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Hmmm interesting ... Not sure how true this is, but if I was going to put money on it I would say Deco. The article claims it is close to happening and we have been holed up in Barcelone for days now. Barcelona have since allegedly put in a bid for fat Frank. Deco is still a big name and is at the age where he might consider a challenge like ours as he has achieved a lot at Barca and has just turned 30. Will be interesting to see what happens. I won't be losing sleep if we don't make any "world class" sigings though. i love what we have been doing so far this summer.

This is unbelievably embarrassing from Glenn. I am shocked and extremely dissapointed in him. I admired the dignified way in which he walked away without getting involved in this sort of thing. This will not help him at all. Allardyce is all about psychology. Unlike every other idiot who takes the job and comes in all excited talking about the potential of the club and how the club ought to be in the champions league every year etc. Sam knows that this is possibly the worst thing you can do at this moment in time, considering we haven't won anything in so long. The last thing the club needs is more pressure on the players and too much hyp and expectation in the fans. Whether you agree with it or not it is the best way to go about things. It should be clear from the players Sam is bringing in and the work he is doing that we will be right in the thick of things challenging for the top six and even better. We don't need him to come out and state it explicitly. If Sam came and said we were not in position to get any top players but that we were sticking with what we had then I would believe it would take 5 years. I am not buying it, Sam knows what he is doing. He's just trying to keep everyone calm as a lot of good things have been happening lately and it would be easy to get carried away. Roeder ... I'm at a loss for words. The most disgusting thing is the statement he makes about Sam being given more money. That is just stunning to me. Roeder spent £15 million on two players and expected exactly how much more? Sam hasn't even spent a third of that yet. Roeder was out of his depth. Wouldn't want him anywhere near the club after this, even as the freakin' car park attendant. He has clearly shown he doesn't have the clubs interests at heart and is only looking out for number one. What a punk.

Oh dear ... Are you saying we've agreed a fee with Wigan then? If so wouldn't that news be out in the media by now?

Sam likes his Diarra's a bit bigger. Would therefore prefer Alou instead.

Heinze to liverpool might finally mean Hyypia to us.

Well Chelsea are said to have a strong interest in Drenthe, so they would probably have him as backup to Ashley Cole. Hopefully this means Bridge will be available. They haven't turned us down straight away so there is hope. Excellent news. Why the hell has some dude copied my Habib Beye pic! JAMESMARTINSMITH quit playing around you here!

Agree 100% 442 yes 433/451 yes. I fear the worst with 351. Can't say I blame you as we would only have 9 outfield players with a 3-5-1.

Wayne Bridge? Leighton Baines? Both left-backs who started off as wingers.

Interesting to note that Brazil won the 2002 world cup with the 3-5-2 in which Edmilson featured as one of the three centre backs.

Part of the reason he is buying more experienced players, as they will not struggle as much to adjust. Kieron Dyer will be interesting though, there are rumours Sam wants to try him out as an attacking right-back. As you say though he would also work as one of the three central midfielders (with an attacking MF role). The three central midfielders in a 3-5-2 can either consist of 1 DM and 2 AMs or 2DMs and 1 AM, this will probably change depending on who we are playing. Sam has emphasized that he wants Barton tog et him goals so Barton will be first choice AM I would imagine.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I would not be surprised to see us go for Mikael Silvestre to play as the left-sided centre back in the back three. I've heard some rumours but not ITK or anything.

I've been saying this for ages, but I got shut down ... glad to have you on board sir! Something to add to your post. You make a very good point about the centre backs on the outside of the back three being players who can play both centre-back and right-back. This is important because on counter attacks when our wing backs are caught out of position these players will need to slide accross to cover the oppositions wingers who seek to exploit this space. This will leave a gap in our defence which will then be filled in by a defensive midfielder. It is no surprise then that Sam wants tall defensive midfielders who can also play in defence i.e. Edmilson.

Why is he really good? What type of player is he?

Milner is a good player but he needs to be brought along a bit slower. I think it would do him a world of good to have a more experienced player ahead of him who he could take over from in a couple of seasons. I think people forget he is only 20 which explains his inconsistency. I definitely don't think he should be in our first team next season. I understand why a few people don't rate him as when he is bad he is sooooooo unbelievably frustrating to watch.

Bolton fans are angry about this but at the end of the day these are people Sam recruited so if they want to leave with him why are they so surprised?

This doesn't make sense to me. He is only 20! Why the hell has he handed in a transfer request? He should be in agreement with the club to go out on loan somewhere which he has never done. Somewhere where he will be guaranteed first team football and then from his loan period we can determine whether or not we want to keep him.

Personally, I really hope it works out for Arsenal and I'm sure it will. Arsenal's struggles last season were down to the loss of Van Persie more than anything. Van Persie had already scored 11 league goals by about halfway through the season! Henry's attitude last season was disgusting. Moody and half hearted the whole time and having a go at the Arsenal youngsters even during games. It will be very satisfying to see Arsenal do even better without him.

Versatility is sexy.

Hyypia will be captain ...

Tottenham surprise me, because their weak point is their midfield and they still haven't improved it. Still no left-sided player and their central midfield partnership is miles away from the top four teams. I don't think they will finish fourth.

Not another freakin' strip tease please!

Actually, he's fairly pacey. His acceleration isn't all that, but he seems to easily keep up with strikers considered to be very fast. He's good enough to play in the Premiership, but maybe not in a side challenging for the top 4. I wouldn't mind him as a squad player. The Times mentions that he is also a defensive midfielder. Does he play in this position regularly? Do you think it's possible that we might therefore be looking at him to play DM?

Yup I think that is indeed the case. The clause only kicks in if we do not qualify for Europe.

So anyone know what he is like as a defensive midfileder then?