Lotus

I think Allardyce likes a flair player in the middle, Dyorkaeff, Okacha and to a lesser extent Nakata. I reckon Bolton have suffered this season for not having that kind of player at the moment. Even if he does sign Barton it doesn't mean that he's gonna be the playmaker. He might think he can get that out of Emre or maybe he'll sign someone else. There's plenty of time.

I had a dream i found a massive rabbit in my kitchen.

Astute mackems.gif mackems.gif Sorry one of those days Well, you were right though....

Astute

Wenger knows what he's doing but tbh, Arsenal have a few more problems than that. They could sort it through the summer i'm sure. Another star unearthed from the Dog & Duck Sunday team in Lagos, Nigeria.

I think Henry is past his prime. Van Persie has alot more to come though. Liverpool have a pretty decent squad imo. Could improve alot with the CL money from this year. Man U & Chelsea are miles away. We could be in with a shout for the top 6 but it does depend on who the manager is and if he's allowed to do it his own way. Big variables tbh. Given Taylor Butt Milner N'Zogbia (Souness form) Martins They're the only players who are worth a toss out of our squad. Lot of work to be done for the new guy.

I'm sure that a deal of that size would have been under the noses of the club owners so if they ratified at the time it wouldn't be fair of them to blame FS solely for it.

The more i think about this deal the more i'm puzzled: It was always likely he would leave with 2 seasons to go on his deal imo. He'd be wanting to play CL football at that stage of his career and not even a blind optimist would think we'd be at that level. Especially considering Souness was in charge when he signed. Ignoring the injury for a minute. So we buy him for £16M His wages are £5M per year An outlay of £26M An escape clause (allegedll) of £9M A net loss of £17M At £500K per place in the table, just what was Owen supposed to do to repay our outlay and how exactly was this in anyway a good deal. I must have missed something (i'm serious), can someone enlighten me?

Anyone who puts an escape clause for that amount activating only if we fail to qualify for Europe and while they were currently employing Souness and then compounding that later by hiring Roeder has made 3 very bad judgements. Had it coming unfortunatley.

Players on a free: Joey O'Brien (i think), injured most/all of last season. Apparently a CM, when i saw him at RB i thought he had a good reading of the game and good athleticism. Distin, Dr. Spec thinks he's much improved. I've barely watched him but thought he was average at best when here. Ben Haim, haven't seen too much, some good games and one bad. Sidwell, done nowt for me but others who (i hope) have watched min more reckon he's good. Tuncay, raved about. Haven't seen him. Viduka, I guess i see the logic. Just speculating. If the above are actually any good and would come (and be wanted by the new manager) i reckon we'd only have to buy a LB and a goal scoring midfielder. People mention Baines but i dunno how many have seen him consistently, cause what i have seen hasn't grabbed my attention.

Never seen anything from either of those two to make me sit up and take notice.

I've heard from someone connected to a bookies that it's Allardyce. Can't qualify it anymore than that. Confuses me though because i've heard that we are actively pursuing a signing, don't know who at the club is pushing it through if GR is about to be tin tacked.

He doesn't have the qualifications - or the bottle! CG, i pm'd you. Hope to find out more today.

I did qualify it with 'from what i remember.' I haven't watched him much since he left us so i can't judge him properly now, which is what i said. I'm sure he's a big improvement on Ramage/Bramble/Huntington if your opinion of him is only half right ;-)

If we are gonna sign a central defender we need to sign an experienced one to partner Taylor and help bring the massive potential out of him, not one to replace him in the team. Um, my point was that i don't remember Distin being the player who could bring the potential out of anybody. Rather i remember him as a player who needs a smart defender alongside him. IMO Taylor is not good enough to cover another eejit's lapses of concentration. Also dispute the notion the Taylor has 'Massive potetial' tbh.

I think SA looks at how best to win a game given the players available. Simple really.

Players can improve. Distin will need to have because i don't have many good memories from last time. Might be decent as the LUMP playing alongside an intelligent CB. That wouldn't be Taylor imo.

Owen, Rooney, Van Der Sar.

Are Kevin Davies and Joey O'Brien (both Bolton) out of contract this summer?

Neither Nobby (at RB) nor Carr will be good enough for a top 10 team in the PL next season.

If, as expected the situation ends up as follows: Taylor - Staying Moore - Leaving Bramble - Leaving Huntington - Out on loan Edgar - Out on Loan Ramage - ? Then we defo need to get at least 1 new CB.

I doubt anyone doesn't know we need a Forward who can hold the ball up and actually head it in a useful direction. We all know we need more creativity in the CM position. It's obvious to everyone that we need defenders, a proper RB and LB and CB. Surely no-one disagress with the above. So it's a question of prioritisation. We can all offer an opinion but we don't know what budget we have, we don't know who's available and at what price. You have to get value for money, Fwd's and creative CM'c are generally more expensive or higher wages if on a free. When the manager looks at who he can get he'll have to decide who can offer more for the team for the money paid. It might be that no CF or CM who could really make a difference are available or who want to come. In that case you spend it on the defence or visa versa. No-one can say what position would make the most difference to the points tally.

Like Shay Given you mean? Wasn't Ramage stalling on a contract a couple of years ago as well? Wanted some guarantees over first team football or something.

This. Best prospect we've had in ages. Maybe family circumstances + being away from home + losing his mates (Boum) has all got to him though. Still worth a start ahead of Duff. Anal's had in for him for a while i reckon. I remember him going on about Zog 'putting his pet lip on,' etc. They'll be pr1cks on here going on about how he'll want to go to Arsenal because of the French connection, completely ignoring the fact that they are a far better club in all aspects (except the fans, of course!)

Zoggy is worth more to the club than Roeder. Easy choice to make if i was Chairman. Not comparing the players but could've said the same thing wrt Souness vs Bellamy.