! Moyes surely prefers the likes of Arshavin, Moutinho, Love, Fernandes etc to Jacorbson etc. But that's life.

Without commenting on the financial implications of spending so much on signing so many players - look at Manchester City squad now: Hart Corluka, Onuaha, Dunne, Richards, Ben Haim, Garrido, Ball Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Kompany, Fernandes, Elano, Johnson, Petrov Jo, Sturridge, Mwaruwari, Calceido Their forward line is light - but otherwise the team screams top 4 material for me. Rock solid defense and very dynamic midfield. And in Hughes they have a very pragmatic and tactically wise manager. All they need to do is to make sure that Elano plays more consistently this year, and that Jo delivers.

On the contrary - I have been very impressed by David Moyes. Perhaps all of you will disagree, but these are how I feel: 1. Everton first waned to sign ONLY quality players who will be a true improvement of their current players. Joao Moutinho, Manuel Fernandes, Andreis Arshavin, Stephen M'Bia etc - these are quality signings. At the end of the day Everton find these players too pricey, they can't afford them. Fair enough, so how now ? 2. Instead of going signing bunch of medicore players with medium-small-ish transfer fees which would be costly if accumulated, David Moyes now signs free transfers with short contracts and loans. Lars Jacobsen - free, Obinna - loan. Everton so nearly signed Tiago on a loan. Steven Pienaar was only signed after he proved to be useful on loan. So was Mikel Arteta. Everton signed a keeper on a free last season for 1 year contract, and now he is gone because he wasn't good enough. These loaness and frees - if they are good enough they stay. If they are not - easy riddance. In effect David Moyes is operating a very low risk transfer policy. Everton's squad is small but it is not too small as people make up to be. Joleon Lecott, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville, Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar are versatile players. Everton still retains the their whole defense. They are still lacking in firepower but they had done Ok with virtually the same attackers. Andy Johnson is gone, but Everton received good money for him, and there are James Vaughan and Victor Anibeche waiting in the wings to replace them. Howard Jacorbson, Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Baines, Jagielka, Valente Arteta, Neville, Cahill, Rodwell, Osman Yakubu, Vaughan, Anibeche, Baxter Everton has a really small squad no doubt, but huge credits go to Moyes who refuses to panic and waste money. I am sure Moyes will go on and sign a few more loans and freebies, then Everton will be fine another season. And they would have fared much better than most other clubs in saving and spending wisely. Very well done Dave.

What has Sunderland really done that has impressed you? Pascal Chimbonda + Teemu Taino + Steed Malbranque - £20M ? El Hadji Diouf - £2.5M David Healy - £1.2M Anton Ferdinand - £8M Djibril Cisse - Loan Another summer of heavy spending, and none of them is outstanding signing. These players will keep Sunderland in the Premiership, but I am not impressed with this effort. Sunderland now have a huuuge squad. Roy Keane is not the most patient person - he may snap soon one day if he finds these bunch of medicore players difficult to manage, tame and improve.

I am a cretin not a smoggy !

Out of interest why do you think the squad seems weaker? Compared to last season: Keeper is gone, Luke Young is gone, Rochemback is gone Keeper replacement Brad Jones is not good. - worse than Mark S Justin Hoyte is a decent rightback with potential and youth - equal to Young George Boateng is gone. But he didn't have a good season last season. Didier Digard played well against Spurs. Fabio Rochemback wasn't an important player to Boro so his departure is insignificant. Shawky seems alright - at least equal to Rochemback. Alfonso Alves is bound to improve. Mido is bound to play more. Both Tuncay and Aliadere are mildly talented players and both had low key last seasons. They are bound to improve. Robert Huth is bound to play more, and from the few games he had played he seems quite a good defender. David Wheater is bound to improve on top of last season good performance. Gary O'Neill played well in the middle against Spurs. Stewart Downing is still the productive usual self - and Boro aren't letting him go. Gareth Southgate is bound to improve too! Judging from his transfer dealing and tactical deployment he is indeed improving. And how about Marvin Emnes - he is meant to be talented. Lest we forget Julio Arca, a talented versatile player. Mid to upper table is where Boro belong this season.

This!!! He aint a defender FFS, i fuckin blame SA. Wasnt it him who 1st entertained the idea of Zoggy in defence? Glenn Roeder.

He is a central midfielder in Carricks mould with bags of potential. Destined to be better than Carrick in the future I think. can't go wrong now he has the Delima seal of approval... Is that yu who give me this "cretin" title? Not contesting it, just out of pure curiosity.

He is a central midfielder in Carricks mould with bags of potential. Destined to be better than Carrick in the future I think.

Campbell is a speed merchant and Coloccini is not reputated for pace so why not. I hope that Coloccini plays the stopper and Taylor the charger. Our left side looks fantastic : Zoggy - Spiderman. Hopefully Duff and Martin work on that side too to overwhelm Fletcher and Brown.

Given Beye Taylor Coloccini Enrique Gutierrez Guthrie Butt N'Zogbia Duff Martins

Heurelho Gomes Jose Bosingwa Daniel Agger Nemanja Vidic Joleon Lescott Samir Nasri Elano Ashley Young Carlos Tevez Darren Bent Emmanuel Adebayor

Thank you for this article.

I like the fact that Guthrie was a Liverpool reserve captain. We need moree captains in the team.

Jonás Manuel Gutiérrez.

You are being ridiculous - or you are totally ignorant of Ligue 1. I didn't say Malouda has size or strength - ultrafit is the word I used. Why the heck are you being so stupid. I wasn't comparing footedness, country of origin, and league of origin. I was comparing running style, working style, fitness and crossing ability.

The description of Jonas Gutierrez's playing style reminds me about Florent Malouda - hard running, hard working ultra fit winger who puts good crosses in. Malouda failed, I hope Gutierrez won't.

Miralem Sulejmani

No Metzelder - but Pepe.

Gareth Southgate should realise that it is best to play Tuncay Sanli as central attacking midfielder. Middlesbrough are lacking one central attacking midfielder anyway.

The Guardian Spurs house keeping is fantastic. The bits in bold seem uttlerly crazy for me. Also, if Bundesliga is so rich, where does all the money go? All the clubs are owned by fans I think !? Where does the money go to??