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I just saw we had been linked with Baptista and so I wanted to talk about him a bit and I just read the last post and almost choked to death it made me laugh so much! Adebayor the next Ameobi?!!! How bad does that look now? 

The last post is basically the reason I think Baptista is worth a punt. He needed more time at Arsenal and a run of more games, but it was difficult for him with the strikers and midfielders they had there, especially as he was on loan. I don't think Wenger really committed fully to getting him involved.

I think he would be brilliant for us in the original role he played at Sevilla, where he was awesome, as the second striker in a 4-4-1-1. If we could play him just behind Owen it could be brilliant. He has the presence, power and pace that we need upfront, and with Keegan in charge he will be particularly effective, as the ball will be played on the ground, because despite his physique, he isn't a lump it up to him sort. His game would also allow Owen to stay further up the pitch and finish things up in the box without having to drop back and get involved in general play as much, this is because Baptista tends to drop deeper and get involved in play more.

Don't believe the hype about him not liking the weather and all that. He was just a bit dissapointed Arsenal decided not to keep him and was looking for excuses.

Keegan will be able to give him the confidence to get his game back to where it was at Sevilla, and with Cacapa here he will at least have a fellow brazilian to samba with, you dig.

I'm all for this, and I would love us to try to make a move for him. Shola out and Julio Baptista in.

So who is with me on this? 

Owen is a small, shorter striker, who doesn't really drop back much to get involved in play. Therefore we really should be looking to partner him with a bigger stronger striker who drops into "the hole" and gets involved in play a lot more, and who can hold the ball up and link up play effectively. Ashton is really good at this and he also scores goals.

The main problem with pairing up Owen and Ashton is the fact that our two strikers will lack real pace. However if we play a pair of really pacy direct wingers and two quality attacking fullbacks who get into dangerous positions, and supply good balls into the box, then it wouldn't be as much of a problem.

Lets see how it goes.

As we're talking Tottenham, Ramos won the last two UEFA cups and tonight his team utterly destroys an Arsenal team including Gallas, Gilberto, Eduardo, Fabregas, Hleb, Walcott, Adebayor (cracking goal), Sagna... Have Toon missed a trick in appointing a manager who's never won anything? Spurs are looking very very good, and Jenas (free fron his "goldfish bowl") got MOTM for an awesome performance putting Fabregas in the shade - Toon could do with him now.

 

One good game from Jenas and we should want him back?    Bollocks mate, the goldfish bowl is in the lads head and he'll never be a top player..

Amen brother man, AMEN!!!

No more Jenas loving! This is driving me insane. One game and we want him back?! (Not to mention I didn't notice him once other than the goal and the pass across at the end!)

Get the heck out of town with that mess!

Agent blatantly used our name for contract negotiations.

Same deal with Dunne too.

We definitely weren't after either of them.

Are people trying to imply Jenas is a great player now?! Please get a hold of your emotions and stop getting over excited

If they gave him back right now for free I would pass.

Don't you dare go there. He is absolutely rubbish, so don't even bother.

End of story.

Theres been a lot of hype around Zidan for a little while now, but he's never been picked up by any significantly bigger clubs.

I know he's got a bit of a reputation for throwng the odd tantrum and stuff, but he really does look an exciting player.

Sissoko is eerily similar to Amdy Faye so be careful what you wish for.

He works on a team surrounded by more technical players otherwise steer well clear.

Tynesides a lot like Seville when you think about it. Its like Englands equivalent to Seville. Take away the sun from Seville and the spanish of course and replace it with grey skies and geordies and you basically have Newcastle.

 

 

In other words I doubt this will come off. However I could see the Garay link being true. The interest from us that is. Quality player. He's like 6ft 2 or something, looks massive, has pace, power, strength, and good aerial ability, seen him score a few good goals, not prolific, but pretty damn good for a centre half like.

Is Garay good on the ball? i.e. a ball playing type of centre back? Because we could do with one of those if we bring a centre back in.

The Garay and Navas thing was from a friend who is ITK. A bit tenuous I know, but he was the one who told me about Martins before everyone else. I can't see either happening, but rumours are always fun. Garay would be a f****** awesome signing like.

Cool. Well I guess we'll see what happens.

I'd be surprised about Jesus Navas because he's got serious issues when it comes to being away from home. He has violent anxiety attacks and stuff.

Good result for Villa tonight, and given their remaining fixtures I think they'd have to be dissapointed if they dont make the CL, and the Uefa should be nailed on.

 

Not surprised at all - watched the recording, and they played as well as any team I've seen play Liverpool at Anfield ; very competitive, always after the second ball(one of our biggest failings) and very unlucky not to have won - are all the knockers ready to surrender about MON yet !?? STILL think Allardyce is better !!.....

 

I thought we played as poorly as we have all season in the first half last night, but were much better in the second.

 

One thing I love is that we've got incredible team spirit. I never think we're going to lose matches, and I don't think the players do either. If we can strengthen in this window then Europe could be on.

 

We have now only lost one away match since February 2007 - if we avoid defeat at Fulham on Feb 3rd, that will be one away loss in an entire year. Impressive.

 

Considering the fact that you didn't have your best player Barry, I thought it was an incredible performance. Especially as Petrov wasn't all that great.

Petrov could be so much better if he would just do things a tad quicker and not linger on the ball for that extra second. I think you guys would have done even better if you had put Gardener in the middle at some point and replaced Petrov with Maloney. Maloney didn't even come on though.

Can't believe MON is till fumbling around in the transfer market 

You guys could be so much better if he just made some moves.

Garay from Racing Santander, and Jesus Navas from Sevilla apparently on the cards. Though I find it hard to believe, since  Navas has homesickness so bad sometimes he has seizures.

On the cards?

Where did you hear this?

Beckham in centre midfield, why not?

I could see it happening, but convincing the Yanks would be a problem.

Riise is one of many Liverpool players who has struggled for consistency of late as Rafa has rotated him to death.

Still only 27 and I think a change of scenery would be good for him. We only have one left back at the club and therefore Riise would be a good addition.

Riise taking all our set pieces alone will make us twice the team we are.

The biggest scam of all time is claiming Gerrard is one of the best midfielders in the game, i say f*** he doesnt produce enough through a whole season.

Look at Zanetti and Cambiasso Inter, Kaka and Pirlo Milan, Messi and ronaldinho at his best.

I mean he can be absolutley fantastic one game, and then have 4 games where he is totally lost.

Just been having a conversation about Gerrard along these lines.

I don't think he does enough with the ball at his feet. Doesn't go past people enough and only really drives forward witht he ball if he gets it on a counter attack. Other than that he plays too many long passes and passes the ball off to quickly, too often for my liking.

Still a top player mind you ... but certainly not in the same bracket as the type of players you have mentioned.

Taye Taiwo was born for the premier league.

Can't believe no one's gone for him yet.

Did Carrick suddenly develop the talent to be a good creative midfielder over night or something?

Um ... yeah that's his game. His passing of the ball is excellent.

Is this a joke?

I think there's something in the Carrick rumour.

I think he's coming home people.

Anderson's progress has been quicker than they anticipated and with Hargreaves, Scholes and even the likes of Fletcher and O'Shea still on the books they would let him go.

Weren't they sniffing around for Masherano too? If we gave them the money they paid for Carrick they could probably nick Mascherano off Liverpool.

I'm almost a 100% certain that we will sign Nedum Onuoha from Man City as Keegan liked him a lot and he isn't getting games there. He is similar to Richards and plays at centre back and right back. Onuoha also formed a promising partnership with our very own Steven Taylor for the England under 21s.

Wayne Bridge might certainly be another option as we have only one left back at the moment.

Then a central midfielder who can dictate play and I imagine Keegan will go for Carrick. Hargreaves, Scholes and Anderson have moved ahead of him now and with all of them fit I don't think Man U will be adverse to selling Carrick.

A winger would also be nice. Wright-Philips or Bentley would be tough deals to do in January with only two weeks left. Maybe Routledge or Barnes could be alternative options for now. Both young players who coud benefit from some guidance from Keegan.

Our squad has little ability and needs a lot of players to make things happen.

At this point I would have Routledge over Milner. I honestly believe he is a better player than Milner is.

 

Milner can go apply his pointless workrate somewhere else to be honest.

 

Sorry but that is a pile of "grass is always greener" bullshit. Routledge

 

You may aswell have put "I would rather have anyone that can run a bit fast than Milner despite having no actual football ability...."

 

Believe me If Routledge was here he would be in the team ahead of Milner. Did you ever see him for the under 21's? or when he was at Palace? He's better than Milner. Quicker and a better dribbler. Crossing is no worse than Milners either.

 

At the very worst he's just as good as Milner but with more pace.

 

So would you rather have Milner or Milner with more pace? Easy choice right 

 

But he isn't as good as Milner, there is a reason it looks like he could be heading off to the Championship and if Milner left us he would be going to a premiership club.

 

Speaking of England Under 21's, isn't Shola joint top scorer at that level? Whats he up to now? he must be mint!

His first season at Palace in the Premiership was the reason Spurs bought him right? He is good enough to play in the premiership if Milner is believe me.

By the way ... Milner is definitely a championship player.

At this point I would have Routledge over Milner. I honestly believe he is a better player than Milner is.

 

Milner can go apply his pointless workrate somewhere else to be honest.

 

Sorry but that is a pile of "grass is always greener" bullshit. Routledge

 

You may aswell have put "I would rather have anyone that can run a bit fast than Milner despite having no actual football ability...."

Believe me If Routledge was here he would be in the team ahead of Milner. Did you ever see him for the under 21's? or when he was at Palace? He's better than Milner. Quicker and a better dribbler. Crossing is no worse than Milners either.

At the very worst he's just as good as Milner but with more pace.

So would you rather have Milner or Milner with more pace? Easy choice right 

I don't think the fact we tried to pass it around more should be taken fro granted either. I think it allowed us more posession (albeit not very productive posession) which took a lot of pressure of our defence. Also, the fact that the defenders were forced to get more involved in the passing and build up play, meant they settled into the game quicker, were more tuned into the game and were more comfortable on the ball in general.

Out:

 

Owen - overrated, abysmal when hes not scoring, injury prone, huge wages, disliked Keegan previously.

Viduka - lazy crock who is reaching the end of his career. Moderately talented, but the type of talent that only sees flashes of brilliance in every 5 attempts, which is why he was playing for Middlesboro at his peak.

Emre - angry midget crock who goes down every time he gets challenged.

Milner - winger with no pace and not enough crossing or technical abiilty to compensate.

Duff - winger who is scared to take players on and like Owen can go through games doing literally nothing yet avoiding heavy criticism because of his previous reputation.

Ameobi - s***.

Carr - s***.

 

Stay:

Taylor - strong and good in the air, at the very least will make a handy squad centreback.

Cacapa - composed and classy, type of defender who starts alot of moves off.

N'Zogbia - potential to be a beast of a midfielder. Just needs to learn to play more of a team game first.

Martins - possibly. Martins is a confidence player. Keegan might be handy in that department.

Smith - I think he'll be kept in the squad as a David Batty equivalent. Might not be a good footballer, but a handy aggressive player to have for specific games.

Beye & Faye - naturally because theyre good defenders.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

An absolutely brilliant summary.

I think Enrique will only get better too and has definitely shown enough to be kept around, with maybe a more experienced player brought in ahead of him, to give Enrique more time to develop.

At this point I would have Routledge over Milner. I honestly believe he is a better player than Milner is.

Milner can go apply his pointless workrate somewhere else to be honest.