KaKa

Agreed. the lad is a centre back through and through. Its not like he hasn't proved himself there. He was easily our best defender last season, it would not only be an utter cheek to move him to RB, but it would aslo hinder his progress by putting him there. Even more idiotic are people pairing Rozy (a lighter defender) with Cacapa who by all accounts is small, lightweight & injured quite a bit. Two soft CB's, yeah that makes perfect fuking sense. Taylor will play at CB but he will most likely be brought of the bench. To describe Cacapa as small and lightweight is so bizarre it isn't even funny. Have you ever seen him play? Rozehnal has looked great so far and is an experienced Czech international while Cacapa's experience cannot be questioned. As long as these two are fit I cannot see Taylor playing ahead of either. Taylor right now is a prospect and he will no doubt get his fair share of games but I'm not sure a first team place will be guaranteed for him this season. No matter how much of a crush you have on him

I see your point. However, I think Sam is generally disgusted by the fact so many of the players are struggling with his fitness regime rather than looking to have a dig at roeder. The players have probably been whinging about it and saying they are having to do to much fitness work. You only have to look at the strength and stamina of his Bolton teams to appreciate the effects of this kind of training and I'm all for it. You can already see the benefits in the players who have come through his fitness training without problems. Carr, Martins, Milner and Zoggy have all looked much sharper and fitter.

Two a day practices. I can't believe professional footballers can't cope with these. I assumed these were a staple of modern day professional sports, particularly during pre-seasons, it certainly is the case in the USA anyway. Seems Sam picked up quite a few things during his time in the USA. Very interesting.

With everything going on right now the best thing some people can find to do is have a go at Pattison? Leave the poor kid alone. It's not like he is an integral member of the squad and he is holding us back or anything. This thread baffles me.

Looking good. Baines at left-back, but Drago stepping in when we face tougher more offensive opponents. Similar to the way Manu alternated between Evra and Heinze. Also have the option of switching to a 3-5-2 with a back three of Cacapa, Roz and Drago like NSG pointed out. All of a sudden things are really looking up. Exciting stuff.

But not an equal opportunities thread deleter.

So basically no one should ever disagree with a transfer. Great, may aswell shut this place down now. Can you read? Have you seen some of the comments on here? Huge difference between disagreeing with a transfer and wishing for the guy to be run down by a freakin' train isn't there? I mean what's that all about? Half of you disagrreing don't even have any basis for doing so. Instead your disagreeing on the basis that you want Ronaldinho instead. No one knows how he is going to be used yet or what Sams plans are, so why not wait before you judge.

Some of the comments on here are disgusting. I for one prefer to wait and see how he will be used and how he performs before making any kind of comment. I saw him play in midfield quite a bit for Man U and was always surprised by how well he used the ball when in posession. The only downside was the way he flew into some rash tackles, but I think this was more down to him playing DM and being told to replace Keane. As an attacking midfielder he won't have that demand on him. I bet if he comes he does really well, especially because he is a good pro and is going to work very hard to make sure he does well and if he is playing every week I'm sure he will. This is going to be interesting and there is a huge potential for some people on here to look like absolute morons. Really dissapointing response to a player who has chosen to come here and play for your club. Disgraceful. At least wait till he messes up before having a go.

Dave link=topic=43538.msg945969#msg945969 date=1186055169] Oliver still working the Edmilson thing I see. Edmilson could still be worth a go, as we will be losing Geremi in January. It appears Cacapa didn't play too much last year due to injury and also falling out with Lyon due to letting his contract run out perhaps. Excellent news to hear that we put him through his paces to make sure he was fit enough, and as that appears to be the case it should be an excellent move. Still a pretty good age at 31 too, as a matter of fact 31 is like 26 in Allardyce years Younger than both Campbell and Hyypia but with all the experience we could want. I'm exited about this. All those who claimed he had gone to Qatar ought to be ashamed ... or maybe banned?

Should be for the rest of his time here. Would be a brilliant move.

God please protect us from any further injuries. Amen. Cheers Dave.

Is the game on world?

It's between Smith and Gudjohnsen ... let's see what happens.

Milner been given some new legs like? No ... the vibrating thingy done him a world of good though.

Milner and Zoggy would inject a bit of zip off the bench.

Please read very carefully and give careful consideration! Take a ride with me for a moment and imagine that Oliver is telling the truth ... -We have been linked with Gudjohnsen for ages and all along we were told Martins was about to sign for Arsenal. What if Martins was being touted and the plan was to bring in Eidur and sell Martins and in the process get another £5 million in. However, Arsenal pull out and so we cannot tie up the Eidur deal as we still have Martins. We end up pissed off! -All of a sudden West Ham show up and are interested in Eidur too, which pisses us off proper! We know they also want Dyer and although they are willing to stump up the cash we tell them to f*** off because they are interfering in our deal for Eidur. We tell them that they cannot sign Dyer unless they back off of Eidur. We therefore make enquiries for Smith incase they don't back off, and they enquire about Smith too as they imagine Smith and Dyer is better than Eidur alone with no Dyer. In the end we are hoping to end up with Eidur while they get Smith and Dyer. We hope to end up with Eidur with the money made from selling Dyer. -On the other hand we are still looking for a buyer for Martins. Harry was desperate for Martins last year and so we give him a call. We know he is still looking for a number 9 and we say to him he can have ours for the £10 million we paid for him as long as he throws in Sol Campbell. We imagine he will so does Sol who says Portsmouth will not be his last club. We hope to end up with Campbell and £10 million. -With the £10 million extra we now have we purchase a defensive midfielder, lets say Papa Bouba Diop, which allows Geremi and Barton to push forward and we get another couple of defenders,probably the Sevilla left-back and the AZ Alkamaar right-back. With all this we end up with the following new players ... Steinarson, Dragutinovic, Papa Bouba Diop, Sol Campbell and Gudhohnsen. We do not actually spend any money as this is funded by Dyer and Oba leaving. The question is, would you be happy?

Agreed 100 %. Heinze isn't that fast at LB either, but would have been welcomed by most on here. Besides, I think Sam is looking for a LB who has more of a defensive mindset anyway.

Should we not first of all suppose that he locates his cylinders, before we get carried away by imagining him firing on them? Ah ha! I knew someone would have a pop at Luque, which is why I also included the possibility of a Martins, Viduka & Milner combination firing on all cylinders also. So your comment is moot pal!

You do know that we've only got two friendlies left, yeah? Yeah your right, but I think Sam said he might organise some behind closed doors games as well. I was referring to those along with the remaining friendlies.

Here's another thing ... let's just suppose that Luque plays in the rest of the friendlies and continues firing on all cylinders and even getting better. Maybe we even try the 4-3-3 with Martins, Viduka and Luque in some of the remaining friendlies and it looks great and we do well with it. Or indeed Martins, Viduka and Milner as the front three. What happens then if Owen is suddenly fit for the first game having not been a part of any of our pre-season games. Do we automatically put him straight into the team ahead of those who have been playing well and showing form in the pre-season? Ahead of the players who might have shown that they have adjusted well to the 4-3-3 should we get a chance to work on it? Owen better play in at least a couple of our remaining friendlies or I just don't see any reason why he should be straight back into the team ahead of those who have been playing well.

Lady Owen's got another owie ... boo hoo! What a freakin' crock. Of course we need him to play in the pre-seson so Sam can sort out his tactics and see how various things work. For example everyone thought Geremi was brought in to play right-back but after the last couple of pre-season games we can clearly see that this should never be the case. He's way too good for that. With Sam confirming that he prefers the 4-3-3 last night, we should be working on this during pre-season, but because Owen has been hurt we haven't had a chance to see how Martins and Owen might fit into this formation. I can't tell you how much more I am coming to appreciate players like Milner and Martins, they might not be as talented as Owen but they are always ready to play and can be relied upon. Milner has just played in a very competitive tournament this summer and has only had a short break, but look at the form he is in already! Owen really needs to get himself together. Maybe they need to look at his diet or something ... he's as brittle as Mr. Glass.

I have a feeling Papa Bouba Diop is our fall back option if the Smith deal doesn't come off, so I'm not worried either way as I am a fan of Diop.

Great stuff. Nice one Tom.

Nice one Kaka. All we need now is Kewell to Spurs. mackems.gif They can dream of Kallstrom and Boateng all they want, but Kewell is their destiny. He's as big a fraud as they are. Match made in Heaven. Soon, very soon ...

3m is what ManC offered last week. Nowhere does it say they want what you're saying. He's in the last year of his contract too, so forget about the £8million Euros talk.