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one additional thing to consider. If Bentley continues to develop at his current rate, I highly doubt he's staying with us for more than a year. The very fact that he's on the move out of Blackburn this year shows he's not much for loyalty and when Man U and Liverpool come knocking after he's lead us back to Intertoto glory, he's not going to hesitate. People turn their nose up at Deco because he's not a "long-term solution," well, unles Bentley suddenly regresses into mediocrity, I don't think he is either.

So we've got a thread on this board saying that Deco's not good enough for us (well, two actually) and another saying that Henry's not good enough for us. I just hope nobody starts a 'Ronaldinho' thread. Mackems and Spurs fans probably already having a field day as it is.

Navas isn't just homesick, he's pathologically unable to venture further than a certain distance from Seville, and literally goes completely nuts if he's forced to do so. I really don't think it's a good idea. The difference between Bentley and somebody doing the business in Italy and Spain is that Bentley has already proved that he can work in the Premiership. There are simply no gaurantees whether any player, no matter how good, will be able to adapt to a completely new league, unless you're talking about Ronaldinho quality. (Even then... cf. Schevchenko) As it stands, yes, Bentley will probably cost 2 to 3 times the price of a Spaniard of similar skill level. And that's because there's a very good reason for that.

Bentley >>>>> Deco? Blimey. I mean, yeah Bentley's younger, but we're talking about somebody who's been very good for about as season and a half now v. somebody who's been world class for most of his career. No contest. Is 15 milliion and 100,000 a week for a thirty-year old, as good as he is, overpaying? Yes. But are we going to get significant improvements over the current squad in any way other than drowning them in cash? I think we all know the answer to that question. Don't see how the comparisons to Smith/Duff hold any water. Smith was never actually that good, and even Duff was only a "pretty good" player at his peak. Deco was tearing up the Champions League and was universally recognized as one of the world's best midfielders as recently as a season ago. The only reason he's fallen down the pecking order in Barca is because of politics really, same as Ronaldinho. Him or Moutinho? I say have Ashley write a check for 30m so we can get both.

Great how he's got back on his game in the past three~four matches. Still needs to be replaced in the summer though.

I'm sure KK will make an objective decision next season based on the status of both keepers. They can both do the business so I'll be happy either way. If Given was suddenly fit again and I had to pick today, I'd say Harper based on form. One things for sure though, fuck Marlon Harewood for ruining the one constant at this football club. Shay was and hopefully will still be a legend, and his years of excellent service shouldn't be ignored just because he's turned a bit average now. Next time Harewood shows up at SJP he should be booed every time he touches the ball

he was always intended to just be emergency cover in case things got REALLY shitty, so I see it as a good thing that he's not getting a game.

On a side note, Zenit's left-back isn't half bad either... Would've thought he's worth a look if Enrique wasn't coming good for us Aadvocat really has assembled a decent squad at Zenit.

Thought he was the bloke in yellow for a moment and mumbled to myself "there is no fucking way he's a fifteen-year-old"

Oh, and last season, I made a thread titled "has Titus Bramble turned the corner" a week or so before AZ away happened. This year I did the same for Carr about a week or so before Villa away.

A teammate of his mentioned in an interview that Arshavin was given the okay to talk to us but he decided to stay at Zenit for the Champions League football next season.

45 minutes into the Brum away game, I thought Keegan had completely lost it and that we were screwed.

Actually contemplated posting about this but thought it was too random. signed for my local club used to be pretty decent so I hope he does the business for us. Although I'm not sure how signing a 31-year-old is meant to solve our lack of pace.

DC: ferdinand, king, woodgate, vidic, carvalio. MC: gerrard, fabregas, essien, ballack, scholes FW: torres, anelka, rooney, berbatov and then id say adabayor is on par with drogba Woodgate better than Terry, Berbatov better than Drogba... Now I get it, you're kingdawson in disguise aren't you?

teabag: name five strikers in this league better than Drogba, five central defenders better than Terry, and five attacking midfielders better than Lampard. See how easy that is and then we'll talk.

Let's not get too cocky, Reading have won three out of their last five and they've always given us a tough match whenever we play. They're very threatening on the counter-attack so they'll fancy all three points instead of hunkering down and going for the draw. So I think I'll be realistic and keep it at 3-0

I'd like to see Bellamy back here, could do very very well in a Keegan team. Injury-ridden and past his best. I'm afraid he would be another Damien Duff.

Is that an actual article and not an april fool's joke? (awaits the whooosh)

Must've been an interesting experience for Smith, seeing his team of the past playing his team of the future.

I hoped he was just trying to keep the squad's confidence up. Might not be far from the truth if we're talking about 3 players worth 20m+ who would seriously improve the quality of the squad. We're not really short on numbers, just quality.

seems to have gotten a bit less interested since Big Sam left to be honest.

alan smith aswel If you think Alan is bad, wait till you meet his evil twin brother Alam

Would be crazy to get into Europe after the season we've had, but certainly wouldn't say no to it. Well, at least we know what we have to do if we want to stay up on the disciplinary table. No Alam Smith!

The thing about the current formation is that it's very much tailor made to our current situation (three quality strikers with different strengths and weaknesses + no reliable options on thie wing) While I'm sure Keegan will continue to line up the players in a way that suits what our squad looks like at a given moment, I highly doubt our formation will look exactly like this in the long term considering that our squad will change considerably over the summer.

Thirty-one years old, so not a long-term option. I guess as a reliable competitor/backup to Enrique for 1~2 years it might work out, but he's not coming off Spurs' bench just to sit on ours. Last I heard he's going back to PSV in the summer. Shaem what's been done to him at Spurs, went in as arguably one of the best left-backs in Europe, but Jol decides he needs to do everything humanly possible to keep him out of the squad and starts buying two fullbacks every transfer window. Then Ramos comes in, and in his first window, he buys three To add insult to injury, he sticks a midfielder from the reserves in at left back ahead of all of them. Would've had a much better career if he took the move to AS Roma when he was offered. As it is he wasted his best years with the ungrateful cockney mackems.