Ronaldo

Certs for relegation in my eyes Bookies view. That isn't the bookies' view based purely on our squad now, to be fair.

Haidara, Lazaar, Krul, Riviere, Saivet and Hanley would save a few quid. It's hilarious to think the only one of that lot likely to fetch any real money is a decent Championship CB who has never played in the PL, nor is he good enough to. We really have so many abject players on our books. Hanley played a fair bit in Blackburn's relegation season. Scored the winner at Old Trafford IIRC. Your point still stands though, obviously. For some reason I thought they'd bought him from someone else after they were relegated. I stand corrected.

Haidara, Lazaar, Krul, Riviere, Saivet and Hanley would save a few quid. It's hilarious to think the only one of that lot likely to fetch any real money is a decent Championship CB who has never played in the PL, nor is he good enough to. We really have so many abject players on our books.

If that was true I think Rafa would be on the phone to his agent telling him to find another job ASAP.

Can really see us paying £11m+ for a LB.

Who isn't ahead of Saviet?

OK. ? That's their positions, what's your problem? No problem. But we aren't going to see Ritchie and Murphy in much direct competition with each other. They'll probably both play. Murphy is better on the left from what I've seen anyway.

OK.

I don't think we'd have spent £10m+ on a player for the bench, like. Not when our starting Xl is still woefully short of PL quality in the attacking positions.

Aarons getting more game time. I wonder if Rafa sees him as a starter this season. Over who?

They play completely different roles, especially in a hypothetical system of Rafa's. When we buy a pure and proven defensive midfielder it'll be the end of Colback, and obviously it can't come soon enough. Not because I like the role fwiw, in fact it's a bit of a pet hate. But Rafa will always play one or two of them in his midfield.

I think he'd look as good as Iniesta. Not Xavi, though.

100%

I think he started nearly every time he was fit for Bournemouth, to be fair. Not saying I'd sign him, like.

Wash your mouth out. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/18/article-1313201-0B3ED77F000005DC-329_634x396.jpg That performance. Genuinely thought it was the start of something special, then Nigel de Jong happened. He came back better, eventually.

Drunks from out of town taking over a bar and singing songs about their local area. Yep, very strange that the locals didn't completely embrace that.

Steady on with the fantastic servant. He scored 3 very important Championship goals and leaves with goodwill but let's not pretend he's some sort of club legend.

We've got the 19th highest turnover in world football or whatever. If we can't afford both an upgrade on Rob fucking Elliot and backup for Dwight Gayle we might as well stop pretending we're a football club.

It might not be the end of the world but if one of those two is our keeper from start to finish this season we're in big, big trouble no matter who we sign and put out in front of them.

I don't get this at all, mind. Elliot and Darlow just aren't PL standard. What good is it building a functional attack and vaguely solid midfield/defence if the keeper absolutely isn't up to his end of the bargain?

You created it, man. To my eternal gratitude.

Stop being weird. It's a number.

I've posted it many times before but that's first and foremost what you want from a winger imo. Unpredictability. I'd always take that over solid consistency in the right circumstances. We've actually none of that in the wide areas since Robert left, apart from Hatem of course.

Strikers from Spain often don't work over here even if they kill it in La Liga. There are, of course, isolated examples like Torres and Costa but different attributes are required to be successful. I think Rafa would rather target someone fairly proven in this league.

Where on the pitch would he have been useful?