Minhosa

TAMPA/HOON, Read the question again. In the first sentence, I mention about the whole squad strength thing. The question is, how many would change our first eleven?

To be fair, thats not a bad starting eleven. Aye, one or two are out of position but, to be fair, our first choice full backs are shite anyway.

Ok, this might be easier, if I name a starting eleven. Lets say we start with the following:- Given Solano Taylor Ramage Babayaro Emre Butt Dyer Duff Martins Sib So, Teepee, I guess you would you drop.............Duff for Zog? Ramage for Moore and Sib for Owen?

Agree reference three Amigos. Who would you drop to accomodate Shola?

This may sound like a stupid question because, surely, all members of the first team squad who aren't fit are a loss, aren't they? So, the question is, out of the injured players, how many would make our starting 11 stronger? Current Injured Players;- - Harper - Krul - Bramble - Moore - Carr - Bernard - N'Zogbia - Owen - Amoebi I haven't included Emre/Nobby who are due back imminently. I was thinking about this the other day. Theres only really Moore and Owen for me who would make us a stronger starting 11 AND Moore's loss isn't that significant. N'Zogbia is the most controversial one I guess, in that most people would have him in their starting 11, but he hasn't set the world alight this season (granted he hasn't played much) and as long we've got Duff I don't see him as a starter at the moment. Thoughts?........................

Alladyce: "In the past when that sort of name has been attached to this club, people considered it as something that was never going to happen. "But cast your mind back to Youri Djorkaeff. People scoffed and said he would never come to play for Bolton, but he came. "So did Bruno N'Gotty, Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro - we've attracted some fabulous players to the club. To be honest, none of them are in Beckhams league in terms of being a "Big Name" player. I'd be amazed if he signed for them and, to be honest, wonder why he'd want to? no-one really has a bigger name than Beckham but Anelka, Djorkaeff, Campo, Nakata, Okocha, Hierro, N'Gotty were all big name players Hierro was Real Madrid captain Aye but most of them were either down on their luck or virtually finished. Beckham could get a bigger club abroad (Perhaps Inter or someone) or a better pay packet at another English Club. I'd be interested in how old Bent Sam would sell it the prospect to him TBH? They took a chance on Djorkaeff and it payed off for them. Fair play. The rest haven't done anything special IMO. 'cept get em into Europe. We are in Europe this year and Carr/Babayaro/Bramble etc got us there. Doesn't mean I'd want to signj them again given the chance. Other than Anelka, there isn't ONE of the players listed above I would take.

Alladyce: "In the past when that sort of name has been attached to this club, people considered it as something that was never going to happen. "But cast your mind back to Youri Djorkaeff. People scoffed and said he would never come to play for Bolton, but he came. "So did Bruno N'Gotty, Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro - we've attracted some fabulous players to the club. To be honest, none of them are in Beckhams league in terms of being a "Big Name" player. I'd be amazed if he signed for them and, to be honest, wonder why he'd want to? no-one really has a bigger name than Beckham but Anelka, Djorkaeff, Campo, Nakata, Okocha, Hierro, N'Gotty were all big name players Hierro was Real Madrid captain Aye but most of them were either down on their luck or virtually finished. Beckham could get a bigger club abroad (Perhaps Inter or someone) or a better pay packet at another English Club. I'd be interested in how old Bent Sam would sell it the prospect to him TBH? They took a chance on Djorkaeff and it payed off for them. Fair play. The rest haven't done anything special IMO.

Alladyce: "In the past when that sort of name has been attached to this club, people considered it as something that was never going to happen. "But cast your mind back to Youri Djorkaeff. People scoffed and said he would never come to play for Bolton, but he came. "So did Bruno N'Gotty, Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro - we've attracted some fabulous players to the club. To be honest, none of them are in Beckhams league in terms of being a "Big Name" player. I'd be amazed if he signed for them and, to be honest, wonder why he'd want to?

I reckon Beckham will move to the USA when he's finished at Real Madrid. Can't see why he would come back to a more physically demanding league or why he's want the constant media attention (well MORE constant media attention) that was a big part of why he left. I think he'll go to the MLS and earn his cash through some image rights scam, due to their wage structures. He might even go to the far east where the Beckham brand is HUGE or perhaps be tempted a big money couple of years in Dubai and really kick start their football (a la George Best in the USA). Who knows? But I can't see him coming back here.

Can't be badly restricted if its forty quid like. The restriction is, you can only see pitch level. Aye, the restriction is you've got to watch Boltons shite football for 90 minutes.

Forty fucking quid to watch a game involving Bolton? Who do they think they are? Fucking Real Madrid. Is Brian Potter running that club now instead of Phil Gartside?

Kovac is a good shout. Just what we need IMO. Lots of experience, can develop the young lads and physical enough to cope with the demands of the Premiership. The thinking mans Martin Keown IMHO. Anyone think the timing of this article is more than just a coincidence? E.G: Clashing with the AGM? Just a thought?

Fair play to you Lad. blueyes.gif

Wouldn't touch him. We can better for the same price. Not worth the cash. Shola mark II

Don't think we would get Distin for £2m. More like £3.5m I would guess. Possibly, but i think they might just be pleased to collect a fee. Distin doesn't seem to want to stay so City are going to want to cash in. Besides, Roeder says he doesn't want him - which is just daft in my opinion. We're crying out for a leader at the back, and there's one going on the cheap - yet Roeder is turning his nose up at him. Typical Transfer Window Roederness. I rate Baines, would hope to pick him up slightly cheaper than that though. Don't really care tbh. We want to go cheaper, we'll end up with lesser players. Baines will be worth £6m in time, probably not at the moment, but he's a quality defender in the making, and already pretty damned good at the moment. How many of those have we signed? I'd rather we spend than settle for another Baba. As said earlier, for an extra bit of money I think Beattie would represent a much better, and more motivated investment than Viduka. Don't really see why. Beattie can't score for toffee (no pun intended), and he'd cost more than Viduka - probably £4/5m, which is too much for a stopgap. Viduka is someone who will stand in the box and wait for the ball, and just score. That's EXACTLY what we need. I think Roeder has been quoted in the Chronicle recently as saying he doesn't want the fat aussie anymore anyway. Don't know enough about Diarra to comment but, anyone on loan, would be welcome by me. Nor do i mate. But he's a defensive midfielder with potential, who came to Chelsea very highly regarded and was good in his first few games apparantely. Loaning him with option to buy would a great idea imo - see what he's like. We're gonna need a replacement for Butt, may aswell start looking now! I agree with you on Distin and think he'd be a useful asset. Having said that, as I said regarding Curtis Davies earlier, I'm not sure how much of a leader old Sylvain is. I'd still test Man City though. As you say, Baines is one for the future, but we would have to pay an absolute premium for him now. I'm not 100% convinced he is worth the risk of spending say £6m on him. I haven't seen enough of him. I'd hope Glenn and his scouts know enough about him by now to make a judgement on whether he's be worth such a significant outlay. Still don't agree with you about Viduka. He'd cost about £2m and give you a years service, on BIG wages. It would be his final payday. We'd recoup fuck all of this £2m too. If we spent £4m on Beattie, we'd get (minimum) 3 years service, on reasonable wages, he'd be motivated to prove Moyes wrong and to try to get anywhere near Shearers (his hero's) God-like status and, if it didn't work, we'd still recoup at least 50% of the fee. Therefore, do we spend about £2m on an ageing, overweight, lazy Aussie OR an Englishman, who is younger, more motivated with a point to prove for the same price/loss? It just seems a no brainer. Next season you play Beattie down the middle with Owen and Martins either side. Having Sib and Shola on the bench. I guess I don't see it as a stopgap, like you do, or rather don't see why the signing NEEDS to be a stopgap. Hell, even if we play 4-4-2 next year, why not have Beattie & Shola on the bench and Sib making up a Mid/Fwd position for the squad. Sorry for harping on about this but I see January as an opportunity to really add depth to the squad for the medium term, not just for a year or two and I've only suggested players who would not plummet in value (a la Luque) and are therefore low risk from an investment viewpoint.

Don't think we would get Distin for £2m. More like £3.5m I would guess. I rate Baines, would hope to pick him up slightly cheaper than that though. As said earlier, for an extra bit of money I think Beattie would represent a much better, and more motivated investment than Viduka. I think Roeder has been quoted in the Chronicle recently as saying he doesn't want the fat aussie anymore anyway. Don't know enough about Diarra to comment but, anyone on loan, would be welcome by me.

His corners were gash and he had a free kick success rate of about 1:500 - Most ended up in Row ZZ, Tier 12. Granted, he scored some good free kicks, but I'm sure I wasn't alone in expecting him to hit the wall most of the time. Not a Robert fan at all. Thought he was a lazy, gobshite who had far too high an opinion of himself. I'd prefer a hardworking, yet less flambouyant Duff anyday.

Ginola's 7 goals in 71, or Robert's 32 goals...hmm. Ginola was still better. Imo like. Technically, without a doubt. But for what he brought to the team, I'd say Robert hands down. Put it this way, put Robert in that Keegan team with his goals/assists record, we'd have walked the title in 1996, put Ginola in the Robson team of 2002 with his record, and I doubt we'd have finished 4th. I couldn't disagree more. I'd take an in-form/playing at peak Ginola over an in-form/peak Robert ANY day of the week. For all Ginola could be a lazy arse, on his game, he was quite simply inspirational. For all Robert could be a lazy, sulky, gobshite-ing twat, on his day he could strike a good free kick. Robert never got me to the edge of my seat , time after time, like Ginola did and, for me, Robert didn't have any of the guile that Ginola did. Just look what they did when they left us. Ginola had a complete stormer of a season (got nominated for PFA Player of the year - did he win it? I can't remember) and Robert, well, should have retired (almost) gracefully after Portsmouth.

If that is what they want for him then he's a great buy for someone. I'm sure he cost WBA about £3m when they bought him from Luton. His stock has undoubtedly risen since then, so its a shock that they only want £4m for him. In that case, if I was Glenn with £10m burning a hole in my pocket, I'd probably spend the wedge as follows:- £4m - Davies £4m - Beattie £2m - Whittaker (or Finnan from Liverpool) Loan - Bridge Would love to tempt either Finnan or Aurelio from the bin dippers but I doubt Rafa would/could let them go. Another RB who has impressed me is Volz from Fulham but he's got a suspect injury record iirc.

I don't disagree but if we've only got £10m. Its a large chunk gone on one player. I rate him but I think we need one (or ideally two) full backs first. We wouldn't get much for the £3m that would be left. I'm comfortable enough for now, even though its not ideal, to have Taylor, Ramage, Huntingdon with Shambles & Moore due back within the next month. If we had to, we could possibly play Butt at CB too. However, Baba & Carr have got awful injury records, not to mention that they're both shite. We have no genuine cover for Baba (if the Bernard rmours are to be believed) and, whilst Solano has done admirably, he's not playing in his ideal position and does tend to get injured more these days. I feel we're more exposed at FB than CB. If we were guaranteed a RB for £3m and a fit Baba for the rest of the season I'd take Davies in an instant, at £7m.

To be fair, I've only seen him in games on Sky, for both WBA and Luton, and he's never seemed a Leader to me but, I haven't sat in a stand and watched his game closely. Like I say, he'd be a good investment, regardless. I reckon he'd cost about £7m though.

I think he'd be a good buy (young, highly rated by the Wenger (always a good sign), wouldn't demand silly wages and would represent a sound long term investment). On the down side, there would be loads of competition for him though and, whilst he's a comfortable player, he doesn't seem like a leader. IF, we could pick someone up with a bit of experience and a few years of top level football in them (to develop Taylor, Ramage and Co.) we might be one step closer to a cohesive unit. Having said that, the impact Pearson has had on the back four in his short time hear might indicate that he could develop them all off the field of play. If he could do that, then a choice of Davies, Taylor, Ramage, Moore, Huntingdon at Centre Back wouldn't disapoint me. Now, lets sort some full backs out.

I think Eastwood could be worth a gamble but he'd cost £4m plus. My argument all along has been for someone to find me a better value buy than James Beattie, IF, we could get hold of him for about £4m. - Hungry - English - Good injury record - Proven to handle this league - Point to prove - Would love to be at "Shearers Club" etc etc EVEN if he flopped we could sell him to a Championship side for a couple of million meaning we would only be taking a low risk on him as an investment.

Is he already a Man Utd player then? and they've loaned him to Antwerp to let him develop whilst he gets his permit or have they actually signed him from them? They signed him before they bought Rooney I think. EDIT - They signed him Feb 2004 Cheers

Is he already a Man Utd player then? and they've loaned him to Antwerp to let him develop whilst he gets his permit or have they actually signed him from them?