Neil

Key question for me is can Young play as effectively on the right hand side? If so, at the moment I'd go for James (well, whoever tbh, no-one stands out) Johnson Rio Terry Cole Young Lampard Beckham Gerrard Rooney ..........Crouch..... I'd seriously consider deploying Beckham in defensive mid. Up front... if we stick to the 4-4-2, it's hard to think of someone to play with Rooney. Experimenting with a sort of 4-2-3-1 formation might be an idea.

Based on it yeah but I don't like the look of it personally. May grow on me, maybe.

My main thoughts: 1) Is it viable for Beckham to play the defensive midfield position? Any pace he did have has gone but his passing, as seen tonight, is still absolutely excellent. Worth a go? The question of course is whether he still has the intelligence to buy himself the time to produce those passes, against better opposition. 2) If we don't play Beckham there, please play Carrick ahead of Barry. Much better player and you can see his development through playing with great players. 3) Walcott faces a make-or-break season next year with Arsenal. All I saw tonight was a pacy winger who had little intelligence, constantly running straight into defenders. Yes Andorra packed the defence, but he really didn't use his head. 4) Crouch was once again cumbersome and fairly hopeless. Depressing that we don't have any sort of competent target man. 5) Large chunks of this were the remnants of the McClaren England, relying on long balls and pointlessly trying to play a killer ball far too early. If we kept it simple we probably could have had more. Still, of course, the test comes when we play decent opposition.

Upson. Lescott is the better defender in the Premiership, but only in the Premiership imo. More of a bruiser/bully type who'll get caught out when ball watching by quick/intelligent movement. I reckon he's out of his depth at international level, which is what he's looked like in the few games hes played. Has Upson played against any decent opposition? I see what you're saying but your description can describe Upson ad infinitum. I guess I'm biased though.

It'd be nice to open them up early and not let up but yeah, 3-0 is probably a likely scoreline. Perhaps 4.

I love the phrase 'formal contact'. How is it different to 'informal' contact? Is that when they joke about the deal over a lunchtime pint? Genuine question btw

Lescott's a classy defender?

Hypothetically given the circumstances, £30m would be reasonable for the lot.

Bit optimistic?-

Serious question: do people think Lescott or Upson should be playing? (behind Rio and Terry)

Haha. Good one. It's not that bad like. Still frustratingly lacking though. A better end product and he could be an England starter for years to come. Guess next season is a bit of a make-or-break for young Theo. (How old is he now come to think of it? 21?)

Haha. Good one.

Upson over Lescott yet again. Wtf is going on?

Unfortunately 2 of your best (at least they would be IMO) as Roger Kint said, came against us. "It'll take something special to beat Richard Wright today............SHEEAAAARRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (Mind iirc Bellamy's winner was a fluky deflection ) And yeah, the infamous 6-2, we totally went to pieces after the break, combined with Kieron Dyer I believe, brutally penetrating us. Not the only time he's done it to us as well. Think it was Moyes' 3rd game in charge, we'd beaten Derby 4-3 the game before , so we were entertaining at least.....

The thread title is an abhorrent disapproval of English writing conventions.

He's good at diagrams... ...why do I waste my time?

The Profitable Group What a name. Yeah that article does sound :fwap:tastic.

Do those two points not contradict each other slightly? If there's no auction then someone interested would just pay up and buy it. I can see what he meant, that there are three or four parties interested and have made that clear to Ashley; but the one that gets the club will be the first to firm up their interest by offering the £100m. Group X need to offer £Ym to get Club Z. More revolutionary insider info from David Craig.

In euros due to the fluctuating exchange rate, Zidane is still the record holder at 73m, Kaka was something like 66. As far as I'm concerned though Kaka's the world record.

£56m, Jeebus.

Kaka, going, going, gone!

Thats pretty fair in the current market imo. A one that includes Milner for 12m anyway. Point taken, my natural assessment though is in more general terms. But yeah, crazy money is commonplace nowadays.

Wigan must be rofling all the way to the bank.

Probably nearer 85 to tell the truth.