Jayson

Top 10 supposedly being Walcott 22.72 mph Campbell 22.50 mph Drogba 22.27 mph Torres 22.27 mph Anelka 22.05 mph Fabregas 22.05 mph A Cole 22.05 mph Clichy 21.82 mph Rooney 21.82 mph Gerrard 21.60 mph Very dodgy

Portsmouth did have the 5th worst GA in his last season for them when we went down though. And we're much more comparable to them at that point than we are to arsenal last season. Think he'll improve us still though.

Great stuff. Chuffed to read the arsenal fans opinions of him being impressive. Good signing.

Somethings goin down They wouldnt continue it to this extent otherwise

Nothing to do with our style of play away from home in comparison to at home then. He was part of the reason we dominated many of those teams at home & he scored important goals outside of that anyway. I was saying loven was prem class back when you were claiming Carroll couldnt head the ball well yeah. We'll just have to wait and see.

13 league goals in how many minutes upfront. I dont put much trust into your assessment of players ability, thats just normal

Which is why nobody wanted him last summer. And why he managed 10 league goals for us minus penalties. He's an average championship player who's past his best. Nobody wanted him due to him barely getting played at shalke due to injuries & then being lumped in with our relegation side. Not really much chance to show any real ability for others to see. 14 in 16 games is impressive, doesnt matter if he had pens in there. He's good enough to score goals in the prem.

Its from corrieredellosport, can view it on their site. Google translates it badly though.

I think he would. Pace, good movement & can finish. 14 goals in 16 games for us from around January onwards. Think hes underestimated.

Lovenkrands is premiership class

Hard to believe we havent atleast enquired about Ben arfa's situation after all this. Hughtons said he thinks he's a cracking player, hes now potentially available on loan. Its already being reported across France we're mainly involved, why wouldnt we contact them ?

Intresting rereading this thread. Anyway scotland are still after Carroll http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11678_6278925,00.html

Or want him on loan. Also that Everton & Man utd are interested. We've clearly got this one in the bag

Be interesting to see some of L'equipe's past transfer rumours, to see if they really are more accurate than ours

Says we could be in for a loan move in the article

Best must be effected by confidence or something, i imagine Hughton thought he could get some consistancy from him. For coventry last season he got 4 in 4 games at one point, went 4 more games with nothing. Then got 3 in 3 games. He can clearly score, he just stops doing it for some reason.

Hughton best not be considering Routledge for right back. Raylor being at fault for a goal is no suprise atall, happened most games he played last season. Colo just looked lazy for their first, poor from him hopefully just pre season. 2nd goal looks deflected, off routledge? Krul shoulda done better still. Hardly worried about his ability as a shot stopper though, its where hes best.

do i really need to pick the holes in that? They didnt need to offer him such improved terms at the time, sounds like both they and he had wanted the contract to be for 5 years in the first place. They obviously saw potential there. Moyes not ranting about it doesnt mean anything, would just further highlight the mistake.

Offering the lad a renewed contract is a pretty clear sign they rated him, atleast for the future

Waheyy

Barton is midtable prem standard if he's playing consistantly i reckon

Some paper in france saying we're after lens midfielder Nacim Boukhelifa

Happy with that. Get his confidence boosted a bit more, hope he has a fantastic season

You are correct there, too - it HAS gone over my head and, I suspect, over everyone else's who is reading this. Sorry to have to labour the point but football at the top level is ALL about results. Its not really. You watch football to enjoy yourself, thats why you started watching it. Theres not much use winning in a sport you're no longer finding enjoyable to watch in the first place. At that point you're just tied in through loyalty due to when you previously enjoyed it or the hope that in the future it will once again become enjoyable. In my point i took relegation out of the equation, which you then randomly took as me saying it didnt matter. To get the most out of football for a viewer there has to be a balance between enjoying what you watch & getting the results. So say finishing 10th yet having a season full of end to end high scoring games that you're sometimes on the losing end of, may actually end up being a far more enjoyable season for a fan....than finishing 8th with a load of 1-0's.

Yes, he's the defensive midfielder who was playing last season while the defence was getting lots of praise, and the defensive midfielder who was injured most of the season we were relegated when the midfield (we mostly still have now) were getting blamed for giving the (better) defence no protection. He may sometimes give away stupid free kicks on the edge of the box, but it's preferable to just letting the opposition have a free run into it which is what would happen a lot of the time without him. By all means get in a better defensive midfielder, but don't pretend any of the other midfielders we currently have can do the job better or that we don't need someone playing in that position. Agree with you. Think he deserves more praise for what he did last season, he put the opposition under pressure in midfield more than anyone else for us. Things like that generally just go under appreciated though. Wouldnt have him near the first team this next season though, let alone captain or anything along those lines. Barton fills his role & provides much more, Guthries worse defensively but makes up for it going fowards.