brummie

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this s*** season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from. You lot have actually been playing some food football this season tbh (deserved at least a point against us at the Lane). With the addition of Bent you're easily a top half team. It's such a shame a player of Ireland's class has decided to perform so badly. An in form Ireland, along with Bent, Young, Albrighton, Downing and Makoun is pretty damn good. I pray we don't make any move for Agbonlahor tbh. ----------------Makoun-------Ireland--------------- Albrighton-------------Young-----------------Downing ----------------------------Bent--------------------------- Altough Young hasn't been that impressive playing off the striker whenever i've seen him. Probably Petrov or Delph for Ireland too......what's your prefered team Brummie? That's the thing. The results have been largely awful, but there is absolutely no doubt we've played some really decent footbal. Fulham (a) Stoke (a) Spurs (a) Man U (h) .. these were all matches where we played really good stuff at times, but we only took 2 points from that lot. One problem we've had is that the defence has looked shaky, and the midfield has been so injury hit and generally poor, it puts more pressure on it. Hopefully Makoun will help fix that. Petrov has to go, he's clearly past it. NRC will go. We need to get a goalscorer, stiffen up at the back, and change the centre of our midfield. IF we get Adam in this week, as is rumoured down here, and if we sign Bent, I reckon we'd see us playing a 4-5-1 as you said above, except with him instead of Ireland Friedel Walker - Cuellar - Dunne / Collins - Clark Makoun - Adam Albrighton - Young - Downing Bent I'd actually have Luke Young in instead of Clark and play him and Walker as the FBs, but word is Young's injury is more serious than thought.

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this shit season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from. Sorry, i totally forgot about Warnock. Since the CC Final last year, he's been beyond awful and is, apparently, desperate to leave. Unhappy bunny.

If that happened, I think I would laugh so much, I'd spit out one of my kidneys. It won't, though

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this shit season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from.

Like really, or the joke? Brummie journalists are saying that is the deal. Which Brummie journalists? Some of them on Twitter, just seen the Retweets of them. I've not noticed any, but hey ho. Emile has put in the odd decent shift for us under Houllier, bizarrely. I'd rather Ireland went as part of the deal.

I heard the deal was worth £24 million. £30 million plus Heskey. 17.

Like really, or the joke? Brummie journalists are saying that is the deal. Which Brummie journalists?

I'm stealing that.

Our main problem is - and has been for two years - scoring goals. I don't care if Bent does absolutely nothing else, if he weighs in with one in every two for us, I will be well pleased. Our match yesterday was a perfect example, chances missed all over the shop. A goalscorer isn't the difference between us getting relegated (which we're clearly not going to, even without Bent, trust me), it is the difference between mooking around like we are in the lower reaches this season and being much further up the table. Agbonlahor has been out for an op and looks rusty since coming back, Carew clearly hates Houllier and wants out, Heskey has been good this season but is in no way reliable in delivering goals, and Delfouneso is very, very promising, but it's a lot of responsbility to stick on his shoulders. I genuinely do not care if Bent has the first touch of a rapist, fuck it, we want someone who will get in the right place and put it in the net.

Didn't Bruce sign DJ Campbell for Blues? Just a thought, like.

6th the last three seasons, though. I'm not saying we are going to storm the table and plough into the CL places, far from it, but this season was written off the minute MON fucked us over, you have to remember that.

Elmomomomomhammmmedy I thought he was really good when we played them the other day.

Posted on one of our forums by a chap who is the son of Charles Krulak, Lerner's right hand man: So it looks like it has gone through. I am genuinely amazed they've sold us him.

Aye. They'll struggle then. Mind you, 18 million is a lot of money to find a replacement.

Isn't Welbeck currently injured?

I have a lot of time for Stan and admire the way he's built his radio career, and think he's quite a natural, but he doesn't half speak some utter bollocks. Ask any Villa fan about the irony of SVC talking about Villa taking big risks on expensive striker signings, and see what they say.

That or they showed him the training ground (jumpers for goalposts, watch out for the dogshit and needles, down the local park).

"Wear - Tyne"? Their very fussy about things like that. Quite an inferiority complex. I'm sure you get the same from that little club next to you who play in blue ? Yes, we do. It normally takes the form of "Blues are the club of people who live in the city, Villa of yokels who shop in the city"

Oh god, there's always a downside to every positive thing.

"Wear - Tyne"? They're names of rivers. Ha ha ha. Cheeky scamp!

"Wear - Tyne"?

Because - and people keep ignoring this - Lerner did not tell MON there was no money, he told him to shift some of the players soaking up wages and never getting used. Like Curtis Davies (10m, 30k a week or so?) now on loan at Leicester, Steve "15 mins at the end" Sidwell on his 40k a week, Habib "32 years old, 40k a week 3 year deal" Beye, Nigel "already got a stupid middle name" Reo Coker on his 50k a week. Every manager in the league, bar one, has to manage his wage bill, when MON was asked to do something, he didn't fancy it and flounced off. Ignoring the football merits, given the amount of utterly unmerited shit that has been thrown at Lerner since August - see Paul Hayward in yesterday's Observer for a recent example, with his "the chairman lost the passion long before MON did" bollocks - I hope this deal causes some people to think again.

Two things strike me about this deal. Firstly, I am flabbergasted that Sunderland are prepared to sell, at any money, when you consider their league position and the fact it is January. Secondly, something must be very seriously wrong for Bent up there if he's submitted a transfer request.

Agreed. Ireland, maybe. Downing, no chance. Downing, along with Albrighton, has been our best player this season, so that won't be happening. There are some good points on this thread about Bent not being able to play in a partnership with anyone, interesting stuff. To be quite honest, the "he only scores goals" thing is very pertinent too, as someone who just does that is precisely what we need right now

Rumours that the intiail 18 = 10 plus Ireland. Result if so.