oldtype

Let's see, so we're signing a shite player who doesn't play a position we need cover in? Sounds good to me. :roll: Does he "play" left back occasionally? I forget.

Probably 99.5% bollocks. Although it would be a horrible thing to happen to him. I doubt any footballer (other than the utter c**ts that shouldn't be playing in the first place, I suppose) would trade in any amount of money for the possibility of playing the game they love. Would be absolutely heartbreaking for titus. Not a good thing for the club either. Although I'm hardly a fan, I'd rather have Bramble than nobody.

Don't bet on it. Odds on that all three of them will get injured a month into the new season, forcing us to pair Shola and Sib up front.

I'd be willing to bet money that no other supporters anywhere in England know their reservists as well as we do

I fully expect the "Belgravia group" to be some sort of non-existant entity created by Fat Fred to toy with our minds. Seriously, wth do they think they're doing? At this rate they'll be "interested" forever.

For some reason that made it sound like Hunt got a pay raise for cracking Cech's skull. or maybe I'm just wierd.

Would probably be gaining some first-team experience on loan already if not for our fkin ridiculous injury crisis

wouldn't mind plugging Neil in center.

It'll be absolutely critical that Fulham spend the 5m they got on some useful players. Kind of makes you appreciate the situation we're in. If Fulham screwed up as badly on the transfer market ONCE as we've been consistently doing for the last few years, they would have been relegated ten times over.

I'm starting to worry that this might be the truth. Pragmatically, no club ANYWHERE is in as drastic a need of signings as we are. Yet nearly a week into the window right now and we don't even have any realistic links. If Fat Fred had half a brain, he knew that he HAD to sign if he could, if only because the fans would be panic-ing like this and all the good will built up towards the club with the recent upturn in form would be washed away. EVERYONE who supports this club has been holding their breaths, waiting desperately for january. And the effect on supporter morale is simply devastating. But even though the club needs new signings, both to play and to keep the fans happy, it doesn't seem to be making headway on any. Are we to draw the desperate conclusion that the reason for this is because it simply doesn't have the money? ....I certainly hope I'm wrong.

No idea. Perhaps Brazilians would know the full names of their players and the nicknames are mainly for us dumb foreign folk?

The bit about not knowing where and when to make runs off the ball was highlighted on MOTD a few weeks ago, he just needs to be shown/told how its done. Having said that, I would have thought Inter would have been pretty shit-hot when it comes their coaching. Aye, I mean, you'd imagine that a team like Inter would be able to iron out these sort of basic defficiencies in a player, especially one that came through their youth system. Then again, maybe that's why they aern't winning the Scudetto. (not even sure I'm spelling that word right) We should wait and see with Martins though. He's already proven his class IMO, just needs time to learn the game more. Looking at games these days you can really notice that defenders FEAR Martins when he starts running up towards them. Definitely a good sign I'd say.

You make some good points von Fat. To be a truly "world class" troll, you definitely have to have better all-around insanity. Charlton fans would probably buy him for 2m though.

So, as far as my experiences on the forum have told me so far, this should produce the longest thread ever Parker IS a good midfielder Given IS a world class keeper Luque IS shite and we're right to not play him Roeder IS competent Shearer WAS the best English striker ever. We ARE a club that would be very attractive for potential investors and (get ready...) We ARE the fifth or sixth most prestigeous club in England (runs for cover bluebigeek.gif)

mostly because I have a brain. Then again, it can't hurt to try. BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

Same situation can happen with strikers. Strikers aern't always in situations in which they can choose which body part they want to use to score. In this aspect, lack of versatility can be a weakness. That goes for keepers as well. But there are enough situations in which the keeper is free to play to his strenghts. Command of the box or aerial ability really isn't more than preventing shots before they happen. Again, assuming that Shay can't defend for shite... Which we keep doing for some reason despite the fact that it's not true, it doesn't matter because he can wait until the shots happen and swat them away with his reflexes. Hence, mission accomplished: he's still stopping a LOT more goals than most keepers. Oh, and just so we're even... F*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ckF*ck ShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShit

Not really, it's actually fairly straightforward. A striker's job is to SCORE goals, a keeprs job is to STOP them. If Given can't stop goals by the stuff you keep mentioning (which, by the way, you still can't prove that he's bad at.) but stops them all anyway with reflex saves, than I really don't care whether his all-around game is weak or not. (And it isn't, although it's getting tiresome mentioning this point over and over again.) Compare this to say... Henry. If Henry is scoring 20 a season with his right foot, then I don't really care even if he can't score with his left foot or with his head (although honestly I can't even recall if Henry is right-footed or not. Shame on me, but it's just an example.) It doesn't matter HOW Shay's stopping goals as long as he's stopping lots of them. The number he stops just with his reflexes is enough for me, to call him World Class. Apparently, it doesn't work that way for you. Shame.

I suppose that translates as "I don't know what to say and I can't be bothered to type another half-page essay on this bloody thread so I'll just shut up." Suits me.

Quote function doesn't work for me. Makes stuff like this bloody annoying. A. If your definition of World Class is just the two best keepers in the world, then sure, Shay's not world class. But personally, I'd call one of the best keepers in the world's most competetive leagues in the world who also happens to be an excellent preformer on the international stage "world class." But this is pointless semantics. B. Again, how in Gods name do you know he is terrible at organizing the defense? Do you have a bug on his lapel listening in to his conversations with the back line? Are you pals with Ramage or Taylor who've been telling you that Given ain't giving them the right instructions? Fact in point, you have no objective measure whatsoever of determining what portion of our defending woes lie with Shay and what portion lie with our rather severely incompetent defense line. Given(excuse the pun) the situation and considering their reputations, I'd stake my money on the latter. As would any fan who wasn't hell-bent at digging up anything to shit on our best frigging player with. C. You completely miss my base point, which is that being a spectacular shot stopper and just above average is enough to be a World Class keeper. The most obvious way a goalie is judged is "how many more goals would we concede without him?" And I believe that that number for Given, even assuming that he saves us ZERO goals with aerial ability or box control, is high enough to make him World Class. Would you say a striker is shite because he does nothing but score goals? Because basically what your saying right now is that Given is shite because all he does is stop them. D. It's a given(this is getting annoying) that your comparing the current form of both players, and I never claimed that you said "Krul in that one game>Given at any time in his career." I knew exactly what you were saying, and I find it laughable all the same. You can fondle yourself with your snide remarks all you want, but strip it all away and your just repeating the exact same points, exactly as illogical as they were a few hours ago.

Left back. We know we need one. But it's seeming increasingly likely that we won't get one with any sort of quality. Might as well dream. bluesleep.gif So if you could have any of the first choice left backs from any club outside of the top four, who would it be? Ricardo Gardner (Bolton) Matthew Taylor (Portsmouth) Lee Young-Pyo (Tottenham) Nuno Valente (Everton) Nicky Shorey (Reading) Hatem Trabelsi (Man City) Michael Gray (Blackburn) Frank Quedrue (Fulham) Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) Emanuel Pogatetz (Middlesborough) some random bloke that nobody's gonna choose (Sheffield) Leighton Baines (Wigan) Paul Konchesky (West Ham) Djimi Traore (Charlton) Chris Powell (Watford) Hint: Try to make it more interesting by not choosing Baines (Some of my "first choices" may be a bit off. Feel free to point out mistakes.)

Should be considered objective vindication of Parker from all the cynics. Not absolute evidence, but surely a step in the right direction. The man's not Gerrard people, but he's still class.

Might as well make a swoop for Mourinho while we're at it. Hear that Essien lad of theirs is pretty canny too. Think we can get him for 2m? :lol:

Sadly, I don't think the club is going to be sold any time in the near future. Oh well, I'm still in my early twenties, I can wait. Fat Fred has got to leave eventually.... Right?

The next Ashley cole if FM is to be believed. So no, I don't have any idea how good he is Could be Babayaro's cousin for all we know.

I said the same thing about Joey Barton but... Reo Coker = Parker with personality problems. Less consistent too.